The August Newsletter is Out!

The August Newsletter is out! Merlian News is now translated into over 50 languages. Just go to www.merliannews.com , upper right hand corner to Google Translate and use the drop down menu. Also, don’t forget to check us out on Facebook & Twitter and please take a look at our Website of the Month!

Merryn’s Musings

Memories of Charlotte

My mother-in-law Charlotte passed away a few weeks ago, at the ripe old age of 98. She had led a good, useful life and was a practical, strong minded, intelligent woman who was one of the first full time High School guidance counselors in New York City. Sometimes in life we are given an extra gift and that’s what I felt when I met Charlotte. From the very moment we met she was my ally, and throughout the years she proved this again and again, with her kindness and concern for my welfare…

Liminal Moments by Cheryl Shainmark

Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It

I just finished reading “Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It,” by Kamal Ravikant. I have to say that this slim volume completely jumpstarted a whole new spiritual practice for me. I don’t usually rave (in print, at least)… but this is one of the most accessible, transformative books I have ever read — and at 57 pages, you’d have to be in a coma not to get through it. Actually, if you are in a coma I will come and sit by your side and read it to you, because I want “Love Yourself” to be the earworm that gets stuck in your head. You’ll thank me later.

Environmental Awareness

Easy Ways to Grow Food

Has the food gardening bug hit you? If you’re not sowing seeds and tending tomatoes yet, your neighbors probably are. According to a report from the National Gardening Association, one in three American households are now growing food, which is a 17% increase from five years ago. The biggest jump has been from millennials – 18- to 34-year-olds – 63% more of them are gardening! For those of you who are now shin deep in radish greens, we commend you….

Traditional Chinese Medicine/Qi Gong

Treating Dementia With Qi Gong, Tai Chi, and Yoga

Do you know someone who suffers from dementia? Witnessing a loved one slowly lose their memory and reasoning skills can be a very painful experience. Dementia is a persistent syndrome that tends to get worse over time–affecting memory, thinking, and behavior. It is distinct from Alzheimer’s in that Alzheimer’s is a specific disease, but general dementia can stem from a variety of unrelated brain illnesses.

Conscious Eating

Avoid Chronic Inflammation With The Right Diet

There’s been a lot of news the last few years about chronic inflammation and its debilitating effects on the body, but researchers are still unclear about the causes. Under normal circumstances, the body is supposed to “inflame” a little to mount an immune response and counteract infection — it’s when the body stays in that state that problems occur. As reported at www.easyhealthoptions.com : ” Like every system in the body, the key is balance – because inflammation does have a serious downside. It’s a slippery slope: A normal healing response can progress to an ongoing inflammatory process that spreads throughout the body under the right (or rather, wrong) conditions…”

Wellbeing & Healing

Why We Forgive by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu

There were so many nights when I, as a young boy, had to watch helplessly as my father verbally and physically abused my mother. I can still recall the smell of alcohol, see the fear in my mother’s eyes, and feel the hopeless despair that comes when we see people we love hurting each other in incomprehensible ways. If I dwell in those memories, I can feel myself wanting to hurt my father back, in the same ways he hurt my mother, and in ways of which I was incapable as a small boy. I see my mother’s face and I see this gentle human being whom I loved so very much and who did nothing to deserve the pain inflicted upon her.

WEBSITE OF THE MONTH:

www.spirituality.com

Consciousness

Stop the Violence Within by Will Donnelly

On www.spirituality.com, Will Donnelly shares his experience with negative self-talk: Never speak badly about yourself. It’s a simple statement, one many of us would agree with in concept. But do you follow it’s advice? Probably not. Because our inner critic speaks to us in a voice so familiar we rarely notice it’s presence. Recently, I had a friend say out loud with absolute conviction: “God, I’m such a (expletive) idiot….”

Thank you once more, for your positive feed back and support!

Merryn Jose – Editor In Chief & Publisher

by Staff