
Joe has been practicing yoga and meditation since 1997 and teaching yoga since 1998. He has experienced many different yoga styles and meditation traditions. He has had the honor of creating and directing several different yoga studios and training future teachers. He has attended three different styles of teacher training’s and dozens of varied workshops for yoga, Kirtan, massage and meditation. He has spent over 100 days at silent retreats in Thailand, India and the United States. He is a 500 Hour RYT and also is certified by the Yoga Alliance to train and prepare future teachers for certification.
He greatly enjoys helping a student figure out a daily practice that is manageable and customized for the individual. He has been mostly vegetarian for the past 20+ years and has done at least 50 juice fasts and cleanses of all kinds. As part of a life coaching regimen Joe includes not only yoga, meditation and nutritional eating, cooking and cleansing but he also loves to help people develop other hobbies and artistic activities and crafts.
He has spent his life after competitive sports ended at age 21, enjoying outdoor activities and connecting to nature and playfulness through long distance ocean swimming, beach volley ball, golf, dog training, bicycle touring and training, kayaking, billiards, horseshoes, darts, kirtan, Personal Training, Meditation, Frisbee, Hiking, Singing, body surfing, snorkeling and more. He can teach you how to enjoy and even master these hobbies and can help you find a deeper connection to source energy through these physical pursuits.
He feels that these hobbies and activities like organic gardening, community volunteering, sculpting, painting, beach combing, love making and riding horses can connect us to spirit as much as anything else. He feels that In simply living our lives we realize that the asana is just a small part of our yoga, but even a short daily practice of 10 to 30 minutes each day can change your life and deepen your connection to source energy so you can attract positive beings and experiences into your life.
He is also a relentless traveler and has lived, worked, taught or studied in the U.S.A, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica, India, Thailand, Europe and Costa Rica. He has founded 5 yoga studios in four locations in three different countries and his yoga centers have trained and certified over 1,000 teachers and more than 200,000 people have practiced yoga at his unique venues in Portland, OR and on Koh Phan Gang, Thailand.
He believes travel is the best education and dreams of starting an orphanage, alternative school, raw food and vegetarian restaurant, organic farm with community garden and a continuing education center here in Costa Rica and in the Boston Area as well. He is currently seeking investors in these ambitious projects to serve humanity. He is eternally grateful and in deep appreciation to all of the students and teachers, families, animals and friends that have given him so much love, support and information over the years.
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Cure most any degenerative disease naturally including cancer, diabetes, arthritis and heart disease.
If you know anyone with cancer, heart disease, diabetes or any degenerative disease, make them watch this video. Cancer is basically a mold. You can feed the mold with an acidic diet or you can starve cancer with an alkaline diet.
A live living foods diet and proper cleansing of the liver and intestinal tract will be your best chance at a permanent cure. This is simple and effective. Chemo therapy is like trying to kill mosquitoes in your house with a canon.
There is no need to die early. What you have been told about food and medicine since you were a very young age is a lie. Our food pyramid and nutritional information we were shown in school as children was created by the meat and dairy industry.
Powerful political lobbyists in Washington work around the clock to push propaganda for the GMO’D food companies, for the chemical companies and the factory farmers who supply us with food like products that have little to no nutritional value and are saturated with poisons. Toxic dead food and chemical laced, acidic drinking water are the major causes of all disease and live plant based foods and plant based medicines and stress reducing, breath orientated activities are the cure. It is that simple.
This is for real… I would like to say this video could save your life but only you can decide if you want to live a sickly life till about 50 or 60 years old or decide to achieve a state of vigorous and vibrant health and spirituality and live a good quality life of 100 years or more!
Have you reached your highest and best? Would you like to go higher? Take control of your life and your health…Move towards a higher consciousness. Most people never change after they reach 25 to 35 years old. I changed at 30. A change of scenery may help you transform. Travel is maybe your highest and most valuable portal for elevating your state of being. It has been said that traveling to and living in a 3rd world country will get you half way on the path towards enlightenment….
Definitely changing the company you keep will help make a difference in your transformation from sheeple to leader. You can change at any age. Your beliefs are the key. Believe your doctor when he says you have 6 months to live? Believe the MD when he says you have to take these toxic pills for the rest of your life? That radical surgery is the only option??
We have at least 256,000 types of plants on the planet; many have been used as medicine for thousands of years. They have true healing powers. We as a species have lived along side these plants for countless generations. Watch the video, notice how the medical doctors dismiss organic vegetables and colon cleansing will help your health condition. It is a dark and greedy, secret business. Western medicine is roughly one hundred years old and completely interested in profit of patented addictive drugs, radical surgeries and radiation treatment as opposed to inexpensive, natural cures which actually work and can’t be patented and exploited for obscene profits.
.Visit a Naturopath Doctor soon and enjoy your time with a true health professional that asks the right questions and provides long term solutions. Here’s to your health! Cheers!
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Our bodies have infinite intelligence…
Our bodies systems have developed over time and are able to adapt to most any situation or circumstance. We never get sick without our physical apparatus giving off continued obvious and sometimes even blatant warning signs.
Not too long ago we were very physically active foraging and hunting for food and we even spent much of our time migrating from one fertile land area to another. We don’t spend as much time outdoors connected to nature as we used to.
There are simple keys to health that we over look or ignore every day because we simply don’t pay attention to the subtle signs of stress, dehydration, toxicity and mal nutrition.
Some of the most crucial aspects of health which we must adhere to in order is to stay disease free is to make sure we keep hydrated with 2 to 4 liters of proper spring or alkalized water every day.
We must do some type of body cleanse 2 to four times a year in order to remove toxins and excess mucoid plaque from our intestines. This helps clean the organs as well but specific liver, kidney, lung, gall bladder or glandular cleansing may be needed to target specific areas which may be overly congested.
Signs like cracking lips and split cuticles are a sure sign of dehydration. Skin problems usually reveal toxicity issues and tiredness or lack of energy can result from lack of nutrition or be a sure sign you are over stressed.
Tiredness, anxiety and confusion are a result of maybe years of living a rushed lifestyle or be caused by a lack of exercise or the absence of a peaceful discipline like yoga, tai chi, martial arts of meditation. These Zen like breath orientated activities have been shown to have dramatic affects on all kinds of health issues from Insomnia to many forms of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Eating live, living whole foods are also a key to a long, energetic and healthy life. When you have stomach pains get curious, if you are able to use natural enzymes, use aloe or papaya to heal and cleanse the digestive system, if you are able to avoid processed, dead foods and get proper exercise and do some deep breathing you can lower the stress that causes discomfort and avoid complications later on.
Often a discomfort shows up first. If it is not dealt with the problem escalates into a greater threat. Natural plant medicine is readily available these days in most health food stores and Naturopath Doctors are becoming more popular and Chinese medicine doctors have been using natural medicines to heal people for thousands of years.
A stomach issue can turn into an ulcer before it morphs into a problematic tumor or a fatal cancer. If we catch the problems early before they escalate we can avoid an early death.
Cancer is basically a mold in the body that can be reversed by an alkaline diet which only allows for 20% to 30% of the foods you ingest to be acidic or rated the below 7.3 PH level of the blood. The majority of our food needs to be alive and living in order to fuel us properly. Stress reduction through natural processes is also crucial.
Check out the article below which appeared in Mind Body Green recently and see what signs you may be ignoring. Please leave a message if you have any questions or need recommendations for any health issues. Be well and consume wisely!
Get Away From It All…
We are a short flight from the United States mainland, just three hours from Miami and under four hours from U.S. cities like Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, Charleston, and New Orleans. People can get here quickly without all the jet lag and time zone changes experienced when flying to Europe, Asia and Australia. From the airport we are just a 10 minute free shuttle ride to your hotel, where you can be swimming in the pool and soaking in the Jacuzzi, shortly after your plane touches down.
We offer all inclusive vacations here in the Central Mountain Valley that include lodging, adventure activities, all meals, massage therapy, transportation to and from the SJO International Airport & much more. We have most every spa amenity available, stylists and beauty therapists, a juice bar, a state of the art fitness center with physio & massage therapists, nutritionists, personal trainers, yoga and Pilates instructors with every piece of fitness equipment and fitness class imaginable and up to ten various classes available daily.
Our hotel also has an onsite fitness center and our country club has a wonderful fitness center and a professional championship 18 hole golf course, ten tennis courts and an Olympic size swimming pool, all just a ten minute walk to your hotel. If you care to stay longer we find year round rental houses and real estate for sale by private owners that we know in the area.
Our adventure activities will get you out in the heart of nature where you will enjoy the true ‘Costa Rica Experience’.. Getting back to nature helps us connect not only to the earth, but to our community and our own inner being. Our adventure activity tours included in your vacation are white water rafting, zipline canopy, rainforest horseback, waterfall park and a volcano excursion. Wecan also customize your vacation if one of these adventures is not to you liking.
Whether you come for a week, a Winter, or a lifetime, you will instantly fall in love with the laid back lifestyle that Costa Rica is famous for. You will also connect on a deep level with the warm and friendly hospitality of the Tico people and our diverse Expat community, which has made CostaRIca their forever home. We hope to see you soon in Paradise!
Pura Vida!
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4 life questions from my nephew for a college paper
My nephew’s college professor gave this assignment with the instructions, have a relative answer these questions, one that has similar views and outlooks to your own. I feel honored that he chose me.
1.) Q.) Throughout your entire life and your pursuit to happiness, success, and knowledge. What obstacles and negligence occurred, were they overcome, and if overcoming them, did they result in a positive effect later on in your life?
A.) I think our entire life is but a series of obstacles that we overcome on a daily basis. To cover all of my obstacles and negligence which occurred and that were over come could take 1000 pages or more. That being said, I think life is broken up into two phases, the first phase being ambition; the second is the meaning phase of life. When I look back at the ambition phase I had a completely different set of values and goals. I was successful to a certain degree but true happiness or oneness was fleeting and rare. I was a nice person, I had fun, but deep down I am not sure I was very content, happy or satisfied.
On my second trip to Asia I found Yoga and Meditation on the same time in a 10 day silent retreat. I would not so much say that I found God at that time. I would more accurately say that I connected to spirit. I don’t think our spirit ever leaves us but it can become dislodged and we ca be influenced by outside entities when we are not at our full strength. At that retreat I was able to let go of all bitterness, inhibitions, judgments, resentment and all other fear based emotions which sap our strength and diminish our spirit.
All obstacles and negligence’s I then saw as learning lessons and stepping stones on my path to awakening. I felt grateful for all of the struggle, pain, sadness and sorrow. I realized these so called ‘hard times’ are what made me special, what gave me character and the wisdom as a teacher to guide others towards a happier existence.
Finding yoga, meditation and inspirational teachers who have a lot more experience and life wisdom than me has been the key to greater understanding. In order for us to grow we must seek out the masters, elders, Gurus and sages who have spent the time and done the work. It is said that you will become most like the 5 people you spend the most time with. I have found this to be true.
I recently was talking with a client/ colleague of mine and I commented on our mutual friends’ grandmother who just turned 96 and looked great! She grinned and said that her Granny was 103 and was just now going into a nursing home and has been independent up until now. She recently asked her Grandma what her secret was…. Grandma replied with great joy…”Deep Breathing!”
I have found this to be true as well. When I am connected to breath, all is good. When I am in fear or living unconsciously I am not giving my attention to my breathing. It is the key to all yoga, meditation, martial arts, singing, lovemaking, fitness and more…
Joseph Campbell told us… Follow Your Bliss… I try to do that every day. Life just seems to work out for me somehow. I try not to stress out about anything or take anything, especially myself too seriously.
When one door closes we often find three more will open. We just need to stay open in our hearts to find the next open door.
2.) Q.) What motivations and qualities reflective of who you are lead you to pursue the actions you made?
A.) I saw the life that my father had lived. He was of service to many young men as an ice hockey coach and a scout. He also was over worked and struggled with addictions. He had a devastating childhood and survived Canada’s silent holocaust as a Canadian Indian child in the notorious residential schools.
Observing his life and the lives of others motivated me to help and serve people and at the same time I promised myself I would do what I love and not work myself into an early grave. The qualities that helped me were my dissatisfaction with the system, my relentless pursuit of the truth and my deep desire to explore consciousness and travel the world.
