Why Seeing the Best in Others and Expecting the Best of All Possible Outcomes Changes Your Life

We are creatures of habit. Our choices are habitual.  Our thoughts arise and fall by habit. The people we choose to socialize with is based on habit. The foods we eat, the moods we feel, the health we have, is all, 97% of the time, based on habit.

All of these habits, create our life experience, and they reveal the expansiveness (or smallness) of our conscious awareness.  How is that so? Well, our consciousness awareness is either free to make choices based on the reality of the moment, or it is confined to repeat conditioned behaviors, we have either been taught, or we allowed to persist by not exploring other options.  The more freedom you have in the moment, the larger your conscious awareness.  The less freedom you have, to choose something other than a habitual reaction, the smaller your conscious awareness.

Often times, what we expect from other people or situations, does not arise from anything more than our habitual thoughts about those people and situations.

I’m sure most of you have heard this idea before, and have tried to change your life experience by changing your thoughts about your self, others and situations, and have been frustrated to find that it didn’t work very well.  Then you lost sight of the truth, that your experience is a clear reflection of how identified you are with a particular way of being, and you fell back into your habitual consciousness, and experienced the same things again.

The problem was not the application of the principle, that your expectations color your experiences, it was that you didn’t understand how much effort you have put into getting where you are now, and you underestimated what was required to make the change.

When you are prone to identifying with depression, anger, anxiety, poor finances, poor health, or any other negative attribute, that state feels natural and easy. When you try to think positively, or feel that you can take care of your self financially, or that your health can be strong and vital, it may feel like a “crock of crap”.  You don’t believe it.  Because up to this point, your experiences have definitely shown you that the “reality” is that you are unhealthy, unhappy, and prone to unenjoyable relationships.   That is because you have allowed your self the habit of experiencing that particular reality over, and over, and over, and over again, so much so that it feels fixed and stuck, and not matter what you try to do it never changes.  The thought that it can never change is just testimony to how often you have engaged in that habit.

There is a lot of effort, time and force behind habits that seem impossible to change.  That is like energy.  Just as in science, to stop an object from moving forward, you have to apply an equal and opposite amount of energy just to stop it!  Now to get it rolling in the other direction, you have to add even more force!

What is a good place to start to change your life, now that you know the mechanics of your situation?  The best place to start is to start seeing the best in others.  See beyond the personality you are used to seeing, and wish and feel for everyone, that they are happy, fulfilled, and self aware. You can only truly experience happiness in and with others, if you have nurtured the ability to experience that within your self. You can only feel fulfilled in and with others, if you have cultivated that feeling within your self.  By seeing self awareness in others, you are seeing that they too have the ability to expand their consciousness and not act out of habit, but out of freedom in the present moment. Then you increase that ability within your self.

It may be that circumstances change very little in the beginning of this practice, but that is to be expected, as you have just, only now, decided to direct your energy in a different direction, and so it will take time and consistency to continue building more momentum and energy in this new direction, until a shift occurs, when your present efforts have equaled and then overcome the habits of your past.  Then you build on the positive momentum and your life begins to fall into place as you have wanted it to for so long. In this way, you realize your freedom, that you are a being, not of circumstance, but of your own creation. And that is a very liberating thought indeed.

You want certain areas of your life to be different?  Admit how you have thought about those areas before.  When it comes to work, service, finances or health, really take a moment to admit what your attitude has been towards those areas.  Knowing that is what your past habits (attitudes, thoughts, choices, actions) have created, now decide what you would really like to experience.  And start seeing the best of all possible outcomes in every area of your life.  No matter how fake it feels.  Continue seeing and feeling the best of all possible outcomes, until the best of all possible outcomes feels as real as the negativity used to be.  Then you will find that your pessimism or negativity actually feels fake and silly.

See the best possible outcomes for other people first, if that is easier. The more you do this, the more you change your inner view of your self, because once again, you cannot see it for someone else unless it’s possible in you first.

Begin daily in your meditation, spend 5 minutes every day, doing your best to see and feel the best possible out come for others.  Pay attention during your daily life, and if someone experiences good fortune, acknowledge it, and feel good for them.  If someone is experiencing frustration or something troubling, look beyond that habit (that you both have), and see a timely and fulfilling resolution to the experience.  The more time and attention you put to this practice, the stronger it becomes, and then your energy is auspicious, fulfilling and illuminating.

