TAPPING THE POWER WITHIN/ACTS OF FAITH

Phenomenal Woman"
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them,They think I'm telling lies. I say,It's in the reach of my armsThe span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,That's me.

I walk into a roomJust as cool as you please,
And to a man, The fellows stand or Fall down on their knees. Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees. I say, It's the fire in my eyes, And the flash of my teeth, The swing in my waist, And the joy in my feet. I'm a woman Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman, That's me.

Men themselves have wondered What they see in me. They try so muchBut they can't touch My inner mystery. When I try to show themThey say they still can't see. I say, It's in the arch of my back,The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style. I'm a woman Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman, That's me.

Now you understand Just why my head's not bowed. I don't shout or jump about Or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing It ought to make you proud. I say, It's in the click of my heels, The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need of my care, 'Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,That's me.
Courtesy of www.empirezine.com
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TAPPING THE POWER WITHIN/ACTS OF FAITH/EVERDAY I PRAY
By Author, Yoruba Priestess, Life Coach, and TV Personality


Some people will tell you that Iyanla Vanzant is a speaker in a class all her own. For the past 24 years Iyanla has studied ...earning a Masters of Arts degree in Spiritual Psychology in 1999. She then integrated that information with her own experiences and developed a common sense approach for addressing lifes challenges. Her frank, down-to-earth and inspiring manner of addressing lifes issues resulted in the publication of ten books, over a span of seven years five of which the New York Times has deemed best-sellers.

Some say Iyanla is not a speaker; she is a teacher. Delivering more than 250 keynote addresses annually, she teaches a common sense process for discovering your spiritual identity and its inherent power. Her work, she says, "Teaches people how to move beyond, whatever has happened in their lives in order to do and be what we came to life to do and be. We are divine!" Iyanla teaches that you cannot expect to evolve politically, socially or economically until you evolve spiritually. It is this message, conveyed with love, humor and humility, that has earned her an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York.

It has been said that Iyanla is an enterprise, and an astute business woman. There is already a line of Hallmark cards based on the timeless messages from her book, Acts of Faith. The line has been expanded into an array of products that bear her messages and likeness. Her debut effort in the recording industry, In The Meantime: The Music That Tells The Story, climbed the Billboard chart from position#17 and to #1 within two weeks. The CD featuring a combination of music and spoken word spawned a 31-city tour, in which seventeen markets sold out. As the Chief Executive Officer of Inner Visions Worldwide, Inc. Spiritual Life Maintenance Center in Silver Spring, MD, she conducts workshops, classes and coordinates a nationwide, correspondence prison ministry with more than 3,500 incarcerated members in over 150 penal institutions. In October 2000, Iyanla headed the faculty of the Inner Visions Institute for Spiritual Development, offering a two-year certification program in Spiritual Counseling and Life Coaching, based on the principles of her best selling books.

Still others will say that Iyanla Vanzant is a spiritual visionary. Her commitment to the spiritual evolution of humanity particularly women and children is evidenced by her tireless efforts on their behalf. "The best I can do for others, is to provide them with an example of how life works." The efficacy of her message is evidenced by the way she lives her life, offering hope and inspiration to people of all ages, races, and nations. Her greatest accomplishment, she says is being a grandmother and seeing, "How good I look on other people!" So, just who is Iyanla Vanzant?

The world knows Iyanla as an author, an orator, a sister-friend, a benefactor of the many causes she holds dear. We know she is a Yoruba Priestess and an ordained minister. But is she a teacher? Writer? Womens Rights Activist? Childrens Advocate? Visionary? We know she is an attorney. An internationally sought after speaker. A mother, grandmother and wife. Someone once called her, "A guru from the hood." Iyanla laughs as she responds to the question. "I used to be just another Black woman, but today, I am a child of God! This means I am unique, but I am not special. I am an ordinary person who is dedicated to doing extra ordinary things in the service of God and God's people."

According to all accounts, she does very special things to and for anyone who is in her presence.
courtesy of www.essence.com

***** moderator's note
My first encounter with Priestess Vanzant was by way of my spiritual sister DEE H. who had her book and tapes Tapping the Power Within. I'll never forget once while getting into one of the mediations called Annointing My Head, I ruined an expensive hairdo searching for the blue light...it seemed very hard to focus. It was'nt until I learned how to quiet my mind, breathe, that I found my blue light. After a while it got easier the more I practiced I also discovered not to drench my head with the water. (LOL)

During the mid-nineties I had an opportunity to attend a few of InnerVisions seminar's at the Howard University Crampton Auditorium, in Washington, D.C. It was awesome to witness just to be a part of that audience, to actually see Iyanla and get to know her spirit. She has been a major influence in my life but so have many others whose literature and teachings have guided me along my spiritual journey.

