Truly, truly beautiful. I just watched this film the other night with my fiance and we were floored by much of what was revealed in it. More importantly, we were inspired at the end to be more conscious than ever about the little things in our every day life that make the biggest difference in our entire lives (especially what we put into our bodies). Yes, it’s a scary world we live in… And we don’t have to live in fear.

Click HERE to read about it or see the Trailor Below:
And remember Life is Short… so Live it as fully as you can…
RIP Dr. Max Gerson.. Thank you for leaving us with your beautiful wisdom..

How often to do you stop to listen, to really listen to what your body, mind, and spirit needs? And what if you could literally ‘peek’ at what is happening inside your body?

I’ll be the first to admit, this is a practice I am still learning and striving to improve. A week ago, however, the voice within became very loud, screaming at me to not have that cup of coffee that I usually look so forward to enjoying. Believe me, I LOVE my coffee! So, instead of taking my body’s advice, I did what most people usually do out of pure habit. I had my cup of coffee, and that entire day, I felt more anxious than ever. At one point I even felt my heart beat do something out of the ordinary. My nervous system was so activated, my mind, my thoughts naturally followed suit! Before long, I was a crying mess and I wasn’t really sure why.

The next thing I did was hook myself up to a biofeedback device designed to measure heart rate variability (HRV) and Coherence. As I predicted, my nervous system was completely dysregulated. My HRV graph was all over the place and my coherence was in the red zone. My score was about 20% out of 100 which is low by any standard. So, what is HRV and Coherence?

In short, while the heart generates rhythmic patterns, the beat-to-beat interval varies. For example, as you inhale, your heart rate increases, and as you exhale your heart rate decreases. Thus, your breath is one of several major factors that influences your HRV. Other major factors are the central and peripheral nervous system states. In fact, you can see with your own eyes how your thoughts affect your heart rate patterns. This is what I love about this device the most, you can experiment with your breathing, your thoughts, and in my case, what you put into your body, to see how these factors affect not only your HRV but more importantly, your state of Coherence.

Coherence is a term described by scientists as a highly efficient physiological state in which the nervous system, cardiovascular, hormonal and immune systems are working efficiently and harmoniously. Basically, increased coherence is correlated with increased well-being. As stated by Heartmath, a leading company dedicated to health and wellness, high coherence is a state associated with positive emotional attitudes which send signals to the brain that reduce stress and improve brain function.

I highly encourage anyone and everyone to practice with biofeedback either on their own or with a coach. Utilizing the emWave device not only for myself but also with my clients has provided the only concrete way to measure empirical data to track progress and effect of lifestyle changes ranging from how you breathe or eat to how to think.

Click here to learn more about the science behind emWave and Heart Rhythms.

I’ve always believed in the power of this tool, but it wasn’t until this morning that I got to experience first-hand, how powerful it is.

The morning after my anxiety meltdown, as usual I thought about my morning coffee, but this time, my body cringed and I listened, “No coffee, please! No alcohol, no toxins! Please!” That day I started an experimental cleanse replacing my morning coffee with detox tea. Less than a week later, after monitoring my HRV every day, my heart rhythm is painting beautiful, smooth, sin waves in my HRV graph and my coherence is up to 100% (admittedly, after morning yoga & meditation). Though previously, what I found was that yoga & meditation alone did not bring me to full coherence. Another example to show that balance is key!

I’d like to end this entry with a question. Last night, in a conversation with a yoga teacher, I heard her ask someone in the room, “What would you have to give up to be someone that you look up to?

Not only do I invite you to ask this of yourself, I embrace the challenge of asking this of myself. When I know that the activity of my heart and my thoughts create an electromagnetic field that extends up to several feet around me, it makes me want to do everything and anything that I can to create a field that has a beneficial impact on not only myself, but the lives that surround me.

If you or anyone you know is interested or have any questions about utilizing HRV to make a difference in your life, please don’t hesitate to comment or email me directly.

The following is a great video of Dr. Rollin McCraty explaining the “Science of Heart.” I couldn’t explain it better:

Happy New Year Everyone!

A happy new year, indeed! With this unprecedented expansion of joy in my heart, this year also comes with new dreams, goals, and perspectives in a new year that marks for all of us a new chapter of our lives.

One of my goals of 2011 is to start writing again! I recently realized I have been letting my fears get in the way of writing and sharing what I write. How often do we hold ourselves back in fear of what others will think? How often do we let our egos block our flow of creativity?

