World Village » Mary Desaulniers http://worldvillage.com A village of you. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:44:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 From Cell To Self In the Biology Of Belief http://worldvillage.com/from-cell-to-self-in-the-biology-of-belief http://worldvillage.com/from-cell-to-self-in-the-biology-of-belief#comments Tue, 22 Aug 2006 04:26:58 +0000 Mary Desaulniers http://www.worldvillage.com/from-cell-to-self-in-the-biology-of-belief What is the connection between a cell membrane and the human brain? A lot, according to cell biologist, Dr. Bruce Lipton, whose book, The Biology of Belief, details reasons why we can be the creators of our own destiny. A renowned cell biologist and former professor at the University Of Wisconsin Medical School, Bruce Lipton shows precisely how the molecular processes behind the brain’s functioning work. In fact, he is the leading authority on the new science of Epigeneticsthe science that sees life to be controlled by factors other than genes. From cells to self, Bruce Lipton compels us to re-think our understanding of empowermenthow much power do we have over our own bodies and over the course of events in our lives? Simply put, he suggests that we are not victims of our genetic blueprint; in fact we have the power to program our own destiny.


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]]> http://worldvillage.com/from-cell-to-self-in-the-biology-of-belief/feed 0 The Magic Of Chanting http://worldvillage.com/the-magic-of-chanting http://worldvillage.com/the-magic-of-chanting#comments Tue, 22 Aug 2006 04:22:06 +0000 Mary Desaulniers http://www.worldvillage.com/the-magic-of-chanting In what way is chanting like a cup of blueberries or a bowl of chicken soup? Other than the fact that your mom has always said these are good for you, there is incontrovertible proof that all have the ability to raise immunoglobulin levelsa marker of immune system functioning.

Chanting has healing properties, says Dr. Robert Gass, author of Chanting: Discovering Spirit in Sound. Studies have shown that breast tumors shrink through chanting several hours each day for a month. Researchers taking samples of children’s saliva before they sang showed that children who sang experienced definite physiological changes; their immune system was boosted by song.

Recent medical research shows that chanting increases oxygen levels in cells, lowers blood pressure, releases endorphins, reduces stress-related hormones and boosts production of interleukin-1 (protein associated with blood and platelet production). But there is more, chanting shifts our consciousness, allows us to vibrate internally and collectively and experience what Quantum physicists call the implicate order of waves and frequencies.


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]]> http://worldvillage.com/the-magic-of-chanting/feed 0 The New Anti-Wrinkle Treatment http://worldvillage.com/the-new-anti-wrinkle-treatment http://worldvillage.com/the-new-anti-wrinkle-treatment#comments Sun, 20 Aug 2006 21:36:57 +0000 Mary Desaulniers http://www.worldvillage.com/the-new-anti-wrinkle-treatment We are bombarded on all fronts with new anti-wrinkle treatments and new sophisticated skin regimen that are supposed to take years off the facemicrodermabrasion, botox injections, face lifts and laser resurfacing. More than ever, we are harnessing the powers of technology to create a Brave New World of ageless boomers. And while I have no objections to wanting to look young (who doesn’t), I do think that being young is more a state of mind than a state of looks. Looks can be artificially manipulated; a state of mind can only be cultivated.

Even the word cultivation suggests that the process of staying young takes time. And time is something our society seems intent on making dispensable. Yet the best things in life take time. Think of your children through the lenses of the family album; it is the changes tabulated in those pictures that make them so rich in character and experience now. Time deepens the experience; time ages the moment by filling it with layers made accessible through memories. Without time, we are like antsfilled only with a pale and surface instant. Living the moment is a call for cultivating the layers of time within the moment.

And so with the face….


