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."

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?