A Quest for Well-Being

"There are good reasons to assume that our consciousness does not always coincide with the functioning of our brain: enhanced consciousness can sometimes be experienced separately from the body. Dr. Pim Van Lommel has come to the inevitable conclusion that most likely the brain must have a facilitating and not a producing function to experience consciousness. By making a scientific case for consciousness as a nonlocal and thus ubiquitous phenomenon we must question a purely materialist paradigm in science. Moreover, recent research on NDE seems to be a source of new insights into the possibility of a continuity of our consciousness after physical death." — Valeria interviews Dr. Pim Van Lommel, the author of Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience. Dr. Pim Van Lommel was born in 1943, graduated in 1971 at the University of Utrecht, and finished his specialization in cardiology in 1976. He worked from 1977-2003 as a cardiologist in Hospital Rijnstate, a 800 beds Teaching Hospital in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and is now doing full-time research on the mind-brain relation. He published several articles on cardiology, but since he started his research on near-death experiences (NDE) in survivors of cardiac arrest in 1986 he is the author of over 20 articles (most of them in Dutch), one book and many chapters about NDE. In 2005 he was granted with the Dr. Bruce Greyson Research Award of the International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS). In 2006, the president of India rewarded him the Life Time Achievement Award at the World Congress on Clinical and Preventive Cardiology in New Dehli. His Dutch book 'Endless Consciousness' was nominated for the 'Book of the Year 2008' in the Netherlands. In 2010 he received the 2010 Book Award van de Scientific and Medical Network, and in 2017 he received the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Award by the Dutch Society of Volunteers in Palliative and Terminal Care (VPTZ). In November 2007 his book 'Endless Consciousness' (Eindeloos Bewustzijn) was published in The Netherlands, which is a bestseller with more than 150.000 copies sold (25th edition). His book was published in Germany in 2009 (already the 10th edition), and it has been published in the English language by Harper Collins in 2010, entitled: Consciousness beyond Life. The science of the near-death Experience. In 2011 the Polish edition was published, the Spanish translation was published in March 2012, and in May 2012 his book was published in France. In December 2015 the book was also published in Latvia, in January 2017 the book was published in Italy, and in February 2019 the book was published in Hungary. In 2020 the book will also be published in China and in Russia. To learn more about Dr. Pim Van Lommel and his work please visit: www.pimvanlommel.nl/en/ and www.consciousnessbeyondlife.com For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast — This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life to the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.

This episode is about Accelerated Self-Healing and its Fundamental Principles: — The Body, the Mind and the Spirit are mutually interactive and interdependent. All three are essential to optimize self-healing, life quality and spiritual development. Self-healing is an innate, intelligent, and self-organizing process. The self-healing process targets a limited number of causal factors to address at any given time in order to optimize function and longevity. Priorities shift when new issues are encountered, when a change in activity puts demands on different pathways, and when healing processes are completed. The lack of access to materials, energy or information essential to the completion of a prioritized healing action appear as a distortion or loss of coherence in the body field (biofield). Distortions in the body field tend to remain over time in the absence of essential material, energetic and informational support. Chronic distortions in the body field become fossilized over time as structural alterations and degenerative changes. Introduction of remedies carrying essential matter, energy or information as a stimulus to the body field, produces a measurable response of increased coherence in the body field. Self-healing is accelerated when the body field is coherent, indicating that the essential remedies are present. All systems are working together efficiently on the same team, rather than divided into separate working groups... Typically, 85% of Accelerated Self Healing is the active cascading response to adding the presence of essential stimuli. Ingesting natural remedies that carry essential matter, energy and information typically activates the coherence and acceleration response for up to 24 hours from the time of ingestion, similar to the bowel transit time. Accelerated Self-Healing typically completes the prioritized healing activity within about a month with essential daily support and other related topics… Valeria interviews Dr. Glen Swartwout — a best-selling author with a dozen health books in print for accelerated self-healing. Dr. Glen Swartwout is the Wizard of Wellness. He is also the developer of the Clinical Theory of Everything. Dr. Glen Swartwout graduated Magna Cum Laude with honors in Environmental Earth Sciences and Chemistry from Dartmouth College. He received his doctorate at the top of his class in Vision Science with honors in Optics as well as Leadership, being inducted into both Beta Sigma Kappa and the Gold Key Honor Societies. He interned at the State University of New York in Manhattan, where he trained at the largest outpatient vision clinic in the world. He served as Editor, Vice President and President of the American Optometric Student Association serving 4000 international student doctor members. He is the author of over 50 professional papers, books, and software programs. His first professional office was in Tokyo, Japan. For the last 30 years, Dr. Glen Swartwout has focused on developing his system of accelerated self-healing. The process starts with a bio-communication called Biofield Analysis, which he developed out of a variety of German Electrodiagnostic techniques. His healing ministry now spans the globe with healing clients on every inhabited continent. The methods optimize the innate healing potential of your body, independent of particular symptoms or diagnoses. He has helped thousands of people get off drugs and avoid surgery. Dr. Glen Swartwout is also available as a guest speaker and as a consultant. In his energy research, he rediscovered the frequency known in ancient China and Tibet as the Dominant Harmonic Frequency of Nature. To learn more about Dr. Glen Swartwout and his work please visit: https://remedymatch.com/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast

— Valeria interviews Amy Draper the author of "Love Letter" Gratitude Journals Series and also the "Not Now, I'm Gratituding: The 1 minute-a-day gratitude journal for people who want more peace, balance and positivity in their lives. Amy Draper designed the "Love Letter" gratitude journals series to help us delve more deeply into our heart, mind, soul and body and discover ways for us to be grateful for all we are. They're each filled with helpful prompts, inspirational quotes, and even a few coloring pages for those days when words are too much. Ever said to yourself, "I really wish I could find a gratitude journal that I could stick to?" Me too. That's why Amy Draper designed her journals. She was having trouble sticking to a daily gratitude practice, mostly because I struggled to come up with a list of things she was grateful for each morning. Amy is not a morning person. At all. If you want her to list what I'm grateful for first thing in the morning, 95% of the time, it will be (1) coffee and (2) her bed. She became so frustrated with her practice that she stopped doing it. Why bother if all she ever list are these two things with a few extras thrown in to round it out? Plus, her journal included a nightly "wrap-up" section that she forgot to do about 75% of the time. So, yeah, Amy's gratitude practice was suffering. One morning, she realized that if this wasn't working for her, then she needed to find something that would, because a consistent gratitude practice is really beneficial for her mental health. When she stopped filling out her journal, she could see an actual difference in how she was feeling. And it wasn't good. The problem was Amy couldn't find a journal that worked. Most gratitude journals out there follow this same formula. List the things you're grateful for today, then recap how your day went. That works for many people. Just not her. So she designed a journal that did work for her. And she put it out in the world, believing that if it worked for her, maybe it would work for others, too. It became the Love Letters to Myself journal. Amy followed that up with two others that rounded out her gratitude practice, Love Letters to My Younger Self, and Love Letters to My Body. Together, these three journals form the base of her self-care routine. It's hard to feel grateful for what's around you when you don't feel grateful for who you are. These journals help Amy get to that place. A few weeks later, she got the idea to design the Not Now, I'm Gratituding journal. This journal follows the more typical gratitude journal format, because you list things you're grateful for each day. However, instead of having nightly recaps, Amy designed the journal with a weekly format. At the beginning of each week you set your intention, what you want to focus on for that week. At the end of each week, you give yourself credit for what you accomplished (big or small). In between, you find something to be grateful for each day. A gratitude journal that takes the pressure off to be "on" every day! Amy Draper spent 17 years as a corporate attorney, handling SEC filings and corporate transactions, among other matters. However, a few years ago, she caught the writing bug when the legal world had left her feeling jaded, unfulfilled and stressed out. Amy recently traded in her business suits for comfy sweats and now spends her days practicing self-care and writing happily ever afters in between feeding her addiction to journals by designing and selling them. (All this in between paying copious amounts of attention to her various rescue animals, of course!) To learn more about Amy Draper and her work please visit: https://www.amydraperauthor.com/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast

Valeria interviews Meir Schneider the author of Movement for Self-Healing: An Essential Resource for Anyone Seeking Wellness. Meir's book gives specific guidelines for healing back problems, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, breathing difficulties, eye problems, and muscular dystrophy. Movement for Self-Healing parallels the stories of Schneider and the people he has worked with, detailing his holistic methods of stimulating the natural healing powers of the body, offering a practical guide to specific exercises, and articulating a profound message of inspiration and hope. Meir was born in Ukraine and moved with his family to Israel at age 5. Both of his parents were deaf, and Schneider was born with severe vision problems. After undergoing five major unsuccessful eye surgeries, doctors pronounced him permanently legally blind. At the age of 17 he discovered the work of American ophthalmologist William Bates, who devised a method for natural vision correction through various eye exercises. Schneider started training diligently, sometimes up to 13 hours per day, and saw results very quickly. Within 6 months he could recognize objects; within a year and a half, he could already read without glasses. He would eventually improve his vision to the point of being allowed a driver's license, which he still holds. Recognizing the need for countless other people to improve their vision naturally, Schneider created his own vision-healing program which is now practiced by millions of people around the world. In addition to vision therapy, Schneider has a Ph.D for his work on muscular dystrophy. His books are bestsellers and he was listed among the "Top Ten Most Inspirational Israelis". To learn more about Meir Schneider and his work please visit: https://self-healing.org/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast — This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life to the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.

Valeria interviews Janice Bell Meisenhelder the author of Surviving the Unthinkable: The Loss of a Child. "Trust your instincts. Your inner voice will guide you with each step that is right for you." For a bereaved mother, grief never ends. We always miss our children's earthly presence. We always carry them in our heart. We always long to talk to them. Our yearning for our child gradually becomes one theme among several in our lives rather than our predominant tune. Over many years, our honoring moves from distressing mourning to a cherishing and treasuring of their lives. Our grief becomes mixed with gratitude for every minute and memory as we move from agonizing lamentation of the loss to a combination of sadness and bittersweet celebration of the life and gift of this child. Our continued honoring, talking, and remembering are all forms of celebrating this precious life and staying connected with our children. At some point, many mothers look back and realize that they have grown through all the trauma and loss. Their hearts did indeed enlarge. Their compassion is more encompassing, their self-knowledge more in-depth. Such personal growth in no way justifies our tragic loss, but it does equip us to better help others—to allow some redemption to spring from the devastation of loss. As you use your compassion to help others, so do you continue to celebrate the life of your child. May you find meaning in your journey, companionship along the road, and peace in your life. — writes Janice Janice Bell Meisenhelder holds a Doctor of Nursing Science from Boston University. Her clinical nursing practice was at Massachusetts General Hospital in adult intensive care and oncology. She is currently a Professor of nursing at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Meisenhelder has published thirty-five articles as first author in professional, scholarly journals, the majority of which are original research. She recently published clinical guidelines for working with bereaved parents in the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She is a recent invited speaker at the national conferences of Bereaved Parents USA, The Compassionate Friends, and the Association of Death Education and Counseling, and a featured speaker for Open to Hope website. To learn more about Janice Bell Meisenhelder and her work please visit: https://www.emmanuel.edu/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast

Tim Grimes, a stress-reduction coach and author of The Joy of Not Thinking, shares playful, simple ways to stop overthinking. He talks about relaxing into presence, using movement and silly actions to break seriousness, and how less thinking can reveal joy and freedom. Practical tips include speaking out loud, being more childlike, and prioritizing feeling good over constant striving.

