Land of Oz Workshops Blog: The 10 Richest Americans

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: The 10 Richest Americans: Today's headline is a list of the 10 Richest Americans. The article goes on to discribe which new billionaires moved up the ladder and which...

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: The 10 Richest Americans

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: The 10 Richest Americans: Today's headline is a list of the 10 Richest Americans. The article goes on to discribe which new billionaires moved up the ladder and which...

The 10 Richest Americans

Today's headline is a list of the 10 Richest Americans. The article goes on to discribe which new billionaires moved up the ladder and which moved down. We have an idea of how billionaires live but do we have a clue how the 10 Poorest Americans live? How would we rate them? What standards would we use?How would we locate and identify the 10 poorest Americans?

It is rather simple identifying the 10 richest Americans because they are in the news all the time. We seem to glorify the rich and famous. But the fact is, this is America. When Emma Lazarus wrote these passages that were mounted on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty in 1903, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," she was writing as if she were Lady Liberty reaching out to the poorest of the poor in America.

These are very challenging times. Perhaps it would be more appropriate and educational for Americans to see how the poorest of the poor live and know how many millions have dropped into the poverty level rather than how many billionaires have moved up. Maybe more Americans will take a moment to read her poem. She knew what the Statue of Liberty symbolized.

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Extraordinary Lessons from the Yellow Brick Road

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Extraordinary Lessons from the Yellow Brick Road: One of the secrets of life is listening to the right voice . The voice or voices that are supportive, encouraging, inspiring, and enlighten...

Extraordinary Lessons from the Yellow Brick Road

One of the secrets of life is listening to the right voice. The voice or voices that are supportive, encouraging, inspiring, and enlightening are the right voices to listen to. The voice that is judgmental and says you are stupid, stuck, boring, unattractive, lost, a failure and helpless is the wrong voice. The right voice strengthens you and creates safety, protectiveness, hope, trust, and expansion. The wrong voice weakens you and creates fear, anxiety, stress, limitation, and hopelessness. Glinda inspired hope and possibility. The Wicked Witch incited fear and hopelessness.

You possess a miracle brain. Your brain has 100 billion nerve cells (the same number of stars in our galaxy), 1,000 trillion connections, and 400 miles of blood vessels. Laughter requires the activity of 5 different areas of the brain. Every positive new thought and idea results in new brain connectivity, which enhance thinking, feelings, creativity, and achievement. Every negative old thought constricts and in some cases reduces brain connections. Therefore, thoughts and perceptions alter brain chemistry. Positive imagery, imagination, and optimism are fundamental to your physical, emotional, and psychological health. Scarecrow was absolutely correct in wanting a miracle brain.

Your mind and imagination have the amazing ability to transcend time. Your imagination is one of your greatest gifts. You can be in present time, past time (age regression), and future time (age progression) in a matter of seconds.  Learning to educate your mind in the sojourns it takes is a fantastic skill that will positively alter your brain chemistry and change the course of your life. Every time Dorothy thought about going back home to Kansas, her mind went back in time to memories of Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Every time she thought about getting to Oz to see the Wizard, she moved into future time.

Love awakens the best within you. Your history contains the seeds that grow into your present and future experiences of love. The inner places of anger are your walls. The memories of pain are your barriers. The inner places of fear are your defenses. Love and an open heart make you magnetic to success. Tin Woodman knew this very well. The happiest time in his life was when he had a heart and was in love and that is what he wanted again.

It takes courage to be a creative thinker, to take risks, and courage to change. Chronic stress, hypertension, worry, negative thinking, hopelessness, and fear constrict life, keep you stuck, impair your decision making ability and block access to your intuitive wisdom. Change is what life is all about. The opposite of change is stagnation. The Cowardly Lion didn’t know why he was always so afraid so he decided to join Dorothy and her friends to get the gift of courage from the Wizard of Oz. (Within a short time he discovers he had courage but just needed the opportunity to express it.)