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]]> http://worldvillage.com/the-new-anti-wrinkle-treatment/feed 3 Writing Help And Morning Pages http://worldvillage.com/writing-help-and-morning-pages http://worldvillage.com/writing-help-and-morning-pages#comments Sun, 20 Aug 2006 21:30:20 +0000 Mary Desaulniers http://www.worldvillage.com/writing-help-and-morning-pages Reading Julia Cameron’s The Sound of Paper is like revisiting an old friend. For more than fifteen years, her morning pages ( three uncensored pages written every morning fresh out of bed) have been my daily writing help, the friend that coaxed me out of fear and inertia about putting words on paper and like the Nike slogan, urged me to Just Do It!

Why is it so difficult to write? Writing is an activity removed from direct experience. Writers have often mourned the loss of words to describe an event and this is probably because rendering what happened in words involves a completely different set of neural motor skills. Freud in Civilization and Its Discontent sees writing as technology; both he claims act as prosthetics to the body, functioning as an appendage or addition. Even the word prosthetics is ambivalent, carrying both the negative connotation of loss or compensation and the positive sense of extension. After all, writing is a later development of the human brain and signals not only the beginning of recorded history but also the evolution of the highly specialized and compartmentalized intelligence in the prefrontal cortex.


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]]> http://worldvillage.com/writing-help-and-morning-pages/feed 0 Stressed? Have a Talk with Your Body http://worldvillage.com/stressed-have-a-talk-with-your-body http://worldvillage.com/stressed-have-a-talk-with-your-body#comments Sun, 20 Aug 2006 21:21:10 +0000 Mary Desaulniers http://www.worldvillage.com/stressed-have-a-talk-with-your-body Ilana Rubenfeld Ph.D knows first hand what having a conversation with your body means. A gifted violinist at the Julliard School of Music, Rubenfeld was well on her way to become the first woman conductor in the music scene when a debilitating back spasm cut short her music career. It was at that point that Rubenfeld turned to the resources of her body and transformed trauma into triumph by embarking on a personal mission to look for answers in the body’s wisdom. The result is The Listening Hand: The Rubenfeld Synergy Method of Talk and Touch which made her a world-recognized pioneer in integrating psychotherapy, body work and intuition. You can learn to develop listening hands’ in order to hear’ changes in the body,” she says. Talking with your body is the first step towards healing and integration.


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]]> http://worldvillage.com/stressed-have-a-talk-with-your-body/feed 0 Teen Marketing And Body Image http://worldvillage.com/teen-marketing-and-body-image-2 http://worldvillage.com/teen-marketing-and-body-image-2#comments Sun, 20 Aug 2006 21:08:41 +0000 Mary Desaulniers http://www.worldvillage.com/teen-marketing-and-body-image-2 You see them everywheremagazines featuring emaciated teen models with brash, defiant looks that say We express ourselves, their arms and ankles glistening with fashion accessories. The definition of cool chick in another magazine is a glossy-lipped, half-woman, half-child peeking ambivalently behind a set of heavily mascared eyes. I am confection, she seems to say, her body eloquently displaying a padded push up bra. Such teen marketing tactics have been successful in making their point. Girls, as young as ten, have made the word diet part of their vocabulary and the La Senza part of their identity.


More about teen marketing at GreatBody.

]]> http://worldvillage.com/teen-marketing-and-body-image-2/feed 0 Obesity And Heart Disease http://worldvillage.com/obesity-and-heart-disease http://worldvillage.com/obesity-and-heart-disease#comments Sun, 20 Aug 2006 21:04:45 +0000 Mary Desaulniers http://www.worldvillage.com/obesity-and-heart-disease We only have to look at a Titian painting to recognize that at one point in the history of Western culture, fat was considered beautiful. Before the 20th Century, corpulence was touted as a sign of wealth and luxury, largely because most people were barely surviving on a meager existence.

Ironically, now in our era of affluence and plenty, we have to contend with the health and economic problems of obesity. We have a population in North America that is more than 55% overweight. More than 20% of those overweight are considered obese, a situation which proves to be an economic burden on our Health Care system because of the coronary risk factors associated with obesity. In 2004, total national health expenditure in the USA was $1.9 Trillion or $6,280 per person.

