Mindfulness is all the rage these days. And yet, even as the New York Times churns out articles like How to Be Mindful While Grocery Shopping and How to Be Mindful When You have Seasonal Allergies a quick look at NIMH or NIH data shows that Americans are sicker than ever, poorer than ever, more psychologically disturbed than ever. Though the literature has certainly been convincing, we have to ask ourselves whether the West's new cultural obsession with mindfulness is actually helping us.

In contrast, our guest this week believes that mindfulness, which is a "top-down" approach to wellness, is only half of the picture, and it is yet another way we are persuaded to separate from the body and live in the head. If we could also learn to be in our bodies (approaching wellness from the bottom-up), we would have a chance at experiencing true balance and connection. We would be less anxious and more compassionate. We would cease to be okay with things that we've collectively learned how to be numb to.

Our guest this week is Philip Shepherd. Philip is recognized as an international authority on embodiment. His unique techniques have been developed to transform our experience of self and world, and are based on the vision articulated in his celebrated books, New Self, New World and Radical Wholeness. The approach he takes heals the frantic, restless pace of the intelligence in the head, which tends to run on overdrive, by uniting it with the deep, present and calm intelligence of the body.

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