This is an often overlooked process, that is one of the main pillars to your happiness and well being.

Another important pillar of change, is acting differently based on your different attitudes and thoughts.  You act the way you do, because of how you think.  Support the change of attitude and your new change in thinking and how you see the world, by acting as if those thoughts were true for you. Then your actions support your inner change, and your inner change will also support your actions.

Example 1 :  By feeling and thinking I am healthy and happy and vibrantly alive, you would also go out for a job or do some yoga and enjoy it, because that is what people who feel that way do.

Example 2: By feeling and thinking I have good healthy relationships, you will ignore people who are pessimistic and tiresome, yet be compassionate, as you now know that is just your habit, and you will find circles that are uplifting and positive and working for the good of humanity, because that is what healthy minded people do.

Example 3: By thinking and feeling that you are spiritually awake and aware, you will meditate every day, working to feel a sense of joy and surrender as you practice, and you will do your best to live the loving principles of your chosen spiritual path, as that is what a spiritually aware and awake person does.

Example 4: By thinking and feeling that you have good financial health, you will avoid wasting money on frivolous things, you will happily engage in work that pays your bills, and you will save a portion of your income, feeling good about your ability to manage money well, because that is what a financially healthy person does.

When you think about doing these things, you may not initially like the idea of what is required, because that is your habit.  It’s just your habit.  Are you your habit?  Do you just want to be a ball of habits, cravings and unfulfilled desires?  Or do you want to have freedom and a life you can feel good about?

I know you have the potential to change. I see you joyfully undertaking the challenge to be what is best for you and the world. It is a challenge, and one that is quite fulfilling once begun.

What’s the Point?

A month or so ago, a mood passed through my evening.  It wasn’t a terrible one.  As I’ve grown, meditated, and kept my eye open, I’ve moved quite a ways from the depression and that was common in youth.  Yet, every now and again, my contemplations can turn a bit hopeless, however, interesting things happen when that occurs now.  There is a presence that responds to that passing memory of past mental habits, with an answer.

During that evening, I laid down to sleep, and internalized my attention.  I looked around my internal landscape, and was paying attention to all the beliefs that I held from other people, in regards to having “achieved” something in life.  And I thought to my self, “really is this all there is?”

After several minutes of believing other peoples ideas about money, fame, perfection, I became acutely aware of my body.  I became aware of the trillions of processes, and interactions that were occurring, all in harmony, just so I could have the opportunity to experience life. Down to the minutest detail of what kind of organization and intelligence it takes, just to animate a human body so consciousness can experience every day, completely obliterated any moodiness.  I also then felt and realized that this was not even revealing the complexities just to enable one single human mind to function sensibly, and there over 7 billion minds on the planet, and seemingly infinite varieties of bodies (animal, plant, human and other) all existing beyond mental comprehension!  And here I was asking, “Is this all there is!?”

I felt a smile cross my face and a warmth in my chest, and the next thought was, “what else does there need to be!”

The following video, further illustrates this point, in a way, that my words cannot…

 

Fat Loss and How Muscle Gain Helps

I came across the following article yesterday, and saw that it pointed out a lot of good information that people seem to miss when it comes to making their body trim and strong.  Take these main points to heart, yet modify them to your own goals.

“Aim to be a strong slim person, not a fat skinny person.”

By Mike Mahler

The most effective strategy to win the battle against fat is to build as much muscle as possible. Do not confuse building muscle with increasing bulk. Adding more muscle doesn’t necessarily mean you will build more mass. Alternatively, losing weight doesn’t mean you’re losing fat.  Many people go from being very fat to skinny fat and that is not an effective way to win the battle against fat, as you’re still essentially fat! The importance of building muscle to win the battle against fat is the theme of my best selling DVD The Kettlebell Solution For Fat Loss And Mental Toughness

 

Just because you take up less space on the planet doesn’t mean you’re actually leaner. You can build muscle and actually increase bodyweight yet reduce bodyfat dramatically.  You will have the appearance of being smaller as muscle is much more compact. Think of muscle as being a boxing heavy bag and fat as being a large beanbag. The heavy bag weighs much more but takes up less space. The large beanbag weighs less but takes up much more space.

Okay you understand why having more muscle improves your appearance but how does it actually help with burning more fat? Muscle requires serious metabolic power to maintain. Your metabolism is burning energy around the clock to maintain the muscle you have. When you’re sitting on the coach watching reruns of Seinfeld and Two And A Half Men you’re expending energy to maintain your muscle mass. When you got to sleep for eight hours at night, you have to burn energy all night to maintain high levels of muscle mass. Energy is released from stored bodyfat to get the job done.

