Spirituality & Health November 1st, 2023 Digital Back Issue Cover

Spirituality & Health November/December 2023 (Digital)

(15)

Single Digital Issue

November/December 2023

$6.99

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Instant Start

Subscribe Instead

1 Year Subscription

6 digital issues

$14.97

($2.50/issue)

Go to Subscription

View Subscription Options

Also available on ZINIO Unlimited logo

Get unlimited access to Spirituality & Health (Digital) + Back Issues & 5000+ other magazines

Learn more

1-month free trial

Renews at $8.99/month after trial.
Cancel anytime.

Get unlimited access to Spirituality & Health (Digital) + Back Issues & 5000+ other magazines. Renews at just $8.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Start Trial Learn more

28 Articles

1 min.

Check out what’s happening at SpiritualityHealth.com

TRY ULTRA GRATITUDE, A THANKSGIVING PRACTICE FOR ANIMAL LOVERS Explore more compassionate ways to eat and be this Thanksgiving—beginning with what’s on your plate. Start by donating organic produce to a local food pantry or committing to a turkey-free table. spiritualityhealth.com/ultra-gratitude TAKE OUR QUIZ: ARE YOU READY FOR TRANSFORMATION? Are you maintaining the status quo, or are you open to great change? Take this nine-question quiz to determine how open to transformation you really are. spiritualityhealth.com/transformation-quiz USE THESE 20 AFFIRMATIONS TO HELP YOU THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS Holiday stress can extinguish the brightest of lights. Recite one (or all) of these positive holiday affirmations to keep yours burning bright. spiritualityhealth.com/holiday-affirmations…

3 min.

FROM THE EDITOR

“What’s the deadline?” Such a simple question. Alas, the answer is like the first offer on a Persian rug. Writers who know me sometimes cut to the chase: “What’s the drop-dead deadline?” Ultimately, that has to do with the “upload,” and right now Sandra, our-fabulous-but-now grumpy art director, has emailed to warn that the upload is happening just hours from now: “Need cover lines! Chop! chop! Need your editor’s note!” Meanwhile, my wife, also grumpy, is calling from across the house, “Are you awake? Where are you? It’s 3:41 in the morning!” What’s now funny is the main cover line: Give Yourself the Gift of Time! I’m blaming this one on Annie Lamott and her master class (page 44): “It takes a spiritual awakening, maybe a near miss where you realize you could…

3 min.

Yelena Bryksenkova

Q S+H: Your work beautifully captures people, majorly women, in everyday moments: brushing their hair, walking the dog, or decorating for the holidays. What inspires you to focus on quotidian subjects versus more fantastical scenes? BRYKSENKOVA: I find joy in elevating the mundane in my everyday life, whether it’s by taking the extra effort to do a simple task well, or being thoughtful about the objects with which I choose to surround myself. I get a sense of satisfaction from capturing that feeling in my work, especially on such a tiny scale (a typical painting of mine is 5x6”). There is a lot of beauty in the everyday; elevating it through painting is how I delight in the small things as well as process deeper and more complex emotions. You were born…

7 min.

Can a food be a drug?

NO! FDA drugs are expensive because of the cost of getting there; they need to recoup the expenses of the studies demanded to show the drug to be effective. Foods can’t be FDA drugs because they cannot be controlled; if a food was proven to be a drug by such expensive studies, and priced high enough to pay for the studies and make a profit, people would buy the food and bypass the drug company. And all drug companies understand this. YES! Hippocrates told us our food should be our drugs. There are many foods with drug effects. We call them Hippocratic drugs. But regulations prohibit the farmers and companies from telling the public what they do without them being FDA approved. One of the best examples is the natural sugar…

5 min.

ARE YOU WOKE? AM I A NONE?

Q I read your column to a friend of mine who responded with a heated, “He’s woke!” Clearly, it was meant as a criticism. Are you woke? RABBI RAMI: African American blues legend Huddie William Ledbetter (Lead Belly) coined the term “woke” as a warning to Black people traveling in the southern United States: “Best stay woke” to the evil and potentially homicidal racism they would encounter. Today “woke” applies to anyone attuned to and fighting against the hatred of people of color, Jews, Muslims, women, LGBTQ people, etc. If this is “woke,” then I strive to be woke. Spiritually speaking, I would take “woke” one step further. Shortly after his enlightenment, Buddha was asked, “Are you a god?” “No,” Buddha said. “Are you a wizard?” “No.” “Are you a human?” “No.”…

5 min.

