In the past few years, I think the point has been made that the lives we have created around us are just way too complicated.
Our current economic crisis proves that what we have created is a situation where our priorities are really just out of order.
We spend too much money, waste too much time, we ......
So, I just finished my daily practice. I had a rest day from my workout so I basically did a couple qigong forms, some sexual cultivation work ( haha tisk tisk) and then finished off with an hour of yoga.
As is typical, I get pretty inspired as I start to notice the progress I am ......
Fasting does so many things for us that it is hard to pin down a specific reason for why we should all do it. Fasting is most often linked to food but there are a great many ways to fast and a great many things to fast from.
This world is geared toward over consumption. We ......
In the past few years, I think the point has been made that the lives we have created around us are just way too complicated.
Our current economic crisis proves that what we have created is a situation where our priorities are really just out of order.
We spend too much money, waste too much time, we stimulate ourselves into oblivion, and then take energy pills, red bull, and espresso shots to keep ourselves going. Something needs to change in this scenario.
And, the economic crisis has made this clear.
We need to reprioritize our lives. We need to figure out what is most important. I don’t want to tell you that it’s not OK to seek things in life that bring you pleasure. But, we need to grow out of the instant gratification model of over consumption and waste and acknowledge our responsibility to ourselves, our loved ones, and the world around us.
The point is that finding ways to simplify our lives is what’s most important. We need to kind of break the fabric down and rebuild.
I find this to be a pretty common sentiment among those that I talk to. On a whole, we are beginning to realize this. And, if there is any lesson that we can take out of the financial crisis, this is it.
We spend too much, we seek external pleasure that lasts but a moment, and never look at those things that will bring us true internal and lasting feelings of bliss. For a long time, I was no different.
In many ways, I have come to believe that life is simply about growth and learning. As human beings, the ultimate search is for the divine presence within us. The problem is that monetary gain, obtaining physical possessions, the ecstasy of orgasm, the heightened sense awareness created by hallucinogenic drugs….even lying blissed out in front of the television…has come to represent and take the place of the search for that inner divinity.
What is needed is to stop, center ourselves, and realize that the God presence is within us all.
We need to clear our lives of the clutter, clear our bodies of toxins, uplift ourselves in oneness, as well as in our relationships.
I seek pleasure in simplifying and focusing the goals of my life. There is great power in focusing our attention.
I seek to exalt myself through yoga, meditation, exercise, raw foods, good friends, and a focused engagement with life.
What else do we really need?
You don’t have to do what I do. But, some of the lessons you might learn from taking a look at my offerings may reveal some lessons that spark something in you.
And, if you want to learn a very simple approach to health, look no further than the Hacking the Body Mind Protocol which is outlined in the e-book for sale at my website.
It explains all of the things I have learned about over the years that contribute to lasting health andmvitality, and that will help you become clear on where you are headed in your life.
Take a look at what it has to offer.
For so many, as we begin to re establish changes in our lives, the realization hits that health must become a priority. We start to realize that without health, the big house, the Ferrari in the driveway, and that gorgeous yacht just doesn’t mean much.
Then, it becomes an uphill battle toward actually figuring out what information is good and what is not.
The point of the Hacking the Body Mind protocol was to break it all down to a very simple approach so that anyone could achieve wonderful results without all the technical back and forth.
So, I just finished my daily practice. I had a rest day from my workout so I basically did a couple qigong forms, some sexual cultivation work ( haha tisk tisk) and then finished off with an hour of yoga.
As is typical, I get pretty inspired as I start to notice the progress I am making in my practices because I start connecting the dots as to what aspects are doing what and it helps me to round things out.
As my practice has developed over the years I have indeed made some interesting realizations. And, I still do.
I wanted to go into one of them today. And, that is the role that a deep yogic and energetic cultivation practice can play in the development of foundational strength.
I have always been more of a health adventurer rather than a purist. In fact, I kind of hate the idea of doing only one thing because there are so many benefits to be taken from so many different types of practices and in many ways they all overlap.
Not only do they overlap, but, according to Ken Wilber’s integral model (which is what I look at when I truly want to understand the nature of holistic development), doing a range of practices (or spiritually cross training) actually enhances the effects that you take from each of the practices individually and creates an exponential growth curve.
I will go over that more deeply in a future blog post.
Today I just wanted to talk about what I believe yoga and energy cultivation methods bring to the table when being used as a support for a weightlifting or fitness regimen.
We all know what yoga is by now, I think. So, I will not go over that too much. Energy work though, can be a little confusing as it isn’t so well understood and it does encompass a vast quantity of practices developed over many thousands of years.
In my interpretation of energy work, I am basically using it as a generic term that refers to still or moving meditation (tai chi, qi gong etc.) and different types of sexual cultivation practices (tantra, Taoist sexual kung fu…). And, at its core, there is always some type of deep breath awareness that serves as its base and enables us to direct the flow of energy within our body (pranayama in yoga, Zen breathing etc.)
Now, over the years, and more so even recently, I am coming to the realization that, energy work sits on top of everything else as what effects us most deeply in the pursuit of strength development.
The reason for this is that as energy is released, cultivated, and allowed to flow more freely, it begins to provide a level of buoyancy. It really does make one feel lighter. What I mean to say is that it provides a deeper support to all other levels of matter manifestation, including what we see as the physical.
