Just two short weeks from today the 13th annual Energy Psychology Conference begins in Toronto, Canada!
Along with numerous other top experts I'll be there, presenting a two-hour workshop on Friday October 21 called Advanced Bodywork forEmotional Balance and Mind-Body Reintegration.
This workshop contains lots of material I've never presented before - it's the shape of things to come in mind-body integration, a real "how-to" guide to becoming authentically human, mastering your emotions and improving your health. You don't have to continue living in the "mind-body divorce" of Western culture that's messing you up on every plane of your existence. There IS a better way!
First, you get to meet many of the top healers in the world today and learn cutting edge methods you can use in your own life, in the lives of your loved ones and, if you're a practitioner, with your clients.
There are amazing keynote addresses, great workshops, plenty of time to make new friends and a well-stocked bookstore - it's paradise ;-)
Among this year's presenters is Lynn McTaggart, the famous author of the now classic bestseller, The Field: the Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe. Lynn is one of the world's top authorities on energy healing and cutting edge biology.
Lynn McTaggart
So have a look at the EPC site using this link. If you can possibly come to this amazing conference I would encourage you to do so because it's an incomparable learning opportunity!
A 5.9 earthquake in Virginia?? Hurricane Irene? Is the world coming apart at the seams? My son felt the Virginia quake quite strongly as far away as Toronto, the city I grew up in and where I never felt a quake in two decades of living there. Yet that city has felt two in the last 14 months.
Of course, my son was on the 12th floor of an apartment building, whereas I was here in Ottawa and closer to the epicenter but felt nothing, probably because I was in a ground floor meeting room at the time. The higher up you are in a building, the more you'll feel it.
As I listened to people's random comments over the next few days, there was one common theme - earthquakes and natural disasters are becoming more frequent and it feels like the planet is falling apart around us and under us.
Fear and Your Personal Resilience
It's nearly impossible to listen to all the low level fear-mongering and not walk away with a bit of the anxiety yourself. As a community of people committed to developing our personal resilience, this should be a big concern for all of us because fear:
Raises your stress level and damages your health
Makes you prone to misinterpret what's going on around you
Clouds your judgment and gives rise to poor decision-making
And we are all fed an non-stop diet of fear and anxiety through the media. You're told the economy is going down the toilet, Western civilization is on its last legs, there are super bugs waiting to eat you alive and now the ground under you is shaking as well.
If you allow yourself to listen to all this there is almost no way you'll be able to keep your focus on cultivating inner and outer harmony in your life. For a little taste of Hollywood's contributions to the madness, turn up your speakers and "enjoy" this little clip:
"Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated..."
But Is All This Really True?
Let's take earthquakes first. Is it really true that the frequency and magnitude of earthquakes are on the increase? Here's what the US Geological Survey has to say:
"We continue to be asked by many people throughout the world if earthquakes are on the increase. Although it may seem that we are having more earthquakes, earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater have remained fairly constant. (...) According to long-term records (since about 1900), we expect about 17 major earthquakes (7.0 - 7.9) and one great earthquake (8.0 or above) in any given year."
Just propaganda to make you feel better? Well, considering worldwide earthquake data is available instantly at your finger tips from many sources around the world, that seems unlikely. Moreover, a casual glance at the hard data seems to support the USGS' contention - there has been little change in earthquake frequency and severity over the past several decades.
Some people will look at earthquake fatalities, particularly with reference to 2010, and say, "Look, it's getting worse!" However, the fatalities are entirely a function of where the quake happens to hit and in 2010 a major quake hit Haiti, one of the most vulnerable communities on the planet, causing over 350,000 deaths. The fact that a vastly stronger quake hit Chile later the same year yet caused only one thousand deaths because of Chile's outstanding preparedness just goes to show you what a poor measurement the number of fatalities is.
The Joys of Instant, Free, Worldwide Communications
Over just the past 20 years, our ability to identify and track earthquakes has greatly increased because there are now more seismograph stations than ever - about 8000 worldwide.
Think about this: when there was a major earthquake in the 1980s in, say, Indonesia, you could probably hear about it on the TV news. There might even have been a video, though not necessarily. And if you missed the TV news, you might find it in the newspaper, though probably not on the front page.
If that same earthquake happens today, the videos will be all over Youtube within minutes, you won't be able to open your browser without having the video in front of your eyes and then your friends on Facebook will start talking about it too. So the subjective impression we have that disasters are happening more often is just that, a subjective impression not always borne out by the facts.
What About Global Climate Change?
To those living in denial about the reality of global climate change I have one thing to say: call my office and we'll arrange a meeting in Toronto. That's where I'll show you the 30' x 40' piece of turf where we created a skating rink in our backyard for about three months of the year for over 20 years.
No one can do that in Toronto anymore. There's not enough snow. It never stays cold enough for long enough. For the past 20 years or more it's been impossible to replicate what we did back in the sixties and seventies. The British Royal Society, perhaps the world's most prestigious scientific organization, has this to say about climate change:
"There is strong evidence that changes in greenhouse gas concentrations due to human activity are the dominant cause of the global warming that has taken place over the last half century. This warming trend is expected to continue as are changes in precipitation over the long term in many regions. Further and more rapid increases in sea level are likely which will have profound implications for coastal communities and ecosystems."
To the climate change deniers out there, it's time to wake up and read the memo.
An Exercise For You
Here's an exercise you can have some fun with. This will show you whether or not the media / social media are increasing your anxiety levels.
Days 1-3
Be sure to watch the TV world news and national news daily
Keep up with your social media contacts as well
Scan at least the front page of your local newspaper - even better, read a few pages
Then, right after you've done that, sit quietly and see if you can detect anxiety within. Put a number on that anxiety from 1-10, where 10 is very severe. Write it down.
