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If Babies were Buddhas - An Experience

2011-09-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

Just recently, a lovely friend/colleague and fellow Level IV CHEK Practitioner, Kris Timpert, gifted me a copy of her book "If Babies were Buddhas". This "book" appears on the surface as if it was meant for children to read being that it has few pages, simple passages, and vivid illustrations. And yet as we know in Life, not everything is as it seems on the surface and you certainly can not judge a book by its cover.

Kris had asked me to review her book and to give her my perspective of it considering my background with meditation, spirituality, shamanism, and all things of the "Unseen". Here's my take: This isn't a book to be read but more so an Experience to experience. Most people would probably breeze right through it, browsing through the pictures, reading the words, and probably think "Yeah, I get it. But will kids understand this?" The book is presented in a children's book style and it's common for one to assume that it was meant for children but when you truly "Experience" it, you'll find something much deeper. As many of you who know me, I have a close relationship with Rudolf Steiner and his works of Anthroposophy, where Anthroposophy is a path to understanding the connection between our physical lives and the spiritual realities that inform them. As Kris writes, "Perhaps the reason a god can't be seen is because the energy needs us as a go-between." Please do not get caught up in the word "god", for it has so many different meanings for each person which can distract one from experiencing the deeper message. Isn't that so common? Where from our own doings, we can totally miss the point, the moment, because our mind gets stuck on one particular part so we end up missing the Whole. How many times have you purely focused on what another person is saying without your mind thinking of something else? Very rarely (if one is truly honest with themselves). We, as Humans, as part of our nature, want to know everything; so we judge everything before us through comparisons with our past experiences. This is how Humans have a unique gift of Creation, where we can create each moment. We create our boundaries. We experience. And we grow from the experience. Problems arise when we focus so much on the details that we miss out on the bigger picture. Our ego goes "monkey mind" where it attaches to its neuroses, so much so that we've become an ADD/HD society.

In Taoism, they talk about the balance of yin and yang; the Buddha taught the Middle Path; we, as Humans are the Middle Path. What resides within us is the best of both worlds - our lower animal selves and our Higher Spiritual Selves. We all have an inner Light, a little Buddha, that resides within. Catholics have a saying about "seeing Christ in others". The Buddha, the Christ, is the balancing of the Human experience. We are never "stuck" on either end of the spectrum between opposites. Life is a dynamic process of happy/sad, good/evil, tall/short, or young/old. We keep moving regardless of the protective reactions of the distracted ego/mind. If Babies were Buddhas, subtlety gets the message across that You are that dynamic process; You are Buddha, Christ. It describes the archetypal path of the wounded healer, the arduous journey towards Enlightenment in the quest for the Holy Grail.

Just imagine how different the world would be if everyone discovered their little "Buddhas" within them? I recommend reading this "book" initially and then read it again and again, until eventually you realize that you are meditating. That's it. Allow this book to be a meditative experience and Be Open to accept whatever the Experience reveals to You...

....And then pass the book along to another fellow Human.

The Pia Toscano Effect

2011-04-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

If you've been living under a rock or do not watch the TV show American Idol, you missed quite a shocker where one of the show's contestant favorites, Pia Toscano (from my hometown of good ole' Howard Beach, NY), was eliminated. Pia has all the qualities of a marketable star and any record company would benefit from signing her and from the shocked reactions of Hollywood, she's got what it takes. Like many people who've been following the show, I seriously thought Pia would be at least the final three or even the winner, but from what we saw, this was not the case and there is an even greater learning message here. Interestingly, from the following exit interview below, Pia even admitted that she had a funny feeling that she would be in the bottom three of the voting that night.

Pia Toscano Exit Interview

You never know what can happen in life no matter how much you prepare for it but this is not to say that we should all be lazy bastards and do nothing. We all have Dreams. We are all living those Dreams at this very moment. If we weren't, what in the world are we alive for? Regardless if we're on the top of the mountain or we've hit rock-bottom, there is always something beautiful Life has to offer; or shall I say, reveals to us if only we'd pay more attention to It. Life hits us with whatever we are ready and able to experience and it's only when we're blinded by our anxieties, fears, and neuroses that we believe that Life has "let us down".

Earlier that day of the show, during my daily meditation, I was meditating on the following reading from the Taoist text, the Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu, Verse 42:

Tao gives life to the one

The one gives life to the two

The two give life to the three

The three give life to ten thousand things

All beings support yin and embrace yang

and the interplay of these two forces

fills the universe

Yet only at the stillpoint,

between the breathing in and the breathing out,

can one capture these two in perfect harmony

People suffer at the thought of being

without parents, without food, or without worth

Yet this is the very way that

kings and lords once described themselves

Who knows what fate may bring -

one day your loss may be your fortune

one day your fortune may be your loss

The age-old lesson that others teach, I also teach -

"As you plant, so you reap"

"As you live, so you die"

Know this to be the foundation of my teachings

Take this passage for what it is and see if you can relate the Pia Toscano Effect to what's going on in your life right now. If life gives you lemons, are you making lemonade, or are you letting those lemons get the best of you? Sometimes our greatest upsets are our greatest fortunes....Always look for that diamond in the ruff in every moment, every experience and Life will always be a Jewel.

BTW: Pia, if you're reading this, if you ever need a wellness/fitness guru, trainer, nutritionist, Life Coach/Health Consultant type of assistance to help you look and feel even better than ever now that you're going Hollywood (and we all know stardom can take its toll on one's health), I can be of service....;-)

Father in SUV throws garbage out his window...

2011-04-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

Today, after picking my son up from school, while waiting to cross the street, we observed a man driving in an SUV with some kids inside, rolled down his window and threw out the above empty bag of potato chips onto the street. Normally, I wouldn't pay attention to this type of action since who am I to judge another since I do not and cannot know what was going through the person's mind at the time. But given the situation, while holding my son's hand, who saw the whole event, I was inspired to take advantage of this moment and rather than get mad or critical with the person involved, I chose to create some Beauty from it. As we crossed the street, I discreetly bent down and picked up the bag and put it into my pocket and told my son that sometimes we forget that our mess affects others as well as the Earth we live on and that we can help each other out by simply picking up after each other every once in awhile. As Humans, we have a tendency to forget and forgetting is not such a bad thing, or else how would we ever remember? Sometimes in our busy lives we can become so distracted that we forget what's important in our lives and one of the most important things in Life is our Relationships; our relationships with others, with ourselves, as well as with the environment. Every thought, every word, every action we manifest affects all of our relationships. Don't simply take my word for it, see this for yourselves. See if you can imagine how any one of your thoughts, words, and actions affects the rest of the world.....

It may be difficult for some to understand or even acknowledge the interconnectedness when their vision has been clouded by the smokescreen of their limiting, conditioned beliefs, or "old ways" or habits in experiencing the world. One thing that may contribute to this "clouded vision" that we actually have some control over is nutrition & diet. What we eat can affect the function of our brain and thus our conscious experience. Don't believe me? Try overeating and see just how clear-headed you are. The same goes for when our diet consists mostly of processed food with ingredients that are refined and stripped of most (or all) of its nutrition and replaced with synthetic additives, preservatives, food coloring, and taste enhancers made in a lab and not from the Earth's soil.

BTW, below is the list of ingredients from the potato chip bag I picked up:

Ingredients: potatoes cooked in vegetable oil (contains one of the following: corn, cottonseed, soybean), salt and seasoning added. No preservatives added.

Seasoning: sugar, soy flour, dextrose, salt, paprika, tomato powder, monosodium glutamate, wheat flour, maltodextrin, torula yeast, dehydrated onion and garlic, spice, partially dehydrogenated vegetable oil (cottonseed, soybean), silicon dioxide (a free flow agent), extractives of paprika, and natural smoke flavor.

So as you can see from the above ingredients from the vegetable oils (which go rancid easily and are pro-inflammatory and immunosuppressive) to the seasonings containing more pro-inflammatory ingredients as well as neuro-toxins (brain toxin) such as MSG, there's no wonder why this guy threw the bag out the window! Just kidding. I am not saying there's a direct relationship between what you eat and your actions but quite possibly an indirect one where one can be so desensitized to one's connection to the Earth, food, nutrition, as well as Life itself that they would be distracted from seeing the bigger picture....

Next time you witness something similar to what I just described, if you feel inclined to, clean up after your neighbor; not for a reward or recognition for doing something good, in fact, don't tell anyone what you did. Do it for the sake of simply doing it and see how it feels...We are responsible, as in being able to respond to what kind of a world we want to Create. Let's create one where we can all work together....

Fat Ass & Weak Bones

2011-04-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

From Lao Tzu:

“empty the mind and fill the belly,

weaken the ambitions, and strengthen the bones.”

What happens when we have a lot of stress? We tend to have a lot on our minds, don’t we? We tend to excessively think, over and over again, whatever it is we are fixated on. We become somewhat neurotic and accumulate more and more thoughts that we become hoarders. This overwhelms our reality and can distract us from what is before us. Physiologically, the body beautiful has an inner intelligence that helps compensate for the overburdened mind. People tend to eat more when stressed. The act of eating helps to divert some of the energy from the brain towards the gut. It literally helps to calm the mind by filling the belly. By eating we take the energy we would use to “digest” our thoughts and use it to digest our food. This helps to create some balance between the mind and body. Problems arise when we do not allow our minds to take a break and continue to feed it with more “unnecessities” and the body, being the obedient servant that it is, compensates by “hoarding” the excess energy that it can no longer process resulting in your average fat ass. On the other end of the spectrum, we may be too distracted and consciously disconnect ourselves from our bodies and exhibit symptoms of anorexia. So, in other words, a distracted mind can lead to either situation of over and under filling of the belly. The metaphor here is that in Taoism, the belly is the foundation of our life force, our Qi, and a cluttered mind can deplete our vitality.

What happens when one is ambitious? On the surface, one would want to do everything and conquer all, all at the same time. This can also be viewed as satisfying the “wants” of our senses more than the “needs” of them. Lao Tzu may have been referring more towards the tendency to succumb to our excessive desires and becoming enslaved to those temptations. Our bones give us structure and foundation and it is our will that strengthens them. Physiologically, the bones are stimulated through movement and movement is an act of will. Osteoporosis is a metaphor for the weakening of the will. The will weakens when we allow ourselves to become slaves to the senses; when all we look for is pleasure and run away from the unpleasantness; the desire for the “cures” and “quick-fixes” rather than the more profound healing and enlightenment that is hidden underneath all of our ambitions.

Clear the mind and pay attention to the vitality that which is Life.

Free the mind of the senses and see the Freedom that which is the Will.

Catholicism & Reincarnation

2010-10-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

The next time someone who follows the Catholic religion tells you that the church does not believe in reincarnation, remind them to review the Apostles' Creed and to pay more attention to what it is saying; especially the last part of it:

"I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen."

The word "resurrection" has a Latin etymology meaning "a rising again from the dead"; Resurrection of the body, meaning the physical body, and life everlasting may be referring to the circular cycle of reincarnation, where the Soul transitions from one body to the next like an eternal flame goes from one candle to another, where it experiences what is to be experienced and learns what is to be learned. Where there is death, there is birth and so it is with the duality of life until polar opposites remove their veils and awaken from the illusion of separation.

If you study different religions without attachment to the differences (nor the similarities), you can get a sense that each one is one aspect of a greater whole. From this perspective, Catholicism is Hinduism is Judaism is Muslim is Buddhism is Christianity is every other religion is like your right arm is your left arm is your right foot is your left foot is your heart is your stomach is etc...The popular and more common perspective is that the right arm is separated from the left arm and what one part believes in is right and the others' beliefs are wrong. This is just plain silly. If the right arm got rid of the left arm, would it be a better world for the right arm? Of course not, but this is how crazy some religious fundamentalists live their lives. The more we separate ourselves from others because of religious beliefs, the more of Life we are missing out on. In actuality, the more we separate ourselves from others, the further away we push ourselves from GOD (or Allah, or Jehovah, or Source, or whatever is IS, etc).

I challenge you reading this to learn from as many different religions and take a step back and focus on what are the interconnections that unite them rather than focusing on the obvious differences.

2010-09-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

“I am dead because I lack desire,

I lack desire because I think I possess.

I think I possess because I do not try to give.

In trying to give, you see that you have nothing;

Seeing that you have nothing, you try to give of yourself;

Trying to give of yourself, you see that you are nothing:

Seeing that you are nothing, you desire to become;

In desiring to become, you begin to live.”

— In a brief Postface to "Mount

Analogue" written by René Daumal

To live is to Be and for many what they think is living can actually be viewed as the "living dead" where to Be is Presence and in the Now and anything other than the Now is the past or future (or that which does not actually exist and is a mind construct that provides reference for the actual given moment). We live in an outside reality where there are three dimensions of space and one dimension of time and it is this outer reality that enslaves our attention until we remember that we are an inner reality that is beyond the outer four dimensions. This is when one truly contemplates the question " Who am I?"

As long as we allow ourselves to be lost in the boundaries, or our reference points, the Now becomes dead to us. We are dead and yet physically alive because the mind habitually attaches to what we know in the forms of our beliefs, opinions, and past experiences with little chance for the actual given moment to reveal itself to us. How often and easy it is for our opinions to get in the way from a potentially enlightening experience only to assassinate the blossoming of Creativity in its tracks of newness.

Can we "get out of the way" and allow each moment to reveal itself to us? Yes, we can and this is when the "living dead" become the "living alive"; And to Live is to turn off the high beams and trust that your headlights are good enough for you to see through the Darkness of Nothingness....

Inception & Knowledge of the Higher Worlds

2010-07-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

I recently saw the movie Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio and I highly recommend it and I’d also suggest you go see it with a clear head since it can easily play mental kung fu with you. It is movies like this and Avatar that are subtlety exposing the general public to the possibilities of other realities beside what we consider to be our reality right here on this big blue planet. In the spiritual science of anthroposophy as taught by Rudolf Steiner, he lectures about “higher worlds” which are the Soul and Spirit worlds that are beyond what the physical senses can perceive. What we are accustomed to in our everyday lives is what is visible and these higher worlds are considered the invisible. In Inception, the story involves the concept of lucid dreaming where DiCaprio’s character, Cob, is an “extractor” who gets into people’s dreams and steals information from them. Cob is then involved in a situation where rather than stealing info he gets to actually implant an idea, like a seed, into a person’s psyche which has such great implications that he is initially hesitant because of the possible dangers.

When we dream, our Soul goes off into these higher worlds and through dreaming our Soul has an opportunity to communicate to us anything important that we may be missing in our awakened, conscious state. Some of the greatest minds in Human history came up with their greatest achievements while dreaming. The dream state can be considered a parallel universe, or reality, that is invisible. The higher worlds are invisible to us for good reason and that would be because it would most likely scare the living shit out of you if the veil was removed and you had no preparation or training to be aware of the expansiveness and power that’s hidden beneath. Other cases, such as with psychedelic drug use, these higher worlds can be so alluring and blissful that a person can begin confusing realities and become lost. There are countless stories where the dangers of a misguided journey to the higher worlds can lead to physical death or even demonic possession (yes, this does exist). The good news is that our ignorance to these worlds is sort of like our protection until we earn our “wings” and break through the veil with our own will. And it is also through our pain and suffering that we are protected until we grow and learn from these experiences that help us become more enlightened to the darkness of the invisible worlds. So be grateful for any pain or suffering you experience because they are the leash that tethers us from flying away before we learn how to fly on our own and they help us make sense of our reality here in this lifetime. If we don’t cope and grow from the pain and suffering, we typically end up over-medicated or sent to the “looney bin” mental institution for more “zombie” medication.