Being solution focused opens doors. Being problem oriented shuts them. Don’t accept a problem as reality. The circumstances of your life can change overnight if you alter the way you see things, explore options and possibilities, draw upon the wisdom of your intuition, and take action!  Being stuck is a state of mind. When Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion came upon a wide and very deep ditch in the road, they thought they had come to the end of their journey. But the Cowardly Lion came up with a solution using his imagination. He would leap over the great ditch carrying Dorothy, Tin Woodman, and Scarecrow on his back one at a time. Once he did this and they were able to continue on their journey, he was no longer a Cowardly Lion but was transformed int a Courageous Lion.

John A. Tamiazzo is the author of Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding hope, Love and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road available at Amazon.com, Amazon. ca, Barnesandnoble.com and available as an e-Kindle book at Amazon.com

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Becoming Educated on Inflammation

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Becoming Educated on Inflammation: Inflammation is one of the body’s natural defenses against injury and disease whereby the body’s immune system triggers the release of chemi...

Becoming Educated on Inflammation

Inflammation is one of the body’s natural defenses against injury and disease whereby the body’s immune system triggers the release of chemicals to heal wounds and infections such as bacteria and viruses.  Chronic inflammation, on the other hand, is a disease. Instead of protecting the organism (our bodies) it starts to kill the organism by releasing a surge of chemicals that ultimately destroy the tissue when no infection or wounds are present. It is regarded as an autoimmune disorder.

Beginning with the pioneering medical research of Denham Harman, MD in 1956 and Imre Nagy, MD in 1978, chronic inflammation has been shown to be the main contributing factor of all degenerative diseases, and the root cause of the two greatest killers: cancer and heart disease. In addition, chronic inflammation appears to be a contributing cause of allergies, mood disorders, gastric diseases, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, and the premature aging of the body and skin. A diet rich in omega 6- fatty acids which is called the typical western diet, sets the stage for chronic inflammation. High fat diets generate the production of free radicals which attack cells to get an electron they desperately need to stabilize themselves. Every time they stabilize themselves, they damage healthy cells.
Harmon wrote, “Molecules are made up of atoms glued together by chemical bonds. Each bond consists of a pair of electrons. When a bond is broken, what’s left are two molecular fragments, each of which contains one of the now unpaired electrons. These molecular fragments are highly charged and highly unstable, because they contain only one electron rather than two. These highly charged, highly unstable, highly reactive particles are what we know as free radicals.”

When you ingest lots of saturated fat in your diet, your body generates more free radicals. Your body is already in a constant battle between free radicals trying to take control of your cells and antioxidants fighting to protect your cells from invasion and damage. Free radicals cause damage to the cell membrane, resulting in the cell being unable to let nutrients in and wastes out. This imbalance sends a signal to the immune system to produce chemicals to help repair the damage. Now you have two problems: an over abundance of free radicals and a chronic overproduction of chemicals. Harmon discovered that omega 3-fatty acids, a good source of antioxidants, need to be abundant within the system to counteract the aggressiveness of the free radicals.  Since the brain is 60% fat, it is a breeding ground for free radicals. You want to be eating foods that nourish and protect your miracle brain which has over 100 billion cells, 1,000 trillion neural connections, and 400 miles of blood vessels, and coordinates, controls, and regulates all the physical and mental activities you perform each day.

Two main causes of inflammation are eating inflammatory foods including fast food, processed food, food high in saturated fats, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, sugar, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, and salt which are high in omega 6’s; stress is a leading cause of inflammation since the body is continually on alert, continually in the stress response mode protecting itself from perceived danger. In this chronic stress response, the brain signals the adrenal glands to release cortisol and it is continual release the of cortisol in the bloodstream that presents the problem. What are the sources of stress in your life? What inflammatory situations or people anger, provoke, agitate, infuriate, stir-up, and irritate you? How many of these anti-inflammatory foods do you eat consistently? The omega-3 to omega-6 balance we are looking for is 4-1 or less, or at least something close to that.

Dairy is another source of inflammation to consider. I stopped eating and drinking dairy because of the gastric reactions I was getting. The more I read, the more I was convinced that dairy was not for me. Some people have had success eating and drinking goats milk. Some consuming dairy from organic and grass fed sources. In the book, The China Study, the authors and researchers found many health problems associated with dairy. It is up to you to do more research.

