Divorce is the second most stressful life event, preceded only by the death of a spouse. And what is stress capable of? Expediting a severe bout of depression and anxiety to your limbic system (the brain's emotional center) if you're not careful. Acute and chronic stress, especially, undermine both emotional and physical health. In fact, a recent study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior suggests that divorced or widowed people have 20 percent more chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or cancer than married people.

Another study in Psychological Science claimed that a person's happiness level drops as she approaches divorce, although there is rebounding over time if the person works at it. That's what these 12 tips are: suggestions for preventing the devastating depression that often accompanies divorce, and techniques that you can use to keep your happiness level steady or maybe even higher!

1. Lose yourself in a book (or an afghan).

I think the one thing that kept my mom sane the years after she and my dad split were the 75 afghans she knitted for me, my sisters, and anyone who got married during between 1982 and 1985. The mundane, repetitive gesture, she told me later, kept her brain on the loop that she was making with her big plastic needles, away from all the sadness in her heart. Swimming is the same type of activity for me. I count each lap, so if I start to ruminate too much, I lose track. For an OCD gal who needs to burn calories, it's a tragedy when that happens. A friend of mine who divorced last year said that losing herself in a juicy novel was a helpful diversion. Or I guess you could also watch reality TV, although I'd hate for you to sink that low.

2. Change your routine.

The year after my dad left, a counselor recommended to my mom that she go back to work. So she took a part-time job as a hostess at a nice restaurant downtown, working lunch hour. The job forced her to smile, meet new people, and be part of a fresh environment--all of which helped her to get out of her head for several hours of the day and gave her hope that there was new life out there, that her life wasn't over just because her marriage had ended.

3. Plan, plan, and plan some more.

In her book Solace: Finding Your Way Through Grief and Learning to Live Again, psychotherapist Roberta Temes suggests a few activities that are therapeutic during bereavement (and divorce is a kind of bereavement). One of them is planning. That is, planning everything. I know this works because I did it during the really low months of my severe depression. I planned when I would eat my bagel, when I would shower, and when I would relieve my bladder. I planned when I'd write my distorted thoughts into a journal, and when I would try to count my blessings. All the planning cut down on my ruminations. You think I'm crazy? Temes writes:

Use a calendar to make your plans. Plan when you will go somewhere new. Plan when you will buy yourself a new outfit. Plan to learn to knit and decide when you'll go to the yarn store. Plan to go fishing and call a buddy who likes to fish. Or, learn how to frame a favorite photo and plan when you will venture to a craft shop or to an art supply store. Plan to repair something in your house and plan to go to Home Depot or to Lowe's or to your local hardware store. Planning activities for your future will help you reach that future.

A productive way to grieve the end of a relationship is to clean out the drawers, closets, and other corners of your house that may still contain your spouse's possessions, and replace them with new stuff. Your stuff. You don't have to do it all at once, of course. As I said in the last point, you can plan each stage of the excavation. By manually picking up each item, recalling certain memories, and ever so tidily boxing them up for either him, Goodwill, or bulk pickup, you are acknowledging and bidding adieu to the marriage, while creating a space in your life for something new.

5. Preserve your energy.

In her book, Ready to Heal, Kelly McDaniel urges people who have just ended a relationship to preserve their energy, to avoid cluttering their days with too much activity. She writes, "The energy it takes to endure withdrawal [of a relationship] is equivalent to working a full-time job. Truthfully, this may be the hardest work you've ever done. In addition to support from people who understand your undertaking, you must keep the rest of your life simple. You need rest and solution." You feel tired? You're working two jobs ... that's why!

6. Defy the stereotype.

Mary Jo Eustace will make any reader, but especially those who have lived through divorce, laugh out loud with her memoir, Divorce Sucks. I loved the part where she challenges the divorcee to debunk the hurtful stereotypes of divorced people. Writes Eustace: "Our marriages didn't work, so people assume we don't quite work. And this is why it's very important for those of us who have survived the hell of divorce to start redefining what the landscape of the divorced woman [or man] can look like. People can have us over for dinner, even a couple's dinner party, and we promise we won't seduce anyone's husband or dance on the table, expressing ourselves through modern movement and our ability to do the splits."

7. Take the high road.

My friend and mentor Mike constantly reminds me that it's better to be happy or at peace than it is to be right. So, as I'm loaded and ready to fire off a nasty email to some jerk who could potentially make my life hell, I will stop and consider Mike's pearl of advice. Then I drag the email over to the cute trashcan on my monitor.

I have no doubt your ex-spouse is responsible for a mother load of terrible things, legal pad after legal pad of inexcusable grievances you could report to your attorney. And you would be absolutely entitled to seek revenge (or even justice) for his all of his misjudgments. But is it worth it? That's the question you might need to stick to your bathroom mirror on a sticky note. A friendly divorce isn't necessarily a fair divorce. Which one do you want?

Want to learn more?
Check out these five additional ways to beat depression after a divorce.

Originally published on Beyond Blue at Beliefnet.com. To read more of Therese, visit her blog, Beyond Blue at Beliefnet.com, or subscribe here. You may also find her at www.thereseborchard.com. More on The Inner Life

What causes depression and what works in its treatment? It depends on what type of depression you are referring to and who has it.