In ancient times, those who felt called to know more about the Soul/Spirit worlds were called “Initiates” and were trained in “Mystery” schools. In modern times, the Mystery schools have disappeared (or at least placed under the radar only for those who have been called to seek them) and have been replaced by materialism. Teachings such as Steiner’s and the works of anthroposophy shed some light for those called on the unmarked path for the Holy Grail. In Inception, Cob’s wife, Ma, believes that the dream world is the real reality and the awakened, conscious state is the dream (or “fake” world) and she chooses the dream world by committing suicide in the awakened, conscious state only to lose her physical body in this lifetime. This reminds me of those old news stories of mass suicides by cult members enticed by a guru to leave this world with promises of salvation into another.

Spoiler Alert – For those who haven’t seen Inception yet and want to, please do not read any further and then come back to this point after you’ve seen it.

There is a bit of controversy at the end of the movie where the audience is left with the question of whether or not Cob was still dreaming when he was reunited with his kids. The scene is where he spins his top (a totem he uses to distinguish between the dreaming state and the conscious, awakened state where if the top continues spinning, he’s dreaming and if it stops spinning, he’s awake) and then is distracted by the greeting of his kids who he hasn’t seen in awhile and the audience is left with the top spinning but suddenly starts to falter as the screen fades to black as the final scene of the movie. Was it real or was it a dream? One can wrap their mind around this several ways or may even watch the movie several times to figure this out. Did the director do this to indicate a possible sequel? We really can not know and only the director knows; but I offer another perspective: maybe it doesn’t really matter whether or not it was real or a dream. Maybe the important thing to understand is that Cob was reunited with his children and is no longer held captive by his feelings of guilt towards his wife’s death and it was his will through choice that this happened. Whether it was real or a dream, it was his choice to be happy and free in that last scene. Any debate of real or not real is an anchor to the world of duality, or opposites, where there is always a separation where one chooses sides and moves away from Unity and Understanding. Maybe the director has planted a seed within the audience, an act of inception, an idea that other realities do exist beyond what we believe to be our current reality and that ultimately we have a choice whether or not to explore the many possibilities. Maybe the seed is to help us understand that it is not about choosing one world over the other but to learn the best of all worlds and grow from there. What’s going on at the surface of the Ocean is no indication of what’s going on at the Ocean floor unless one has the Courage to go deeper and find out for themselves. That, my friend, is the take-Home message.....

The Chickpea

2010-06-16T05:23:00.000-07:00

Here's one of my favorite passages from RUMI where he describes the path of suffering and "bad luck" as an opportunity to explore the Soul ever so deeply:

Look at the chickpea floating in the pot, how it leaps when it's put under the fire. As it's being boiled, it keeps rising to the top; it cries out in 100 ways, saying. "Why are you scalding me with fire? Since you thought I was good enough to buy, why are you turning me upside down now?"

The cook goes on hitting it with her ladle and says, "Come on now! Boil nicely; don't try to escape the one who made the fire. I'm not boiling you because I hate you, but rather so you can become tasty and flavorful, and gain good qualities and mingle with the spirit of the soup. This pain that you're enduring now isn't because you're unloved. When you were young and fresh in the garden you drank in water. Your drinking of that water then was for the sake of burning in this fire now!"

God's mercy comes before His wrath, and part of His mercy is you being made to suffer from hardships. Through His wrath, you learn to give up your foolish desires for this material world. O Chickpea, keep on boiling in turmoil, so that neither your desire to exist nor your ego may remain a part of you.

Mathnawi III, 4159-4165, 4169, 4178

Reform the Self Above All Others

2010-06-15T04:08:00.000-07:00

Here's some more RUMI to help those who may be experiencing some frustration in our current state of affairs:

O you who treat others badly simply because of your high status; know that you're digging a hole for yourself to fall into. Don't weave a cocoon of false pretenses around yourself like a silkworm; you're digging a hole for yourself! Don't dig so eagerly!

Many of the evils that you see in others are really just a reflection of your own evil in them. In their reflection, all your hypocrisy, evil, and arrogance are made apparent. You're the real wicked one! You're aiming blows at yourself and laying curses upon your own head at every turn.

You don't recognize the evil within yourself at all, for if you did you would hate yourself to the very core. You're assaulting yourself, you fool, like a deceived lion who rushed at himself upon seeing his reflection in a pool.

O you who see bad reflections in the face of your uncle, your uncle is not the bad one, it's you, so don't run away from facing your own self.

The Prophet said that the faithful are mirrors of each other. If you hold a blue colored glass before your eyes, then the world appears blue to you. Unless you're blind, you must recognize that this blueness comes from within your own self. Speak of the evil within yourself before you ever speak of the evil in others.

Mathnawi I, 1311-1312, 1319-1324, 1327-1330

Opening the Sacred Heart

2010-06-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

A Little RUMI for you Lovers out there...

There is many a one whose eye is awake, yet whose heart is asleep. In the end, what can creatures made of water and clay ever see?

The one who keeps his heart awake, though the eye of his head yet sleeps - such a heart will open 100 eyes!

If you're not in possession of an opened heart yet, then remain awake in study throughout the night. Look for that heart that can open, and struggle against your earthly desires.

If your heart is always awake, then rest in peace, for your inner eye is never dimmed from seeing the world around it.

The description of an awakened heart, O spiritual being, could not be accomplished even in thousands of verses!

Mathnawi III, 1222-1225, 1228

Spontaneous Evolution Right Now...

2010-05-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

Recently I was asked by my wife what was behind my need to read more books and learn more knowledge. At the time, I could not answer her and simply answered, “I don’t know.” After meditating and allowing this question to settle what initially came up on the surface was a revelation that my need to know more was linked to old behavioral patterns/issues regarding my ego’s need for recognition and approval. But that was just dust on the surface. I further realized that ultimately what was underneath the ego’s needs was a running away from what Is and what Is is who I am. Reproducing or re-enacting the past in expectation of a specific result based upon one’s past experience is like running uphill towards some non-existent prize; it is fatiguing and without insight of Reality and goes against the flow of Life. Nothing in Life is ever the same and everything is constantly changing. Trying to maintain such “sameness” ultimately leads towards a vicious cycle of suffering. “I do this because I felt happy the last time I did it”; but when one’s expectations are not met, suffering occurs. Acceptance of what Is and understanding the newness of every moment allows us to step into our Being so that we can get some sense of who we truly are.

I understand now that whatever comes my way is just what I need at every given moment. In this sense, all of my needs are met. But this does not imply that I should not have wants or desires. The take-home lesson is that when we have our wants and desires as a foundation of our identity and existence, our attachments to them provide for an unstable surface to experience Life with. But rather if our foundation is what Is and a deeper awareness of who we are, there is nothing that can stand in our way. In other words, we pursue our wants and desires without attachments knowing that they are simply outward manifestations of aspects of who we already are. It is like the carpenter who builds a chair and has no worries if the chair is broken because he can simply make another one if he desires. Our wants and desires can help guide us to find meaning and purpose in Life.

The past month or so I have been experiencing some physical pain that has no significant rhyme or reason or connection to any specific cause. Rather than stress out and worry about these symptoms I chose to slow down my life even more and be openly receptive to whatever “popped up” and allow it to reveal itself to me. Intuitively, I was gathering that in some quantum manner I was “spontaneously evolving” where deep down into my DNA and each one of my trillions of cells, change was occurring and this change was not only on a physical level but also on the level of consciousness as well. The type of books I have been reading were all related in that they all were unifying matter and Spirit; they were scientifically proving the existence of God, or a quantum consciousness, where this Divine vacuum is a matrix in which we are all interconnected. These books along with some other researching I’ve been pursuing have helped me greatly in helping others in understanding health and guiding them in finding meaning in Life. In modern physics there is what’s called the “bootstrap” theory where you take a little bit from everything and tie it all together to give an understanding of the bigger picture of existence. I basically am evolving into studying a little bit of everything and bringing them all together into unity with a greater understanding of our inter-relatedness with the All.

When the dust was cleared, the revelation was revealed: the spontaneous evolution as coined by biologist/author Bruce Lipton, is in full effect and I am in transition of letting go of the old beliefs, stories, past experiences, knowledge, etc so as to make more room for new ones. And whatever book or new knowledge I seek is really a reminder of what I have forgotten and I trust that whatever I am reminded of is just what I need at that moment in the journey of my Life experience. I share this with you because I know many of you are experiencing similar revelations and it can be too easy to get trapped in our old stories, or patterns of behaviors that are no longer serving for us. Let it be known that you are changing and you have a choice to welcome the change or to shut the door on it. I recommend leaving the door wide open.....

For those interested, the last three books I’ve read this past month are (in the order I read them):

1) The Spiritual Universe by Fred Alan Wolf, PhD

2) God is not Dead by Amit Goswami, PhD

3) The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra

The Beauty of Illness & Pain

2010-05-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

What happens when we get sick or when we have pain? We tend to want to immediately feel better and reach or do the first thing that we can think of to accomplish that goal. The illness and pain are considered foes and we commit to a war to “battle” and fight against the “evils” of ill-feeling and angst of pain. Let us take another perspective, shall we?

There’s an old parable of Jesus as he was walking with his disciples and passed a dead, decaying dog. His disciples were appalled by the sight and commented on the ugliness of the scene. But Jesus commented otherwise and said, “Look at those pearly, white teeth!”. The fruit of this story is that even what may appear as “ugly”, there is always Beauty to be found. When we experience sickness or pain, where’s the “pearly, white teeth”? The obvious symptoms of fatigue, body aches, discomfort, coughing, sneezing, congestion, decreased physical activity, and any other symptom appears to grab all of our attention. What can we learn from this experience?

The Beauty Perspective

Being sick or in pain does have its merits. We are forced to slow down. We are forced to think less and thus slow down the workings of the mind. We are forced to eat less. And most importantly, we are forced to pay more attention to everything we do, think, or say and especially pay more attention to the body and mind. Now let us imagine if we applied all of these things we are “forced” to do when we are sick or injured when we are not sick or injured. Imagine how much healthier you can be by slowing down your present lifestyle; by giving the troubled mind a break every once in awhile; by eating less than you already do; and by being more aware and mindful of the body and mind so that you can open the door for the Soul to express. Let us be grateful that being sick or injured allows us to remember these healthful actions.

It is not until the warrior stops and Listens that he/she can lay down their sword and stop the fighting in their life. We always have a choice to make Life a battle or an awesome, enlightening experience...

Meat or No Meat: The Vegan vs. Carnivore Debate

2010-04-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

The following is a post from a discussion regarding a link involving eating red meat and cancer from a good friend of mine, Antonio Valladares, on his Facebook page where he asked me to share another perspective so as not to fuel the relentless, ongoing debate between who's got the better evidence...which by the way is infantile and out-welcoming its stay in our culture. How can we evolve as Humanity if we allow our ignorance to take the reigns and guide us in Life? I have been working on a manuscript for the past two years that goes ever so deep into this topic and my response to the post is just a sampling. Enjoy:

To compare what animals eat to what Humans eat will always result in conflict and misunderstanding and can only serve the ego's need for opinions and validation. What Humans have in common with animals are a physical, etheric, and astral bodies. What distinguishes Humans from animals is the existence of an Ego/I-organization - animals are instinctual and react out of instinct and not by free will. Humans can act from free will and always by conscious choice. Plants on the other hand have a physical and etheric body. Nutrition is a dynamic process in the Human where it takes what is "non-Human" and transforms it into what is "Human" - in other words it takes substance and destroys whatever part of it that it was and creates new subtle forces that only Humans have (ie. Ego/I-organization).
When Humans eat plants they have to destroy the plant's physical and etheric structures and then create astral and Ego/I forces from it. To requires much more inner work for the Human organism and thus explains why in certain religions and spiritual traditions that advocate fasting from animal flesh to be come somewhat more Enlightened. When humans eat meat, the animal has already done most of the work of destroying and transforming the physical and etheric structures and in this sense can make an individual "spiritually lazy" in developing their own "spiritual" forces. Also, by eating meat, one has to deal with and take in all of the animal's astralities (ie. feelings, emotions, etc) and if the person is not grounded enough, they will experience the animal's fears, aggression, horniness, etc.
Eating exclusively a plant diet can help one develop more inner/esoteric spiritual capacities but the major warning here is that if the person has ANY unresolved emotional/mental/spiritual/karmic issues can develop what's called "Luciferic" tendencies from the study of anthroposophy where one becomes like the fallen angel and blindly believes in their self-righteousness and pseudo-divinity, holier-than-thou mentality. This is evident in some "vegans" who swear that they are absolutely right and all meat-eaters are wrong (again more conflict and division). Eating exclusively animal flesh contributes to one being somewhat "spiritually lazy" where the person relies on the astralities of the animal to create their inner Human forces. In anthroposophy, this end of the spectrum leads people to be more "Ahrimanic", or attached to the world of matter. In other words, excessive flesh consumption leads to materialism and denial of what is all spiritual.
The debate between animal flesh and veganism is a distraction from the ego experiencing what Is. It attaches to reference points to validate its existence and to be conscious of experience. Dualism always creates separation with one side contrasting with the other. On the microscopic level, quantum science demonstrates the separation is a necessary illusion and the actuality is an interconnected matrix/field where both sides of the fence are in reality the same fence and debating between meat vs. no meat is like your left hand arguing with your right hand about which is better....totality ridiculous but enlightening at the same time.

The Mind and the Soul

2010-04-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

The mind/ego thinks it knows the Soul because that's what the mind/ego does: it anchors itself to something that it can attach to and creates boundaries so that it can separate you (as the observer) from the object of your perception (the observed). This allows you to be conscious of the experience. But the Soul is not something that can be grasped and bounded because it is expansive, limitless, and boundless. In fact, it is invisible and immaterial and because of this the mind/ego does its best to interpret what it is. From the Rene Magritte painting to the left (The Human Condition) you can see that the painting of the ocean is a reflection of the actual ocean outside. This is similar to what the mind/ego is as a limited and fragmented painting which is only a reflection of the greater, boundless Soul such as the actual ocean. The mind/ego as a sense of self is only a reflection of the True Soul.

The Soul can become addicted to the body and fall into the illusion of the mind/ego's sense of self and forget its actual true, eternal Self.

How does one discriminate between what is from the Soul and what is from the mind/ego?

From the practice of vigilant observation. The mind/ego operates in the realm of time and space. The Soul realm is timelessness. Commonly, if a thought requires some time, it's from the mind/ego and what's the first thing to pop up out from what appears to be nowhere is usually a message from the Soul. The Soul communicates through images, vibrations, feelings, dreams, and an inner knowing and not so much through the use of words such as with the mind/ego. The mind/ego uses thoughts based upon past experiences and knowledge (elements of time) and the Soul uses intuition which is a living, dynamic process of guiding the Individual. With vigilant observation, one develops discriminative intelligence and there is no longer a painting separated from what is painted. There simply is what Is.....