The more muscle you have the more metabolic currency you have and this is how you finally win the battle against fat loss. Having high levels of muscle is like having high levels of passive income. With passive income you make money while you are not working. When you have high levels of muscle you burn energy when you’re not training. Put in a few effective workouts per week and you add some serious metabolic active income that further enhances your stores of metabolic passive income over the long haul.

Trying to reduce fat without building muscle is like putting in lots of billable hours. With billable hours you make money while you’re working. Once you punch out you’re no longer making money.  Same thing goes for forms of training such as jogging on a treadmill in which you are simply burning calories. Once you stop jogging the calorie burning stops. Contrast this with interval training in which you do an all out effort for thirty seconds and then go at a moderate pace for thirty seconds. 15-20 minutes of this form of intense truing is a metabolic powerhouse and the benefits last long after the workout is over. This is the kind of training you want to focus on to win the battle against fat.

Before I go further let me state clearly that I am not against moderate forms of exercise such as jogging, tai chi, and walking. Moderate or restoration forms of exercise are beneficial for heart health, de-stressing, and for releasing good feeling hormones. They have a place in an overall program but are not optimal when fat loss is the goal. Walking is only the best form of exercise when you’re very overweight or seriously out of shape. When you are fit walking does nothing to improve your body composition or fitness. I take my dogs for two-mile walks every day and don’t even count it as part of my exercise regimen. I am not breathing hard after the walks nor am I remotely tired. However, I do feel great after the walks and enjoy getting out into some fresh air with my animal friends everyday. Is walking beneficial for reducing stress and elevating mood? You bet it is! Is it effective for building muscle and improving your metabolism for fat loss? Possibly if you’re really out of shape, carry a ton of fat, or wear a 100-pound weight vest.

The more efficient a form of exercise is the less benefit it will have on fat loss. Walking fifty yards at a moderate pace is a very efficient way to get from the starting point to the finishing point. You utilize a very small amount of energy and can keep up the pace for an extended period of time. Alternatively. Sprinting is a very inefficient way to travel the same fifty yards. You apply an all out of effort and can keep up the pace for a limited period of time. Guess which one if more effective for fat loss? Without question sprinting is.

Sprinting is an excellent example of a good metabolic enhancing fat loss workout. Such a workout should leave you huffing and puffing after a brief effort. I like to do 10-12 hill sprints two times per week and it is an incredible workout. It only takes a few weeks to start seeing improvements in body composition. Run fifty yards as fast as you can and then walk back to the starting point and repeat. If you’re putting in a maximum effort you will be breathing hard after the first run.

What I like about sprinting is you’re always being inefficient. The better you get at it the faster you can go and the harder you continue to work. No matter what your fitness level is, if you continue to apply a maximum effort you will continue to derive incredible results.

Sprinting has also been shown to increase growth hormone levels dramatically. Growth hormone is a powerful fat burning hormone and is also linked to longevity in humans. It helps keep your immune system strong, improves skin health, and mood. While there is some debate regarding the actual benefits of increasing growth hormone from exercise, I feel that anytime you increase growth hormone it is a positive thing. When your growth hormone levels are elevated you’re in a thriving state. While increasing growth hormone via training is not the equivalent of taking an injection of growth hormone, it is still a positive outcome and a sign of a good workout. On the other hand, when your workout results in super high levels of the stress hormone cortisol and depleted levels of growth hormone, testosterone, and DHEA it is a sign of a deleterious workout. If nothing else, the increase in all the right hormones after training is a sign of a beneficial workout that leaves you in a thriving state. We should always exercise in a manner that optimizes hormones as our hormones in particular leptin, insulin, and adrenaline control fat loss.

Another excellent example of inefficiency training for fat loss is circuit training. Ina recent interview on the outstanding internet fitness radio show Super Human Radio top strength coach Dan John author of Never Let Go made the point of emphasizing inefficiency training to effectively reduce bodyfat. Dan gave the example of circuit training as an example of an effective form of inefficiency training for fat loss. With circuit training you do several exercises in a workout and go from one move to the next with very short breaks or no breaks at all for several rounds. The focus should be on compound exercises such as upper body presses, upper body pulls, lower body presses, lower body pulls and some torso work.

