Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/pkCkFXE-BrY/

“The totality of my possessions reflects the totality of my being. I am what I have … What is mine is myself.” ~John Paul Sartre

What kind of relationship do you have with your stuff?

Embracing who we are naturally requires a letting go of who we aren’t, but perhaps want to be. That ties directly to our physical belongings, which can renew and inspire us in the direction we’re headed—or hold us back.

Over the years, I’ve found that the objects with the most powerful grip on us are not necessarily those we use frequently and with ease, but the “aspirational” items that we wished we used more.

The sleek high heels that never come out of the closet, because they’re too impractical to actually wear. The exercise bike that grows rusty in the basement. Or in my case, the high-end digital camera I just sold on eBay.

The Lightness of Letting Go

The camera is three or four years old at this point, but it takes amazing pictures. My partner at the time suggested I buy it before a big vacation to Istanbul, though I didn’t need much convincing.

The idea of capturing the world through a lens and expressing myself creatively excited me. I liked the vision I saw for myself—someone with an eye for detail, with original, ha…

Source: http://www.sonima.com/videos/poetic-meditation/

Watch video on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_FT1ZfqBCk

In this video, Nate Howard, a professional speaker, educator, and poet, uses his gift—the power of expression—to discuss how poetic meditation helped to define his personal story. Here, he opens up about his own journey, from fighting stereotypes while growing up in southern California to finding his sense of identity and purpose. Poetry and activism helped him break others misperceptions of himself (including his own) and show the world who he truly is. Watch this clip to learn more about how Howard grew to accept himself through words and meditation, become the narrator to his own story, and ultimately help others find their own voice through poetry and workshops at his nonprofit organization, Movement BE.

Related: A Poem for Hope in Overcoming Depression

The post An Introduction to Poetic Meditation appeared first on Sonima.

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Source: http://greatist.com/live/how-to-prevent-pimples?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

Ah, pimples. The ultimate unwelcome guests. As this video from asapSCIENCE explains, whiteheads pop up when our pores—which are really just hair follicles—get clogged with dead skin cells and oils (nature’s moisturizer!). The healthy oil gets trapped under all this gunk, our immune system responds by sending blood to the area, and ta-da, a shiny bump is formed.

Washing your face helps prevent typical breakouts, but it doesn’t stop serious acne. There may be a cure in our future, though. Researchers realized that people with healthy skin still have acne-causing bacteria on their face—it’s just a slightly different strain. If scientists can figure out how to alter the bacteria on our skin to be the healthy strain, we may be looking at a legit cure for pimples. Go science!

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/VQVCNxfO86k/

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” ~Thích Nhất Hạnh, Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Do you ever feel like you’re too busy for meditation?

You understand the benefits, and you’d really like to commit to it. But you’re a busy person. You have deadlines to meet, food to prepare, bills to pay, kids to raise, family members to call—and even that’s barely scratching the surface.

We’ve all been there. I certainly have.

Before I found mindfulness, I struggled with concentration for years. When I moved away from home to make a living as a freelance writer and travel the world, it only got worse.

Suddenly I was the other side of the globe, with no family and often no friends.

I should have been looking forward to the next exciting meal, going out and meeting interesting new people, or just appreciating the sights and sounds of an unfamiliar city. Instead, without the structure that I was accustomed to at home, I was stuck in a perpetual state of work-related anxiety.

As the stress continued to build, I got the uncomfortable feeling that I was squandering the opportunity of a lifetime. I was never fully committed to either work or play, and as I…

Source: http://www.fannetasticfood.com/2016/02/24/eatsexercise-neda-week/

Happy Wednesday, my friends!

I’m proud because I dragged myself out of bed yesterday and to the track – in the RAIN. Full disclosure is that it wasn’t raining when I got up and got dressed, and by the time it started, I was already ready to go and walking out the door – bailing at that point seemed silly.

As always, what seemed like a terrible idea while I was tucked in bed quickly became an awesome idea once I made it out there and saw my track buddies. Everyone was in good spirits because rain meant that it wasn’t snowing.

<img title="rainy track workout" style="border-top: 0px;border-right: 0px;border-bottom: 0px;float: none;padding-top: 0px;padding-left: 0px;border-left: 0px;margin: 0px auto;padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="rainy track workout" src="http://www.fannetasticfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/P2230003_thumb.jpg" width="6…

Source: http://greatist.com/health/it-normal-shed-much?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

Shedding is a natural process that happens to everyone, but losing hair can be quite scary. And let’s be honest, not everyone who loses hair will end up looking like a movie star (take Vin Diesel—have you seen the man’s muscles?). So how much shedding is considered “normal,” and when should we start worrying?

The Need-to-Know

Most people have about 100,000 hairs on their heads and lose around 100 to 125 hairs per day (imagine trying to count each one). Alopecia, the medical term for normal hair loss, occurs because scalp hair grows in cycles. Each hair follicle undergoes a growth stage that lasts two to eight years, followed by a two-month resting stage where no growth occurs. Then, the hair strand falls out and a new one begins to grow in its place.

