The Psychology of Everything: What Compassion, Racism, and Sex tell us about Human Nature 

Give Paul Bloom one hour, and he'll teach you "the psychology of everything," illustrating some of the most fundamental elements of human nature through case studies about compassion, racism, and sex. He discusses some of the biggest questions in the nature versus nurture debate, including "Are we hard-wired to care about others?" Bloom points out why stereotyping can be both detrimental and beneficial, and he even explains what the porn preference of monkeys tells us about our own sexual choosiness, or lack thereof. After the hour is up you'll understand why Bloom calls psychology, because of its cross-disciplinary nature, "the perfect liberal arts major."

Fresh - Re-inventing the food system to a more sustainable and healthy one

FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist, Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy

Ciência - Planeta terá de ser vegetariano para evitar graves carências alimentares

Ciência e Ambiente - Planeta terá de ser vegetariano se quiser evitar graves carências alimentares:

Escassez de água vai implicar medidas radicais para ser possível alimentar todo o planeta. 

Os especialistas avisam que a população mundial terá de mudar totalmente para uma alimentação vegetariana nos próximos 40 anos se quiser evitar uma catástrofe alimentar planetária.

Cada vez há menos água potável no planeta e a agricultura consome mais recursos hídricos para produzir os alimentos necessários à humanidade. Actualmente, cerca de mil milhões de pessoas ainda sofrem de fome e malnutrição, apesar da produção de alimentos per capita ter aumentado constantemente. Produzir alimentos para satisfazer minimamente as necessidades de todos os seres humanos, incluindo mais 2 mil milhões em meados do século, vai provocar uma enorme pressão sobre os recursos hídricos e o solo arável disponíveis, alerta um relatório elaborado na sequência da Semana Mundial da Água que se realizou em Estocolmo.

Os especialistas avisam que a população mundial terá de mudar totalmente para uma alimentação vegetariana nos próximos 40 anos se quiser evitar uma catástrofe alimentar planetária.

O Dia Mundial da Alimentação, que hoje se celebra, está precisamente centrado no papel da água como garantia da sustentabilidade dos recursos alimentares para uma população mundial em crescimento acelerado.

Um estudo da FAO (Organização das Nações Unidas para a Alimentação e Agricultura) alerta para a necessidade estimada de vir a ser necessário aumentar em 2030 a produção alimentar 80%, o que implicará também um elevado crescimento no consumo de água na irrigação de terras aráveis para se conseguir corresponder às exigências alimentares dos países em desenvolvimento.

“Um crescimento de 80% da produção agrícola nunca poderá ser atingido com mais 80% de consumo de água”, avisa Louise Fresco, a directora-geral-adjunta da FAO.

O futuro da produção agrícola depende da disponibilidade adequada de recursos hídricos e, embora a água cubra três quartos do planeta Terra, apenas uma pequena fracção de água potável está ao alcance da humanidade. Para agravar a situação, a água é um recurso precioso e limitado e a agricultura consome cerca de 70% de toda a água potável extraída.

“Por tal motivo, é de esperar que cada vez mais água seja usada na irrigação com o aumento da necessidade de alimentos”, sublinha a FAO.

Um estudo da FAO em 93 países em desenvolvimento mostra que alguns países com escassez de água já a extraem a um ritmo superior à sua eventual renovação.

A nível global há água suficiente disponível, mas alguns países e regiões vão sofrer sérias carências. Um em cada cinco países vai sofrer graves problemas de escassez.

O relatório da FAO chama a atenção para a cada vez maior competição entre as necessidades da agricultura e as necessidades domésticas nas cidades analisadas nesse estudo.

A organização das Nações Unidas recomenda a melhoria da gestão da água, para se aumentar a produtividade agrícola com melhores sementes e solos menos dependentes de fertilizantes químicos.

O Dia Mundial da Alimentação é celebrado a 16 de Outubro, para comemorar a criação, em 1945, da FAO. O objectivo é promover em todo o mundo a luta contra a fome e os problemas de nutrição.

Fonte:
http://www.ionline.pt/mundo/planeta-tera-ser-vegetariano-se-quiser-evitar-carencia-alimentar

Permaculture and Veganism - Growing Green: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg

Graham Cole demonstrates how you can feed your family on your allotment and garden using vegetable compost and green manures to obtain good crops of high nutritional value. No poisons or artificial fertilisers are used. This method is the kindest to the environment and all Earth's creatures.