The Taoists have spent many millennia developing one of the most comprehensive approaches to development of any other culture and they maintain the perspective that developing the subtle body is of utmost importance. That is certainly not to say that they did not believe developing the physical body was important….because it absolutely is and has so many benefits that can NOT be understated.
But the Taoists believed that a well muscled person was only as strong as his or her internal body and organ system. Qi gong, although having a deep impact on the flow of energy, also develops the different organs. In their system of anatomy, the Chinese mapped out the many channels, meridians, and corresponding points that exist all over the body. Each one of these roughly corresponds to particular organs within the body….kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, spleen etc.
What lies within each pathway is what is known as chi (or qi, ki, energy, life force, or prana). And illness (physical, mental, or emotional) is created as a result of energy being blocked at a certain channel, meridian, or point. And, if the energy is flowing unimpeded than all of the body’s organs are strong and that in turn strengthens the body’s capacity for muscular development.
After all, it’s really the organs that feed the body its nutrients which allow muscles to develop properly. And, also as the organs and body centers are strengthened, than you will find that you can tend to go harder in your workout, you recover faster, and you don’t get injured nearly as often.
Yoga, at its base, is energy work as well and it actually gives you a range of benefits that are similar. What gives yoga its effect on energy is the concentration on the breath. Breathing deeply and with awareness is what enables someone to cultivate and move the energy. And, so that is why it forms the basis of all moving and still meditative practices.
But, the reason I wanted to go over it here, was due to its effect on strengthening those parts of the physical body that really cannot be developed through a standard weight training regimen.
Yoga, trains the body in a way that stimulates energetic production and awareness, it nourishes all the organs by creating a combined contraction and expansion within each of them, as you work into your folds, twists, and bends, it trains a deeper awareness of your nervous system, brain and spine, and it also strengthens the bones, all of the joints, and all of the muscles as it forces you to move in and out of positions that you would normally never move into.
I think this, to me, is the most compelling reason to undertake a yoga practice.
Yoga, though, goes so much deeper than that. It is much deeper than I can cover in a single blog post. It is so far removed from its current portrayal in the commercial world that it’s kind of ridiculous. But, there are many benefits that can be gained as a result of regular practice.
In so many ways and for so many reasons, yoga and energetic practice can enhance your approach to fitness.
Over the years, I have noticed a dramatic shift in the way I train, focusing less on lifting weights (a typical crossfit styled workout while being very tough and extremely effective lasts about 10-15 minutes) and really expanding my focus on energetic cultivation.
I have to say my yoga practice has gone in and out over the years as I have tried different cultivation means, but I always go back to it as a staple because it is so effective and multifaceted.
I would say out of a typical day of practice, I will spend between 3-5 hours doing different things. Out of that time, a fraction of it is spent working out with weights and focusing on the physical body. The vast majority is spent doing qigong, meditating, and doing yoga.
And that is how it seems to work best. Because I very very rarely if ever get injured and I haven’t gotten sick in a very long while (I used to be sick all the time in my younger days).
Fasting does so many things for us that it is hard to pin down a specific reason for why we should all do it. Fasting is most often linked to food but there are a great many ways to fast and a great many things to fast from.
This world is geared toward over consumption. We over consume food, television, and information. Sometimes creating a temporary space between you and something that you may otherwise think is extremely pleasurable is a good thing.
It often proves to be the case that when we do take that break from something we love, we find that the pleasure is greater once we bring it back into our daily life.
You should always remember that it is the space between the notes that make music what it is.
The moments apart from something that we love makes the moments we have with it just that much more special.
I suppose I am digressing a little bit. Fasting is important for many reasons. What I have found is that fasting shows us directly the hierarchy of needs that exists within our human structure.
In the Russian medicinal system, a weekly complete fast (no food or liquids) is advocated. Logic would tell you that the only thing you would really be craving by the end of it is food. That is what our tendency is. But, the real truth is that we so rarely go without and so we really wouldn’t know.
I did this sort of a fast on a regular basis for a long time and the only thing I would crave at the end of it was water. Now, this seemed funny to me the first time I experienced it. What I realized was that there was a specific hierarchy of requirements.
First requirement is air. We need to breathe. Breath is life and we can only go a few moments without it.
Water is next, and then food, and then sex. And, typically the need for sex will not typically arise unless the other needs are satisfied.
Beyond any other reason, fasting is a good way to really get an honest look at what it is we actually need and why.
It creates a deep sense of discipline. It revives your sensory acuity. It creates a sharper mind and a stronger body. This has been my experience.
It gives you a deeper understanding of the need to entertain the feeling of emptiness and to be able to learn from it.
Fasting rejuvenates all systems. It enables the body to burn up the stuck toxins and unnecessary fat cells as fuel. A complete fast goes one further, allowing the bacteria to be starved out.
Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights in the bible. In many holy texts, the concepts of fasting and prayer occur together quite often because they are intrinsically linked.
To connect with your higher source, it is important to first flush out the system of toxic matter. A clean body can better allow the light to move through it, which is kind of how I believe we connect with God consciousness. This is not a proven fact but science will eventually catch up.
The point is just to try it, even for very short periods of time. Just fast. Fast from something whether it is television, news, information, food…anything.
If you do try a nutritional fast, go at it slowly. It’s always good to begin slowly and build up. Start with fruit fasts, and then switch to juices along with green powders, then to water and/or complete fasting.
Do this over a period of months so you can build up your capacities.
If you follow the nutritional suggestions I outline in the Hacking the Body Mind protocol, you will soon find that the process of fasting becomes much much simpler because you will be building up the body’s nutritional stores to an amazingly high extent.
If you want a great book on fasting, try this one by Paul and Patricia Bragg.
There is something about this idea that rings true with all of us in this day and age. We know its true. Whether this idea is resonating with you on a conscious level or not, you know its true.
You feel it when you wake up in the morning. You see it when you look in the mirror. This is something from which no one can escape.
Books are being published in droves. Countless websites are being created that sell nutritional supplements, diet pills, colon cleanses. And, why do you think this is?
We know that fundamentally we are all going down the wrong path.
So much of the current world crisis can be linked back to the food we consume, the lack of focused effort we put into our lives, the blind eye we have turned to corporate practices, the selfishness, the greed.
Today, in the age of factory farming, all food consumed, is grown, processed, sold, purchased, prepared, and consumed without love.
We eat without awareness of those sacrifices made in order to feed us. And, this has created much sorrow.
Whether you know it or not, we are all being affected.
It starts from lack of awareness and then manifests through lack of understanding.
Creating health in this day and age is time consuming. Its confusing. We have come into an age of information overload. And it has made us into total skeptics.
But, what I have come to believe is that in many ways, we have what we need, we just have to find it. There are countless voices out there doing what they can to lead us in the right direction.
It is clear to see that our current path is leading us in two directions, toward a dead end, or over a cliff.
Years ago, my goal became to find those sources, those voices, and compile them. I wanted to make the process easier for everyone who truly wanted to know what it was to create a life that generated ever expanding levels of vitality.
And, that is what I have done with the Hacking the Body Mind system. For any of you who are lost on this search, please realize that there are amazing tools out there to help you in every area of life. And, what I want to do is open the door for you to find them.
My new e-book has been released and it is up on the website. Do yourself a favor and take a look at what it has to offer.
There is no more fulfilling love than that of self love. No one can love you in a way that is greater than your capacity to love yourself.
God, the universe, can only provide love to you in a way that matches your own level of self love. So, even then, it is dependent on your own capacity for being the source of your own love.
At a very basic level, woven within the fabric of our society there are a few pretty decent tenets. These are unwritten laws that are always there in the back of our minds, no matter how much we try to avoid them.
The golden rule, how does that go again? Treat others the way you want to be treated.
That really is beautiful fundamentally. And it is there even in the most heinous of violent crimes, as a backdrop in the subconscious. Even the killer who does his deed in cold blood has to shut off his subconscious mechanism of guilt and shame.
But, you know, I take issue with the golden rule because it takes into account the fact that we all like to be treated respectfully and with kindness and in a way that says, “I am unworthy!” That is self love.
Christianity acknowledges everyone as a sinner first! And the doctrine of original sin has deeply contributed to the creation of shame, guilt, and fear within its followers. Has any of you ever asked yourself how it is possible for a newborn baby to have sinned?
We are convicted as soon as we leave the womb. Is it any wonder why we have a society that has gone so wrong?
We project our fears, our anger, our frustration onto others so often because we do not consciously feel we are worthy or capable of dealing with our own problems. We do not feel fit to life.
And, god forbid, we actually find enjoyment in life!
We scream to ourselves, “I am unworthy!” “I do not deserve to be happy when others suffer!”
As immediately as good things come into our lives, we start looking for reasons why those things will be taken away from us. And what this does is create more suffering in this loveless world.
No one can bear such immense levels of hatred. But, this is what our religions are urging us to do. They urge us to look at ourselves as the creator of all of our problems while giving no way to constructively deal with those problems.
So we sit there, swimming in a sea of our own guilt, with no way to understand what we have done to deserve it and no way to therapeutically handle it and create positive change. What is the truth?
The truth is that humanity deserves only love. It does not deserve blame. A wall of hatred towards the self has been hoisted upon us with no reason given, because there is no reason for its existence.
Without the love and value of self…we continue to seek external validation. We seek validation from our parents, our siblings, from our teachers and priests and from every source except that which holds the only true love that can be found.
Love yourself. Value yourself. This is the mechanism that first teaches us what the feeling of love is and you cannot love others until you have felt that love within yourself.
If you try to love another. It inevitably manifests as clingy, hate filled, angry, and possessive love. This can only go either of two ways. You can be filled overflowing with a feeling of love or you can be filled overflowing with a feeling of deep fear.
While our fear manifests as a need to possess, control, and use others, true love manifests as a need to serve, bless, help, and give to others, with no thought to what we will receive in return because we ARE the love and we ARE the giving. That’s where we live.
Now, please know that I am still in the process of searching for this.
I grew up despising myself. I was treated harshly by others in many ways. I was picked on and made fun of. I felt unloved by my family and by those around me in just about every way that you can imagine. I was in perpetual fear. I was afraid of meeting new people and of showing others who I really was.
At some point, I snapped and decided that from then on, I would be me. I would create myself as the person I felt that I could be and wanted to be. And I would, most of all, love myself and stop hiding myself from the world.
Its been a very very long and hard path. No one around me reacted happily to the changes they noticed. Although, there were a few saviors who came into my life to show me that the path I had taken was the right one.
This world and the powers that be, have as their core power, an ability to force us to feel inferior. The hate that exists in the world is a simple manifestation out of the hate and anger we feel toward ourselves.
How do we change this?
You must manifest a deep love for you, for the you that you are, for the you that you were, and for the you that you will one day become.
You…everyone who reads this….everyone who will read this…who wont read this…you…all of us…everyone living, breathing, walking…..you….carry within you the capacity for unconditional love. You can only unleash that when you’ve begun to feel it for yourself.
You carry within you every thing that you need. So, stop fearing what you feel is inevitable and start feeling grateful for what you have now. Stop fearing being alone…or being unloved…or the torment of others…or that you cant pay the bills….
Its a proven fact that 90 percent of what we create in our minds out of fear is all false! Its all untrue and it only comes about in our existence as a result of us creating it!
Love yourself, with everything that you are. Become the light you wish to see in the world. You need not feed off of the energy of others. Create it within yourself with love. And as you begin to overwhelm yourself with this feeling, you will begin overflowing with so much of it that you will not be able to hold it back.
This overwhelming feel of love, joy, and bliss will spill out onto everyone you come across. And, you will begin to see the good in everything. In every so called bad thing that happens to you , there is a seed of goodness and a seed of truth.
Be a warrior and not a victim. Develop the capacity to see life as a set of challenges to face and plateaus to surpass and everything will change for you and in your world.
The way others see you will change. The way you are received by others will change. Your ability to communicate will deepen. Everything about you will grow and become better by the sole capacity of love you have within.
Until you can look into the mirror of the universe and look with a smile toward the image projected back at you, no matter what its current condition, things will never change and the love you seek will never be found.
Do it now. Love yourself from the depths of who you are. You cannot wait until you are deserving because you have been deserving since before you were even a concept in the minds of those who brought you into the world.
Don’t wait until you find the perfection you are seeking! Stop seeking perfection and begin SEEING that perfection in the mirror of the universe.
“Seek the kingdom of heaven and all will be given unto you.”
The kingdom of heaven is inside of you! Stop seeking it and begin manifesting it. It is in you and it is waiting to come forth. Love yourself. Believe in your own capacities and your own inherent right to all the goodness that the world has to offer.
If we all did this, don’t you think this would be a different world?
This is a topic that I am sure we all give a good bit of thought to. What is monogamy? Why has it become so intrinsically linked with the value system of our society? Is there a purpose that is served with the acquisition of it?
Well, we can address the question of purpose by saying that monogamy is needed for marriage to work. Marriage is needed for procreation to come about. And, procreation leads to the completion of the family. Within all those aspects are thought to be contained an intrinsic and absolute expression of love throughout.
All of the above, is absolutely true. Monogamy is absolutely necessary for a man and a woman to achieve a family. And that can indeed be considered to be at the pinnacle of happiness in this life. So, why do so many marriages and relationships fail? And, why are so many families being torn apart because either the man, woman, or both come to the conclusion that they are unfulfilled in some way?
This has always been the tough part to get for me. It is surprising that while so many relationships are failing, so many of us continue to press on, searching for that person that will finally complete us. Either side certainly has ample reason to blame the one opposing because both play an active role in this vicious cycle. But why is it this way?
I have concluded that we have come to look at the ideas of relationship, love, and sexuality in such a limited way, and from such a merely material perspective, that we have become unable to see the higher purpose of anyone of them. What do you think that could be? Do you think it is possible that these concepts can even have a purpose other than the aforementioned?
Well, if we look at them in the order in which they were originally intended, first there has existed the individual man and woman. They at some point meet and through a general attraction for each other, love is found. Then sexual union would be followed by the creation of a new living being.
If we look at that idea from the point of view of many of the ancient Taoist teachings we find that even in their system of spiritual cultivation the same thing exists but in an existential (rather than material) way. In those cultures, each individual would first be shown ways to cultivate their own singular conscious awareness, through meditation and so forth.
As that awareness increased then it would be obvious that another cultivated being would be needed for either person to reach a new level, the highest level, of ultimate consciousness. This would be done through a kind of ritualistic sexual alchemical union to produce the immortal seed.
Is it possible that the men and women of today are simply seeking to satisfy their need to experience this higher state without realizing it? I am sure no one would deny that they feel the happiest when they are connecting with another person. I know this for certain and have experienced it. Is it not pretty easy to see that the experience of orgasm is simply the highest and most satisfying expression of that connection?
I think it is. The fact that a whole new life can be sparked by this makes it pretty clear. There is such an abundance of energy within the experience of orgasm that it can almost mimic satori or samadhi in many ways.
It is unfortunate that so many people are beating themselves down emotionally by running around trying frantically to find that one person that they can spend their lives with without understanding the true underlying purpose.
As I said, you are never as fundamentally happy, as when you are connecting emotionally with another person. But to look at it so one-dimensionally puts us at odds with ourselves. Perhaps we can look at it another way. Perhaps we should begin to view it in a way that helps the idea of monogamy make more sense than it seems to at the moment.
What would happen if we changed our priorities a bit and if, instead we had as our top priority, personal cultivation?. Maybe the achievement of true love of another would come much easier because it would be simply an extension of the existing love that we have cultivated within.
If I achieved an overabundance of love for myself, does it not make sense that it would spill over into almost a need to express that excess of love to another (instead of only wanting to…be loved by another)?
And, then, the next would be to realize that that mutual connection, that other person, is needed for me to reach even higher levels of realization.
That other person would then seem more like a vessel or channel for self actualization. That would be opposed to the current idea of being merely someone to spend time with, or grow old with. That idea has been romanticized to death, but it really isn’t so romantic.
The idea of having a partner in life who is helping me to bring about my own capacity for understanding myself and the world around me. Now THAT is romantic.
If that idea was put in place and acted out maybe then could the idea of monogamy actual work quite well.
I know that there is nothing I want more than to find that person that will help me achieve a higher level of spiritual understanding. And I have no problem waiting for that person to show up in my life. And, when they do, if I am pure and spiritually evolved and complete, I haven’t even the slightest doubt that it will be right.
I found the above quote being used in the status of a friend on myspace recently, and, from what I have learned over my years of seeking that elusive thing called enlightenment, I believe that the quote is pretty accurate. Though, upon first glance, any such notion can be thought of as impossible.
In the past decade or so, I have gone from a complete skeptic to an avid student of much regarding this process and even still take this concept with a grain of salt. But, from the standpoint of looking at the true nature of what the concept means, it is clear to see that when someone becomes enlightened, they truly do end their suffering.
Now, what does it mean to be enlightened? And, how does the average person achieve such a state? I used to really believe that the notion of enlightenment was kind of pointless to say the least. When I did not understand what it was, I suppose, it seemed so far away.
Over the past year or so I have become an avid practitioner of Centerpointe’s Holosync Solution Program and I am currently working my way through the second level of the Awakening series. I have been studying the support materials, which are truly vast, as well as the Big Mind, Big Heart and Path of the Human Being dvd and cd sets which came along with level one of the series.
I suppose I have mentioned my experience with Holosync in passing. But, it truly has been pretty life changing. I actually had my initial experience with Awakening Prologue around mid 2006. And, I noticed significant changes in my ability to control my states of awareness and, as I noticed while using the Wild Divine Biofeedback software, my ability to see and catalyze noticeable changes in my state of relaxation.
To explain a bit of what it is, I would say that the Holosync Program uses technology that effects the states of the brain through music. Its a binaural beat technology that enables the brain to enter into certain rhythms or states.
I have used other brainwave music soundtracks before, but the reason I settled on Centerpointe’s Holosync Solution program, is simply because Bill Harris has really designed a very structured and progressive way of strengthening your mind and enhancing it’s ability to deal with higher and higher levels of stress.
By enabling you to deal with more stress, you react less to the situations in life that, under normal circumstances,would have really bothered you.
What happens then? Whats the point?
Well, this process of enabling you to deal with ever increasing levels of stress, helps you to create a space inside your mind that grows between your emerging and expanding self and the stress that used to control you.
To be honest, what the technology actually does is provide a stimulus that is similar to stress, and that stress forces your brain to develop in such a way that actually makes it stronger. It is kind of like the stress that exercise places on us but applied to the functioning of the brain.
It creates a kind of subtle chaos in your brain and by continuing to use the soundtracks, your brain eventually is forced to “escape to a higher order” and it grows to be able to deal with higher levels of stress. When you deal better with stress, what then happens?
Well, simply put, you suffer less than you once did. You develop a greater peace, by increasing awareness of your states of mind or consciousness.
Isn’t this what meditation is supposed to do? I like to think that meditation in conjunction with shadow work enables me to realize that we are not really living in a world that is dualistic….but that everything that arises in our conscious mind is in fact of the same nature as anything else. Depending on our perception, anything can go from good to bad.
Zen, Taoism, and just about any other justifiable self help technology or religion, teaches that nothing exists exclusively from anything else. They teach us that what is good cannot exist without what is bad. Or that light cannot exist without dark. Men cannot exist without women, and up would not be knowable without down.
In all of the wisdom traditions, it is explained that balance in mind and emotion is what is needed to find lasting personal growth?
I think what is most confusing about that idea is that no one is ever truly able to explain how that growth really manifests. What does it mean to achieve balance? And, why does it have a correlation with enlightenment and the mind?
When you begin the process of meditation, growth, and spiritual development, you begin to see how hard life is. Awareness is the ability to see and experience the difficulties in life, and NOT REACT to them. And, as awareness begins to increase, many aspects of our lives which were once hidden from us begin to come up.
It is when we react to the difficulties in life that we cause ourselves emotional and mental pain. In other words, the pain we experience in life, the suffering that we typically blame on external circumstances, comes from within our own minds and from our reactions to life!
Balance is the ability to have good or bad circumstances come our way and not overtly react to them in a way that creates stress. It is the ability to go through life and no longer require those things that typically distract us from ourselves.
Television, drugs, video games, unconscious and unloving sexual activity, anger, depression, self loathing, binge eating, are all there to distract us from ourselves and prevent us from finding ( or deciding on) our higher purpose.
Everything in life, we are finding, is brought about as a direct manifestation of things that are inside of our own minds.
Life is what you make it. Or, rather, life is what you perceive it to be.
Life and the universe are simply reflections of our ego. They are mirrors of our own consciousness. Just as a computer is only as good as its programmer, the results of your life will only be as good as the input you knowingly or unknowingly provide.
And the ego, what is this ego? It is a grouping or map of the unconscious habits that we have developed in order to keep us safe in, what we perceive to be, an unsafe world.
Everything we do unconsciously is a reflection of the patterns that we have solidified within our ego.
Wouldn’t meditation, time spent in contemplation, time spent in conscious love communion with your partner, in all actuality, be better and more functional ways to decompress than grabbing a beer and turning on the television?
The whole point, is to develop your awareness, to the point that you can stay conscious throughout your day of your self and your interactions with others and with your world.
Do the work to expand yourself consciously!
Watch yourself as you go throughout your day. Open up the dialog with the voice in the back of your mind.
This is far from an easy process but, trust me, it is worth it in the end.
Although this topic has garnered more attention in the past few years, it is still quite misunderstood. So, I wanted to go into it today and really make this whole process easier to understand.
We seem to have created an environment, through the use of chemicals and other toxic pollutants, where heavy metals and other neuro-toxins are very difficult to avoid. We ingest them with our food, as a direct result of cooking, canning, and processing of just about any type. We drink them in our water (tap and bottled alike) and ingest them through our skin as we bath.
The places where they tend to reside, within the body, are the fat cells and the lymphatic system. So, what we will focus on are processes of removing them from these places in particular.
Heavy metals are found in just about all of the supplements in the standard marketplace, in the form of excipients, which are usually placed in the formulas as fillers like different forms of calcium as well as stearic acid, magnesium stearate and many others.
Even the typical calcium supplement or dairy products can result in heavy metals being released into the body. The calcium used in the supplement formulas and that is found in dairy from cows is not likely very absorbable. And, this can turn into a huge problem when it comes to problems resulting from organ calcification and inflammation.
Now we do require highly charged minerals of all types for many important body processes but the need for calcium is very much overstated. Silica alone is a much more important factor in bone health, so I suggest you take some time to look up the research on this substance.
The calcium issue is a big mixed bag of myths and is the source of a great number of preventable diseases, but we will go over the specifics on that in a future article.
So, to continue with the topic at hand…
How do we remove these things from our bodies? How do we remove them from our fat cells? And how do we apply proper lymphatic drainage processes?
There are a few ways to remove these substances. My favorites are as follows…
-Sitting in a far infrared or standard sauna.
-Exercise, yoga, and/or deep breathing
-Bathing or wrapping your body in magnetic (bentonite) clays
-Lifewave patches (energy stamina for fat burning and/or y age patches for glutathione synthesis)
-Ingesting substances which bind and remove the metals (seaweeds of all types, zeolite clay, bentonite clay, edta, and glutathione all work extroadinarily well.)
Under normal circumstances, a typical day for me will consist of a workout, a yoga session, and seated and standing meditation. All of these encourage deep breathing and muscle stimulation, as well as some level of fat burning and lymphatic drainage.
One thing to note about the lymphatic system is that it is typically considered the dump station of the body and it stores all of the toxic residues that our body is trying to discard. But, it has NO way of pumping its carrier fluids through the body. It cannot dump these things by itself.
The only way to drain the lymphatic system is through either stimulating the muscles through exercise or movement and/or deep breathing.
So, in the program that I have designed for myself, I will wake up and after taking my supplements and applying lifewave patches. I will do my qigong sequence, crossfit routine, and yoga session. And, I make my way to a sauna as often as I can.
All of these things synthesize muscle stimulation, deep breathing, and fat burning. And I love the effect of using multiple elements in order to create a thorough method to accomplish these goals.
So, in addition to exercise and deep breath work, I recommend sauna use. And by sauna, I mean to say a DRY sauna, which promotes heavy sweating. The action of sweating alone does so much in the way of heavy metal toxin release that the importance of it cannot be overemphasized.
In addition to heavy metal toxin removal, the use of a sauna can be extremely youthening for the skin and body extremities.
Using a standard sauna is fine. I know many health clubs around the country will usually have these. I suggest making use of this facility. You will notice remarkable changes in your health and energy, in addition to your appearance.
One better would be to use a far infrared sauna which tends to penetrate much deeper into the body tissues, resulting in the removal of a much more substantial portion of waste. You can find many on the market. They range in style, design, as well as pricing and can be purchased for from $200 to around $3000.
I also do not want to forget to mention that ingestion of chelating (metal removing) substances are very very important as well. And, to mention those again, they are seaweeds, magnetic clays, zeolite clays, edta, and glutathione.
Using one or a range of these substances will dramatically enhance the effects that any other method will have and, depending on your level of severity, will speed up the pace of your own recovery.
Finally, I would like to give a special mention to the patches created by David Schmidt of Lifewave.
Lifewave patches are considered to be a form of software for the body. They are one of the first nanotechnology products to be brought to the marketplace and I tend to use them for a few specific reasons, for their ability to stimulate the energy centers and channels and for their ability to stimulate the release of heavy metals from the body.
The lifewave patches can be said to be one of the first products to combine the technologies of the ancient eastern and modern western sciences and traditions. And, due to their inherent ability to stimulate dramatic fat burning (in the case of the energy stamina patches) and glutathione release (in the case of the y-age patches) this technology serves as a dramatic enhancement to any heavy metal removal process.
What is most important is not that you try to make use of all of these things but simply that you apply some way to removing these toxins on a regular basis, especially in the beginning. They cause deterioration on many levels, most importantly in the brain and nervous system where they contribute to effects of autism as well as other forms of dementia.
I hope you liked the article. Let me know in comments.
Hey there everyone. I just received a question from a friend and it sparked some inspiration for a blog. I appreciate the question because it touches upon some very important ideas and something that many people are curious about these days.
He actually asked what types of exercises I do to build my core. And, while there are exercises I would recommend for specific ab or core training, I don’t tend to exercise them specifically.
I know that I have mentioned before that my preferred training method is Crossfit. My belief is that it is the perfect method for many reasons.
-Its scalable for anyone at any level of fitness from elite athletes to grandmas.
-The workouts are quick. They take up very little time in your day.
-Because the focus is compound movements, you can tend to get into much better shape in much less time and in a much more efficient way.
-The focus is a universal approach to well rounded fitness rather than specific movements to train specific body parts or for specific sports or athletic events.
-The nervous system and posterior chain is a big focus which means that the body begins to function much better. This also relates to how compound movements are used in every workout and also how the workout advocates doing different exercises in different ratios each and every day.
With all this said, I think its clear that if you are actually looking to develop true and lasting levels of fitness that will be there to help you in everyday activity and in sport than Crossfit can be your key to success.
Now, what I want to do is go over some of the basics that can help you make a standard exercise strategy into an explosive one.
Key #1-Use barbells and dumbbells often- The key here is that using barbells and dumbbells force you to balance and will engage all the muscles in your body. The core and auxiliary muscles will be engaged throughout the exercise so it becomes less important to specifically train for that washboard look that we all want and it simply begins to appear. Also, a big factor is that whenever the entire body is engaged, your nervous system responds as well and this is the most neglected part of our bodies but it should be number one on our list when we think about what we need to train.
Key #2-Do body weight exercises-Body weight exercises are all the rage these days. And, its not a surprise why. If you think about how easy (and how CHEAP!) they are to implement and how effective they are than this fact should not be a surprise to you. Body weight training, like training with barbells and dumbells, engages all auxiliary muscles, core muscles, and stimulates nervous system activity. High repetition bodyweight exercises also stimulate the creation of new capillaries in the system which dramatically increases blood flow, oxygenation, and nutrient absorption. So, do pushups, dips, air squats, and pull ups as often as you can.
Key #3-Focus on compound movements-When I train, I do things like power cleans, squat cleans, squat thrusters, lunges, squats, dips, pull ups, pushups. I tend to go through a gamut of about 30 different exercises throughout my training as I alternate exercises, but I NEVER do exercises that focus on specific muscles like biceps curls. I train for maximum efficiency so rather than focusing on specific muscles, I focus on using diverse compound (full body) movements. Within each movement certain muscles may be emphasized but other body parts are always being trained as well. This creates a HUGE metabolic effect as well.
Key #4- Train with speed in your movements- Something that Glen Glassman (creator of Crossfit) says is that if you want to develop speed than train fast. This is a large emphasis in Crossfit styled training. Typically, you would go through a circuit of exercises against a time clock. The idea is that the speed at which you can go through a workout is a measure of success that precedes the amount of weight you can lift. This is not to say that you want to neglect form. In the beginning of Crossfit training, this is the first thing that is taught. Form is of utmost importance for injury prevention. But, as you begin to gain efficiency in the exercises than the next metric is the speed at which you can go through a circuit. What this does is instill a inherent speed and a high level of fitness in your body while promoting increased metabolism, oxygenation, and nutrient delivery.
Key #5- Change your exercises as often as possble-A big concept that has found its moment in the spotlight is something called muscle confusion. And it has found its way into really amazing exercise programs like P90X and Crossfit alike. This is nothing new. The Russians discovered that changing up movements in a workout regimen on a regular basis creates the ability to avoid the dreaded plateau effect. We have all been there. We go to the gym everyday doing the same few exercises until we find that we are no longer improving. The Russians realized that simply changing even small details about the exercises that we are doing can help to push us past that plateau. It came to be known as the Russian Conjugate Method of training. What Crossfit has done is to create a program where everyday the workout is different from the day before. And you may go a month or more before repeating a workout. This creates the effect of a massive upswing for your overall fitness and your muscles are always being challenged.
So those are just a few keys to an amazing exercise program. I would encourage you to go to the Crossfit.com website and check out what they have to offer. What I am planning on doing in the near future is to create a small course simplifying the Crossfit approach and giving you a small selection of workouts that can be used and applied very simply for great effect. It is important to ALWAYS scale back the workouts as they are prescribed on the Crossfit website. You can end up in over training very very easily and this is NOT what you want. Trust me, I have been there. It is always important to go slowly at the beginning. So if any of you have any questions about the Crossfit approach please send me an email and I will explain it to you.
I have, over the past few years, come across the work of Ken Wilber and I am amazed by it to say the least. In his work, he has uncovered understandings on just about all areas of society, what is driving it and moving it forward, along with the whys and hows.
I truly encourage anyone here who is interested in understanding the direction that our mass consciousness is taking to spend some time delving into the topics of spiral dynamics or the integral model that he has uncovered.
In his research you will find the same evidences that I have found for reasons why I believe that humanity as a whole is in actuality moving in the right direction, which is toward an integral consciousness, despite the seeming snail like pace in which these changes seem to be occurring.
That is not the topic at hand, though, so lets move on.
While doing a workout yesterday, the thought occurred to me that, in the system that I have put together for myself, it really is true that I am targeting much more than the physical body and its mechanisms.
The reason I brought up Ken Wilber is because, to be honest, that upon reading his book, “Integral Life Practice” recently, it occured to me that what I am doing is in large part an Integral Life Practice in itself.
And, the approach that Wilber puts forth is a multi-moduled or three bodied framework for fitness, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.
What are the three bodies? While Wilber calls them the gross, subtle, and causal bodies, Taoist literature refers to them the as the three treasures of jing, chi, and shen.
The gross body (jing) is referring to the sexual physical vitality that is usually enhanced through physical stimulation or through the food and substances we injest. It is the densest of the three and is what we can see and feel.
The subtle body (chi) refers to the energetic field that moves through the body’s energy centers and through the other supporting channels.
The causal body (shen) refers to the energy of consciousness, the mind, or mental awareness.
What I have found most noticeable in my own research, is that no matter what culture or aspect within culture you look to, you never really see all three of our bodies being expressed and developed.
Personally, I have realized that, in my work, I have tended to make it a point to focus on all three bodies rather than only the physical or only the mental or spiritual aspects of myself and it has resulted in an ability to really take my three bodied fitness out into the world.
The reason I suppose this is the case is because, if I am concentrating on all of these many aspects of myself, overtime, I will tend to become aware of how everything is being affected so as not to overwhelm any one area and damage myself.
A good example of this is in physical training. Now, yes, you may have seen some of my workout videos or looked at the crossfit mainpage and seen that the workouts I tend to do look very difficult. And, they certainly are.
But, my workouts will not usually last any longer than twenty minutes and even though, in every way, I am getting a pretty powerful workout, I do not overdo the actual act of physical training itself. And, in my opinion, this brand of training provides the most beneficial effect on the overall aging process and is designed to do the least amount of harm to my full spectrum of bodies.
But, if we begin to overdo aspects of physical training (which many bodybuilders do) other areas of our conscious spectrum begin to weaken. Maybe our sexual vitality is depleted more quickly or our egos get larger and more difficult to manage (have you ever heard of a bodybuilder maybe adoring the look of his own muscle just a little too much?…lol).
It is a working hypothesis that I am enjoying experimenting with.
Now, there is overlap here also. Workouts do affect all three bodies, in the same way that meditation increases beneficial hormones in addition to expanding consciousness and removing energy blockages.
But, as we know, meditation is meant and is best when used to expand consciousness or to deal with stress in everyday life. Many so called spiritual seekers do meditation and nothing else. They do not workout. Why?
Because they have been told by some zen guru that we are only the mind and the body doesn’t matter.
The truth is that we are simultaneously living as a continuous expression of our body AND our mind. Both of these, in addition to the energy field are vehicles in our expression and experience of life.
More attention, in my opinion, would be best spent on some type of meditative practice than a workout for sure. But we should always do both. I spend an hour or more with my holosync soundtracks and I feel they have helped me tremendously. But, I make sure to work out and do meditation as well.
Ken Wilber has even said that in a study done recently, two groups of men were given a specific period of time to devote to transformational practices each week. The first group was told to only do meditation during that period of time while a second group was instructed to balance that time between physical training and meditation.
Well, what do you know? The group that worked out, according to the judges, was said to have experienced more growth in their meditative practices than the group that did meditation alone.
Case in point, do both! Its so much better when you can be increasingly more conscious in a body that is fit than in one that is fat? And what is being increasingly discovered as the research advances is that meditative and spiritual growth happens faster when multiple facets are applied to ones personal program.
Lastly, I would like to take a brief look at my qigong practices. I have a good amount of experience with this. But, my knowledge is limited on the specifics of how and why it works so well.
The bulk of my experience has been with a program called magnetic qigong which was created by Peter Ragnar. I find it to be amazing and I realize more and more over time all the ways in which it has helped me.
It takes maybe 5 or 10 minutes each day, but in that brief span of time, many benefits can be gained.
Qigong is considered to be a moving meditation. According to some ancient sources, standing meditation is considered to actually be much more beneficial than standard seated meditative practices. But, the focus, as I have found seems to be much more on expanding the energetic field or subtle body.
This creates a deeper experience with the chakras and channels of the body and can also contribute to the development of shen (which is developed primarily through seated meditation) as it moves throughout the body, up the spine, and into the crown chakra.
And, in my own experience, I have noticed a deeper connection with the earth as well. I tend to feel much more grounded and my balance is also increased. So, although I cannot state exactly what is happening, I do know that it is having a wonderful effect.
The books of Jwing Ming Yang and Peter Ragnar are wonderful sources of information on this topic.
Doing all of these practices may seem like a lot. But, I assure you that they are not. It is not so much the amount of time you spend doing each individual practice that makes the difference. It is more important that you do a range of practices within the given time that you may have to devote.
In the case of the study, remember, the time allotted was the same, but the results (for those spiritual cross trainers) were dramatically different.
