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kripalu
perspectives: our new podcast
Listen
in and enjoy the inspirational thoughts of some of Kripalu’s
faculty—leading teachers, writers, and thinkers in the fields
of yoga, health, and personal growth. With these 12-minute
audio interviews, you can have a Kripalu experience wherever
you are. We’re excited about this new venue for
sharing Kripalu’s mission. Please spread the word and invite
people to listen in.  January
2010 episode: Christina Baldwin on why storytelling isn’t
just for kids—it’s an integral part of being human. (You can
listen now, download an mp3, or sign up for an RSS feed via
iTunes.)
go
deeper this year
why
train in ayurveda?
Ayurveda,
which translates as “the science of life,” is a 5,000-year-old
holistic approach to health based on the same guiding
principle as yoga: that attuning to our inner wisdom will
naturally guide us toward vitality and wholeness. Using pulse
diagnosis and lifestyle inquiry, the Ayurvedic practitioner
helps people bring balance to their lives through simple,
practical approaches such as diet change, self-care practices,
and herbal supplements. The Kripalu School of Ayurveda
trainings are among the leading certification programs in the
United States today. Through immersion modules, you learn
Ayurveda from the inside out, with the opportunity to study
with the best faculty in the world. Curious? Read
these thoughts from graduates of the Kripalu School of
Ayurveda.
take
action on your 2010 visions
From
learning to cook healthier meals to quitting smoking to
transforming yourself from the inside out, we have programs
that could make 2010 the year you find your calling, your
spirit, or your hidden talent. Yoga, art, music, dance,
nutrition—there’s something for everyone. It’s a whole new
year; take steps toward a more authentic you. Ready to
take action? Click
here.
in
need of some detox?
It’s the
perfect time for a fresh start. If your system is
overloaded—whether from poor diet, allergies, stress,
infections, or toxins—Kripalu’s Detox for Health and Healing
program offers you an integrated approach to cleansing your
body. This cutting-edge program provides an enlivening and
safe detox experience, supported by scientific research and
the experiential wisdom of our high-caliber faculty.
Find answers to your detox questions in Detox
for Health and Healing, January 17–22, 2010.
kitchen
upgrade: less energy, water, detergent
Kripalu
is replacing the kitchen’s 30-year-old dishwasher and
overhauling the outdated dish-return system. The project is
set to be finished in January 2010, allowing everyone to enjoy
a smoother-flowing dish-return system that is easier to
navigate—and a whole lot greener, too.
kripalu
shop
Can’t
make it to our shop here in Stockbridge? Visit the Kripalu
Shop online! Browse a wide variety of yoga and
health-related CDs, DVDs, and books, order KYTA-produced
products—and you can even buy textbooks for our professional
training programs. The Shop's newly redesigned website makes
it easier for you to find resources for creating peace,
relaxation, and good health—24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
healthy
living recipes
If the
cold winds of January have you craving something warm and
delicious, Executive Chef Deb Howard has just what you need.
This month, she offers healthier versions of an all-time
favorite comfort food: macaroni and cheese. Whether you add
some spinach and onions or opt for the vegan squash-a-roni,
you’ll have an instant classic—and a dose of high-profile
nutrients, as Lead Nutritionist Kathie Swift explains.
January
Healthy Living Recipes Spinach Macaroni and Cheese
Squash-a-roni
desktop
wallpaper
Enjoy the
beauty of the Berkshires every day with Kripalu’s desktop
wallpaper. Available with and without a calendar.
Easy to download. we
love to hear from you
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welcome
Happy New
Year! When you cracked open your 2010 calendar, did you feel
the urge to seize the day? You can do it—with small steps or
big ones. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in
mind-set, as we learn from psychologist Ellen Langer in this
month’s feature article. Turning back the clock to rediscover
our younger, more vibrant selves sometimes means moving
forward fearlessly. In this issue, we highlight opportunities
to do just that—by telling your story in a whole new way,
immersing yourself in learning a new skill, making time to
detox, or committing to something as simple as setting a goal
or giving an intentional gift each day. Here’s to new
beginnings!
counterclockwise:
reversing aging, challenging assumptions
A
Conversation with Ellen Langer Harvard
psychologist Ellen J. Langer’s newest book,
Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of
Possibility, is a riveting account of her groundbreaking
Counterclockwise study, which definitively illustrated how our
state of mind influences our state of wellness. A movie based
on the book is currently in production, with Jennifer Aniston
playing Ellen. Kripalu Online spoke with Ellen, who
will lead a program at Kripalu in February about how to live
mindfully, what it means to take charge of your own health,
and why medical research is not the final word.
Kripalu Online In your 1979
Counterclockwise study, you immersed a group of older men in a
time period—the year 1959—when they were all young and fit,
surrounding them with cultural references from that year that
virtually turned back time for them. But just as important,
you and your colleagues treated these men as if they were
healthy, capable people despite the fact that many of them had
been considered near death’s door before coming on the
retreat. Ellen Langer That’s right,
and we treated them that way right from the beginning. When we
got to the house the first day, I realized that they all had
suitcases with them. So when I got off the bus, the first
thing I said to them was, ”I don’t care if you move your
suitcases one inch at a time, or take things out and bring
them in one at a time, but it’s your responsibility to get
your luggage to your room.” And they did it. It was amazing,
given that these people, prior to this, seemed like they were
on their last legs. And over time they began to seem like
happy, reasonably healthy people on a vacation. The
findings of the Counterclockwise study were remarkable, but
what was more remarkable was how palpable the changes were.
Some of the things that happened by the end of the study I
wasn’t willing to describe initially because they were almost
unbelievable. One of the men who had a cane stopped using it.
I was playing touch football with all of the men at the end.
These were men who, just a few weeks before, were hobbling
down to my office to interview for the study, and I was
wondering, why am I doing this, will they even make it through
the week? KOL Part of what you
concluded from this study, and many others you’ve conducted,
is that when people are conditioned to believe there are
certain limits to what they can do, that becomes true for
them—and vice versa, when they’re told they can do something,
they are often able to, even if the medical data says they
can’t. Ellen People take the given
information that they’ve learned based on research without an
awareness of the limits of that research. Take the idea of
chronic illness versus acute illness—if you’re told it’s
chronic, you assume you’ll always have it, that there’s
nothing you can do about it. The consequences of buying into
that are enormous. Once you believe a disorder is
uncontrollable, you don’t try to control it. The research I’ve
done for 30 years suggests that may be a very big mistake.
Research yields probabilities—most of the time if we
do the exact same thing, we’ll get similar findings. It’s very
different from absolute fact. What two circumstances are
exactly alike? When a medical person runs a study, it’s
conducted with certain people at a certain time, with certain
amounts administered of whatever is being done or given. A
slight change in anything could change the result.
It’s very important that we recognize that most of the
world is a social construction. For example, imagine you have
a sign that says, “Keep off the grass.” People tend to obey
that sign. But if the sign says, “Ellen says keep off the
grass,” then people think, maybe I can negotiate with this
Ellen, or maybe Ellen doesn’t live here anymore. When you put
people back into the equation, absolutes give way to
possibilities. The results of even the best studies only speak
to some of us. Virtually all the things that seem impossible
are based on somebody else’s understanding of us, and on data
collected by people who are not omniscient. One of the things
that has always struck me as bizarre, for example, is how
willingly people go into a doctor’s office and look at an eye
chart, a series of random letters in black and white. You take
the results of whatever you do that day and say, this is what
my vision is. If you’d just been looking at something colorful
before you came into the office, if you’d had too much to eat
that day, if you were happy, if you were sad—all of these
things affect your vision. KOL In
your book, you use the phrase “health learner.” What does it
mean to be a health learner? Ellen
Most important is to recognize that whatever our symptoms are,
for whatever the disorder, they don’t stay still. Sometimes
they’re less severe; sometimes we don’t even have them. So we
note those times and we ask questions: Why don’t I have
symptoms now? Why are they less than before? When you ask
those questions, lots of hypotheses leap to mind. If I have
asthma symptoms when I’m talking to Bob, I’ll want to decrease
my interactions with Bob, or change those interactions. But if
we assume it’s always going to be the same, we don’t bother
looking for solutions. It’s crucial for the medical
profession to tune into this kind of thinking, because they
know they don’t know—now they need to know it’s okay that they
don’t know. When I personally seek out the help of a
physician, the most important thing to me is how willing that
person is to say they don’t know, and when they don’t know we
both try to find out. Medical people are very smart, often
very caring people—this is not an indictment of the medical
world. They have been trained to accept these absolutes in the
same way the rest of us have. KOL So
the alternative to accepting the “proven” realities is
practicing mindfulness, which you equate with health and
well-being. Ellen Being mindful is
essentially the way to be fully alive and experiencing one’s
life. All you need to do to be mindful is to notice new
things—to become aware of how much you don’t know and stay
tuned in. When you notice new things, you end up happier,
healthier, and you even live longer. Mindfulness, as I study
it, is something you should be doing all day long—when you’re
alone, when you’re with people, no matter what you’re doing.
It’s not an activity like meditation or yoga, it’s part of
every moment of our lives. When you see somebody really
involved in what they’re doing, all they’re doing is being
mindful—noticing novelty. Mindlessness is essentially
when you’re on automatic pilot, and that comes about by being
in these mind-sets we’ve unwittingly accepted as absolute
truths. If I “know” something is going to be pointless, I
don’t do it. If I already know the question you’re going to
ask, why listen to the question? If I’m walking somewhere I
walk every day, and every time I’ve taken this route it’s
fine, I may not see the pothole that’s there today.
Everything changes, and if we keep our eyes open to
those changes, we can transform our lives and our health.
Let’s say you’re paralyzed and I tell you that nothing, not
even that part of your body that’s paralyzed, stays absolutely
still and that you can, by following a strategy, improve. Are
you going to be able to jump up and run? Who knows? But you
probably will improve, and the larger point is that the
journey toward that improvement enhances your life. Ellen
J. Langer, PhD, is the author of more than 200 research
articles and 11 books, including the international best-seller
Mindfulness, which has been translated into 15
languages. www.ellenlanger.com
don’t miss Learn how to improve your
life and your health, simply by changing your mind, in Ellen
Langer’s Kripalu program, Counterclockwise:
Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility, February 5–7,
2010. spreading the
word …
43
Things Whether it’s one thing or 43, do you need
some reliable support in making change in your life? 43 Things
is a free online goal-setting community where you can make a
list of all the things you want to do, connect with others who
have the same goals, sign up for periodic e-mail reminders,
track your progress, and share reflections. Get
started at www.43things.com. 29
Gifts Making the conscious decision to give
wholeheartedly can be a powerfully healing experience, as Cami
Walker found out when her practice of giving a gift each day
for 29 days helped shift her outlook toward her multiple
sclerosis diagnosis. Her website, 29 Gifts, challenges others
to discover the gift of giving. Join
the global giving movement at www.29gifts.org.
quote of the
month
We
turn not older with years, but newer every day.
—Emily Dickinson, American poet
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