Stroke of insight

Scientist Jill Bolte Taylor(Ted Talks) had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story demonstrating the importance of balance and our potential to feel totally connected.
"I am an energy-being connected to the energy all around me

through the consciousness of my right hemisphere.

We are energy-beings connected to one another

through the consciousness of our right hemispheres as one human family.

And right here, right now, we are brothers and sisters on this planet,

here to make the world a better place.

And in this moment we are perfect, we are whole and we are beautiful."

Do we walk wrong?

It took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the human foot. Now we're wrecking it with every step we take.. "Admittedly, there’s something counterintuitive about the idea that less padding on your foot equals less shock on your body. But that’s only if we continue to think of our feet as lifeless blocks of flesh that hold us upright. The sole of your foot has over 200,000 nerve endings in it, one of the highest concentrations anywhere in the body. Our feet are designed to act as earthward antennae, helping us balance and transmitting information to us about the ground we’re walking on." -New Yorker Magazine Article

Here's a guy who knows a thing or two about walking, John Francis Walks the Earth.

We were not born with wheels upon our feet, oh no,

Not even wings to help us fly,

It's for this reason I'd suppose,

We walk the earth for our short lives..

Check out Barefoot Ted if you're interested to make yourself a pair of minimalist running sandals.

The americanization of mental illness

We may indeed be far along in homogenizing the way the world goes mad. "Nowhere are the limitations of Western ideas and treatments more evident than in the case of schizophrenia. Researchers have long sought to understand what may be the most perplexing finding in the cross-cultural study of mental illness: people with schizophrenia in developing countries appear to fare better over time than those living in industrialized nations." -New York Times Article

On this topic, a link to Sean Blackwell's thought provoking blog exploring his own experiences and interpretations of bi-polar. A favourite idea: a breakdown or a breakthrough?

to be connected..

To see the world in a grain of sand,
and to see heaven in a wild flower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hands,
and eternity in an hour.
-William Blake