Visit us at http://www.stockfreeorganic.net and http://www.veganorganic.net

Be aware - Who is to Blame for Animal Cruelty?

For many of us who are aware of the multitude of ways that animals suffer at the hands of humans around the world, this ubiquitous cruelty is the most pressing social justice issue of them all. From declawing to debeaking, ear clipping to tail docking, the suffering that human beings inflict on animals being used for food, clothing, research, ‘pets’ and entertainment appears to know no bounds, and the many brutal ways in which we force animals to succumb to our desires appear to be limited only by the scope of our imaginations.

But why does all this cruelty take place? And what can we do about this horrifying brutality as individuals? It’s easy to point the finger at the direct perpetrators of animal cruelty as being villains who need to be brought to justice. It’s much harder – and yet much more significant – to turn that critical eye inward and ask oneself, ‘What am I doing to contribute to this?’ But it is only by asking that question that the path toward emancipation from barbaric injustice becomes clear.

The vast majority of the time, money and effort of animal welfare organizations goes toward trying to develop new laws and regulations to address the many separate issues relating to animal cruelty, while at the same time trying to force the industry to adhere to those currently in place.  As explained in Are Anti-Cruelty Campaigns Really Effective?, these efforts consistently fail to create any significant improvement for animals.

Behind these campaigns lies a hidden assumption that the animal industry is responsible for animal cruelty. But is this assumption warranted? Isn’t industry simply a middle agent put in place to do the dirty deeds requested by consumers of animal products? Although it’s true that the animal industry is an eager and aggressive middle agent, its role is only that of middle agent. As such, while institutionalized exploiters certainly have a lot to answer for, it is consumers who are primarily responsible for animal cruelty through their purchases of animal products.




Many people will likely respond that their concern is not with the rights of animals not to be enslaved and killed, but with the excessive brutality in the animal industry; gratuitous violence for instance, and the cruelty that is inflicted on animals along the way to being slaughtered and butchered – debeaking,  dehorning, detoeing, mulesing, castration, tail docking, etc. But as long as our society continues to treat animals as property and economic commodities, our legal system will continue to accept such mutilations as a necessary evil on the way to providing goods and services to a human population largely indifferent to what is hidden behind remote sheds and slaughterhouses.

In any case, even if we did find some way to eliminate every single practice involving physical mutilation, it’s impossible to make slavery and murder anything other than slavery and murder. We can slap fancy labels on the products of animal misery and market them as ‘humanely-raised’, ‘animal compassionate’, ‘ethically-produced’ or ‘guilt-free’, but needless killing is needless killing, and no amount of regulation can change that.

It is understandable that individual stories of horrific suffering make people want to seek out the perpetrators, bring them to justice, and protect potential victims from experiencing the same treatment. But pointing the finger at institutional exploiters ignores the most significant issue – that no matter what the suppliers do along the way, consumption of animal products ultimately requires taking animals’ lives.

How can we expect morally decent behavior from the people we ask to carry out the task of breeding, confining and ultimately killing and butchering the animals we choose to enslave and eat? These are innocent beings who most people would rather caress and embrace than hurt and kill.

There is something very unjust about the fact that we delegate the most obscene work of our society to a select few who are emotionally hardened enough to carry it out, only to later denigrate them for their disconnection from their natural sense of empathy. When thinking about it honestly, most of us would be hard-pressed to find it in ourselves to slaughter an animal – or to rip off her skin, or slice open her body to remove the entrails, or butcher her flesh into supermarket-sized pieces… And yet, we continue to ask others to do it for us, while most people refuse to even watch these things on video or hear others describe them.

But our distaste toward being involved in such violent acts isn’t something that should be squelched and suppressed, as Michael Pollan or Julie Powell would have us believe. No – we should be grateful for the revulsion we feel when we imagine what happens to animals in between being born and being on our plates. Our horror is a sane reaction to practices that are nothing short of horrifying.

We cannot separate ourselves from depravity simply because we have found a way to tuck the dirty deeds out of sight – behind the walls of slaughterhouses and other obscure buildings. And all the disconnection and indifference in the world cannot change the fact that it is impossible to distinguish the immorality of a Pollan-style DIY approach from the immorality of any other act of unnecessary violence.
In any court of law, those who are complicit in a crime are considered to be responsible along with those who carry it out.

