Spiritual Magazine | Wellness Magazine

Issue 11, Nature
The impermanence of broccoli
ALANDA GREENE explores the nature of impermanence and permanence through observing the growth cycles and stages of existence of the humble broccoli. LESSONS FROM THE GARDEN I’m transplanting tiny broccoli seedlings, moving them from a densely planted row in a large tray to four-compartment seedling holders. They have paired heartshaped leaves, deep dusty green, with what is called ‘true’ leaves just beginning to emerge between these two. In the fourpack tray they will continue to grow until the outside temperature warms enough to set them in the garden. No matter how many times I plant the tiny round black seeds, this small miracle excites me, to see them emerge as little knobs of green, then continue changing to the heartshaped leaf pairs, to become magnificent heads of beaded clusters that I will eat. When I miss getting the heads at their best form for cooking and freezing, they are left to metamorphose to stalks of delicate pale yellow flowers, enticing myriads of bees that hum in delight. Many of these I cut and toss over the fence for the deer that especially like these blooms. The blossoms left standing will continue to change until the tiny black bead-like seeds appear in what was the floret center. Like the bees and the deer, I delight too in this process, awed by it. I see how broccoli has so many ways of presenting itself in this world. Usually, the word conjures images of the bright green vegetable florets in a stir-fry, or crunchy nibbles on a veggie platter. Yet these small plants before me this day, with their tender heart-shaped leaves, are also broccoli. The new leaves to emerge will be broccoli. The head that swells later in summer is one more phase in a process of growth and change that is…

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Issue 11, Relationships
Praying with clients
When is it appropriate for a health professional to pray with clients? Clinical psychologist ROBERT R. JACOBS shares some practical ideas and his own experience regarding this sensitive topic. Whether or not to engage in prayer with a client can be an important decision for a therapist. I have faced this issue in my own practice, particularly when my work takes place in a medical setting. Hospitals by their very nature focus on issues that are medically acute, and what is necessary for efficiency in critical care is not always calming. The adjustment associated with any surgery, for example, is formidable for a patient. Quite understandably, patients often face a lot of emotions in the wake of a surgery – sadness and depression, anger, hurt, discouragement and anxiety. They often have basic problems and need psychological support. One particular patient, Candace, greeted me so cheerfully one afternoon, I had to wonder: what had she figured out? I quickly learned that Candace benefited from three distinct psychological advantages: she felt good about life, she had the support of friends and family, and, deeply religious, she engaged constantly and meaningfully in prayer. Candace actively reminded herself of her relative security and comfort. “I even have a psychologist here checking on how I’m feeling!” she observed. Looking around, I could not count the number of cards that she had received from loved ones and congregation members, offering their warm regards and support. All of us benefit from knowing that we do not face challenges alone. And since childhood, the act of praying had been a natural part of Candace’s life, woven into her daily experience. She suggested that we join in prayer. Reasons abounded for avoiding her request. Since that afternoon, I have consulted with many trusted colleagues for advice. Perhaps it is…

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Issue 11, Self
Beholding and becoming
NEGIN MOTAMED searches for the quiddity of happiness. What would you wish for if you had a genie? A villa in the Canary Islands? A Lamborghini? A luxury vacation? Or something more sustainable: a bank account that never ends, which would maintain a high standard of living with all these things and many more? Or perhaps you wish for beauty? Or for the man or woman of your dreams, your perfect mate, with whom you can live happily ever after? Let’s pause right here, on the very last phrase, “happily ever after”, the words that all our fairy tale stories end with. Isn’t it the core and the essence of all our endeavors? Isn’t this everlasting happiness the reason we need our jobs, titles and money? After all, happiness is what we pursue through all these things. We believe they will make us happy, be it our hard work, our career, our leisure activities, our relationships, and our material possessions and money. So why not focus on our goal in the first place, instead of the tools that might help us to achieve it? Why not focus on happiness? So let’s look at the quiddity of happiness. How exactly can you define it without getting into the trap of equating it with the ways and means to getting it? So to be very clear, happiness is not the money, the luxury lifestyle, the most exotic and desirable food you may think of, a perfect relationship, or being in a happily balanced family life with your children around you, etc. These are all ways we think will help us reach a state of happiness. In order to define happiness, let’s recall the inner state and condition we have when we achieve any of the items on our list. How did you feel…

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Inspiration, Issue 11
Silence and soundscapes
I grew up thinking that I was a listener, except on my way to graduate school one time, I simply pulled over making the long drive from Seattle, Washington, to Madison, Wisconsin, pulled over in a field to get some rest and a thunderstorm rolled over me. While I lay there and the thunder echoed through the valley and I could hear the crickets, I just simply took it all in. And it’s then I realized that I had a whole wrong impression of what it meant to actually listen. I thought that listening meant focusing my attention on what was important even before I had heard it and screening out everything that was unimportant even before I had heard it. In other words, I had been paying a lot of attention to people, but I really hadn’t been paying a lot of attention to what is all around me. It was on that day that I really discovered what it means to be alive as another animal in a natural place. That changed my life. – Gordon Hempton, from The Last Quiet Places, http://www.onbeing.org/program/last-quiet-places/4557 As night fell, I felt enchanted and blessed to be enveloped in a world of 3-D sound. A deliverance from the monotonous single-track recordings of older models, the sound was more illuminating and evocative of a place than was any photograph. The captured ambiences – rich textures that infused the entire frequency spectrum with elegant structure inclusive of multiple tempi, melodies, and filled with dazzling soloists and choruses, alike – intensified my experience of the habitat through their vibrant nuances generated as points of sound transported through the acoustic space. But that realization, alone, was simply not enough. We needed to define and measure the broader soundscape in terms that addressed its three fundamental sources…

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THIS MONTH'S ISSUE

Self

The power of belief & positive thinking

It is just the tip of the iceberg! And yet DR SWATI KANNAN shares with us enough about the current research on the power of belief to ask ourselves, “How...

Heart = we

in Issue 11, Relationships

ELIZABETH DENLEY explores the nature of teamwork. There are many buzzwords these days in corporate culture, in psychology and in the growing field of holistic well-being. One of the most...

The next revolution

in Issue 11, Work

In conversation with DR PARTHA NANDI. Q: Tell us about your work. PN: I have been a practicing physician for almost twenty years now. I also have a passion for...

Consciousness is 95% of the game

The evolution of consciousness – part 6

in Inspiration, Issue 11

Last month, in Part 5, KAMLESH D. PATEL explored the spectrum of consciousness in more detail and introduced the role of Yoga in this process. In this issue, he explains...

ALANDA GREENE explores the nature of impermanence and permanence through observing the growth cycles and stages of existence of the humble broccoli. LESSONS FROM THE GARDEN I’m transplanting tiny broccoli...

80/20 principle

Children

Haina and M’baye the lion

in Children, Issue 11

Ages ago, in the Kalahari Desert, the San people and the animals talked and lived together. M’baye was a lone lion who lived a quiet life in the savanna. He...