• UK’s Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts Manufactures and Commerce, also known as RSA along with the libertarian Adam Smith Institute, have come out in support of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) for the citizen’s of the United Kingdom. “From an economics perspective, the report argues that a UBI (that replaces all other welfare benefits) is the best system to incentivize work and avoid the welfare trap. In the current system, benefits quickly diminish as incomes rise, discouraging beneficiaries from taking up work. The report also claims that a UBI’s safety net allows individuals to pursue risks and creative endeavors. Instead of taking the first menial job available, a worker can spend more time searching for the work most suited to increasing their productivity."
  
  
• The Institute for Functional Medicine - training doctors from a Systems Thinking perspective:  "Functional Medicine addresses the underlying causes of disease, using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership. It is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, Functional Medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Functional Medicine practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease."

• ​Meet Your Second Brain: The Gut - How what’s going on in your gut could be affecting your brain. | Mindful Magazine. "Our gut microbiota play a vital role in our physical and psychological health via its own neural network: the enteric nervous system (ENS), a complex system of about 100 million nerves found in the lining of the gut. The ENS is sometimes called the “second brain,” and it actually arises from the same tissues as our central nervous system (CNS) during fetal development. Therefore, it has many structural and chemical parallels to the brain. At this point in time, even though the research is inchoate and complex, it is clear that the brain and gut are so intimately connected that it sometimes seems like one system, not two."
  
  
• How to Consciously Access the Placebo Effect for Better Health - Dr. Holden. This article helps you understand the psychological concepts of the real placebo effect so that you can, in combination with meditation, hack your own placebo effect to improve your health.
  
  
• Meet The Doctor Who Prescribes Fruit And Vegetables Instead Of Drugs!  "Although it was Hippocrates, the father of modern day medicine, who so famously stated “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine thy food,” few conventional doctors take seriously those words or wisdom and make wholesome, nutritious living the foundation of their patient’s treatment plan. But in Houston, Texas, a progressive doctor has begun prescribing fruits and vegetables instead of pharmaceutical drugs, as he and many others believe nourishing food is an essential requirement for becoming ‘well’."
  
  
• The Harvard gazette reports that relaxation response techniques, such as meditation, yoga, and prayer, could reduce the need for health care services by 43 percent. “Our study’s primary finding is that programs that train patients to elicit the relaxation response — specifically those taught at the BHI — can also dramatically reduce health care utilization. . . . These programs promote wellness and, in our environment of constrained health care resources, could potentially ease the burden on our health delivery systems at minimal cost and at no real risk.” - from Collective Evolution
  
  
• How the Human Heart Functions as a Second Brain. "The word “heart” is an anagram for the word “earth”. Hence, the phrase “home is where the heart is”. Did you know that the human heart is the organ that generates the strongest electromagnetic field of any organ of the human body? In fact, the electromagnetic field of your heart can be measured up to a few feet away from your body. Furthermore, this energy field changes in relation to your emotions. One thing you should know about electromagnetic fields is that every organ and cell in your body generates an energy field. Because the heart generates the strongest electromagnetic field, the information stored in its electromagnetic field affects every organ and cell in your body. Could this be why the heart is the first organ to function in a fetus? Besides generating the strongest electromagnetic field, the heart has an intelligence of its own, which is why certain neurocardiologists refer to it as the heart-brain.” from Collective Evolution

• ​​My Five New Year’s Revolutions, by Parker Palmer | On Being "Revolutions that succeed are always for something rather than merely against this or that. But if we’re serious about what we’re for, we need to name what we’re willing to stand openly against. It’s not enough to say “Yes!” to things like love, truth, and justice without saying a loud, clear “No!” to their ruthless enemies, risking reprisals as we do."

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