November A Issue
Sulwe
LUPITA NYONG’O
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CONTENTS HEALTH & HEALING
42
17 BEST FOODS FOR A MEN
48
ONE HEALTHY CHANGE LEADS TO ANOTHER
SPOTLIGHT
SPIRITUALITY
54
SPIRIT DOESN’T NEED A MOBILE PHONE
58
RAISING CONSCIOUSLY CONFIDENT KIDS USING ANCIENT WISDOM PRINCIPLES
62
GIVING YOURSELF UP IS LIFTING YOURSELF UP
LUPITA NYONG’O Sulwe - Brightness Is Just Who You Are
TRENDS HOW TO BECOME A BETTER YOGA INSTRUCTOR
METAPHYSICS
96 THE FIVE STEPS TO ANIMAL LESSONS 100 HOW SPACE CLEARING HELPS PLACES
WORLD VISION
AND PEOPLE THRIVE
106 THE METAPHYSICS OF SELF-POWER OMLIVING
70
DYING WITH GRACE
88
4 WAYS TO COMBAT COMPASSION FATIGUE
SEASONAL FALL HARVEST: HOW ABOUT SOME APPLE CIDER
PROSE & POETRY TO BOLDLY GO LIVING IN THE GAP
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THE 6 SLIPPERY STEPS TO END SUFFERING
L U P I T A
N Y O N G ’ O
Sulwe
NOVEMBER 2019
In this stunning debut picture book, Lupita Nyong’o creates a whimsical and heartwarming story to inspire children to see their own unique beauty.
Sulwe
BRIGHTNESS IS WHO YOU ARE By Liane Buck
From Academy Award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o comes a powerful, moving picture book about colorism, self-esteem, and learning that true beauty comes from within. Sulwe’s skin is the color of midnight. She’s darker than everyone in her family, and everyone at school. All she wants is to be beautiful and bright, like her mother and sister. Then a magical journey through the night sky opens Sulwe’s eyes and changes everything.
Photo @ Simon and Shuster
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The Best Foods for A Men
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We compiled a list of 17 best foods for men that can help prevent and deter the main health conditions for males in diverse ages. 1. Lean Meat: Red meat is an important component in a men’s’ diet and can be good for you. Lean cuts
of beef (and even pork) are loaded with protein and is also one of the best sources of leucine, an amino acid that helps men build muscle. The Full Spectrum Diet rule of thumb: lean beef, 1 oz (round, sirloin, flank, tenderloin, chuck, rump), and lean pork, 1 oz (boiled ham, turkey bacon, tenderloin, chops) once or twice a week. 2. Fish and Shellfish: as well as other types of seafood and fish are rich in zinc and omega 3 fatty acids. Zinc is a critical mineral for heart, muscles, and the male reproductive system. Zinc deficiency has shown to increase poor sperm quality as well as male infertility. Studies suggest two servings of fish per week (salmon or halibut) can lower your chances of dying from heart disease. The Full Spectrum Diet rule of thumb: 2 sardines, 2 oz shellfish (clams, crab, lobster, scallops, shrimp), 1/4 cup of tuna (canned in water), 1 oz fish (fresh or frozen, not breaded).
3. Soy Products: The strongest protection against prostate cancer is soy. This includes tofu, miso soup, and soymilk. According to a study of more than 40 nations, soy offers an excellent source of dietary fiber and protein. It is rich in vitamin B6 and important in building amino acids and forming neurotransmitters. Soy is a rich source of isoflavones, the plant hormone that researchers believe could account for Asia’s low rate of heart disease. In recent clinical trials, men and women with high LDL (bad cholesterol) levels were able to reduce them by consuming soy over an extended period. The Full Spectrum Diet rule of thumb: Tofu can be enjoyed as a meat substitute, one to two times per week. Do not consume soy if you have a dominant estrogen disorder. 4. Eggs: are a super source of lutein, protein, and iron, and that is from eating the whole egg. If you have high cholesterol, enjoy the egg whites. The Full Spectrum Omtimes.com
One Healthy Change Leads to Another By Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD
Are you resisting a change you know you should make? Making changes in one area of your life might help you notice where else you need to make them. Very often, one healthy change leads to
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another because you create momentum and develop confidence. As you start to exercise more, you might start to catch yourself eating less of the junk foods that you used to eat mindlessly. Give up coffee for green tea and you might find yourself making other small changes such as stretching more often during the day. Change is a part of life, and when we learn to make healthy changes, however small, we remind ourselves that a transformation process doesn’t have to be extremely difficult or deeply uncomfortable. In fact, it can be invigorating and lead to a greater sense of well-being. Feeling fewer aches and pains as a result of changing your exercise habits, feeling more energized in the morning—these kinds of results can motivate you to make even more changes. However, you might also want to reward yourself for having replaced some habits and following through on
your commitment to make your changes stick. That reward might be simply sitting and writing out a story of your transition from struggling with a problem to achieving success. Pay attention to how you feel as you write your story, acknowledging what you did. Let yourself feel proud of the success you achieved. The confidence and pride you feel can be a very satisfying reward that motivates you to set a new goal and begin the process of transformation again. Let’s say you begin to eat better, which then helps you to be less depressed, more confident, and ultimately, more assertive. That happens because you have set goals and worked hard to meet them. You may well start to feel excited about working toward goals you would never have set before. Your desires, goals, and priorities can change over time. As you develop courage and confidence, you might
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Raising Consciously Confident Kids using Ancient Wisdom Principles. By Sarah Mane
There is a spectre haunting the world. Go to any dinner party, any gathering around the barbecue, any place where adults gather, and the
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conversation is just as likely to turn to the problem of children these days.