3.) Q.) Are you now where you want to be? Or close to where you had envisioned?
A.)I am very close to where I want to be. I am not trying to get anywhere else. I have always envisioned living in a tropical paradise, bringing in people from all over the world and helping them open their hearts and elevate their spirits. That is what I do now….
4.) Q.) Do you hold regrets, or is there any change you wish you could have made, or current pursuits attempting? Share stories, events, or situations that may have changed your life.
A.) I have a million things I would have done differently but I hold no regrets. I have learned from everything I have done and accomplished and I have probably learned even more from my so called ‘failures’ than my greatest triumphs. My Dad died of cancer when I was 20 years old. He was sick for two years but lived 18 months longer than the Doctors predicted. I now know how to cure cancer, diabetes and heart disease and sometimes I think if my dad we alive now I could save him.
Unfortunately my immediate family is now ill with serious, debilitating diseases and pretty much none of them will take my advice or ask me for help. I have given them fasting kits, books, websites, phone numbers and long heart felt talks. They trust the doctors that stuff them full of pills, poke them with injections and perform surgery for profit. I have been teaching yoga, cleansing and meditating for 15 years, improving and sometimes saving the lives of strangers and setting spirits free. My very own siblings have never done a yoga class, gone to a meditation retreat nor done a natural cleanse for their body and its organs
I am not sure that my father would have listened to my advice either. I have learned that some people just get stuck in their ways and you can only so much to help them. At some point you have to let go and just hope for the best for your people. I have a teacher who likes to say, I preach all the time… and sometimes I even use words!”
Now I just try to walk the walk and keep working on myself, keep up my practices and let my life be my example, my teachings… The upside is those who want to evolve beyond the previous generations are listening and my sister in-law is an active fitness person who has done several yoga classes and her children have tried it as well. The kids are inspired by their mother’s healthy lifestyle which includes daily exercise and balanced nutrition. They are cleansing, doing yoga, eating organic foods and even growing their own organic gardens!
In my very first meditation retreat I was told that my family would be the hardest people to convince that awareness and loving kindness were the primary keys to a happy life. I am grateful to be of service and I appreciate everyone and I respect the path they have chosen… All paths lead to one, no matter which path you are on. There is no such thing as death, we have all been here before, our inspiration, intuition, insight and intellect all become a profound reminder of our inner wisdom when we go inward, get quiet and really listen.
I have no regrets; they would only slow me down. I do my best to be grateful and appreciate all of life’s lessons and delights. That keeps me moving forward, onward and upwards. Appreciation and gratitude keeps me in the moment… in the now. That is the only place I need to be these day, thank goodness.
Why Start A Conscious, Deep Breathing Practice?
First, please know what Deep Breathing does for you. Yes, it quiets the mind, like giving a baby a rattle, our over active, fear ridden brains become calm, soothed and seduced by the inhale from nose to navel and the exhale, naval back to nose. Yes I said seduced, that is how your mind feels when only the breath exists. How delightful do you feel when you are being adored, stroked and seduced? Tranquil, excited and peacefully energized I hope.
A breathing practice enables us to think and feel with our hearts, thus opening us to insights, intuition, inspiration and intention. If we don’t go within we go without. But we must also realize that when we breathe deeply we are raising and then regulating our Prana or Chi.
The subtle body energy is our electrical circuitry that energizes us and runs the show. This energy can be tracked, manipulated and scientifically measured. It is the basis of Chinese and Naturopathic plant based Medicines.
Breathing practices are the most vital and trans-formative methods, tools and exercises we can take part in stimulate our own vitality and healing. Eating well means eating live living foods full of energy. Sprouts are the most energetic of all foods. Vibrant and vital, full of life giving energy just the same way we should be.
A life without conscious breathing is a life with vast amounts of unrealized potential. There are hundreds of breath based practices from singing to swimming, tai chi to bicycling, from Yoga to Qi Gong, from meditation to love making. Choose your practice and feel free to try several to see what makes you feel good.
But you must do and do your loving. If you don’t have an intimate partner, no worries. Give your love to your family, visit the elders and the terminally ill in the hospitals. Visit the prisons or coach a youth team of some kind. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or deliver meals to the shut in people who can’t move about on their own. Help the earth with environmental clean ups, protests and petitions. Adopt a pet on death row and ask people how you can be of assistance. The world needs your love. If you give of yourself freely without expectation and be of service your attractiveness will bring you all the love you can imagine.
To breathe consciously with another is a way in which we can experience the deepest of connections… To breathe consciously with ourselves will connect us to everyone and everything, allowing us to overcome fear, loneliness and isolation. Freedom is just a breath away…
My Advice To Younger People, From My Experiences.
I try not to openly give advice or tell someone else what to do. I just try to observe and I attempt not to judge a persons behavior. All too often, I do observe myself mentally judging the behavior and actions of others. When we are truly happy we exude endless love, we do not see others as different or separate from anyone or anything!
This of course is next to impossible in the modern world where we are tainted by the news, advertisements and guided by our parents, coaches, siblings and teachers. They all have high hopes for us to live their dreams, not ours, the American dreams that they still are clinging to.
When I was growing up it was thought if you did not go to college you wouldn’t make much more than 25k a year and would top out at 50k a year. If you had a college education, you started around 50k a year and the sky was the limit, depending on your field.
I know a guy from my neighborhood that started working as bag boy in a large supermarket when he was fourteen, just as he was entering a prominent high school in the city. He did well in school and he ended up going to the same private university as me. We attended a large private school in the city and after graduation, at about 22 years of age, he was interviewing with companies around his beloved city. His big chain super market was offering 10 to 15k more per annual salary than any other company was offering him for a starting year’s wages.
He always worked at the market part time when he was in school and his company status was up to date. When he was hired as a manager at one of their less prominent stores, his nine years of service to the company was added to his pension and seniority. Right out of business school at 23 years old, he had nine years of seniority as a store manager. He is now about to retire with a 35 year pension at 49 years old.
He has managed to stay healthy and is one of the lucky ones. I tried to work in sales with fancy cloths in an air conditioned office but I was not truly happy at that time. I was moving in the proper direction, towards something better. We must know that every experience is useful and there is no such thing as an accident. Every one is our teacher, big or small, old or young, all come with a message. Everything that comes to us we attract, which is good news because we can attract whatever we want into our lives.
Prosperity and abundance are there for the taking. Success and wealth are a belief and an inner drive. There are those who feel worthy of life’s gifts and receive them and there are those who feel less than what they actually are and miss out! Confidence and self esteem are not optional emotions on the road to happiness! We need to have them in order to be useful and productive. Teachers, parents, siblings and guidance counselors can inspire us or restrict us, depending on their approach and experience. Make sure to take the positive advice and ignore criticism that is not constructive. What other people think of you is their business, not yours! They are seeing the world through the realities they were born into and conditioned with. Many had poor guidance so do not judge their opinions; just realize they are doing the best they can at the time with what they know.
Education comes in many different forms and techniques as we phase out of school. I had been doing various chores, errands, lawn mowing, paper routes and snow shoveling since I was 8 years old. At age thirteen I was earning my first paycheck and I soon bought an amazing stereo and a then a foreign sports car at 15 years old before I even had my license to drive. I was a hard charger on my way to the top. I would make a name for myself and make my parents and coaches proud!
After four semesters/ two years at a major private university my dad passed away and I headed back home to take care of my devastated mother. She was a one man woman and we spent over a year together at a pivotal time for both of us. I tried many different jobs and worked two or three jobs at once so I could save up to travel out of the country!
The first part of our life is all about ambition. We must be successful, make money and be respected. It doesn’t seem matter how we get that money, we get respect no matter how we earn it and money gives us freedom. At this stage or life we tend to live for the expectations of others and what they deem ‘successful and proper’. This attainment can be met with dissatisfaction and emptiness.
Many of us get caught up in the success drive, starting in kindergarten and moving up through graduate school. From kindergarten through graduate school can be upwards of 22 years in a row of constant study. That is a hell of a lot of time and with the rising tuition costs you can pile up a huge amount of debt from student loans.
Medical Doctors have a surprisingly low rate of life expectancy. These highly educated people go through some of the most rigorous and costly education and training of any profession. Their internships involve brutally long hours of service, their student loans are immense and they are taught nothing about nutrition. They can prescribe their own pills and chemical medicine. Their malpractice insurance and lawsuits can be devastating. They start out paying off loans right out of school and it may take them 15 or 20 years to pay all that they owe. Many are ‘on call’ most of the time and get very little ‘time off’. With all of these factors you can see how stress could take them out at an early age.
With so many people still ‘Humping the American Dream’, as our dear departed Hunter S. Thompson so aptly puts it, we can see how the life expectancy is not rising upwards in America at the rates of most other “Industrialized Countries” in the world. Our Life Expectancy rise has slowed so dramatically that we are expected to live about 13 years than the average Japanese person.
Why should 13 years less of a life make you think? What could you do with 13 extra years of retirement? If you had wealth, from the years of 76 to 89, you could build schools and farms all over the world. You could create a network of institutions and foundations that would educate and empower the masses to take control of their lives and to live in a state of peace, empowerment and freedom. You can make a difference only if you believe you can. Anything you can dream up is possible if you believe it is?
What is my advice to young people? Open your eyes and open your hearts! There are amazing possibilities and opportunities for great health and prosperity all around you. To realize this we have to see outside the box! We have to make an effort to not be programmed by television, not to be a consumer slave pumped full of toxic, processed fast foods which only lead to poor health, depression and an early demise.
Working 50+ hours a week in a high rise building for 40 years to finally start enjoying your life in your sixties may be your road to happiness. Just make sure to take care of your health along the way. Information available to us now shows that many of our hard workers die within 3 years of their retirement if not before. If we are to survive the 9 to 5 lifestyle we must strive to put some style into our life.
I think when looking at your future career you should look at quality of life. How much time will you spend commuting to and from work as opposed to how much time will you spend with your children. How many days of vacation will you get to enjoy each year? What kind of ‘Me” time will you be able to set aside for your personal growth and empowerment. It may be hard to see outside the box when after graduating with a just a BA that could put you over $200,000 in debt! I mean you just spent up to 18 years in learning institutions and now they tell you more schooling is ahead and you need a Masters Degree or a PHD to really make a difference.
Alan Watts, the late English philosopher, says in a famous talk, What if you get to the pinnacle of achievement and success in your working career and you are not happy or fulfilled? What if you never took the time out to sing and dance and play? What then? What if you become a wealthy corporate leader by your mid fifties only to suffer from High Anxiety and Diabetes? What if you knees are giving out but your doctor will not replace them because you are not heart healthy enough for an operation?
Too many of us work a job we don’t like that allows us to keep on living and doing something we don’t want to do…Think about that last sentence for a minute. We perpetuate our own doom when we sacrifice our own health and freedom doing unpleasant work.
My biggest wish for you is to do something you love! If you stick with it long enough you will become a master and make money at it. Also, have other interests and investigate innovative new ways of making money, be open to new ideas in this ever changing world. When I went to school we did not have computers and the ones that existed were as slow as molasses and as big as a bus! Now we have them in our pockets on our space age video phones. The Jetson’s were not that far off from the high tech world we live in now! The possibilities are endless!
Be kind, be generous and be helpful. Find a way to connect to spirit and listen to the voice in your heart! Only you can know and feel what is truly right for you! There is no hurry to get anywhere, Take your time and do not over think your way through life. Develop a practice that connects you to your inner guidance system. Practice breathing in a deep, meaningful way. The breath is our most transformational tool! It is the key to all yoga, meditation and martial arts.
You can be, do or have anything you desire, Find out what really excites you to the core and just follow that bliss. Do what feels good in your heart…in your gut. When the right opportunity comes along, you will feel it. The proper choice becomes obvious when you get quiet and listen.
Consume Wisely…
Let’s face it, every human is a consumer. We are not too much unlike our prehistoric ancestors. Many of us still wander about the country side looking for fun, food and adventure.