Well, it’s a new year, and it’s a new day and I want to write just because I want to write. And I want to share just because I want to share! And today, I’m inspired to share about love and deliver the message that You Never Know. I want to remind those who have forgotten, cause we all need reminders, that when we are feeling stuck, it’s because we think we know what the future holds but we don’t! When we can relish in the mystery of a new day and let go a little, this is when life lets in something new.

In my coaching practice, it’s fascinating to me how no matter what the initial goals are for my clients, the deeper we go, the closer we get to what really matters for them – love, connection, relationship. Yes, community, health, career, and money are important too but there’s something about love, intimacy, and relationship or lack thereof, which often makes or breaks one’s day-to-day flow of joy.

While that relationship with oneself is by far the most important, and definitely the one to nurture first, it seems a natural and universal desire to find someone to relate with, someone to share deeply with, to grow with.

Six months ago, I was feeling a bit lost and wondering if I would ever meet anyone who would want to share their life and grow old with me or vice versa! In fact, I was feeling a little jaded, telling myself that maybe I don’t really want to meet anyone. I was seriously opening up to the possibility of becoming heterosexual life partners with my best friend… and I was actually beginning to have fun with the idea! I should add that even if that were still the plan, it would be great! Honestly, she and I would co-create a pretty fun-filled life together!

But I did meet someone… and this person, this new experience, has given me perspectives on love and relationship I never knew I could or would have. For the first time in my life, love is not this struggle or this thing I have to figure out and understand. There’s a knowing, a peaceful and joyous, mutual knowing, that we are here, in part, to be together. What I find most incredible is this newfound unconditional love for myself, for him, and for other human beings. I remember saying to my beloved, Nova, a few months ago, “For the first time in my life, I feel at peace with everyone in my life… ”

This was a moment I will never forget, a moment that revealed an insight I will never forget – that this sense of unconditional love and peace is somehow tied to the experience of being “in love”. And not that fleeting, infatuation love that we all know of, but something deeper.

For everyone, it’s different. Not everyone is here to find someone special to share their lives with, but I do believe that experiencing love, that being ‘in-love’ is one of the fundamental purposes in life. For some, it might be through art, for others, meditation, music or even food! It doesn’t matter, as long as we recognize what it is for our selves and then go after it. Make it happen! Then relish in the beauty of how it makes you shine.

And for those individuals who feel a little lost, who perhaps aren’t even sure of what that path looks like for them, trust that you are already on that path. And when you wake up in the morning, remember, ANYTHING is possible! You just never know what the day has in store! You never know! It never hurts to believe in a little bit of magic. Indeed, there are forces at work in this world that science is only beginning to wrap their tools around.

I will add, however, that no matter how different we are, and no matter where we are on our path, we ALL need love. Healthy relationships and affection are as important as the air that we breathe! For years, research has shown and continues to show how important love, affection, and committed relationships are for healthy, long-lasting lives ( Heppard, 2010; Burleson, 2007; Hecht, 1994; Traupmann,1981).

For those of you who are wondering if you will ever meet someone special to share your lives with, I leave you with this one simple message – Believe that you will and you will. You never know what lies ahead! So don’t live into anything less than the possibility of your greatest bliss! There’s more to life than any of us will ever know – so dare to dream big! And never give up!

Salud con Todos y Feliz Ano Nuevo!!

Love,

Dr. Jinju

Burleson, M.H. et al. (2007). In the Mood for Love or Vice Versa? Exploring the Relations Among Sexual Activity, Physical Affection, Affect, and Stress in the Daily Lives of Mid-Aged Women. Arch Sex Behav 36: 357-368.

Hecht, M.L. et al. (1994). Love Ways and Relationship Quality in Heterosexual Relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships vol. 11 no. 1 25-43.

Heppard, C. (2010). Heart Health and Relationships. On-line article for Suite101.com

Traupmann, J., and Hatfield, E. (1981). Love and its effect on mental and physical health. In R. Fogel, E. Hatfield, S. Kiesler and E. Shanas (eds). Aging: Stability and change in family. (pp. 253-274). New York: Academic Press.

There’s a lot to be said for nature hikes, good wine, and Ikigai’s.