DO YOU HAVE A PLUCK-IT LIST?

NEARLY 40 SUMMERS AGO, I backpacked through the Beartooth Mountains in Montana with eight other adventurers. One in our group was highly focused on reading maps, planning routes, and covering miles to get to our daily destination. When those of us at the front of the single-file line of hikers stopped for a breather to pick wild raspberries growing along the path, Map Guy would shout from his position at the back, “Cut the berries! We need to make time!” That memory stuck—a reminder of how easy it is to miss life’s simplest pleasures because we’re too busy or stressed to even notice them or consider them worth our time. Fast forward to summer of 2023—more specifically to the yearly Fourth of July campout at the farm where my wife grew…

7 min.

NIETZSCHE’S PATH TO INNER PEACE

IN THE SPRING OF 2021, I went to the French Riviera to recuperate. The pandemic, my husband’s cancer battles, the death of my dog from a snakebite, and a blisteringly hard teaching schedule at Duke had taken their toll on me. I was exhausted. I was determined to use my six expensive days to meditate, read, and write each day from our studio’s veranda in Èze-sur-Mer. I’d planned to sip nourishing matcha in the morning while looking off into the Mediterranean Sea. At night, I’d have lavender tea with local honey as I reveled in the glow of the night stars. Ted required 12-14 hours of rest each day, so my plans and my spouse’s needs matched perfectly. Silence, beauty, and fresh air were what the doctor ordered. We found them in…

6 min.

WHY CRUSH AN ANCIENT STONE PIPE?

About 30 years ago, in April 1994, 7 top executives of America’s tobacco companies stood before Congress with their right hands raised and swore that tobacco was not addictive and that they had not manipulated the nicotine content of their cigarettes to make them more addictive. A few days later, however, leaked internal documents from one of those companies, written 30 years before the congressional hearings, exposed these pillars of the community as liars. The document read: “We are then in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms.” And so in 1996, when we began dreaming up Spirituality+Health, those CEOs were under criminal investigation, smoking was widely acknowledged as a public evil, and a gold rush had begun for what has amounted…

7 min.

ENJOY BEING ORDINARY

SEVEN YEARS AGO I met Annie Lamott—and her public. When Annie and I went out to the movies or restaurants together, I got used to being interrupted for a selfie or by words of praise from a stranger. Her 19 books, some of them sensitive novels and others inspired examinations of everyday suffering, are intellectually provocative, brilliantly thought-through, and so plainly personal that many of her readers adore her as a refuge or invent a kinship with her as a secret friend. I learned to be the minister’s wife—smiling, appropriate, quiet, and politely off to the side. I usually end up taking the selfie, since Annie’s besotted fans are singularly uninterested in my handsome mug. The message is clear: Annie is valued for her extraordinary talents. I’m ignored because I’m ordinary. Who wants to be…

10 min.

Healing a Lifetime IN 3 DAYS

Looking back, I can say the first symptoms of my limbic system impairment appeared in early childhood. I grew up in an inner-city environment with burned-out houses and break-ins. Hypervigilance was the norm, though I didn’t understand to call it that at the time. What I do remember, as early as I can remember anything, was my reaction to cigarettes, perfume, and the smell of hot asphalt from newly paved roads. It would feel like my throat was closing and I could barely breathe, so I made the decision very early in life to avoid these things. Once, on a long drive with my family, I asked my father to put out his cigar because I was feeling nauseous in the backseat. He ignored my requests, so I finally grabbed the…

5 min.

DOES YOUR BRAIN NEED RETRAINING?

Brain retraining guides us to rewire our limbic system by reviewing the habits of our limbic system’s fight-flight-or-freeze response to see if the things we perceive as a threat are indeed a threat. It is a drug-free, self-directed technique based on the principles of neuroscience. When we are methodically guided to do this, we can begin to understand the places where we have been operating from a maladaptive stress response. The process allows us to move from a state of survival to a state of rest, growth, and repair, where lasting healing can occur. Long Covid, chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, chronic lyme disease, food sensitivities, anxiety, disease, chronic pain, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and a long list of autoimmune diseases labeled as “incurable” all have their roots in…

8 min.

This Is Your Brain on Time

the brain has a lot of jobs to do, but one of the most important jobs is to edit time. the Take the blink of an eye as an example. The average blink lasts 200-400 milliseconds and happens about every two seconds, a fluttering in and out of light that would drive most of us crazy if our brain didn’t edit out the time we blink. Or think of television. When the concept was first proposed, physicists were sure it could never work because the images on the TV would be transmitted at the speed of light, reaching our eyes 900,000 times faster than the sound would reach our ears. What those scientists never counted on was the human brain editing the incoming sensory signals so severely that they would…

11 min.

