The American Meditation Institute offers yoga and meditation instruction in Albany NY. Accredited Nursing CME & Physician CME Courses. Meditation and Yoga Retreats in Albany NY area.
The American Meditation Institute offers yoga and meditation instruction in Albany NY. Accredited Nursing CME & Physician CME Courses. Meditation and Yoga Retreats in Albany NY area.
Without question, these are the times that try the soul. Certainly each of us must deal with occasional traumas like illness, the loss of loved ones and financial reverses, but recently all of us have been bombarded by an onslaught of momentous circumstances. Consider the crises we’ve lived through in recent years: the shock and heartbreak of 9/11, the Iraq War, Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, Darfur, Katrina, terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the unending insanity of the Middle East, and the Great Recession of 2008.
The weight of any one of these situations might feel overwhelming; their cumulative effect could well be traumatic. […]
Study finds a peaceful interlude refreshes
by Molly Belmont
ALBANY, New York. September 9, 2008 (The Times Union)
If you’re like most people, your day is so packed with obligations you don’t have time to breathe, let alone think. The computer, TV, and even radio only add to the confusion, overloading you with information, and making you feel worse, not better.
“We’re in a society that is filled with noise and stimulation, and the body and mind get stressed by that,” said Beth Netter, M.D. Netter is a holistic doctor with the Center for Integrative Health and Healing in Delmar. She said over-stimulation […]
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung observed that, “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” Jung’s insight may initially offend or cause us woe, but it accurately reflects a truth stated in every spiritual tradition. In this world, the seed must be split in order for the plant to sprout, and the decomposing hull of the seed inevitably fertilizes new growth.
To understand why pain and stress are such powerful catalysts in our evolutionary journey toward Self-realization, remember the Law of Karma: every thought, word and deed is followed by a consequence, and each consequence leads either toward unbounded happiness and freedom […]
Television host Chris Matthews and a distinguished panel of experts were debating the efficacy of America’s global war on terror. The commentators were Katty Kay of the BBC, Dan Rather, former CBS News anchor, Andrea Mitchell of NBC News and Lawrence Wright of The New Yorker. Matthews asked this provocative question: “Imagine you are having coffee with a group of young men and women in their 20s and 30s in a Cairo cafe. Is there any way to change that conversation from ‘Screw the United States’ to ‘I want to go to Michigan State and get an engineering degree’?”
The panel […]
As children, Jenness and I often watched Ed Sullivan’s “Toast of the Town” television show on Sunday nights. Among the performers we saw over the years, one old-time vaudevillian, named Erich Brenn, always held our attention, and we’ve thought about him often in relation to yoga science.
This performer had a rather simple act. Before him stood three long banquet tables. Secured to the tables were upright wooden dowels, each measuring about three feet in height. The performer proceeded to balance a spinning dinner plate atop one of the […]
by Leonard Perlmutter
ALBANY, New York. September 24, 2005 (The Times Union)
Every American has experienced some effect of hurricane Katrina. Even if we did not feel her destruction firsthand, we have been caught in the mental and emotional floodwaters of shock, helplessness, anger and fear. In the face of Katrina’s physical fury, we are called to deal with our emotional storms to heal ourselves and the nation.
As we watch and read the news, it takes courage to witness our own emotions and judgments without giving in to negativity, despair and unproductive criticism. If we can recognize and utilize certain eternal truths […]
The King’s music helped lead author/teacher to Eastern traditions
by Paul Grondahl
SAND LAKE, New York. September 7, 2005 (The Times Union)
Leonard Perlmutter is totally serious when he calls Elvis Presley “my guru.”
The 59-year-old yoga and meditation teacher, in fact, thanks the King in the acknowledgments to his new book, “The Heart and Science of Yoga.” Perlmutter began listening to Presley’s gospel recordings as a boy growing up in Albany. He was moved by Presley’s voice in a way he would not fully appreciate until much later, after decades of studying Eastern philosophy, world religions and mysticism.
“When I gave my attention to […]
An acquaintance once asked, “Wasn’t Elvis Presley’s life a tragedy?” The question opened a floodgate of memories. My relationship with Elvis Presley had begun in 1956. As a teenager, listening to Elvis’s music was one of my first experiences with meditation. Every time I listened intently to his music I felt happy–so happy in fact, that I began to associate Elvis and his music with my happiness. As Paul McCartney similarly observed, “I always knew that no matter how I felt, if I played an Elvis record it would make me happy.” Because of this experience, over the years I […]
