Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 from 8-9 PM Pacific Time.

The topic of the episode will be: Overcoming Resistance to Change

In this episode, Dr. John Deri will show you how to overcome obstacles to achieving your highest purpose. Dr. Deri is a psychiatrist and an Ironman triathlete. Drawing on his athletic experiences, as well as from his lifelong immersion in Taoism and Tibetan Buddhism, John will share with you techniques for integrating psychological tools, spiritual practices and physical activity in order to achieve wholeness, emotional well being and personal power.

To listen to the show you can:

Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 from 8-9 PM Pacific Time.

The topic of the episode will be: Overcoming Resistance to Change

In this episode, Dr. John Deri will show you how to overcome obstacles to achieving your highest purpose. Dr. Deri is a psychiatrist and an Ironman triathlete. Drawing on his athletic experiences, as well as from his lifelong immersion in Taoism and Tibetan Buddhism, John will share with you techniques for integrating psychological tools, spiritual practices and physical activity in order to achieve wholeness, emotional well being and personal power.

To listen to the show you can:

Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time.

The topic will be: The Human Family

In this episode, Dr. John Deri will discuss the dissociation that pervades our society. He will elaborate on this theme as the illness of our times.

The practices of openness and compassion will be presented as the antidote to this illness. Openness and compassion are forces of unification, of healing and of integration. Through engaging in these practices, we can come to recognize our true identities as indivisible spirits constituting one human family.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 from 8-9 PM Pacific Time.

The topic of the episode will be: Overcoming Resistance to Change

In this episode, Dr. John Deri will show you how to overcome obstacles to achieving your highest purpose. Dr. Deri is a psychiatrist and an Ironman triathlete. Drawing on his athletic experiences, as well as from his lifelong immersion in Taoism and Tibetan Buddhism, John will share with you techniques for integrating psychological tools, spiritual practices and physical activity in order to achieve wholeness, emotional well being and personal power.

To listen to the show you can:

Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body

Like all of us, I am in a transitional state. I feel an increasing sense of urgency to articulate my beliefs in regard to the relationship between psychological healing and spiritual growth. The rigid, categorical thinking that pervades psychiatry feels more and more oppressive and confining to me. The “medical model,” which consists of eliciting “symptoms,” establishing a “diagnosis” and formulating a “treatment plan,” is mechanistic, soulless and heartless. All too often, the treatment offered consists of psychiatric medication, with minimal or no psychotherapy. It seems to me, that with each passing year, the doctor-patient relationship is approaching a limit of zero.

Perhaps this trend within psychiatry is of a piece with the evolution of our overall communication and relationships, from embodied to virtual. Dissociation seems to be increasingly pervasive and characteristic of our society. We have moved from speech to text messaging, from emotions to emoticons. There is a loss of soul in our society that is causing immense psychic distress.

This week provided me with a convergence of opportunities that constituted an antidote to this illness of our times. I had the great good fortune to receive teachings from the Dalai Lama, on a Buddhist text known as the Heart Sutra, in Bloomington, Indiana. At the same time, my trip to Bloomington offered me the possibility of a reunion with family members, with whom I had not spent time in many years.

The Dalai Lama’s Teachings

I am in no way qualified to relate the substance of the Dalai Lama’s teachings. Let me, instead, share with you the atmosphere and the spirit of the occasion. Thousands of people, from all over the world, converged on Bloomington, a quintessentially American small university town. Tibetan Buddhist monks, as well as lay people, from all over the world were in attendance. Despite the diversity of  nationalities and backgrounds of the audience, there was a powerful experience of the relatedness of a spiritual community. The Dalai Lama, with every breath and gesture, simultaneously honors the differences among peoples, and draws them together through the force of his brilliance, love, compassion, humility and spiritual depth. His driving motivation is to relieve suffering among all sentient beings. Through the strength of his motivation, he held all of us in his embrace. We were as one family.

Family Reunion

I was reunited with three members of my mother’s side of our family. During the time we spent together, we connected with each other at a level of depth that far exceeded any of our previous encounters with one another. A great deal of healing took place, both in relation to old family wounds and in regard to the  larger trauma of the Holocaust. Expressed emotion, face to face, catalyzes healing. Speaking the hitherto unspoken, responsively, in dialogue, releases the iron grip of ancient family, religious and cultural scripts or roles. This release engenders a freedom that allows for genuine openness to one another in the moment, with mutual compassion for self and other.

Openness and Compassion

These themes, openness and compassion, pervaded both my experiences with the Dalai Lama, and with my family. Openness and compassion are forces of unification, of healing and of integration. Inspired by the spirit of the Dalai Lama, it is my aspiration prayer to do my best to relieve the suffering of all beings, for as long as space endures. It is my intention to use every internal and external resource within my reach to inspire others to manifest their highest calling, to experience meaning and purpose in their lives, and to recognize our true identities as indivisible spirits constituting one human family.

Dr. John Deri’s next Blog Talk Radio Show: Healthy Mind and Body will be on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 from 8-9:00 PM Pacific Time.

The topic will be: The Human Family

In this episode, Dr. John Deri will discuss the dissociation that pervades our society. He will elaborate on this theme as the illness of our times.

The practices of openness and compassion will be presented as the antidote to this illness. Openness and compassion are forces of unification, of healing and of integration. Through engaging in these practices, we can come to recognize our true identities as indivisible spirits constituting one human family.

To listen to the show you can:

1.    Dial the phone in telephone number at (347) 989-0560

OR

2.    Tune in to our online channel at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Healthy-Mind-Body