The neuroscience of meditation… this is where the meeting of science & spirituality gets really exciting… I can’t believe how far we’ve come.. and more and more of these scientists keep ‘coming out of the closet’ to step up and in to a much needed conversation about prescribing meditation over medication…

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Dr. Richard Davidson (internationally renowned for his research on the neural substrates of emotion and emotional disorders):

“… Our work indicates that there are signals in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which can be recorded, that reflect an individu- al’s overall level of happiness or well-be- ing. Individuals with greater left side pre- frontal activation, on average, tend to be individuals who report themselves to be happier, more energetic, and more opti- mistic. These are the kind of people who jump out of bed in the morning and are ready to embrace the world. They are approach oriented. It’s not a laid back type of happiness. It’s an active, involved happiness. And that’s what my index reflects…”

How cool is it that our brain’s are built for to be trained and re-trained… and we can ‘learn’ happiness, compassion, love, peace… and interesting that this activity is predominantly occurring in the left hemisphere…

And not only can meditation bring you happiness, and peace, but it also brings you a stronger immune system, more focus, greater vigilance… so what would happen if we started teaching our children and soldiers and physicians and politicians all to meditate? What would the world look like then? well.. at least our country…

And not only does it affect us, but it also affects the people around us… here’s the closing note of the interview:

“…To be succinct, we can influence other people’s health simply by the way we act.

EXPLORE: So we know that, if I medi- tate, I can affect my brain. Do we have any data that, if I meditate, I can affect the brains of the people that I am in- teracting with? If you are in the presence of an enlightened person, are you up- lifted?

DAVIDSON: Yes, I have no doubt in that. And, again, I don’t think it requires any nonstandard theoretical framework to un- derstand. It’s not as if there is a transmis- sion of some unknown energy, but, rather, simply by the demeanor of an individual, by what they say and how they say it, by
their gestures, they can affect, unquestion- ably, the mind and brain of those with whom they interact.
For instance, there is a lot of nonspe- cific healing that occurs in the ordinary course of a doctor-patient relationship. A doctor can make his or her patients feel more at ease, well cared for and attended to, and that can actually promote real bi- ological change that is beneficial.
When I am in the presence of the Dalai Lama, I am affected. There is no question about it, and it is very powerful. For in- stance, one interaction I had with the Dalai Lama occurred during a break in the meeting. He was sitting in a chair, and I was kneeling beside him, talking to him. We were close, and the whole time he had his hands on my ear lobe and was rubbing my ear. This went on for fifteen minutes. It was completely natural, and the impact of touch in that way can be very powerful. I had the experience of feeling very deeply secure and comforted by the Dalai Lama’s presence. But I don’t think it requires these crazy theories that there is some kind of energy that we really have not identified scientifically. It can be explained using the principles that we understand. I have yet to be confronted by new and compelling evidence that cannot be subsumed within the rubric of conventional scientific un- derstanding. But the fact that we can affect each other is very important, and having a scientific understanding of it doesn’t at all diminish its importance.

EXPLORE: So you would say that a per- son’s mind can affect other people?

DAVIDSON: Yes, and we should pay at- tention to this in our culture. That’s an- other issue that is addressed in the ethical framework of many of these traditions— the interdependence that all beings have on this planet. There is a level of interde- pendence that is very profound, and, when you actually begin to understand this scientifically, it makes perfect sense. The way we think, how we behave, the qualities that we exhibit, very directly af- fect those around us. We can affect their brains, and we can affect their bodies. To be succinct, we can influence other peo- ple’s health simply by the way we act.”

AHO! Well said Dr. Davidson! And thank you for stepping out of your spiritual closet and stepping up to lead a revolution in our way of thinking, feeling, and being!

If you would like to read this entire interview, here’s the reference:

EXPLORE, September 2005, Vol. 1, No. 5

I was just doing some research for the 22 Ways 2 Love You film project and came across this inspiring article published last year in Science News. The Helen Fisher group is the only one I know of getting public attention for the brain imaging studies conducted on romantic love. What a great journey & great training ground to explore and essentially study Love on every level from my own personal experiences to my coaching clients’ experience to what people share on the street in random interviews, to what scientists have to share from their findings.

Enjoy! And stay tuned for more postings…

Source: Science News/ Home / News / December 6th, 2008; Vol.174 #12 / News item

Still crazy (in love) after all these years
A brain imaging study reveals that some people are as giddy as teenagers in love, even after two decades of marriage
By Laura Sanders

December 6th, 2008; Vol.174 #12 (p. 17)

WASHINGTON — New research on brain activity confirms that people can be madly in love with each other long after the honeymoon is over.

Researchers led by Bianca Acevedo at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York wanted to know if romantic love — or at least the brain activity it triggers — could last in a long-term relationship. To everyone’s relief, the answer is yes. The group presented its results November 16 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

The new data suggest that people who have been madly in love for an average of 21 years maintain activation in a brain region associated with early-stage love. “We now have physiological evidence that romantic love can last,” says coauthor Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.

