For this level of sacrifice and service, we claim to honor our veterans with a national holiday each November, but the reality is homelessness, unemployment, PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), drug addiction and depression plague our nation’s defenders and truest patriots far more frequently than we acknowledge. Ex-Marine Sergeant Colin Archipley and his wife hope to change that… with organic farming.
Dimitri’s line of argument runs even deeper though. His idea of healing is fundamentally different than that of the mainstream medical establishment, and based in an entirely different weltanschauung. “The psychiatrist and the scientist want to measure everything, but they cannot measure love. That is not quantifiable.”
I have a right to ingest/smoke whatever I want and to explore the contents of “my own mind” in the process, so long as I am not hurting anyone else, even if it kills me. This is a basic human right, albeit one that few people think of. Imagine if you had the right to have a shed in your backyard, but you didn’t have a right to explore the contents of that shed. That would be a little insulting, wouldn’t it?
Today, there are few clinical situations in China where either traditional Chinese medicine or Western methods are delivered alone. For example, in many rural clinics, acupuncture, herbal medicine, and massage are easy and inexpensive to deliver, but Western medicine is difficult and expensive to provide. A few specialty institutions in large cities exclusively use technological Western diagnostic methods, and follow up with primarily Western intervention procedures. However, most institutions that focus on Western methods typically have acupuncture, massage, and herbal medicine also available to reduce pain, mediate the side effects of medications, and support patients with regulation of sleep, bowel disturbances, pain, anxiety, and nausea.
There are a lot of different ways to get involved in influencing peace and freedom. You don’t have to be a philosopher if that’s not your thing; you don’t have to make signs and march if you don’t want to; and you don’t have to get involved with podcasting or video editing if you don’t have the ability to. You can make great contributions to freedom movement simply by doing what you love and sharing your unique gift with the world. Maybe you are an artist, musician, comedian, or you have some kind of public platform that will allow you to bring these ideas to a lot of people.
Although scientific research is available to show that pot is relatively harmless, and in fact medically beneficial, myths and propaganda about the plant’s alleged harm lead to marijuana laws so severe they often have the unintended consequence of driving people to drink alcohol, a much more dangerous substance than pot.
Inward revolution is the only true revolution and it is, not surprisingly, taboo, easily dismissed, attacked by linear minds desperately lacking in imagination. Not to engage in inward revolution is to endorse the social norm, to back the violence, to stand by passively as the human race devours itself. To move away from the herd takes so much courage. To remain with the herd is to join them as they mindlessly jump off the cliff like lemmings, insisting that their way is normal. There has never been a better time than now to break your social vows.
It’s funny, you know, but it’s embarrassing say that I actually was addicted to pot. It’s more embarrassing than talking about meth or heroin, because pot seems to be so beloved by so many cool people. But the fact is, I was addicted to it. I smoked it from the ages of 11 to 27 and, though I tried to stop many times, I was never able to for more than a year.
This video tells it like it is. Kids should not be given drugs. They should be played with, engaged, given exercise and a healthy diet free from preservatives and poisons. But most of all they should be allowed the chance to become whoever they should be without interference from a profit motivated and predatory health industry.
This idea of paying attention to one’s thoughts in a nonjudgmental way is what mindfulness meditation, or mindfulness training, is all about. This ancient practice has gained a lot of interest from researchers (and regular folk) in recent years. Scientists have studied how mindfulness courses can change people’s reactions and behaviors, and how they can literally change the structure of the brain.
Love is a verb, it’s the creative life force of the universe unfurling in real time, it’s the breaking wave of transformation, it’s life itself, propelled by the evolutionary energy that burst forth some fourteen billion years ago that is always and ever yearning for greater and greater depth, complexity and creativity, an infinite journey into the vastness of consciousness unfolding in real time.
Yoga can be practiced by anyone, young or old, big or small, fit or not, as it can be performed as a gentle restorative physical therapy, or as an intense and challenging form of exercise. Incorporating the practice of Yoga into your life is an excellent means of improving your likelihood of finding happiness, motivation and inspiration while developing immunity to the myriad negative things occurring in our world today.