In common parlance the meaning of the term depression can range from a debilitating mental disorder to a passing blue mood. Professionals use a number of terms to describe different forms of depression, including major depressive disorder (a disabling condition), dysthymia (a milder and chronic form of depression), adjustment disorder with depressed mood (a reaction to a stressor), and bereavement. And within these broad categories there are infinite shadings and variations depending on the constitution and background of who's experiencing the depression.

While there is overlap between the different varieties of depression, they do have different causes and call for different treatments. The sort of advice that some give to deal with depression such as: laugh, get a dog, and exercise may be helpful to someone with one of the milder conditions, but infuriating or even more depressing to others who have a more severe form of depression. The more serious kind of depression, the kind that keeps you from getting out bed and can lead to suicide, requires more significant measures, including the possibilities of medication and hospitalization.

So what I have to say in this blog may not resonate for everyone.

Among the many hypotheses about the origins of depression is one which tries to understand the original adaptive function that it may have played in our evolution. This theory has had numerous proponents from Carl Jung to more recent researchers such as University of Virginia psychiatrist Andy Thompson.

Thompson's research has lead him to believe that our thinking and ability to focus is actually enhanced by the sort of rumination that occurs with depression, and that while depression can turn destructive, it originally had an adaptive role. I believe that there is merit to Thompson's ideas, but I'd like to flesh them out based on my own direct experience with patients.

One of the most frequent themes of rumination that I see in patients suffering from depression is a gap between who they feel they should be, and how they actually experience themselves. This discrepancy leads to painful self-attack, which can eventually become emotionally deadening.

This sense of who we should be comes not just from neurosis, but also from a deep, instinctual need to grow and to find meaning. While this too is different for everyone, a sense of growth and meaning is often found in connection with others and contribution to community. The neurotic part comes in when we can't accurately assess whether we have succeeded in connecting and contributing. Sometimes we feel that we've failed these expectations and mount a virulent attack on ourselves. So, something that ideally leads to growth turns destructive.

This self-destructive phenomenon parallels a bio-chemical process known as apoptosis, in which cells that no longer serve a function for the organism die off. This helps the organism survive, but it can also go awry. In some cases it becomes excessive and results in a restriction of the blood supply to specific areas. Similarly, when we feel that we are inadequate and have nothing to offer, we may engage in psychological self-attack, which can shrink or constrict the personality, and possibly lead to suicide.

Our culture is in the midst of an epidemic of felt inadequacy, which leads some to overcompensate in a destructive way. Our natural and healthy need to grow can then get hijacked by commercialism. Just as an example, one new expectation that some feel they have to meet is to have cosmetic surgery on their genitals. Angela Bonavoglia's post, Cosmetic Vaginal Surgeons Clueless About Female Sexuality, shows us how far this has gone.

A New Yorker cartoon by Michael Crawford also demonstrates the self-destructive tendency as a failed attempt at improvement: A man has pummeled and decimated his car with a baseball bat. A woman he knows comes by and asks, "Still won't start?"

It's unfortunate that self-acceptance has become cliche, because it really is essential to mental health. Unless we accept where we are without self-attack, it's very hard to get where we want to go.

None of this is to say that we should give up our goals and dreams of growing and helping. I'm not advocating a world of mediocrity or self-indulgence. I am saying that in order for us not to have depression take so many of us out of commission, we need to look at the underlying dynamics of self-destruction and the cultural aspect in which the profit motive preys on our sense of inadequacy. Accepting ourselves as we are does not preclude "getting better," whatever that might mean for the individual.

For effective treatment to occur in these cases, we need to help the individual develop a more nuanced and specific understanding of his or her instinctual drive for growth and connection, and a healthier relationship to the meaning and purpose that those can give us.

A lot of progressives in California are worried of late that California's Attorney General Jerry Brown might talk a little too much truth, and that will hurt his gubernatorial run against Megabucks Meg Whitman, e-bay pioneer who has already spent around 40 mill selling California on some very popular lies that polling not doubt said she should tell.

Brown's past statements over a four decade political career could be a gold mine for opponents, as the Los Angeles Times reported recently. Particularly for Whitman, whose been telling some popular whoppers in her paid-for advertising about the evils of welfare recipients, how only a business leader can save government, and why it's waste not a deficiency of tax revenue that's driving budget deficits.

A little noticed legal brief Brown just filed as Attorney General in a Sacramento Court shows his true power as a honest public servant willing to look hard at issues and tell the truth about them. It's a voice he needs to stay connected to in order to win the governor's office.

Brown's legal brief is headed for a show down in Sacramento Superior Court Friday over June ballot measure Proposition 17, which is funded by 99% by one insurance company, Mercury Insurance, that claims it's spending million only to save drivers money. Brown set the record straight in the official ballot title and summary, saying Proposition 17 "will raise premiums" on some drivers, but the insurance company doesn't want the public to hear the truth. It's trying to block Brown from leveling with Californians.

Brown's brief lays out a complicated issue to the Court clearly and simply, an honest broker voice Californians hunger for in other matters. He fights on a controversial issue for the right to make it simple for voters, and to prevent a big insurance company from promising only the sweet without discussing the sour. Here are some excerpts from the Brown brief.

"The proponents arguments that the Attorney General cannot tell voters that this measure would allow insurance companies to increase the cost of insurance for certain drivers is without legal merit."