The Neanderthal hunting trips were probably filled with more time gathering nuts, seeds, berries, herbs and roots than killing and eating carcasses. We have replaced this activity with hikes, bicycles rides or camping trips when we yearn to connect with nature. Some prehistoric folks who were frozen for tens of thousands of years were found to have up to 75 different types of plants in their digestive systems. Most of our diet was raw then, just like every other animal on earth. We remain still the only species on planet to cook their food.
Nowadays, not many of us hunt, gather or harvest for ourselves and that kind of takes the fun out of it. What if we made a law that you had to jog to the food stores and when you arrived the parking lot was a large Labyrinth where you had to traverse this long obstacle course up to the entrance to get your food? Would that help curb obesity?
Food has become too easy. Throw a frozen dinner in the microwave, 4 compartments which magically cook meat, veggies, potatoes and a dessert to an almost edible perfection if you fold the plastic wrapping just so and have an oven that does not burn your TV dinner. For food to be effective in our bodies we must see it as a fuel source. Since all of our energy comes from the Sun, we must strive to eat foods that are closest to the Sun’s energy.
For instance, if you walk out into your organic garden and put a freshly picked raspberry in your mouth then that would be first energy from the sun. If you froze the berries and ate them a few days later after they’ve thawed that would be second energy. Some vitality would be lost in the freezing process. You could then choose to boil the berries, add sugar, make jam, preserve and reopen the jar etc. With each process food looses life and nutrients diminish. This also includes herbicides, pesticides, growth enhancers and GMO’d food. Vital, vibrant nutrition is lost while your system is tainted with toxins.
The food factories will then take that raspberry that has been killed six times thus far and add preservatives and addictive food additives like MSG which has been on the market so long it can be hidden under the word, ”spices”. Most all food colors are petroleum based products just like the detergents and fabric softeners. These artificial colors have been linked to many diseases. Eventually our fresh, ripe raspberry is not even a shadow of its former self. And what do we do? We inject this florescent, bright neon red, toxic sludge into a Pop Tart full of GMO’d gluten wheat which is covered in white corn syrup. Then we send our kids off to school with it in some factory sealed, tin foil paper wrapper that is microwave safe? What an oxymoron! Microwave safe… like jumbo shrimp or military intelligence! What are we teaching our children? What is wrong with us?
Toxic food preservatives and additives like formaldehyde, bleach and fluoride along with horrible binders and fillers are used in many products today. These toxins are added to things like salt, beer, wheat, soy, dairy products and especially processed meats. Without warnings, most times these harmful chemicals are not included on the list of ingredients on the label! In the case of processed meats the extra, rotting parts of the animal which are not deemed safe for human consumption are then soaked in poisons to kill the rancidity of the animal waste. After this chem-bath “washing”, the waste parts are once again deemed fit for human consumption. After this process they are used as hot dog filler!
Most all American beer is made from GMO’d wheat, has petroleum based food colors and corn syrup. That sweetness helps take the edge off the formaldehyde taste. Cigarettes have 88 or more addictive, toxic chemicals and because of strong political lobbying both beer and cigarettes do not have these poisons on their labels. They put on health warning labels now but still market to the youth. I see cigarettes it as voluntary population control.
How can you end this madness? Simple, eat as many whole, live, living, alkaline food as you can, 70 or 80 percent is what I like but try what works for you. Green smoothies help you get a lot of alkaline veggies more quickly with out all the chewing time of a salad and with a proper blender you can make warm soups that are still considered raw if the temperature stays under 110 degrees. Raw foodists are innovative with the uses of a food dehydrator, a Vitamix, a food processor and a juicer. You can get all the nutrients you need eating very small amounts of high energy, fortified foods that are quick to digest and also provide continuous, high metabolism energy! I have had organic, raw food, vegan creations like felafel’s, pizza, lasagna, chocolate, ice cream and milkshakes that were tastier than the regular food they imitated. These healthy raw foods always made me feel more nourished and alive afterwards.
Avoid products from any food company that is traded publicly on a stock market, These food companies care only about profit and will use any means available to not loose money which even may include ‘hitting it’ with a Pico Ray. This process is just a good old dose of low radiation to kill the living enzymes in your fruit so it does not decay sitting in the produce section all winter. This food will also not break down well in the body if its shelf life has been “enhanced”.
For the last time, stop shopping at Wal-Mart and never buy food there. It is simply wrong on too many levels to get into right now. If you start to do the right thing with feeding your body the proper fuel, which means drinking lots of spring or high alkaline water, your health will soar. You can even still eat acidic foods and be healthy, just try to keep the heavy or slow to digest foods down to 20% or 30% maximum. That will make sure your digestion stays efficient and it will keep your body alkaline and free of illness..
We have a serious crisis on our hands right now. Russia is seeing the first hand destructive USA farming practices killing the worlds bee population. Russia is saying that a war to stop the killing of the Earths plant regenerative systems is immenent! Going veggie is a good way to save the planet, eating meat has harmed the planets ecology more than all the machines combined! Ponder that last statement, it is a big one! Going veggie is maybe the best way to heal the planet.
Also know that 45% of the U.S. land mass in the lower 48 states is being used solely for the feeding of animals for consumption. That is almost half of our massive country set aside for meat eaters. Starting to get the picture? The government won’t bring it up when it installs its upcoming “Carbon Footprint” tax structure. If that new tax was based in truth, hamburgers would be $100 each! Think about all of the food and water cows consume, think about the trees that were cut down for the animals and the oxygen that is lost. Think about the pollution caused and the chemicals injected into these animals that continue harm the earth and our future. Factory farming is government subsidized and controlled by chemical companies who have monopolized seed supplies. Organic farming is subsidized only by love and carried on by modern day pioneer heroes who fight for their rights to treat the earth and each other with kindness and loving care.
Let’s move beyond food consuming. When you buy clothing and other products, try to start purchasing natural, non toxic or organic products and clothing made by reputable companies who don’t exploit underage third world workers. Make an attempt to buy local products that are not shipped very far. Maybe purchasing high quality, second hand clothing, machines and various home products for pennies on the dollar is a your way to recycle. Stop using plastic bags, walk or ride your bike to the store or work more often and think about owning a solar panel or windmill some day soon.
Grow as much food as you can. The big industries own the media, they brainwash our children and poison us with factory packaged products. I have listened to interviews with industry mogul food factory owners and they would never, ever eat a Twinkies, pop tarts or a hot dog. If the people who make it won’t eat it why would you? They have built family fortunes on empty foods that cause diabetes, heart disease and obesity. These foods have addictive additives and the body will crave these chemical compounds day and night when they are consumed on a regular basis.
It is easy to point a finger at a President or Congress and blame them for all of the poor decisions but we must look at the men behind the curtain. The controlling families are all industry moguls and those industries which control us are Big Oil,(along with dirty energies like Nuclear Power, Coal and Natural Gas), Big Banks, Big Pharmacy and the Medical Industry, Meat and Dairy Industries, The Media, The Federal Reserve, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Monsanto, The War Machine, Processed and Fast Food Industries and Insurance Companies just to name a few.
Sell your stock interests in any of these conglomerates and their subsidiaries and invest in precious metals or hard foreign currencies. Boycott their stores and put your money in a small independent bank or credit union. Get out of debt and stay out of debt. This will improve your health when you don’t have loan payments that stress you out every month
Stop taking western meds, find a Naturopath Doctor who can heal you naturally and get you off the drugs with plant based medicines. The natural doctor can actually heal you. The best western medicine has to offer is they can prolong your sickness for the rest of your life and keep you addicted to their drugs, making you a loyal customer. The average 65 year old American is on 6 types of pills. When you make it to 7 types of pills your chances of a death by poisoning from drug mixtures is highly probable.
Join protests for freedom and do your best to let people know the truth about wars, government cover ups and control. Dissuade any young people from going into the military. It has become so unpopular to join in the U.S. that we are now outsourcing our army to illegal immigrants.
Stop watching television, reading major newspapers and news magazines. It is not the real news. There are tons of different alternative news outlets that report the real news around the world. Make your lifes work your most passionate love. Never stay at a job you hate and go to only for the money. You are shorting yourself, your family and your employer.
Our Internet is such a wonderful tool for research and education. Please stay informed and aware. Don’t give into fear. The world is becoming a better place, people are waking up. Everything we do sends out energy and affects everything around us. Roll up your lawn and plant a garden. Start a program to help others do the same and share your harvest with the elderly and others in need.
We can even move beyond money as we manufacture own goods, grow our foods and perform our own services. Do as much barter and trade as you can, you will build a community, this just takes a commitment to helping others. Being innovative and passionate about healing the planet and ourselves is a step in the positive direction. If we worship the earth as our Goddess and use the wind, water and sun for our power we will change the world.
Before Kurt Vonnegut passed away he was asked, ”What advice would you give the young people of today?” to which he replied,” Join a gang!” So start to rally up your team, your posse, your homies. Spend weekends going to organic farms, natural building workshops and natural power seminars. There is so much free information and great gatherings for kindred spirits available from native pow wow gatherings and Irish Dance festivals to Kirtan gatherings and raw food workshops. Spending the weekend on the couch watching TV and eating junk foods is living a half life at best with an unhealthy ending.
Make your health your top priority. You will be glad you did. Oh by the way, don’t be frightened, but you may have to get a little spiritual on this ride. I once knew a Yogi who told me the greatest crime we can can commit to our god, the biggest way we can insult our creator is to trash our bodies. Taking care of yourself will enable you to guide and take care of others. When we get inspired magic happens and we are guided from within. This inner guidance is how we can realize our dharma!(our path, our way, our truth) Have you reached your highest and best? Answer to yourself truthfully and be willing to do something about it!
Get curious, educate yourself and start by making preparing and/ or cooking healthy food your new hobby! Exercise your body and mind, read books and get out and meet people with great, high energy who really care about you, each other the animals and the earth. It has been said you will become much like the 5 people you spend the most time with. Also, where do you spend your time? Who will you meet at the pool bar, the dog track or at a strip club as opposed to a triathlon, a beach clean up or a silent retreat?
Be kind to people, try to help and lead by example, be careful to share, not preach. Be consumed by love and get used to feeling more with your heart than thinking with your brain. Love is all there is. Happiness is our natural state and joy is our main purpose. As the saying goes, “There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.” Be grateful for everything in your life, good or bad. When you make consumer choices and other decisions out of love, not fear, your whole everything will change. When we are of service to others we are close to real freedom. When we see the ocean as our sister, the mountain as our brother, the sky as our father and the land as our mother we can only do the right thing…
Blessings…
Love Love…
Love is a fickle and a hard subject to approach, because not many of us have really mastered the ‘Art of Loving’. We say we love each other and we say ‘I love you’, quite often to our mates, our family and pets, but ‘how’ we do our loving is extremely important to ourselves and those around us.
It seems as I listen more to the single crowd, there are a lot of people who have been bumped and bruised along the path to love. Maintaining an intimate, loving relationship these days can be terribly confusing and full of pressure and expectations. Too often we are bringing our past relationships and hang ups directly to our new lover for examination.
We all fall in love. We go in head over heals in a whirlwind of pheromones on some spring fever debacle and we ignore all the warning signs in the hopes that someone will accept us for us. Honestly if you can find someone who will accept you as yourself you are starting in the right place. Trying to change someone will usually lead to disaster. Practice acceptance and offer loving encouragement when you want to preach.
I know of a teacher who likes to say,” I preach all the time! And once in a great while I even use words.” All we can do, to guide another person effectively is walk our walk. Until we live our words, all of our offerings will be unauthentic. What is the problem with falling in love you say? The problem is that falling is a downward activity which does not offer much in the way of support or longevity.
What we must strive to do is “Rise” in love. We all need to find a partner who inspires us to reach new heights, a partner who is unafraid and unshakeable in the face of life’s ups and downs. Too many times we find a partner when we or they are depressed from a recent break up with the last lover or maybe we are still pining over a lover before that. The mistake is to not clean out the closet before we try to put your next mate’s stuff in there. We can only rise when we are happy; otherwise we drag down our lover and stifle their growth and the expansion of the relationship.
Get over you shit before you jump in the sack with your future ex-partner. Get to know who you really are so you can truly share yourself intimately again with another. Take time for yourself between relationships to process the love and the separation from your intimate playmate. Honor what you shared no matter how things ended for you. It is a big deal to be sexual with another being and we need to acknowledge that exchange and make peace and honor the time spent together. When that much energy is exchanged we must respect the process. Give thanks for all you learned and take only that knowledge with you, leave the resentments, the grudges and the bitterness behind.
