Chronic pain is estimated to affect over 76 million people, more than diabetes and heart disease combined, and back pain is our country’s leading cause of disability for people under 45. And though the pharmaceutical industry seems very adept at introducing one new painkiller after another, the pills don’t always help. A new study in the Journal of Neuroscience, however, suggests something else might: meditation. It seems that improving your meditation technique could very well be more effective than painkillers at cutting down on pain, and that could save you hundreds in prescription drug costs.

These magnetic resonance images from a Wake Forest University study published in the journal Neuroscience in April 2011 show how meditating reduced pain unpleasantness by 57 percent and pain intensity ratings by 40 percent when compared to rest. The yellow areas show activity corresponding to pain sensation.

It has been recently scientifically validated that hugging trees is good for you. Research has shown that you don’t even have to touch a tree to get better, you just need to be within its vicinity has a beneficial effect.

In a recently published book, Blinded by Science, the author Matthew Silverstone, proves scientifically that trees do in fact improve many health issues such as concentration levels, reaction times, depression, stress and other various forms of mental illness. He even points to research indicating a tree’s ability to alleviate headaches in humans seeking relief by communing with trees.

The author points to a number of studies that have shown that children show significant psychological and physiological improvement in terms of their health and well being when they interact with plants and trees. Specifically, the research indicates that children function better cognitively and emotionally in green environments and have more creative play in green areas. Also, he quotes a major public health report that investigated the association between green spaces and mental health concluded that “access to nature can significantly contribute to our mental capital and wellbeing”.

“The door to the soul is unlocked; you do not need to please the doorkeeper, the door in front of you is yours, intended for you,  and the doorkeeper obeys when spoken to.” -Robert Bly

What if you found out there was a key that would enable you to open and close your doors of perception at will, void of psychedelics? What if you found out you not only held the key, but you were the key? Would you unlock the doors, or keep them shut?

Well, you are the key, and whether or not you choose to enter through the doors is a choice that, although invisible, is life changing. You are the vehicle for the trip, consider this but a mere travel summary.

And for a detailed itinerary?  Well, that can only be fetched by you -not the part of you reading this, but the altered dream state part of your consciousness that will travel beyond the doors of perception to the wildness of the world where there is a livingness to all things- as it can only be found in a place with exclusive access. A place where you can travel, but no one may follow -not even the conscious, waking state version of yourself scanning these very words.

By Carolanne Wright
Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

We’ve all been touched by death in one form or another — whether through a beloved animal, the rhythm of nature or someone close and dear to us. Autumn in the northern hemisphere is the quintessential time of death and decay, as the abundant growth and life of summer quickly fades away to barren trees and fallow fields. It is considered the season of sorrow and grief in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

As commonplace as the cycle of life and death is, those in the West tend to have an aversion to the reality of this most natural of transitions. We try our best to evade the aging process and glorify youth — while ignoring the elderly and dying. Many times, we are completely numb to our emotional terrain or become overwhelmed when faced with death. But an organization in the United States is on a heart-centered quest to change the way we relate to death and return a sense of sacredness to the process.

You were created in love and with love by The Universe. Why try to be anything other than what you are? ~ Creator

https://thecreatorwritings.wordpress.com/2015/10/08/love-love-love-2/