How Animals Teach Mindfulness and Spirituality

Henry Gellis is a Southern California entrepreneur who is a founding investor of Awaken.com, an online publication with a unique emphasis on topics from healthy living to yoga. A recent article in Henry Gellis’ publication brought focus to lessons we can learn from animals when it comes to spirituality.

For adults, communing with other species may be mind-expanding and good for the soul. Children may have a particularly strong connection with animals, as they are closer to their elemental selves, free from information overload, expectations, and excessive cultural formations, including language. Different species each have their own ways of sharing, interacting, and loving, and to understand this first hand broadens our own capacity in these realms.

Through taking time to commune with an animal companion, adults may be able to bring themselves into a more mindful state, free from internal and external noise. In many cases, such interactions emphasize the importance of patience, as animals do not adhere to the time schedules of humans.

One approach to learning from an animal is to practice mindful breathing corresponding to that of the animal. Another involves learning to communicate fully without words. The author describes attending a workshop facilitated by a shaman who was also a horse trainer. One practice she found valuable centered on making requests of horses only using focused thought. To have the horse respond to the energy of these concentrated thoughts was empowering and enlightening.

Jane Goodall’s Experience That Transcended Mainstream Science

Henry Gellis is an established Southern California investment executive who helps to inform Awaken.com, an online health and wellness journal. The publication, in which Henry Gellis is a founding investor, offers a wealth of timely and informative articles across a spectrum that includes philosophy, spirituality, yoga, sustainability, and healthy living.

One recent Awaken.com piece, “Mystical Experience of Jane Goodall, PhD,” brought focus to a formative experience in the life of a pioneer in the conservation movement. A central mission of Dr. Goodall’s life was 55 years spent within Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park studying wild chimpanzees’ family relations and social interactions.

As Dr. Goodall recounted it, returning from an extended six-week US trip that centered on conferences, fundraising, and lobbying efforts, she again found herself in the wild place she loved and entered into a “state of heightened awareness.” The sheer beauty of what she saw around her, with no price tag attached, brought her to a state where sense of self was nonexistent. Rather, she found herself one with the earth, trees, and chimpanzees, and imbued with “the spirit power of life itself.”

This mystical experience, which lasted a single afternoon, had a profound impact on Dr. Goodall’s entire way of looking at life. From that moment on, she drew from the wellspring of a timeless truth, of which she felt mainstream science captured only a tiny part. This became a source of strength which she could always draw on when life turned “harsh or cruel or desperate.”

States Stand at the Forefront in Transition to Clean Energy

Based in Southern California, Henry Gellis emphasizes entrepreneurship with a purpose and is a founding investor in Awaken.com. Topics covered by Henry Gellis’ website span natural health, meditation, yoga, mindfulness, and the environment.

A recent article in Awaken brought focus to the increased importance of state efforts in promoting and commercializing clean energies. This is critical, given that the federal government has become less aggressive in this area since 2017.

With forward progress achievable due to the decreasing cost of clean energy technologies, 29 states have set in place renewable portfolio standards (RPS). These mandate generating or obtaining an increasing amount or share of electricity from clean energy technologies each year.

Thirteen states have also set in place 100 percent clean energy goals, often in tandem with an RPS standard. Unfortunately, not all of this legislation is enforceable, and some standards could be overturned through executive order by future governors.

With a handful of states bringing focus to energy storage as part of their mandates, California stands at the forefront in its residential solar photovoltaics (PV) standard. This requires that a majority of new homes have either rooftop PV systems in place, or community solar installations that homeowners can readily access electricity from.

Mindfulness in the Workplace

As a private equity investor, Henry Gellis focuses on businesses with positive social benefits, including companies in stress reduction and mindfulness. Henry Gellis is a founding shareholder in the media company Awaken, which publishes informative articles that spread awareness of practices that improve well-being, including mindfulness. 

Mindfulness training is becoming a popular offering in workplace wellness programs. Research has found that mindfulness has the following impact on employees and managers:

- Improved well-being. Stress is one of the top contributors to workplace illness and reduced productivity. Mindfulness practice has been linked to higher levels of employee resilience, which can protect workers from the effects of a stressful environment. 

- Improved performance. Mindfulness practice helps the brain relax and makes it more effective during deep cognitive tasks. Employees who routinely engage in mindfulness exercises exhibit more creativity, flexibility, and adaptability.

- Better relationships. Mindful managers and other workplace leaders are more empathetic toward their subordinates, which can improve the job satisfaction of employees. Conversely, mindful employees are more effective at managing the stress of working under difficult supervisors.

Aligning With the Higher Self Through Listening to Intuition

Leading Gellis Investment Management, California entrepreneur Henry Gellis seeks out value in companies that are presently undervalued. Among Henry Gellis’ successful endeavors has been helping launch awaken.com, which provides articles and resources spanning the full spectrum of holistic wellness. 

A recent feature on the Awaken website centered on author Jonathan Robinson, who spoke about strategies for aligning with one’s higher self. As Robinson describes it, contemporary culture is too focused on money and activities undertaken simply for the sake of staying busy. Many people forget to take time to give those they love they gift of connection. One way of countering this tendency is, when in a happy or loving moment, to “try not to leave it so quickly.” 

Another aspect involves listening to the universe and being aware of feedback in one’s daily life. Feelings such as boredom and frustration let us know when we are “hot or cold.” Intuition can also tell us when things are heading in the right direction, with a sense of “feeling right” often leading to positive results. Rather than simply following the mind on a “wild ride,” trust the way one feels about something in the moment.

This does not mean that the path is necessarily easy. Rather, when something is both positive and meaningful, more energy will be directed toward it in ways that achieve measurable results.

Materialism vs. Consciousness

As the owner of Gellis Investment Management, Entrepreneur and Wellness Guru Henry Gellis is particularly interested in making small investments of venture capital in private companies involved in the health-and-wellness industry. He also works closely with the wellness website Awaken. Central to Henry Gellis’ personal and professional focus is the idea that materialism and consciousness must be balanced in order to realize one’s potential as a human being and to contribute positively to the world as a whole.

A subset of the metaphysical model known as realism, materialism is the belief that matter (the physical world around us and everything in it) exists outside and independently of consciousness. This feels innately correct because most of us believe that the world remains in place just as it is, whether we are conscious of it or not.

Under the tenants of idealism, however, the material world requires consciousness to exist. It posits that the entire universe is based in consciousness and that all physical matter, as well as the laws of nature that govern matter, arise as an expression of that consciousness.

Healthy Aging and the Blueberry

Entrepreneur and Wellness Guru Henry Gellis stands out as a founding investor in Awaken.com, which makes ideas about wellness and stress reduction available to the public. Through the website, Henry Gellis supports the distribution of important health information, such as the power of antioxidants in blueberries.

Blueberries belong to a category known as superfoods, which have the power to support physical and mental well-being. Blueberries are rich in antioxidants that help neutralize free radicals. Free radicals can accelerate aging by damaging the structure of cells, a process known as oxidation.

Chemical analyses have shown that blueberries have a higher concentration of antioxidants than any other fruit. This is particularly important for older people since studies have shown that blueberry consumption may delay and even reverse neurological damage and its behavioral effects. Scientists believe this process may be due to the fruit's ability to correct the signaling problems that cause neuronal decline.

Other studies have shown that blueberries' anti-aging effects extend beyond the cognitive to the physical realm. Data has linked blueberries to a reduction in heart attack risk, while general studies of antioxidant-rich foods suggest they may prevent heart disease and reduce overall inflammation in the body.