Through centuries of observing both cosmic and human behavior, ancient Ayurvedic healers defined three basic gunas or qualities that influence everything that happens in the macrocosm of the universe or the microcosm of our minds. It's the quantity of these three gunas -- Sattva, Rajas and Tamas -- that Ayurvedic healers believed can create or destroy harmony in our lives:

Sattva is the most superior of all gunas. Sattva in the Universe is responsible for Creation. Inside our own self, it gives us the ability to visualize well, think right, and act in accordance with the laws of nature.

New evidence that natural beauty, even in small doses, reduces stress

Can contact with nature relieve anxiety and stress, aid healing, and increase concentration? It appears that it can, even when "contact" is defined in the loosest way. Some researchers now suggest that passive contact with nature, like looking at trees from a car, can be as therapeutic as a walk in the woods. It appears that nature can really provide nurture for the young and old, healthy and sick, alike.

Here's why. "We have two kinds of attention," says Andrea Faber Taylor, an environmental psychologist and postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois. The first is the "directed attention" we call on for tasks that require focus, like driving or doing our taxes. Directed attention tends to be tiring, however, and fatigue affects our ability to make good decisions and control destructive impulses. The best way to restore directed attention is to give it a rest by shifting to the second type, "involuntary attention," which we display when we watch a fire or meditate for instance. Looking at nature is another activity that gives our directed attention a chance to recover.

For example, Roger Ulrich and colleagues at Texas A&M University found that people who commute along scenic roads recovered more quickly from stressful driving conditions than those who saw billboards, buildings, and parking lots. Ulrich also noted something he termed an "inoculation" effect: Drivers who had taken the scenic route responded more calmly to stressful situations later on. Ulrich also looked at patients recovering from gallbladder surgery. The patients who could see trees from their hospital beds needed fewer painkillers and had shorter hospital stays than those who looked out on brick walls.

It took 4 million years of evolution to perfect the human foot. But we're wrecking it with every step we take.

Walking is easy. It's so easy that no one ever has to teach you how to do it. It's so easy, in fact, that we often pair it with other easy activities-talking, chewing gum-and suggest that if you can't do both simultaneously, you're some sort of insensate clod. So you probably think you've got this walking thing pretty much nailed. As you stroll around the city, worrying about the economy, or the environment, or your next month's rent, you might assume that the one thing you don't need to worry about is the way in which you're strolling around the city.

Well, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you: You walk wrong.

Look, it's not your fault. It's your shoes. Shoes are bad. I don't just mean stiletto heels, or cowboy boots, or tottering espadrilles, or any of the other fairly obvious foot-torture devices into which we wincingly jam our feet. I mean all shoes. Shoes hurt your feet. They change how you walk. In fact, your feet-your poor, tender, abused, ignored, maligned, misunderstood feet-are getting trounced in a war that's been raging for roughly a thousand years: the battle of shoes versus feet