Category Archives: Uncategorized
Cuddle and Touch for Emotional and Physical Needs
We all want love, acceptance and connection with other people. We’re social beings, and this connection with others is part of our emotional, physical and spiritual DNA.
Touch plays an important role in building these connections, increasing scientific evidence clearly shows a connection that lack of touch can lead to depression, anxiety and a myriad of heath issues, and an inability to connect with others.
Most of us don’t get enough touch in our lives.
We’re touch-deprived, and most of us don’t even know it consciously. All we know is that there’s loneliness and stress and a deep sense of missing out. We feel this because there’s a biochemical yearning for something that is missing in our lives. And there is something missing: touch and the connection with others that it fosters.
“That’s why we started Cuddlist,” says Adam Lippin, Co-founder and CEO of CUDDLIST. “Safe, non-sexual, consensual touch fills a need that’s badly neglected in our society. Cuddling relaxes us and reduces stress at the very least, and on the deeper level it nourishes our soul and helps us get in touch with our higher self. Much like yoga and meditation, non-sexual touch is healing and transformative.”
Cuddlist brings together those who need touch (and that would be just about all of us!) with Certified, professional cuddlers who are experienced, safe, well-versed in cuddling techniques and follow a code of conduct that set the conditions for a great session. There have been LOTS of press on this group over the last year – check it out HERE.
THE CHICAGO NETWORK IS GROWING!
Become a certified CUDDLIST or FIND a CUDDLIST in Chicago
While any two people can cuddle, of course, what sets Cuddlist apart is that we are creating the marketplace for transformative cuddling, and we bring the professionalism and best practices that make it work; Cuddlist training is overseen by my co-founder, Madelon Guinazzo, and she both has years of experience as a full-time Cuddlist and knowledge of what works in practice.
While Cuddlist is something special, and fills an important gap in our world, I also want to share what it means to me personally.
“I’ve been a yoga and meditation practitioner for more than 20 years. Yoga has been an animating principle in my life that has seen me through college, drug addiction, the corporate world in New York, loss and death, and the birth of my son and my relationship with my amazing spouse. I’m also a touchy-feely “hugger,” and when I go to shake someone’s hand I’m keenly aware how restricted touch is in our society.”
Most would agree that touch is therapeutic, and the rush of oxytocin we produce when we cuddle is great, but in my experience cuddling also can be something deeper.
American Buddhist Jack Kornfield, in his book, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path, talks about how the simple act of being present can be a deeply spiritual practice. I think cuddling, if non-sexual and approached without expected outcomes in mind, can help us be present and raise our spiritual awareness.
So while I’m a “hugger,” and I immediately see the value that cuddling can play as a corrective in our society, I also think it contains a deeply spiritual component.
Indian civil rights leader Mohandas Gandhi said we must be the change we want to see in the world, and I want to play my part by encouraging non-sexual touch and the emergence of what might be called cuddle yoga.
“Touch is important, and we don’t get enough of it. I want to change that, and that’s why I, along with my Co-Founder, started Cuddlist. Will you join us?”
Are you ready to give yourself the gift of nurturing touch?
Book a therapeutic, non-sexual, cuddle session with a Certified Cuddlist today.
Find out more at CUDDLIST. Learn more; FIND a CUDDLIST and/or become a CUDDLIST!
Chicago Photographer Anthony Meade Showcase Jan 6th
A collection of photographs from Chicago’s community photographer Anthony Meade have been selected as part of the artOut program, an ongoing showcase of rising LGBT artists from Chicago.
One of two exciting galleries opening Jan. 6, 7-9pm, Meade’s photography will be displayed on the third floor of the Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted. $5 suggested donation.
Meade provides a pictorial history evoking a sense of mood and character that is documented weekly in Nightspots, Windy City Times and Grab
magazine. His work is also displayed regularly on ChicagoPride.com,
which is where he first started his journey into community photography.
“Anthony has provided nearly 40,000 photos to ChicagoPride.com. 38,771 to be exact,” said Bill Pritchard, GoPride.com VP of Community Affairs. “The work he brings to the community is invaluable.”
READ MORE AT CHICAGO PRIDE.
Best Gay Chicago has FREE TICKETS for I Love You Phillip Morris Dec. 8th
FREE TICKETS
to a Chicago screening of
I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS!
Wednesday, Dec. 8th @ 7pm
@AMC River East, 322 E. Illinois
Join BEST GAY CHICAGO.com
for the long-awaited
Jim Carey – Ewan McGregor movie
that is comedy-drama film based on the real life events of con artist, impostor, and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell played by Jim Carrey.
Carey starts out straight. Well, sort of. But then Carey says in the film, “I’m GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY!” He also realizes, that being gay is expensive! So he starts conning and ends up in jail!