"If the title and summary does not make voters aware that the measure will allow surcharges, voters will be misled into thinking that Proposition 17 simply allows insurers to offer a new discount."

"What is certain is that if any company decides to offer this new discount will be allowed to surcharge drivers who don't qualify for it. And that is all the title and summary says. The fact that car insurance is complicated should not prevent voters from being accurately and fully informed about the key components of Proposition 17."

The proponents and opponents of Proposition 17, as well as the Department of Insurance, are all well aware that in the world of car insurance pricing, you cannot have a discount without a surcharge. The only people who probably are not aware of this principle are the voters."

Brown deserves big credit for taking an honest stand with voters and angering a big insurance company who has used its political influence to get around the law and elect politicians beholden to it.

Friday is judgment day for Mercury Insurance on Proposition 17 and Brown's a good bet to win. If Jerry Brown can sustain the voice he found in this case, he can also puncture Whitman's bubble and win the voters' verdict in November with some simple populist truth. Like insurance companies don't spend millions on ballot measures to save policyholders money.

When I was 14 and weighed 297 pounds, I had a recurring dream. I dreamed that a fairy godmother gave me three wishes. One of my wishes was to weigh 180 pounds. Day and night, my excess weight troubled me.

I'm now 17, and I've weighed 145 pounds for the past two years. Getting and staying fit has been tough, but it's easier than a lifetime of obesity.

My life did a 180 when I lost 150 pounds. Now every day is filled with amazing opportunities. Not long ago, I carried the torch for the 2010 Winter Olympics. I was selected in a national contest as one of 10 teens who exemplify positive living. I can't say it was a dream-come-true because, when I was obese, I never dreamed that big. All I could think of was getting rid of the excess weight.

Carrying 150 excess pounds was difficult. But I also carried some oversized emotional and physical worries--things my family never imagined. They were too close to notice, and I was too embarrassed to share my feelings or ask for help.

My family is loving and supportive, and they would have done anything to help me. But incredibly, they didn't think of me as obese. I was just Taylor--upbeat, opinionated, optimistic. If they'd known what I was experiencing as a grossly overweight teen, they would have helped me get fit.

Why didn't my family realize I was obese? Because a chunky kid can turn into an obese teen so gradually that the people closest to them don't notice.

You may not see your own child as obese. But check the charts. If the calculations say "overweight" or "obese," your child probably feels a lot like I felt. And looking back, I wish I'd told my family:

• "I'm scared." I was terrified of weight-related diseases. I knew overweight kids could have heart disease, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes.

• "The teasing hurts." I laughed along with the kids who teased me, but years later, I still remember every hurtful word.

• "I don't fit in." My weight placed a huge barrier between me and my thin peers. The more isolated I felt, the more I turned to food for comfort. And the more I turned to food, the bigger and more isolated I became.

• "I want to be thin." I acted as if my weight didn't bother me, but I promise you, it did.

• "I blame myself." I didn't blame my family for my extra pounds. I felt wholly and miserably responsible.

• "It's hopeless." When I thought about how much weight I needed to lose, it seemed useless even to try.

• "Please, please talk, but I may not listen." I was terrified and knew I needed help. I was also self-conscious and embarrassed. But I would have listened--eventually--if my family had approached me about my weight.

I was terrified and discouraged, and I dreamed of being healthy. Ultimately, I realized that I didn't need a fairy godmother to make my dream come true. It was up to me.

For a long time, I blamed the fat gene. I blamed our family's fast-food lifestyle. I blamed my techie hobbies. My turning point was when I stopped blaming circumstances and took responsibility for my own fitness. I believe that taking responsibility is the key to getting fit, and that puts parents in a difficult situation.

As a parent, you know that excess weight creates serious health and social obstacles for your child. You want to help, but you realize the motivation has to come from your child. That's a big barrier, but it's not an impossible one. You can do several things to encourage your child to take charge of fitness:

1. Show and tell them: "You're amazingly amazing." Don't take it for granted that your child knows you love them just the way they are. Tell them they're super cool. Funny. Smart. One of a kind. How much they weigh has nothing to do with how much you love them. My family did that, and it's a major reason I've been successful in getting and staying fit. I know I deserve to be thin.

2. Proceed with caution, but proceed. You're pointing out something painful and sensitive, so don't be surprised if your child backs away. There's no easy way to approach fitness without making your child feel singled out and threatened, but approach it anyway.

3. Never give up. Don't threaten, embarrass, or criticize your child. Approach the weight issue a little at a time, but remember that obesity is a health problem that needs to be addressed.

4. Don't alert the media. Some people say that if you plan to get fit, tell your friends and you're more likely to stick with the program. That may work for adults, but obese kids think differently. They may prefer to experience a little success before announcing what they're doing. Let your child take the lead.

5. Let them build the house. You can supply the tools--books, websites, health discussions--but the best plan will be the one they develop themselves.

6. Let them pick vegetables. Take your child with you to the grocery. Let them choose one each of several fruits and vegetables that they're willing to try.

7. Make sweating fun. Exercise doesn't have to be running on a treadmill. It can be baseball, hip hop dancing, or bicycling.

8. Skip the scale. Instead, focus on lifestyle habits like packing healthy lunches for a month or exercising 30 minutes a day for two weeks.

