Given all the rhetoric from politicians on the right and left you would think nothing could be more important than supporting our troops. ‘Stop Loss‘ is a painful yet important look at the unfair treatment of our troops on every level. From the post traumatic stress that goes untreated to the deplorable conditions in which wounded soldiers are expected to recover and the strain placed on family and friends, this movie hits hard but in a way that will open your heart as well as your eyes.

If you can watch this movie and feel a mix of anger for our national neglect an compassion for the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and their families who give so much and get so little back from our leaders then check your pulse because you might be dead.

Go see this movie and then write your elected officials.

It is not often that I hear something coming out the Bush Administration that I think is spot on, but Condoleezza Rice was spot on with her recent comments on race in America.

From the Washington Times:
“Black Americans were a founding population,” she said. “Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That’s not a very pretty reality of our founding.”As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, “descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that.”"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today,” she said.

In honor of the easter season, I have posted my recent talk entitled The Prodigal Yogi: Eastern Reflections on the life and teachings of Jesus. The talk is based on my forthcoming book with the same title.

You can listen to the talk or sync it with your iPod here.
Happy Easter!

Check out my recent article on AcroYoga. AcroYoga is a fun and exciting form of partner yoga that is gaining in popularity in the United states and abroad.

You can read my article on Planet Out.

One of my gurus, Paramahansa Yogananda, died 56 years ago today. Aside from the guidance he offered his followers, he was also among the first yogis to travel to the West from India igniting the yoga movement that has been growing radically to this day.

To a yogi death is an auspicious time in which one consciously lets go of the body. Unlike a traditional passing in which death is fearful and avoided, mahasamadhi (a conscious exit from the body) is a joyful time in which all fear dissolves into joy and bliss.

Like saints from many traditions, Yogananda’s passing was not conventional. Consider this from the back of his book, Autobiography of a Yogi:

On March 7, 1952, Paramahansa Yogananda entered mahasamadhi, a God-illumined master’s conscious exit from the body at the time of physical death. His passing was marked by an extraordinary phenomenon. A notarized statement signed by the Director of Forest Lawn Memorial-Park testified: “No physical disintegration was visible in his body even twenty days after death….This state of perfect preservation of a body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled one….Yogananda’s body was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability.”

I wish to thank Paramahansa Yogananda for bringing yoga to the west and for deeply touching my life through his writings and by bringing the yogic practice of Kriya to me. Your life and teachings have made me a better and happier person.
Namaste

My book, The Findhorn Book of Meditation is now available in Turkish. Anyone out there speak Turkish wanna check it out and let me know how they did with the translation?

Forbes Magazine •Allison Van Dusen

If you regularly load up on oatmeal for breakfast, eat salmon for dinner and jog using a heart rate monitor on the weekends, you probably think you’re pretty heart smart.

But if during the work week you’re stressed out, constantly hunched over your computer and eating erratically, experts say, you’re not doing enough.

It’s estimated that one in three American adults has one or more types of cardiovascular disease, according to the American Heart Association’s 2008 statistics. If you want to avoid becoming one of them or, worse, one of the nearly 2,400 Americans who die each day from cardiovascular disease, you’ve got to find ways to make your work life heart healthy, too

If benefits such as weight loss and lower blood pressure don’t motivate you, consider that a makeover of your work habits also could improve your performance.

Wachovia Bank employees who participated in an energy renewal program, which included a number of heart healthy habits, outdid a control group of colleagues’ year-over-year performance, showing higher revenues on three kinds of loans over the first quarter of 2006, according to a 2007 Harvard Business Review report.

“It’s not just about health,” says Jolene Bodily, registered dietitian and wellness program coordinator for the Executive Program, a month-long course for managers on the rise, run by the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business. “There is such a connection between what is happening physically and how people perform.”

Top Tips
Even if they work desk jobs, Bodily tells executives they can still accumulate 20 to 30 minutes of activity during the day–without changing into gym clothes.

The work day is full of opportunities for short bursts of exercise. That could mean walking briskly between your car or the train and your office, or taking the stairs, instead of the elevator. Bring sneakers and take a 15-minute walk at lunch, or use resistance bands while you’re on a long phone call. Anything you can do to get yourself moving will have an impact on your heart.

The same is true of stretching, says Stefan Aschan, owner and founder of Strength123, which provides nutrition and fitness programs both online and in New York City. By targeting the muscle groups, such as the hip flexors, chest and abdomen, that are shortened by sitting for long periods of time, you’ll help prevent aches and pains. Some research also suggests you’ll increase blood flow, which may help expand your arteries and keep them pliable.

How do you stay in shape? Weigh in. Add your thoughts in the Reader Comments section below.

Once you’ve found ways to be more active, try tackling your diet. Eating heart healthy during the work week, when you’re in need of quick, convenient sources of fuel, isn’t easy. Dr. Dan Jones, president of the American Heart Association, recommends focusing on what you can add to your diet, such as five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, rather than what you need to remove.

“Think about it positively,” he says, “rather than negatively.”

Research has shown that each additional portion per day of fruits and vegetable you eat can cut your risk of heart disease by 4%. Jones typically loads up on them during lunch and skips meat, which gives him more freedom in terms of dinner options.

Stamp Out Stress
And while you’ll never fully be able to eliminate stress from your job, you’ve got to get a better handle on it if you want to take care of your heart. Unmanaged stress has been linked with coronary artery disease and high blood pressure, among other health problems.

Dr. Aliya Browne, director of the New Jersey-based Hainesport Women’s Center, counsels executives facing stressful situations to put down the candy bar and try deep breathing to clear their heads. If that doesn’t work, make sure you set aside at least a little bit of time for yourself during the day to relax.

If incorporating these kinds of habits into your day sounds impossible, try thinking about your heart health as you would any work-related challenge.

“How much energy did you bring toward your business to get it to the point it is now?” Aschan asks. “Why do you think your body is going to be any different?”