This style of training, similar to sprinting also improves leptin and insulin sensitivity, which are both critical for reducing bodyfat. Leptin is a master control hormone that determines your metabolic rate. When Leptin is working optimally your metabolic rate is set high and you have an abundance of energy for fat burning, muscle building, and sex hormone production. Insulin in an anabolic hormone and the less insulin the pancreas needs to release to shuttle nutrients to the liver, muscles, and cells the less spillover there will be into stored bodyfat. Insulin is also highly inflammatory so the less you produce to get the job done the better. Inflammation will increase cortisol (cortisol is anti-inflammatory and is released to lower inflammation) and while we need some production of inflammation for health, most people produce way too much. High levels of inflammation will have a deleterious effect on building muscle and thus reducing body fat.

While circuit training is fantastic for improving physique composition goals it is not the best way to go to improve strength. When strength is the goal you want to be fresh before each effort. This means long breaks in between each set. Pavel Tsatsouline’s GTG (greasing the groove) program s a good example of a program for increasing strength. With this program you practice an exercise you’re trying to improve several times per day. You take around an hour or more between each effort and avoid training to failure. As a result your nervous system becomes very efficient and your performance improves quickly. However, the intensity is way too low to build muscle and improve physique composition.

Life is all about making sacrifices so when fat loss is the priority, inefficiency training is the solution you’re seeking. Remember, physique composition goals come form keeping training inefficient. The harder you work the more your body will adapt by building muscle and reducing bodyfat. The more efficient you get the less adaptation is required and you will reach a point of stagnation. While you may continue to make improvements in performance such as being able to complete more reps with the same weight, eventually physique composition improvements will stall or come to a complete halt.

Lets explore this theme further. When you first started working on the bench press, you may have found bench-pressing 135lbs very difficult for five repetitions. Your body responded by making the chest, front delts, and triceps stronger and bigger to adapt to the stimulus. Once you became more efficient you were able to bench press 135lbs fifteen times. Your strength endurance improved but you probably did not see as much improvement in muscle gain or any for that matter. What if you decided to stay with 135lbs anyway and work up to 50 reps in a row? Sure your work capacity would no doubt improve but you would not see any additional increase in muscle or improvement in body composition. The intensity is just not high enough anymore. In the beginning it was intense enough but your body adapted by getting stronger and building more muscle and now it is simply too easy to be effective

Rather than just building the reps endlessly you have to change parameters to make the workout more intense. The obvious choice is to increase the weight. Another option would be to do more sets and then over time reduce the time between each set. Basically, you have to find ways to increase the difficulty of training to continue to see improvements in physique composition. The key is to avoid becoming too creative. For example, don’t waste time with parameters such as tempo. Super slow training being an extreme example in which you lower the weight under a count of ten seconds and then complete the concentric portion under a count of five seconds. There is a reason why all of the super slow training studios in the US went out of business a long time ago!

Performance should always be an important component with any training program. World-renowned kettlebell expert Steve Cotter said it best at  The Boys Are Back In Town Kettlebell Workshop in 2006 when asked about kettlebell technique. Steve said that one should always use the most efficient technique possible and if you want to increase the difficulty go to heavier kettlebells rather than using sub optimal technique. I agree with Steve completely. When I design circuit-training programs for my clients for fat loss I always keep performance in the forefront of my mind. While it is not the best way to get stronger, I want my clients to be as strong as possible when doing circuit training and attain the ability to perform at a high level. Not only do my clients lose a ton of fat, they also develop serious mental toughness, which is a skill set that is unfortunately in short supply in our society today.

In addition to looking good, you should be able to perform at a high level as well. This comes from learning the optimal technique for any exercise you do. Whether it is sprinting up a hill, bench-pressing a barbell, doing one-arm kettlebell snatches, you should be able to perform at a high level. When I hear men say that they don’t care about being strong and fit, they just want to look good, I respond by saying they need to trade in their man cards assuming they ever had any. Spend less time posting shirtless pictures of yourself on Facebook in a desperate attempt to get praise form strangers and spend more time engaging in effective training to get strong and fit.  The same advice applies to you ladies but feel free to keep posting the pictures on Facebook for my professional feedback of course!

Okay now that I got that rant out of the way, lets go through some examples of effective circuit training program for fat loss. I am going to cover a kettlebell version, bodyweight version, and dumbbell version. I am not a fan of using barbell work for circuit training as form tends to breakdown much faster with heavy barbell training vs. dumbbells, kettlebells, or bodyweight training.

