Sometimes life’s everyday stressors can send you into a tailspin. But if you always let your emotions rule, your body won’t remember to calm down. Get Deepak Chopra’s strategies to overcome those fears that keep you up in the middle of the night.

Fear is a natural reaction built into the mind-body system triggered by danger. After the danger is past, so is the fear response. But when fear spreads out into a general condition, it becomes a mysterious thing: anxiety. Anxious people are afraid even though there is nothing “out there” to be afraid of. Others overreact to triggers that ordinarily should be fairly easy to handle, such as being left alone for a day on their own. Still others are nearly paralyzed by highly specific phobias such as fear of heights, open spaces or insects. What is going on and what can we do about it? Continue reading  at Oprah.com

On the economic front, separate news stories are painting a disturbing picture of American inequality. The number of uninsured people has jumped from last year’s totals. The gap between the rich and poor has grown wider for 30 years (at current levels, the top fifth of earners takes home 50% of the money while the bottom fifth takes home 3%). Do you think of this being a fair country, a place where opportunity shines for everyone? Be prepared for a different reality. Among all Western industrialized countries, the U.S. stands last in income equality. England, the home of residual class antagonism going back for centuries, has leveled the playing field better than we have. (more…)

Stephen Hawking made worldwide news with his sound bite about how the universe was created. Specifically, he said that a Creator is not needed to explain how the universe began. Behind the sound bite was a deeper insight, which is that one law of nature, gravity, transcends space and time. Therefore, as long as gravity exists, multiple universes can unfold out of nothing. (more…)

All of the ways that we deal with darkness will fall short unless there is a solution that lies beyond the divided self. As long as one part of you wants to get better while another part of you holds on to negativity, you will be conflicted. The world’s wisdom traditions all teach that there is a way  out of the divided self; therefore, by following this way, one should find healing from everyday problems like depression and anxiety.  Calling them everyday is not to diminish the suffering that is caused. I could have called them age-old problems or the burden of being human. But the solution to negativity is also age-old and part of being human. In practical terms there are three parts to the spiritual solution.

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