And the second, and more important question is, what to do about it?
They can’t spell, they can’t add up, their noses are buried in their electronic devices, they can’t speak in complete sentences. Worse, they have no resilience, no sense of proportion. Their grandfathers stormed the beaches of Normandy, they collapse if they don’t get the cinnamon sprinkles on their latte; robust debate was the meat and drink of a previous generation, now people find they can’t sit down to a Thanksgiving dinner with family.
So, what has gone wrong? Much ink has been spilled on this question, but the basic answer is that people have forgotten who they truly are. They have lost connection with the limitless consciousness within. As a result, there is a rise in fear and insecurity in society.
Is this just another example of how each generation always thinks the next is weak and fragile? Do the anecdotal stories of young men who can’t get themselves off the couch, and young women crying when their boss corrects their spelling indicate something fundamental has gone wrong? If it has, the first question is: What has happened?
Hence a bright, intelligent, capable young man or woman can go to pieces over something minor. They lack the depth of self-knowledge and the emotional literacy to deal with the normal ups and downs of life. Their confidence is egg-shell thin, and cracks at the smallest opposition. There has been a hollowing out from within. So what can we do? Let’s look at a few suggestions from the ancient wisdom traditions. Plato (the ancient Greek philosopher), tells us that children should be cured of self-will by three years old, and fear by six. He tells us that the
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Dying with Grace by Kay Reynolds Dying is never a subject we want to discuss, but it is important for us to ease any fears for those ready to transition. As a family member, watching the deterioration and not being able to find the right words to bring comfort, it can be even more daunting. There are things we can do to
ease any fears our loved one may have, and to make the transition a little easier. Dying with Grace We’ve all been there. Sitting in a hospital, knowing our loved one will be gone soon, is difficult. We struggle to find the right words, but nothing comes. We wonder if there are any words, we can say to make this better. Mediums are confronted with this reality daily and find themselves helping those in need. People turn to us because they believe we know or at least have an idea of what waits for us all when we leave this world. We know there is no death, at least not for the spirit or soul. The body is the only thing we leave behind. Our true essence, or the soul, returns to the spirit world. People often seek us out to help them find words to help their loved ones. We are often asked to talk about the afterlife, to reassure them they won’t be alone when they die, and they will be met with the most amazing unconditional love. Everyone deserves to die with grace.
A medium friend, named Catherine, comforted her own mother, who was very afraid of what would happen when she died. She simply explained to her mom she would have one last breath here, and the next moment, she would be surrounded by an incredible feeling of love and peace. She explained how her own spirit would immediately recognize all who were there to greet her and she would be free to speak and free to move at last. Her physical restriction here would not go with her. Catherine went through great strides to make this as comfortable for her mom and the family as possible. In the last week, they gathered around their mother and reminisced about all their family travels, shenanigans, and fun times. They laughed, they sung favorite songs, and they took turns holding their mom’s hand. They talked about how wonderful it will be for her to meet the family in the spirit world, how they knew she’d being playing cards with granddad, and hugging baby Mary. They knew she may not be able to hear them. They knew Omtimes.com
FA L L H A RV EST How About Some Apple Cider?