As expressed so eloquently by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.”

Source:
http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-cruelty-who-is-to-blame.html

Les moissons du futur - L'agriculture alternative et biologique

Ce documentaire nous montre comment de nombreux agriculteurs à travers le monde réussissent à vivre de leurs récoltes sans pesticides. De nombreux moyens d'avoir une agriculture performante sans avoir à l'arroser de produits chimiques souvent nocifs à l'environnement et aux hommes.
Les moissons du futur est un documentaire réalisé par Marie-Monique Robin.

Reportagem Especial - Homossexualidade e adopções de crianças

Reportagem Especial SIC - Com o apoio da mãe a justiça confia bebé com trissomia 21 a um casal homossexual, que lhe providencia amor e todos os apoios necessários:

"Um juiz do Tribunal de Família e Menores do Barreiro atribuiu o poder paternal de um menino de dois anos ao casal Eduardo Beauté e Luís Borges. A decisão do magistrado ocorreu já depois do cabeleireiro e do manequim se terem casado. Tanto o Ministério Público como o juiz entenderam que o casal homossexual é melhor solução do que a família biológica. Não é uma adopção mas, na prática, são eles os pais de Bernardo. Um caso para ver na Reportagem Especial SIC."

Pessoas e casais homossexuais deveriam ter os mesmos direitos que todas as outras pessoas, como por exemplo, não só o direito de casamento, mas inclusivamente o direito de poderem adoptar crianças. Factual e cientificamente, não é verdade que uma criança que cresça junto e seja educada por pessoas homossexuais, de alguma forma possa ter a sua aprendizagem, cultura e biologia deturpadas. É tempo de terminar com a ignorância, intolerância e homofobia.

Fonte: http://videos.sapo.pt/SSpVmiz8J9E1zzruoQHO

Your Mind Builds Your Life - Learn How To Change Your Mind

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
– George Bernard Shaw

Some people would rather hack off a limb than change their mind. Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but it doesn’t change the fact that changing your mind is one of the hardest things you can ever do.


Once you have a specific idea in your head – whether it’s an idea about who someone is, the way something should work, the way something happened or the way something should happen – it becomes sticky.  Your brain becomes attached to it and expects it to be there, just like you with that limb of yours.

With a stubborn streak a mile-wide, I know this all too well. But sticking stubbornly to your view of the world is like boarding yourself into your living room, switching the lights off and hiding under the sofa cushions.  It’s kinda limiting.

So here’s how to make changing your mind easy:

1.  Be Curious

Curiosity is the ultimate antidote to dogmatism.
There’s always another way to look at things and different ways that things can work, and being honestly, playfully curious about how things could be is how you spot something that works better.
In 2007 I threw out the way I was trained to coach people – a method my peers asserted was the very best – because I had a hunch there was a better way. I followed that hunch and took the difficult road of creating my own method that gets better results, and it’s curiosity that made room for that to happen.
The practice of sticking ceaselessly to your guns can’t be born or survive when you’re asking the right questions, and a curious spirit gifts you with possibility.

2.  Be Ready for Self-Justification

At some point your brain will shout at you “Whoa, hold on a second there peppy!  We already figured this out remember, don’t go and screw this up now”
Your brain wants you to be right, so faced with the possibility of a new viewpoint it will do what it can to defend how it already sees things.  It will tell you that other people are wrong; it will tell you that changing your mind now would be wrong; and even if you have a vague notion that you might be wrong about something, it will tell you that sticking to your guns is what “strong” people do.
So prime yourself for this self-justification and see it for what it is – a bunch of hot air that’s focused on making you right rather making you happy.

3.  Embrace the leap

I refused to change my mind about my old career in corporate IT, and instead stuck with it and chose to believe it was what I was supposed to be doing. Eventually, my stubbornness and lack of insight caused a massive breakdown at a level I didn’t know was possible.
I consistently held myself back from that scary moment when you have to jump from one point of view to another, like you’re about to jump from one car to another when you’re barrelling down the freeway.
My amygdala fired and my brain told me that the safest way to go was to stick with the way things were or I’d end up as a hood ornament.
The same thing happens in your head – the thinking that stems from your brains’ safety cravings will hold you back from taking that leap until the outcome is certain.  It’s simply your brain trying to help you out and it’s nothing more than a legacy survival tactic.
So reassure yourself, take a breath and jump.

