Introducing the comfiest chair/lounge/bag of all time…

Serenity Health offers these heavenly foam lounge bean bag blobs of goodness for your relaxation pleasure. I need one of these to fall into every evening! They come in all sorts of colors and fabrics, including microsuede! Makes me relax just looking at it…ahhh.

Is it humanly possible to enjoy every moment of life? Could I actually get through a day without complaining to a friend, getting exasperated waiting in line, or scrambling for time? You bet! The key is accessing the present moment. Mindfulness or living in the now is the only way to truly get out of our heads and experience all that life offers every day, hour and moment. It is a cultivation of a new consciousness that allows you to finally be happy! Awakening to what’s going on around and within you at a specific moment is the first step towards more joyous and fulfilling being.

I discuss mindfulness a lot here at Epicself because I see the potential a new awareness has in my life and in the world, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy road. After reading Eckhart Tolle’s two fabulous books A New Earth, and Living In The Now, I find myself re-reading the prized scripts over and over to remind myself how to access the present and why it’s so significant to our well being. Out of all the highlights of Eckharts teaching, here are some spankin new ways to cultivate more awareness.

When you find yourself drowning in thought…

Try this: Every time you walk up and down the stairs in your house or place of work, pay close attention to every step, every movementeven your breathing. Be totally present. In addition, when you wash your hands, pay attention to all the sensory perceptions associated with the activity: the sound and feel of the water, the movement of your hands, the scent of the soap and so on.

When the voice in your head starts to drive you crazy…

Try this: Pay attention to the gap between your thoughtswhen one thought subsides and before another arises. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. When these gaps occur, you disidentify from your mind and feel a certain stillness and peace inside you. This is the essence of meditation and the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment.

When you find yourself waiting for anything…

Try this: Give up waiting as a state of mind. When you catch yourself slipping into waitingsnap out of it. Come into the present moment. Just be, and enjoy being. If you are present, there is never any need for you to wait for anything. So, next time somebody says, “Sorry to have kept you waiting.” You can reply: “That’s all right, I wasn’t waiting. I was just standing here enjoying myself.”

When negative thoughts sneak in…

Try this: Become like a deep lake. The outer situation of your life, whatever happens there is like the surface of the lakesometimes calm, sometimes windy and rough. Deep down, however, the lake is always undisturbed. You are the whole lake, not just the surface. Practice being in touch with your own depth, which remains absolutely still.

When you can’t seem to find a second of spare time…

Try this: Step out of the time dimension as much as possible in everyday life. Become friendly toward the present moment. Make it your practice to withdraw attention from past and future whenever they are not needed.

When you are stressed and irritable…

Try this: Take two or three conscious breaths. Now see if you can detect a subtle sense of aliveness that pervades your entire inner body. Can you feel your body from within, so to speak? Sense briefly specific parts of your body. Feel your hands, then your arms, feet and legs. Can you feel your abdomen, chest, neck and head? What about your lips? Is there life in them? Then become aware again of the inner body as a whole.

When your to-do list is a mile long…

Try this: Knowing that what is cannot be undonebecause it already isyou say yes to what is or accept what isn’t. Then, you do what you have to do, whatever the situation requires.

Do you practice mindfulness? What do you do to access the now? We’d all love to benefit from you experiences.

What’s an easy way to spread peace? Buy products that promote happy, healthy living from companies that give back to organizations that are changing the world. So since you’ll probably need to buy a killer gift for your BFF or significant other sometime soon, why not buy the gift that keeps on giving? Here are some of the unique recycled products from The Peaceful Company I can’t wait to wrap in a bow and pass on.

When laundry, shopping, or the beach is in your future…Recycled Rice Bag Oversized Tote.

For that all important golden retriever in your life…Recycled Dog Ball.

Forget the expensive cow hide. Reach for a….Juicy Wallet.

And when all you need is a beer…Bike Chain Bottle Opener.

The Peaceful Company not only promotes a peaceful lifestyle but gives back to the world. Each year they keep their promise to environmental causes by donating 1% of our revenues or 10% of our profits (whichever is greater) to non-profit environmental organizations. This better-world-building company has been featured in such top magazines as O, Fitness, Family Circle, Redbook, and Body + Soul.

Now that’s what I call spreading the love.

Jenny McCarthy graced the set of Good Morning America on this fantastic Monday morning in hopes of spreading her message about autism. No she’s not just using her face to build awareness over the issue, nor is Jenny dumping millions into an organization just for press. The quest for answers began when McCarthy’s son, Evan, was diagnosed with Autism. Since then she has been the beacon of hope for millions of mothers with autistic children who have been told, “there is no cure.”

Today a renegade of millions of women are curing their own children. What could possibly pull a child out of the confines of autism? Diet! Digestive problems are a typical symptom of the disease that simple goes overlooked. Doctors stating, “oh that’s just autism.” Evan’s recovery began when he started a…

“gluten-free, casein-free diet, vitamin supplementation, detox of metals, and anti-fungals for yeast overgrowth that plagued his intestines. Once Evan’s neurological function was recovered through these medical treatments, speech therapy and applied behavior analysis helped him quickly learn the skills he could not learn while he was frozen in autism. After we implemented these therapies for one year, the state re-evaluated Evan for further services. They spent five minutes with Evan and said, “What happened? We’ve never seen a recovery like this.”

The most disturbing news about all of this is that many parents of recovered children will tell you they didn’t treat their child for autism; they treated them for vaccine injury. Too many vaccines in too short of a time span is the suggested culprit. So why wouldn’t the medical community want to open this can of worms? Simply because there is way too much money tied up in the pharmaceutical companies. Cutting back on the number or frequency of vaccine’s means less money in the pharmaceuticals pocket. Plus it eliminates the ability for them to create a wonder drug that could help with the disease down the road.

Controversy…controversy…I love it! Jenny continues to stir the pot with her new book, Mother Warriors, following her best selling Louder Than Words. She has already begun a major media tour, hitting the big names like Oprah and CNN.

All I have to say is power to the people! When it gets down to it we are all we have in the world. We can’t rely on big business to decide what’s right for our bodies… Labeling us as “one size fits all.”

Sound off on the issue. Where do you stand? Do you advocate alternative treatments or wait for pharmaceuticals to give you the answer?