I worked at Hill & Dale Farm in Putney, Vermont, in the late l960s. Every fall, we made real apple cider- not the kind you reach for on your market shelves. I say “real’ because we mixed a variety of apples like Northern Spy, McIntosh, Cortland, Baldwin, Delicious, and wild apples, never using
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more than 25 percent of the wild ones because it would be too tangy. Besides the fact that the apples were organic, the cider had both a sweet and tart taste as well as body and richness most cider is lacking today. Most super-market pasteurized cider comes from McIntosh apples, which is okay if you like the taste of apple juice, but it just doesn’t have the lift of “real” cider. Many small farms make their cider, and it’s quite good. The old apple cider mill was a two-stage process: first grinding the apples by hand in a cast-iron hopper and teeth. After the fruit was crushed into the pomace or mash, it was pressed by a screw-type mechanism, the outside made of wood and the screw or auger made of iron. You would turn the crank by hand, which would press the mash into cider. Animals have once used to power the crusher. Modern electric presses are usually more efficient in the amount of juice pressed per gallon. The apples are washed and then go through a hopper where they are shredded by a metal roller with sharp blades.
The resulting mash drops onto a heavy-duty cloth whose ends are folded between slated wooden or plastic racks. The mash is then pressed by a hydraulic piston and the result in sweet cider. The last pressings of cider are the finest. For the best cider, pump the hydraulic press down a little harder but not too hard. Just like the old Maxwell House commercial: “Good to the Last Drop.” The last pressings took place in November. The root cellar was cool by then, and you can store the apple cider in glass jugs, leaving a little room at the top. The cider stored in the glass jugs would last until Easter if stored properly. When the sun begins to climb higher in the sky at Easter, the root cellar warms up, and the cider turns into vinegar. You can also store cider in a refrigerator in glass jugs or freeze it in plastic containers, making sure again to leave a little space at the top. The cider of today is not stored for any length of time but pressed close to the time you buy it because apples can be stored much easier than in the past. Not that long ago many Omtimes.com
4 Ways to Combat Compassion Fatigue by Michelle Alberigi McKenzie
Compassion Fatigue is huge in the animal welfare and veterinary communities. Signs can be depression, anger, anxiety, sadness, and more. People who work in shelters and rescues often say it’s the hardest job they ever had. But they stay there because the Omtimes.com
animals need them. They are passionate about their work, but there’s only so much help they can offer as an individual. And the heartbreak that they experience becomes what is known as Compassion Fatigue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the first study that examined veterinarian mortality rates in America. The results were grim: the suicide rate among veterinarians is between 2 to 3.5 times higher than the national average. The animal welfare community (sanctuaries, rescue groups, shelters) represent another area of concern. The stress of animal work can affect morale and how they view their job. Psychotherapist J. Eric Gentry told the Sacramento Bee: “Animal care professionals are some of the most painsaturated people I have ever worked with. The very thing that makes them great at their work, their empathy and dedication and love for animals, makes them vulnerable.”
Signs of compassion fatigue can include: • Depression • Sudden outbursts of anger • Feeling cynical or numb to what’s happening around you • Feeling isolated from family and friends • Exhaustion • Difficulty sleeping, just to name a few. 4 techniques that can be hugely effective for combating this syndrome though. 1. Talk about experiences with someone we trust, and in enough detail to connect emotionally with them again. 2. Learning mindfulness is proving extremely useful for people who suffer from compassion fatigue. Research shows that mindfulness reduces activity in the amygdala--that part of the brain that reacts to fear and anxiety. Mindfulness increases empathy and serenity among animal caregivers. Mindfulness emphasizes staying in the
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Discover Your ConnectionThe Five Steps to Animal Lessons By Danielle MacKinnon
Animal Lessons is a system intended to help you harness that which the animals in your life are teaching you. The system is both practical and fluid, and it can be broken down into a few simple steps that I’ll outline for you here. These easy steps will show you how to gain a solid Omtimes.com
understanding of how animals (whether domesticated, wild, farm, or other) are acting as your mentors, therapists, trainers, and gurus every day. One of the main tenets of this program is developing and holding a newfound awareness of yourself, but this awareness requires solid groundwork from which to grow.
