How many times do you show up at your destination when traveling needing to recover from the journey? Wouldn’t it be nice if you arrived ready to delight in your vacation, perform your best on business travel, or be present for your family and friends at your destination?

Growing up living in Maryland and having my father living in Toronto, Canada, I have been a regular traveler since age 3. I also love to travel and somehow find myself always going somewhere whether for business, pleasure, or a training program. I have been to all 50 states in the U.S. and visited 23 countries. I would have continued around the world but Mexico, Italy, and India stole my heart. In college, I even got to design an airport as one of my engineering projects.

As you can imagine, I have been collecting a lot of travel tips that help me arrive at my destination refreshed and ready. Before holiday travel begins, I thought I would share four key ideas to consider for enjoying traveling by air a lot...

Meditation solutions offer a very peaceful and non-invasive way to heal the body, mind, and emotions. When I was going through my health challenges with Hashimoto’s and Hypothyroidism, I did everything possible on the physical, emotional, and mental levels to live as healthy as possible. All of that steadied my symptoms. When I started to meditate, I started to heal and did not need medication anymore even though that was not what the doctors predicted. My astrologer suggested that was because I was filling myself up with light.

Imagine having a glass full of black coffee. If you continuously pour water into that glass, eventually all of the darkness is flushed out by the clear water. As we draw light into our bodies while we meditate, it leaves no room for what may be considered “darkness.” That’s an esoteric way of explaining why scientific research is revealing the health benefits of meditation. With our bodies being made of energy, what we are doing is...

 
Get ready to learn something about energy that I have never shared before. I will also be suggesting we redefine how we use the word ‘energy.’

Here’s why: First thing to keep in mind as you read this blog is that science has shown our bodies are made of energy. A couple months ago I was going through a tired spell. That can happen in conjunction with the body trying to catch up to an immense spiritual growth that just happened. When the energy body of our consciousness has just transformed, the mind, emotions, heart, and body feel compelled to transform as well to match this new vibration in all of our parts. I believe that can happen in the opposite direction as well.

To offer another frame of reference, consciousness has just begun to form itself in a baby’s body. The body must rapidly grow to match the intention of the soul in human form. You would think a baby being new to the earth would have tons of energy, yet it naps a lot.

Ayurvedically...

For your inspiration, a story of Angela healing from diabetes when all hope was lost. This is part of a longer interview with Coach Ruben, author of Evolving Health, featured in my book Healing Happens: Stories of Healing Against All Odds.

Avital: Do you have any stories that illustrate such a shift in somebody, comparing what would typically happen in a situation handled by the medical industry and the success you were able to achieve?

Coach Ruben: Certainly. One of my favorite stories is about Angela. I met her when she was fifteen years old and I was her swimming coach. I coached swimmers professionally for thirty years, and she was one of my outstanding swimmers.

When we first met, she was disillusioned, unhappy, and frustrated. Her previous coaches had told her that because she had gotten heavy she was never going to make it at the big-time level. But she started swimming with me, and within a short time I was able to see her potential. I told her, “I see...

If someone told you there was a way to accelerate your healing process, completely heal against all odds, and never be worried again about getting sick, you would want to know about it, right? As I am interviewing people for my upcoming book, Healing Happens, I am seeing more and more patterns between what we all believe led to our healing beyond the diagnosis our doctors gave us.

There are three keys that I thought to touch on in this blog post. And I will use five stories as examples:

1. My story: I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s and Hypothyroidism, among other things, and put on medication for life. After exploring the physical, energetic, mental, emotional, and spiritual layers I healed.

2. Anita Moorjani, author of Dying To Be Me: Anita attempted the natural route of healing cancer until she fell into a coma and was proclaimed by her doctor to have a few hours to live. While in the coma she had what some call a near-death experience (NDE). From the awareness she gained...

Would you like to know how to align with your fullest potential? Do you want to feel a sense of freedom in every cell of your body? Would you like to have the flexibility and control to access whatever skills you need in any moment?

Me too! Actually those are the gifts that I have tapped into through my journey with movement and spirituality.

Starting before the age of five my parents put me in gymnastics programs. I liked it more than anything else and used to practice it in my backyard and create swingset circuses for the neighbors. Since the dance-like moves in the floor routines were my favorite,  as a teen I completely switched to dance.

I was in my first dance company in high school and got to choreograph for a couple of our school musicals. I majored in dance in college (alongside of Mechanical Engineering) and started teaching kids dance classes. Later I taught adult fitness dance classes and even had my own dance company briefly.

Everywhere I traveled, I...

"How can I dissolve the contradiction of being vegan with pills for diabetes?"

A letter from a student and my response...

Hi Avital, I wonder if you have an idea for me of how to solve a present conflict. My doctor told me this week that I have diabetes and must take pills now or it's danger (high sugar in blood can cause major problems). I do yoga and love pranayama meditation. I'm also vegan and like to be close to nature as much as possible, even in city life. So having to take pills into my body is very upsetting... Thank you... love and peace to you...

Dear Friend,

I am sorry to hear the news about your diagnosis. I also want to commend you on taking action right away and trying to make a conscious choice.

I was very upset too when I was put on thyroid medication. I did not know of other options and trusted my doctors so I took the medication. I was told one of the side effects of the thyroid medication was osteoporosis. I had a silent prayer that...

With the rise of terrors in the news and controversial politics, are you sometimes feeling challenged and asking how to stay positive and loving?

My favorite question from the Bhagavad Gita just came up again in the online study group, “Which side has won?” Looking at today’s politics, you may ask: Donald Trump? Isis? Gays? Women? People with skin color other than white? Police Officers? The 1% or the 99%? But the battle is not over yet!

In the Bhagavad Gita shortly after the battle of Kurukshetra began, the blind man asked, "Which side has won?" This seems to be an odd question considering the battle was not over yet. Normally at that point one would ask, "Which side is winning?"

The one who has the gift of introspection replied to the question with the actions related to the consciousness of the people fighting. The winners are the ones holding their consciousness in a high place. In the game of consciousness everyone could be a winner.

I have never had an...

Last week’s blog post claimed one day, meditation will be considered a drug. Maybe it already is? Doctors are now prescribing meditation. It helps calm and relax people, as well as heal disease. When some people meditate they see beautiful color formations or hear intriguing sounds. Some people gain an expanded awareness, as some people claim drugs offer them.

Warning: side effects may include:
Not caring what others think of you.
Needing less sleep.
Getting along better with others.
Enhancing the immune system.
Causing your face to glow and eyes to shine.
Making you look younger.
Reducing Pre-Menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
Developing emotional maturity.
Giving you better test scores in school.
Helping you work more efficiently.

Side effects of overdosing may include:
Becoming addicted to meditation.
Not wanting to fulfill your daily duties.
Talking in a monotone voice.
Developing pride.
Isolating yourself from others.
Using it as validation for having greater awareness than others who do...

Last week in the blog post, “Is The Bhagavad Gita Timeless?”, I made five claims to dispel myths about the Bhagavad Gita, and stated I would explain them this week. Maybe you were patiently or anxiously waiting for that explanation. And here we have it!

Each claim depends on how you define the terms and relate to the statements. I believe the intention behind the Bhagavad Gita is to lay a supportive foundation that can be applied to any path and any life. Yet sometimes it felt to me as if it was getting too detailed with too much definition on how life “should” be. As I kept reading I would hit a statement that presented the underlying message I was feeling thus wiping away what was previously stated and taking things up a notch in understanding. These five statements are what I find helpful to focus on for today’s awakened consciousness.

First claim: There is no right and wrong.

 
Well, actually, there may be, but not in the way you think. What I...