Prayer is very intricate for my own personal development as well.

However, those experiences were phenomenal in shaping my approach to tapping into my inner spirit and finding my inner peace. When you have a busy life which sometimes can become chaotic in a split second. We as women need to have a mechanism an outlet we can invoke immediately as way and means to find that calmness to keep our spirit peaceful, rational and less emotional during a 24 hour cycle , (which presents a challenge right there), because you know now folks try to steal our joy in the workplace, at home, or anyplace. I am constantly striving to perfect this, and trust I do fall short at least once a day. Two things I know; One thing I have learned is that I can effect change, because change starts with me first, and Second I can start my day over at anytime by simply redirecting my thoughts, practicing some humility and by changing my mind.
I highly recommend her daily devotional as a resource "Acts of Faith" I keep my copy handy and all of my guests who drop in to visit will find conveniently resides on top of my living room end table. Just in case :)




for more info on Iyanla Vanzant visit her website: www.innervisions.com
Inner Visions Institute 10720 Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20907
Email: ivisd@innervisionsworldwide.com
Phone: 1-301-419-8085 Fax: 1-301-808-4646

Submitted by: Shelle
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Part II ( The Deadly Doughnut)
November 18, 2005
Op-Ed Columnist
A Private Obsession By PAUL KRUGMAN
courtesy of NY Times

"Lots of things in life are complicated." So declared Michael Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, in response to the mass confusion as registration for the new Medicare drug benefit began. But the complexity of the program - which has reduced some retirees to tears as they try to make what may be life-or-death decisions - is far greater than necessary.
One reason the drug benefit is so confusing is that older Americans can't simply sign up with Medicare as they can for other benefits. They must, instead, choose from a baffling array of plans offered by private middlemen. Why?

Here's a parallel. Earlier this year Senator Rick Santorum introduced a bill that would have forced the National Weather Service to limit the weather information directly available to the public. Although he didn't say so explicitly, he wanted the service to funnel that information through private forecasters instead. Mr. Santorum's bill didn't go anywhere. But it was a classic attempt to force gratuitous privatization: involving private corporations in the delivery of public services even when those corporations have no useful role to play.

The Medicare drug benefit is an example of gratuitous privatization on a grand scale.
Here's some background: the elderly have long been offered a choice between standard Medicare, in which the government pays medical bills directly, and plans in which the government pays a middleman, like an H.M.O., to deliver health care. The theory was that the private sector would find innovative ways to lower costs while providing better care.
The theory was wrong. A number of studies have found that managed-care plans, which have much higher administrative costs than government-managed Medicare, end up costing the system money, not saving it.

But privatization, once promoted as a way to save money, has become a goal in itself. The 2003 bill that established the prescription drug benefit also locked in large subsidies for managed care. And on drug coverage, the 2003 bill went even further: rather than merely subsidizing private plans, it made them mandatory. To receive the drug benefit, one must sign up with a plan offered by a private company. As people are discovering, the result is a deeply confusing system because the competing private plans differ in ways that are very hard to assess.
The peculiar structure of the drug benefit, with its huge gap in coverage - the famous "doughnut hole" I wrote about last week - adds to the confusion. Many better-off retirees have relied on Medigap policies to cover gaps in traditional Medicare, including prescription drugs. But that straightforward approach, which would make it relatively easy to compare drug plans, can't be used to fill the doughnut hole because Medigap policies are no longer allowed to cover drugs.
The only way to get some coverage in the gap is as part of a package in which you pay extra - a lot extra - to one of the private drug plans delivering the basic benefit. And because this coverage is bundled with other aspects of the plans, it's very difficult to figure out which plans offer the best deal.

But confusion isn't the only, or even the main, reason why the privatization of drug benefits is bad for America. The real problem is that we'll end up spending too much and getting too little.
Everything we know about health economics indicates that private drug plans will have much higher administrative costs than would have been incurred if Medicare had administered the benefit directly.

It's also clear that the private plans will spend large sums on marketing rather than on medicine. I have nothing against Don Shula, the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins, who is promoting a drug plan offered by Humana. But do we really want people choosing drug plans based on which one hires the most persuasive celebrity?

Last but not least, competing private drug plans will have less clout in negotiating lower drug prices than Medicare as a whole would have. And the law explicitly forbids Medicare from intervening to help the private plans negotiate better deals.

Last week I explained that the Medicare drug bill was devised by people who don't believe in a positive role for government. An insistence on gratuitous privatization is a byproduct of the same ideology. And the result of that ideology is a piece of legislation so bad it's almost surreal.

Submitted by Robyn in Calli