On a TV ad featured in New York, Burton Aldrich tells his story. “I am in extreme pain right now. Everywhere. My arms, my legs, are feeling like I’m dipped in an acid.” This man has quadriplegia, is confined to a wheelchair, and yet he has found the best treatment for his agony. “Within five minutes of smoking marijuana, the spasms have gone away, and the neuropathic pain has just about disappeared.” (1)

Marijuana for Healing

This drug is surrounded by controversy so let’s get the facts straight.

• Marijuana plants, i.e., cannabis, hold hundreds of chemicals and 109 of them fall under a category called cannabinoids.
• One such cannabinoid is called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and it is responsible for the chemical effects on the brain.
• When a human consumes marijuana, THC, and other chemicals make their way into the bloodstream, to the brain and the rest of the body.
• Smoking is the most common way to use it, and it guarantees faster results than ingestion or other methods.
• THC’s interaction with the brain may cause the user’s pupils to dilate, colors become more intense, other senses enhance, and a feeling of haziness. Motor coordination and memory can be impaired while under the influence. (2)

How Medical Marijuana Works

The human body can produce its own version of cannabinoids, called endocannabinoids, which help regulate bodily responses to stimuli. Endocannabinoids are produced when needed by the body, yet the effects can be very brief. Its receptors are focused in the brain but are featured all around the body.

Marijuana’s cannabinoids, like THC, binds to the receptors to create medicinal properties, such as reducing anxiety or pain, along with the feeling of being “high.” (3)

Therefore, medical marijuana is commonly prescribed to those with chronic illness so they can lead normal lives pain-free.

Conditions Treatable With Medical Marijuana

• Multiple Sclerosis
• Spinal Cord Injury/Disease
• Cancer
• HIV/AIDS Continue reading →

Meditation can be a powerful tool for your individual spiritual journey. It is also a largely untapped resource for our cultural spirituality and progression. There is one organization that is attempting to use the power of meditation and internet for the good of humanity.

On the 8th of August 2014, the Deepak Chopra, founder of the Chopra Center, set a new Guinness world record for largest online meditation in history. The official statistics were that 33,061 people participated for the full 30 minutes.

Deepak Chopra is a world-renowned spiritual leader and wanted the event to channel enough positive energy to effect the global population’s mindset. ‘When we channel our energy in the direction of peace, love, compassion, harmony and love, it affects everyone on the planet,’ he said. ‘We wanted to explore what would happen if thousands of people around the world came together to be still in a meditation practice for peace, it was an incredible experience for everyone that participated.’

The event was hosted in Toronto with participants from over 100 countries logging in to join the group. Although the official statistics state that just over 30,000 people were involved, the number of individuals who took part at some stage was over 140,000.

Chopra hosted the event, alongside guests Gabrielle Bernstein and musician India Arie. He led the online group through a guided meditation to promote a collective and powerful source of positive energy.

Founded in 1996, The Chopra Center was the brainchild of Deepak Chopra and the late David Simon. Although the center is based out of California, the mission of the organization is to bring a greater understanding and appreciation of human spirituality to everyone. Continue reading →

Divorce is painful. The person who you have trusted to be your eternal companion is walking out of your life. You feel at a loss like something was ripped from you.

You are surrounded by well-meaning people who cannot fathom your suffering. The sinking feeling of despair is slowly lodging itself into your heart. You beg for this awful period to end so you can move on. Yet it seems impossible to get back to life in the face of this trauma.

There is hope. You will survive this and come out on top.

Your relationships will make all the difference.

 Step 1: Yourself

Your view and feelings about yourself are complex yet vital for your healing. There are different stages of emotion normal for people going through a divorce. Through all the pain, know that you are not the only one who has felt this way.

These stages are founded by Psychologist Thomas Whiteman, co-author of Starting Over.

