March 2006 Archives

My moments of gratitude may come just before sleep, but for others gratitude often finds a different time to take over. Take CM reader Daria, who sinks into thankfulness while swimming her morning laps. The physical act of pushing through water motivates her not only to appreciate her arms, legs, and lungs, but also the lifeguards that keep her safe and the car that transports her to the pool.

“I find nothing so colors my day than saying "thank you", before an endless stream of wants and needs barges in,” she writes.

For that, I thank you, Daria.

Mercury is always in retrograde. It’s probably retrograding right now. At least it seems that way. While the fickle nature of the gray planet is an excellent justification for a bad hair day or a bad day at the office or simply a bad attitude, the whole astrology thing is getting tired. Or maybe it’s me that’s tired. You see, I’m a Sagittarius sun-Libra moon-Virgo rising believer in astrology, but I’m starting to lose faith.

I built my understanding of the stars on the bible of astrology, Bernard Fitzwalter’s “The Complete Sun Sign Guide” [currently out of print]. (Note: everyone seems to have his or her own version of an astrology bible, Bernard just happens to have written mine.) Handed to me by a new friend during the first week of my first year of college, the Guide led me through the complications of a Scorpio-Sagittarius love affair (he’s introverted and lusty, I’m easily bored and playful) and explained why a Virgo mother (mine) and Sagittarius daughter (me) will most likely never get along.

Take that book and add to it 10 years of skimming the weekly horoscope in my city’s local magazine and you’ve got a guaranteed recipe for astrological disaster. I’m convinced that I’ve allowed what now seems like nothing more than self-fulfilling prophecy to talk me out of signing important contracts, rearranging my home, and snuggling with my loved one. There have been weeks when my horoscope was accurate—times when I’ve looked up and asked, “how can she possibly know that I’ve been seeking out change and excitement?” or “yes, I am planning a distant trip,” but they do not outnumber the days that I’ve spent fighting a nagging worry that the astrologer’s bad news may actually come true.

According to Bernard, Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, which pushes me to seek out wider horizons. So I’m doing just that. Moving on past astrology. Onto brighter pastures. Maybe I’ll look into numerology.

Do you believe in astrology? Does your horoscope affect your day?

Stepping in for Amy Cunningham this week is the amazing Marisa Lowenstein, an NYC-based writer whose work has appeared in Natural Health, Travel + Leisure Family and Lime.com.

In my ongoing battle to introduce my fiancé to the bliss of healthy eating, I am occasionally granted a small victory. The Superfoods Rx Salad is one of them. Incredibly simple to assemble, this dish is also one of the few culinary items that P and I agree on. In fact, I’m convinced that this salad actually makes our relationship better--it’s couples’ therapy in a bowl.

I think P digs the Rx because it has some fat (avocado, olive oil), and I dig it because I can stab up to six vegetables with one forkful (see recipe below). I recommend eating a variation of this salad every day. It’ll take care of all of your vegetable needs and may possibly save your relationship:

Include as much or as little of each ingredient as you see fit. You can’t go wrong. Check out the source of the salad for more incredible superfood recipes.

Spinach
Romaine lettuce
Shredded red cabbage
Sliced red bell pepper
Chopped tomato
Chickpeas
Grated carrot
Cubed avocado
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
A nice sprinkle of sea salt
Fresh-ground pepper

Optional: a handful of chopped herbs (basil works great), a bit of Parmigiano cheese or some nuts or seeds. Yum.

Is there a meal that brings you closer to your mate?

--Guest blogger Marisa Lowenstein

Halfway through last night’s viewing of "The New Medicine", I wondered if the producers at PBS had chosen the best title for this documentary about mind-body health. Introduced by the heroic (and now angelic) Dana Reeve, "New Medicine" covers the growing field of integrative medicine, focusing specifically on ways that the mind can influence the body’s ability to heal. Although modern medicine tends to treat patients' bodies without addressing what's on their minds, the doc shows how people have had an intuitive sense of the connection between emotions and health for centuries--it's why we get "sick with worry" and our "hearts" get "broken."