Observations of the Fitness Industry

2010-04-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else noticed this in the fitness industry?: you get good at what you do; you start lecturing locally and then conferences; you write some e-books and articles; you crank out some DVDs; and when you really get popular, you start taking on interns and then start providing certifications; and then when your business is financially sound, you start "business" coaching. What's next after that?
Some sort of Soul/Spiritual connection. That's right. You heard it hear first.

If you're familiar with pioneers in the fitness world such as Paul Chek, you'll clearly understand that when one starts to pay attention to their physical health, this paves the way towards mental, and then soul/spiritual health. Pretty soon, the popular names in the industry will start lecturing or acknowledging their practices of the spiritual aspects that have been purposely kept dormant due to the public's ignorance of this area. For those "experts" who deny or refuse to transform and adapt to this wave of enlightenment, what you'll see is a little bit of the same stuff they've been teaching over the years but with catchy/trendy marketing tags with the illusion of promoting something different.

Overall, the fitness/wellness industry is being propelled towards a greater consciousness and once you pay attention to the trends of pioneers who are already there, you can get a sense of what's ahead. Body - Mind - Soul....it's the Soul aspect that is about to shine.

Meditation may be much more effective than drugs in treating heart disease: A Recent Study

2010-04-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

A recent study (and the first of its kind) presented at the annual American Heart Association’s conference last year (11/09) that revealed an almost 50% reduction in heart attack, stroke, and death in heart disease patients practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM). This study was sponsored by the NIH with a $3.8 million grant and conducted at the Medical College of Wisconsin and was a randomized controlled trial lasting nine years following 201 test participants.

The fascinating thing about this first-ever, government-sponsored study was that no drug, surgery, or combination of treatments for heart disease has ever been researched to reduce heart disease risks up to 50% and all it took for these patients was practice in TM.

Here are some interesting facts regarding heart disease:

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the United States

There are nearly 1.5 million heart attacks per year in the United States, according to the American Heart Association

An American will suffer a heart attack every 34 seconds

Coronary heart disease is also the leading cause of health care costs. More than $475 billion is spent annually on treating CHD, including: $100,000 for each coronary bypass surgery, $50,000 for each angioplasty, and $30,000 for each diagnostic cardiac catheterization.

There are nearly 500,000 coronary artery bypass grafts and 1.3 million angioplasties performed every year.

Stress is thought to contribute to the development of CHD.

Transcendental Meditation is but one approach to meditation and this study opens the doorway for the newer perspective that a meditative/contemplative practice may be a more effective alternative to the typical prescriptive treatments for heart disease.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Meditation practice is effective for the treatment of heart disease.

Pediasure and the Illusion of Healthy Nutrition for Our Children

2010-04-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Recently I observed some kids having a snack drinking a bottle of Pediasure which brought back memories of when I used to work in the hospital and patients were given the adult version of Pediasure (Ensure) to assist in their recovery. One would think that this stuff must be good for you if they exclusively serve it to hospital patients, right? I call major stinking bullshit on this. Anyone can read the ingredients of these products and quickly get an idea that 1) there’s a lot of sugar (which is listed as the second ingredient) and 2) what are all these big and fancy words? These products contain synthetic isolates of nutrients made in a lab and nowhere in Nature. This means that Man tried to be like God and make a new and improved version of food. This might work if we were simply robots and a mechanical approach to our function was the answer but obviously we as Humans are much more than machines that require isolates of nutrition. The food we eat, the whole foods as they come from Nature, are complexes of nutrients that work synergistically to sustain our life experience. For example, Vitamin C is not one nutrient called ascorbic acid; it’s actually a complex called a fruit such as an orange. It was thought that it was a single ingredient that was responsible for a particular effect; but it is now known that each ingredient works with the greater whole. Our bodies will do what they can with synthetic isolates but over time there’s just so much it can withstand and when physical and mental symptoms manifest, it’s the body crying out for help.

With children, their bodies are growing and very resilient to consuming poor quality food. Of course it won’t kill them right away and yes, their bodies will do its best with the poor quality nutrition but the point is if more parents were aware of how they can help their kids by simply making more conscious choices in their children’s diets, most would change. But then again, this may force them to rethink about their own beliefs on what is healthy and many may not have the health reserves to do so. In fact, most parents who feed Pediasure to their kids already think they are doing their kids a service by giving them this stuff because it’s “recommended by pediatricians”. This is where conditioning from advertisements, marketing, and corporate alliances and sponsorships educate the public and influence their choices with regards to health. From the evidence of the rise in childhood obesity, food allergies, autism, juvenile diabetes, and ADHD, there may be a link to the processed food that is marketed to our kids and these conditions.

Below is the actual ingredient list for their chocolate flavor drink:

ingredients:

WATER, SUGAR (SUCROSE), CORN MALTODEXTRIN, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, HIGH OLEIC SAFFLOWER OIL, SOY OIL, COCOA POWDER (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, MEDIUM-CHAIN TRIGLYCERIDES; LESS THAN 0.5% OF: SHORT-CHAIN FRUCTOOLIGOSACCHARIDES, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, MAGNESIUM PHOSPHATE, CELLULOSE GEL, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM CARBONATE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, POTASSIUM CITRATE, SALT (SODIUM CHLORIDE), CHOLINE CHLORIDE, SOY LECITHIN, MONOGLYCERIDES, C. COHNII OIL, ASCORBIC ACID, CELLULOSE GUM, CARRAGEENAN, m-INOSITOL, TURMERIC, POTASSIUM HYDROXIDE, TAURINE, FERROUS SULFATE, dl-ALPHA-TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, L-CARNITINE, ZINC SULFATE, CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, NIACINAMIDE, FD&C RED#3, MANGANESE SULFATE, THIAMINE CHLORIDE HYDROCHLORIDE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, RIBOFLAVIN, CUPRIC SULFATE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, FOLIC ACID, CHROMIUM CHLORIDE, BIOTIN, SODIUM SELENATE, SODIUM MOLYBDATE, POTASSIUM IODIDE, PHYLLOQUINONE, CYANOCOBALAMIN, AND VITAMIN D3.

CONTAINS SOY AND MILK INGREDIENTS.

Pediasure contains milk concentrates and soy protein isolates which are cheap forms of protein. It also contains synthetic vitamins and minerals along with other preservatives and food colorings. And let us not forget the cheap fats such as soy oil and safflower oil which by the way tend to go rancid which would explain the preservatives. What ever happened to giving our kids whole foods? Most kids are already desensitized to the natural sweetness of ripe produce and the wholesomeness of a home-made, prepared meal because 1) growing up with processed food and 2) that’s what the mother ate while pregnant and that’s what the parents still eat, and 3) from the billions of dollars spent on advertising targeting children – the minds are held captive as slaves to society’s beliefs. For most of us in these modern times we grew up eating processed food and fast food and we seem to be okay, right? But the truth is that for many of us we didn’t start to change our diet and nutrition habits until we started to feel unhealthy, overweight, sick, or depressed.

So why should we have our kids repeat the cycle? If we start being more aware and challenge rather than passively accept our beliefs on health, don’t you think our kids wouldn’t be too far behind following us? Just because you grew up believing something to be true does not mean it is true for you as an adult. And the same goes for your children. We always have a choice when it comes to matters of our life experience and thus our health.

Kipping Swings for Neuromuscular Re-education

2010-03-29T11:52:00.001-07:00

This exercise can be used to improve thoracic spine mobility as well as scapulothoracic integration and neuromuscular re-education. Emphasis is on initiating the movement from the thorax rather than the legs. As you swing forward (using the chest as the reference point) the scapula retract and thorax extends and as you swing backward, the scapula protract and thoracic spine flexes.

Thanks to John Tsafos from New Jersey for the idea as he demonstrated the Kipping pull up to me.

Workouts

2010-03-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday and Thursday I did yoga and seated meditation for about 1 ½ hours total in the morning. On Wednesday, I managed to get some “mini” circuits while a client was out running quarter miles as part of his circuit.
What I did:

Various martial arts kicks – 10 each leg
Tire back flips – since I don’t have large tractor tires (yet) I use standard-size car tires; I throw these little guys up and over behind me for a total distance of about 40-50 ft
Hex bar Deadlifts – 20 reps

I did the above a few rounds and rested when my client did his circuits.

Later in the day I did some “training” with my 6 ½ year old son which consisted of gymnastics stuff on the big blue mat.

On Thursday I did some general conditioning along with some specific corrective exercise work. The conditioning work consisted of:
Jump roping – 10 sets of 100 jumps
Dumbbell Farmer’s Walks – walking in circles, switching directions until fatigue.

The corrective work:
Kettlebell one-arm clean & press alternating with snatches
Clubbell stuff
Thick-handle mid-cable pulls

The above was performed with the left arm only. I have a tendency to over-use/over-work the right arm; my right clavicle is a bit depressed creating greater tendency for glenohumeral impingement. This left-side only work further reinforces newer neural pathways.

Friday
Yoga asanas and pranayama before outdoor yiquan (standing meditation qigong) – about 1 ½ hours

Back to the weights:

Bar flat bench press – 5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5x5 (10 sets of 5 reps)
Handstand holds (until fatigue) – with minimal assistance from wall

Lat pull downs – 10x10x10x10x10
Singe-arm cable bent-over lateral raises – 15x15x15

Roman chair back extensions (horizontal) – up to 100 reps

Post-workout smoothie:
¼ fresh pineapple
Small handful of brazil nuts
1 tbs bee pollen
2 tbs irish sea moss
1tsp tumeric
1 orange
Water

Later tonight, depending on how the day goes, perhaps do more “training” with my son.

The Great Outdoors

2010-03-26T09:47:00.001-07:00

Try this experiment: Right now in front of your computer or phone, close your eyes and get a sense of what you’re feeling right now at this moment. Imagine, if you can, a flow of energy moving through you and around you and see if you can discern any particular rhythm. If this is too difficult for you, simply pay attention to what thoughts are consistent and predominant in your mind at this moment. After you’ve tried this, now go outside (preferably out in Nature) and stand or sit in a comfortable space and again close your eyes. Do the same exercise you did before inside, observing what rhythm of energy flow you can sense; what appears to be capturing your attention? What do you feel now that wasn’t as apparent as when you were inside? What differences can you sense between being indoors and out?

Obviously there is a difference and to the degree one did not experience any noticeable difference with this exercise, you can imagine how disconnected one is from Nature. And because everything that is “outside” in Nature can also be found within the Human body, one can be considered disconnected from themselves. Isn’t that how disease processes start? When one does not pay attention to what the body is revealing because the mind is too distracted, these processes can suddenly “sneak” up on you and get you while you weren’t looking. We can start paying attention now rather than later when we start exhibiting symptoms (which is the typical scenario when one starts to “take care” of them self).

Nature is abundant and FREE and is every where around us. I recommend, whenever you get a chance, to try working out outdoors. Try some yoga, qigong, or any form of meditation outside. And if you can, practice somewhere like a park where there are lots of trees, grass, plants, soil, birds, squirrels, etc. You can also get a decent work out in the children’s playground area and perform various body weight exercises. Or you can bring some basic equipment like small dumbbells, medicine balls, kettlebells, or a jump rope and add some more variety. You can always challenge your creativity by making up exercises with what ever is available in your chosen location. For example, in the video above, my family and I were visiting a biodynamic farm where across the street and behind a Waldorf School is a small forest with a stream running through it. In the forest, there were plenty of logs lying around to lift, trees to climb, rocks to lift and toss, and hills and inclines to be sprinted. By the farm, outside the farm store there was a little grassy area in which we decided to practice some yoga asanas. What I noticed immediately is that the expansive energies of the area were so “opening” and “freeing” and it was evident that what would normally take a bit more time for me to loosen up if I was practicing yoga indoors, was not even an issue on the lawn. It was as if the lawn/Nature was inviting us to “play” and like little children playing, we “played”. How often do we adults deny the call of Nature inviting us to experience the expansiveness and freedom and abundance because we trap ourselves in contraction, slavery, and scarcity?

Go now. Get outside. Breathe some fresh air. Appreciate Nature.

This Morning's Workout

2010-03-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

As part of my full disclosure to all who are interested I will be from time to time sharing what kind of workouts or movement sessions I perform as part of my role as a health consultant. I find it essential and beneficial to all to share with those who express interest to ignite the creativity and motivation within on each individual's journey in health.

This morning I practiced some yoga in the form of various asanas and pranayama after about an hour of sitting meditation. From there I went for a run in my Vibram Five Fingers for about 1 1/2 miles.

Next was some metabolic conditioning, or "fat burning" (another way of saying high volume, low intensity, and very little rest periods) utilizing a Tabata protocol:

20 seconds work / 10 seconds rest for 8 sets of each of the following exercises followed by a one minute rest period in between each exercise:

1) Inverted Ring Rows
2) Prisoner Squats (deep)
3) Push Ups
4) Sit-Ups with lumbar support and feet anchored (I have a tendency towards a flat lumbar lordosis with lengthened hip flexors)
5) X-iser stepper

The above circuit took about 20 minutes and I ended the workout with 100 reps of Roman chair back extensions (not all at once; I rested as little as necessary).

Afterwards, I had a smoothie with whatever I had in the kitchen:
1 apple
1 carrot
handful of pea shoot sprouts
1 orange
a little bit of black radish, peeled
4 big strawberries
1 tbs bee pollen
1 raw egg
water

No sweeteners are necessary when the produce you use are ripe. Our society has been desensitized to sweetness from over-consuming processed and refined food loaded with simple sugars and few are able to taste what real sweetness from Nature tastes like. The difference is that the sweetness from a ripened fruit has much more life force than the sweetness of refined sugars. It's like the guy who finds out his new girlfriend has fake boobs when he thought they were natural; there's a difference experienced.

Forgetfulness as a Way Towards Enlightenment

2010-03-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

Has this ever happen to you?: You lost your keys and can’t for the life of you remember where was the last place you saw them. How about forgetting where you placed them almost immediately? It is common to look for something we have misplaced once we remember that it is missing and typically a significant amount of time has elapsed, along with a truck load of other distractions that have easily contributed to your forgetfulness in the first place. Just the other day this happened with my perceived “lost” set of car keys. The thing is that I remembered I misplaced the keys within a time span of less than five minutes. At first this may appear as if I was extremely distracted to the point of forgetting immediately after the action took place, which some may call this as being absent-minded. From there I retraced my steps (literally) a few times trying out every scenario and possibility to where I could have placed my keys. Finally I reached a point where I was reversing my thinking process from the present moment to the exact moment I last remembered the keys. At this point I observed that I was feeling a little “light-headed” and decided to sit down. While sitting, I was meditating and contemplating the very image of the keys and opened myself up to any revelation that appeared. It was immediate that I experienced the sensation that I can describe as me asking myself the question “Is this Real?” where the moment lucidly felt like a dream or a movie taking place where I was able to take myself in and out of it. Now I have experienced this sensation before during some very deep meditation sessions and also during some very deep shamanic journeying explorations. Everything that we consider as real, at those moments, reveals otherwise. This can be a difficult thing to describe because the mind wants to wrap itself around it and intellectualize it but unless one experiences it for themselves, they have no idea. It is like trying to describe the act of sex with a virgin: you can describe it in as many ways as you can but unless they actually experience the act, they will not be able to truly understand you. The mind requires reference points in which to attach to and create some sort of stability to satisfy the intellect. For example, the mind uses our five physical senses as reference points to create what we believe as our everyday reality. But what happens when the mind has no reference points to anchor?

Limb Telescopy

In neuroscience there is a known condition where the brain will make a limb disappear when its sensory inputs of the limb are conflicting. This is evident in persons with amputated limbs where the previous phantom limb sensations become less and less over time to the point where the brain no longer perceives there is a limb anymore. The person perceives that the limb is shrinking over time until it no longer exists (sensation wise). So what this means is that if the brain receives conflicting information, or if the mind no longer has any stable reference points to create a perceived reality, that perceived reality starts to dissolve. What appears is a more quantum presence of a more true reality. In other words, the veil of deception of a world of duality and separation is uncovered and the light of unity and interconnectedness is revealed (aka: Enlightenment). But then again, just like the virgin being told about sex rather than experiencing it, enlightenment is the same way.

So, What Happened?

At the moment of my perceived forgetfulness where I diligently retraced my foot steps as vividly as possible, my brain was unable to make any sense of it all. I remember I even entertained the thought that maybe a “ghost” was playing tricks on me. The lightheadedness and the surrealness of the moment was the “maya” or the “matrix” breaking down and I was awakened to another dimension that has always been underlying but well-hidden until one is ready to go forth on this path of higher knowledge. As I “returned” to my senses (the physical senses) I immediately went to my desk where I usually place old receipts and I remembered that I had thrown them away which led me to the trash bin where I found the keys. So as it turned out, my mind was so distracted that I was not aware at the time that when I threw away the receipts, I also threw away the keys which were also in my hand. I had totally forgotten this little bit of information when retracing my steps. The German “Shakespeare”, Goethe, in his work Faust mentions that forgetting is like the rudder and memory is the oars as we work our way through the ocean of consciousness. Our forgetfulness can guide us on the Soul’s path back Home and our memory is the will to do so.

From Rudolf Steiner’s work, he teaches a practice for one who seeks knowledge of the higher worlds for those on the spiritual path. One of the most basic practices is called reverse thinking where you retrace your day and try to remember with as much detail as possible everything you experienced. This practice prepares one for coming into relationship with the soul. To get an idea what this means, remember those people who report having near-death experiences and it is common for them to describe it as if “their whole life flashed before their eyes”. Their soul revealed to them at that moment every experience they had from then down to when they were born. By practicing reverse thinking, you can gain clarity to your present reality. Remember, when exploring the world of the soul, the rules of the physical material world no longer apply and one does not have to die this lifetime to learn this. The soul, which is invisible, can be made visible once we transcend what we are currently learning in our physical reality. All we have to do is to remove the veil.

Your Gut and Your Manhood

2010-03-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

Recently, while playing rough with my 6 year old son, he accidentally kicked me in my testicles which created a instant dull pain in my gut enough for me to fall to the ground. Now I've been hit in the groin before but I've never made the connection between the resulting gut sensation and a guy's manhood until now.

What happened is called a viscerosomatic reflex where a stimulation of one organ can reflex to another, separate part of the body. My testis, being the organ, were traumatized by a roundhouse kick from my son and reflexed pain to my gut wall. This occurs because of neighboring structures being innervated by the same spinal level.

After the pain subsided a revelation occurred to me that what if this reflex was reversed, meaning, what if stress to the gut can reflex to the testis? Stress to the gut may come in a variety of ways such as constipation, diarrhea, malabsorption, poor digestion, food intolerances, chronic gas, and inflammatory conditions of the gut. If such cases were chronic for a significant amount of time, could this not affect the function of the testis? The testis is where testosterone and semen are produced. For all those guys diagnosed with low sperm counts/poor fertility and hormonal issues, they could possibly also have poor gut function.

Bottomline: If your maleness (testosterone/sperm count) is an issue, address your gut issues by cleaning it up, eat better nutrition, improve digestion, and elimination and learn to block those low kicks.

For Love, Like for a Furnace

2010-02-10T06:14:00.000-08:00

My soul's a furnace; it's happy with fire.
It's enough for a furnace to be the house of fire.
For love, like for a furnace,
There's always something to burn -
If you don't see this,
You're not a furnace.

RUMI

Swiss Ball Windmills (aka: Jocson Twist 2)

2010-02-04T09:55:00.001-08:00

Here's a fun swiss ball exercise that's a variation of the classic Jocson Twist.

Toe Touch Push-ups

2010-02-04T09:53:00.001-08:00

Simple variation of the classic push up that involves more coordination and your focused attention.

Getting Out of the Box With Yin & Yang

2010-01-28T08:08:00.000-08:00

The following is a “conversation” I had with a colleague on Facebook regarding a study she posted that revealed how one’s thoughts of the future or past influenced the movement of the body in a forward and backward direction. I share this as an example of how easily we allow ourselves to be trapped within the “box” of who we think we are with our roles and identities we attach ourselves to. When we are not willing to go outside of our box, the outside world will come to us and this can either turn out to be a “battle” where we fight to defend our boxed-in beliefs and thoughts or an opportunity to stick our heads out of the box and finally learn something new (and actually allow ourselves to grow from it). The colleague is termed Neuroscience and Pain Science for Manual Physical Therapists as the name of her group on Facebook and can also be seen as her “box”. The conversation is as follows:
Neuroscience and Pain Science for Manual Physical Therapists "..thinking about past or future events can literally move us." Physical movements correspond to the metaphorical direction of time.
"Those who thought of the past swayed backward while those who thought
of the future moved forward." Ideomotor movement, sensorimotor systems linked to ideas/perceptions of time and space. ...Implications for movement therapy in general, maybe. Have people think about a given idea and become conscious of which way their body moves to express that idea. Barrett, are you reading this?
Michael Jocson
In clinic, I've also noticed this sway laterally when thoughts of past or future are brought up. It depends on the client's overall emotional/mental/physical issues and whether there's a dominating reason (yang) or feeling (yin) tendency. This brings up the connection between the mind and body and the physical symptoms that PT's treat when there's a disconnect.
Neuroscience and Pain Science for Manual Physical Therapists
Do you have a neuroscience link about that Michael? I don't speak or understand yin/yang lingo.
Michael Jocson
No specific links but you can interchange the eastern lingo of yin/yang with the western understanding of the right and left cerebral hemispheres and their corresponding relationships to the body and mind.
Neuroscience and Pain Science for Manual Physical Therapists
So... what would yin and yang and hemispheres have to do with each other?
Neuroscience and Pain Science for Manual Physical Therapists
There is an area here to have a discussion thread, if you would like to expand a bit.
Michael Jocson
No need to expand on a discussion board; yin/yang is the concept of duality, ie. black/white, right/wrong, left/right where polarities exist and when the two opposing (and equal) forces collide, tend to cancel each other out or integrate. The cerebral hemispheres work together and yet each have their own distinct characteristics. This is evident in CVA conditions and I believe there was a famous TED video of a neuroscientist who experienced a stroke and was able to describe it.
Neuroscience and Pain Science for Manual Physical Therapists
Concept of duality? This page is about, among other things, placing a neuroscience base under manual therapy, not promoting a-scientific concepts. Just so we're clear.
Michael Jocson
Clear. I think there's a misunderstanding. How can we place a neuroscience base for manual therapy if we do not understand what science is? The origin of the word "science" means "Knowledge by study; to separate one thing from another, to distinguish". The whole foundation of science is based upon duality. To say the concept of duality is a-scientific exposes the ignorance. In science, or in this case, in neuroscience and manual therapy, we have the observer (ie. therapist) and the observed (ie. patient, physiological effect, etc). This is the duality. There's nothing mystical or "new-agey" or unscientific about it. What holds us back in the profession is the inability to see the forest for the tree.
Neuroscience and Pain Science for Manual Physical Therapists
Third person and first person perspective is not what I'm commenting on. I'm commenting on yins and yangs being brought into a commentary on the neuroscience of something. Yins and yangs are either a-scientific, pre-scientific, anti-scientific, or pseudo-scientific, or else a combination of all 4.
Michael Jocson
Thank you and you revealed a lot with your last statement.
Neuroscience and Pain Science for Manual Physical Therapists
As did you in this conversation. Have a nice day.

So as you can see, what started as me sharing my experience to reinforce a study, ended up being an exposing of an imprint this therapist had with the words “yin” and yang”. Irregardless if I tried to explain these terms are the same as the concept of duality which is the foundational basis for science and all “scientific” inquiry, she was unable at that moment to get past the words “yin” and “yang”. Isn’t this so true in how our tightly-held beliefs prevent us from understanding others?

I noticed in my former profession of orthopedic manual physical therapy (OMPT) there is a conflict between the old ways of thinking and the newer ways where people are starting to realize that the latest evidence through “scientific investigation” are revealing the old beliefs that were once held to be true are now being proven “not so true” and this appears to be the case with the orthopedic manual therapy evaluation and with spinal manipulation as two examples. The OMPT box is starting to breakdown and it is the choice of the “OMPT” therapists to find the courage to live outside of that box and learn from new terms such as “yin” and “yang” and not eliminate what they already know, but more so to build upon it and create something totally new. Or they can choose to defend an already sinking ship.

The thing about duality is that both sides are of the same coin. Whether you’re in the box or out, you can learn from both perspectives. It is when we attach ourselves to one or the other in separation that conflict, struggle, and suffering occur. So the question I leave you with is this: Do you want to learn and grow or do you enjoy suffering?

The Dark Side of Peace

2010-01-22T12:53:00.001-08:00

A mentor and friend of mine, Paul Chek, used to say in his lectures, “How do you know who’s a pioneer?”, and his answer would be “By the arrows sticking out of his back.” At this point in my life I have a similar question, “How do you know if someone has found Peace?”, and my answer is “By the arrows all over his body.”

One does not find Peace but rather unveils it from deep within. Many talk about wanting “peace of mind” or more peace in their lives but yet are unwilling to take an actual step towards it. To unveil true Peace is to expose all that you thought you were and the lifetime of accumulating “junk” consisting of material attachments and enslavement to the physical senses. Quite simply, it is exposing your relentless bullshit that distracts you from the Peace that you are. With the practice of deep meditation, one can experience Peace and this is a step in experiencing the Soul. As one goes deeper into meditation, that Peace becomes more expansive and one feels connected with all of existence. This is an experience of God (or whatever other word resonates with you such as Spirit, Creator, Tao, Source, etc). This is True Peace that allows one to be calm within despite one’s outer circumstances. It is like a wave that experiences the oneness and expansiveness of the ocean. It is always there.

Since every step of our evolution is to be transcended, unveiling the Peace within is just a taste and being the Peace is total embodiment. When one unveils the Peace within them, they will be challenged by others who are also seeking it but are unable to detach themselves from their unserving patterns (ie. bullshit, belief systems, etc.). This is evident in the long history of saintly martyrdom in Christianity. What people do not understand they fear and what they fear they resist and fight against. January 20 is the feast day for the Christian saint, St. Sebastian, who is the Catholic patron saint for athletes. St. Sebastian was a Roman warrior who was a Christian and denounced the Roman gods. He was initially martyred by the Roman emperor by being tied to a tree and had arrows shot all over his body. Paintings of St. Sebastian typically depict a young, muscular man with arrows piercing through him (pictured above). Even with all the arrows, St. Sebastian did not die. The emperor ended up having him clubbed to death and he was also famous for being the twice-martyred saint. Because of these miraculous feats, many people converted to Christianity at the time. This story displays how when one unveils the True Peace from within, it not only can repel the “arrows”, or external attacks from other’s ignorance, but can also transmute them into transcendence. Where although what began as an attack, transformed into a planting of a seed that triggers the fruit of Peace within the “attacker”.

The first step is allowing Peace to reveal itself to you. This can be achieved through the stillness and silence of deep meditation. It is a practice and can take some time. Please understand that once you experience it, it does not end there. You will be challenged by others, or rather, blatantly attacked, as a test to see how stable your foundation of Peace is. Remember, it is not a battle but more of an evolutionary opportunity. Ask yourself this, “Can you handle True Peace in your life right now?” And if the answer is “no”, what steps can you take to remove the veil? And what benefit are you getting from your addiction to non-Peace?

How to Live a Long Life

2010-01-13T12:18:00.001-08:00

This is from the January 2010 Jocson Health Newsletter. I thought it appropriate to post it here on the blog. Enjoy!

Recently I watched a video about what is called the Blue Zone project where investigators studied the lives of specific geographical areas in the world where there existed significant amount of individuals who lived well into their nineties and hundreds. It was a project to find out what we can learn from some of the oldest living people on Earth regarding health and longevity. What I found fascinating was that out of all the distinguishing characteristics that all of these communities had in common, diet/nutrition and exercise were not the biggest contributors (although still very important in their lives). What was the most significant is the community that all of the Blue Zones pro-actively created to be a part of. It was the interconnection with others that was the most common trait. Right relationship with others and their selves contributes greatly to health and longevity. Where the average adult only has, at best, maybe three “best friends” throughout their lives, in these communities it was more like nine or so.

We, as Humans, were never meant to be alone. Even physically, on a cellular level, science is discovering we are not alone with the billions & trillions of microbes that have a symbiotic relationship within us. Each and every one us contains a right relationship with a bunch of bacteria within us and when that relationship is trying to find a balance, we experience physical symptoms. From the old thinking we were conditioned to believe that microbes are bad and the whole “anti-bacterial” mind-set took off where the spread of antibiotic use were used to “kill off the enemies”. The interesting thing is that now microbiologists are beginning to realize that cases such as “bacterial infections” can be viewed more as the difference between an argument and having a civil conversation amongst our cells. Isn’t this true the way it is in society when we are presented with so-called “national security threats” we opt more to kill first and ask questions later? Our biology is revealing otherwise. In fact, one can argue that there really in no such thing as “good” bacteria or “bad” bacteria but just an innate desire for the microbes and our cells to find right relationship and live in symbiosis. If you study the evolution of the Human cell, you’ll find that we began as microbes that basically had a desire to expand our consciousness and created our own technologies to do so. From single-cells to multiple colonies to tissues to organs to a whole body, we evolved to what we call our physical self and it all consisted of a lot of “teamwork”. There is no real isolation anywhere in our biology. We are made to “come-in-unity”. From one cell to fifty trillion cells, it is part of our nature to create right relationships.

Think of moments in your life where you isolated or separated your self from others for whatever reasons or for whatever fears you may have had at the time rather than trying to find unity through understanding and meaning on superficial and deep levels of the experience. An image for me comes to mind of the “gated communities” that exist to deter the unwanted elements of society; or how some parents teach their children they don’t want them to associate with certain kids because they may be “bad” influences. We tend to separate ourselves from what we fear and do not understand as a way to protect ourselves and this commonly results in a never-ending battle throughout life. We make life a battle. If we didn’t, the warrior archetype would not exist. The mythology of the warrior is that one does not become a true warrior until one knows when to lay down their sword and offer themselves completely to their Higher Self. In other words, we struggle with our lower animal selves so as to find our Higher Divine Selves and learn to live in right relationship with each other.

In neuroscience, the hot topic is the discovery of mirror neurons. When we move, motor programs are triggered in the brain that allow for this action. When we observe others performing the same movement, a subset of the motor programs called mirror neurons are activated as if we were performing the movement as well. Have you ever wondered why is it that when someone else yawns, others in the room end up yawning as well, regardless if they are physically tired or not? The answer is mirror neurons. There have been studies where a person’s arm has been anesthetized and upon observing actions such as poking or pinching in someone else’s arm were able to feel the same or similar sensations despite the anesthesia’s effects on their arm. This is evidence that there is a non-physical subtle connection between people and that the physical separation we experience is more of a delusion. If you’re a male, have you ever observed another male getting hit in the groin and not be able to empathize with him? This is science’s discovery of a biological understanding of empathy and compassion.

In the science of genetics there is a new area called epigenetics that studies what are called epigenes. Epigenes are the switches on our genes that can either turn on or off the genes depending on our environmental influences. This means that we no longer have to attach to the old belief that we are prisoners of our biology and that Darwinian-thought is partially true (“survival of the fittest”) and that Lamarckian-thought (“environment affects genes”) needs to be embraced and explored with open arms. The environment we choose to live in affects our biology and thus our health and longevity. These findings also include our thoughts where what we think becomes our biology. If we live in an environment of fear, fear is what we become. The added stress of fear can trigger some of our genes that make us more prone for certain cancers or other health conditions. It’s so true what they say that “show me who you’re friends are and the people you surround yourself with and I’ll know what type of person you are”.

And if these sciences weren’t enough, even math is getting in on the action. Fractal geometry reveals something that is called “self similars” where a piece, or fractal, of a whole can be used to create newer and complex patterns that are a reflection of the original object. Everything in nature can be broken up into fractals. You can take a simple shape like an equilateral triangle and take a piece of it and place it into a more complex pattern and create a snowflake. This is a science of patterns where you can begin to recognize from complex patterns, the simpler similar components that make them up. And because humans are a part of Nature, we are no exceptions to the fractal nature of our existence. Each of us can be perceived as one piece of this complex pattern called life on a grander scale the same way one of our cells is a part of the greater body. Every individual in our lives are there by no coincidence and contribute to the complexity of our “pattern”. We ultimately have the choice to choose what kind of pattern we want to live in. We can live in drama or we can live in harmony. We can live running away and self-sabotaging or we can live with meaning and purpose. Every person we are in contact with is a reflection of aspects within us. How cool is this? If we ever want to know something about us, get to know the people in our lives.

And the last science, which is quantum physics, ties together everything, literally, into a matrix where we are all a part of the whole. Newtonian physics used to believe that the smallest particle of matter was the atom but it is now believed that even smaller “quanta” exists where there is an infinite amount of particles between two atoms and that there is no real “empty space”. Everything is connected. From this comes the chaos theory where the butterfly effect shows how the waving of a butterfly’s wings can effect a hurricane on the other side of the globe, or in other words, small, somewhat insignificant changes initially, can make influential big changes in the long term outcome. Quantum physics helps reveal how someone on the other side of the world can affect another on the other side with their thoughts and prayers through the concept of non-locality. Time and space is one reality which is linear and yet, non-linear realities do exist. These non-linear realities exist on a higher frequency of vibration that the physical sense organs can not detect. And when one is able to tap into these realms (such as with deep meditation), an infinite and expansive understanding of life is observed. This brings understanding of how primitive civilizations were able to study the movements of planets and stars and make predictions of the future. They saw the patterns. They studied nature and their surroundings. They saw themselves in the Garden of Eden rather than being cast out of it. Time and space allowed for an understanding of the concept of the past and future but the reality is that there really is only the present moment right now. It is through our connection with our surroundings and others that we are able to realize this. The duality, or separation of self from other, is necessary as a foundation to bring unity. In what is called the law of the triangle, when two opposing forces interact and without interference, a third, newer force is created. In other words, evolution. The simplicity of that third point of the triangle combines with other points and creates a greater complexity and goes on infinitely where layer upon layer of newer third points are created. We can tap into evolution when we tap into the present. It is like in the Matrix Trilogy movies where one can plug into the matrix and experience the true reality of existence and transcend the delusion of duality.

With the recent box-office success of the movie, Avatar, there is no coincidence that it was released now in this time in the history of the world. The movie uses all these great visual and special effects to spark the viewers’ imagination and to entice normally spiritually-inept individuals into seeing a very meaningful and relevant movie of our time. It is metaphorical of how in our society we tend to look for quick-fixes to help us feel good. All we want is to feel good and not feel bad. The pills we take and the procedures we endure are like the special effects we’ve been hearing others talk about in the movie or the buzz that “it was such a great flick” that get us into the theater in the first place. It’s the promise of a good movie that’s sparks our interest to move towards it like a pill promises pain relief. And once we watch the film, we are exposed to an opportunity to evolve and propel ourselves out of our mediocrity and to grow from our experiences. It’s okay if one did not understand the storyline because the essence of the message has been exposed to them and because of what we learned about mirror neurons, if others did get the message, it’s also within them. That’s the beauty of understanding interconnectedness: if you don’t get to experience something, someone else did, and because we are all one in unity, you actually did get the experience although on a metaphysical level. Imagine how freeing this wisdom is knowing that someone else is experiencing something you always wanted to do or didn’t want to do, so now you can freely invest your energies in a more concise manner into the deeper questions of life. In the movie, the planet Pandora was a dynamic, neuronal network where everything on the planet was interconnected and nothing of it was separated from it self. The habitants, the flora, the animals and creatures, the whole environment were able to communicate with each other and learn to live in right relationship. It wasn’t until outsiders (us Humans) arrived and threatened to destroy the planet, that the planet started to re-organize in order to re-establish balance again. All of the residents of Pandora united together in response to the Human threat and for the Humans who embraced the “kill or be killed” and “survival of the fittest” mentality, they were defeated. And in the end with the transformation of the movie’s hero was symbolizing the continual, infinite evolution of existence.

To live a long life in our modern age is to transcend all duality and evolve into unity. As we go against this, we suffer. We create our own suffering. This is how cancer, AIDS, heart disease, mental illness, wars, murder, natural disasters, and all of the calamities known to mankind originate. Chaos and the butterfly effect. You against me. Ignorance. A world can exist without suffering. A world can exist without money as we know it today. The butterfly effect demonstrates that what we think and do today, right now, greatly affects our tomorrow. And it is through community, through sharing of ideas and experiences, through learning and growing with each other, through connecting to our interconnectedness, that we can all live long lives. This is why the internet is such an incredible dynamic. No where in Human history have we ever been able to connect with so many people from all over the world in an instant. Applications such as Facebook Twitter, and Youtube are fantastic outlets to share your self with the world. From the Matrix Trilogy we can take the red pill and plug ourselves in and truly know that we are all Co-Operators and Co-Creators of this world and beyond.

My Swinging Workout

2010-01-08T10:57:00.001-08:00

I did three rounds with the Indian clubs, clubbells, and kettlebell, with a little bit of spontaneous capoeira all with the music of Victor Manuelle in the background - which by the way, I was told I infringed on some copyright laws with Sony Entertainment and as a result this video will not be seen in Germany! It's incredible how strict these copyright things. I was just working out and wanted to share it with everyone. I will make it up to the folks in Germany though with some non-copyrighted infringement videos this year. All I want to do is share. I'm not concerned with stealing any money form Sony.

Wrist Pain and Capoeira

2009-12-22T09:31:00.001-08:00

The all-too-common wrist pain/injury in capoeira is often misunderstood and although some issues may be involved within the wrist itself, the shoulder girdle complex is very often more the case.
There's no wrist brace in existence that can replace one's understanding of the body. Pain and injury are opportunities to learn more about ourselves.

The Ginga

2009-12-19T07:44:00.001-08:00

This is one of many more instructional/demonstration-type of videos that I'll be posting in the new year since it appears many are more interested in this stuff more than the lectures.

If there is any specific exercise or movement you have a question about, just shoot me an email.

It Itself Becomes Sign

2009-12-08T18:03:00.000-08:00

The one to whom's unveiled the mystery of love
Exists no longer, but is annihilated in love.
Place before the sun a burning candle,
See how its shining disappears before those lights:
The candle exists no longer, is transfigured into Light.
There are no more signs of it; it itself becomes a Sign.

Odes
RUMI

Timelessness

2009-12-08T17:18:00.000-08:00

There is a world without time and space and it is little known that it co-exists with the world of time and space that we know as our physical reality. There is no separation between timelessness and time. This is important because many of us have learned to become slaves to time where we think we never have enough so we live our lives attempting to do as much as we can in the little time we have available. The dark side to this multi-tasking is that we become disconnected from timelessness because we have built our own prison of time. And it is this wall that we have built which is the illusion that there is a separation between the two worlds.

I can share two vivid memories I have that are examples of pure timelessness. Timelessness is another way of saying living in the present. Time is a concept the ego uses to create boundaries and it is this separation that it uses to help identify it self in relation to others and its surroundings. The first example was when I was dating my wife and I had picked her up after work and we went dancing at the old Copacabana on West 57 th St. in NYC. I remember it as if it were yesterday and we were in the middle of the dance floor listening to the rhythms of salsa with the song "Lluvia" being performed live by Eddie Santiago and his band just a few feet away from us. The moment was as if no one else was in the room and Mimi and I were spinning around and I recall swirls of energy dancing with us and it literally felt like we stepped outside of time and what appeared like seconds was actually hours on the dance floor. The other example of timelessness was when our son was born. I remember standing there with the camcorder and when our son "popped out" everything stopped. I can still remember the smell of the room, the TV playing in the background, and my son's first outside cry. Words due no justice in completely describing the moment but one can get an idea if they imagine it being their first being born. In these two moments, I was not the me who I thought I was around those times. My petty neuroses, worries, fears, ambitions, and concerns were all put aside so that the moment was untainted.

Imagine being able to tap into timelessness at any given moment along side the world of time. When you thought your life could get no worse and at that instance stepping outside of time - what do you think it would be like? Please don't try to answer this right now. Just imagine it and see what happens.

Meet the Natives

2009-12-07T18:23:00.001-08:00

I just recently watched a show on the Travel Channel called "Meet the Natives" where five indigenous tribesman from the little island of Tanna in the South Pacific visit cities in the United States. In this episode, they were in middle America, Illinois, where they stayed with a family during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. The beauty of this show is that it reveals the primitive innocence that these tribesman have as a result of living lives of simplicity on an island where modern civilization appears to be far away. They exhibit behavior of children in the sense that everything in modern society is new to them and in that respect display acts of presence, or "being in the moment" and "living in the Now". Now this is not my recommendation to give away all your material possessions and move to the island of Tanna so that you can live a life of Presence (unless that's what you intuit is right for you). But there are plenty of things we can learn from them:
- in one scene, a "native" was helping the wife prepare some Thanksgiving food by opening a can of yams and the chief of the group commented to the other tribesman "Doesn't she know that that food is lifeless?" And further accepted it as the way these people eat and left it at that without any judgment or condemnation.
- in another scene with the same family, the wife was preparing the turkey by cooking it in a plastic bag; the chief expressed his hesitation and concern about eating the turkey because he thought it might be poisonous from the toxins leached from the bag and with humility said he would eat it because he trusted the family's traditions.
- in another episode when they visited New York City and couldn't believe that there were homeless people living on the streets when there were so many "great" buildings around.
- also while in New York a gay couple asked the chief if same sex marriages existed in their culture and the chief explained that because their population is so small, marriages were of the opposite sex so as to produce babies as a matter of tribal survival and he acknowledged and understood that in modern society all the basic needs for survival are met and as long as two individuals have love for each other he didn't see anything "odd" or "wrong" with same sex relationships.

The show is full of these types of examples which remind us of how easily we can become distracted by our busy, modern lives. We are distracted from what it is to be Human and to be connected with this planet and with others. And rather than looking within ourselves first when we experience suffering or struggles or conflict, we seek everything from the outside in the forms of quick-fixes, results, answers, gurus, addictions, obessions, etc where we always chase after what feels good and run away from all that we are afraid of and cling to the past and worry about the future. One doesn't have to join a small tribe in the South Pacific or become a monk and live in a monastery to be Present and understand that we are all Co-Creators of this world and yes, you, reading this blog, can make a difference, as an individual. It all starts with awareness. Awareness of the body leads to awareness of the mind, which leads to awareness of the soul. Body, mind, and soul - watch "Meeting the Natives" and you'll see living examples of individuals who are living in alignment with these three aspects of our Human nature.

Self Realization and Shitting Yourself

2009-12-01T08:23:00.000-08:00

This week starts the season of Advent where Christians all over are preparing for the coming of Christ with anticipation and vigilance which culminates with Christ’s birth on Christmas. This anticipation and vigilance does not end with Christmas. Advent is a reminder of the forgotten aspect of our higher nature. In the Christian-religious sense, it’s about being ready for the coming of Christ; and commonly it’s referred to as the second coming of Christ as well. Christians are taught to be at their best behavior because when the day of Judgment arrives (which can be at any moment) those who are prepared may enter the kingdom of heaven and those who are not, may have extra work to do. The anticipation and vigilance is not an expectant attitude but more so the emphasis is on allowing evolution to flow unheeded. Imagine right now where you are the full power of God being exposed to you and all that you believed to be real was wiped away. Do you think you’d be able to handle that? Do you think you’d be able to let go (completely) of your attachments to this world? Most likely you’d shit yourself several times over.

Now let’s walk away from the religious perspective and pretend you have no experience with religions and are without any past conditioning and beliefs and dogma. As you learn to acknowledge the non-physical aspects of you, the soul and spirit natures, you’ll come to the realization that this is a whole new ballgame. This can be viewed as the “second coming of Christ” which is the self-realization of mankind. Man transcends the physical world and no longer is split between the physical and non-physical but is of them both in unity. Anticipation and vigilance is a practice of astute awareness of one’s mind, body, and higher natures. In my practice of health consulting, I learned through trial and error that if you give a client too much too soon, your well intentioned help may backfire on you resulting in a very confused client. Some people need steps depending on where they are in life before “waking up” and having clarity and knowledge of the “higher worlds”. If ten feet of snow fell on a town all at once there wouldn’t be much of a town left and the same is true for self-realization.

The first step is to simply practice awareness and be the watcher or stalker of the mind. Without judgment and condemnation, acknowledge your thoughts for what they are: reactions to memory as knowledge and experience; all of which are based upon the past and assist one to speculate about the future. The mind that wants it all right now is merely escaping from the opportunity to unite the body, mind, and soul. Rather than escape, try hanging around for a bit and see what happens. Hang around outside your self-built comfort zone and be accepting of whatever comes your way. This is the Soul at work. Imagine how many times we’ve pushed the soul away only to satisfy our limited ego needs.

For this holiday season try being the vigilante of your thoughts so as to clear the path for the Soul.

Judging Others

2009-10-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

"Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye', while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."

Matthew 7: 1-5

The Art of Pooping

2009-09-21T16:21:00.001-07:00

The following is a complement to a recent youtube video post by Sean from UnderGround Wellness.com; This is an article I wrote about a year and a half ago for my JocsonHealth Newsletter. Some things are alwyas relevant.

The Art of Pooping

Let go of what you think this article is about. It’s a more serious matter than what you may expect. I could have used “shitting” in the title but felt that was too vulgar; or “defecating” but felt that was too boring; so I decided to use what my 4 ½ year old son refers to his bowel movements, “poops”. We are living in a nation of constipation. Modern society is more backed up than our ancestors could ever imagine. If you’re reading this and think that just because you poop 1-3 times a day, that everything’s okay, you’re in for a rude awakening. There are two things to consider in this situation: 1) The diameter of your pipe (intestine) becomes narrower as you become more backed up. Your bowels may be moving but through a smaller hole. This is what happens before a pipe becomes completely clogged; 2) Throughout the course of the intestinal tract, some portions may be narrower or wider than others due to an accumulation of uneliminated feces, mucoid plaque, and intestinal wall encrustation. So you see, just because your bowels are moving does not necessarily mean that they are flowing as freely as they can be. Everyday life stress, poor diet choices, lack of movement, prescription drugs, lack of direction in life, hating your job, negativity, faulty posture, stubbornness, hopelessness, etc. are all reasons that can contribute towards constipation. The colon is the “elimination” center where it literally packs things up and prepares waste to be removed from the body. It also reabsorbs things that may still be useful to the body. When you’re constipated, things that were meant to be eliminated hang around longer than usual leading to a toxic waste dump type of a situation. The body will continue to function with this extra toxic load but it eventually takes its toll. Laxatives may help to a degree but are not the”quick fix” solution that many people believe them to be. Years of uneliminated feces and other toxic waste will not be removed so easily from a round of taking laxatives. Although there are many things one can do to address constipation, I will focus on the physical, or mechanical, aspects that can help assist the situation. And quite possibly relieve or lessen the need for the other approaches.

The Modern Toilet

The “porcelain throne” was actually invented in the UK as a way to “civilize” such a “barbaric” act as defecating. Previous to about the late 18th and early 19th centuries, our ancestors didn’t have toilets and were pooping by the most natural way our bodies were meant to poop: by SQUATTING. In ancient civilizations, the only people sitting to poop were royalty and the handicapped. Squatting was considered too lowly and an act of the common folk. Sitting was a much more dignified posture as compared to the animalistic squatting position. The problem that arose is that the sitting posture was more for the satisfaction of the ego rather than the function of the body. If one looks at the anatomy of the human colon, what you’ll find is that humans are the only species where our bowels have to move upward against gravity. This is evident where the small intestine transitions into the large intestine by the ascending colon (as an anatomy refresher the ascending colon goes up on the right lower front ribcage and then across the lower rib cage as the transverse colon, to the left, where the descending colon goes down towards the pelvic basin and turns into the sigmoid colon before it turns into he rectum and then your anus). Before the small intestine turns into the large intestine there is a one-way valve called the ileocecal valve that prevents feces from re-entering the small intestine (which would contaminate it). Around this area attached to the ascending colon is the appendix. The appendix has an important function (despite what many in the medical community think) in “screening” toxins as they enter the colon. At the other end of the colon, by the sigmoid portion where it meets the rectum, there is another valve that prevents feces from leaking out of the anus until one is ready to go poop. This valve is called the puborectalis portion of the levator ani muscle. This muscle literally “chokes” the rectum so that we don’t poop ourselves.

The Art of Squatting

In the natural squatting posture, the pressure of the right thigh against the ascending colon allows for the ileocecal valve to completely close and creates pressure so that the feces can be mobilized upward through the ascending colon. At the other end of the colon, the pressure of the left thigh against the rib cage allows for the puborecalis muscle to completely relax and open, allowing for a clean evacuation of the feces. Ideally this process is effortless and there’s no straining involved. During sitting, the ileocecal valve is not supported enough and is loosely “open” allowing for the feces to back log into the small intestine. This can create a tremendous stress to the appendix which can also become back logged and lead to the condition of appendicitis. Also, as a result of sitting there is no mechanical pressure against the ascending colon to assist peristalsis, so the common way for people to get things moving is to strain. Straining involves holding one’s breath and pushing. This is called a Valsalva maneuver and causes the diaphragm muscle to be blown downward which causes the pelvic floor to also become “ballooned”, or pushed downward. Sitting also reinforces the “choking” of the rectum by the puborectalis muscle which is another reason for one to strain. Pooping while sitting is obviously possible, but my point is that it’s not as efficient or ideal as squatting. You’re creating unnecessary stress to the body from a lifetime of pooping on the modern day toilet. Conditions such as appendicitis, constipation, uterine/ovarian fibroids, prostate dysfunctions, bladder incontinence, endometriosis, hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, Chrohn’s disease, and any other disease or dysfunction of the abdominal/pelvic viscera as well as degeneration of the lumbosacral spine, hips and knees can be linked to seated pooping.

When I physically assess clients, one of the movements I check is their ability to fully squat to the floor. This is not only giving me information as far as the mobility of their spine and lower extremities but the function of their digestive system as well its relationships to the rest of the body. If I find someone is unable to fully squat, part of their program is to get them as much as possible to do so. In this way, I’ve addressed many birds with so few stones. My recommendation for many of you right now is to get your ass off the chair and see how low you can comfortably squat towards the floor. Another thing I recommend is to either purchase or make your own “squat stool” to be placed around your toilet. A device such as the Nature’s Platform product is a fantastic way to allow for a natural squatting position. I no longer recommend the Life Step foot stool since it is not as effective as the Nature’s platform. The Life Step still promotes most of the weight on one’s ass (or sitting position) rather than the feet.

In summary, if you’re not squatting, you’re not pooping effectively. If you feel you can’t squat (for whatever reason), hire someone that can help you. This is something so simple and so effective that I put it on my list of “Simple Things Patients Can Do on Their Own before Seeing a Doctor”. I also classify it as a clinical pearl. Try it. It works.

Love Is All That Exists

2009-09-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

Be drunk on love, because love is all that exists;
Without love, no one has the right to enter His house.
They ask, "What is love?" Reply: "Giving up your self-will."
He who hasn't given up his will isn't chosen.
The lover's an emperor, the two worlds are at his feet:
Does an emperor notice what is thrown in his path?
It is Love and the Lover that live eternally-
Don't lend your heart to anything else; all else is borrowed.
How long will you go on and on embracing a corpse?
Embrace the soul that is embraced by nothing else.

RUMI

The Meaning of Michaelmas

2009-09-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

The following article was taken from this month's Jocson Health newsletter. I thought it was appropriate to post it to my blog so those who don't get my newsletter could also benefit. Enjoy!

The Meaning of Michaelmas

During the end of September (9/29 to be exact), around the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the start of the Fall season is a little known celebration that is popular in esoteric circles but utterly unknown to the masses is the Feast of the Archangel Michael. Why hasn’t commercialism banked on this universal spiritual holiday? Well, for starters, I don’t think the selling of the mythological story of Michael slaying the Dragon and banishing it from the Heavens into the depths of Humanity where it forever dwells waiting for its opportunity to spark chaos throughout. Hmmm,..I just can’t imagine Walmart making a commercial for a Michaelmas season sale where dead dragons are featured with Michael’s sword of Truth and Wisdom piercing their hearts.

So what exactly is Michaelmas?

So as the story goes, Archangel Michael slays the Dragon, who is otherwise known as Satan, Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, etc. The Dragon was also a Divine Being who chose to separate itself away from God (or the Creator) and because it was so influential, the impulse of Michael was warranted to send this fallen angel not into the depths of the Earth, but rather into the essences of Earth’s main inhabitants, Humans. The shooting stars that are so common during the late Summer and early Fall symbolize the flashing Sword of Michael battling the Dragon. This Dragon lives within each and every one of us and the way we feed and nurture it is by not acknowledging our soul-spiritual natures as well as ignoring the soul-spiritual natures of all living creatures. The greatest energy of this Dragon centers around our heart region. Imagine the phrase “having a heart of coal or stone” and this is what happens with a fattened Dragon. When one achieves the self-realization of the God within us (ie. discovering our true and original spiritual nature), the Dragon starves.

Despite the Dragon giving a sense of evilness, it actually serves a grander purpose and has its gifts. It is because of this Luciferic Being that Man has Free Will and the capability to be independent and free. And it is for this reason that we can not “blame” God when bad things happen to good people. We did that. And as one gains a deeper understanding of this, there’s no longer any need to blame because things are simply the way they are (if this perplexes you or confuses you, some study into karma and reincarnation may benefit). And on the other hand, because of our Free Will, we can choose to fulfill our destiny of accelerating our evolution of Humanity into Higher Spiritual Beings as “begotten sons of God”. The Dragon doesn’t want this to happen.

Michaelmas is a festival and celebration of the Individual resurrecting his/her soul-spiritual natures; it celebrates the realization of one’s Higher Self. The Michael Impulse is “inspired” during the Fall season infusing us all with the characteristics of courage of the Soul, strength of the will, and the wisdom of the Light received within us. Michaelmas is the polar opposite of the Easter celebration in the Spring just like where the Spring is opposite to the Fall. In Easter, Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross (Death) and His soul was then resurrected into Heaven. In Michaelmas, the Soul is resurrected from within and what is dead is let go of without. This reflects the rhythms of the planets and the seasons where during the Spring, the Earth is in a state of expiration (exhalation) and during the Autumn it is in a state of inspiration (inhalation). In Autumn, the Earth on a superficial level is experiencing death with the shedding of the leaves and the dying of its plants while within its greatest depths it is taking in (inspiring) the newly, Heavenly forces from the Cosmos in which new growth can be manifested and “exhaled” during the Spring and Summer seasons. This is why the spiritual characteristic of Autumn is Clarity. One can not take in (and be clear with) what is new if one does not let go of what is old.

Interestingly enough, one does not have to be a Christian to celebrate Michaelmas. In fact other religions have similar celebrations around the Fall season. In Judaism, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish “New Year” is typically around the Fall Equinox and is followed ten days later by the “Day of Atonement” of Yom Kippur. Michaelmas is about a week after the Fall Equinox and a day after Yom Kippur. In Yom Kippur, one makes amends for the past year’s sins and one can look at a sin as anything that brings one further away from their soul-spiritual natures. In Islamic religion the ninth month of the Muslim calendar is called Ramadan and it is believed that this was when the Holy Quran “was sent down from heaven, a guidance unto men, a declaration of direction, and a means of Salvation”. This is a month where Muslims intensify their worship and contemplation through acts such as fasting. Fasting is another way of clearing away the “death” within you so as to step fully into your faith. Hmmm, sounds like Ramadan, Yom Kippur, Michaelmas, and the Fall season are very much in line with each other. Ramadan changes every year due to the movements of the Moon and for 2009 it started on August 22 and ends on September 19 (the first day of Rosh Hashanah). With the coming years, Ramadan appears to be occurring earlier in the year. In the North East of the United States, we experienced some early Fall weather during the last couple of weeks of August demonstrated with a drop in the temperature and some early leaves falling in certain parts of New York. Coincidence? Probably not. The rhythms of the macrocosm and microcosm are rapidly changing and if you take an open-minded understanding of the Mayan calendar and all this 2012 talk, what you’ll find is that the times are definitely changing; and fast.

What does this all mean for you? Take advantage of the cosmic rhythms by doing some fasting and cleansing and detoxification during this Fall season. Know that the season’s characteristics of courage, strength of will, and wisdom with clarity are all there for you to use. Many of you may have already experienced some kind of upheaval in your lives within the past few weeks. Whether it be you lost your job, got sick, or someone close to you has died, or any other tragic experience, just know that you have so much more going for you at this very moment if ever in the history of time, where the rhythms are flowing and the planets are aligning and all you have to do is to get off your sorry-ass, woe-is-me little self and step fully into your True Authentic Self and “slay the Dragon” within you.

Have an Enlightening Michaelmas Everyone!

The Despacho Ceremony

2009-08-27T10:28:00.001-07:00

This is a traditional Andean shamanic ceremony that is an offering to all of existence. In Andean cosmology the offerings are specifically to the Pachamama (Mother Earth), the Apus (mountains), the Heavens and the Cosmos, and all of Nature. It is a gesture reminding us of how life is a celebration to be celebrated rather than a problem to be solved. The ceremony itself is a living energy that aligns itself with the rhythms of the heavens above and the Earth below and brings all that are involved in unity with the universe. One can imagine it as a living entity, a spirit, or a deva that works towards whatever the specific intention set forth by the participants. One of the most popular types of despacho ceremonies is the Ayni Despacho. “Ayni” is a quechua term representing reciprocity and right relationship. This despacho helps restore order and brings a balance throughout the continuum of energy of those involved helping the release of heavy, dark energies (hucha) allowing an individual to step fully into their lightness. The intention of the ceremony is key.

I recently held my first despacho this past week due to particular circumstances in a few of my clients lives (as well as mine). The intention was to fully surrender to life (to the Present) so as to allow balance and harmony to flow freely and to create right relationship between the mind/ego, the True Authentic Self, and the rest of the Cosmos. In other words, we step out of the way and let Spirit flow through. The despacho ceremony confuses the mind because the mind doesn’t comprehend things of this nature (which is often the culprit of one’s suffering). Instead, the ceremony takes one to a sacred level which is where the soul/spiritual natures operate. I noticed a pattern in my client’s lives, as well as mine, where once every bump in the road of the journey is cleared a tendency to want to go back to where one has already traveled arises. This is like the last temptation of Christ where once an individual gains freedom, newer responsibilities arise and those who are ready to accept them move on and those who are not have the option to go back to “Summer school” and review their lessons.

The above is a picture of the prayer bundle created during the despacho ceremony my client and I celebrated. Later that night I held a solo fire ceremony and offered the prayer bundle to the fire as a way to sign the dotted line and close the experience.

So if you noticed anything significant this past few days or week in your life, it could be your Higher Self trying to bring balance and right relationship into your life. Yes, it is true. If you are reading this, you were included in my prayers during the despacho ceremony.

Tupananchiscama (until our paths cross again),
Michael

Consciousness is Accelerating

2009-08-26T07:50:00.000-07:00

This week Time magazine's cover story by Bryan Walsh exposes on a national level our country's pink elephant which is the topic of the cost of cheap food. The "think big" American attitude has created an efficient food producing industry that as a result of being efficient to produce more for less has become tremendously inefficient if you factor in the costs to the health of the land as well as the individual. This story is riding the tide set by documentaries and books like Fast Food Nation and Food, Inc. and The Omnivores Dilemma. Consciousness is accelerating and for Time Magazine to publish such a sensitive topic, the hundredth monkey phenomenom is set in motion.

A highlight for me are some of the chart comparisons in the article such as the one comparing a grass-fed, organic, sustainably-raised cow and a conventionally-raised, feed-lot cow. Another highlight is about how runoff from chemical fertilizers used in the Midwest produces "dead zones" throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Dead zones are areas in the water that have almost no oxygen for sea life to thrive caused by chemical pollution.

Although this article exposes what industry does not want the public to know it will create a reaction from those tied to the agriculture sector. I find it fascinating reading both sides of the fence and it's clearly obvious to see the cattle and farming industries trying to defend themselves by defaming the author or saying such opinions are nonsense and unvalidated. Regardless of any arguements, which is simply school ground fighting, the article was published, front cover in a very popular media outlet. People are not innately stupid and and much respect is to be given for each individual to come up with their own conclusions.

Below is a website link to Walsh's article from Time.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1917458,00.html

And here's a link to an opinion from the other side of the fence. See if you can get a sense of where each side is coming from and decide for yourself. You're not stupid.

http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Jolley--Time-Magazine-s-Cheap-Food-Story---Even-Cheaper-Reporting/2009-08-24/Article.aspx?oid=828872&fid=VN-HOT_TOPICS

How can you change the world?

2009-08-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

Early this morning when I went to take a walk to the local bagel shop (it's nostalgic for me; growing up having bagels on Sunday mornings) I noticed that every single person that I passed by and attempted to smile or say "hi" to, avoided eye contact with me and kept on walking. It reminded me of whenever I go out-of-state how different it is from New York and it's so normal for people to say hello to a stranger. Maybe the people I encountered this morning secretly knew I was picking up some bagels and were judgmental towards gluten-laden food and the people who can eat gluten without any problems? Probably not. This is fairly common in over populated metropolitan areas where people are more on defensive mode and their minds have so much going on at any given instant that the overstimulation distracts them from responding to a simple smile, or "hello", or even a "how are you?". Fortunately, where I live not everyone is like this. When I pass by someone I always try to make eye contact and give some sort of acknowledgment to one's presence and the response is commonly a previously dormant smile or reciprocal gesture. I can not say what effect a simple "hello" or smile does for the other person but I can say for me it brightens that moment and reminds me of living in the present. As a shaman, I can observe how an individual's aura shifts from a somewhat contracted and jagged state to a smoother, expansive form after such a novel act. A person's body, posture, and movements can tell a lot about an individual and I've noticed that by giving a smile every once in awhile can make a difference in a person's day.

I read in a Facebook friend's update a quote from a shaman who advised that we greet everyone we meet as ourselves and to feel with ALL of our heart. Hmmm. Isn't that what it means in the yogic philosophy and spirituality term "namaste"? Nasmaste - "My essence acknowledges and bows down to your essence". Isn't that beautiful?

I challenge everyone reading this blog to try this practice. The next time you come a cross another being, human, animal, or plant, or any other resident of this planet, make an effort to make eye contact and give a smile or "hello" or "how are you?" (or in Howard Beach, where I'm from, the old head nod as if saying "what's up?) without any expectation of reciprocity. This I know can change the world.

Thank You.

Which would you choose?

2009-08-19T16:39:00.000-07:00

I recently experienced a client of mine who had a stroke last week. Now before you get your one-sided criticisms, judgements, and opinions of this story, put them aside and listen to the rest of it. My client has been on a healing journey for the past few years to renew a lifetime of pain and suffering from abuse and toxicities physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Earlier this year she made the decision to get off all of her prescription medications because she intuitively felt they were creating more harm than good in that she did not feel alive, or at least did not know what feeling alive was like because all her life she listened to others and the world outside of her to tell her what feeling alive was like, rather than listening to her inner voice. In other words, her soul has been screaming to break out of her numb, mummified, crystalized shell of existence. With each crises we experience in our lives, it is part of Nature's way for cleansing and upheaval and an opportunity for us to step up to finally become Human Beings - the realization that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Existence without acknowledging spirit is called materialism.With materialistic thinking, one may look at her situation as being a case of her not taking her cardiac medications resulting in her stroke and giving bragging rights and the "I told you so" degradations of her doctors and loved ones.

Let's zoom in a little bit more. Like any process there involves a peeling away of the many layers accummulated from a lifetime of bad habits, dogma, and conditioning from our parents, families, society, religion, government, the media, etc. Very few people understand what it is to be truly FREE human beings - "Free beings are those who can will what they themselves hold to be right" (Rudolf Steiner); and this occurs at every given moment. Making choices based upon fear is not freedom. "Take this pill or you'll die" is an enslavement (and insult) of our consciousness. It is when one decides to break free from the binds of conventionality that begins the path towards healing. How can one know freedom if they do not have the courage to move towards it?

Another perspective of this client's situation is that the stroke is symbolic of a wake-up call to completely surrender to the world of spirit; to intensify one's relationship with their soul-spiritual natures. What better time than a physical crises to start a path towards spirituality? What do most people who are facing death and the Grim Reaper unexpectedly say? "Oh my God!" The stroke can be viewed as a spark to reignite what feeling alive is all about. It is true that this client could have died from this brain insult; but she didn't, which further reinforces the urgency and "second chance" she's getting to live a life of freedom. This is what healing is all about. Sometimes you need to hit a few bumpy roads in order to appreciate and understand the smooth ones.

So I leave you with this question:
Would you rather live a life where you are numb, blind, and desensitized to life or to live a life where you experience something like a stroke so that you can feel alive? In other words, many people who appear healthy are actually truly sick because they are desensitized to who they are with respect to their soul-spiritual natures. This is what my client was experiencing from the side effects of her meds. She felt like one of those zombies from the movie "The Dawn of the Living Dead". This is an example of how society tends to keep the dead alive and kill the living. On the other hand, sometimes it takes a crises for one to wake up and smell the roses. And when you smell the roses, you can lift yourself to higher ground to get a better view of your life.

Please keep in mind that there is no wrong answer to the above question. It all depends where you are in life and from where your vantage point is.

What's my answer to the above? I'd rather live a life where my perceptions are filled with pristine clarity so that my mind can make clearer choices rather than be foggy and deluded which can give faulty sense impressions (and thus misconceptions) of life. To be free takes a lot of balls and a lot of responsibility. What most people lack is taking responsibility for themselves because they willingly tend to give it to anything external to them (ie. people, things, situations, etc). Your doctor may be able to save your life but they can never tell you how to live one.

Research Study: Hip Exercises for OA Knees

2009-07-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.news-line.com/commander.lasso?-Search=Action&-Table=webinfo&-Database=newsline&-KeyValue=6617&-token.profession=PT&-token.target=onenews

This is a current study to see if strengthening the hip muscles while unload osteoarthritic knees. Duh. This is a good example of how the physical therapy profession is a bit behind due to its infatuation with evidence-based practice and desire for autonomy in health care. The good news is that it's drifting away from the isolationist's approach and somewhat expanding to a more integrated perspective. What typically starts as an investigation of the knee joints with studies of the quadriceps and hamstrings is now progressing to the hip's gluteals. Pretty soon studies will dare to step out of the box and look into improving intestinal peristalsis, bile flow, digestion, liver detoxification, and overall hydration of an individual to improve osteoarthritic cases.

Physical Therapists' Use of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Older Adults with Chronic Pain: A Nationwide Survey

2009-05-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

http://www.ptjournal.org/cgi/content/abstract/89/5/456

The above link is about a telephone survey of PTs from across the USA regarding their use of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). This was in response to evidense in the pain management field that CBT can be effective. The PTs surveyed used CBT techniques minimally due to several factors such as lack of training and time and reimbursement issues.

My take on this: What the conventional medical model is calling CBT is simply another form of connecting the physical body to mental and emotional aspects, which when imbalanced can manifest as physical symptoms. Duh. You see, physical therapy in the USA is trying to find autonomy in the medical profession with advancements in PT education transitioning into a doctorate level and with the evidence-based mind-set (ie. "if it's not perceptible by my five senses, it doesn't exist"). With increasing "got you by the balls" tactics of health insurance companies with decreasing reimbursement for services rendered, the PT profession is being blinded by their own need for autonomy. In other words, the route they're heading for now is a route already tread by the chiropractic and medical professions where trying to establish their "worth" to insurers who care more about the bottom line rather than the actual health care of individuals is an uphill battle.

I've been using so-called CBT approaches for several years now but I never called it that. Back when I was a student right into my early years working as a PT, I had observed a direct relationship between a patient's emotional and mental status to their offending complaint. But whenever direct intervention into the mental and emotional aspects was brought up, it was deemed out of line for our profession and that area of expertise was to be referred to some kind of licensed psychiatric professional. I know what you're thinking: pretty idiotic, right? So you see why if the PT profession continues to neglect the interrelationships of the physical, emotional, mental, and dare I say the spiritual components of the human being, how limited the profession will and currently is?

I walked away from the PT profession in 2007 because I found it to be too restrictive of my nature as a healing professional. Rather than tread the same path as others before me and become frustrated, angry, depressed, and lost, I chose to create my own path in health care.

The good news from this survey is that the PT profession has an opportunity to step outside of what is traditional and explore new avenues.

Meditation & Movement

2009-05-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Many people think they know what meditation is and still have not devoted any effort toward a meditative practice and thus can not really understand it unless they've thoroughly experienced it with open receptiveness and a willingness to change, or explore, their current "thinking"; of which is not truly living thinking but more so "dead" thinking. Thinking, in the ordinary sense, is based upon thoughts which are completed, finished, and the result of as compared to thinking for the sake of thinking itself; the actual process of thinking where the subject, you the "thinker" becomes the object. "Dead" thinking separates the subject from the object disregarding the "process" for the "result" (ie. the actual thought). This leads one "stuck" in the pre-conditioned realm of the subconscious which is based upon past thoughts and previous conditioning. The ego, as a vehicle for one's sense of self attaches itself to the subconscious because it can easily control and manipulate preconceived concepts and contain one's reality. This is how our parents, religion, the government, the media, and multi-national corporations can easily control us.

With "living" thinking there is no separation between the subject and object and it provides a direct link to the superconscious through our intuitions. Our intuitions allow our Soul to be guided by our Spiritual-Divine nature (rather than just our Ego-material nature). With living thinking, or pure thinking, we tap into our essence and experience our eternal capacity. When we are able to bring this capacity back down to earth, we are considered "enlightened", or awakened to a whole new level of existence.

Meditation as a practice allows one to tap into living thinking. Could you imagine if Copernicus did not practice living thinking that he'd ever find the balls to disagree with the norm of his day that the Earth was the center of the Universe?

With meditation, after awhile you become aware of the ability to cultivate refined "energy", or "chi" in the Taoist sense which you can use to harmonize your subtle energy bodies. When movement is added to a practice of meditation it further intensifies the experience and "re-educates" the flow that has become accustomed to stagnation. Stagnation leads to disease. Various disciplines such as qigong, taichi, and yoga utilize meditation and movement which explains their effectiveness.

One does not have to learn the traditional disciplines if one is willing to explore their self. Traditional disciplines may fall into the trap of dogmatism which further tethers one's Soul to the demise of egotism. Meditation and movement can be a free expression of one's Soul individuality which keeps in line with how energy operates, which is constantly in motion in a moment-to-moment dynamic, where nothing is ever the same and is constantly changing. Imagine your life right now if you could experience such presentness.

Who are You?

2009-05-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

Two souls, alas, dwell within my breast,
Each wants to separate from the other;
One, in hearty lovelust,
Clings to earth with clutching organs;
The other lifts itself mightily from the dust
To high ancestral regions.

Goethe, Faust I, 1112

Brain Parasites

2009-04-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/PainManagement/story?id=6309464&page=1

Thanks to my friend Antonio for sharing this link. Parasites in the brain, one wouldn't normally think it's possible but it does make sense. The brain and the gut have many similarities. Just look at the way the structures look similar when you compare the convolutions of the intestines and of the cerebrum as well as the similar amount of neurological structures in both areas. Parasites flourish when the environment within allows for it. Think of them as squatters who take over when given the opportunity (that's why they're classified as "opportunistic organisms"). We normally are able to police parasites with a healthy functioning system. The brain is an organ for thinking and the gut is an organ(s) of metabolism. When the gut isn't functioning properly, other areas take up the slack such as in this case in the brain. The parasite travels to the brain through the circulation (blood).

From a spiritual perspective, the lady in the video may not be using her organ of thinking enough. The right side of the brain is more attuned for experiencing supersensible knowledge and this experience may be a way for her soul to get her attention towards some lacking aspect in her life.

When we do not fully utilize the potential of our organs, they can atrophy and become prey to microbes.

Something to think about.

New Type of Nutritionists?

2009-04-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

With the Spring comes gardening time in my backyard and while I was reconditioning and tilling a new plot for planting I came up with the following thought. I know there are different types of "nutritionists" available to the public and it just made sense to me that if someone is going to help others understand about nutrition and food and health and the effects/benefits from what we eat, drink, and breathe, would'nt it be great if that person was also a gardener? There's something about the whole process: from preparing the soils, planting the seeds, watering, pulling out weeds, to full blossoming into ripened fruit onto your plate for a cosmic experience we call a meal.

How many nutritionists or health/wellness professionals that coach clients about food, diet, and nutrition have their own garden? I'm not saying that they should and if they don't they're any less of a professional but my point is the whole process of the experience of taking care of one's own garden connects them deeper with the very subject in which they make a living on.

Consuming organic and/or locally grown produce is great, but wait until you've tried something from your own garden.

I've been in the medical/health/wellness profession for over 13 years now and it wasn't until last year that my wife, son, and I started our own garden. Previous to that I thought I had a decent understanding of food but now I've evolved into a deeper understanding and relationship to the Earth, the Universe/Cosmos, and Man in between. When you eat or drink something, what's your experience? What's behind the initial "it tastes good or it tastes bad" reaction? What's the process all about for you? It might be easier for you to answer these questions after you've consumed something fresh from your garden.

Maybe I'm on to something here. What if in order for one to graduate with a degree in nutrition they had to grow their own garden as part of the curriculum? In fact, everyone of us could be "nutritionists" if we tended our own food. Why go to school when you can start today and plant some seeds.

Successful Liver & Gallbladder Flushes

2009-04-01T06:22:00.000-07:00

With the Spring comes the sense that it's time to clean up and many choose to do so with some liver and gallbladder flushing. Here's the thing: a successful flush is not in how many stones you poop out but in what did you experience during the process. What did you learn and come to an understanding about yourself, your body, and life in general? Focus on how many stones expelled is a reflection of how one lives their life guided by the misguided ego where it's all about the "results" and not so much the process. Focusing on the results takes one out of the present by living on expectations. Expectations inevitably brings suffering.

You have the power to eliminate suffering from your life.

Live the moment. Be the moment.

Billions of Dollars and Still No Cures

2009-02-18T07:42:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder where all the money that goes into finding cures goes after all these years? Have they been effective? Cancer is still significant. AIDS doesn't seem to be going anywhere. And now we're trying to find a "cure" for obesity. Maybe it's time to look outside the box?

Here's the thing: It's quite possible that the human physical body is not too concerned about being cured. It'd rather be stimulated to wake up its healing capabilities. It'd rather learn through the process of healing rather than be given the result of a cure. What happens when someone always gives you the answers without you trying to figure it out on your own? You get lazy and lose the ability to think for yourself. Just imagine if this possibility was understood by those seeking cures. What would life be like? I'd probably be a very rich (financially) man but being that ours is a society that contines to look for the easy way out or the quick-fix, I'm actually very poor, for now. Emphasis on results leads to chaos; emphasis on the process expands the possibilities and allows one to break free of the "box".

