The Struggle to Figure Out Who We Are

By Valerie Varan | May 23, 2013 |

So identified with who we are not, most of us will get dizzy trying to understand this post. Yet I encourage you to pierce through the dense shell of words and letters to the essential yolk of meaning within this writing, for it is there you will remember who you are.  

Most of us struggle to feel an enduring sense of identity. We fail to know who we are. It is like we are naked, bare of self. Feeling naked, we grab for the nearest clothing we can put on. Knowing not the timeless and unchanging part of ourselves, we clothe ourselves with borrowed bits and pieces. We “put on” a sense of identity, rather than wear our own. We take on a piece of mom, a part of dad, a little from our friends, a bit of our heros, and a whole lot of what we see worn by society. A patchwork quilted suit of self, stitched together from what we perceive around us, is what emerges from our taking. In our daily lives, we identify ourselves with whatever we believe is most fashionable. Bling. Boats and cars. Gadgets. Big houses. Prestigious titles. Even our thoughts are matched to the popular beliefs of the day. But in doing so, in attaching our sense of “I” to tangible objects or personal thoughts, we feel ourselves to be impermanent, disposable. Without apparent purpose or meaning. And, we set ourselves up for chronic grief and loss.

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Junk DNA Really Junk?

By Valerie Varan | May 13, 2013 |

Junk DNA really junk? Not on your life. But that is what some researchers from the University of Buffalo in New York have concluded according to the article linked below. They say that genes make up only 2% of our DNA, meaning that only two percent of our DNA codes for proteins. The other 98% they now believe is junk DNA because it is not required by a healthy organism, at least not by a healthy bladderwort. There are alternative explanations. Consider that we have much evolving left to do. And the researchers who have argued that the remaining 98% plays some hidden role are closer to the truth. Especially since ENCODE reportedly found that 80% of our human genome did have some biological activity. For instance, the ability to determine genetic expression, the ability to turn it off or on, doesn’t seem like a “junk” function to me, and likely not to epigeneticists either. The function of this mysterious portion of DNA may be hidden only from our five physical senses, yet revealed at other energy frequencies. Its purpose may be found as we continue to unfold our human potential and evolutionary destiny. What do you think? http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/12/18213982-junk-dna-mystery-solved-its-not-needed

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Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life

By Valerie Varan | May 3, 2013 |
This may be the most important book of the decade!
Saving Normal: An Insider’s Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life [Hardcover]

Allen Frances

From “the most powerful psychiatrist in America” (New York Times) and “the man who wrote the book on mental illness” (Wired), a deeply fascinating and urgently important critique of the widespread medicalization of normality
Anyone living a full, rich life experiences ups and downs, stresses, disappointments, sorrows, and setbacks. These challenges are a normal part of being human, and they should not be treated as psychiatric disease. However, today millions of people who are really no more than “worried well” are being diagnosed as having a mental disorder and are receiving unnecessary treatment. In Saving Normal, Allen Frances, one of the world’s most influential psychiatrists, warns that mislabeling everyday problems as mental illness has shocking implications for individuals and society: stigmatizing a healthy person as mentally ill leads to unnecessary, harmful medications, the narrowing of horizons, misallocation of medical resources, and draining of the budgets of families and the nation. We also shift responsibility for our mental well-being away from our own naturally resilient and self-healing brains, which have kept us sane for hundreds of thousands of years, and into the hands of “Big Pharma,” who are reaping multi-billion-dollar profits. Frances cautions that the new edition of the “bible of psychiatry,” the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (DSM-5), will turn our current diagnostic inflation into hyperinflation by converting millions of “normal” people into “mental patients.” Alarmingly, in DSM-5, normal grief will become “Major Depressive Disorder”; the forgetting seen in old age is “Mild Neurocognitive Disorder”; temper tantrums are “Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder”; worrying about a medical illness is “Somatic Symptom Disorder”; gluttony is “Binge Eating Disorder”; and most of us will qualify for adult “Attention Deficit Disorder.” What’s more, all of these newly invented conditions will worsen the cruel paradox of the mental health industry: those who desperately need psychiatric help are left shamefully neglected, while the “worried well” are given the bulk of the treatment, often at their own detriment. Masterfully charting the history of psychiatric fads throughout history, Frances argues that whenever we arbitrarily label another aspect of the human condition a “disease,” we further chip away at our human adaptability and diversity, dulling the full palette of what is normal and losing something fundamental of ourselves in the process. Saving Normal is a call to all of us to reclaim the full measure of our humanity. Click below for the link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Normal-Out—Control-Medicalization/dp/0062229257/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367594177&sr=1-7&keywords=dsm+5
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Learning to Love, and other Mother’s Wisdom

By Valerie Varan | May 2, 2013 |
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buddha 1097378 1280

For those of you who are mothers, thank you for the key role you play in the evolution of love upon our planet, that of sharing your highest wisdom with your children. As you read about the qualities and characteristics of love in this blog, it will be up to you to teach and model what you learn to your children, and to help them embody the principles of such love throughout their lives.

My mother first passed along to me her own mother’s wisdom when I was still a teen. Though I don’t remember the circumstances that led to the conversation, I remember her words, and to this day, I reflect upon their profound significance. “My mom always told me that the kids who were the least lovable need the most love,” she said.

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Posted in Spiritual Well-Being and tagged