Excellent anti-inflammatory foods include:    

Sweet potatoes, wild salmon(12-1), olive oil, avocado, strawberries(1-1.3), kiwi, papaya, spinach(6-1), flax seeds and flax oil(4-1), broccoli(1-1), tomato, romaine lettuce(2.5-1), leafy greens, orange, green peas and red bell peppers.  The ratios are omega 3 to omega 6.

John A. Tamiazzo is the author of Returning to the Land of Oz, available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Barnesandnoble.com, and as an e-Kindle book at Amazon.com

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Educating Our Children

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Educating Our Children: Nothing is more important for the developing child than to create a strong and healthy relationship with his/her parents. Community colleges...

Educating Our Children

Nothing is more important for the developing child than to create a strong and healthy relationship with his/her parents. Community colleges and adult education programs offer fantastic courses in parenting which include information on infant development, sleeping habits, nutrition, sensory motor development, music, play, recreation, art, and positive discipline.  Some programs offer information on the importance of reading to your child. Research confirms that parents who read to their children on a regular basis help them develop the neural pathways which support becoming successful readers.

It is unfortunate that there is so much discussion in Washington these days from the politicians about cutting back on educational funding. Back in 1984, President Ronald Reagan made it his mission to dismantle the Department of Education stating that it was a waste of taxpayer money. How absurd is that? If anything, the Department of Education needs to become stronger and more resourceful by helping needy students with student loans, pell grants, and student aid. The Department of Education spearheads important research that improves teaching methods and inspires students in their learning experiences.  It makes certain that children receive the valuable educational experiences they are entitled to. Education needs a govermental presence as strong or even stronger than other governemental departments. Why should we have a Department of Defense or a Department of Health and Welfare more powerful and better funded than a Department of Education? Why aren't we spending more money on education and less on the military? Educational funding illustrates our excitement and support of the success of our children's future. Huge defense spending exemplifies our fears.

When I travel to Europe I am always amazed and envious at how most European countries provide free education for all academic levels: elementary, high school, college, and university. We don’t. We encourage college students to take out huge educational loans which strap them with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt by the time they graduate.

Education is the future of America and our students are the future leaders. We should never be having discussions on Capitol Hill about cutting back on money budgeted for education and educational research. We should only be having discussions on how we can cut back on other departmental expenses so that the Department of Education can work better and more successfully with state departments of education to improve edcuational opportunites and educational resources for our children.

John A. Tamiazzo, PhD is the Author of Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding Hope, Love, and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and Barnesandnoble.com

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Mental Illness in America

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Mental Illness in America: One of this week’s headlines was, “Half of Americans Face Mental Health Woes.” Principle Director of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and...

Mental Illness in America

One of this week’s headlines was, “Half of Americans Face Mental Health Woes.” Principle Director of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ileana Arias said, “It isn’t clear why so many Americans suffer from mental illnesses.”

It isn’t clear??? Hello?? Is anybody out there??

Loss of jobs, homelessness, poor health care, overpopulation, pollution, the breakdown of families, family violence, alcoholism, legal and illegal drug abuse, poor parenting, isolation, insomnia, financial stress, horrible diets, the fast pace of American life, the propagation of fear, the excessive violence in our cities and towns, and all the unnecessary violence depicted in film, video games, and TV can all be considered contributors to the mental problems and mental instability of Americans.

America certainly has its woes. And the sad thing is, not a single person in government has a clue of what to do.  America needs to get working again, get its priorities in order, take care of its people, and stop being the world cop. We need to make things again instead of importing just about everything from China. We need to spend more money on education not less. We need to help small businesses thrive again because small businesses employ more people than anyone else. We need to work with the banks so that they loan money again for home loans instead of holding onto all the money they got from the stimulus programs. We need to help people stay in their homes instead of foreclosing.


No matter who you listen to, the Democrats, the Rebublicans, the Independents, the Tea Party, they each have something good to say but each also has lots of very questionable things to say. They argue and argue and resolve nothing. I don't hear wisdom anywhere and I certainly don't see leadership. America has many great minds and creative thinkers but they seem to be silent these days. Where will the leadership come from? Who will step up to the plate and take us in a new direction?

Rallying around the flag will not solve America's ills because if you look closely at that flag you will discover that it too, most likely, was manufactured in China.

John A. Tamiazzo, PhD is the author of, Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding Hope, Love, and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road, available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and Barnesandnoble.com