Most couples who have been together for many years experience a change from a frenetic, obsessive love to something more subdued and comfortable, says study coauthor Lucy Brown of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. But the researchers noticed a small group of outliers who had been with the same person many years and claimed to be as much in love as they were during the exciting early days of their relationship.

Since that earlier study in 2005 using functional MRI brain imaging, the researchers knew that a certain part of the brain called the ventral tegmental area was activated when people who had been in love for relatively short times — an average of seven months — saw pictures of their sweethearts. Perhaps not coincidentally, the ventral tegmental area is also activated by the rush of cocaine, and is the region that controls production of the natural stimulant dopamine. The researchers concluded that this area was associated with the intense, burning stages of early love. It was unclear whether this region would still be active after 20 years of being in a relationship.

Long-term lovers who had been married for an average of 21 years viewed a picture of their partner while the scientists monitored the subjects’ brain activity using fMRI. People who claimed to be madly in love for 20 years and people who had been in love only for months showed similar activation in the ventral tegmental area of the brain.

At the same time, key differences between the early- and late-stage lovers emerged that suggest potential benefits to staying together for 20 years. People in long-term relationships who were madly in love showed higher levels of activity in a part of the brain associated with calmness and pain suppression, whereas people in love for shorter periods of time had higher activity in a region of the brain associated with obsession and anxiety. “The difference is that in long term love, the obsession the mania, the anxiety has been replaced with calm,” Fisher said in a news conference.

“There is an evolutionary advantage to being paired,” says researcher J. Thomas Curtis, who studies pair-bonding in prairie voles, small animals that are well-known for forming life-long monogamous pairs. Much of the research on voles, including Curtis’ work at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, Okla., supports these new findings on long-term pairing in humans, he says. In fact, when researchers get rid of the ventral tegmental area of a vole brain, the same region activated in human couples who are in love, the animal no longer forms pair bonds.

To understand the complicated subject of human love, the scientists plan to conduct more brain imaging studies. The next step will be to periodically monitor the brains of newlyweds as the couples slowly enter long-term relationships. The researchers hope to understand how brain activity may correlate with life events, like the birth of a child or relationship troubles, Acevedo says.

After three decades and more than a few relationships, what I finally know to be true is that communication is what keeps love alive. Love cannot live outside of communication. The word itself comes from the root word, commune, which means ‘to be one with’. Interestingly enough, I learned this lesson within the context of friendship. Although, I admit it took a little romance to spark the conversation.

Not just any kind of communication will cut it however. One must be clear, genuine, and without expectation. This is not an easy way to be. If you look at yourself closely, in any conversation, you will find that many conversations occur beneath the backdrop of fear. We rarely say what we truly feel in fear of hurting someone or being hurt. Well, one good place to start is by sharing how scared we are. Letting your fear be present is a surefire way of letting the other person’s guard down. Once that is out of the way, you can get down to what’s important.

Love. It’s the counterpart to fear. Love and fear cannot exist without each other. Love is what is important and often acknowledging our fears is a good way to get back to love.

The kind of love I am referring to is not that crazy electrochemical wave of sensation that runs through us when we are falling in love. There’s no way to keep that feeling alive. If there were, someone would be making billions. Certainly, we can keep chasing the high and there’s nothing wrong with that but how is it any different from chasing any other high? Whatever the high, the primary function of it seems to fill the void of something or perhaps it is just for pure fun.

The love I speak of is available to us at any moment, it’s eternal yet it takes some work to get in touch with it. This love encompasses all loves, including the kind that creates butterflies not only in your physical core but also in your soul. This love is so powerful it brings you to tears when you look at someone and are able to see just how amazing they truly are. In its’ greatest expanse, this love unveils the raw beauty of every human being and piece of life on earth.

I spent the last three years of my life in a serious relationship. We were engaged to be married and we chose to end the engagement, not in marriage, but in friendship. I am happy to say that as I write this, we are friends. We are the best of friends. We are support, respect, inspiration, and a stand for each other’s individual happiness. We have promised each other to do whatever it takes to support each other in living a happy, inspirational, and powerful life.

This has only been possible through communication and some introspection. When our romantic relationship ended, we were devastated. It was like something died and the next logical step was to go our separate ways. This is how so many relationships end up, they just end. What we don’t realize is that the very thing that hurts us the most is withholding our love for that person. We confuse love with certain expectations and if those expectations are not being met, well, how could that be love? Right?