4.  Don’t Judge

You might find that you beat yourself up for not changing your mind earlier.  You might even judge yourself harshly for changing your mind at all, even if that change is a positive one.
Your brain doesn’t like to be wrong and will dismiss any inkling that you’re wrong by letting you know that you’ll look like an idiot if you change your mind.
This is, of course, complete nonsense.  Changing your mind in a positive context (i.e. not due simply to peer pressure or other irrelevant influences) is only ever a move that sees you expand.
Don’t judge yourself for flourishing.

5.  Fess up

It’s tempting to execute a cover up to hide any evidence that you changed your mind.  Can’t let people think less of you.  Can’t let it be known that you just did a U-turn.  Can’t let it be known that you were wrong.
But what if people thought more of you for changing your mind?  What if it didn’t matter what a few people might think?  What if having trust in your ability to choose was more important than your perceived status with others?
It’s tempting in my work to pretend to have all the answers and it’s ego-boosting to be seen as a guru. But there’s way more that I don’t know than I do know, and so when I try something with a client that I’m confident will work out great but simply isn’t working, I’ll hold my hands up, declare it a failed experiment and move us on.
That’s just as it should be.
Please don’t cover things up or pretend they never happened.  Admit when you’re wrong and cherish changing your mind.

6. Ride the curve

Staying rooted to the spot when life throws you a curve will guarantee a frustrated life full of “What If’s“.
Life IS full of curves, and to ride those curves you need to be willing to improvise.  Fortunately, you have the stunning ability to make up thinking along the way; an in-built mechanism to create your future.  It’s only by leveraging that ability – which requires you to acknowledge the magic of potentiality – that you get to see what life has in store.
I’ve been living with CFS/ME for over 5 years, and in order to help me integrate and live with the illness I’ve had to improvise so many new ways of doing things and thinking about things that I actually get a little dizzy thinking about it all. Riding the CFS/ME curve has benefitted me – and will continue to benefit me – in the most extraordinary ways.


Life’s curves can only be enjoyed by a mind that’s open to change.


Source:
http://www.thechangeblog.com/how-to-change-your-mind/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheChangeBlog+%28The+Change+Blog%29

Being Your Highest Self - Learn to make the leap from fear to love

 

ONE OF THE BIGGEST LIES we have come to believe about ourselves and our true nature is that we are nothing more than physical beings defined by a material reality, devoid of dimension and vital energy, and separate from God—which I trust you know by now is within us and all around us. To keep the truth about our real identity from us is not only enslaving, but it asserts that we are finite beings living a linear life that lacks real meaning.

The assertion that there are no realms and no life beyond our physical world and that we have no control over our destiny is not a “truth” that you and I should ever believe in. You are a multidimensional being who creates your reality. Helping you accept this idea as your law and new belief has been my labor in my book. Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself means that you are going to have to lose your mind and create a new one.

But when we fully lay down the old, familiar life or mind and start creating the new, there is a moment between the two worlds that is bereft of anything we know, and most rush back from this void to the familiar. That place of uncertainty—the unknown—is what the maverick, the mystic, and the saint know to be fertile ground.

To live in the realm of the unpredictable is to be all potentials at once. Can you become comfortable in this empty space? If you can, you are at the nexus of a great creative power, the “I am.”

To biologically, energetically, physically, emotionally, chemically, neurologically, and genetically change ourselves and to stop living by the unconscious affirmation that competition, strife, success, fame, physical beauty, sexuality, possessions, and power are the be-all and end-all in life is when we break from the chains of the mundane. I fear that this so-called recipe for ultimate success in life has kept us looking outside of ourselves for answers and true happiness, when the real answers and true joy have always been within.

So where and how do we find our true self? Do we create a persona that is shaped by associations with the outer environment, which perpetrates the lie? Or do we identify with something within us that is as real as everything outside us, and create a unique identity, which has awareness and a mind that we can emulate?

That’s right—it is that infinite resource of information and intelligence, personal and universal, that is intrinsic to all human beings. It is an energetic consciousness that is filled with such coherence that when it moves through us, we can only call it love. When the door opens, its frequency carries such vital information that it changes who we are from within.