One way to love healthily is to love love. Be in love with the fact that you can find love, be love, make love, share love and spread love. When we fall in love we love the lover, we set ourselves up for failure. Lovers have many faults and at some point they will let you down. We can become attached, needy and demanding as we hold our partner responsible for our happiness. This behavior creates a co-dependency prison that is not healthy for either person involved.
We say nonsense like, “If he would be more like your husband then I could be happy.” We give our power away to the outcome of someone else’s behavior. The key to a strong relationship is to always be working on your self. Searching out new ways to communicate and trying different approaches on awareness and mindfulness. We are lucky to live is a world with so many healers, yogis, shamans, therapists, energy workers and life coaches available to us everywhere.
If your life and your relationships are not improving, you are either not paying attention or not trying to help and serve your partner. If we do what we always do then we will get what we always get, same ole same ole. But if we attend weekend workshops, watch documentaries, go to classes, learn to dance and open our hearts to better understanding and knowing, we will start to feel from a deeper level.
You can only analyze love for so long with your mind before you go mad. Love is a feeling thing, an innate instinct that we cannot properly explain with mere words when we have experienced it with great levels of depth. Don’t settle for the next person that comes along. Work on yourself and strive to be around beautiful beings that inspire and motivate you. Those are the people who spark your interests, who make you writhe and squirm and make you laugh till it hurts!. That is who you want to spend time with.
When you get goose bumps or the hair on the back of your neck stands up, that is a sign you are moving towards bliss. Your spirit has a cunning way of guiding you home, but you have to listen. Get quiet and don’t fear being alone. Be thrilled that you have the power to love and be love, no matter who comes and goes in your life. Welcome all and treat everyone as a gift. And when their time is up, wish them all the best and thank them for making your life richer no matter how many times you fought.
If you do good things, good people will show up in your life. I sometimes hear people say, “How come I can’t find a good partner?” Start doing productive, daring and interesting things with amazing, switched on, fearless people and see who shows up in your life. Make your health a priority and you will be sexy till your old age. Take care of your body and never stop learning. If you get curious and really make an effort to serve people, help mother earth and live your dreams, the partner of your dreams will appear when you are ready as if they were with you all along. Your attraction will be natural, filled with ease and joyous, only if you exude all these qualities yourself…
Love itself is perfect in every way, it makes life worth living, it is our strongest motivation and our greatest teacher. The lover is imperfect, know this going in. If you’ve failed in the past that just means your wisdom is increasing. You will fail again, so stay open and curious. When we love ourselves unconditionally and without judgment, great things will arrive because you’re ready to invite then in …
Happy loving!
Again and again, when I return home, I encounter people who have never traveled. I am unsure what to say at times but I always try to offer them encouragement to get out there and see the world. In the USA and Canada many people go right into the work force once they are old enough to leave the family house or just after they finish school. Many who stay in school for an extra amount of time and are faced with the burden of student loans and a high cost of living when they join the working world.
In Europe, all countries have mandatory vacations for workers ranging anywhere form 2 weeks to two months. In the USA you are lucky to get a vacation at all and many times it is not a paid vacation. For women in North America , when children arrive on the scene a one week trip to Disney Land is the extent of their travels all to often
It has been said that half the road to enlightenment is traveled when you get out of the comforts of the first world, industrialized countries and spend time in the 3rd world developing countries. It’s there, amongst the heart people, who live off the land and live close to nature, where we realize what is important in life. When we see first hand how poor countries survive, get by and thrive amidst trying circumstances we become somewhat humbled but empowered at the same time. As we discover how truly happy these poor people really are, the deep emotions of compassion and empathy soar and our sense of entitlement dwindles.
I was teaching yoga at two different places in Thailand on the same island and my daily commute to my afternoon class involved a two mile boat ride into town. It was a very pleasant journey most of the time but when the seas kicked up the long tail boats which were designed for river cruising provided quite an adventure.
As we were heading back into shore after my class one day, a rogue wave knocked our driver sideways and the boat headed directly toward the rocks. I was sitting up at the bow and as the rocks came towards us I simply hopped out of the boat. The other passengers froze and wound up slamming into the rocks and got banged up a little bit. I stayed with the captain and we pulled his boat off of the rocks. Everything had spilled out of his boat, fishing nets and equipment that was stored under the floor boards were scattering across the bay and sinking down to the bottom. Worst of all, his engine came off and sunk as well. Those of you who know boats, know that engines submerged in salt water is not a good thing, in fact, many times it’s fatal. His whole life was turned upside down and hundreds of dollars were lost, probably more cash than he would make in two months and not once did I see him stop smiling.
After we gathered up what we could and got the capsized boat back to shore, his appreciation and gratitude for my efforts was overwhelming. I was blown away by how he kept everything in perspective and worked so well under pressure. We were getting slammed pretty hard by the waves as we dragged the long tail off the rocks and never once did we panic or show any fear, just clear and concise communication and effective action.
When you live life aware, switched on, in the “zone” or in the “moment”, there are no surprises. As life happens you become a witness, not a judge. You take action calmly and clearly with instinctive knowing. When a monkey is racing through the treetops, leaping and swinging from tree to tree, he is not thinking about how his hair looks or if he should go on a diet or just get the liposuction after all. He is at one with nature and has moved beyond thought into instinctive knowing. Believe it or not we can achieve that same state of ‘no mind’, with daily practice, patience and persistence.
One of the greatest things I did in the land of the Buddha was to attend a ten day silent retreat with the monks of the southern provinces. They teach awareness, or should I say they exude awareness. I remember upon finishing my first retreat and being able to talk again I asked if there were any meditation center in the USA. They opened the world directory and I suddenly realized there were three meditation centers within two miles of my apartment in Portland, Oregon.
My point here is this… Something can be lying at your feet, maybe one of the greatest gifts this life has to offer is staring you in the face, but if you are not open to receive it, these gifts will pass you by, time and time again. When we get out of our comfort zones we learn how to trust. Trust in one another and trust in ourselves. Trust in the universe and trust feelings of the heart.
Before I had the pleasure to visit, live, study and teach in the third world I lived most of my life in my head. I was young, ambitious, driven and loyal. I was a good person but I was not myself yet. I was living up to the expectations others had placed on me from my parents and teachers to the numerous coach’s, peers and guidance counselors who lovingly and in good faith tried to “show me the way”. I was always told you need to have this type of job and make X amount of money and have health benefits and a retirement plan of some sort. I even remember when I was between colleges my mom wanted me to apply to be a manager at a Wendy’s Hamburger Franchise because they had “benefits”… Yikes! Had I taken that job, chances are I would be needing those medical benefits.
If I had not been out of my safety zone I may have never found meditation which lead me to yoga, after all, I there three centers in my Southeast Portland neighbor hood where I had lived for the past 6 years and I never knew anything about them. If I had not felt the joy in the boatman’s heart that stormy afternoon, would I still be a compassionate and loving person? Who knows? What I do know is what I feel in my heart. My intuition, instincts, insight and inspiration have heightened because I take chances, because I try new things, because I embrace the unknown.
I am not saying you have to go to an impoverished village in Africa, help them irrigate their farm land, dig wells for water and build sustainable homes, but can you imagine what that experience might expose you too? Don’t live life in fear. If you’re not ready or able to fly to a foreign country then start by going to a strange part of your city that you have never been to before, eat some weird, stinky ethnic food and have a heart to heart talk with a local person from that neighborhood. Then go out and attend a lecture, see live music, check out a poetry slam or attend dance class in that area.
Try something new every day, read books and get curious. Put your television in the closet and start watching documentaries on the computer instead. There are so many great teachers out there, living and not living, and most of them offer recorded talks for free on YouTube. Maybe enroll in some classes about organic gardening, healthy cooking or natural building. Join a community group that volunteer’s time for cleaning up the beaches, planting and preserving green spaces or visits sick people in the hospital. Pull up your lawn and plant fruit trees, vegetable and flowers. When your harvest comes in, walk around the neighborhood, knock on strangers doors and give them food and seeds so they can grow a garden much like yours. If you think the world is a big scary place, you got it all wrong.
The earth is small and intimate. Every action, every thought, every idea affects everyone and everything. I like to compliment people on their dogs, their bikes, a nice shirt or whatever I think is genuinely cool about them. This practice is called spontaneous joy. Someone may be out on a rainy day, walking their dog, irritated that they are missing their favorite soap opera and getting wet because the dog had to relieve himself. They may not like themselves and they may be perturbed with their demanding pup. If you say something simple like, “What a great dog! What’s his name?” You can snap someone out of their funk. They may be surprised, but most times they will greet you with a thank you and then upon looking down at their lovely pet they think, “Yes, I do have a cool dog”, and the might even blurt out something like, “His name is Frank and I got him form my brother!” We have the power to change lives and raise spirits with such little effort.
Do what makes you nervous; bring a curious sense of mystery into your life. Try new things and don’t be shy. Shyness is thought to be a disconnection to spirit, just like phobias and superstitions. We are way bigger than we can ever imagine. Make it your practice to look people in the eye, smile and give them a nod ‘hello’ as if to say. “I am with you and I acknowledge you and you are not alone”. Every so often you will get a bright eyed, switched on, kindred spirit staring right back at you, nodding with a wide eyed sense of knowing and grinning a grin that says,” Isn’t life amazing?’ These are the people you want to be around. but you will never find them if you are looking down and ignoring life.
We are all connected and we need simple reminders. Give as many hugs as you can, it is okay if you make someone uncomfortable by expressing your love for them, your love for life. Blushing is a good thing. We were all born an original and most all us die a copy… Don’t be afraid to be yourself. And if you do get a chance to go to some place like Thailand, India or Nepal just go. Believe me when I say there is more danger in not traveling. Don’t be afraid to go to a place where you can scratch you itchy soul.
It has been said that most people die with their music still locked inside them. You are not one of those people. Let your voice be heard, let your heart be exposed and more often that not you will find yourself…, way out beyond your comfort zone…
Why do I practice Yoga?
I guess I can sum it up in one sentence. I do not want to feel the way I used to feel!
I found yoga in my early thirties. I can vividly recall in my life prior to yoga, meditation and healthy eating. During this time I was able to sleep in till 10am or even noon time. I remember getting sick from time to time with hay fever and sinus infections that often would result in a series of sinus induced migraine headaches. These headaches would last for 3 to 6 weeks, starting off very mildly in the first week, building up to gut wrenching pain in weeks 2 through 5 and then subsiding about a month and a half after they began. After 20 years of suffering and trying almost every medicine and alternative treatment, I one day discovered the Master Cleanse cured this condition almost immediately, every time. A vegetarian, yogic lifestyle prevents them from ever returning
I was raised in a family of workaholics and highly trained, competitive athletes. My father worked 70 to 80 hours every week driving a truck for a meat company. Somehow he still found time to play and coach ice hockey. He had an eye for talent a scouted several junior players into the semi pro leagues in Canada where many of his prospects made it to the NHL.
Sports were my life growing up and I feel that all the hard work and sweat gave me a tireless work ethic and kept my physical body from falling victim to any serious illnesses such as diabetes, cancer or heart disease. My Dad died at the age of 49. At 47 he was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer and given his death sentence of 6 months to live. The doctors told him to take some time off work, say goodbye to his family and prepare for his demise.
He was a fighter till the end and never gave up hope of recovery. Almost 2 years after the initial diagnosis he left his body. He was in okay health until the last two months, when he was hospitalized and passed away in the ICU wing of the same hospital where i was born 20 years prior.
I was young and this ordeal had a profound effect on me. My eating habits did not change right away but I began to train on my bicycle, riding long distances daily and I even toured long distances for days on end with camping gear as well. I also took up weight training during that time and I worked out on 3 different styles of punching bags. I also began long distance swimming and in my later twenties worked as a personal trainer. This eventually led me into Tai Chi classes where I slowly began to “wake up” The cycling, swimming and bag work were pure meditation to me… a place where time slipped away and I was at home in my body and fully aware of my breath, heartbeat and how quiet my mind became.