The Five Steps to Animal Lessons To get you primed here’s a very brief outline of the steps. Step 1: Determine How Your Animal Is Helping You The first step is very logical: determine how an animal is helping you grow, evolve, change, learn, or become a master. Your pet (or any animal you feel a special connection to) already knows this and is seeing it through, but your experience of this animal probably hasn’t made you aware of that yet. Determining how your animal is helping you is one of the most important aspects, as things with our animals aren’t always as they seem. I’ve worked with people who thought their animal was helping them shift
in one area of their life, only to delve deeper and discover the learning was actually focused in a different, more profound direction. Step 2: Determine the Lesson Once you’ve figured out how your animal is helping you, the natural question that pops up is Why? This is the second step—figuring that out. Why do you need help in this area? What do you need to learn? What belief is this animal helping you change? We’ll use my fun technique with your chosen animal (and yes, it may make you feel a little crazy sometimes) to aid you in developing a new kind of awareness of yourself, including identifying what beliefs the animal in your life is helping you change. It’s through this awareness that you’ll next start identifying how you’re avoiding learning this deep lesson. The better your understanding of the belief your animal is helping you change, the more awareness you’ll achieve and the easier the process will be. Knowledge is the key here.
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How Space Clearing Helps Places and People Thrive By Robyn M Fritz
Creating Healthy, Balanced Spaces through Space Clearing Living Intuitively main title for this two-part series is “How Space Clearing Helps Places and People Thrive.” Then each of the two articles has its own title.
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Abstract: Throughout history, we have tried to be comfortable in our spaces at home and at work, using rituals and techniques like space clearing. A new way of space clearing consults with both people and their spaces to mesh the needs and wants of both sides. In Part 1 of this two-part series I discuss how space clearing works and why this new way matters. In Part 2 I’ll offer a case study that revealed how a luxury yacht and its new owners used space clearing to create a business that satisfies both parties. If you’re interested in creating the healthiest, most balanced spaces to live and work in, consider space clearing. The energetic, or the vibrational, equivalent of dusting and vacuuming, space clearing will improve your spaces’ energetic flow by removing blocks that keep them, and us, from thriving. Space clearing becomes even more powerful when people tap their innate intuitive and healing abilities
to actually consult with their spaces to mesh the needs and wants of both sides. This is a new modality called Space Cooperating, which I pioneered in Seattle, Washington. Stuck Energy and Our Spaces Everything on the planet, human and otherwise, has distinct energy, or ‘vibration.’ When the vibrations are balanced, people and spaces feel comfortable and healthy. When vibrations are unbalanced, problems arise. What gets vibrations out of balance? Daily life, from our emotions and activities to the world around us, including our animals, possessions, other people—and our spaces. That is, as we go about our day, little bits and pieces of our personal vibrations spin-off and are left behind in the places we visit, where they mingle with bits from everyone else’s vibration, including the spaces themselves. That means we and our spaces are constantly
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The Metaphysics of Self-Power
Power is a broad reference to the ability to effect change or exert control over people, subjects, or objects. Selfpower or self-empowerment is the ability to “enlighten,” “enhance” and “educate” yourself to become a better human being.
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This is one of the highest forms of spiritual consciousness we can give ourselves. Improving our way of communicating, appreciating, and honoring who we are, gives us special gifts such as gratitude, selfesteem, and a sense of being grounded. As empowered beings, we have the opportunity to remind ourselves of our selflessness, our humanity, and our endless source of energy we can tap into. Here you can discover the building blocks of self-power. Refuse to be the victim. Change Creates Power If we choose to focus our attention on the negative around us, we will be that negativity. If we choose to focus our attention on doing what we can’t do, we will surely not do the things we can. If we choose to focus our attention on being a victim, we will remain a victim. To empower your spirit and create your true self, you
must change your thoughts and the feelings around them. Change is inevitable. Our lives are made up of the building blocks of change. Change creates the person we must grow to be. Change happens for a reason to That reason is to allow us possibilities we may not have seen in the first place. This can be traumatic, or it can be less so. The single most important point you can make about change is that in most cases it’s not what faces you. That’s the problem; it’s how you react to it. How do you react is determined by how you perceive a change? The Chinese word for crisis is “weiji.” Two characters that separately mean danger and opportunity. Every problem we encounter in life can be viewed that way. It is a chance to show that we can handle it. Changing the way, you think, can change a life of stress and discomfort to a life of challenge and excitement.
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To Boldly Go
On March 9, 2015, pilot Andre Borschberg lifted his experimental aircraft Solar Impulse 2 from the Abu Dhabi runway. His bold plan: to fly a fully solar-powered airplane around the entire globe without using a drop of fossil fuel.
