Status Updates From Dr. Dean Ornish's Program f...

Horizontal intimacy can be increased through participation in support groups, development of communication skills, learning forgiveness, developing feelings of trust, practicing altruism, and so on. Prayer and meditation are two ways of realizing vertical intimacy.

There are two general strategies for achieving intimacy: horizontal intimacy developing the connections and relationships between ourselves and others—or vertical intimacy developing the connections between us and the higher parts of ourselves.

Dr. Scherwitz analyzed tape-recorded interviews from a nine-year research study involving almost 13,000 men. This study, called the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT), was designed to determine if moderate lifestyle changes could help prevent heart disease. Dr. Scherwitz found that people who used frequent self-references later developed heart disease more often than people who didn't.

Type A syndrome dest someone who is hostile, self-involved, impatient, and alongs a hurry. Type As make obsessive attempts to achieve poorly defined goals and have a strong need for recognition and advancement. They have a tendency to do two or three things at the same time, such as talking and moving quickly, and so on.

"Well, while I think diet, exercise, and stopping smoking are important, I also believe that working at a deeper level is also very important: teaching people how to quiet down the mind and to gain more control over it; how to listen to others' feelings and to their own; how to feel more connected to others and to themselves; how to give and to receive love more fully.