1. Denial – “This is NOT happening to me right now.” “It’s really not so important.” This is the initial shock reaction, where the body shuts down to survive the pain.
2. Anger – This is when reality strikes. It can manifest itself in an uncontrollable rage or a burn-out. Whether the anger is justified or not, it still must be channeled towards healing through healthy outlets. Otherwise, it’s destructive.
3. Bargaining – This is where desperation sets in. You make promises and drive yourself crazy trying to win your spouse back. You think it can still work out, while the problems have gone too far for any ‘quick-fixes.’
4. Depression – You begin to suffer from insomnia, irritability, changed appetite, exhaustion or other physical manifestations. You’ll need a good friend by your side for encouragement. Continue reading →

When people start a new relationship, most of our attraction is thanks to an irresistible cocktail of chemicals. Unbeknown to us, our brain entices us to crave affection. But how?

Helen Fisher of Rutgers University in New Jersey has been conducting research on the brain chemistry of what she calls ‘the emotion systems associated with mating, reproduction,and parenting.’ Helen suggests that the three emotional systems (or ‘stages of love’) —lust, attraction, and attachment—“ are somewhat disconnected in human beings…” But the situation is not hopeless. Fisher argues; “the role of the prefrontal cortex in humans is to control and direct these emotions—if we so choose.”

As for love these days, let’s talk statistics. The divorce rate in the United States is expected to reach 67 percent before the end of the decade. Currently, some 80 percent of divorced men and 72 percent of divorced women remarry; but 54 percent and 61 percent, respectively, divorce again. High divorce and remarriage rates are seen in many other cultures, as well.

When it comes to animosity in relationships, at least 25 percent of homicides in the United States involve spouses, sexual partners, or sexual rivals.

Each year, some one million American women are followed and harassed by rejected lovers; 370,000 men are stalked by former partners; and approximately 1.8 million wives in the United States are beaten by their husbands. In fact, male sexual jealousy is the foremost cause of wife battering in cultures worldwide.

Husbands, although to a lesser degree, are physically abused by wives. Men and women in societies everywhere can experience clinical depression when a love relationship fails; and psychologists say that a sign? I cant think of the percentage of those who commit suicide because they have been rejected by a beloved.

But WHY? Could our brain chemicals be driving some people to act in an extreme way? It’s highly possible!

Continue reading →

Forget sleeping pills – the answer to a good nights sleep is in your fruit bowl! It might come as a surprise but bananas are the perfect bedtime food!

Most of us add bananas to our morning smoothies or eat them as a snack during the day, but the best time to have one is an hour or two before you go to bed. Bananas can help increase REM sleep and this is one of the most important sleep stages, helping to refresh your mind after a long day.

If you’d like to find more about how this awesome fruit can help you with your sleep, read on!

Potassium

Bananas are an excellent source of potassium, and potassium complements magnesium which helps keep digestive systems healthy and blood pressure regular, this, in turn, helps to improve sleep.

A sign of a healthy and happy heart is slightly lower blood pressure at night, so if you don’t have high enough potassium levels you could be experiencing heart issues and irregularities and muscle fatigue, both which will disrupt a good night’s rest.

Continue reading →

How much would you pay for a space rock? If you’re anything like the Washington-based asteroid mining company known as Planetary Resources, you might be willing to shell out a lot of money for a bunch of rocks that can still be found on Earth anyway. And you wouldn’t be the only ones.

Why Asteroid Mining is Important

“The economic arguments for mining asteroids are overwhelming,” says Peter Marquez, the vice president of Planetary Resources. “On Earth, we sit at the bottom of a gravity well, and it takes enormous energy and expense to pull anything out into space. About 10,000 dollars per pound to break free of Earth’s gravity. That’s 10,000 dollars for a can of Coke.”

Asteroids provide the perfect solution to this problem, providing us access to resources which are rare on Earth but abundant in space, such as platinum-group metals used in the manufacturing of high-tech electronics. Asteroids are also rich in metals like nickel, iron, and cobalt, which can be used to make steel for spacecraft, or just about anything else.

Another lucrative resource that is present on many asteroids is water, which is plentiful in a type of rock known as carbonaceous chondrites. In addition to drinking, water is used as radiation shielding, and its constituent elements can even be used as rocket fuel.

Although asteroid mining would drastically cut the cost of manned space exploration, the program’s biggest draw is creating a budding space economy, and potentially creating the framework to colonize outer space! Continue reading →