Knowing the Time to Rest

He realized the only way he could complete his training was to take more time—so that every day in the clinic was followed by a day off to recover. That decision shaped the doctor he turned out to be—and starts a beautiful new book: Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence. You write about the difficulty of getting patients to give themselves time to recover. Yes. As a primary care doctor in the UK, a big part of my role is to sign off on judgments about people’s capacity to work: when I think they shouldn’t be working because they’re too ill, and when I think they might be ready to go back to work. Sometimes I make these assessments on behalf of the government in terms of welfare assessments. And while stories…

2 min.

YOUR BASIC PRESCRIPTION

No one is getting any younger, and all of us would do well to remember that health can never be a final destination but a balance between extremes, different for everyone, and whether we reach it or not depends on our goals and our priorities as much as it depends on anatomy and physiology. There is no on-size-fits-all in medicine … So, give time, space, and respect to convalescence if you can. It’s an act that we need to engage in, giving of ourselves; a work of effort and endurance, and, to a certain extent, of grace. As much as you’re able to, charge your environment with space, light, cleanliness, greenery, and quiet. Remember that healing isn’t a game of snakes and ladders: With each movement toward and away from health,…

13 min.

THE TIME TO WRITE

“It takes a spiritual awakening, maybe a near miss where you realize you could have died without fulfilling this dream of getting it down on paper …. You gotta grab yourself by the wrist sternly and say, ‘Stop!’ We’re gonna stop living unconsciously. We’re gonna stop wasting so much of the day. We are gonna sit down for two hours five days a week, or an hour five days a week, or three nights a week—whatever you can budget. And we’re going to get some pages written. That’s how you stop wasting the few precious years you have here ….” You first wrote about writing as a “debt of honor” in Bird by Bird 28 years ago. What does that mean, and how has it changed for you over the years? Well,…

6 min.

become an herbalist

This year’s International Herb Symposium gathered legendary healers and seekers from as far away as Pakistan for classes ranging from male reproductive health to Slavic folklore to psilocybin mushrooms—not to mention a kava-fueled costume ball. While covering the symposium, our lead digital editor and herbalist Brenna Lilly met a S+H reader who was looking for a guide to start her herbal journey. And that led to this story of finding a calling—and creating a guide to becoming an herbalist. My path to becoming an herbalist has been surprising and winding. Even though I grew up on a hobby farm in the gorgeous woods of New England, I had no interest in studying plants as a child. I found them rather boring and spent much of my time indoors. A childhood bout…

3 min.

CHOOSING YOUR PATH

The fact that there is no one way to become an herbalist (at least in America) can be both intimidating and deeply liberating. Here are the three main paths: SELF-STUDY: THE DIY ROUTE Self-study is a great option for people who want to learn about herbalism but don’t have the budget and/or time for a school or apprenticeship. Self-study takes a lot of self-discipline and patience, but a library card and access to YouTube can take you a long way. Check out free YouTube courses from accounts like the Herbal Jedi, Herbal Academy, and the School of Evolutionary Herbalism; Facebook pages for herbalists like Linda Black Elk and 7Song; and your own lived experiences. What herbs did you grow up with? What plants can you find just outside your door? Is anyone…

2 min.

Conscious Dying Collective

303-440-8018 www.consciousdyingcollective.com about us Our core certificate programs train End-of-Life Doulas and Conscious Dying Coaches all over the world. These programs prepare caregivers from all disciplines and care settings to befriend death, surrender and trust deeply in each moment and restore death to its sacred place in the beauty, mystery and celebration of life. It builds communities of care and healing, benefiting everyone involved in care at end-of-life. By entering this innovative course of study with us, you will be supported by faculty-led live Zooms and teaching assistants. You will be immersed in a new body of training in End-of-Life Literacy and experience transformative, nurturing and deep inner-work. ARE YOU CALLED TO THIS WORK? Our students come from a variety of backgrounds ranging from community members, health care professionals, and healing arts facilitators to individuals who…

2 min.