While incarcerated, Russell falls in love with his fellow inmate, Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). After Morris is released from prison, Russell escapes from prison four times in order to be reunited with Morris. The film was adapted from I Love You Phillip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love, and Prison Breaks by Steve McVicker.
The movie is one of the gayest high profile movies ever made! And it has been in distribution limbo for the last year. Finally it’ll hit big screens in December! But we have FREE TICKETS to get you in, before anyone else!
WATCH THE TRAILER NOW !
It is going to be a hilarious ride!
Join us Dec. 8th!
Roadside Attractions has kindly allowed us to invite our readers! That’s right, you can come join us FOR FREE!
Print off your FREE passes NOW.
Just right click on the pass below and save it your desktop. Then print it off. Each pass will admit 2 people. Print off a bunch and bring you friends!
Arrive early and see you, at the movies!
Wild Pug in Uptown Chicago has Closed its Doors
Sadly,
we have lost the
Wild Pug in Uptown.
However, CREW is still
going strong at
4804 N. Broadway!
Drinks, food and 20 HD TVs
to watch your favorite sport on!
Chicago’s Final Full Moon Fire Jam of the Season Sunday Oct. 24th
The Full Moon Fire Jam
is a FREE event that happens every Full Moon during the summer months in Chicago. Started in 2004 by a group of friends celebrating a birthday, the jams have grown in size to accommodate the increasing amount of drummers, fire spinners and families that come to enjoy.
Fire & Ultraviolet (UV) Performances – We specialize in fully-immersive Fire and Ultraviolet (UV) kinetic performances. We continue to evolve our craft with an ever-increasing repertoire of fire and ultraviolet-based tools, weapons, and performance pieces, including, but not limited to:
* Poi, Staff & Double Staff
* Meteor
* Rope Dart, Fire Juggling
* Fire Hoop, Fire Fans
* Fire Eating and Bodywork
* Scimtars / Swords / Knives
* Snakes / Bones
* UV Flags
* Special effects like immersive fire ropes, torches, and lanterns
FINAL ONE OF THE YEAR – Sunday October 24th . Rain or Shine. The location is the usual place about a half mile south of Foster Beach between Foster and Lawrence on the west side of the parking lot on the lakefront. SUNSET is 6:00PM Jams and show should start about 7pm.
C’mon down to the Chicago Lakefront for this Full Moon Fire Jam performance!
Gay Bowling in Chicago – Pins for a Cure with BEHIV September 18
Pins for a Cure
Saturday, September 18 2010,
1:00pm – 3:00pm
3700 N. Western Ave., Chicago
BEHIV will be hosting its second annual Pins for a Cure bowling fundraiser at Waveland Bowl on Saturday, September 18 from 1:00-3:00pm.
Last year over 40 bowlers enjoyed a great afternoon of food, drink and fun.
You can register online . $30 Registration includes two hours of Cosmic Bowling and food.
There will be prizes and give-aways for bowlers. We hope you can join us for this fun event!
Better Existence with HIV (BEHIV) is one of only a few comprehensive AIDS service organizations in the Chicago area and the only comprehensive provider for the North Shore. Founded in 1989 by community volunteers, BEHIV provides case management, housing, prevention, testing, mental health counseling, massage therapy and art therapy services in Chicago communities that include some of the highest rates of AIDS in Illinois.
Theatre Wit in Chicago Has Grand Opening This Month!
THEATRE WIT (formerly theBailiwick Theatre ) is opening this month!
Theater Wit dedicates itself to producing plays that are both funny and smart. With groundbreaking new plays and classic works, we seek to engage our audience with wit and wisdom.
Come by and see the brand new, beautful performance home. In honor of this decade of effort, they are making the first two weekends of performances of Spin free to the public.
Performances begin April 22nd!
They also have a host of parties, tours and toasts for you, so check out the schedule of events on the left and join them for the launch of Chicago’s greatest new performance space.
When Brent loses his high paying job as an art director for a big name advertising firm and goes through a divorce, he falls back on his Plan B, resolving to remake himself. With a host of good intentions and self-help books about Buddhism he takes in a street kid and renounces worldly possessions. But when tempted with prestige and cash by an old advertising buddy, he sells his life over to a beer company. Literally.
When his best intentions bring him to a couch, a bomb, a celebrity hostage and the contempt of his co-workers and girlfriend, some serious self-examination is in order. The first comedy in a decade by Jeff-award winning playwright Penny Penniston, whose last comedy, now then again, ran for over 17 weeks at the Ivanhoe theatre, Spin is a farce that questions our own identity in the middle of a consumerist culture, and challenges us to consider what happens when consumerism ends and we need to rediscover ourselves.
Check out the Theatre Wit website for lots of cool opening parties!~
1229 W Belmont Chicago, IL 60657 773-975-8150