9. Use non-food rewards. Reward your child for reaching fitness goals by letting them have a friend spend the night or stay up an hour later on Friday night.

10. Set the example. Get the whole family involved in an active, healthy lifestyle. Even thin family members need strong bones and a healthy heart.

I share my fitness plan, along with lots of motivational tips, in my new book, Cutting Myself in Half: 150 Pounds Lost, One Byte at a Time. My plan includes the Ultimate Fitness Game, a high-adrenalin game based on videogame strategies. I call it the Ultimate Fitness Game because the prize is a brand new lifestyle.

NEW YORK — A federal judge who found it unconstitutional that Congress tried to cut funding to the activist group ACORN has rejected a government request to change her mind and has ordered government agencies to make it clear the funding isn't blocked.

In a written ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon made permanent her conclusion last year that the cutoff of funding was unconstitutional. She ordered all federal agencies to put the word out about it.

The Brooklyn judge said ACORN was punished by Congress without the enactment of administrative processes to decide if money had been handled inappropriately. She said the harm to ACORN's reputation continues because the government never rescinded its advice to withhold funding after it was distributed to "hundreds, if not thousands, of recipients."

ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, describes itself as an advocate for low-income and minority home buyers and residents.

Critics of the group say it has engaged in voter registration fraud and embezzlement and has violated the tax-exempt status of some of its affiliates by engaging in partisan political activities.

Last year, a series of videos filmed at ACORN offices around the country sparked a national scandal and helped drive the organization to near ruin. In one video, ACORN employees were shown apparently advising a couple posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend to lie about her profession and launder her earnings; Brooklyn prosecutors said they did not commit a crime.

In asking the judge to reconsider her December ruling, the government cited a Dec. 7 report written by Scott Harshbarger, former attorney general for Massachusetts. It said the report "reinforces Congress' purpose in preventing fraud, waste and abuse" by describing ACORN's long-standing management problems.

The report concluded that ACORN leadership at every level was thin, the government noted.

The judge, however, wrote that it was "unmistakable that Congress determined ACORN's guilt before defunding it." She said Congress is entitled to investigate ACORN but cannot "rely on the negative results of a congressional or executive report as a rationale to impose a broad, punitive funding ban on a specific, named organization."

She said the Code of Federal Regulations establishes a formal process for deciding when federal contractors can be suspended or debarred. She added that "the existence of these regulations militates against the need for draconian, emergency action by Congress."

The government planned to review the judge's ruling and consider whether to appeal, spokesman Robert Nardoza said.

The legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which says it's dedicated to protecting the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, welcomed Wednesday's decision.

"The judge's ruling is a complete rebuke to the right wing's smear tactics that unfortunately Congress fell for," legal director Bill Quigley said. "This is why we have a system of checks and balances."

LOS ANGELES — Michael "Big Mike" Lynche made Kara DioGuardi cry and turned the rest of the "American Idol" judges giddy with a moving performance of "This Woman's Work."

Lynche, a mountain of a guy who lives up to his nickname, performed last among the eight male semifinalists Wednesday and emerged as the star of the Fox TV show.

"You come out with an incredibly difficult song to sing, and you 100 percent nailed it," said Simon Cowell. "Not just the best performance of the night, it was the best performance of all these live shows so far."

The eight female semifinalists performed Tuesday, with the top six vote-getters from the men's and women's groups to be announced Thursday.

Lynche, 26, of Astoria, N.Y., moved impressively from a quiet falsetto start to a booming finale, but it was as much the story behind the song as his range that touched DioGuardi. Lynche's wife had a baby girl while he was in Los Angeles making the cut for "Idol."

"It's amazing. You were amazing," DioGuardi said. "It's your life right now, it's your respect for your wife, what you've gone through. ... It brought me to tears."

The other contestants, who may have been glad they didn't have to follow Lynche, picked up a mixture of praise and criticism.

Andrew Garcia, 24, Moreno Valley, Calif., had the roughest night, with his performance of "Genie in a Bottle" deemed pitchy by Jackson and dismissed by Cowell as "a little bit desperate."

Casey James, 27, of Fort Worth, Texas, did better with "You'll Think of Me," which Ellen DeGeneres and Cowell said sounded "great" but struck Jackson as a safe choice.

Tim Urban scored with his version of "Hallelujah," which is becoming an "American Idol" standard.

DeGeneres, noting she has been critical of the 20-year-old from Duncanville, Texas, jumped on the stage to give him a congratulatory hug and called his rendition "fantastic."

"Todrick's back!" was Jackson's response to Todrick Hall's performance of "Somebody to Love," while Cowell said it was a mixed performance but may have saved Hall, 24, of Arlington, Texas, from elimination.

Alex Lambert's version of "Trouble" drew mostly favorable critiques, including a highly creative offering from DeGeneres.

"You're becoming a mushy banana. You're ripening so fast," she said. Translation: The 19-year-old from North Richland Hills, Texas, is getting better and better.

Aaron Kelley, with "I'm Already There," showed he has the "makings of a great," Jackson said, and Cowell lauded his emotional delivery – while dismissing DioGuardi's contention the song about a man away from his family was too old for the 16-year-old from Sonestown, Pa.

Lee Dewyze, 23, of Mount Prospect, Ill., showed "there's a star bubbling there" with his version of "Fireflies," said DioGuardi, while Cowell said he was better than the performance but had a "great chance" of making the top 12.