One particularly striking example of this connection is the role stress can play in the healing process. In one study, two different groups--caregivers, a profession known for its high stress levels, and a relatively stress-free group--were given the same pencil eraser-sized wounds on their arms. The non-caregiver's wounds healed 20 percent faster.

But what I really liked was how the show highlighted the concept of hope. There needs to be more talk of hope. As Reeve elegantly puts it in the introduction: "For years, my husband and I lived on, and because of, hope. Hope continues to give me the mental strength to carry on, but also, I am convinced, hope very directly influences my physical health."

Though her words have an eerie resonance since her death, the hope they’re talking about here is not a panacea, it’s not false hope or even optimism, but rather a trust in a larger sense of safety. Here’s hoping this indeed helped Reeve in her final days.

Many of the medical experts called upon to document the existence of a new medicine referenced hope. Take Jerome Groopman, M.D., of Harvard Medical School: "Hope is central in the experience of illness and the path to healing," he explained.

How have stress or other emotional challenges have affected your health?

My hands are in prayer position. They start at my third eye, graze my nose, pausing at my mouth before landing in front of my heart. Then I place my palms on the floor in front of my feet and...

I use a simple one-two-three, one-two-three, while P’s more of the slow-quick-quick-slow type. We’re taking dance lessons. We’re working on a fox trot/swing combo. We’re supposed to dazzle the wedding guests with our grace and agility. But as of yesterday—lesson...

Depending on the day, I’m slightly to extremely obsessed with Thailand. The first three months of 2006 have been dedicated to the Land of Smiles--I’m all about curries and rice noodles and creamy Thai iced teas. I even bought a...

Buy a box of Entenmann’s assorted doughnuts (powdered, plain, chocolate). Place them on your counter. Watch what happens.Humans are magnetically attracted to doughnuts. Especially when they’re in a blue-and-white box that reminds us of childhood. P dropped them in our...

"The cure to combat the three S’s--stress, strain and speed--can be found in the three W’s--the work of devoted practice, the wisdom that comes from understanding the self and the world and worship. Because ultimately surrendering what we cannot control...

I try to make a daily gratitude list. Sometimes I call it a gratitude prayer. Requiring no pen or paper, it's just a conscious ticking off of the people or things or moments for which I am thankful today. I...

“How do you feel about using the word ‘God’ in your ceremony of marriage?” I had successfully avoided the question--buried in the 10-page survey that our officiant had us fill out--for a full week.The answer was so obvious and at...

"Mommy, what if heaven is all a dream?" my younger son asked Thursday night, knowing that I was going away Friday to be with my 91-year-old father who has been hospitalized again. "Yes, and what if life is all a...

"Freud is Not Dead" reads the March 27th cover story of Newsweek. Actually, I don't want to contemplate whether Freud's thinking is dead or alive, in or out. What I'd like to behold with you is that couch, the couch,...

We were talking about affirmations earlier this week, those little uplifting phrases you say to yourself throughout the day. The reigning queen of this practice is Louise Hay, a self-help teacher famous for assigning affirmations to any problem and helping...

Mystical experiences are a universal, spiritually revelatory phenomenon with all kinds of individual textures––time suddenly comes to a glorious halt, or the world becomes one breathing, whole organism, or the entire cosmos and your place in it immediately make soul-shaking...

Let's change that Passover salutation "Next year in Jerusalem" to "Next year in Montego Bay!" Shall we?For the upcoming Jewish holiday, JewishMusic.com offers an upbeat Reggae Passover CD.(Click on the words "Audio Library" at the top of the page and...

"Spring cleaning is a time to release what we are hiding. The room such things take robs us of new life. Now is the time to gather the old from under those sneaky bushes where things tend to hide. Now...

One CM reader sides with Mr. Chattering in believing that morning people are born, not made. In fact, Rebecca T. (who ruminates on all kinds of smart things here) says true night people have trouble adjusting in a world that...

Yesterday Salon posted Steve Paulson's wonderfully readable interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard professor Edward O. Wilson, founder of sociobiology and author of "On Human Nature." Wilson may not say what you want to hear about God's existence--he’s not so sure...

"The best reappraisals are born in the worst crisis. It has happened to all of us in relative degrees. Be glad for it and don't be afraid of being afraid."--from Marlon Brando to ex-lover Marilyn Monroe in a telegram on...