Option 1: Kettlebell Circuit Training

 

Monday-Wednesday-Friday

 

Five rounds of

Full Body Attack 1×8 click here for instruction

One-arm Kettlbell Windmill 1×8 each side click here for instruction

Alternating Renegade Row 1×8 each side click here for instruction

Kettlebell Lockout Press 1×8 each side click here for instruction

Double Kettlebell Front Squat 1×8 click here for more info

Double Kettebell Swing 1×8: click here for instruction

Start off with 45-second breaks in between each exercise and one-minute breaks after each round. When that gets doable take the breaks down to thirty seconds between each exercise and 45 seconds between each round. Long-term goal is no breaks between each exercise or round. When you can do that start building the reps for each exercise. When you can do five rounds of 12 reps per exercise move up to heavier bells.

Option 2: Dumbbell Circuit Training

 

Monday-Wednesday-Friday

Five rounds of

Dumbbell Clean and Press 1×8

Alternating Dumbbell Renegade Row 1×8 each side

One-arm Dumbbell Windmill 1×8 each side

Walking Dumbbell Lunge 1×8 each side

One-arm Dumbbell Swing 1×8 each side

Start off with 45-second breaks in between each exercise and one-minute breaks after each round. When that gets doable take the breaks down to thirty seconds between each exercise and 45 seconds between each round. Long-term goal is no breaks between each exercise or round. When you can do that start building the reps for each exercise. When you can do five rounds of 12 reps per exercise move up to heavier bells.

Option 3: Bodyweight Circuit Training

 

Monday-Wednesday-Friday

Five rounds of

Pull-ups 1×10

Jumping Lunges 1×15 each side

Handstand Pushups 1×10

Hanging Leg Raise 1×10

Hindu Squat 1×25

Start off with 45-second breaks in between each exercise and one-minute breaks after each round. When that gets doable take the breaks down to thirty seconds between each exercise and 45 seconds between each round. Long-term goal is no breaks between each exercise or round. When you can do that start building the reps for each exercise.

Other fun options for fat loss training include hill sprints, sledgehammer tire strikes done back to back with double kettlebell swings, sandbag circuit training etc. Keep it fun, as there are so many options that you should never get bored or stuck in a rut.

Remember that nutrition is a crucial component for fat loss and for most people will be at least 60-70% of the puzzle.

 

Changing Bad Habits

How to Stop a Bad Habit

Healthy Habits are Good For Everyone.

Habits are neither good nor bad. Some habits help us feel alive and happy, such as the habit that encourages us to take a walk once a day, or the habit of meditating before we go to sleep at night. Other habits can cause us difficulty, such as the habit of getting angry too often, or the habit of eating fatty sugary foods.  Our life experiences are full of habits, and when the life enhancing habits outweigh the destructive habits, we are closer to living a happy fulfilled life.

The first step in changing our habits is to be honest with our selves about what we want to experience in this lifetime. Maybe you enjoy smoking, or sleeping in late, or not exercising. Maybe being angry makes you feel powerful, or being pessimistic and sad makes you feel smugly self important. Maybe that feels good and comforting to you on some level. Maybe, out of habit, you are used to it and can’t imagine what it would be like to be different. Maybe that’s all you want out of life. That’s fine. Just admit it and be at peace.

Or maybe, you want to feel energetic, and happy, and optimistic. Maybe you want to accomplish a certain thing, such as writing a novel, making a good salary, mastering an art form, or being able to volunteer your time for charities. And maybe you don’t know how right now. You don’t know how, because all of your habits up to this point have not been supportive of your intentions.

When changing our life habits, the best way to do it, is not to focus on one individual habit and try to force your self to change. The best way to do it, is to have a vision of what you want to experience, and then take stock of your habits to see if they are directing you towards the actualization of that vision.  While, it’s still not always easy, its much more effective if you are working to change your experience rather than singling out one habit and try to force it out of your consciousness without a proper context to rally your energy to make it happen.  Other wise, it seems like you are simply punishing your self for doing something you seemingly enjoy.

Here are a few examples:

You enjoy smoking.  You find it relaxing and soothing. However, you notice that you are developing chronic phlegm, higher blood pressure, and your heart doesn’t feel as strong as it used to.