For a healthy person, this means between 80 and 90 percent of hair follicles are growing hair at one time, while the rest of the follicles are resting or shedding. Losing more than that? Something could be wrong. When the loss exceeds 125 hairs per day, it’s no longer just considered “shedding.” It could be a condition called “telogen effluvium,” when something pushes more hairs into the resting phase, says Adriana Schmidt, M.D., a dermatologist at Santa Monica Dermatology Medical Group. The…

Source: http://www.sonima.com/meditation/books-about-meditation/

I get that meditation may sound like the simplest thing in the world—all you have to do is be present with the breath—but if you have ever tried it you know it’s not really easy. That’s why it’s helpful to get some expert advice from people who have been doing it for a long, long time. If you don’t have many local resources where you can learn about meditation, I recommend picking up a good book on how to meditate.

Having read literally hundreds of books about meditation in the last 20 years, here are my top recommendations. I’ve chosen eight that are accessible, inspirational, and will provide basic instruction as well as guidance for how to launch a consistent practice.

How to Meditate by Pema Chodron

I’ll just come out and say it: Pema Chodron may have done more for making the Buddhist meditation teachings accessible than anyone in the 21st century. While some of her books, such as When Things Fall Apart, may be better known, this is the recently published go-to guide to learn the ins and outs of calm-abiding meditation. This book includes sections on working with strong emotions and how to accommodate everyone in your life with an open heart; if that’s something you’re angling for, this is the book for you.

Zen Mind Beginners Mind by Suzuki Roshi

This book came out in 1970 but remains the most accessible Zen meditation manual I have ever seen. It opens with chapters on the appropriate post…

Source: http://greatist.com/live/body-image-issues-related-to-mothers?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

I have a history of binge eating disorder and have become an advocate for issues around disordered eating and body image, so I talk about this stuff a lot with my friends and colleagues. And every single time I talk to a friend, fellow body activist, or eating disorder advocate about our own stories of weight and food issues, the conversation always gets around to the topic of our moms. “Well, when I was 14, my mom told me I was getting big thighs…” or “My mom never let us have seconds because she said she didn’t want us to get fat…” or “My mom was constantly on a diet. I learned that that was the normal way to live.”

While our parents are not to blame for directly causing body image difficulties and eating disorders—there are a ton of factors, from societal norms and genetics to traumatic experiences and neurochemistry—research does show that what parents do and say can increase or decrease the risk that someone will end up eating disordered.

In one recent example, psychology researcher Jerica Berge, Ph.D., from the University of Minnesota, followed thousands of parents and their teenage kids and found that teens whose parents talked to them about food with a focus on their weight or size (e.g., “Don’t eat that—you’ll get fat!” or “Yikes, that’s super fattening”) were more likely to fall into body hate, extreme dieting, and eating disorders. People whose parents didn’t talk about size or weight, but just focused on …

Source: http://greatist.com/live/improve-communication-skills?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

Have you ever left a conversation feeling like the person you’re chatting with is living on another planet? This video from TED-Ed explains what the heck is going on when two people walk away with completely different interpretations of what happened (and if you fast-forward to the three-minute mark, you’ll get some tips on how to avoid this mess).

Think of conversations like playing catch, except you’ve got a lump of clay, not a ball. Each time you say something— or toss the clay— the other person catches it and molds it based upon their own experiences and way of seeing the world.

Luckily, the video outlines a few easy steps you can take to avoid miscommunication:

Be an active listener: It sounds silly, but really pay attention so you can get a good read of what’s going on. Listen with your eyes, not just your ears: Pay attention to gestures, facial expressions, and emotions. Try to understand: Put yourself in the other person’s shoes, and take some time to really think about what they say before jumping to any conclusions. Be aware of your own filters: Your background affects how you see the world. Don’t assume that your beliefs are the only way to think. …

Source: http://www.sonima.com/videos/breast-cancer-research-and-treatment/

Watch video on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lerEHNK3l6g

One in eight American women will develop invasive breast cancer in their lifetime, according to BreastCancer.org. And while the survival rate is at an all-time high, it’s still the second most common cancer killer among U.S. women, right behind lung cancer. About 2.8 million American women have a family history of breast cancer. The increased risk—which doubles if a woman’s mom, sister or daughter were diagnosed with breast cancer—is enough to make anyone more curious about the condition. Hence why there’s so much literature on the internet, in libraries and bookstores now about how to prevent and treat the disease.

“When women get diagnosed, everyone tells them, get information, get information. But in today’s day and age, the problem is not lack of information. It’s actually too much information and no filter. While getting information is supposed to be empowering, I found it was having the opposite effect. Women were coming into my office totally overwhelmed,” says Elisa Port, M.D., co-director of the Dubin Breast Center and Chief of Breast Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

In this video interview, Sonima’s founder, Sonia Jones, sits down with Port to discuss her new book, The New Generation Breast Cancer Book: How to Navigate Your Diagnosis and Treatment Options-and Remain Optimist…