Our problem is that we have developed habits that limit our true greatness. The survival emotions, which are so addictive, cause us to live with limitation, feeling separate from the Source, and forget we are creators. In fact, the corresponding states of mind that correlate with stress truly are the reasons why we are controlled by our emotions, live by a lower denominator of energy, and are enslaved by a set of beliefs rooted in fear. These so-called normal psychological states have been accepted by most as ordinary and common. They are the real “altered states” of consciousness.

Hence, I want to emphasize that anxiety, depression, frustration, anger, guilt, pain, worry, and sadness—the emotions regularly expressed by billions of people—are why the masses live life knocked out of balance and altered from the true self. And maybe the supposed altered states of consciousness achieved in meditation during true mystical moments are actually “natural” human states of consciousness that we should strive to live by on a regular basis. I accept that contention as my truth.

It’s time to wake up and to be the living example of the truth. It’s not enough to espouse these understandings; it’s time to live them, demonstrate them, and be “at cause” in all areas of our lives. When you and I “in-body” such ideals as truth, and make it a habit, then it innately becomes part of us.

Since we are wired to create habits, why not make true greatness, compassion, genius, ingenuity, empowerment, love, awareness, generosity, healing, quantum manifestation, or divinity our new habits? To remove the layers of personal emotions we decided to memorize as our identity; to shed our selfish limitations that we have given such power to; to abandon false beliefs and perceptions about the nature of reality and self; to overcome our neural habituations of destructive traits that repeatedly undermine our evolution; and to relinquish the attitudes that have kept us from knowing who we really are . . . are all part of finding the true self.

There is an aspect of the self that is a benevolent being who waits behind all of those veils. This is who we are when we are not feeling threatened; fearing loss; trying to please everyone; racing to succeed and scrambling to get to the top at any cost; regretting the past; or feeling inferior, hopeless, desperate, or greedy, just to name a few. When we overcome, and remove whatever stands in the way of our infinite power and self, we are demonstrating a noble deed, not only for ourselves but for all of humanity.

So the greatest habit you will ever break is the habit of being yourself, and the greatest habit you will ever create is the habit of expressing the divine through you. That is when you inhabit your true nature and identity. It is to inhabit self.

Source:
http://www.healyourlife.com/author-joe-dispenza-dc/2012/09/lifeshelp/success-and-abundance/being-your-highest-self?utm_id=SANews

Science - Do Animals Have Souls?

RELATED ARTICLES:

Scientists Proclaim Animal and Human Consciousness the Same
4 Animals Who Mourn Their Dead
Animals As Spirit Guides
Elephant Tarra Mourns Bella the Dog

SCIENCE - ANIMALS SAID TO HAVE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES:

http://news.discovery.com/animals/animals-spiritual-brain.html

* * *

(Care2 article) - University of Kentucky neurologist, Kevin Nelson concluded animals can experience spiritual events like humans.  Nelson has performed over 30 year’s research into OBE (out of body experiences) and has published a book “The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain: a Neurologist’s Search for the God Experience.”

Scientists recently declared human and animal consciousness the same. Would you agree that to have a soul requires consciousness?  This is certainly thought-provoking.

We all have belief systems.  Some have faith in the concept of a soul and afterlife.  Others count on reincarnation and some are convinced after the body dies there is nothing but a big, black abyss.  But if you are one who believes humans have a soul, do you also feel that an animal has a soul?

Nelson’s hypothesis is drawn on the fact that research in humans has shown mystical experiences of wonderment originate in the more primitive parts of the brain called the limbic system.   All mammals share similar brain structure, therefore he concludes animals can have spiritual experiences similar to humans.

Theology

Some religions believe animals have souls and reincarnate.  Others teach animals do not have souls because humans are the masters of the earth and its animals.  In 1990, Pope John Paul II said in a shocking statement at the time, he believed that animals do have souls.  The Pontiff said animals are “…fruit of the creative action of the Holy Spirit and merit respect.” In the Catholic school I attended as a child, the nuns drummed it into us that only people have souls.

In the Jewish faith, author Yanki Tauber talks about souls on Chabad.org.