If not, DeGeneres could set him up on a date as a consolation prize: She's heard from several people with crushes on him, she said.

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Fox is a unit of News Corp.

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On the Net:

http://www.americanidol.com

Technical difficulties, it's unclear what kind, were too much for one local news reporter to handle during his live report. After stumbling a bit through his lines, the reporter loses it and throws down his notes in a fit of rage. The camera cuts back to the anchor just in time to catch his shocked look.

WATCH:

SAN ANTONIO — Manu Ginobili scored 28 points in the San Antonio Spurs' 97-87 victory Wednesday night over the New York Knicks, who clinched a franchise-record ninth consecutive losing season.

Ginobili kept carrying the Spurs after scoring 38 in a loss Monday at Cleveland, thriving again in his second start since Tony Parker's broken right hand thrust Ginobili off the bench. He's likely to stay there the rest of the season.

Tim Duncan had 18 for the Spurs, who have won five of six. David Lee led the Knicks with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

The Knicks (22-42) haven't finished with a winning record since 2001. They can take some comfort in this season likely not being their worst, since New York needs just two wins to surpass its 23 wins in 2005-06 and 2007-08.

But starting a five-game road trip, those wins might not come easily.

The Knicks go to Memphis on Friday before coming back to Texas to face Dallas. But they didn't leave San Antonio without a fight.

The Knicks whittled a 15-point deficit to four early in the fourth when Al Harrington took a pass deep under the basket and went over Matt Bonner for an easy layup. After Danilo Gallinari coasted by Duncan to make it 81-77, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich sharply signaled a timeout and Duncan bounced the ball hard in frustration.

Gallinari wasn't done. He slipped along the baseline for a layup two possessions later to make it 83-81, then went to the foul line with a chance to tie – but made just one of two.

That was as close as New York would get. Coming back into the game between Gallinari's free throws, Ginobili calmly hit a running floater, then hit his second 3-pointer of the night to all but seal the win.

Ginobili finished 10 of 18 and also had six rebounds. Antonio McDyess had 10 points and 12 rebounds, and all Spurs starters were in double figures.

The Spurs will try building more momentum against Minnesota and the Los Angeles Clippers before entering their toughest stretch of the season: a span of seven games that includes Orlando, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, the Lakers, Cleveland and Boston.

They'll have to do it without Parker, who isn't expected to be back until the playoffs. The Spurs had lost three straight with Parker out of the lineup, but climbed back to 6-6 this season without him.

Gallinari finished with 14 points and Wilson Chandler had 17 for the Knicks.

Eddy Curry didn't make his Knicks return as coach Mike D'Antoni hoped before his team hit the road. Curry hasn't played since having left knee surgery on Jan. 18, and sat on the bench in uniform.

NOTES: The Spurs signed G Cedric Jackson on Wednesday to a 10-day contract. Jackson played for the D-League's Erie BayHawks and is the first Spurs addition since waiving Michael Finley last week. ...The Knicks lost their seventh straight in San Antonio, having not won here since 2003.

Growing up in Long Island, NY, and coming through the 60s, Rock and Roll was the soundtrack of my life. Music was a way of moving in to new places in my head and in the world. Friends were formed around musical tastes and I used to go to many concerts in NYC. I loved the Blues and at that time many of the old Blues masters were being rediscovered and brought up to NY to play. Music led me out of the small world in which I grew up and out into the big wide world of the social, political and spiritual changes that were exploding all around.

I wanted to be a singer in a band at that time, but I was too depressed and unstable to really get it together. I was very unhappy and was withdrawing from the world, unable to get what I wanted from life.

Then I met Ram Dass when he returned from his first trip to India and everything changed for me. Through him, I met my Guru, Neem Karoli Baba, and soon went to India to be with him. I was leaving everything behind, I thought, forever, and had no plans to return to the West. But no matter where we go, we carry the seeds of our unfulfilled desires with us, so after two and a half years, my Guru sent me back to West, saying that I had attachment there. When I asked him what I should do in the West he told me, "Do what you want."

This eventually led me to chanting with people, and it has evolved into a full-time life experience. Traditionally, devotional music has two aspects. One is the simple repetition of the Name. This practice has the innate power to bring us into a deeper place in our own hearts, into a deeper awareness, beyond emotion or conceptual thought. It is said that through the constant repetition of the Name, gradually but inevitably, the Presence that lives within us, the core of our own True Being, is uncovered and revealed. This is the essence of Bhakti, or devotional, Yoga.

The second type of devotional practice involves the use of conceptual thought to create an atmosphere in which the remembrance of the Name can truly blossom. Reading of Holy books and sacred texts can help us develop a better sense of direction; to open new pathways into our hearts.

When I first began to chant with people, I sang the melodies I had heard and learned in India. As time went on I began to come up with new melodies for the chants that reflected more deeply my personal musical history. I never studied Indian Music, which is a complete musical and spiritual practice, with very specific rules about what can be sung and how, so I had no restrictions on how I could sing. It seems to me that the deeper the chants got in me, the more they began to take a shape in a way that was more natural to my Western incarnation.