Then feel free to use EFT or any other method you wish to clear away the anxiety
Days 4-6
Be sure NOT to expose yourself to the world or local news in any form
Stay off social media - three days won't kill you and your Facebook and Twitter buddies will survive
Stay away from television, movies, Youtube, etc. This is a total media fast. Read something inspiring instead!
At the end of each day, do the same test as for days 1-3 and write down your results.
Then please feel free to share your results with us, either on this blog or by emailing our office. We'd love to have your thoughts on all this!
"The best of all medicines is resting and _______."
~ Benjamin Franklin
Hi everyone,
Care to fill in the blank in today's quotation?
Read on to find the answer...
A recent study has shown that _______ causes you to secrete more of a hormone called GHRELIN, which has a few interesting side effects...
- It gives you energy - Makes you more action-oriented - Makes you more sociable - and better able to overcome obstacles
Okay, I know. You're saying, "Where can I get me some of this stuff?!"
Relax - your body makes it. Your stomach makes most of it and some extra comes from your kidneys, your hypothalamus and pituitary glands. Ghrelin has a notable anti-depressive effect and generally makes people much HAPPIER.
Of course, your system makes more of it when you're _______.
That might be part of the reason people practicing authentic ancient spiritual traditions are about the happiest folks you'll ever meet. At least, that was certainly my experience of the Orthodox Christian monks of Mt. Athos in Greece.
And they're certainly well known for their _______.
SO WHAT IS _______ ALREADY??!!
It's fasting. The practice of going without food or sometimes food and drink for a certain defined period. It's long been known that fasting kick-starts the body's cleansing reaction, causing you to release toxins.
And fasting it SIGNIFICANTLY contributes to longevity. (If you want to live a long time, try not only eating a BETTER diet, but also eating LESS). Some recent experiments with mice determined that cutting down the little rodent's food intake contributed to lengthening his lifespan by 30% or more and keeping him healthy at the same time. For a human, that would mean the difference between a life plagued with health problems and coming to an abrupt end around age 80 versus a longer, disease-free life of closer to 106 years. Sound good to you?
Fasting is also critically important to any REAL spiritual life. By the way, that doesn't mean that ALL religious fasting is helpful spiritually, it just means truly spiritual people practice fasting. There's a difference!
Now, though, the evidence also suggests that fasting has a very positive, mood-altering side effect as well. Again, this applies to INTELLIGENT fasting, practiced in MODERATION. Don't succumb to the silly logic that if a little fasting makes happy, a ton of fasting will make you the happiest person on earth. Wrong!
So if you're aiming for personal resilience in your life, fasting will be an indispensable practice for you. It will improve your mood, giving you the emotional resources to cope with the ups and downs of life. It will help you detoxify, keeping you healthier. And it will greatly facilitate your spiritual practices, such as prayer and meditation.
NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE?
Then the best way to start is to ease yourself into it.
You can try spending a morning with nothing more than pure water, for example. Then - and this is REALLY important - take note of how you feel physically, mentally and emotionally.
One of the easiest ways to incorporate fasting into your life is to set aside one day per week for it and then do a detoxification cleanse 2-4 times per year. For your one day per week, you could start off, for example, by something as simple as drinking only pure water in the morning and then having only liquids (nutritious smoothies, for example) for the rest of the day.
So, why not set aside a day to avoid this...
... in order to enjoy this?
Believe me, your digestive system will be thanking you big time!
There are lots of varieties of fasting and we can't get into the details here, but you get the general idea.
When regular fasting becomes part of your life, you'll LOOK FORWARD to it, knowing how great it makes you feel.
NOTICE:Just a friendly warning to you that if you're really put off by explicit talk about human bowel functions, this post sure isn't for you! On the other hand, if you're intensely interested in radically improving your overall health, immunity and longevity, read on...
It feels so strange... moving my jaw up and down in order to pulverize food for easier digestion. The action stirs distant memories of a time long ago... five days ago, in fact, which was the last time I chewed anything!
The Past Week's Adventure in Resilience
That's because I've spent the last week doing Blessed Herbs' Colon Cleanse, and what a super cleanse it is! What basis do I have for making that claim? Simple, by the visible results.
You see, with a colon cleanse, seeing is believing. What you're out to eliminate from your system is the toxic mucoid plaque that's lining you colon / large intestine / bowel. And it's easy to identify because it's totally different in color and texture from your usual bowel movement. Here's what it looks like (no, this isn't mine ;-)
Mucoid plaque is long, rubbery, usually somewhere between very dark green and black. This was the first time using an all-herbal colon cleanse that I've been able to eliminate this stuff.
Previously, I was convinced that the only way to do this was by doing colonic hydrotherapy - that is, using water under pressure to flush out the colon. The only problem with the latter is convenience, because it will probably cost you a few hundred dollars to have it done professionally, or you can probably get set up to do it at home for a couple hundred or so.
So kudos to Blessed Herbs for a really effective colon cleanse that's so convenient to use and doesn't require colonic hydrotherapy!
Why Bother Cleansing Your Colon?
Of course, the begs the question of why you would want to cleanse your colon. Well, if you're a reader of this blog, you probably already know, but briefly, here's why:
As the plaque builds up over time, it leaches toxins directly into your blood stream, compromising the function of all you cells and significantly increasing the toxic load on your system
The plaque inhibits your ability to absorb nutrients from your food, creating a kind of internal "malnutrition" no matter how good your diet is
If you have spent any of your life on the "Standard American Diet" (SAD), you can be sure you're carrying around some unwanted pounds of this stuff (consider that even though my diet is heavily organic, mostly follows the rules of food combining and that I've done colonic hydrotherapy in the past, I still eliminated about eight feet of plaque this time around!)