The Chassidic masters speak of two distinct souls that vitalize the human being: an “Animal Soul” and a “G-dly Soul.” The Animal Soul is driven by the quest for self-preservation and self-enhancement; in this, it resembles the soul and self of all other creations. But we also possess a G-dly Soul”–a soul driven by the desire to reconnect with its Source. Our lives are the story of the contest and interplay between these two souls, as we struggle to balance and reconcile our physical needs and desires with our spiritual aspirations, our self-focused drives with our altruistic yearnings.

These two souls, however, do not reside “side-by-side” within the body; rather, the G-dly Soul is enclothed within the Animal Soul–just as the Animal Soul is enclothed within the body. This means that the Animal Soul, too, is vitalized by the “part of G-d above” at its core. Ostensibly, the two souls are in conflict with each other, but in essence they are compatible.

Hindu belief states all life forms are manifestations of God and therefore have souls that can achieve salvation.  Animals, plants and inanimate objects are believed to possess a soul.  The difference is in the level of a soul.  Human souls are considered the most evolved due to the level of consciousness.  After a soul lives many lives as an animal, it will eventually be allowed to reincarnate into a human body and continue to evolve in understanding God and Godliness.

Muslims believe a soul has different parts: the plant or vegetative part of a living being, the animal or sensitive part, the rational part as well as totality of all three parts.  The Qur’an states a soul is a creature of Allah.

Mission Islam says:

It [the soul] is blown into every human being when it is just a foetus of 120 days old, it remains in contact if not inside the human being throughout its life on earth, and at the point of death it departs from the body to reside in the heavens.
During their journeys through this universe, the soul and its body travel through four different worlds:
1. The womb – where the soul joins its body.
2. This world – where we all live for a limited period only.
3. The grave – a ‘Barzakh’ period.
4. The Hereafter – The final destination of all human beings.

I find it intriguing how the different religions are so similar in its teachings, don’t you?

Personal Stories of Animal Spirituality

I’d wager many pet guardians have a story or two about feeling the presence of a deceased pet.  Personally, I will never forget the day I felt the spirit of my dog Spanky walk right through my soul.  At that moment I knew he had died and I was devastated to find it true.  I felt a sudden sense of peace from Spanky.  I believe he was telling me good-bye and reveling in his sudden sense of freedom from all the worries and fears he had carried inside him for so long.

My sister and brother-in-law had two very elderly Schnauzers who grew up together.  When Nicky was 18 he succumbed to heart disease, diabetes and kidney failure.  Willie, who died two years later at 20, spent more than two weeks after Nicky’s death going to his grave, throwing himself on it, literally crying.  The grave wasn’t marked and Willie — being blind and deaf at this point — had not seen Nicky being buried.  He simply knew where Nicky was and was mourning his brother.

Having worked in Hospice in the past, I’ve seen many a pet be the protector of their dying companion.  One family told me at the moment of death of their loved one, the individual’s dog — sleeping on the bed with the patient — stood up and quietly looked up at the ceiling as if he were watching the person’s soul exit their body.  Then he lay quietly down next to the body and licked the patient’s face.

Animal communicators claim to understand the thoughts of an animal through the pictures the creatures show them.  Since animals do not have expressive human speech ability – many do understand language, like the hand signing chimps or your dog when you tell her to sit, stay or roll over – they must communicate in different ways with us mere mortals.

With the change in attitudes about pets in recent years, it is not surprising that pet loss support groups have become more common.  Dogs and cats and other domestic animals are thought of as family members, not merely possessions.  If you ever have the need, attending a pet loss support group can be very beneficial in dealing with the grief of losing a beloved pet.

Books to Consider Reading:

The Soul of Your Pet by Scott S. Smith – Interviews with people who have lost pets.  Includes a chapter on the major religions’ beliefs about the afterlife of animals.

Animals as Guides for the Soul: Stories of Life-Changing Encounters by Susan Chernak McElroy – With personal experience and compelling true stories of others, McElroy explores the questions animal lovers ask themselves.  Are pets our prisoners? Is it moral to eat animals? … and more.

The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul by Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary – Beauregard’s research compellingly makes a case that spiritual experiences are created by God and not the brain.

The Divine Life of Animals: One Man’s Quest to Discover Whether the Souls of Animals Live On by Ptolemy Tompkins – A search of 20,000 years of history and myth to find the answer to: Do animals have souls?  Explores the religious teachings of East and West to discover profound meanings about the animal soul.