When I was just beginning to get into spiritual stuff, I read the Ramacharitamansa of Tulsi Das. This is a devotional retelling of the Ramayana. The story would be going along, 'horizontally' so to speak, when someone would look at Rama and begin to trip out on his beauty. The next two pages would be totally 'vertical', shooting up into space, as the person would go into bliss describing the incredible qualities of Rama. Reading these devotional outbursts totally rewired my brain. The circuitry for this love just didn't exist in my head before this.

This type of practice can be found in all spiritual traditions. Gospel music and Sufi poetry are two examples. In India songs called Bhajans are composed describing this intense love of God. These songs help keep the mind focused on the deeper reality.

So what about here in the West? Many of us just want to do our practice and "get off." Most of us find a lot of difficulty bringing the peace and joy we get from chanting into our daily lives. We can't extend those feelings to the so-called "Real" world. I think this is because we have not been brought up to love ourselves. My parents didn't love themselves, so how could they show me how to love myself? We might be able to touch the "Loving Presence" when we chant, but we lose it when we "live". This is because of the way our minds work. We keep reacting the same way to the same situations, over and over again. "We" have learned to hide behind the wall of "me," and we will only let love in under very specific circumstances.

This is what ultimately led to my new CD, "Heart As Wide As the World". This, my 12th CD, is on one hand, a departure from my previous recordings and on the other, a natural evolution. Why? Because there is a lot more English on this CD than there is on my earlier ones.

A few years ago, I was chanting on Maui. A friend of mine who is a musician came to chant for the first time. Afterwards he came up and said, "We gotta do a garage band recording of these chants." When he said that I realized that what I was hearing in my head when I chanted was just that: Rock and Roll arrangements of the chants.

David Nichtern, who produced "Heart as Wide," wanted to be able to do a lot of overdubs, so we decided to record in a studio so we could have that kind of control.

There was another issue: I was afraid that might lose the devotional feeling of chanting in the Rock format. But it was David who pushed me and pulled me and encouraged me to go on and do it the way I wanted.

Until recently I have had tremendous resistance to singing devotional songs in English. I just couldn't find a way to do it. Maybe I feel exposed in a different way than when I am chanting in another language. English has been, historically, the language of my suffering and unhappiness. It is easy for me to sing in Hindi or Sanskrit, but expressing the love in English is hard for me. I feel so exposed and vulnerable. I am still being pushed around by the negative emotions that I have suffered with in my life. The positive, lighter emotions have a hard time puncturing the hard shell around my heart.

I have been chanting for 40 years and it is only now that I am beginning to feel strong enough to allow myself to express that love in English. It's as if the circle is finally being completed. All the years of chanting have purified my heart enough to be able to stand on both feet.

Also chanting the Name takes you beyond thoughts and emotions, so why would I use a language composed of concepts and limited thought forms in a chant. The answer is that I didn't for along time. But after writing a book this year, "Chants of A Lifetime," I was feeling a lot more comfortable with using English as a way of opening up to and intensifying the devotional experience. I think it also has a lot to do with the fact that I am a lot more comfortable with being myself as I am ... and a large part of this is the result of Chanting. So a lot of English just seemed to come though around these chants. "For your Love" just came out in soundcheck one day. The others took a little coaxing from within.

Westerners who do practices from "Eastern" traditions tend to try to create a persona around that practice. "I'm a Yogi" "I'm a Chanter" etc., but it's not like that. We are always who we are. We are not what we do. These practices will give us the strength to love totally and completely -- to offer ourselves to Love wholeheartedly and sincerely. But we have to let them work in our psychological and emotional bodies, to create pathways for the love to flow to our own hearts. If we don't love ourselves, who can we love? How can we love?

We need to find a way to bring more loving thoughts into our daily life. We need to find a method for bringing more light into the dark corners of our hearts.

In the latest installment of our art series, here's a look New Jersey artisan Steven B. Levine, who crafts beautiful books from wood. They can have hidden drawers or engraved titles, and can be arranged in stacks or as shelves.

RHINEBECK, N.Y. — Police say they're investigating the death of a 44-year-old New York man who died after a sheriff's deputy used a stun gun to subdue him.

Police responded to a domestic dispute and possible drug overdose early Wednesday morning in Rhinebeck, 50 miles south of Albany.

Authorities say they found James Healy Jr. behaving irrationally inside his girlfriend's house. Police say Healy became combative and resisted being removed from the home.

Officials say a deputy used a stun gun on Healy during the struggle. Police say he continued to struggle before officers were able to subdue him.

State police troopers say Healy then had trouble breathing and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The cause of death was pending an autopsy.

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Information from: Poughkeepsie Journal, http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com

As a joke, I once had a roll of stickers printed up, which I employed to express a certain bewilderment with the world. They were bright orange and they contained a single question:

"Whose stupid idea was this?"

You can see the myriad applications. Were it possible to apply them to movies, I'd have run out a long time ago - though certainly one could easily be resurrected for Remember Me, a movie for which those stickers were made.

Starring Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame (will that, finally, be his epitaph?) and Emilie de Ravin from Lost, Remember Me is a movie so weak in its plotting and general intelligence that it uses 9/11 as its climax - as in, "Oh no, which character is going to wind up in the Twin Towers on Sept. 11?", thus saving writer Will Fetters the trouble of actually coming up with an ending.

Not that there is one he might have come to. Remember Me is limp and witless, a romantic drama with occasional attempts at humor that has all the body of chicken noodle soup. It blends a variety of elements - star-crossed lovers, class clash, the guilt of the well-off, the struggle of lovers who both have father issues. And what it makes out of them is a hash.