When I was 30 yrs. old I went to Thailand for two months and was blown away by the people, the culture and the laid back, land of smiles, lifestyle. At this point I had been taking vitamin and protein supplements and was moving towards a full time vegetarian diet. I was vegan for months and in that period I would swim mile after mile in the Gulf of Thailand, going long distances up and down the coast and on occasion even channel swimming from one island to another.
I also did an internal cleanse at that time in Thailand and I remember drinking only juice and water during my fast. I was also taking herbs and drinking psyllium hulls and clay smoothies 4 times a day for almost a week straight. On day five I filled the toilet with 7 epic bowel movements, leaving behind the rancid, mucoid plaque that resides in each and every one of us and makes us sick.
A year later I returned and my life changed forever. I enrolled at Wat Suan Mokh, A Buddhist Monastery which hosts up to 130 westerners the first of every month for a ten day silent meditation. My best friend Troy, who brought me with him, said he liked to go up on top of the dormitory and practice morning yoga during the sunrise. He said after yoga we could do some resistance training with rubber exercise bands that we had brought along on the trip.
My first yoga classes we done in complete silence following my buddy and listening to my breath. He would occasionally adjust me or motion with his hands if I was out of position but for the most part I instinctively followed his cues and listened to my intuition.
We spent about a total of 10 hours a day meditating and listening to talks and stories from the Ajahn, various monks and senior meditation teachers. We were blessed to receive daily dharma talks from a world class speaker, Brian Page Bauerle who founded the Asian leadership foundation, Brian’s credentials and life experiences would take two pages to describe so lets just say this guy was switched on… he had a direct line to God. He was only able to be with us for five days and packed ten days of talks into five straight one hour dissertations before he headed back to Phuket to be with his son. So for an hour each day he spoke directly into our souls, no sensor, no filter, just straight up heart talk.
During this time, although we were not allowed to speak to each other, we were allowed to interview any of our teachers and I was able to interview Ajahn Poh, the head monk at Wat Suan Mokh. I was also able to sit down with Brian and ask him the big life questions. The central theme of his teachings was appreciation and gratitude. Gratitude is the attitude he would tell us, over and over again,
After his 5 days he left to return to his family and business and upon his departure I fell gravely ill. My temperature rose to 105 degrees and my throat looked as if I had tried to swallow two golf balls at once and they got stuck in my neck. I was diagnosed with strep throat and was put on antibiotics and sweat it out in bed for 2 or three days. The whole time I was concerned that I had drank from communal plastic cups by the water fountain and that someone else may catch the strep throat that I was suffering from.
A few days later the fever broke, I suddenly felt better than ever and I was back on the cushion and practicing yoga with great vigor. I floated out of that Monastery to where it felt as if my feet barely touched the ground. Not only had i lost about 15 pounds but I had completely let go of any regret, resentment, bitterness, anger, grudges and fear. I was amazed at how many positive emotions emerged when the negative emotions are set free.
We made it back to the island late in the day and that night my friends coaxed me to into coming out late night for a dance under the full moon. I danced for a bit and then I walked down to the waters edge and waded out into the still ocean to take in the enormous full moon that lit up the beach and reflected off the glimmering water. I stood and stared up at the moon’s incredible brightness and I started to experience waves and waves of joy, bliss and ecstasy. My body was flooded with a warm, overwhelming feeling that made me shudder, writhe and shake with tremendous pleasure and knowing. A feeling that i can only describe as a total in body and out of body orgasm that was not sexual, I was in complete oneness with a beaming smile and endless tears of joy streaming down my face. I am not even sure how long this went on for, it may have been ten minutes or it could have been an hour and a half.
As I look back on it I realize it was my spirit coming deeply back into my body, into my being. I don’t think that your spirit can actually leave you but i do think it can be stifled or dislodged. I also think that if we numb out with substances like drugs and alcohol or submit to the programming of television and newspapers we disconnect from spirit and let the fear based emotions guide our actions. This numbing or fading out of consciousness also allows other entities or delinquent spirits to invade our being when our defenses are down.
Later on I found out that nobody else at the monastery got sick. I did not catch anything; on the contrary I got rid of everything. My girlfriend at the time, who is an intuitive spiritual healer, informed me that emotional releases come out through the throat. The throat chakra is an emotional center and mine was blown wide open.
My life has never been the same since and I can never go back to the “old me”. When the sun rises I am always awake, my energy is unstoppable and I cannot fall back to sleep. I know that there are too many great things that need my attention, too many people that need my help and too many great places in this world to visit and experience. Travel has been my greatest teacher and I continue to explore and discover new things on a daily basis. I make an effort to experience nature first hand every day and I make sure I swim in the ocean get my bare feet to touch the earth on a daily basis. I read books every day and search the Internet for advice, knowledge and inspiration.
Why do I practice every day? Because it keeps me connected to spirit, source, god, soul, creator, higher power or whatever term for universal energy you feel comfortable with. When I do not do my practices i start to get tired, cranky, irritable and frustrated and I notice I have trouble getting up in the mornings. If I move away from my vegetarian diet I start to feel congested, constipated and lethargic.
When you begin a yoga and/or meditation practice you are opening the ultimate can of worms. There are so many worms you may feel at times that you have lost your mind and perhaps you have. This is not always a bad thing. Get curious! Our conditioning, coaching, prejudices, judgments and fears get tossed out the window. We make room in our hearts for a whole plethora of new emotions that steer us out of the gutter so that we may rise up and be of service to our brothers and sisters and the mother earth.
When we continue our daily practice we renew our vows each time we step onto our mat or sit on our cushion. If you take up the practice of yoga, really take it up full force, with a vengeance. Study the Yamas and Niyamas. Go on retreats, learn how to be silent and still the mind. Your brain will send you in a thousand directions; your heart will guide you back to the one, to the self, to source. I realized on that beach, under that moon that there is only one of us, there is no separation, we are all intimately connected, What happens to one of us happens to all of us. What we think, how we act, how we express ourselves affects everything everywhere.
Your practice will bring you back home into your heart so you can make proper decisions. That daily discipline will allow you to feel instead of think, to love instead of shout, to breathe instead of clench. We are born helpless with no strength or defenses and must rely on others for one or two decades until we can fend for ourselves properly. When we truly realize how much we have been given, only then do we realize we must spend the rest or our lives giving back.
Neem Karoli Baba, one of the highest, realized beings of our time left his body in 1973. When his students asked him what they should do out in the “real world” after their time in his Ashram was up, his reply was, “Feed people and serve people”. That’s it… period. I practice because it makes me a better person, it reminds me to not judge and it helps me realize there is no higher calling than helping others in whatever way I can.
Yoga allows us share our gifts, it helps us sing out loud, dance in the rain and love till we can only feel…. Your story may be different than mine, your home may be on the other side of the world, and your family may not even be alive… but please know that I am you and you are me, separateness is an illusion created in the brain and reinforced by politics, religions, schools, governments, media, sports and advertisements..
If you have not started to do yoga, I hope these words will somehow inspire you to begin. No matter how sick, old, injured or defeated you think you are, you can always begin a practice. Your practice will never be perfect, that is why it is called a practice. It will only get better unless you ignore it. Meditation is amazing but it is overly difficult without a yoga practice. A vigorous yoga practice will allow you to embrace the postures and learn the bhandas or energy locks. These locks will allow you to breathe deeply and that breath will ease you into a meditative state naturally. This four step process, postures, bhandas, breath and meditation are the four cornerstones for vinyasa yoga, laid out for us by Sri Krishna Macharya, who is known by many as the teacher of our teachers. He left his body in 1983 and his students have spread his teachings across the globe in many various yoga styles.
You can change the world but it starts by changing yourself. If you don’t like your situation, change it! Get positive, start a daily practice. It does not matter what the practice is, as long as following the breath is the main focal point. Tai Chi and Qi Gong, along with other breath orientated movements will also help you find oneness. It is believed an ancient yogi traveled from India to Asia and inspired the people there to develop these practices. Or maybe a master came from the Orient and gave his teachings to the people of India. Nobody really knows for sure, although there are many great theories. Lao Tzu, one of the great masters said, “That which is real is that which does not change…” What we see, taste and touch is a matrix of spinning particles made up of protons and neutrons, consisting mostly of space. The soul is in the only constant in our existence.
The only thing you can know for sure is what resonates in your heart. A daily practice will help you listen to your heart feelings. The word inspiration simply means “In Spirit”. Have you ever written a ‘Love Letter” and noticed the words flowed like water? When life is really good, I mean really juicy, there is very little thought involved, your creative genius emerges and everything flows with ease. It almost feels as if you are not doing anything, you are just being done… My daily practice enables me to experience these states of bliss.
I practice because I am awake now, I practice so I can feel instead of think, I practice so I can live before i die. I practice for all of you because you are me and I am you. I practice so i can give back and be of service in the hopes of helping others wake up to experience the joy and bliss of being truly alive…
Blessings of Gratitude and Appreciation, Namaste
Why should I work at home?
When I was growing up as a child in the 70’s, life was pretty sweet. We built forts, played sports, went fishing, flew kites, took swimming lessons and skated on ponds. My Dad worked long hours and spent an hour and a half commuting daily back and forth to work in the city 5 days a week. We saw him at dinner and on weekends. I remember all of the new cars he bought and he drove for about 200,000 miles until they weren’t worth fixing any more. He was with that same company for 28 years.
My mom was a house wife for most of those years. She cooked and cleaned, gardened and landscaped and drove us to thousands of sporting events and practices. She rejoined the work force when I was 15 years old to pay for the Prep school I was attending close to the city. At first she drove just 10 minutes each way to her job, but when the company expanded and she was promoted, she drove over an hour each way to work for her last 8 years or here career. She stayed with that company until she retired 20 years deep.
These were the role models we were presented with. Most of the people I knew and grew up with were working for a company and putting in X amount of years to receive a pension so they could retire and finally relax and do what they really wanted to do. Our parents somehow knew this was not all it was cracked up to be and made every effort to get their kids to attend college so they could do basically the same program but make more money and not have to do so much physical labor. The workers looked up to their white collar bosses and wanted the same upper middle class outcome for their offspring. Maybe their kids would drive Cadillacs instead of Buick’s and live in a big home in the suburbs as opposed to an apartment in the inner city.
Our other career choices besides the military were to own and operate a small business, say a hardware store or a bakery or start a plumbing company or operate a beauty salon. This kind of leap into entrepreneurship took a large investment, usually involved working for someone else for ten years before one had enough experience and confidence to go out on their own. There is nothing small about a small business and with the rising utility rates, sky rocketing rents for commercial space, insurance, employees, benefits, taxes etc., most small businesses fail before they really get going.
I read a report recently where a journalist spent weeks in New York City Hospitals. He would sit with the terminally ill patients and if it was okay with them he conducted interviews. He asked the dying people what their biggest regrets in life were. Almost every person had these two statements. 1.) “I wish I didn’t work so much…” and 2.) “ I wish I spent more time with my family…”
The only people who lived truly well back then were born into vast wealth or those who had started or invented something that they owned the rights to and collected residual income. We would often hear about the one guy who lives in that really big house on the hill… He invented the lock proof break pad that works in the rain and snow. The term, “Living like a rock star” does not so much mean parties, super models, drugs and debauchery to me anymore. It means that these guys are selling songs, lyrics and records and collecting income all around the clock, 24/7. Even when they are asleep their songs are playing on a radio stations or on a movie soundtrack somewhere.
We have been conditioned to trade our time for money and most of us top out at some maximum hourly wage. The new paradigm of affiliate marketing along with online promotion has now made it possible to keep the family unit in tact. The latch key kid is becoming less common as more and more people now able to make phenomenal incomes from home. There is also no limit to what size income you can earn with our company! We had the occasional Avon Lady, Fuller Brush Man or Electrolux Salesman when I was growing up but even these people worked long, hard hour to sell their wares
Now with Online Marketing, you can promote your own business right from the comfort of your own home, working in your underwear and slippers while looking after your 2 year old daughter. It prevents mothers and fathers from spending 10 or 20 hours a week in a car commuting to a job they don’t like that they are only doing for the money. When you help someone improve their current business situation by sharing marketing tools, promotion strategies, SEO ranking improvements and automated mailing systems, you are not only helping them make loads of money but you help relieve a burden of stress and you assist them in creating an ease filled life for themselves and their families. I believe that most businesses fail due to lack of exposure.