So naturally, when you cleanse your colon of mucoid plaque build-up, you eliminate all these problems and return your metabolism to a higher level of functioning and overall resilience.
Know What You're Getting Into...
Now, before you run off to grab their kit, let me tell you up front that this does require some adjustments to your lifestyle for the duration of the cleanse. You go through three stages:
Stage 1: The 3 day pre-cleanse, where you eat ever decreasing portions of raw, organic food.
Stage 2: The 5 day liquid-only cleanse. That's right, NO solid food, for reasons I'll explain below. And as my business advisor, Kathy, so kindly reminded me last week, "liquid only doesn't include having a beer on your patio!" You'll be on water and organic fruit juice, with some vegetable broth if you want it. Even my traditional fruit smoothie was out of bounds.
Stage 3: The 1 day break-the-fast, where you start slowly (since your digestive system has been largely in shut-down mode for several days), with a diet of fresh fruits and veggies, steamed veggies, brown rice or baked potato.
Just to clarify, the reason for no solid food is simple: their Toxin Absorber, that you'll be taking every three hours mixed into apple juice, binds to the mucoid plaque and escorts it out of your body. If you still have solid food in your digestive system, the Toxin Absorber will bind to that instead and leave the toxic garbage inside you - not a great idea!
So there you have it - nine days invested total and well worth it!!
Today we begin a two-part series on something at the very heart of the issues of our time all over the world: what happens when religion goes wrong...
In its most extreme forms, we see the results worldwide every day - radical evangelicals preaching violence against gays, a papacy in deep denial over the scale of sexual abuse in its midst, mass rioting and random killings throughout the Muslim world at the mere rumor of an anti-Islamic publication in the West, and the list goes on and on.
Those extreme forms are just symptoms, though. They're symptoms whose causes remain largely hidden from us as a civilization because we no longer understand a fundamental truth - not everything that passes itself off as "spiritual" is good, healthy and beneficial. Far from it...
In fact, as a civilization we've become so divorced from real spiritual life that our ability to sort out false spiritual paths from healthy ones is marginal at best.We no longer know the distinguishing criteria of each, the questions to ask or the tell-tale signs of each.
In reality, asking most people today to distinguish real spiritual paths from false ones is about as useful as asking a Kalahari bushman for advice on your next family car.
The Vital Importance of Spiritual Resilience
To get anywhere close to figuring out what spiritual resilience means, we first have to define the word "spiritual", which is no simple task.
So let's put it this way: just as resilience itself is a path toward maximizing your potential on all levels (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual), spiritual resilience is the act of opening yourself to the deepest truths of your existence in this universe so that you can become everything you're meant to be.
Not surprisingly, you can never become truly resilient and fulfilled as a human person if you ignore your own spiritual dimension, since that is, in reality, the deepest layer of your own being.
What I've called "authentic ancient traditions" in my bestseller, The 5 Pillars of Life*, are ancient, tried and proven approaches for doing exactly this. And, contrary to what we assume, they have a boatload of evidence to back up the authenticity of their discoveries.
Religion vs. Authentic Ancient Traditions
Here's a short excerpt from The 5 Pillars of Life* to help you wrap your head around the differences between what we usually call "religions" and something much deeper:
*************
All fantasies, especially that of religion, are caused by a short-circuit at the centre of the human personality. This short-circuit, which exists between the heart which pumps blood (the circulatory system) and the spinal cord which circulates spinal fluid (the nervous system) is only repaired by ceaseless prayer in the heart. It is only when the short-circuit is repaired that you begin to be liberated from the realm of fantasy.
- Rev. Dr. John Romanides in “Religion as a Neurobiological Illness”[i]
Startling, isn’t it? - A world-renowned Orthodox priest and theologian calling religion a “neurobiological illness”! But he’s right - Orthodox Christianity is not a religion in the conventional Western sense of that word. And for that matter, neither are other authentic ancient traditions. What Westerners conventionally call "religion" is a term that applies almost exclusively to their own approach to life as it has developed historically over the last thousand years or so.
"Religion" in the Western sense the word has a number of particular traits. And generally speaking these traits apply to the vast majority of Western people who "practice their religion":
Religious teachings are ideological statements divorced from real life and which people subscribe to based on emotional considerations. Teachings of authentic traditions are based on an experience of true life, and practitioners adhere to them based on observable verification.
Religion provides psychological comfort and self justification in the face of its failure to cure psycho-spiritual (noetic) illness. Authentic traditions take you from sickness to health; religions tell you your sickness is health.
Religion shifts the blame for good and evil, and for the final outcome of life, onto a deity or process (saying, for example, that illness is a punishment from God or that God decides whether to forgive you and send you to heaven or to damn you to hell). Authentic traditions know that the Absolute Reality never does harm and that the only real danger to us in this world or hereafter comes from ourselves.
Religions and authentic traditions both have a ceremonial aspect or some collective manifestation, but the religious version exists to provide psychological comfort or aesthetic pleasure, whereas the authentic version is there to lead you to self-transformation.
Religion is always reduced to a compartment of life, whereas training in any authentic tradition involves every moment of life.
Religion's "transformation" of human life is limited to the superficial aspects of the personality, is often based on a tedious list of prohibitions and is geared toward social acceptability. Religion produces nice people; authentic traditions produce extraordinary ones.
Real self-transformation is not a goal of religion; the knowledge and methods required for self-transformation are absent and there is no access to a lineage of transformed people. Life degenerates into “salvation by association” (I’m saved because I’m part of the group) and “salvation by conviction” (I’m saved because I hold a particular opinion).
Religion is ignorant of the technical terminology of self-transformation and interprets it in a general and nebulous way. The religious version of a tradition will seldom have any real idea what the authentic version is talking about, even if they use the same language.
Religion is comfort-loving and presents no real challenge to its adherents, whereas authentic traditions take you beyond your comfort zone and into realms that religion knows nothing of.
Religion abhors mystery and tries to explain everything with concepts. These concepts can be controlled and manipulated by a cadre of “experts” for the good of the institution, whereas transformed people – saints, immortals or bodhisattvas - are notoriously hard to control.
Given these traits of religion, it is not too surprising that Father Romanides classifies religion as a "neurobiological illness". What this means is that religion has its origin in the fallen state – where the neurobiological malfunction characteristic of life in the fallen world has not been healed – and that it perpetuates this unhealed state as if it were normal. So it is not surprising that religion prevents countless millions of people from finding true fulfillment and happiness. And like all illness, it leads to untold suffering and misery.
[i] Pages 1-3. The order of the elements in this quotation has been slightly rearranged for the sake of clarity. Several Orthodox writers of the twentieth century noted that the word “religion” as commonly used among peoples of European ethnic origin does not correspond to Orthodox Christianity.
This is Holy Week for most Christians and a time when tens of millions of people will be fasting. So what better time to do a two-part series on the value of fasting? Why two-part? Because there are two main reasons people fast...
We fast in search of better health or we fast as a method of spiritual purification. As we'll see the two are related. Today, though, we'll focus on fasting to create health, immunity and longevity....
What Exactly is "Fasting"?
That's not as stupid a question as you may think. That fact is, there are lots of misconceptions out there about fasting. Some people believe that simply abstaining from certain foods or food groups, either temporarily or permanently, is "fasting". That's most definitely not fasting. That's "abstinence".
Fasting is going without eating solid food, and sometimes liquid nourishment as well, for a defined period of time. That could be a matter of hours, days or weeks, depending on what you're trying to achieve and how.
The Health Benefits of Fasting
So why would you bother? Perhaps because there are few if any other health tools in your arsenal that give you such bang for the buck. Here are just some of the primary benefits of fasting:
Initiates a detoxification / cleansing reaction in the body, enabling you to rid yourself of accumulated toxins.
Enables weight loss.
Puts the digestive system, and the body as a whole, into "rest mode", allowing the energy usually devoted to digestion to be diverted to healing.
Clears up skin problems and the whites of your eyes.
Naturally lowers blood pressure without drugs.
Makes it easier to overcome bad habits and addictions, and to make a fresh start with a new, healthier diet and lifestyle.
Reduces inflammation throughout your body.
Reduces water retention throughout your body.
Pacifies many allergic reactions and sensitivities.
Historical and biological research strongly suggests proper fasting promotes longevity.
Varieties of Fasting
You may have heard of many types of fasting for health, including water fasts, juice fasts, total fasts and many others. Natural health pioneers like Dr. Bernard Jensen and Victor Irons used fasting together with colon cleansing to achieve remarkable results for their patients and clients for about half a century each! More telling is that both of these great pioneers lived healthy lives to nearly age one hundred.
Here's a video with Dr. Nicholas Tancheff, a chiropractor who has founded a fasting retreat facility in Hawaii. You can learn a lot by listening to how he went from the typically disastrous North American lifestyle to learning how to self-heal...
Warning: Avoid the Traps!
There are several traps with fasting, so here's my advice on how to get started:
Check in with your physician or a licensed health-care provider to help you get started. This is particularly important if you've never done this before or have a pre-existing medical condition.
Be clear on what you would like to achieve with the fast. This will help you select the proper type.
Don't make it up on your own: follow a program based on reliable and tested information.
Don't overdo it. Fasting for just a few days can provide enormous benefit!
Don't become addicted to fasting and cleansing! These are activities you should do periodically, not constantly. Once your fast is over, start giving your body all the nutritious food it needs to stay healthy!
If you would like to learn a whole lot more about fasting and cleansing directly from people with a lot of experience, you should consider coming to the health workshop I'm doing with Michael Morningstar in Toronto, Canada on June 4-5.
As you've heard from the teleseminar we did last week, Michael really knows his stuff. And we are confident that you'll leave our event with the knowledge and the confidence to take your health to a whole new level.
For those of us who work within the emerging field of energy psychology, there are few emotional issues that we run into with our clients as frequently as "self-image" and especially "body-image" - the "my body isn't good enough" syndrome.
Truthfully, though, as an Orthodox Christian priest with a couple of decades of pastoral counseling experience, I can tell you it was no different. Thanks in part to the media, we're living through a bizarre period in history where almost everyone seems to think there's something wrong with how then look.
And it's quite bizarre when you think about it - women are trying to attract guys by making themselves thinner and slimmer, not realizing that we guys prefer cuddling flesh to cuddling skin and bone. And the guys are trying to look like body builders, not realizing that the vast majority of women find the body builder physique repulsive.
Naturally, the most vulnerable segment of the population is the youth, and especially the females. The statistics on the video below may not surprise you, but they should at least give you something to think about, and you may want to share it and discuss it with your own kids:
Lest you think that the women are the only victims of this propaganda barrage, think again - the guys suffer from it too, just in slightly different ways. Here's a look at the problem from the male side of the house:
So, however you cut it, we're a culture with a huge self-image problem. The mild cases lead to unnecessary mental anguish and wasted time (consider that statistic about the average woman spending over two years of her lifetime doing her hair alone!), while the severe cases can head toward depression, eating disorders and death. Not a pretty picture, but one we need to take seriously if we're to become more resilient ourselves and prevent the young people around us from being sucked in to the media-created illusions they're being bombarded with.
So if you think this post or the videos we've featured her could help anyone you know, please feel free to pass it on!
For those of you who missed The Power of Qi workshop last week in Jersey City with myself and Carol Look, I have to tell you it was a great event!
There was a great energy in the room, thanks in large part to the wonderful participants who supported us, supported each other and truly made it a memorable time.
Although I did nearly nine hours of Qi Gong teaching over the three days, the highlight for me was being able to sit back and watch Carol work her magic - using her uniquely powerful take on EFT, she brought about major emotional healing in the lives of many of those who came. And the rest of us improved our own EFT practice considerably, while lending our energetic support to the people going through the process of dumping years or sometimes decades of emotional trauma.
In case you're new to EFT or you've never had the privilege of watching Carol in action, here's clip that will give you some idea what it's like. Granted, the clip parachutes you into the middle of a session without much context, but it's still worth a look. Please note this clip is not from last week's workshop:
"Nothing Can Work That Fast"
Well, that's what one of the participants originally thought when she first heard about EFT. She confided to me after the workshop had ended that her initial reaction to EFT was pretty skeptical when she had first encountered the technique a few years previously. But she decided to put it to the test anyway and under very harsh conditions. You see, she had almost drowned as a child. And although she learned to love swimming as an adult, she had a very strong phobia about letting the water level get above her nose. In other words, she could "swim", but had to keep her head out of the water.
Well, after just one round of using the EFT tapping method on her decades-old phobia, she happily dove under water and was shocked to discover that the phobia was... well... gone!
The Power of Qi
The more Carol and I taught over the three days, the more we became convinced that Qi Gong and EFT are the proverbial "marriage made in heaven". Of course, the EFT tapping procedure is based on Chinese meridian science, and the ancient Taoist medical system teaches that emotion itself is an aspect of the energy or Qi flowing through you, such that particular emotional states are related to specific organ systems in your body.
The good news that follows from this is that you can use your body to access and control your emotional state, which both EFT and Qi Gong allow you to do in different ways. The bad news is that if you fail to look after your emotional life, these powerful currents can directly affect your major organs and other bodily systems.
During the event, I took everyone through a specific organ meditation method that not only relieves stress and rejuvenates the body, it also teaches you the various emotions, elements and colors associated with each of your organs as you go, so you learn all this without having to memorize it. And for some people, it also taught them where certain organs are located ;-)
In fact, we spent a lot of time talking about the all important aspect of transforming Qi Gong from an exercise practice you do at certain times of day into a way of life. All in all, a great learning experience for everyone who attended... including Carol and myself!
Future Events
Just so you know, I will be doing a live event in Toronto, Canada on 14-15 May with my dear friend Michael Morningstar. The official notice and all the details should be out next week. So if you're seriously interested in boosting your health and immunity, you'll want to keep this next workshop in mind.
One of the disturbing facts about having done my formal training in nutrition a little over ten years ago is that some of what I was taught has been superseded by new information.
A case in point, and one very much on my mind as winter approached, was the mystery of Vitamin D. And a mystery it is, since we don't yet have all the answers. However we do know the following:
Vitamin D regulates a large number of critical processes in your body
And you're almost certainly Vitamin D deficient
Hmmm.... sounds like the start of a serious problem you might want to nip in the bud.
To help you understand the essential facts about Vitamin D, here's a great explanation by Dr. Joseph Mercola:
As Winter Approached...
Back in October-November last year I did some research on the Vitamin D question and consulted some experts to try to learn more about how it contributes to maintaining your health and personal resilience.
Living in the second coldest national capital on the planet, where getting sunshine on your skin is a real challenge from November through April, I was looking for a solution for myself and my family. Yes, it can be nice and bright outside with all the snow, but you're all bundled up because of the cold. Good thing you can absorb at least some Vitamin D through your eyes, as long as you're not blocking UV-B rays with sunglasses, of course.
But that's no guarantee of maintaining adequate D levels. Far from it. So I was looking at supplements and naturally ran into some concerns about the source, quality and absorption (perennial problems with supplements) when I came across the "Sunshine Mist" non-aerosol Vitamin D spray Mercola mentions in the video.
After using it for a couple of weeks now, I can truthfully say I'm delighted with it and much more confident about getting enough Vitamin D this winter! So if Vitamin D is one of your concerns, I'd advise you to check it out!
~ Dr. Symeon Rodger
**The contents of this blog post are not to be considered as medical advice. Always consult a physician before beginning / modifying a fitness program or before undertaking lifestyle modifications that could impact your health.**
I'm delighted to announce an upcoming live event where you will be able to learn tested and proven tools for mastering your energy, your emotions and your overall health and wellness.
My dear friend and colleague, Dr. Carol Look, and myself are putting on a joint live event to teach you how to use the 5 top Qi Gong systems ever devised and how to apply the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT - a technique I personally consider to be priceless) to all aspects of your life.
This event will take place in Jersey City, NJ at the end of February. You can get all the details and reserve your place here:
Near the bottom of the page there's an audio link where you can listen as Carol and I take you through the event's schedule to help you get a clear idea of what you'll get. Just in case you miss it, you can also listen to the audio or download it from here:
Learn to eliminate stress and reach deep relaxation on demand
Get relief from or entirely eliminate past traumas that are holding you back or making your life miserable
Master your emotional responses and finally get free of emotional patterns that run (and ruin) your life
Learn the same health Qi Gong methods that the Taoist longevity tradition has used for centuries to get people past their 100th birthdays in great health
Transform your daily grind into an extended meditation session producing great health and inner peace
Become stronger and more flexible on minutes a day
Replace negative emotions harmful to your health with positive emotional content
...then this event could be exactly what you've been waiting for.
Carol and I will spend 3 full days with you, teaching you, guiding you and helping you become a happier, healthier and more resilient person.
To check out all the details and reserve your spot, just go to this page:
As science advances and we learn more about the various energy fields, channels and structures in and around the human body, the one thing that becomes obvious is that working with energy is the most effective means of creating vibrant, long-term health.
At this workshop, you'll learn a great deal about the structure of your energy body - the meridians, the extraordinary vessels, the chakras and more. And you'll learn about them not just in an academic sense, but how to work with them, and with all the other structures of your body - your muscles, fasciae, connective tissues, bones and marrow, joints, nervous system, blood, major and minor organs, and more.
Carol and I hope you'll be able to join us in Jersey City for this fabulous, fun and educational event!
It's that time of year again and we're all getting bombarded with messages telling us to set our goals, start eating right, and get our butts down to the local gym. You know, the same stuff we've all tried before - the seemingly futile annual exercise of making our New Years resolutions...
Presumably you'd like to have a stupendous year in 2011. After all, who wouldn't? In the rush to decide on our New Years resolutions, though, one critical element is usually overlooked, and that element is embodied in the wise words, "Before doing, one must be."
Indeed, of all those who make resolutions at New Years, few are left by early March. The reason, though, has little to do with what you're attempting, whether that's to lose weight, eat right or get in shape. Instead it has everything to do with who is attempting it, with what's going on in your head. And that's where resilience comes to your rescue.
You see, resilience isn't simply a result, it's also a way of life, an organizing principle, a different life paradigm. It's easy to say to yourself, "I've got a weight problem; better do something about it..." or "My back is giving me grief. Time to see the chiropractor." It's a totally different thing to say to yourself, "From this day, from this hour, from this moment, I will choose only that which makes me a stronger person on every level."
Every decision you make on a daily basis will make you stronger or weaker. And that strength could be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual or some combination thereof. Resilience is about consistently choosing what empowers you, builds you up, develops all of your human capacities.
A friend of mine who grew up in China suffered chronic headaches as a child. They could have given him all kinds of drugs - our medical system would have - or focused narrowly on finding the cause of his headaches. Instead, his physician sent him off to learn Tai Chi and to practice for at least an hour a day. Not surprisingly, his headaches soon disappeared and this sickly child became strong, tough and vibrantly healthy because and only because his physician knew resilience was the answer - strengthen the patient's overall health and immunity so that his health challenge will disappear on its own.
If you really want a remarkable 2011, then I invite you to do one thing only - decide right here and right now that from this moment, you're going to choose only what strengthens you, that you're going to dedicate yourself to building up all of your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual capacities and, to borrow the US Army's super successful advertising slogan, "be all you can be."
People who embrace resilience as the organizing principle of their lives - as all the top ancient cultures taught their children to do - are truly a breed apart. We think and act differently from the majority. While others are scurrying around in often misplaced attempts to change their circumstances while desperately hanging on to the very lifestyle that created those circumstances, we're busy working on ourselves, knowing that as we change, so will our circumstances in life. Before doing, one must be....
So if you'd like to have an incredible year, stick around, become a practitioner of personal resilience and remake yourself and your life in the process. Together we'll have a great adventure and there are lots of great learning opportunities coming your way in 2011.
Once you begin to think like a practitioner of personal resilience, your New Years resolutions will take on a whole new life...
Just last night I was teaching at the university, and our comparative religion course had advanced from dimmest antiquity to the 21st century. In the context of talking about New Age thought, one of the topics I cover is very, very old - astrology.
To do this I used a very special book, Richard Tarnas' Cosmos and Psyche:
Tarnas is a philosopher and cultural historian who originally followed the standard academic mindset of dismissing astrology out of hand as an old wives tale. Fortunately, Tarnas has intellectual integrity and eventually realized he couldn't just dismiss astrology without proving it wrong. Yet, to his shock and surprise, his decades of research on the matter have totally convinced him that our "modern" idea (of the last few hundred years only) that there's no relation between the heavens - the great "out there" - and the mind - the great "in here" - is totally wrong.
As he points out, modern man has been the victim of a historical process to deny the sacred aspect of the cosmos and reduce it to balls of dirt or fire floating in space. Copernicus' discovery that the earth orbits the sun and not the reverse had this curious side effect, possibly because Catholic and Protestant leaders alike opposed his views.
Before that you had St. Anselm's pseudo-theology in which the created world has zero importance (so much for ancient Christianity!), and later Descartes' declaration "I think, therefore I am", Newton's mechanical view of the cosmos, Darwin's reduction of life to biological accident and other developments that have conspired to affect how we see the universe and ourselves.
Perhaps, in the end, this will all be seen as just a long historical hiccup of sorts. For his part, Tarnas goes over in detail countless examples of how astrological configurations have coincided with historical events and the lives of individuals.
How Astrology Works:
One of the easiest ways to find out the basics on the Western astrological system is to watch this short video:
From the video you'll pick up at least two interesting tidbits: the first is that there's a whole lot more to this system than the video could explain, and the second is that, given the complexity of the cosmos and the nearly infinite combinations of individual birth times with planetary orbits, ascendants, midheaven points and the rest, astrology considers you to be totally unique. And if you're that unique, those horoscope columns in your local paper that pretend you and everyone in your sun sign will have a similar day are total garbage. According to the rules of astrology itself, they're nothing more than meaningless entertainment for the masses.
My Experience of Astrology:
In my late teens and early twenties I had much the same reaction as Tarnas toward astrology - the only way to find out if it was for real or nonsense was to learn how it works. So I learned it to the point where I could cast a horoscope accurately and interpret it reasonably well. My conclusions?
I found that as a predictor or analysis of character traits, a properly done horoscope was astoundingly accurate. As a predictor of future events, though, it was less useful. How come? Probably because we always have 20/20 hindsight - we can look at an event, look at the astrological data and say, "no wonder!" But if we try to guess how a particular piece of astrological data will manifest itself concretely in our own lives or the life of the nation, for example, we don't necessarily have much to go on. Of course, there are really two sets of objectors to astrology. One set are those who consider it bunk simply because their culture has taught them to say that and they repeat the party line mindlessly. The other objectors are chiefly Christians of various types, who may be more than a little thin on the history of astrology in Christianity and on ancient Christian cosmology too.
Several years ago I had an unusual conversation about astrology with an Orthodox Christian monk from Mt. Athos. His reaction was something like, "That the cosmos has inherent order and that it affects us shouldn't come as any surprise. Yet to say it affects our thoughts and actions is not the same as saying it determines our thoughts and actions. That we would reject."
And the idea that astrology teaches that the cosmos controls your destiny is surprisingly widespread among people who know nothing about astrology. In point of fact, it doesn't teach that at all. It purports merely to show tendencies.
Astrology and Personal Resilience: Is It USEFUL?
That's a harder question to answer. Can we understand ourselves better by having our horoscope done? Probably. Can we understand the people around us better by knowing the proclivities of their sun sign? Yes, no doubt true in many cases.
Can we use astrology to anticipate and avoid bumps in the road of life? Maybe, but the jury's out on this one. And the real question is how much effort would the average person have to put into understanding astrology and for how much of a "return on investment".
So it may come down to this: how practical is astrology as a resilience tool? Can it be made more practical? If you have thoughts or comments on this, feel free to jump right in!
Let's face it, you could be the target of physical violence... It happens all the time in our society. It could happen while you're commuting, walking down the street, at your place of work, or even in your own home.
And yes, statistically speaking, you'll probably never have to defend yourself or your loved ones over the course of your life time. But you don't ever want to be put in that position and realize you don't know what to do. That's why self-defense is an integral part of mastering personal resilience. Not surprisingly, self-defense is of even more concern for women than for the guys. So if you're a woman trying to figure out the best way to learn self-defense or if you're a parent wondering where you can send your daughter, what should you do? The array of options out there is bewildering.
To help you out, I've rated most of the readily available alternatives for you here. Keep in mind that there's no way I could cover every possible style or system, and that one of the most important variables is the one you'll have to rate for yourself - the quality of the instructor(s).
The Rating System:
The most desirable rating under each category is 5. Just think of it as a "5 star" rating ;-)
Availability: this refers to your chances of finding competent instruction in this style/system in an average major city.
Speed: 5 stars here means the style will make you genuinely effective at defending yourself in the shortest possible time.
Sophistication: The less sophisticated systems may give you a baseline self-defense capability, even quickly, but may keep you from progressing beyond that level. The most sophisticated styles, on the other hand, have incredible potential. Unfortunately, there's sometimes a trade-off between speed and sophistication, and a less sophisticated system may serve your immediate purposes.
Grappling / Striking: This refers to the style's preference, since almost all of them prefer one or the other. While ideally you want a mix of both, striking (e.g., punching, kicking, elbowing, etc.) is certainly the more important, especially in the early stages.
Applicability (to women's self-defense): Does the style / system leverage a woman's natural abilities and take into account her physical characteristics?
Martial Art: Karate Country of origin: Okinawa, Japan Availability: 5 Speed: 3 Sophistication: 2 Grappling/Striking: S Applicability: 2 Overall Rating: 3 Karate is often taught as a sport, rather than for self-defense. If taught specifically as self-defense, it could bring you to a reasonable level of competence in a short time. However, it has stylistic elements that can inhibit further progress.
Martial Art: Taekwondo Country of origin: Korea Availability: 5 Speed: 3 Sophistication: 2 Grappling/Striking: S Applicability: 2 Overall Rating: 3 Same comments as for Karate.
Martial Art: Jiu-Jitsu Country of origin: Japan Availability: 5 Speed: 3 Sophistication: 3 Grappling/Striking: G Applicability: 3 Overall Rating: 3+ Although primarily a grappling system, jiu-jitsu verges on a "mixed system". It may lack the sophistication of more "internal" arts, but it can be learned to a basic level quite quickly. Particularly worthy of a look-see is modern "Brazilian Jiu-jitsu", which has made a name for itself in the martial arts world.
Martial Art: Judo Country of origin: Japan Availability: 5 Speed: 1 Sophistication: 1 Grappling/Striking: G Applicability: 1 Overall Rating: 1 Judo is solely a sport. Anyone telling you they teach "combat Judo" is out to lunch - the combat version is jiu-jitsu, from which Judo was explicitly constructed as a sport. You'll never learn to defend yourself competently through Judo.
Martial Art: Aikido Country of origin: Japan Availability: 4 Speed: 2 Sophistication: 5 Grappling/Striking: G Applicability: 4 Overall Rating: 3+ Aikido is one of the world's top martial arts, no doubt. However, it takes quite a while to reach competence. Note that some Aikido styles are combat oriented, while others are not much more than an elaborate form of exercise.
Martial Art: Ninjutsu (Tai-jutsu) Country of origin: Japan Availability: 2 Speed: 4 Sophistication: 4+ Grappling/Striking: Mixed Applicability: 4 Overall Rating: 4 This is the martial art of the Ninja. It's far more sophisticated than all later Japanese martial arts, with the exception, perhaps, of Aikido. Competence in a short period of time is easily possible with good instruction.
Martial Art: Shaolin Availability: China Speed: 3 Sophistication: 4-4+ Grappling/Striking: S Applicability: 4 Overall Rating: 4 The catch here is that the Shaolin systems (northern and southern) and their off-shoots are sometimes taught more as aesthetic practices than as martial arts. Authentic Shaolin instruction from real Shaolin-temple trained instructors has become easier to find in recent years.
Martial Art: Wing Chun Country of origin: China Availability: 4 Speed: 5 Sophistication: 5 Grappling/Striking: S Applicability: 4+ to 5 Overall Rating: 4+ Wing Chun is a superbly designed system and was invented by a woman, Yim Wing Chun, explicitly to defeat the greatest martial art of the time, the Shaolin system. This was also Bruce Lee's primary style. A competent Wing Chun practitioner will defeat most comers quite easily.
Martial Art: Jeet Kune Do Country of origin: Hong-Kong / USA Availability: 3 Speed: 5 Sophistication: 4+ Grappling/Striking: S / Mixed Applicability: 5 Overall Rating: 4+ to 5 Bruce Lee and his senior student, Dan Inosanto, developed this from Wing Chun, Kali/Escrima and other martial arts. It's extremely effective, easily learned and takes the best of everything. Highly recommended.
Martial Art: Tai Chi Chuan Availability: 4 Speed: 1 Sophistication: 5 Grappling/Striking: Mixed Applicability: 2 Overall Rating: 3 Tai Chi is one of the most sophisticated martial arts in the world. In China of old, to challenge a Tai Chi master to combat was regarded as a one-way ticket to the after-life. Now, however, Tai Chi is usually taught for its health benefits and few instructors can teach the combat aspect.
Martial Art: Bagua Zhang (Pa Kua) Country of origin: China Availability: 2 Speed: 2 Sophistication: 5+ Grappling/Striking: Mixed Applicability: 3 Overall Rating: 3+ Bagua is at least as sophisticated as Tai Chi and high level practitioners are nearly unbeatable. It just takes a while to become competent. It's also hard to find good instructors.
Martial Art: Xing Yi (Hsing I) Country of origin: China Availability: 2 Speed: 3+ Sophistication: 4 to 4+ Grappling/Striking: S Applicability: 4 Overall Rating: 4 Xing Yi is the third major "internal" style from China (after Tai Chi and Bagua), and is extremely direct and effective. In 19th century China, many body guards were trained in this style. Finding good instruction would be the key here.
Martial Art: Krav Maga Country of origin: Israel Availability: 3-4 Speed: 5 Sophistication: 2-3 Grappling/Striking: S / Mixed Applicability: 4+ Overall Rating: 4 Krav Maga was developed to train people quickly. So if you want to become dangerous in a short time frame, this is for you. For women's self-defense, it's hard to argue with the idea that becoming effective quickly is the primary criterion.
Martial Art: Haganah Availability: Israel Speed: 5 Sophistication: 3 Grappling/Striking: S / Mixed Applicability: 4+ Overall Rating: 4 Haganah is based on Krav Maga and two other Israeli systems. Its virtue? An extremely well-designed curriculum where you, the defender, terminate all encounters in one of three ways. Whereas some martial arts bombard you with hundreds of possible techniques, Haganah simply shows you the best response to the most common attacks. From there, it's all downhill for your opponent - you either take him down, break his ankle or send him to the afterlife - your choice!
Martial Art: Thai Kick-Boxing Country of origin: Thailand Availability: 2-3 Speed: 3-4 Sophistication: 3-4+ (depending on the style) Grappling/Striking: S / Mixed Applicability: 3-4 Overall Rating: 3+ Thai kick boxing (not to be confused with generic "kick-boxing") is a very effective and practical system and is usually taught for real combat, although there are sport variants too.
Martial Art: Silat
Country of origin: Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia
Availability: 2 Speed: 4 Sophistication: 4+ Grappling/Striking: Mixed Applicability: 4 Overall Rating: 4 Some of the Silat systems are among the world's most sophisticated martial arts. Yet, unlike the Chinese internal systems, these translate into real-world effectiveness quite a bit faster. They also teach a very sophisticated defensive method against knife attack.
Martial Art: Kali / Escrima
Country of origin: Philippines
Availability: 3 Speed: 4 Sophistication: 4+ Grappling/Striking: Mixed Applicability: 4 Overall Rating: 4 Kali / Escrima is a grouping of systems that, like Silat, strike an ideal balance between grappling and striking, and between weapons and empty-hand applications.
Martial Art: Systema (pronounced siss-TYEH-mah)
Country of origin: Russia
Availability: 2 Speed: 5 Sophistication: 4+ Grappling/Striking: Mixed Applicability: 4 Overall Rating: 4 to 4+ An extremely sophisticated use of body mechanics, coupled with internal power generation and economy of movement, this continually updated method has been routinely taught to Soviet and now Russian special forces.
Martial Art: "Women's Self-Defense" courses
Country of origin: N/A
Availability: 4 Speed: 3 Sophistication: 2-3 Grappling/Striking: Mixed Applicability: 2-3 Overall Rating: 3 Okay, a rating of 3 is generous, but here's why I've given it: these courses are often a good first exposure to basic martial arts techniques, they tend to cover the legal issues surrounding self-defense, and they teach women how to make use of items readily at hand for self-defense. These courses, frequently offered to the public through recreation centers or colleges and usually with accredited martial arts instructors, are however usually too short in duration to bring you to the desired level of effectiveness. You'd have to continue with something else.
There you have it - a basic once-over of what's out there today and how likely each of these styles / systems is to get you where you want to go.
Rather than repeat my official bio, I thought I'd write something more personal here.
Simply put, my whole life has been taken up with the search for how life is really meant to work; in other words, RESILIENCE.
And in that 35 year search I've been very blessed to make some amazing discoveries and meet some of the most remarkable people alive - most of whom are happily anonymous to the world at large.
You really CAN have tranquility, control, health, love and security - the 5 things everyone wants and seldom has. Of course, you have to be willing to pay the cost of acquiring them - and that's life's grand adventure.
This blog deals with applying the most effective RESILIENCE strategies to YOUR life... and then enjoying the amazing results!