Pattinson, whose dreamy eyes and gawky height are reminiscent of a young Brendan Fraser, plays Tyler, scion of a powerful corporate lawyer (the ubiquitous Pierce Brosnan) who hates Dad because he's so absent. Tyler has a young sister, who still lives with their mother (the underemployed Lena Olin) - now divorced from the icy pater familias and remarried- and Tyler resents Dad for ignoring her, too.

Ally (de Ravin) is the daughter of a cop (Chris Cooper). In the film's prologue, we see her 15 years earlier on a subway platform with her mother, who is robbed and shot by a pair of hoodlums. Now Ally is an NYU student and Dad is a gruff, overprotective parent.

One night Tyler and his obnoxious roommate Aidan (Tate Ellington) intervene in a street fight in the Village. When the cops arrive, they make the wrong assumption about who started what, so the earnest Tyler jumps in to clear things up and, instead, earns a beating from Ally's dad.

To get even, obnoxious Aidan points out the mean cop's good-looking daughter in the school cafeteria and aims Tyler at her, like some poon-seeking missile. Instead, the overly sensitive Tyler starts dating her and they fall in love.

Which, of course, means that there's a secret between them that will, eventually, put them asunder. It's a tired and inevitable trope, the one that ensures instant breakup when it's discovered, which it is - but not before you've had to sit through far too much of this film.

There's the revelation, for example, that Tyler's idolized older brother committed suicide, and Ice Dad seemingly didn't react. There's little sister's social awkwardness among the rich kids, who seemingly sexually abuse her during a sleepover. But, mostly, there are long, moony sequences of Tyler and Ally falling in love. Zzzz.

Like Fraser, Pattinson isn't much of an actor, though he's better here than he was in the dreadful Little Ashes, where he camped his way through a portrayal of Salvador Dali. Pattinson has a sleepy-eyed, slump-shouldered ennui, as if he's petulant about being good-looking. But he's not served by a script that makes him too sensitive to live, too eager to right perceived wrongs before they've even been, well, wronged.

De Ravin is better but, like Pattinson, she's only got a character-type to play - spunky female student who's empowered herself - and not really an actual character. The adults in the cast - Brosnan, Cooper, Lena Olin - are like posts on a bumper-pool table: there strictly for the pretty young things to bounce off.

Tying a plot finale (as opposed to a plot beginning) to a massive historical moment like 9/11 is iffy business. For one thing, you risk looking small by comparison (though the purpose, obviously, is to show the characters as tiny figures buffeted by history). For another, it changes the subject completely, whether you mean it to or not. Few are the films (for example, Little Big Man and Custer's Last Stand) that surpass and incorporate the major incident unscathed.

But really, you don't need to bring 9/11 into the discussion to recognize how puny and minor a piece Remember Me turns out to be. And even an exclamation point in the title wouldn't have made it come true.

Find more reviews, interviews and commentary on my website.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, recently got its hands on Apple's hitherto secret iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.

The 'draconian' document, to which developers must agree in order to win Apple's approval and see their apps make to the App Store, is Fight Club-like in its specificity and strictness.

Wired aptly notes, 'The first rule of the iPhone developer program is: You do not talk about the iPhone developer program.'

Wired (via the EFF) summarized the contents of the agreement:

* A ban on public statements, forbidding developers to speak about the agreement.

* Apps made with the iPhone software development kit can only be distributed through the App Store, meaning rejected apps can't be served through the underground app store Cydia, for instance.

* Apple's liability is limited to $50, meaning that if a developer sues Apple, Apple's liability to the developer is limited to $50.

* If Apple gets sued by a third party because of the developer's actions, then Apple could seek to recoup all amounts from the developer.

* No reverse engineering, or enabling others to reverse-engineer, the iPhone SDK.

* No messing with Apple products. That means no apps that enable modifying or hacking Apple products are allowed.

* Apple can "revoke digital certification of any of Your Applications at any time." No surprise there: Your app can be pulled even if it's already been approved, which we've already seen happen a number of times.

In his analysis of the document, EFF's Fred von Lohmann describes Apple acting as a 'jealous and arbitrary feudal lord,' who is 'putting shackles on the market it (for now) leads.'

He warns, 'If Apple's mobile devices are the future of computing, you can expect that future to be one with more limits on innovation and competition.'

Even before the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement was revealed, Apple had come under intense criticism and scrutiny for the controls it places on the applications in its App Store. Frustrated developers have complained of having their applications pulled without warning or what they feel is due cause.

Most recently, for example, Apple removed 5,000 'sexy' apps, including apps that featured only bikinis or lingerie and no nudity, offering little explanation behind the move. Apple executive Phil Schiller told the New York Times that the company had received complaints from women and parents who objected to the content.

Yet as tech bloggers noted, the company was inconsistent in its app expulsion: Playboy and Sports Illustrated's swimsuit apps were untouched, while lesser-known developers had their salacious creations pulled.

German publishers are currently fighting Apple over its objection to a striptease app. The CEO of the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ) complained, 'Today they censor nipples, tomorrow editorial content.'