Location, location, location has been the old adage for a small business to succeed. What if the location for your business today was the top spot on page one of every major Google search category for you company and its products? I am not saying to quit your job, put a desk in the living room and you will be a millionaire in 6 weeks. But I am saying that you can make the most of your spare time by following some simple steps put together by a few multi millionaire online marketing wizards.
The start up costs for your online business is extremely low and the monthly overhead compared to operating a storefront is a fraction of the cost. It may take a few months or maybe a few years to leave your 9 to 5 gig but please know it is possible to build a reliable, consistent residual income that allows you to be around your family, take vacations, make your own hours and work wherever you have computer access. This could be on a beach, in the mountains or even overseas.
My pops spent 10,500 hours commuting in a car over his 28 year career. That is a staggering 437 days at the wheel for 24 hours a day. Never mind that he drove a truck all day for a living. Studies have shown that many people are dying an average of about three years after retirement. My Dad died two years before his 30 year pension kicked in. My mom spent 5,800 hours at the wheel commuting over a 20 year span. Driving straight around the clock you would be on the road for 242 days 24/7 to match her distance driven while just commuting to her job.
Online marketing is looking better and better each day. People are working for themselves, spending time with their families and enjoying more hobbies and sports. Instead of angry, high pressure bosses, we have coaches, sponsors and trainers who we work with. These people do nothing but educate, encourage and help us succeed. The system we use is proven, reliable and easy to follow. Everything is laid out for you and there are dozens of strategies, training videos and live calls which will inspire and motivate you to take control of your business and start a new line of residual income. A steady stream of income will flow into your account by promoting these online marketing secrets to other entrepreneurs like yourself. It is a win / win situation. As you learn the keys and secrets to marketing and promotion, you can grow and expand you own business and you can share these systems and programs with other people and get paid in the process.
Tackling the Internet and the top 4 big bad giants like Google, Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo ( ranked #1 through #4 in that order), can be a daunting task. After spending thousands of dollars on so called computer experts who never produced results, I stumbled upon this info and in one short week I have learned all kinds of strategies to make the Internet work for me. Free online promotion is quick and easy and contacts and leads can be found quite simply. Paid advertising can give you even greater exposure for just a few dollars a day. This system will help you build customer lists and use automated follow up systems that keep your contacts well informed and eager to hear what you have to offer next.
If your business in not on the Web or if its ranking poorly in web searches, you may as well be in the back alley of bad neighborhood. Our company not only allows you to promote and expand your existing business, but it allows you to earn 100% commissions by selling online marketing products that can generate residual income for you as well. You don’t have to store, insure, stock, buy, dust or package any of the products you sell. You simply direct people to your website( which is included with sign up) and they will add the products they like to their shopping cart. When the client makes a purchase, commissions of up to 100% go directly into your account with very little effort.
It may take some time in the beginning, but by following this fool proof plan for online marketing and promotion, the fear is replaced by confidence and knowing. I did not have computers in school when I was a kid, so this does not come naturally to me, but I am learning new things everyday and I am excited to be connecting with so many positive people who want a better life with more freedom to sing and dance, to laugh and to play!
As I type this last paragraph I can hear the roar of the waves. I live on world class surf beach just up the road from Cabo Blanco National Park in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.. I get to swim in the ocean everyday and play with my three dogs on the beach. My family is happy, there is no commute and we do not spend too much time on the computer. We make sure to enjoy nature and appreciate the opportunity online marketing has provided for us. Online marketing and SEO rankings used to intimidate me and I was confused when just talking about computer advertising. As I listen to the training videos, live conference calls and talk with my live business coach each week my fears are subsiding.
I invite you get to beach more often, to spend less time on the road and more time with the ones you love. Maybe I will see you here on the beach in Costa Rica this winter. Three simple steps will help get you here! Pura Vida!
Try a Private Yoga Class!
What I prefer to do is have a student go out and explore some different styles of classes, try different postures and find out what they like. That way they can discover which poses seem to work and which ones make them feel uneasy. What I like to do is help a student figure out and design a home practice which is just for themselves, a series of poses that addresses their injuries and limitations. I also make sure to include poses, breath work and chanting that elevates their spirit.
You can spend your whole life racing from one yoga studio to the next giving your money to various centers in the hopes they will make you feel better. Or you can take your power back and develop a personal practice that helps you connect to spirit and allows you to listen to your breath, tune into your heartbeat and overcome your injuries and anxieties. The word yoga simply means to ‘yoke’ or bind and connect mind, body and spirit.
A personal practice develops over time. You will start out with a series of poses and as you get stronger and more capable you will add some poses and remove the ones which you outgrow. It is still good to go to yoga classes or workshops on occasion for the group energy and some expert advice and corrections, but you should not have to rely on a studio to do your practice. One should always have a practice they can do on their own, every day, which helps them feel great and raises their energy levels.
I can teach ten different types of classes but if I teach a private class, the time is best spent on building a daily routine for needs and time allowed for that person to fit a yoga practice comfortably into his or her day. Then the student can practice anywhere and not feel like you have to get to a yoga studio to feel good… You can feel great on your own with your custom designed series of asanas, pranayama breathing and chanting! Filming the class may help you remember the routine and instructions and allow you to more easily keep up with a daily commitment
When we attend large classes we sometimes feel lost in the crowd. Yoga is meant to be a teacher to student transmission, one on one. In these modern times of commercial businesses, it is more profitable and time saving to have many people in one large room. When you spend one on one time with a serious instructor, you will break through misconceptions and limitations more quickly and easily. If you have never had a private class, I highly recommend it. They are usually about the same price as a massage. The experience can be eye opening if not life changing… see you on the mat!
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Costa Rica, once you visit, you won’t want to leave..
I first arrived in Costa Rica in 2011 at the end of the year. I have spent many years living over seas and have had the good fortune of spending over a year in many different countries including New Zealand, Australia, Jamaica and Thailand. I had friends from Oregon who had left the USA in 2005 and relocated to a lush, mountain farm two hours south of San Jose.
Volunteering on organic farms is a great and inexpensive way to get to know the real Costa Rica. It gives you a chance meet innovative people who are taking care of the earth and living in a natural and sustainable way. Many of these farms will allow you to work in exchange for room and food. Some farms will require a minimal fee to help out with the overhead. Progressive and interesting people travel from one location to the next and many of these operations offer continuing education programs through out the year. One farm I was volunteering at had up to 30 foreign workers at any given time with a diverse range of people from 10 different countries.
Having grown up on the Ocean,I headed to the Pacific coast after 4 months in the interior. After a month of sea side exploration I found a remote beach location with an undeveloped coast line, farms and dirt roads. The people in the rural locations are so very helpful and kind. There is a sweetness to the Ticos and most will help you in any way they can. The Southern Nicoya Peninsula has a half a dozen towns that are all unique in their own way and so far are free of any American franchises and tall buildings.
This small country is known for its protected park lands. The percentage area of nature reserves here is more than anywhere in the world. It almost fully relies on natural power for its energy. There is no standing army in Costa Rica and no nuclear plants or weapons. Medical and dental care is high quality and affordable. GMO’s have been banned and organic farming is strong.
Starting a business here is easy and affordable, income and property taxes are very low. Real estate value is higher around the city and tourist areas but very affordable in the rural settings. The tropical climate is conducive for growing food year round and heating and air conditioning is not a necessity. Getting off the grid here involves maybe a small solar panel, water turbine or windmill to power your computer, refrigerator, washing machine and lights in the evening.
It gives you a pioneer feeling like the old wild, wild, west and with unbridled nature all around you soon forget about TV and newspapers and focus more on the surf, the trails, the animals family and community. People here care about the planet and the Nicoya Peninsula is one of a handful of “Blue Zones” in the world where people have the greatest chance of living past 100 years.
I am glad I found my home here in Costa. I am able to work from home on the computer and my biggest commute is a barefoot walk down the beach twice a day with my three dogs. I host retreats and vacations and market real estate and vacation homes. On the side I teach yoga, do massage and train dogs to help people out in my neighborhood.
I have spent my life getting to warm climates in the winter to live in that endless summer, to keep my body healthy and my mind clear. Winters in the North where the sunshine is weak do not allow your body to produce Vitamin D and far too many people get sick in the cold months and go into a hibernation stupor. When the spring sunshine finally pours strongly through the layers in the atmosphere and “Spring Fever” kicks in, the people of the north feel waves of joy and relief. If you live in the tropics you get to enjoy the bliss of spring fever all year round.
So I invite you to come to Costa Rica. I can show you a world you have only dreamt of. I can help you make a living on line so that you can live anywhere in the world you want, do what you want to do, make your own hours and have complete emotional and financial freedom. Start with a short visit if you wish but I can promise you this… No matter how long you stay, you will not want to leave… Pura Vida!
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Letter to a cancer patient
Here is a long seminar from Dr. Dyer that may be of great help my friend, 7 hours is a long time but it has some universal wisdom that is priceless. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZnvPIBWJQs
I just listened to the first 30 minutes and at 16 minutes it got really good at that point. Our thoughts determine our outcome. I know in my heart, from my experience if you follow my protocol 4 stage to the ‘T’, for a good amount of time, all illness will eventually disperse. This guy, DR Wayne Dyer was cured of blood cancer, a.k.a. Leukemia, over the phone in a healing with John of God in Brazil. I showed you the Greg Braden video where in China three physicians repeating the mantra TSSAAA over and over again, which simply means leave or go away used their positive belief together in a spiritually focused manner to send away the cancerous tumor and cured a woman of terminal cancer in a couple of minutes. Check it out again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZpRP1FV0lE
If I had cancer I would either go to a Gerson Therapy clinic a.s.a.p., or i would go to Kabir Baug yoga therapy hospital in Pune, India, or I would go see “John Of God” who cures chronic diseases all day long, often energetically through telephone conversations. Most likely though, I would buy the Gerson Protocol home therapy kit and follow their regimen of nine fresh organic juices a day and several green coffee enemas a day for several months or go to China to one of the energetic, non medicine clinics.
I personally feel trying to kill cancer with chemo and highly toxic drugs is like trying to kill a mosquito in your house with an M16. Chemo can kill cancer cells, yes, but also kills lots of other healthy cells. We do not get cancer because we did not get enough radiation and now you need more. I would also look into spending time studying and being trained by Gabriel Cousens and David Wolfe, two raw food pioneers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVeyHsC4P20
We are bombarded with radiation all the time and just the testing for cancers with MRI’s and CAT scans make us more vulnerable to getting cancer. We do not get cancer because we have too many organs or glands and now we have to take one out. We get cancer through poor eating habits mostly, but also negative thinking, not breathing deeply in a meditation or movement practice, because we not loving or being loved enough or we are working too hard for money and not being able to help people or the earth in a positive way. This is how we bring on cancer or attract ‘dis’ease. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EueaffkCbHs
We really must all give ourselves what we are lacking and put the heart, body, mind and spirit at ease or simply we must come back to our natural, meditative state. We must allow our subtle body energy to flow naturally so we can move through our lives with divine grace. When there is a mosquito or some other pest is in your home, you really just need to open your doors and windows, (aka your heart and mind) and whisk the pest back outside naturally where it belongs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRBpvsYmffQ
I know that sounds completely crazy given the thoughts and beliefs of the sleeping people you are surrounded by. But just know that a belief is simply just a mental thought that you have repeated over and over and over again, until it become true for you. This does not mean it is true, valid or even real. It is just a repetitive thought you grabbed onto somehow, usually given to you by some outside source or ill informed entity. Have any of your MD’s tried to get you to change your water, change to a plant based raw organic vegan diet or do a strict vegan cleansing protocol to excavate the excess, rancid, mucoid plaque that is clogging your intestines and making you ill??? If they did they would lose a customer for life.
There is too much money in treatments for them to ever expose a natural cure that cannot be patented by pharmaceutical companies for massive profits. I believe I told you that all cancer patients breathe in and out once a second. That is a half second inhale half second exhale or 60 breaths a minute. I have gotten my meditation pranayama breathing down to 60 second inhales and 60 second exhales. That is one breath in 2 minutes… Breathing is our most trans-formative tool… Period. Those who never learn to breathe, live their lives at a different level from those who have made the breath their life’s primary focus.