Pacifica Graduate Institute

Lambert Campus 249 Lambert Road, Carpinteria, CA, 93013 Ladera Campus 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA, 93108 805.969.3626 www.pacifica.edu overview of programs • M.A. Counseling Psychology• Psy.D. Counseling Psychology• M.A./Ph.D. Clinical Psychology• Ph.D. Integrative Therapy and Healing Practices Specialization• M.A./Ph.D. Jungian and Archetypal Studies Specialization• M.A./Ph.D. Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies Specialization• M.A./Ph.D. Mythological Studies• M.A. Depth Psychology and Creativity with Emphasis in the Arts and Humanities program at a glance Pacifica Graduate Institute is an accredited graduate school offering degrees in Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Humanities, and Mythological Studies. All of the degree programs are taught in the tradition of Depth Psychology informed by the teachings of C.G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, Marion Woodman, James Hillman, and others. The Institute has two beautiful campuses nestled between the foothills and the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara. Pacifica’s degree programs are offered…

2 min.

Divya Chandegra (Chit Ltd)

London, UK (resources and courses are accessible online) divya-chandegra.com info@divya-chandegra.com program overview Discover your true power, passion and Soul purpose. If you’re constantly searching outside of yourself for something to help you live a more fulfilling life, this course focuses on bringing you to an awareness of Self. You’ll begin to reframe your mindset, enhance your decision-making process, balance your emotional wellbeing and develop a deep connection with your Self. Aligning with your Soul and finding your purpose, starts with identifying your own needs first. Are you the type of person who… • always puts the needs of others before your own?• struggles to maintain focus?• repeats unwanted behavior patterns?• keeps coming up against obstacles?• is concerned that your limiting beliefs are impacting the lives of your children?• feels like something is missing?• finds it challenging to…

1 min.

Saybrook University

55 Eureka Street Pasadena, CA 91103 saybrook.edu Choose Hope. Take Action. Saybrook University prepares students to challenge conventional thinking around social structures, mental and physical health, the business environment, and more. Our graduates leave well-prepared to create systematic change in communities around the world. program overview COLLEGE OF INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES Many of our students recognize the health care system as broken. They wish to change it from within through integrative healthcare programs and from the outside by offering alternatives to traditional medicine. The College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences offers M.S. and Ph.D. programs that focus on mind-body, nutritional, and lifestyle-based approaches that are increasingly becoming an essential part of conventional health care. Treating the mind, body, and spirit of their clients, graduates find career advancement opportunities in fields such as…

2 min.

The Haden Institute

PO Box 8039, Asheville, NC 28814 828-693-9292 HadenInstitute.com We teach Spiritual Direction & Dream Work, offering our participants a space for developing a robust relationship with their unconscious. Lectures, small group work, creative embodiment practices all lead to accessing the rich wisdom within each individual. LOCATION: In-Person or Always Online. Kanuga Conference Center in Beautiful NC Blue Ridge Mountains course overview Spiritual Direction Training • Study mystical and contemplative practices of Christianity and other religious and spiritual traditions• Learn seminal ideas from Carl Jung’s teachings, and their application to the personal and spiritual growth process• Gain experience and skill in spiritual direction through practice and case study presentations• Be introduced to dream work, including the function of dreams, and how to use dream work with both individuals and groups• Develop tools for self-discovery and transformation such as…

2 min.

THE GIFT OF TIME

NEW YEAR’S EVE RETREAT Join Tara Mulay and Devin Berry this New Year’s Eve for an online retreat aimed at “sharing aspirations to cultivate mindfulness to nourish our heart and care for our world.” Includes guided meditations and lovingkindness practice. A great way to bring in the next year. Donation $15-30, ms.dharma.org/courses/new-years-eve-retreat-2023 Calm Cool Collected Take a recess break with this flavorful sparkling water infused with magnesium and adaptogens to calm the mind and lift the mood. Add it to your holiday drink list to help guests unwind. Prices vary, takearecess.com Calm in the Chaos A very old herb, mucuna helps the body adapt to stress. An added support during the holiday season, it contains L-dopa, which is said to balance mood and offset anxiety. Organic. $41, shamansarket.com DAILY REFLECTION Carve out time with this year-long daily…

11 min.

STRENGTHEN YOUR ROOTS

The Sacred Herbs of Yule and Christmas Remedies, Recipes, Magic, and Brews for the Winter Season By Ellen Evert Hopman DESTINY BOOKS LIKE A PERFECT HOLIDAY CELEBRATION, The Sacred Herbs of Yule and Christmas offers exactly what you were hoping for, plus many delightful surprises. Stunning images at the beginning of the book provide a glimpse of the wonder you will experience as you travel through time and cultures into the meaning of the most magical season of the year. The intent of the book, as articulated by author, herbalist, homeopath, and druid Ellen Evert Hopman, is to deepen “our understanding of the past so that we can carry it forward with purpose, respect, and joy.” The rich and thorough way in which Hopman describes the origins and meanings of wintertime holiday traditions gives us…

4 min.