— Valeria interviews Ragini Michaels, the author of Unflappable: 6 Steps to Staying Happy, Centered, and Peaceful No Matter What. We all want to be happy. But, sometimes life gets in the way. People lose jobs. Spouses are unfaithful. Kids are hostile. Friends die. Houses burn down. It is a jungle out there. Unflappable is a book that helps readers not only survive but embrace these ups and downs of life and learn to stay centered and peaceful regardless of the circumstances. Drawing on the wisdom of the mystics and her NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) training Michaels offers a six-step process for happiness and serenity regardless of how crazy life gets. The Six Steps include: Discover the lay of the land: Look at the inner contours of your life. Decide where you are and where you want to go. Examine the river running through your inner landscape—in all of its inconsistencies and incongruities. Ride the river's rapids: go with the flow. Learn to identify personal challenges on your journey. Learn how to reduce heightened emotional distress. Enjoy the ride. Unflappable offers a unique route to a different brand of happiness—one that doesn't depend on outside circumstances, and incorporates a model for conscious living that leads to serenity. — Ragini Michaels is an internationally acclaimed NLP Trainer, Amazon.com bestselling author of 5 books, 8 hypnosis/meditation mp3's, & various online trainings, but most loved for her original paradox work Centered 24-7. She ran a successful private practice for over 4 decades while personally exploring meditation, contemplation, the Enneagram, & the art of spiritual inquiry. She is well-known for her heart, sense of humor, and integrity. To learn more about Ragini Michaels please visit her website: https://www.raginimichaels.com For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast

"Some say no one really lives his own life, true face covered by a mask, stuck tight and fashioned by a series of random voices, interactions, childhood dreams of flying, long lost, adult desires for comfort superficially gained, mismatched pieces welded sequentially over time, firmly, to the fragile, baby skin of who we really are. Some say all paths lead to these false lives discarded, rain-soaked clothes hanging against a damp, shadowed stone wall. Standing here, midlife, children grown and mostly gone, I let the cold, winter air in. ~This Precious Life poem by Matt Mumber Valeria interviews Dr. Mumber, the author of In The Awakening Season Dr. Matthew Mumber practices medicine as a board-certified radiation oncologist with the Harbin Clinic in Rome. After entering private practice, Matt attended and graduated from Dr. Andrew Weil's fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona, where he met Rachel Remen and attended trainings on facilitation of physician-patient retreat groups through Commonweal. Subsequently, Matt attended and graduated from a 2-year program on spirituality at the Living School for Action and Contemplation through the Rohr Institute, where he studied with Jim Finley. An author of academic and lay press texts on the subject of healing, Matt has edited an academic textbook entitled Integrative Oncology: Principles and Practice and also co-wrote a lay-press health and wellness book, Sustainable Wellness with Heather Reed. He has served as the president of the Georgia Society of Clinical Oncology. Matt's poetry, which draws on his personal, professional, cultural and natural-world experiences, stems from his lectio divina meditation and spiritual practice. Matt has facilitated groups and retreats focused on transformation and healing for over twenty years. To learn more about Dr. Matt Mumber, please visit her website: https://drmattmumber.com/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast — This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life to the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.

Eight years ago, a man who was not Sandra A. Miller's husband invited her on an armchair treasure hunt—a search for $10,000 worth of gold coins buried in New York City, of all places. When she said she'd go, her world was upended. At the time Sandra was helping her ailing mother to die and her almost-teenage children to fly, but her biggest challenge was the confusion she felt about entering middle age and the shame of craving something more when she had so much already: a devoted husband, a decent career, and a community of close friends who knew how to rock a potluck. But isn't that how life is sometimes? We ache for something we can't even name, but we don't know what to do about it? Or we do, but we don't do it. In Sandra's case, that treasure hunt for gold coins stirred her longing heart into action. In a very real way, she'd spent her life hunting for buried treasure. As a child, she trained herself to find things: dropped hair clips, shiny bits of broken glass, discarded lighters. Looking to escape from her often-unhappy childhood in a Connecticut factory town, she found deeper meaning, and a good deal of hope, in these objects that she collected in a broken shoebox: my trove. As an adult facing the loss of her mother who was at once cold, difficult, and wildly funny, Sandra found herself, as she so often did as a little girl, pressed against a wall of her own longing. Her search for gold, which soon became an obsession, forced me to dredge up painful pieces of her past and confront the true source of her sorrow. Soon she was wandering down dark paths she otherwise would never have taken, hoping to discover what she'd been looking for all those years—and putting everything at risk for a treasure hunt. Valeria interviews Sandra A. Miller — the author of Trove: A Woman's Search for Truth and Buried Treasure,. Her essays and articles have appeared in over one hundred publications, including Modern Bride, The Boston Globe Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, and Glamour. One of her essays was turned into a short film called "Wait" starring Kerry Washington. Sandra lives in the Boston area, teaches writing at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She also leads spirit-filled writing workshops in person and online. To learn more about Sandra A. Miller please visit her website: https://sandraamiller.com/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast — This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life to the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.

"Meditation is a way for nourishing and blossoming the divine within you." — Amit Ray Molly Larkin starts by citing two studies that help explain what meditation can do for us. Several years ago, a study was done that estimated our brains think up to 50,000 thoughts each day, and 90% are the same as yesterday. There's some dispute as to the accuracy of this statistic, but even if the number is half of that, it's a heck of a lot of thoughts! Another study published in a 2010 issue of Science Magazine reported that the average American adult spends 47% of their waking life "mind wandering," or not attending to the task at hand. Moreover, these periods of mind wandering were accompanied by reports of unhappiness. What Does Meditation Do? Very simply, - Meditation helps shut out, or at least slow down, those 50,000 random thoughts and quiets both the mind and the body. - Meditation helps us to pay attention and focus. - Meditation helps to stop our mind wandering. Learning to control our random thoughts helps us achieve a state of deep peace when the mind is calm and silent. In today's world, we have a lot working against us. A big one is the feeling of time speeding up and slipping away. But really, there are still 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day—it's more about the increasing amount of activity and rate of change that we must cope with in a day. Currently, there are more world changing events happening in any given period of time than have ever happened before. Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, said "We human beings currently create as much information in two days as we did from the dawn of civilization up through 2003!" That was in 2003. How much more information must be inundating us today? No wonder we're overwhelmed! Our minds can't keep up so we tend to shut down and go numb. Our minds were not built for speed; we evolved when things were much slower. Four hundred years ago, people had a lot of time to ponder things before they had to change. Our bodies were, and still are, designed to be in tune with the sun, the moon, the stars, the seasons, and the cycles of nature. That simplicity is what our souls long for. Meditation helps us slow down, and return to the sacred and our relationship with the natural world. Valeria interviews Molly Larkin author of Meditations on the Natural World and The Fountain of Youth Is Just A Breath Away. A writer, teacher, and healing practitioner, Molly Larkin has spent over thirty years studying with indigenous elders around the world, and is passionate about health and balanced living. She is a trainer for England's The Healing Trust, teaching Spiritual Healing around the United States. She is a Sun Dancer in the Lakota tradition, has done several vision quests, leads sweat lodges, and is a carrier of the Sacred Pipe. Her mission is to help students and clients achieve their life purpose while balancing spirituality and modern life so they can be happy, healthy and successful. In other words, in living at 100% of their own potential. Her first Native American teacher, Sun Bear, said, "I don't want to hear about your philosophy unless it will help me to grow corn." Meaning, that it will have a practical impact on improving day to day life. That is what Molly offers. She co-authored, with Muskogee Creek elder Marcellus "Bear Heart" Williams, the international best-seller "The Wind Is My Mother; the Life and Teachings of a Native American Shaman." She blogs about Ancient Wisdom for Balanced living at www.MollyLarkin.com and has published two other books: "Meditations on the Natural World; A Guided Journal to Help Find the Technique That's Right for You" and "The Fountain of Youth Is Just A Breath Away; Breathing Exercises for Relaxation, Health and Vitality." To learn more about Molly and her work, please visit: https://mollylarkin.com/ For Intro-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/aquestforwellbeingpodcast Podcast Page: https://fitforjoy.org/podcast