When your body is full of live living nutrients, when your mind is calm due to repetitive, meditative, diaphragmatic breathing movements and practices, when you drink 2 to 4 liters of water at a natural 7.4ph spring water or higher PH alkalized water, when you stay positive through living a life of service, when you are surrounded by loving friends and family and high minded spiritual beings, when you live in a non harming, non toxic, non-radio wave or non-radioactive environment, when you avoid being exposed elite owned news media, TV shows and advertisement programming, and when you practice appreciation, gratitude and forgiveness with every breath then you will always be at ease… And ‘dis’ease will never over take you.
You will begin to recognize and be aware of the early symptoms of illness like sniffles, stiffness, swelling and aches etc, and then you will do something about it and send it away before it becomes a tumor, an ulcer or a chronic condition.
Cleansing is the best way to do this. If you keep doing what you have always done, you will get what you always have gotten. Once again MD’s create customers not cures. I was a great customer to them for 20 years, for the last 20 I haven’t needed any western doctors advise or toxic medicine. I know better now, thank goodness.
In Japan they embrace natural cures, they eat a mostly plant based diet, they have Kangen alkalized water machines are in every single hospital along with healthy food and they have administered high PH clean and mineralized water to all hospital patients for about 40 years now. We are made up mostly of water. You probably drank city tap water at your American hospital full of chlorine and sodium fluoride. In Japan the people live to an average age of 89 YEARS OLD!!! We in America till 76 average….And our physical condition at the end is very poor and usually not enjoyable. I have been drinking Kangen water for several years now and started drinking alkalized water in Canada in 2009. Here is a video showing intestinal tracts of patients with various illnesses, before and after a proper living foods diet and alkalized water regimen. http://water-mania.com/
What could you do with 13 more years of life??? Or what could you do with 50 more years of life for that matter? What amazing things could you accomplish? My dad died at 49 of colon cancer, something that can be easily cured by diet and natural plant based medicines… Sometimes I wish I knew then what I know now I could have saved him. But would he have listened to me? Who knows?
All I can do is keep trying to inspire and help others live a full, happy and joyous life. Go the chemo route if you feel you need to. If those ill informed doctors have convinced you it is the only way, then do what you have to. Just remember chemo is a quick fix at best and you have to change your ways. If you love donuts, processed food, hamburgers, booze, cigarettes, television, negative thinking and being spiritually disconnected more than you love life, your family, helping others, earthly joy, bliss and wonder or connecting to spirit, then just do what you have always done and you will get what you always have gotten.
But if you really want to be around for a long time so you can fulfill your life’s purpose, if you desire help and give back on a deep, deep level, if you want to profoundly inspire others in truly meaningful ways that you haven’t even begun to imagine yet, then I suggest you walk the path of a spiritual warrior, embrace the natural plant food and medicines. True healing takes deep digging into our internal and eternal self. Summoning up our true power, embracing natural energy healing practices and honoring the gifts given to us by God/ The Creator/ The Great Spirit/ Jesus/ Buddha/ Mohammad,/ Krishna/ Moses/ Gandhi/ Mother Teresa or whoever you look up to, revere, emulate, respect and admire will set you free.
John of God who lives in Brasil cures every kind of disease and he is worth looking into. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJJAunRqVE8
Take the plants, gifts and messages they gave us, and use these gifts to naturally heal your body, lift your spirit, change your thoughts and inspire your deep motivations. I feel you will live a long and purposeful life full of endless joy and boundless bliss. Your work is not done, now is not your time to leave. Do the work, read, study, research, dig deep, listen to within and your heart will lead the way back to optimal health and well being. There is great Love & Joy here for you… <3
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Rejuvenation… And what you can do about it!
In a world where we adults have a longer life expectancy than our junk food fed children, it is nice to see MD’s finally coming around to the real cause of ill health. MD’s receive literally no training on nutrition and rely only on toxic acidic drugs, invasive surgeries and cellular damaging radiation therapy to ‘heal’ people. It is BIG business and they will keep you perpetually ill and drug addicted for life. We have a ‘Sick Care System’, not a Health Care System. Customers for life and shareholder profits are the most important concerns of BIG Pharma and modern medicine.
In my 20’s and teens, I went to specialist after specialist trying to figure out a way to end my sinus migraines and I found that time after time, office visit after office visit, the specialists were especially useless and clueless to the root causes of illness. Specialists only know about one part or section of the body and do not look at the body as a whole.
For 20 years, ages 12-32, I suffered ill health with illnesses like digestive issues, skin irritations, tendentious, allergies, sinusitis, and migraine headaches. Since I’ve found Naturopathic doctors, cleansing, super foods and vegetarianism, my health has been pretty near perfect. When I do get off the health track and eat bad foods, drink alcohol or don’t exercise or sleep properly, I see all of my old symptoms gradually start to return.
When this happens I start to get ready for a cleanse and every single time I kick those illnesses to the curb. Fasting and cleansing used to be very popular back around the turn of the century, 1900’s, and people were able to stay very healthy through a natural food program and a natural cleansing process. Then modern medicine began to gain power and snuffed out all the natural cures and literally murdered our greatest health physicians because they had real cancer cures that were inexpensive and unable to patent for profits.
We offer a safe and healthy alternative to what medical doctors can ever offer. With the guidance of your natruropathic physician and our eating and cleansing lifestyle coaching program, you can stay healthy fit, vital and useful, deep into your old age.
When would now be a good time?
So what is the key to rejuvenation? I have been a yoga teacher, I’ve meditated and a been healthy guy for the past 20 years and have been completely off prescription drugs for those two decades. I wont even take an aspirin or an alka-seltzer. I feel that when our bodies get a fever it is trying to kill off the disease so I drink lemon water, take my echenacea, green powders or herbal teas and wrap myself up in blankets and sweat it out. I will also sweep out my liver and intestines with a salt water flush if I feel like I need a quick gut cleanse and use super foods and pro-biotics to help me recover. so here are some of my tips from my personal experience. Maybe not the best methods for some, I just know this has worked for me….
1.) Get off all prescription drugs, immediately or as quickly as possible. Naturopathic Doctors are all great and if you can find one that is or was a practicing as an MD as well, even better. He or she will know all the side affects of the drugs you have taken, the residues left behind and how to get them out of your body. I used to cleanse seasonally but now more like once a year or if I start to feel an illness coming on.
3.) If it is not good for the earth is not good for you. Go all natural and organic as much as possible in every way and try to steer clear of animal products as much as possible. If your clothes, make-up, food, household cleaners all came from laboratories, factories or suffering animals in factory farms, if animals were tortured for your products, if the chemicals are toxic and hazardous and if your clothing was made by child and slave laborers, then you bring in a heavy toxic and festering energetic residue into your existence and you are directly contributing to killing the earth and perpetuating the prolonged suffering of animals and fellow humans.
4.)Exercise Daily
A daily fitness routine will keep you healthy and fit well into old age but hire a personal trainer at first if you do not know what you are doing. I am a former athlete, but that was back in the 70’s and 80’s. A lot has changed since way back when, so a professional will help you maintain long term results and keep you from hurting yourself. Walking is huge, try to walk an hour everyday and once you achieve that then build upon it if it feels goods with exercises that are fun for you. Dig Deep and cradle yourself in self love.
5.) Spiritual practices and breath movementDon’t confuse yoga with calisthenics. In India, where yoga was created, maybe 5% of yoga is physically orientated and it usually has a deep spiritual focus. It is common to see yoga being taught in a gym setting and everyone is struggling to keep up through manic movements of upward dog, downward dog and the endless push-ups with pumping techno music and muscle flexing. If this is your yoga them you must also adopt a spiritual practice, Prayer, affirmations, Tai Chi, Chi Gong, many martial arts, kirtan devotional singing, breath work, meditation and volunteering and being of service are all spiritual pursuits. When we focus only on breath or if we are fully helping others, then we get out of our minds and resort back to our own true nature, which is infinite intelligence and unconditional love. When I teach yoga I, myself, the ego disappears for a while and I enter into a higher state of being, simply because I am not thinking of myself, ALL THE TIME!!
That being said, if done properly, calisthenics, running, swimming, golfing, dog training, being in nature, gardening, caring for animals and many other activities can become a spiritual experience. When your life becomes your practice, everything is a spiritual experience. Anytime we connect to our inner
6.) Water regimen
Inflammation and dehydration are the two major causes of illness. When you eat whole organic and live living foods you body will leave the acidosis state and enter into an oxygen and nutrient rich alkaline state of being. When we drink alkaline or pure spring water, our bodies will start to re-hydrate and become healthy again. Our bodies are 90%-65% throughout our entire lives. To think your drinking water does not affect your health is just plain ignorant. Invest in a water machine, avoid plastic bottles or visit a local pure spring and fill up glass, ceramic or another type of non toxic jugs.
7.) Food Intake
Make sure you eat only the best and simplest whole, non processed foods. Stay away from packaged food and study raw food and veganism. Pray over and bless your food and give thanks. Thanks all the people who made you meal possible from the seed distributor to the waitress who brought it out. And pray and send love to those who have no food or clean water. There are billions who are suffering from malnutrition, dehydration and poverty. Live in a state of gratitude. Follow a disciplined food program and hire a nutritionist or give us a call and we can work with you online. Raw vegan food is best, but it can take a while to fully get there, go at your own pace and listen to your body and do your research.
Also eat slowly and ‘chew your food till it becomes a liquid and chew your liquid like it was a food’.-Ghandi. There are no teeth in your stomach. In order absorb all of our nutrients and to make the passing of food easier on our stomachs, liver and intestines, we must chew our food well, so it is easier it is to pass. Also put your utensils down between bites and take your time. Do not be distracted while eating or eat standing up. Find a quiet place to dine or eat with loved one’s and maybe put on some soft classical or piano music. My favorite composer to eat to is solo pianist, George Winston.
8.) Use Your Brain and explore your Creativity all the time.
Use it or lose it. We have all amazing super computers in our heads and the real communication device is your heart. The mind is more ego and limited than the inner guidance intelligence, which is unlimited and timeless. Puzzles, writing, singing, reading, researching, studying, painting, exercise and performing will keep your mind sharp and let you feel the difference between the brain and the heart. They both guide us in different ways, but can work together in unison like two finely engineered machines. Never watch TV and even movies have brain controlling messages laced throughout, Hollywood works in mysterious ways, there is a reason they call it television programming
9.) Super foods and supplements
If our food was perfect and our health as well, we probably don’t ‘need’ supplementation but it can always do us good and can help give us more energy, stamina, mental clarity and improved health. Avoid all chemical vitamins and unnatural laboratory products. Get supplements that contain no soy, preservatives, wheat, artificial colors and avoid huge publicly traded companies, they sell you crap for huge profits to shareholders. Go instead with all organic, naturally sourced products from a reputable company that stands behind their product. Explore this arena with fascination and really feel what they do to your body… Things I have taken over the years like MSM, CQ10, super blue green algae, green grass powders, apple cider vinegar, natural multi vitamins, protein powders and the like, all served me well when I needed to go that extra mile or to just maintain my health. Rely mostly on your whole foods for nutrition and if you feel the need, test out these enhancing supplements and super foods for yourself. The body feels different with super nutrients, pro biotics, enzymes and high powered nutrition
10.) Give up sugar, grains, starchy foods, bad oils, processed foods, dairy & animal products, smoking, alcohol, television and caffeine.
Try this for at least a month and watch yourself fully transform. If you would like a health coach to guide you I am available. It is very hard to figure out a healthy lifestyle all by yourself. In my 20’s have done Jenny Craig, Nutri-systems, diet pills, starvation diets, HCG injections and intense exercises and extreme sweating all in an effort to lose weight. All temporarily successful but non sustainable in the long run.