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In the stirring documentary The Impossible Flight, we ride the roller coaster of challenges and triumphs that characterized Solar Impulse 2’s epic journey. While the inventors planned to make the trip in twelve legs at an airspeed of 45 miles per hour, the fragile craft was continually thwarted by rough weather and equipment malfunctions. The toughest moment came when the lightweight vessel was set to fly its longest leg over the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Hawaii—a grueling 5-day trek through adverse weather systems. The pilot had to sit in a fixed position for almost the entire trip, except occasional 20-minute power naps. As the flight neared the midway point of no return, the team’s onground meteorologists and engineers sadly concluded that the weather ahead was too dangerous, and feverishly urged the pilot to turn back. But the pilot refused. “I have a very good feeling we can do it,” he replied and pressed on. After two more harrowing days threading the needle between storms, Borschberg
landed safely in Honolulu. SI2 later went on to return to its starting point, 504 days after its departure. Two different people live in your mind: One is an engineer calculating odds and risks according to known science. The other is the voice of passion, intention, and spirit, prone to take leaps of faith beyond known science. Both are important. Science helps us understand and maneuver the world we know. Our sense of vision and adventure propels us to go beyond the world we know, into more exciting dimensions. The engineer measures probabilities. The spirit is motivated by possibilities. We must honor the engineers who designed that brilliant aircraft that could break records; but if it were up to the engineers alone, the airplane would have turned back, and the records would not have been broken. Something within the pilot said, “I can and I will,” which ultimately achieved the goal. The journey to success is like a train ride powered by a steam engine. The tracks guide the train to its chosen destination. Omtimes.com
“If it were easy, everyone would do it.” Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own Yes, it is easy to suffer. And everyone is doing it. Hence the 10 Easy Steps. It’s easy to suffer, while the opposite –
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not suffering – is not so easy: happiness is fleeting, joy elusive, and love comes and goes like the seasons. But Suffering is your one steadfast friend. It is always there for you, easy-like, always standing by your side, ready to be there with you, for you, and about you. Look around – do you see a door? You can always shut it on your foot, and you will suffer. So easy. Can’t get to a door? There’s always that insult or the memory of that moment in high school where you were embarrassed, humiliated, defeated. Take your mind there. Suffering is just a few neurons away, waiting to deliver the goods. But maybe you’ve had enough. You’re done. It’s time to break the addictions of pleasure/ pain, have/have-not, rich/ poor. Time to break the habit of suffering. For those of you ready for the next stage of life, here are the 6 Slippery Steps to End (or at least greatly diminished) Suffering. But before we dive in, the most important thing to know
at this point is: it’s not easy. If it were easy to end suffering, don’t you think everyone would do it? I mean, I would! There must be some reason why everyone has not put suffering behind them. One could say, “because it’s hard” or “difficult to achieve” or “the deck is stacked against us.” But I’m going to call it like it is: the process is hard because it’s slippery. It’s slippery because the steps to get out of suffering appear relatively easy to understand and do, and yet they are hard to implement. Like “Stay in the present – don’t think about the past or the future.” The concept is immediately understandable and within your power to implement. But if you don’t do it right, you may completely stop planning for the future. (I’m not hungry now – why go to the store?) You might stop reflecting on past actions that caused catastrophic results and fail to learn from past “mistakes” and again slip into suffering. I’m calling them slippery
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Living in the Gap It is the writer’s privilege to help one endure by lifting up his heart. —William Faulkner When I was thirty, I traveled to London for the first time to visit a friend in grad school. I immediately felt the history in the old buildings and streets. On my second day there, we
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took the Underground from Victoria Station. As our train arrived, I realized that the space between the platform and the train was much greater than in the States. I looked at the edge of the platform. And there, etched in the concrete, was the phrase, “Mind the Gap.” The phrase instantly seemed an instruction from the gods. Mind the gap between stillness and motion. Mind the gap between who we are and who we hope to be. Mind the gap between what’s visible and what’s not. Mind the gap between inner life and outer life. The phrase has stayed with me ever since—for our search for meaning depends on how we mind the gap and how we enter the spaces between things. While a tree is all leaves, the life of the tree is in the spaces filled with wind between the leaves. And while we are the sum of our actions and words, the life of who we are is in the spaces filled with Spirit between our actions and words. In time, minding the gap leads
to entering the gap, which leads to living in the spaces between what is known and what remains unknown. The gap between the details of the world is where we find the invisible energy that holds everything together. On my return from that first trip to London, I became a student of the gap between what we intend and what we discover. Over the years, I stopped visiting the spaces between things and started living there. That is, I started meeting the world from the inside of life rather than darting from one external circumstance to another. What I’ve learned from this is that the heart is the perceptual organ that braids the unseeable with the seeable. The heart is the instrument that connects us to the enormous foundation that remains out of view. And so, by minding the gap and living in the gap, we help each other endure, as William Faulkner says, by lifting each other’s heart. We enter this process of connection and endurance by Omtimes.com
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