Why is obesity a risk factor for heart disease?


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]]> http://worldvillage.com/obesity-and-heart-disease/feed 0 Mirror Mirror On The Wall ! Who Is The Fattest Of Us All? http://worldvillage.com/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-who-is-the-fattest-of-us-all http://worldvillage.com/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-who-is-the-fattest-of-us-all#comments Sun, 20 Aug 2006 21:00:59 +0000 Mary Desaulniers http://www.worldvillage.com/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-who-is-the-fattest-of-us-all Bookmarklets | MOVABLE TYPE

Do you know that 75% of women believe they are fat even though only 25% are actually considered medically overweight?

75% of 4th Grade girls report that they are on a diet?

Do you know that dieting can be an eating disorder as serious as binge eating?

I began dieting at 13 and started throwing up at 16, after I saw another friend do it. At first, it was just something I’d do now and then, after I’d eaten too much or when I felt too fat. But soon it seemed like I was eating too much too often and feeling fat all the time. In college, I started running to try to keep my weight down, but I couldn’t stop eating. The academic and social stress was just too much for me. I remember at night going from vending machine to vending machine, trying to fill this insatiable need to eat and then feeling so disgusted afterward I would find the nearest bathroom and throw up. ”


More on eating disorders at GreatBody.

]]> http://worldvillage.com/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-who-is-the-fattest-of-us-all/feed 0 Moving Towards An Ageless Body http://worldvillage.com/moving-towards-an-ageless-body http://worldvillage.com/moving-towards-an-ageless-body#comments Sun, 20 Aug 2006 20:49:30 +0000 Mary Desaulniers http://www.worldvillage.com/moving-towards-an-ageless-body Picture thisa woman in a red bodysuit, back arched on a narrow perch. A bar holds the base of her neck, a seat holds the small of her back as her body, well-toned, flexible with full musculature, secures itself onto the perch. Her left leg, straight and taut, is held high off the ground by powerful back and thigh muscles. Her hair, thick and dark, swoops towards the floor, revealing a strong, firm neck. Nothing in the pose, skin or face belies her age. She is 69.

Meet Emilie Conrad, the woman with the Ageless Body. Founder of the Continuum Movement, Emilie has been tapping into the body’s wisdom since her early years. Even as a child, she had a strong intuition that life was imbued with a unifying spirit. A fortuitous visit to Haiti confirmed her intuition; enchanted by the undulating movements of the Haitian prayer rituals, she sensed its power to connect the human body to a primal fluid rhythm. She saw the earth speaking through the feet of the prayer ritual dancers.

Haiti was an epiphany for Emilie Conrad; it showed her the vast discrepancy between western culture and the thick, aqueous, molasses culture that has its roots in Africa. Western culture abhors the body’, says Conrad. Body wisdom is ignored in favor of more repetitive, mechanical and dissociated movement that is characteristic not only of our western concept of fitness, but also of the boxed-in, 9-5 routines of our society. The body in the western world is controlled, bound to an agenda.


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]]> http://worldvillage.com/moving-towards-an-ageless-body/feed 0 Teen Marketing and Body Image http://worldvillage.com/teen-marketing-and-body-image http://worldvillage.com/teen-marketing-and-body-image#comments Fri, 18 Aug 2006 23:06:37 +0000 Mary Desaulniers http://www.worldvillage.com/teen-marketing-and-body-image You see them everywheremagazines featuring emaciated teen models with brash, defiant looks that say We express ourselves, their arms and ankles glistening with fashion accessories. The definition of cool chick in another magazine is a glossy-lipped, half-woman, half-child peeking ambivalently behind a set of heavily mascared eyes. I am confection, she seems to say, her body eloquently displaying a padded push up bra. Such teen marketing tactics have been successful in making their point. Girls, as young as ten, have made the word diet part of their vocabulary and the La Senza part of their identity.

More about teen marketing at GreatBody.

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