BE Your Body to Ward Off Disease?

Wow. This article is exactly what I'm talking about.

High BMI? What it means for your child, and what you can do about it

Apparently, Michelle Obama needs a doctor to tell her that her kids are getting too fat. I feel sorry for these girls later in life.

Occasionally, I sit with my mom, who is in her 70s, and watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. While I will happily admit to enjoying them from time to time, it's clear from the commercials that these shows know exactly which demographic is watching: old people. Every other ad is for something having to do with bladder control, bowel movements, dentures and all sorts of exotic prescription medication with a list of potential side effects that take up the second half of the thirty second spot, and read at double speed at that.

My mom and I often joke that the announcer ought to just come right out and say it: "If this medicine doesn't kill you, it might just cause your psoriasis to itch a little less."

Response to Canadian Therapists Concerns About Eckhart Tolle

Here is an article from Integral Options Cafe, discussing a piece by Douglas Todd, originally written for the Vancouver sun:

Canadian Therapists Worry that Clients Use Eckhart Tolle as a Spiritual Bypass

Here is my response:

This is a thought provoking article, but the main argument is a straw man. Tolle doesn't say you should gloss over the past. He simply urges people to deal with the past as it arises in the present, or "in the now." Negativity in the past, if it was dealt with effectively then (if it wasn't grieved and processed at the time), will inevitably resurface as what Tolle calls a "pain-body" attack. This occurs in the present and can be dissolved through awareness, allowing it to be, while focusing on the uncomfortable sensation that it causes (emotion, Tolle says, is the body's reaction to a thought). Inevitably, too, this process brings to mind the unconscious thoughts that are causing the pain and the sufferer awakens a bit further.

You are right when you point out that Tolle's philosophy is more sophisticated that some of his followers realize. But it is not a sophistication of the head, it is that of the heart. Tolle says we learn from the past but we should not live in it, nor the future.

Interview with Readers of The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder

I interviewed a couple of local readers about my book, The Self-Improvement Book Club Murder. See what they had to say: