Waimoku Falls, Haleakala Natl. Park,
near Kipahulu, Maui, Hana Rd.

Aloha, Friends!

As you might have gathered from my greeting, Carol and I just returned from Hawaii, where I spoke at the Unity Church on Maui.

Similar to the time we visited the island of Oahu in 2005, I was once again immensely impressed by the easygoing nature of the native Hawaiians. Living life in the divine flow seems to come quite naturally for most of them.

This is in direct contrast to a man I met who moved to Hawaii a number of years ago. He told me about his first five years on the island—a time in which he tried to accomplish his goals by using the same technique he employed on the mainland . . . by bulldozing over everyone and everything standing in his way!  Suffice it to say that the native Hawaiians weren't very impressed with this man's forceful, controlling, and manipulative ways.

Finally, one young native Hawaiian came up this man and said,  "Hey bro' . . . mo' bettah go easy."

At that moment, this man learned what I, too, have been learning over the years: Even though it is sometimes possible to force things to go the way you want them to, it is much better to take it easy.

You will find that when you attune yourself to the flow, and become willing to constantly adjust to the course of the current, things have a way of working out that is not only better for you, but better for all involved . . . and effortlessly, at that!

As the song my book is based on suggests, you should always "row, row, row your boat gently down the stream."  The reason why is simple: "Mo' bettah go easy!"

© 2010 by Steven Lane Taylor
Author of, Row, Row, Row Your Boat:
A Guide for Living Life in the Divine Flow
Steven's Speaking Schedule

Understanding what is required to holistically thrive in today's rapidly evolving world is vital to the millions of people who are now struggling to make ends meet in our weakened economic environment.

As the U.S. economy barely holds onto a lifeline to stay afloat, and vested businesses and government officials attempt to reclaim the U.S.'s once-admired economic stronghold in the world, in the meantime we are seeing an increasing number of 'victims' of the recession take the entrepreneurial route to find financial stability and, for some, hopefully find a niche and consequential prosperity.

Some of the entrepreneurial paths include direct sales and variations of direct-sales careers, including multi-level marketing and franchises. Many of these new entrepreneurs have become independent contractors (or more specifically, "independent consultants"  or "independent sales representatives"), selling other companies' merchandise or services. Spammers are an egregious example of direct selling. Others simply make money by telling you how to make money.

While for some, this movement away from being just a cog in the corporate machine or having an opportunity to climb out of the trenches of unemployment brings a new level of independence and steady income, but for others it can be a constant struggle to get "noticed" and to promote their products or services amid all the thousands of other competing marketers. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear EarthTalk: Some time ago there were issues with Native American tribes storing nuclear waste on their land, something that was both unhealthy to the communities and caused considerable controversy among tribal leaders. Where is this issue today?
– M. Spenser, via e-mail

Native tribes across the American West have been and continue to be subjected to significant amounts of radioactive and otherwise hazardous waste as a result of living near nuclear test sites, uranium mines, power plants and toxic waste dumps.

And in some cases tribes are actually hosting hazardous waste on their sovereign reservations—which are not subject to the same environmental and health standards as U.S. land—in order to generate revenues. Native American advocates argue that siting such waste on or near reservations is an "environmental justice" problem, given that twice as many Native families live below the poverty line than other sectors of U.S. society and often have few if any options for generating income. Read the rest of this entry »

Jeremy Teela in biathlon
men's sprint at 2010 Winter Olympics

With the Winter Olympics in full swing, you have undoubtedly heard newscasters attribute the success of many Olympic athletes to their perseverance, determination, and endurance. You have probably heard how many of these athletes overcame tremendous obstacles to be at the pinnacle of their sport.

I admire these athletes. As they continually expand the boundaries of human accomplishment, underneath it all I see the creative power of their Divine Spirit at work.

Similarly, as you pursue your own goals in life, it pays to remember your unlimited potential as a child of the Divine. But keep in mind that the accomplishment of your goals is not up to you alone. You have the whole Universe working on your behalf. And your main job is to cooperate with the divine flow that is continually guiding you toward the fulfillment of your desires in the most beneficial way possible.

What I am getting to is this: There is a fine line between determination and being driven, and between perseverance and being obsessed. I can't tell you where that line is for you. All I can do is remind you to continually ask yourself this question: "Am I taking the next right step that I am being divinely guided to take, or am I trying to control, manipulate, and force things to go the way I think they should go?"

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, to live life in the divine flow is to have the patience and the persistence to hold onto your dream, but to allow that dream to unfold in a divinely guided way. Otherwise, your achievement will only be the result of your ego's activity. And that kind of achievement is only briefly satisfying, and never in the best interests of all involved.

Here's to having dreams of Olympic proportions, my friends! But more than that, here's to their Divine realization!

© 2010 by Steven Lane Taylor
Author of, Row, Row, Row Your Boat:
A Guide for Living Life in the Divine Flow
Steven's Speaking Schedule

Have you ever imagined the amount of paper that is used by companies to send out flyers, catalogs, and solicitations to millions of homes across the country? On a daily basis?

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 44 percent of all junk mail is thrown away without being opened. This amounts to 4 million tons of waste each year. And this doesn't even account for the waste phone books — and duplicate phone books — generate. With three to five different directories delivered to each residence per year, about 8 lb of paper, the amount of waste staggers the mind.

You can put a halt to both junk mail and telephone books from being delivered to your residence, and here's how:

Go to the Direct Marketing Association's website (dmachoice.org) and submit a request to opt-out from thousands of direct mailers. You'll be able to discontinue delivery of catalogs, credit offers, and magazine offers, among other types of mailings.

To opt out of phone book delivery, you'll need to call the individual organizations that generate the directories:

Verizon (Superpages/Idearc): (800) 888-8448 (option 2)

AT&T/Yellow Pages (SBC/Bell South): (800) 848-8000 (option 1); for Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, or Texas call (800) 792-2665

Yellow Book: (800) 373-3280

Dex Yellow Pages: (877) 243-8339

Recommended reading: Inhabitat.com: GREEN RANT: Stop Sending Me Phone Books!

Patients who underwent brain surgery for tumor removal in the posterior parietal cortex experienced increased states of self-transcendence, which is identified as an ideal spiritual state that transcends the physical world and sense of self and helps one to feel more at one with the universe as a whole.

The posterior parietal cortex is the part of the brain that maintains a sense of one's physical body and it's also been linked to meditation and prayer. Removal of tumors in this particular area of the brain caused patients to experience selective damage, which reduces activity and disrupts the sense of self, subsequently leading to increased feelings of transcendence from the reality of the here and now.

To investigate the neural basis of spirituality, Cosimo Urgesi, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Udine, and his colleagues turned to people with brain tumors to assess the feeling before and after surgery. Three to seven days after the removal of tumors from the posterior part of the brain, in the parietal cortex, patients reported feeling a greater sense of self-transcendence. This was not the case for patients with tumors removed from the frontal regions of the brain. [Nature] Urgesi also notes that electrically stimulating the temporoparietal junction — an area near the posterior parietal cortex — is known to induce out-of-body experiences, which also involve a breakdown in someone's representation of their physical self and their environment. [NewScientist]

"Self-transcendence used to be considered just by philosophers and crank new age people," says co-author Salvatore Aglioti, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Sapienza University of Rome. "This is the first really close-up study on spirituality. We're dealing with a complex phenomenon that's close to the essence of being human." [Nature]

It seems that every day brings a new electronic gadget to the market, whether it's a smart phone, an electronic reader, a laptop the size and weight of a magazine, or a television the size of a wall. But each advance adds to the world's electronic waste, which is the fastest-growing component of solid waste. Much of the electronic refuse ends up in developing countries, where workers strip down the gadgets to get at the copper and other valuable metals inside, often exposing themselves to toxins in the process. Now, scientists are calling for federal regulations in the United States to stem the tide.

Although the U.S. is one the world's largest producers of electronic waste (e-waste), it is hardly a leader in addressing this problem, given that the country has "no legally enforceable federal policies requiring comprehensive recycling of e-waste or elimination of hazardous substances from electronic products," the researchers say [Scientific American]. Instead, e-waste policies are left to the states, not all of which have laws on the books. In the article, published in Science, the authors note that the United States has not ratified the Basel Convention, which regulates the movement of hazardous wastes across international borders and has the support of 169 of the 192 United Nations member countries [Scientific American].

Electronics can contain a host of dangerous materials, from heavy metals to toxic chemicals. Toxic e-waste shows up in forms as varied as high lead levels in the blood of children in Guiya, China, where millions of tonnes of e-waste are illegally dumped, and as fire-retardant chemicals in the eggs of California's peregrine falcons [CBC News].

80beats

Last week I wrote about dealing with the kind of obstacles that seem to come out of the blue—the kind that occasionally pop up when you feel like you have been totally "in the flow" for quite some time.

But what if the obstacles you run into are not occasional? What if you continue to encounter multiple obstacles, one after another after another?  What if you are continually inhibited in reaching a particular goal in life because you are constantly running into uncooperative and resistant people—people whose assistance you need?

What then? Does that mean that you are supposed to give up on your dream, because—obviously—it just isn't being divinely supported?

Like last week, there is no single, definitive answer to that question.  But here are a few things I do recommend that you "give up on." Read the rest of this entry »

Steven Lane Taylor, author of Row, Row, Row Your Boat and one of my guest contributors, is the most insightful expert on the nature of the divine flow that I've encountered. His messages are gentle, loving, intelligent, witty, yet straight to the point. Every week I look forward to reading and posting his consistently illuminating perceptions on how the flow influences the different aspects of our existence.

My own awareness of how the divine flow runs through each of our lives has substantially evolved with the help of Steven's gentle guidance and my own personal observations and growing understanding of its dynamism. As I have occasionally, in retrospect, assessed the most significant experiences of my life, an important realization eventually occurred to me:  the paths that made my life simpler or brought me abundance, improved health, or meaningful friendships came to me out of the blue. I did not have to consciously pursue the specific opportunity, it just happened — unexpectedly presented to me by a friend, family member, or other acquaintance, or "accidentally" discovered online, in a store, at a meeting, special event, or even delivered to my door. Read the rest of this entry »

Question: I recently heard that antidepressants only help people who are severely depressed. I figure that I'm one of the others – the "mildly" depressed – so I stopped taking the drug that didn't work. What supplements or dietary approaches should I try instead?

Answer: You're probably referring to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on January 6, 2010. It concluded that prescription anti-depressants may provide little benefit for patients with mild or moderate depression but do help patients with very severe depression. (The authors noted that patients and practitioners "may not be aware that the efficacy of medications largely has been established on the basis of studies that have included only those individuals with more severe forms of depression.")

It's never a good idea to stop taking a prescription drug without checking first with your physician – sometimes, you have to be weaned off medication slowly to prevent withdrawal symptoms. If you haven't already, be sure to let your doctor know that you're no longer taking the drug and be sure to notify him or her if you develop any symptoms that could be related to stopping the medication. That said, I recommend the following alternatives to medication for mild to moderate depression: Read the rest of this entry »