The Souls of Animals by Gary Kowalski – Kowalski talks about animal souls through the qualities he considers spiritual: playfulness, capacity for love, altruism, and awareness of death.

Animals in Spirit by Penelope Smith – As an interspecies communicator, Smith explores the process of dying from the viewpoints of animals and their humans.  She posits animals choose their paths in each life, and leave behind knowledge for their humans. Using true stories as well as meditations she shows how it is possible communicate with animals in the spirit realm.

The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel by Garth Stein – Fiction, not science but told through a dog named Enzo as the protagonist, this story will make you believe.

Questions to Consider:

The question of whether or not animals have souls is one we will continue to ask for years to come.  If animals do have souls is it fair to keep them imprisoned in zoos?  Is it okay to eat them or wear them? Should we use them for entertainment?  How about horse and dog racing?  Should they be made to carry our burdens over long distances?  Should they be bred only to be sold for profit?

Will there ever be scientific proof animals have souls?  Or, is it a matter of faith?  What do you think?  Please leave your own stories about spiritual experiences with animals.

Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/do-animals-have-souls.html

The Superior human? - Are Humans superior to other animals?

A MUST WATCH: "The Superior human?" (March 2012) is the first documentary to systematically challenge the common human belief that humans are superior to other life forms. The documentary reveals the absurdity of this belief while exploding human bias.

Featuring Dr Bernard Rollin, Gary Yourofsky Dr Richard Ryder, Dr Steven Best. Narrated by Dr Nick Gylaw. - More informations: http://thesuperiorhuman.ultraventus.info/

Creating a positive transformation - 5 People You Should Stop Resenting

“Resentment is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die” 

- Unknown

Resentment is generally defined as a feeling of indignation or ill will felt as a result of a real or imagined grievance. The word resentment comes from the Latin word “sentire” which means, “to feel”, and the prefix “re” of course means “again”, so the word “resent” means “to feel again”. This means that when we experience resentments, we are forcing ourselves to repeatedly feel angry, hurt, annoyed, or upset about a single situation. We all experience feelings of resentment at various times in our lives. What we don’t realize, is that this masochistic cycle of self-obsession only hurts ourselves.

I realized that by holding onto resentments, I was ruining my life. I didn’t realize that my resentments were weighing me down with negativity which prevented me from being able to live in the moment, or experience gratitude. I desperately wanted to be able to access happiness, fulfillment, and a sense of purpose. But, in order for me to feel content with my life and experience genuine serenity, I had to first let go of my resentments that were holding me back from being truly happy.

Notice how I said “let go of”. I was taught that you cannot overcome, get around, get through, fight off, or get over resentment. These emotions are like heavy bags that I was choosing to pick up and carry with me on a daily basis. The only way to free myself from my own self-imposed prison of resentment was to relax my grip on the handles, and let them go. Letting go of resentment requires surrender, something I had always incorrectly perceived as weakness. I had to understand that you can’t stop feeling something out of sheer willpower. Surrender was absolutely necessary.

Letting It Go

In order to let go of my resentments, I had to first identify the people who caused me to have these feelings. Since resentments stem from “real or imagined grievances”, I discovered that it’s common to resent people who are closest to you since you have the most history with them, and therefore, more opportunities to find grievances and build resentments.

Awareness of who I had built up resentments towards was the first step in recognizing where my resentments were coming from, which ultimately allowed me to let them go and experience the freedom of living without those negative feelings that had become such a constant in my life.

However, I also learned that sometimes self-sabotage rears its ugly head, and our egos don’t allow us to admit some of our most deep seated and toxic resentments. The following is a list of the five most common sources of resentment that most people experience without even realizing it.

5 Common Targets of Resentment

1. Parents

As an adult, it’s no fun to admit that you’re still affected by things that happened when you were younger. Parents often make decisions (such as getting divorced, or switching schools) that affect their children’s lives all the way into adulthood. I had a parent who struggled with addiction while I was young. I didn’t think I would ever stop resenting them, but I followed the advice of a mentor anyways and did all the little exercises this person told me to do, and slowly all the writing and talking finally alleviated one of my biggest resentments. It didn’t happen overnight, but now it feels as if a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Take an honest look into your childhood and ask yourself if you are still harboring feelings against your parents or primary caregivers, this will bring you one step closer to letting go and living a fuller life.

