I just received an email from the Citizen's of Health Network and became inspired to write to you. It is an article about how we are confused by advertising into believing we need "things" and the immorality of this practice, most especially, when it has to do with our health and well-being. This is also a thread in Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I highly recommend, regarding the industrialization and government regulation of our food chain (including organics) which was once left to nature and farmers as well.

The article, aptly titled "How Healing Became a Commodity" is a recounting of the turn our national health care system has taken into becoming a commodity that fluctuates in the market place like other products by allowing it to become governed by people who are not healers and are disconnected from nature. The people governing say we need to be "protected," meanwhile we need protection from our "protectors," whose scientific studies can't compete with thousands of years of the time-tested reality of nature.

Why are we being manipulated by advertising and why do we need protection from something so natural as our health? And as Michael Pollan asks in his book In Defense Of Food, why do we need an expert to tell us how to eat? There is a relationship between our medical system and the food chain, both of which are governed in a way that is deleterious to our health and welfare and both of which are out of control.

The reason we need protection is because we are confused about who we are. We are so busy trying to manipulate our environment (those things that are outside of ourselves) to create health and stability, that we fail to look within. That is, we have become unaware of how we are creating our own "train wreck" by living lives that are out of balance. This disturbs our energy and our ability to make clear decisions, including important decisions about how to live our lives to be healthy and thriving individuals. It is only when we as individuals are healthy and whole that we can expect society to be as well.

Our disconnect with nature has us relying on the advertising developed by huge corporations whose main focuses are growth and imparting with us the desire to "want more" (perhaps a connection to our obesity epidemic?). Big business has little interest in the well-being of the individual and advertising is proof of that fact as it often results in creating a kind of fear/panic that feeds our dysfunction and results in neurotic behaviors that only worsen with time and continued manipulation.

While the rest of the world is busy analyzing and patenting information, attempting to control their environment in an effort to create an illusory comfort and safety, it is the Yogi who is focuses on the "inner world"---the one that is made of energy that fluctuates as it bounces up against the fluctuating energy of the "outer world." The true Yogi is one who will go to the core of him/herself for answers, and realizes the limitations that society has imposed on itself while creating illusions of comfort and safety where none exist. This in turn robs us of our innate healing wisdom.

When we tap into the root of our energy within, going to its source and working with it (rather than trying to either stop, manipulate, and/or control it), we can find our truth and relax. Once we relax, we can begin to see the truth of our suffering and disease, and find our way back to valuing true healing and wholeness.

Click here to view the article "How Healing Became a Commodity."

Peace~Chaya

Your Success is My Greatest Reward…

My mission at A Life of Balance is to empower people through the practice of Yoga and Ayurveda, so they can find their inner balance and ultimate joy. My vision of health and journey to wellness takes into consideration the total lifestyle and constitution of the whole person to support health and welllness by learning to live again in the most natural way possible, according to nature, to access our hightest intuition and truth, unlocking the human healing potential. Thank you for your committment to a life of balance. Your results are my deepest joy. I am grateful for the opportunity to witness your continued success, unfolding and seeing you live again with ultimate joy and ease of well being.

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