The thing about expectation is it’s all about us and as human beings it is only natural to experience it. The trick is when you feel yourself getting angry or tense, stop to look at it. Where is it coming from and why? You can even go the next step and share the experience with someone. You will be surprised as to how much unfolds in a conversation through the process of communication. This is how fear and anxiety from not getting what you expect can transform into understanding, peace, and ultimately love.

This is how my ex-fiance and I have kept our love alive. What an amazing feeling it is know we will always have this love. It starts here with me and you and all of our personal relationships. If we can master the art of keeping love alive at the personal level, imagine what is possible at the global level?

Life Coach, Pearl Lee Schroy, Ph.D., shares about her personal struggle with her bipolar mother

For some, going home to visit family is a welcome, loving even healing experience to look forward to. For others, like myself, going home begins with the sense of a welcoming experience that quickly turns into a battlefield loaded with triggers. The way I see it, I have two options: either get shot down by all the traumatic memories and emotional hostility or take it on as my training ground as a life coach.

The following is an excerpt from a journal entry I wrote about 8 months ago during my last visit home:

“…This morning, my mother was triggered into an episode and I remembered why it can sometimes be so difficult to come home.The last thing I want to do is fall into the role of playing victim. Indeed, my question is how can I transcend the pain and not dwell in the sadness of the situation? I’m not really sure how many experiences could hurt more than the experience of being harshly judged and rejected by my own mother. I noticed as my chest became really tight and my whole body went numb. I tried to become a filter through which her force could just pass through with no resistance. When she enters that place, I watch her soul disappear, it’s as if a demon has resurrected her corpse. Who is this woman? I ask. She’s my mother. Yet I have no idea who she is. And I see she has no idea who I am. All she knows in the fiery moment is that I am her enemy so she goes into attack mode.

I feel myself disconnecting. Tears run down my face as she continues to scream at me. I call my father because I’m desperate to make it stop. In the past, I would’ve yelled back but who I am now refuses to battle and knows it would be futile. Only peace. That’s what I must bring into the space. My father lovingly reminds me that it’s her disease, not her. I pass the phone to her and she begins yelling and then changes the subject rapidly to how she needs a new music CD to listen to in the mornings, Al Green. She laughs for a second. Her sentences become incoherent. Her thoughts are fragmented and the anger begins to fragment as well.

Finally, she returns to herself and she sees my tears. She apologizes. She tells me that she loves me and I tell her I love her too. Meanwhile, all I really want to do is get on a plane and fly back to my home in Colorado that, probably by no accident, happens to be thousands of miles away.

I watch my thoughts take on the old unconscious, conditioned patterns, of not being enough, fear of all the hurtful things that she said being true, full disempowerment in my frustration of not being able to help her heal. I’m a joke, what kind of a doctor, what kind of coach am I?”

The human kind, I remind myself. I come back to the question, “How can I transcend the pain? How can I transcend the self-destructive patterns? All I want to do is run.”

This time, I’m not running. This time, I’m not surrendering to the machine created in the wake of some disease. If there is to be any hope at all, for me, and for others like me, I must rise to the challenge of reinventing myself so that I can love in the wrath of a violent storm.

I know there are many others, like myself, who are faced with the challenge of having relatives who have been diagnosed with psychiatric conditions. While it’s not easy to create and maintain healthy, loving relationships with those relatives, it is possible. The trick is to believe in the possibility and never give up. While my mother still relapses from time to time, I could write an entire book describing the leaps and bounds she has made over the years and continues to do so.

My family is living proof that there is hope. And my heart grows larger every time I choose to rise to the challenge.

If you have a story or an experience you’d like to share on this topic, I’d love to hear it.

July 10th, 2009

Pearl & Johanna Pre-Lunch Interview

Make business decisions with ease and grace.

Ever find yourself questioning and doubting yourself with every choice you encounter for your business?

Are you expending enormous amounts of energy sifting through what seems like an overwhelming bombardment of information from infinite sources?

Is everyone telling you to do something different?

Making wise business decisions can be a tricky business in and of it self.

While experience and knowledge can bring you so far, tuning in to your inner guidance system is essential for moving your business forward in a way that aligned with your truest self.

Join us for the July 10th Women in Business Luncheon as Pearl Schroy and Johanna Klouda-Mercado, of East West Wholistic Education, share some simple, yet powerful tricks to maximize your intuition.

You will learn how to listen to your own voice. Pearl and Johanna take an integrative approach to get you connected to what is most important.

Be prepared to engage in somatic and meditative exercises that will have you learning to make choices with confidence and ease.