Last Sunday the Chattering clan gathered at my in-laws’ suburban home to celebrate the birthday of Mr. Chattering’s father Martin. Near the table was a vat of caffeine-free, sugar-free Diet Coke. As our eleven-year-old son lunged for that bottle like...

"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." -E.B. White...

Are you a morning person? I pretty much am, which is to say I wake up hungry, filled with curiosity about the weather, eager to roll up the blinds. Mr. Chattering and I have a running disagreement over whether people...

Do you need a good laugh? In response to my blog item about drugs and kids getting high, a reader named Robert reminds us that laughter triggers healthy, euphoria-inducing chemicals in the body. "Laughter is, in my opinion, the best...

There's a "smarmy Stuart Smalley" quality to the affirmations I posted yesterday, writes faithful reader Pacific231. As an antidote, she or he suggests discussing Buddhist "pith" teachings. Great idea. A pith saying is a distilled lesson, a gist, a bit...

Speaking of that smarmy Stuart Smalley, did you know that years ago, Al Franken wrote a hilarious book based on his classically nasal, co-dependent, self-help group-addicted SNL character? As the King of Affirmations, in I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough,...

Do your chattering thoughts tear you down? Do negative memories become your life's story? You need some affirmations then, little sayings that you can repeat to yourself as you walk or meditate. You can also post them on your bathroom...

Waverly Fitzgerald has a wonderful essay about the meaning of the Spring Equinox (the first day of Spring) on her website. In it, she describes a planting ritual you can use this week. She writes: Several years ago, my family...

Human anatomy is God-made at birth and becomes man-made as he grows.--Master yogi B.K.S. Iyengar to Beliefnet's Corinne Schuman....

"Yoga practice should not conflict with our life but contribute to it. Whatever connects us to our essence is our practice. Whatever clears our head so we can see what is important is our practice. Once we get clear that...

"Mom, Mom, it's that shadow guy!" the kids said, jumping with excitement. After reading about him in The New York Times a few months ago, the kids and I bumped into Ellis Gallagher yesterday. Actually, we almost fell over him....

After several pleasant days in the mid- to upper-fifties, and one in the sunny mid-sixties, it is cold again here in New York. An inch of snow may arrive by Friday. The coming of Spring reminds me of a labyrinth...

"God is not a being; God is Being. For those who have found God, his presence shows in honesty, kindness, carefully chosen words, and an absence of shame about the past. The pain may still be there, though quieted, but...

Thanks to reader Alana Perrault who wrote this fond remembrance of her Ukrainian egg decorating (pysanky) sessions with her loving, multi-generational household. Pysanky nights sent us into "perfect child" mold, finishing our homework and chores in record time so we...

I got abundant mail on the item I posted last week about clutter. Some of you have minimized your CD stress and mess by downloading onto your iPod your entire CD collection. ("Is such a thing possible?" I've asked friends...

This year marks the 100th birthday of my favorite children's book on Spring. Actually, "The Story of the Root-Children" is my favorite young children's book of all time (much as I also love Margaret Wise Brown's "Goodnight Moon"). I think...

There's a lot of interest among you in Feng Shui, the practice of rearranging your environment for maximum health and stability (the actual translation of the words is "wind" and "water"). My study of this subject has helped me greatly,...

It is the full moon day.If there had been a cloud over your heart,make this silent moment your beginning again.Enjoy the full moon with a clear heart.It is your beginning.--Gayuna CealoIf the moon fascinates you and you would like to...

The folks who run the HearthSong Catalog knocked themselves out this year, it seems, to present a large and offbeat collection of egg-decorating kits for the celebration of Easter or Spring Equinox. And they're all under $20. So if you're...

A light exists in spring Not present on the year At any other period. When March is scarcely here A color stands abroad On solitary hills That science cannot overtake, But human nature feels. It waits upon the lawn; It...

The drug counselors are back at our school. They come as a privately-hired group to discuss the hazards of drugs with the 4th through 8th-grade kids."They told us not to eat anything in the medicine cabinet," says the younger Chattering."Yeah,...