Read more about the controversy here and see 15 of Apple's most inappropriate banned apps here.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Facing potential bankruptcy, the board that governs the once flush-with-cash Kansas City school district is taking the unusual and contentious step of shuttering almost half its schools.

Administrators say the closures are necessary to keep the district from plowing through what little is left of the $2 billion it received as part of a groundbreaking desegregation case. The Kansas City school board narrowly approved the plan to close 29 out of 61 schools Wednesday night at a meeting packed with angry parents. The schools will close at the end of the school year.

Although other districts nationwide are considering closures as the recession ravages their budgets, Kansas City's plan is striking. In rapidly shrinking Detroit, 29 schools closed before classes began this fall, but that still left the district with 172 schools. Most other districts are closing just one or two schools.

Emotional board member Duane Kelly told the crowd of more than 200 people Wednesday night, "This is the most painful vote I have ever cast" in 10 years on the board. Some chanted for the removal of the superintendent, while one woman asked the crowd, "Is anyone else ready to homeschool their children?"

Kansas City Councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks said the closure plan had prompted some housing developers to consider backing out of projects.

"The urban core has suffered white flight post-the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. the Board of Education, blockbusting by the real estate industry, redlining by banks and other financial institutions, retail and grocery store abandonment," Brooks said to applause from the standing-room-only crowd.

"And now the public education system is aiding and abetting in the economic demise of our school district," she said. "It is shameful and sinful."

Under the approved plan, teachers at six other low-performing schools will be required to reapply for their jobs, and the district will try to sell its downtown central office. It also is expected to cut about 700 of the district's 3,000 jobs, including about 285 teachers.

District officials face dozens of issues as they begin the massive job of downsizing the district – reworking school bus routes, figuring out what to do with vacant buildings and slashing its payroll.

Superintendent John Covington has spent the past month making the case to sometimes angry groups of parents and students that the closures are necessary.

Once the district had enough desegregation money to build such amenities as an Olympic-sized swimming pool. But the effort to use upscale facilities and programs to lure in students from the suburbs never worked quite as planned.

Covington has stressed that the district's buildings are only half-full as its population has plummeted amid political squabbling and chronically abysmal test scores. The district's enrollment of fewer than 18,000 students is about half of what the schools had a decade ago and just a quarter of its peak in the late 1960s.

Many students have left for publicly funded charter schools, private and parochial schools and the suburbs. The school district also isn't the only one serving students in Kansas City; several smaller ones operate in the city's boundaries.

Covington has blamed previous administrations for failing to close schools as the enrollment – and the money that comes with it – shrank. Past school closure plans were either scaled back or scrapped entirely.

Administrators warned that without the cuts, the district would have been in the red by 2011.

"None of us liked voting for this," board member and former desegregation attorney Arthur Benson said, "but it was necessary."

Two weeks ago the folks who run Republican fundraising made a sloppy mistake. They left the blueprint for their party fundraising plans at a posh resort where they had hosted a GOP retreat. That document is now in the hands of the media. RNC Chairman Michael Steele is having to put a good light on that pathetically cynical document. Money is short in GOP coffers these days. The RNC has less money in the bank than they have seen in a decade. This fundraising blueprint that is circulating shows a sense of desperation. The plan separates Republican donors into two groups. Group one is the small donor that is described as a "visceral." If you fall into the RNC's classification of "visceral" donor and the RNC sends you a stylish plaque thanking you for your "visceral" giving, here's my advice: HIDE THE PLAQUE! The term "visceral" in any dictionary describes personalities that are thoroughly "non-intellectual" and "non-analytical." It describes a person driven by fear and raw emotion. It's an odd choice of words for fundraisers to use about people who give Republicans money.

According to the RNC fundraising blueprint, Steele intends to raise about 90% of their money from "viscerals"

Steele has planned a fundraising event in Las Vegas for his "visceral" donors. They can attend a no-rules ultimate fighting championship if they fork over a little campaign dough.

The Steele blueprint shows that there is another "class" of target donors who probably won't be invited to the blood and rage fest in Las Vegas. The memo refers to that other class of donors as the "ego-driven" big donors.

This crowd is willing to give big money if they can have their picture taken with political celebrities. Also, according to the memo it's important to give the wealthy fat cats a "Tchotchke" or two.

"Tchotchke" is a Yiddish term that describes something that is "disposable," "worthless," and "tacky."

If you are one of those major donors and you receive a plaque with your picture next to Michael Steele or Ann Coulter with the term "Tchotchke" printed on the bottom, DO NOT show it to any of your Jewish friends. They will quickly figure out what the RNC really thinks about you.

Instead of bloody fight events, big donors are to be entertained at more high brow venues like $10,000 per plate chicken dinners.

The GOP memo doesn't stop there. It doesn't simply trash its donors. It trashes all the GOP party members by proclaiming that at the heart of the GOP fundraising effort will be the use of "fear." GOP leadership believes that "fear" is the most effective motivator for the elephant crowd. That fear campaign started a year ago with insane conspiracy stories about Obama setting up socialist-run gulags for patriotic vocal conservatives. Those kinds of stories have been floated regularly by neo-nut fanatics who are so crazy that their heads must surely glow in the dark.

There is really no way to put a good face on the newly discovered 72-page GOP fundraising plan.

It is a document that reduces all GOP donors both "emotional viscerals" and "ego-driven big donors" as little more than "Tchotchkes."