IMAGES THAT EDUCATE THE HEART

THE TIMELESS ROLE of art has always been to educate the heart. The Greek word pedagogue means “to walk beside, to accompany to learning.” It originally referred to an adult walking a child to school. Since the school is the world, we are asked to walk beside each other as we learn from life. The Hindu word upaguru means “the teacher that is next to you in this moment.” And so, images that educate the heart are upagurus. Once discovered, these images become teachers who walk beside us. There is an abundance of such images. Let me name a few from literature: William Stafford’s thread that we hold on to no matter what, Carl Jung’s view of the poet as a lightning rod for the Unconscious, the Hindu notion that we…

1 min.

QUESTIONS TO WALK WITH

• Experiment with your intuitive reading of many books at once. Pull at least five books from your shelves and place them about you. Begin by writing down a question that is working you. Now pick up one book at a time and read a paragraph or a poem. Write the passages you have read down. Then read them all in order. Now meditate on what this newly assembled set of voices is saying. In your journal, explore your reaction, your feelings, and your questions. Then, weave your reflections and the readings into one draft. Finally, read through the draft, journaling one more time from one passage to another. Put what you’ve written away for a day and then reread what you’ve written freshly. Respond to it one more time. •…

5 min.

THE SACRED SPACE BETWEEN US

WHILE ESTABLISHING AN OFFICE for my financial company, we lived on Maui—heaven on earth—for a few years. We enrolled our kids in the local Steiner Waldorf school and joined a small local church. We were consistent churchgoers, and both Amy and I became Sunday school teachers. Maybe it was our commitment to the community and volunteering that made for such a lovely, connected experience. Or maybe it was the loving community that accepted us and embraced us because we showed up. Either way, the connection and feeling of belonging was meaningful for my family. One morning I got a call at my office. Amy was hemorrhaging at 26 weeks of pregnancy, and the paramedics were taking her to the local hospital. Within an hour, we were being transferred by air ambulance…

5 min.

THE MONK AND THE ANTS

“WOMBATS POOP IN CUBES!” she informs me. Amazed, I look down at the plushie creature I hold, the one I suggested looks a bit like a wombat. “Well, I now admire the species even more!” I respond. She takes the tiny creature, attaches it to her backpack, and heads out into the sea of saffron monk robes, clerical collars, and wizard apparel. For over four days, I’ve been sequestered in a 10-by-10-foot exhibit hall booth, walking among 7,000 spiritual seekers and religious adherents from over 95 countries. We are all gathered here for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, representing over 200 wisdom traditions, attempting to navigate an overwhelming 800 presentations, ceremonies, and observances. Each day, the generous Sikh community feeds participants a free vegetarian lunch in a massive tent strewn with floor…

Recent Spirituality & Health Digital Issues Browse all back issues

Spirituality & Health (Digital) Subscription March 1st, 2024 Issue

Spirituality & Health (Digital) March/April 2024: $6.99

Spirituality & Health (Digital) Subscription January 1st, 2024 Issue

Spirituality & Health (Digital) January/February 2024: $6.99

Spirituality & Health (Digital) Subscription November 1st, 2023 Issue

Spirituality & Health (Digital) November/December 2023: $6.99

Spirituality & Health (Digital) Subscription September 1st, 2023 Issue

Spirituality & Health (Digital) September/October 2023: $6.99

Spirituality & Health (Digital) Subscription May 1st, 2025 Issue

Spirituality & Health (Digital) May/June 2025: $6.99

Spirituality & Health (Digital) Subscription March 1st, 2025 Issue

Spirituality & Health (Digital) March/April 2025: $6.99

Spirituality & Health (Digital) Subscription January 1st, 2025 Issue

Spirituality & Health (Digital) January/February 2025: $6.99

Spirituality & Health (Digital) Subscription November 1st, 2024 Issue

Spirituality & Health (Digital) November/December 2024: $6.99

Spirituality & Health (Digital) Subscription September 1st, 2024 Issue

Spirituality & Health (Digital) September/October 2024: $6.99

Spirituality & Health (Digital) Subscription July 1st, 2024 Issue

Spirituality & Health (Digital) July/August 2024: $6.99