In our recent conversations around vaccines and various treatments, we are also reminded that our main goal is to stay healthy. There are several key vitamins we need take and/or be tested for, daily exercise, flexibility, strength training, implementing stress relieving techniques as well as staying in touch with our soul through lifelong learning, community and spirituality.

This year promises an intensification of natural health trends that have been gathering force over time. In our feature “Health in The New Year,” by Sandra Yeyati, experts predict that plant-based foods will take center stage as supply chain problems hamper meat production and plant-based proteins that replicate meat grow in acceptance. Telemedicine, wearable devices that monitor personal biometrics, approaches like saunas and intermittent fasting that leverage low-energy stress to improve metabolic health and surges in mindfulness and coaching are also trends to keep an eye on.

In our section Healing Ways “High Times for The Cannabis Industry,” by Jim Motavalli, we see with growing public and legal acceptance of cannabis for medical and recreational uses, dispensaries are commonplace and “ordering edibles is as easy as getting pizza,” reports a marketing firm. CBD, said to have healing and pain relief properties, is being sold in the form of oils, edibles, sprays, creams and pills, and may soon be available in cocktails and dietary supplements. Hemp fiber, recently legalized as a farm crop, may expand beyond clothing lines into such areas as auto and industrial parts and building materials.

Wise Words features Peter Russell on Letting Go, by Linda Sechrist. The pioneering futurist and author of seminal books on consciousness discusses his practical approach to the age-old quest for letting go of the thoughts and feelings that block happiness and hinder self-acceptance. He reframes “letting go” as “letting in” and “letting be” and offers methods of acknowledging, recognizing and even befriending what we tend to run from.

As we leave 2021 in our rearview mirror, we once again revise our life plan—our goals. We let go of that which no longer serves us, making room to integrate newer good health practices. Always striving for our best life naturally—staying balanced and peaceful!

To conscious living,
Pamela Gallina, Publisher