2. Past and Current Partners

Boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives and former romantic partners are an almost guaranteed source of resentment for most people. It is usually the people we spend most of our time with, that we create unconscious resentments towards. You’ve probably heard of the term “baggage” when it comes to dating. “He has too much baggage” or “I don’t want someone with a lot of baggage” are common expressions. You might not realize it, but “baggage” usually translates directly into resentment. Letting go of the resentments you’ve built up over the years from failed relationships or unresolved issues in your current one, will give you freedom and allow you to fully invest in a future relationship. Just because your ex hurt you, doesn’t mean that its healthy to keep hurting yourself by holding those poisonous resentments inside.

3. Co-workers

Aside from home, we spend the majority of our time at work. The office is often seen as an arena for competition and personal advancement. This potentially antagonistic atmosphere can be a breeding ground for resentment. If you have a legitimate issue with someone, it’s better to address your concern in a timely fashion either with that specific person, or in a conflict-resolution meeting mediated by a qualified representative of the Human Resources department. You can’t effectively climb up through the professional ranks if you are being weighed down by resentments you are holding onto against your co-workers. Keep your side of the street clean, and focus on moving forward instead of falling back into negative thinking.

4. Strangers

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, aside from the people we are closest to, total strangers can also be a common source of resentment. Something about the cloak of anonymity makes people feel safe in expressing their emotions against someone they have never met. That guy who cut you off on the way to work, the customer who left you a lousy tip, or the person who jumped in front of you in line at the bank, acts like this committed by strangers can create a well of wrath within us that we are just dying to unleash onto the world. Some people chalk it up to “having road rage” or “being high strung” but the reality is that you are probably susceptible to catching quick resentments. Don’t let something small like losing a parking spot ruin your day and create unjustified enemies in your mind.

5. Large Groups of People

When I first undertook the task of listing all my resentments on paper, I was shocked at how many resentments I had towards entire populations of people or institutions in general. I grew up very poor, and have always been slightly jealous of people who were born into wealthy families. For me, this translated into an overarching resentment towards all rich people. My whole life I viewed the distribution of wealth as an egregious injustice and wanted nothing to do with the people who benefited from this type of system. After doing some work on resentments, I now realize this is a short sighted outlook, and that I was stereotyping an entire group of people, and holding them accountable for the circumstances I was born into.

Taking stock of your resentments means honestly evaluating your own prejudices. Letting go of resentments is usually a process that will include eliminating grudges against certain groups of people and alleviating acrimony towards entire institutions like a school or church you used to attend.

Conclusion

This is certainly not an all inclusive list, and not everybody has resentments in these areas of their lives. But if you harbor resentment in these areas, they are a great palce to start. This is what I have found to be true in my own experience, and in the experiences that have been shared with me by other people.

The process of letting go of resentments will be unique to each person. Some people chose to find a 12 step based support group and work through their resentments with the help of a sponsor. Some people seek outside help in the form of psychiatry. For others, this is a personal process completed in solitude.

I feel it should also be noted that in many cases, feelings of resentment are completely understandable, and are a normal part of processing trauma. Not all grievances are “perceived”. Some are very real, and are the result of significant trauma or abuse. Letting go of resentment does not mean that you must tolerate bad behavior. It means that you are no longer allowing a person or situation to have power over you. Letting go of resentments is a personal process to help yourself live the happy, fulfilled life you deserve.

Source:
http://www.thechangeblog.com/stop-resenting/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheChangeBlog+%28The+Change+Blog%29

October 1 - World Vegetarian Day

Creating a better world for every living being

World Vegetarian Day is observed annually on October 1. It is a day of celebration established by the North American Vegetarian Society in 1977 and endorsed by the International Vegetarian Union in 1978, "To promote the joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism". It brings awareness to the ethical, environmental, health and humanitarian benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle.

Help change your life and help change the world: Go Vegetarian.

KNOW MORE AT:
http://beawarebechange.blogspot.com/2012/08/climate-change-primary-cause-is-raising.html

THE MOST HEALTHY FOOD PYRAMID:

A Life Connected - How veganism can change the world: