Thanks, Sedona,

Disconnecting--with love--is supposed to be one of the secrets of contentment. But letting go is hard, isn't it? How to stop trying to fix the past? How to stop being crushed by others' remarks? How to stop trying to figure out what happened, feeling guilty, "needing" people who aren't good for us, trying to control the future, counting to 10 and blowing up anyway? How to show how well we meant, belong, be liked, be appreciated, make others understand how much they need our advice, get others off our cases, make others understand who we really are so they'll stop being so unpleasant. How to stop spending our lives wishing everything were otherwise?

Sedona, that's how. Knowing that you "shouldn't" be taking something so hard is not the same as being able to. Just as knowing that you "shouldn't" be worrying about someone else's choices is not much help either. Sedona teaches the mechanics, the "how to", of not being bowled over, blindsided, overwhelmed, compelled. It disconnects the buttons that get pushed; takes off that chain everybody loves to yank. It decompresses bad situations; lets you take a step back, disconnect, then act or not act. Whatever makes sense. In the here and now. (This is good. This is very good.)

I have a very stressful job. Shortly after I took a weekend course in the Sedona Method, a co-worker took me aside and told me that she had informed our boss that my telephone manner recently changed dramatically from defensive to professional. (My boss told her to tell me herself.)...

Our special thanks to Cynthia for contributing her experiences to The Genuine Article.

by, Michelle Morand, Founder and Director of The CEDRIC Centre.

Exploring Alexithymia

Now bear with me here. I'm going to take you on a bit of a journey, in order to explain a very important part of your recovery process. If you were sitting in my office, I'd be leaning over and beginning to draw a diagram on my white board to illustrate this piece of information, and you'd be laughing at my poor artistic ability. But since we're not face to face right now, and the computer won't draw what I'd like it to, I'm going to do my best to explain it, hence I ask for your patience.

A study was conducted by psychologists about 5 years ago that looked at childhood experiences of trauma, (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional and verbal abuse, and neglect), and the later development of disordered eating behaviours. What they were looking at was to uncover what the mediating factors were that lead someone with childhood trauma experience to later develop an eating disorder. And what they discovered was that it was a condition called Alexithymia that came hand in hand with depression, and the two supported the development of disordered eating on any level.

Alexithymia is characterized by:

1. difficulty in identifying and describing feelings in self or other,
2. difficulty in distinguishing between feelings and the bodily sensations associated with emotional arousal,
3. restricted imaginative processes (few positive dreams or fantasies - can have frequent intrusive ideation*), and
4. thinking that is concrete and reality based.

This is Beautiful Pre-Sale and T-Shirts

If you want to support This is Beautiful, and own a gallery-style framed piece of art, take advantage of the Pre-Sale.

$150 US, (plus shipping), before 12/15 gets you a 20" x 20" print of your choice from the exhibition-to- be in Victoria. Framed pieces are $400 US at galleries. It is a great deal, and a wonderful way to support the project.

And while you're there, remember to pick up a This is Beautiful t-shirt!

A special thanks to Britt Santowski, a Victoria area comic and particpant of This is Beautiful for sharing her perspective! Click here to view more of Britt's work.

Orthorexia Nervosa is a term coined by Dr. Steven Bratman, who first published his insights to the readers of Yoga Journal in 1997. Bratman, a physician who utilizes dietary medicine in his practice, and, a long time proponent of the health food movement, wrote about his experiences, and how the impulse to be healthy can be taken to dangerous extremes.

In Bratman's experience, a person struggling with Orthorexia Nervosa is someone obsessed with nutritional and physical purity, frequently to the point of emaciation. The goal, says Bratman is, "to feel pure, healthy and natural."

You won't find Orthorexia Nervosa in the Diagnostic Statistic Manual, (DSM IV TR), yet, but his work is being taken seriously by those in the eating disorder community. Especially as more people turn to alternatives in nutrition, and more of those alternatives become extreme.

For example, one of the biggest health food fads right now is the raw food movement, (which is limited to fruits, vegetables, and legumes). Adherents of the raw food movement, like celebrity Demi Moore, believe that cooking food saps it of all nutritional content, and that a diet that consists only of raw fruits, vegetables, and legumes, is the key to perfect health. An even more extreme branch is fruitists, or fruitarians. As the name implies, they eat only fruit and fruit like vegetables, (tomatoes and cucumbers).

To find out more about Dr. Steven Bratman and his book about Orthorexia, Health Food Junkies, click here.

Tara Bennett-Goleman, a psychotherapist and teacher, has been doing workshops on the synthesis of Buddhism and Western psychology for close to ten years with her husband Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence. Using material from her life and work along with insights from meditation instruction and neuroscience, she explains a variety of paths that can be taken toward the transformation of our emotions - especially those that keep us feeling stuck.

Through the regular practice of mindfulness, which Bennett-Goleman defines as "a method for training the mind to expand the scope of awareness while refining its precision," individuals can repair those "maladaptive emotional habits" that compel us to react in ways that are unhealthy for mind, body, and soul.

Bennett-Goleman's melding of insights from cognitive psychology with ancient Buddhist knowledge of human emotions is yet another tool for understanding yourself, and those around you, and harnessing your emotions without judging them.

In many ways, Emotional Alchemy is a great companion book to The Sedona Method. While The Sedona Method is a quick read, kind of like the Dummy's Guide to releasing emotions, Emotional Alchemy is a slower, more mediatative and indepth explaination of how emotions works, and where they come from.

Read an excerpt here.

Gimme the Keys uses theatre to Inform! Entertain! and Educate! about drinking and driving in Victoria schools.

During "Gimme the Keys" school aged young adults enact scenes depicting various drinking and driving scenarios. For a fun twist, the scenes are periodically stopped, to allow audience members the opportunity to play a part, and alter the outcome.

Community Workshop: October 30 - November 4, 2004 Performances: November 5, 6 and 7 at 8pm at St. John's Hall, 925 Balmoral Road

If you want to be involved in "Gimme the Keys" in Victoria or attend a performance, contact River Chandler or Andrew Heath.

Research on Genes and Eating Disorders

The National Institute of Mental Health is sponsoring a multicenter, international study seeking to determine whether a gene or genes might predispose individuals to develop anorexia nervosa.

They need families with at least two relatives, (e.g., sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents), who have had anorexia nervosa, and would be willing to participate.

The study involves the completion of interviews, questionnaires and a blood draw. Participants do not need to travel and will be paid for all out of pocket expenses.

For more information call 416-340-5399, or e- mail, or visit the website.