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 Hello again.
Well, there are two more weeks of free Tuesday teleseminars on posttraumatic stress from NICABM, featuring nationally recognized experts, Diane Poole Heller and then Peter Levine of Waking the Tiger fame…. Check out this rare opportunity to learn from these nationally acclaimed experts here.
When I was first introduced to Playaways (preloaded digital audio players), I wondered why someone would use them, over, say, a CD or a download. But just last week, an old college friend of mine helped shake out one answer to that question.
This friend is a brainy, successful, New York editor with numerous literary awards under her belt and a devoted following of authors who would kill for her. She’s sophisticated and erudite, with a dazzling vocabulary that never fails to amaze and delight. But when it comes to technology, she’s a hopeless Luddite, who would no more order her shoes online from Zappos than fly to the moon.
 So when she was faced with hip replacement surgery, she asked me if she could have Playaways to bring with her to the hospital - one loaded with Healthful Sleep and another with Successful Surgery. When I asked her why not just use CDs in a Diskman, her eyes went wide and round. She didn’t have one, didn’t want one, didn’t need one more machine to stress her out. And uploading imagery onto an MP3?? Not on your life.
 But she totally went for the idea of a Playaway being pre-loaded and good to go, with idiot-proof buttons for operating it. This did not intimidate her. Aha, I thought. This is what you give Uncle Jack, who’s never going to insert a CD into anything, and who wouldn’t know an iPod if it hit him on the head. (Additionally, if Uncle Jack had trouble hearing the words over the music, he could even scale back the music with the Playaway’s equalizer function - this is a common problem with older listeners, so it’s a great functionality to have available.)
Well, Krishna Das’ Heart Full of Soul is finally in the warehouse. I shamelessly confess I’m a full-fledged KD groupie. His soulful Hindu-based chanting (Kirtan) goes to some deep and delicious place in the heart - it’s energizing, grounding and very uplifting.
 I first heard him last year on an NPR interview while driving one snowy winter’s day, and I couldn’t move my riveted self out of the car. There was something completely authentic and unpretentiously powerful in his voice, and then the music samples simply glued me to the driver’s seat. (Weirdly enough, the same thing was happening across town to my friend Phyllis, who was listening to the same program.) It was only later, when I googled him, that I learned he was some kind of rock star yoga icon. Who knew?
He uses a unusual blend of traditional and modern instruments - and a call-and-response format with his dynamite posse, that invites you to join in. If meditation doesn’t quite do it for you (or if it does) or if you’re not so big on prayer (or if you are), you might want to check this awesome experience out.
OK, take care and be well,
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All the best,
Wendy