I don't want to be East-Coast-centric, but the Omega Institute holds an important conference March 31 through April 2 in New York City called "Being Fearless." Click here for details. Among the speakers: Caroline Myss, Malcolm Gladwell, Wayne Dyer, Jon...

The whole foods publication "Macrobiotics Today" has a new Q&A column by someone calling herself Shiitake Jones. I am an instant fan of this fine and funny food writer (who is also a yoga teacher), but the people coming to...

Oprah's O Magazine got Anne Lamott to write about aging, radiance, and beauty for the April issue (which was just squeezed through my mail slot). Here's an excerpt, but get your hands on the whole thing. It's a fabulous essay....

You know, I've been so taken with Fly Lady's belief that it's better to spend fifteen minutes every day de-cluttering than it is to spend half your Saturday doing the same. I've managed to lighten up our house by maybe...

The Dharma Seed Catalog now has the most fantastic online resource of audio meditations and teachings. I am so happy to link you to this exciting find! And everything is free (though Dharma Seed asks you to send a contribution...

We are in our school's entrance hallway at 8:15 in the morning. I am carrying two large bags of books we no longer need. The younger Chattering and I culled through these books last night. We are excited because our...

Don't sign important documents, or initiate large-scale projects for the next three weeks! Vedic astrologer James Kelleher has this to say in his newsletter about the Mercury Retrograde period we will remain in through March 25th. Interesting that this period...

When I blogged about psychics yesterday, I neglected to mention that wonderful bundle of articles on psychic phenomena ran here, on Beliefnet.com, last year. Good psychcs don't really fortune tell, they can reveal to you what you already know, but...

Giving up white flour and refined sugar for Lent hasn't been that rough, though I am reminded daily of just how frequently those two ingredients appear in almost everything desirable. One nice re-discovery: millet bread (it contains millet and brown...

This month's "Health" magazine mentions a yoga website called AliveYoga.com, where you can purchase audio files of great yoga classes for $9 each. After purchase, they live in your hard drive, and you can re-use them whenever you like! Cool....

Over the weekend, while making a creamy scallop soup for the family, I watched several episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show," which aired as part of a tribute to actor Don Knotts, who died this past February 25th. Here are...

Yesterday's "New York Times" alerted me to the existence of a website and online support network for people addicted to psychics and their alluring, expensive forecasts. Founded by Sarah Lassez, an actress who was, at her worst, spending $1000 a...

It's a story fit for a suspense movie: In 2001, two book dealers in Glasgow find on the dusty shelves of a rare book shop a set of nineteen perfectly preserved watercolors by poet/artist William Blake.They are painted visions of...

Thanks to Terry Gross of NPR, whose program Fresh Air reminded me of the Harlem-based Addicts Rehabilitation Choir. Directed by former heroin addict James Allen, this is a gospel choir with a passionate repertoire of inspirational hymns appealing to anyone...

No frills. Great prices. The Vedanta Society of Southern California publishes a Vedanta Catalog with all manner of meditation books and tapes. I've just ordered a rare taped lecture of Aldous Huxley speaking on "Knowledge and Understanding." Seventy-eight minutes long...

The Reverend Tony Campolo, one of the most spunky and passionate representatives for what is being called the "Christian Evangelical Left," was on "The Colbert Report" a few nights ago speaking about how the teachings of Jesus transcend party politics....

"...I still instinctively tighten my grip when things feel out of my control. But that's okay. I'm used to the drill: Something I didn't want to happen, happens. I feel the resistance build within. I feel the pressure to control...

Have you ever gotten so mad at your children that you've pinched or scratched or hurt them in the process of trying to behave "properly" and hold your emotions in? Brian Doyle, the editor of Portland Magazine, has a piece...

"It's a fairy tale to think that once we have attained deep faith, or have had some great enlightenment experience, our whole life will be one joyous delight after another and all sadness will be swept away, so that all...

Had Anne Frank lived, she would have turned seventy-seven this year. But this month marks the 61st anniversary of her death, of typhus, at Bergen-Belsen, the concentration camp where she was sent in the final months of World War II....

Ladies, we've advanced through yet another phase of the women's liberation movement. Another woman's good looks are no longer what other women desire most. Nor do women in huge numbers envy other women's partners or careers. Today, the thing the...