I am 53 years old and I feel great. I can do handstands, Chinese splits and sit in lotus, but that is not really important. As long as I feel good and can get around easily, I am happy. Once we are sick, finding joy, bliss and connection to spirit is nearly impossible. I started in yoga at 32 and now my practice is more maintenance. I am not trying to achieve or accomplish poses like I did when I was younger and full of ego. I can also put both ankles behind my head but that is not why I practice yoga. I do it to stay healthy and connected to my inner being so I can use that inner guidance 24/7. I do not want to feel like I used to feel in my teens and twenties, rundown, stressed out, irritable and lethargic from bad foods and careless, ego driven living.
11.) HAVE SLEEPING RITUALS FOR WAKING AND FALLING ASLEEP!
Your sleep is crucial and get about 5-7 hours of solid slumber. 8 hours is too much really, unless you are a lethargic meat eater that uses most of his energy to break down heavy acidic foods. Once your Prana/Chi is flowing steadily, 3-4 hours may be enough sleep. When first trying this, take a nap at some point during the day if you need to. This sleep period is the time when your bodies rebuilds itself on a time schedule. Avoid heavy foods long before bed and have a piece of fruit in the evenings to curb hunger. Also make sure you get to bed early and wake up when it is dark. 3-5PM is a magical time, it is when we are most able to talk to our spirit guides, angels, source energy, Jesus, the Buddha, the great spirit, your higher power or whatever term you have fastened onto your higher self and that god like presence.
They spirits guide us all the time, but between 3 & 5PM, when everyone is still asleep and technology is dormant, we are more able to hear our inner guidance and make sense of it. Get quiet every day and meditate. Let source energy and divine guidance bubble up effortlessly from within. We are all telepathic, we can all have a wonderful, magical and joyous life. We just have to be open to new things and experiment as much as possible. No one way is right for everybody so try to be open to it all and attached to none of it.
12.) Do your Loving!
Even if we do not have an intimate sexual partner or spouse, there are countless way we can spread love, be love and share love. Intimate connection between to romantic partners can be maybe the greatest way to connect to god/spirit. There is nothing quite like being the ultimate adoration and companionship of another soul, the be the light of someone’s life, the apple of their eye…
We can also spend time with animals and if we don’t have pets we can pick up side work as a dog walker, pet sitter and volunteer on farms or at an animal shelter. Also think about volunteering at a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen in the city or donating some time at your local hospital and sit with the sick & dying people.
One may also consider joining the Big Brother’s and Big Sisters Organization or coaching a youth sports team or helping out with fund raising or even driving a school bus. Kids and animals are a great way to be of service and connect with that unconditional love that only animals and young children exude.
And if you do have an intimate loving partner, treat your sexual love making as a sacred and special practice. Exposing our hearts and naked bodies to another soul is a very vulnerable ordeal, so make sure the communication is open and non-judgmental and study Tantric and Toaist lovemaking techniques and sacred sex rituals. Have the ultimate respect for each other and worship, adore and pleasure your partner with a wild abandonment and see what happens. Be giving, exuberant and as creative as much as possible for love making is truly a sacred art form that should never to be taken for granted or to be looked at as just a physical act…
13.) Sun Gazing
This ancient practice can be done both at sunrise and sunset, depending on where you live. If you reside behind a tall hill or a mountain, by the time you are able to see the sun in the morning, it may be too strong to stare at. If you have a low horizon, this is optimal for gazing at the sun. At first we must take it slowly and only stare at the sun for a couple of minutes when it is just rising at dawn or just setting at dusk.
With weeks and months of daily practice, you will be able to build up your sun gazing time to about 10 to 15 minutes or so. Make sure the sun’s rays do not hurt or harm your eyes and be careful and only gaze when the light is dim and easy to look at. You will build tolerance with time but be patient and don’t rush it. Soon you will feel a steady surge of power that you can harness from sun energy. The sun is the giver of all life on our planet and we would not last a second without it. Deep breathing is beneficial at this time and the prana/chi or subtle body energy is boosted immensely from this practice. Sun gazing can make a big difference in your life, energetically, spiritually, emotionally and physically. There are many theories and practices that can be researched on the Internet and studied in books. Just remember to take it slow…
I hope these 13 points will help you in some way and I could have kept going but I figure 13 things will keep you busy for a while. Have a BIG Life, do what you love, embrace all of life and do not be affected by criticism and what others think or say about you.
There have been many marvelous statues created in our world for many of our great speakers, leaders, holy people and performers… Not one statue was made for a critic. What other people think of you is none of your business, so stop explaining and defending yourself and trying to please critics. They will say what they will say and think what they think and it has nothing to do with you. Once you move beyond the affects of judgement and criticism, you will rise to much greater heights of consciousness and higher states of joy and happiness when you free yourself from being influenced by the peanut gallery.
Our bodies are simply just a pile of food and water that we have consumed along our life’s journey. The better, high quality products we consume will undoubtedly serve us to a much greater extent than low quality items that are popular among our crippled society. Just as high quality fuel in your car does better with a cleaner, pure high octane gasoline than the standard, unrefined, cheaper gas. So when it comes to anything you put in your body, use only the very best available. And if you have to eat sub standard foods, have a good attitude about it and tell yourself and your body that the food your eating is wonderful and it will fuel and support your inner and outer journey and sustain your life. Attitude is everything. Have an ice cream or favorite dessert once in a great while but never feel guilt or remorse. That attitude can be more damaging than the sub standard food
So that’s my blog on rejuvenation. And not one mention of skin cream. Go figure. For the skin I have a great regimen that only uses all natural whole plants and oils… for another time.
Most of all live in a constant state of gratitude and appreciation and focus on what you love, not on what is wrong and forget the mistakes and just remember to have fun. Staying joyous and young at heart is the key, show off your smile lines! You earned ’em!
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Yoga and how it can become a part of your life!
Don’t feel like you have to get to a yoga studio to do yoga. This will limit yourself to be somewhere at a certain time and place. When you don’t have the time or resources to get to a class, just do yoga, at home, in nature, on the beach, on your own, with a friend, with your dog or cat or with your kids. Yoga is for Every Body.
There is a yoga that is right for you, your yoga, for yourself. Move in a way that feels good for your body. Breathe deeply, mouth closed, sifting the air at the base of your throat so you can hear the breath with your mind’s ear. Keep the belly slightly drawn in and slightly flexed as you move and the pelvic floor or perineum muscles engaged and drawing upward. Move with ease and grace; be playful by keeping the attitude of a kid in a sandbox. Your yoga should scratch your itchy soul.
Now please understand, I am not saying ‘don’t go to yoga studios, please go every day if it feels good and especially get to workshops with teachers who have been teaching for decades. These Yogis were doing yoga before it was popular, before Hugger Mugger, Lululemon and Manduka and before it became BIG business just thought of as an exercise where teachers with a three week certification will ask you afterwards, “How was you ‘workout’?” Please support the studios and our beloved teachers all the time, but upon waking do a practice, wake up a half hour early and tap in, move and listen. You day will be better when it starts with intention and affirmations, I promise.
What I am saying is don’t treat yoga like a support group. I see people speeding their cars across cities, parking illegally, sprinting up stairways to a hot room that will shut the doors exactly at 6pm and then no yoga for you and sadness. What we all need is a daily morning practice, even if it is just 5 or 10 minutes. A time to check in and use the only organs you can control, the lungs. The lungs are massage hands that envelop the heart. When you slow down the breath you bring the heart to a calmer beat, awareness moves downwards from the turmoil bubbling in the brain to a focused calmness in the heart and a deep sense of knowing in the gut. Instead of your body being a slave to the mind, your mind will become a servant to the heart.
By slowing down the breath and making it your primary focus for the mind, you then have the lungs bring steadiness the heart and stillness mind. Soon all the other organs and glands will join in like a symphony. Using pranayama breathing and abdominal draws will stimulate all of the bodies systems. It has been said there are three stages to yoga. 1st stage, finding a teacher, someones who speaks your truth. 2nd stage, Realizing you are your own teacher.You just needed somebody to remind you. Stage 3 is realizing the breath is the teacher. Then your life become your practice because you are always breathing, therefore you are always doing yoga.
Yoga is everything… Yoga is nothing, just as you are. Yoga is your time with your divine self. Practice like the bell just rang in 2nd grade and you just ran out onto the kickball field or the play ground. Move slow, stretch deeply, not till it hurts, but almost. Go to the edge of the slight discomfort and stay there, be curious, it moves away, your edge will expand and so will you.
When you feel warmed up and juicy, smile and laugh. If sadness or your past traumas come up, wave and smile at them for they are your greatest teachers and you would not be you without them. Some of our greatest sages and saints have emerged from the most horrible pasts. Just keep breathing. You are letting go of deeply help emotional tensions you have been storing sometimes for decades, give thanks. Look back fondly at your struggles and smile at the tragedies and sorrow as they ease out of your muscles and joints and continue to return your focus to the breath. Do your yoga like nothing else in the world matters… All the time knowing the yoga doesn’t mean anything at all.
Yoga is the merging of opposites. Left will merge with right, above merges with below, inner with outer, masculine with the feminine, before and after become one, time stands still. You are free… Dance around if you like. You are becoming more balanced. It has been said that when our strength equals our flexibility, we achieve a state of balance.
Practice dying at the end, It is something you’ll want to get good at. It will be your biggest life event! Then sit up and do some deep breathing. For two to five minutes breathe deeply, strongly, with intention and focus, long and slow till you maybe feel a little dizzy or high…
Then just sit comfortably however you like and enjoy the feeling with a straight spine, focusing on a relaxing breath following the energy as it moves from nose down to belly on the inhale, belly back to nose on the exhale. Don’t meditate, don’t even try, just sit quietly, enjoying the sensations of the breath moving through you. Feel engulfed by gratitude, appreciation and forgiveness.
Never practice like you are trying to get somewhere, this implies that you aren’t somewhere. You are somewhere, with a capital ‘S”. Practice like you are Somewhere. Yoga brings you back to your birth right, a meditative state, back into the womb, back into pure love, the love you were before the fear crept into your life a runaway freight train. You are here a short time in your short human life. You did not come here to get things done. You came here to dream about beautiful things and move towards them. What happens along the way is life.
You are the center of the universe. You are not your job, your stuff, you title or your money… You are eternal. All that is real is that which does not change, a.k.a. your soul. Your soul is the only constant, the rest is smoke and mirrors and it will all change and vanish and eventually not matter at all. Be wise about what you give your attention to… Everything you do and think about affects all of those around you for miles and miles and miles.
Yoga will bring you back into your heart. You will make better choices from there. Your mind is a dangerous neighborhood, instead of thinking, it is best to feel with your heart and trust your gut instinct and heart feelings. When yoga and meditation is properly shared, there is no such thing as student and teacher, just good friends. Hierarchy is a trap, it is what religions, governments, advertisements, school systems and corporations use to keep you down, keep you trapped and keep you from realizing you true power. Yoga will help you to stop giving your power and money away to doctors, pills, surgeries, chemotherapy, chiropractors, massage therapists, fortune tellers, beauty salons and all others who offer just a quick, short term fix at best.
Yoga will help you trade in your narrow set of mental beliefs that were given to you by someone else. A belief is just a thought that has been endlessly repeated. Doesn’t mean they are right, true or even valid, just familiar through repetition. Yoga will help you will trade in your mental beliefs for a deep sense of knowing. Wisdom cannot be taught, it must rise up from within you being, though the toil and torment of a billion mistakes. The past is gone, there is only now, tomorrow never comes, It’s always today, now is all we have…
Develop your own personal practice, even if it is just 5 or ten minutes a day. My public classes help you do this. My private classes focus purely on this. Come back home to the heart, go inside of yourself, nothing you really need is outside of you. Seeking is a trap, it implies something is absent. Knowledge is overrated, wisdom is pure. Your yoga is in you as you. If you need help developing a daily practice, I can help you, that is what I do best. If you are far away I can work with you online or send you to teachers who can help you develop a personal practice. Have a BIG day, know that you are truly loved and deeply cared for…
<3
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My life and why I do what I do…
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I am a lifestyle coach. What many people don’t know this about me, is that I missed about 40 days of senior year in high school due to migraine headaches. I was raised by the toughest Native Canadian hockey dad ever and we were trained to never complain. Not long after that, during my first month at Northeastern, right around my birthday, my dad was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. He was handed a death sentence and given 6 months to live. He was a fighter and made it about a year and 11 months and passed away at 49 years old when I was just 20.
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