Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Well-Being Forum
By Alison Rose Levy
“I know that every one of us will have to go through something like this – no one is immortal, none of our loved ones are immortal,” designer Donna Karan told the assembled gathering on day one of her ten-day Urban Zen Well-Being forum. Inspired by the experience she, her husband, Stephan Weiss, and their family went through during the seven years from his diagnosis with cancer until his death in 2002, Karan decided to do something on behalf of patients and families. This past May, in New York City, she hosted the Urban Zen Well-Being Forum to bring the caring back to health care, and to open up a dialogue between the East and West – between conventional and integrative health care.
“What big things can we all join together and make happen so that the medical system we have includes prevention of disease, rather than only crisis management?,” Karan challenged the invited group of practitioners, physicians, yoga teachers, and patient advocates. Karan’s concern, connections, and celebrity drew top-flight presenters, including Deepak Chopra, Richard Gere, Doctors Mehmet Oz, Christiane Northrup, Mark Hyman, and Woodson Merrell; as well as Buddhist professor, Dr. Robert Thurman; and renowned yoga teachers, Rodney Yee, Gary Kraftsow, and Richard Freeman. Participants came from all over the country to listen to a series of thematic panels, and dialogue about key initiatives. Each day began with a yoga or meditation class, which was followed by panel discussions on such topics as Caring for the Patient, Healing Touch, and Yoga for Quality of Life. At the end of each discussion, movement classes were held; Gabrielle Roth taught a dance movement class; Gary Kraftsow enlightened students with his healing style of yoga; and well-known yogis David Life, Sharon Gannon, and Rodney Yee rounded out the packed schedule with other yoga practices.
The speakers articulated a more integrative view of health, which includes a wider grasp on the causes of disease, and how to address them.
“In Chinese medicine a symptom isn’t something to eradicate, but a message about where we need more balance,” said Dr. Frank Lipman of New York’s Eleven Eleven Wellness Center. “Everything in nature, from bad foods to environmental toxins to global warming, affects us – as do our beliefs, feelings, and thoughts.”
Dr. James Gordon, director of Washington, D.C.’s Center for Mind-Body Medicine, believes that the training of doctors and practice of medicine needs to change. “In ancient healing traditions, you balanced mental knowledge with practices to create wisdom and personal authenticity,” he pointed out.
Many speakers affirmed that both practitioners and health care consumers need to take action to transform our system. Barbara Dossey, International Co-Director of the Nightingale Institute for Global Health urged, “It’s time for everyone to stand up, be a leader, and speak in your own voice. Get together, agree what you want to shift, and make it happen.”
Intention plays a key role according to Buddhist scholar, Robert Thurman. “Remember your original intention as healers,” he told practitioners. “Realize that you are there to help people. Love and compassion are your motivation.”
For more information about the Urban Zen Initiative, visit www.urbanzen.org
September/October 2007
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