Humanity Ascending

2009-02-11T18:55:00.000-08:00

I just saw a documentary with Barbara Marx Hubbard where she eloquently expresses our possible future by reviewing our past and present. It reminded me of what I've recently been observing where others are constantly "searching" for answers and data and information and are going from one source to another in the ultimate quest for knowledge. My question is: What are people looking for? My answer: Their Selves. Man has always had a yearning to find out who he is, where did he come from, and what's his purpose in life. I know one of my peers who's taken a lot of training this past year and has sort of opened up a Pandora's box of information and can't seem to quench her thirst to know more. Sooner or later she'll find her journey will eventually lead her to her spiritual Self. Times are changing and Consciousness is accelerating.

Drug Company Caught Lying!

2008-12-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

Pharmaceutical companies making up research studies with favorable outcomes? Why would they do such a thing? To make money of course. This recent NY Times article is just a reminder to the public and to the medical community of how low pharmaceutical companies will go to make the almighty dollar. Just because your doctor recommends a drug for your condition because "the studies show it works" may not be necessarily true. It may be a partial truth to some degree but there's still a significant amount of deception involved.

Hmm..if a drug is so effective, why lie and fudge the results of the studies?

The best protection for the public is to educate themselves and be open to research and experiment for themselves. Better yet, an even better approach is start taking a more active approach to one's health and well-being right now and stop putting them on hold.

NOTHING

2008-12-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

Have you ever received an email trying to sell you something and as you read through it you find yourself scrolling down at what seems like a never ending sales pitch and towards the end they always make like what they're selling is worth a shitload of money and if and only if you take advantage of this special email offer now, you can get this product for an insanely low price. And if you do act now they'll throw in all these special bonus "gifts". Come on, admit it. You've seen a lot of these and you've probably asked yourself, "what's the catch?".

From my experience (ok, I'll admit it. I have bought some of these products in the past and don't regret it), the longer the "sales pitch", the less the product actually has to offer and that's why the seller does their best to hype it up.

Along with these emails, we typically also receive newsletters in which everyone has one nowadays to the point people are becoming more selective in allowing which newsletter they choose to read. The one commonality of the majority of newsletters out there is that they all want something from you. This isn't wrong. It's just business and marketing. This brings us to the point of why I'm posting this topic. What do I expect from anyone who reads my newsletters or blog posts or watches my youtube page? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. NADA. ZERO. ZILCH.

It doesn't make a difference to me if thousands of people or no one reads my work. I'll still be me. I love me. I love you. I love everyone. I love life. What else would I need? Money? Nope. You can never have more money than you already have; so why be so concerned about having more? That's worrying about the future. How do you feel worrying about the future? Probably unpleasant, so why bother wasting your precious energy on it?

I write my newsletter as a way to create. I share my experiences with others who are interested and what I write is from the heart. I give from the heart without expecting anything in return. This is one characteristic of unconditional love. Can you dig that?

I love you as you are and thank you for Being you.

Why do we judge?

2008-10-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

We judge because we have an ego. The more inflated, or fed, the ego, the more judgement, whether it be of others or oneself. Where there's judgement, there's control. The opposite of control is freedom. Where there's control, there's fear. Love can not be fully expressed when fear prevails.

When we let go of judging others and ourselves we become free. When we're free, we can truly love.

2012 Prophecies and the End of Time

2008-09-17T14:43:00.001-07:00

What are you dreaming your world into Being?

2008-08-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

The inner secret, that which was never born, you are that freshness, and I am with you now.

RUMI

It's a new moon tonight and I thought this RUMI poem was appropriate for the times ahead. Enjoy!

Here comes the rain

2008-08-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

Here in New York we 're going through some really heavy rains right now and my wife and 5 year son decided to run around in our backyard as the downpour pummeled us. We even stood underneath a makeshift "waterfall" from the roof drain. That was the "funnest shit" I've done all week! There's something about Nature, rain or shine, that's so enlivening.

Mayan Calendar - 5th Night of Galactic Cycle - Simplified

2008-08-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

Without getting into much detail regarding the Mayan Calendar, we are currently finishing up a period of consciousness that ends around November, 2008 called the 5th Night that's been going on since November of last year. This is a period of darkness where things that have a tendency to break down, probably will. On the bright side, where there's night time, or darkness, there's day time, or light. The Mayan Calendar is not really a measure of time but more so a measure of consciousness. This whole thing about 2012 and the end of the world business is more about the acceleration of creation and the expansion of consciousness. To make a long story short, we're heading towards a period of existence where the window of opportunity to expand our consciousness is right now. More and more possibilities, rather than probabilities, are occurring that can tap into the infinite potential of creation. Meaning, more "miracles" are possible. "Night" in the Mayan Calendar sense is an opportunity to utilize what was learned from being enlightened and "Day" is the opportunity to be enlightened, or awakened, to what's it all about. During the Night, we can be left in the "dark" and not expand our consciousness, or we can step out of the darkness, and explore what it's like to be "lighter".

In simple terms: from now until November, 2008, is a great opportunity to let go of our bullshit issues that have the tendency to weigh us down (and prevent us to heal on all aspects of our being) so that we can take full advantage of the next Day period of enlightenment (6th Night of Galactic Cycle of Consciousness). In other words, let go of all your anger, resentment, frustration, fear, anxiety, guilt, etc and other emotions that tend to create stagnation of the energy flow within us. If you truly do not feel joy and grace, which are different from happiness in that happiness is more fleeting and temporary and the former more profound and lasting, in your current life, now would be a good time to address why that is so. Many of you who have read up this point may still not understand what in the world I'm talking about so my advice to you is to find out what's your passion in life and what truly gets you going every morning that's on such a deeper soul level. Basically it's all about what's your soul purpose in this lifetime. Like most people, you may not be aware of your soul purpose, yet. This is because our mind and ego have a way of distracting us and messing around with our intuition and focus. That's okay though because they're just doing their job. The mind can only exist in the past and the future and not in the present. This is why so many of us have difficulty quieting our mind such as with meditation. Rest assured, it's possible and it simply just takes practice. Know that the energies of this world, consciousness itself, is working in our favor to help get out of our minds and more in touch with our intuition, which is our communication with our Higher Self, or Soul.

I would recommend you all to do your best to find some quiet time by yourself and practice quieting your mind. Be mindful of what thoughts consistently show up. Be aware of how your body is feeling at that moment; where is there contraction or tension, where does your attention guide you in your body; observe your breath and how it enters and leaves your body. This practice can be a few minutes or more and can be performed anywhere; the idea is to just try it.

If that's still too much for you, I would highly recommend getting some energy work from an energy medicine practitioner who walks the walk as well as talk the talk. They can help clear some of the stagnant energy that you may or may not be aware is preventing you from experiencing peace, balance, and harmony. From now until November, I've increased the number of energy sessions with my clients because I feel it's that important. No more farting around with excuses. The time is now to unload your shit and heal.

Call my office or email to schedule an energy session. This work can also be performed over the phone or remotely without you physically present in person or over the phone. Just do it and lighten you hucha (Quechua term for heavy energies).

Munay, Llankay, Yachay,
Michael

200 Body Weight Prisoner Squats

2008-04-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

Practiced some qigong and meditation this morning and decided to pump out some exercise. To my surprise I was able to do 2oo body weight prisoner squats (hands on top of the head) in one shot followed by a total of 50 push ups. These aren't huge numbers but I do challenge anyone who wants a quick and worthwhile workout to give it a shot.

NewsDay.com

2008-02-29T08:35:00.000-08:00

http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/specialevent/ultimate_fighter/blog/
Check out this article and video blog of Luke Cummo and me during his last conditioning work out before his fight in Ohio on Saturday, March 1, 2008.

Liver/Gallbladder Flushes Lecture

2008-01-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

I want to thank everyone who attended my lecture yesterday in Howard Beach. I hope everyone will try to do a flush soon. For those who attended, my wife served some Lifefood Brazil nut milk, passion fruit smoothies, and macaroons - healthy and lively food equals healthy and lively thinking! For those who couldn't attend, I will be holding the same lecture next Saturday, 2/2/08, in Manhattan. Go to the link for more details: http://jocsonhealth.com/whats-new.html

Jocson Harmony Weight Loss Program

2008-01-18T09:51:00.000-08:00

Just to update everyone, I've been doing some intense experimenting and research on a weight loss/detoxification program the past few months. I've always strayed away from "weight loss" programs since there are so many facets to why some people lose weight and others don't and it makes for a hit & miss approach. My approach has always been from a "building one's health" approach and weight loss was more of a side-effect rather than primary motivation. Well needless to say I've stumbled upon a program that will not only help one to lose weight but to be much more healthy by opening the doors to healing. Using me as an example, anyone who knows me is aware that I appear to be as healthy as one can be since that's what I do for a living. I've always been a skinny guy weighing around 150-155lbs; but as I got older I noticed I developed little love handles which were attributed to extra stress in my life. This was so even though I did my best to eat right, exercise, etc. and I was still a "skinny"guy with love handles. After about 2 months on this program I developed, I went down to about 145 lbs and after a series of liver and gall bladder flushes, I am now down to 142 lbs. Yeah, I know, this is light. I haven't been this light since I was about 15 years old and I've never felt any better than I do now. When a fat person loses about13 lbs, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but when an already skinny guy loses that much weight, it actually is a big deal. Usually you'd think one is really sick to be losing that weight, but in my case I'm actually a lot healthier. This program is like nothing else out there in the health, fitness, and wellness field. And if you're reading my blog, you're one of the first to hear about it. Stay tuned for more updates.

My "Harvest"

2008-01-10T07:56:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to a picture of my harvest this morning:
http://jocsonhealth.com/whats-new.html

I found 37 greenish stones. Be on the lookout for my latest approach to detoxing/fasting.

Gallbladder Flush

2008-01-09T17:56:00.000-08:00

I'm on to something BIG. I've been doing some research & development on a detox/fasting program that's universal as well as simple and non-torturous. Tonight I flushed my gallbladder/liver. We'll see tomorrow what comes out. If anything interesting, I'll be sure to post some pics.

www.exoticsuperfoods.com

2008-01-02T18:09:00.000-08:00

I've been visiting this place the past month and have been impressed. They're the only place in Queens, NY I can find good raw and Life Food stuff. They also have monthly lectures. I highly approve. They're worth a trip.

Quotes for the day

2007-12-20T08:35:00.000-08:00

"A wise man knows that although he may not surpass his students in specific skills, he can give them what they need so that they can be better individuals" Lieh-Tzu

"I have limits as well as dreams. I respect my limits so as to live my dream." Me

ABADÀ Capoeira Conditioning - Hips

2007-12-18T19:50:00.001-08:00

This workout circuit focuses on the hips.

Capoeira Specific Training - Upper Body

2007-12-14T15:34:00.001-08:00

This was a quick circuit I did this AM. It consisted of : Ginga with KBs, KB Reverse Wood Chops, KB SA Clean and Press, Alternating Cable Around-the-Worlds, and SB Forward Rolls.

New article on my website

2007-12-12T16:26:00.000-08:00

I just wrote up a case history on a client I saw this week and thought people might be interested. This is not your typical health care approach. Have an open mind while reading it. Case Study: Right Hip Pain

Luke Cummo Thoracic Extension

2007-12-12T16:23:00.001-08:00

It's common for fighters to be lacking thoracic extension and in this exercise you can see Luke fatigues during the last couple of reps with decreased range of motion into extension.

Luke Cummo CHEK Press

2007-12-12T16:19:00.001-08:00

The CHEK Press is not just to shred your shoulders but to work your scapular stabilizers and thoracic extensors as well. A great "anti-forward head posture" exercise.

Luke Cummo Single Arm KB Swing

2007-12-12T16:16:00.001-08:00

This exercise was part of a 10 exercise circuit, each one performed for 30 seconds.

Seminar at Ray Longo's this 12/8/07

2007-12-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

This Saturday I'll be giving a seminar on Corrective Exercise and the MMA Athlete at Ray Longo's place in Garden City, NY. There'll be some talking but mostly you'll be put through a workout so you'll be learning some new exercises. Class starts at 3 PM and costs $30. Just show up; no need to reserve a spot.

Weight Loss

2007-11-28T10:22:00.001-08:00

Until I get a better camcorder, you'll have to settle for the poor quality video, but thankfully you can still hear what I have to say.

The Thirsty Man, the Wall, and the Water

2007-11-28T07:11:00.000-08:00

On the bank of a stream there was a high wall
And on top of the wall a sad and thirsty man.
The wall prevented him from reaching the water
That he longed for passionately, like a fish.
Suddenly, he threw a brick into the water -
The sound of the water struck his ears like words
Spoken by a delicious and tender friend...
Because he was so happy hearing the water,
He began to tear down the wall and throw brick after brick.
The sound of the water seemed to be saying,
"What do you think you gain by doing this?"
The thirsty man replied, "I gain two things
And will never stop doing what I'm doing.
The first is that I hear the sound of water
Which is like an oboe to a thirsty man.
This sound's for me like the Angel of death's trumpet -
It awakens life in one who was dead! -
Or like the drum of thunder during the days of spring
That makes the garden bloom in all its glory,
Or like the days of almsgiving for a beggar,
Or the news of his freeing for a prisoner.
The second gain I get from doing what I do
Is that with every brick I tear down and throw
I come closer to the running water.
Every brick I take down makes the wall lower -
Lowering the wall is a way of reaching the water.
Destroying the wall's separation leads to Union."
Tearing off the carefully linked bricks is Prostration -
Didn't God announce, "Prostrate and approach Me?"
As long as the wall stands, it's an obstacle
To the one who bends his head in prayer:
You'll never completely prostrate to the Living Water
While you're not sprung free from the physical body.
The thirstier the man on the top of the wall is,
The quicker he tears down the bricks and tufts of grass.
The more in love with the sound of the water,
The greater are the clumps of brick he tears down.

RUMI

Jocson Twist

2007-11-25T13:27:00.001-08:00

The video's a bit grainy and dark but the movement is all there. This is an advanced swiss ball exercise I created that I don't think anyone else is teaching. Its purpose is to integrate the upper and lower body in a twisting movement pattern improving proprioception, stabilty, and neuromuscular efficiency. And oh yeah, it works the "core".

Organic MMA website

2007-11-23T08:33:00.000-08:00

Check out the new website www.organicmma.com. It's a Mix Martial Arts related website and I will be contributing articles there and I just revised and updated my soy article. Enjoy!

The Wine and the Cup

2007-11-20T06:28:00.000-08:00

The wine of divine grace is limitless:
All limits come only from the faults of the cup.
Moonlight floods the whole sky from horizon to horizon;
How much it can fill your room depends on its windows.
Grant a great dignity, my friend, to the cup of your life;
Love has designed it to hold His eternal wine.

RUMI

Rumi of the Day

2007-11-17T06:46:00.000-08:00

Everyday I read a passage from works such as by Rumi to inspire me in creating my day. I'd like to share what I read today:

The Soul of Reality

How marvelous a lover is, for he gathers power, grows, and fills with vibrant energy from the image of his Beloved. This should not surprise you; think of how much perpetual strength the image of Layla fed Majnun.

Since the image of what is after all a transient beloved possesses so great a power to embolden the lover, why are you surprised that the Image of the Eternal Beloved should stream strength into the Lover, both here in this world and in the Invisible? That Image is not "Imagination" at all; it is the Soul of Reality.