At the highest metaphysical level, my teacher was right: It takes no effort to be free. But interestingly enough, this spiritual freedom is of little help to me now as I face one of the most challenging decisions of my life. As life is so full of paradox, so is enlightenment.

I encourage you all to stop, really stop and take stock. Make sure you are living with passion and passionately living. Surround yourself with people that raise you up, that fill your life, heart and soul with passion.

People are just living life to death. They are living it up, as it were. The health care system is tanking from keeping a relatively small percentage ...

Life is a collection of missteps, mistakes and misjudgments transformed to understanding. The regret of our neglected intuition turns to awareness, as we accept the lesson within the experience.

Authentic people commit themselves to excellence in everything they do. They are constantly pushing the envelope and raising their standards. And they have the wisdom to know the difference between excellence and perfection.

What makes aging and death tolerable? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps we must all, as Dylan Thomas put it, "rage against the dying of the light." And really there is nothing wrong with such a response.

If you can pay attention, and let yourself hurt, it will open you up to living life more meaningfully. By knowing we don't have forever here or with someone, we can learn to appreciate the people in our lives more, to love more, and to be more open with what people mean to us.

I care deeply about the truth about food, because this particular truth could set us substantially free from the threat of chronic disease and premature death. Chewing and swallowing the truth about food could add years to our lives, and lives to our years.

Although I have been blessed with so many of my dreams becoming a reality this past year, I have still had some struggles with truly embracing the concept of abundance in my life. There are times that it seems to flow easily and effortlessly, and times that it doesn't even flow at all.

Those who want today's news to be that the Mediterranean diet has been proven superior to other truly good diets will need to wait until tomorrow, or longer. We had previously lacked any good head-to-head comparisons of "best diet" candidates, and we still do.