A stroke is a terrifying and life-changing event, and it’s natural for a patient to feel confused, sad, or angry following such a medical emergency. But in 1996, when researcher Jill Bolte Taylor experienced a burst blood vessel on the left side of her brain, she viewed the experience as a valuable opportunity to learn what exactly happens during a stroke. After she first realized she was having a stroke, Taylor continued to observe her own body, even as its functions shut down in rapid succession. Before long, the neuroanatomist had lost the ability to write, talk or walk. Still, she realized that even after the logical left side of her brain had shut down, her formerly underappreciated right brain continued to function, bolstered by its fluid and intuitive nature.

Spend any time on the internet, especially if you're working to build a business like I am, and you'll come across the phrase of the day: “up level.”  I haven’t paid much attention to it, thinking it was just some new marketing lingo.  But a newsletter from Christine Kane, of Uplevel Your Life, landed in my inbox the other day and it got me thinking about how we all can up level our health.

Many years ago my great grandfather told me of the persecution he experienced in Russia which led him to come to this country. He said the Cossacks would pursue him at night, when he was out teaching, and slash him with their sabers. One night he was on the hill above his village with his rabbi, the Baal Shem Tov. As they looked down they could see the Cossacks riding down and killing their Jewish brethren. They might have felt the same had they seen their loved ones being taken away to become slaves in a foreign land.

You’ve all heard the rumors -- that childhood vaccines may cause autism and might actually cause more harm than good. This kind of rumor didn’t exist back when I was a kid. People were so grateful to actually HAVE vaccines, since my mother’s generation lost loved ones or witnessed devastating disability because of diseases like polio, tetanus, and small pox. But things have changed. When I went to vaccinate my baby, other Mommy & Me mothers raised eyebrows. You’d have thought I was needling my daughter with poison.