Ineffective Option 1: You can try to force your self to stop smoking. And every time you have a cigarette, you say to your self, “I really need to quit doing this thing I enjoy, because it’s bad for me.”  You will probably continue to smoke, while strengthening the idea you are killing your self, by affirming how bad it is for you, thus creating a self fulfilling prophecy.  Why would you do that to your self?

More effective Option 2: Instead of focusing on the act of smoking, you begin to wonder what you’d like your life to be like.

You realize you are a parent, and you’d like to be healthy and happy to give your kids the best role model.  You realize you’d like to live a long time, to see your kids grow up, and you don’t want to be a burden on them when you are old, or have them have to make the decision to take you off the breathing machine that is keeping you alive.

You remember how good it felt, to be able to hike for hours and enjoy picnics without panting or feeling like you can’t breathe.

You know you would save a lot of money, by not buying cigarettes, and by not needing to go to the doctor so often, and you could quit complaining about how you can’t take your wife or husband out to eat because you are broke.

Now every time you smoke you can ask your self, “Is this temporary pleasure worth it?  Or do I really want to be strong, fit, healthy for my self and my family?”  Hopefully, your sense of values are strong enough that you can bear the temporary discomfort of giving up smoking, for the greater good.  Can you go beyond your own immediate dependency?  Can you expand your consciousness to take into consideration how this one simple act you repeat often is contributing in a major way to your future life circumstance and the life circumstances of those around you?

This could be applied to any health promoting habit from diet, to dependency, to exercise. Have a reason to start a good habit, and the bad habit will fall away easier.  Focus on living, not punishing your self.

Spiritually Speaking…

Spiritually speaking, maybe you have the habit of over eating, sleeping in late, staying up to late, and or watching too much TV.  All of these can get in the way of an effective meditation practice.

Meditating in a chair is just fine. Keep your back straight and your head up!

Overeating can tax your bodies vital forces and make you dull and lethargic.  Effective meditation occurs when we are energized and alert, yet relaxed into the process.

Staying up or sleeping too late, can interfere with the bodies chemistry and make us confused and interfere with our ability to concentrate. Meditation works well, when we are able to sit still, and almost effortlessly flow our attention to our chosen object of meditation, be it God, Light, Love, or Self Knowledge.

Too much Television or Internet surfing or too much of any kind of entertainment (including excessive socialization and talking) fills our consciousness up with useless images and ideas, which may take longer to digest and process. When we sit to meditate, depending on how much stuff we have on our minds (based on how much stuff we mentally ingested), can influence how long it takes to experience a therapeutic meditative state.  Once the ripples on the surface have stilled, then we can see the light in the water. All that entertainment and over thinking, can create choppy waters, and it’s all based on how much we have to process, how much we’ve ingested mentally.

Again, self honesty is helpful.

Do you really want to understand what it means to be enlightened, spiritually speaking?  Do you really want to know the peace that passeth understanding?  Or do you just like the idea of being a spiritual person? If you like the idea, then you will go through the motions of trying to meditate every day, but you won’t address the habits that get in the way of having an effective meditation practice.

Now, look at your life.  You decide you do want to be at peace.  You do want to know what you are, beyond name and form, and you do want to understand what all of those spiritual masters have realized.  Then compare your habits. Don’t stop the habit, because you know it’s bad for you. Stop it because it’s not giving you the support you need to experience what you want. Then consider what habits (probably the opposite of what you are already doing) will contribute to what you want to experience.

Remember habits are just habits. They are as strong as you make them, by indulging in them, and repeating them. If you have trouble starting good habits, it’s because you haven’t been practicing, or haven’t found the proper motivation that really inspires you. Take your time.  Be honest with your self, and choose what you want. Then choose the habits that support it, until they are as natural as the bad habits once were.

Then you may find, that the desire to smoke is just a memory.  The craving to watch television falls away, and you’d prefer to go for a walk, because you’ve experienced the enjoyment, the strength that walking gives to your body, and how it calms your mind.  You go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier to meditate, and you see that you are happier throughout the day, and think more clearly, and you feel like you are a part of something larger than your self.  Now that you have had the experience, you actively choose the habits that support your ideal.  You are doing this all of the time anyway, so why not claim your life, and choose to use your habits positively, rather than let them rule you.

New Years Resolutions 2012

Courtesy of the Brevard Yoga Newsletter:

It’s a yogic paradox. At the dawn of the New Year, many of us will choose a path to better ourselves.  Using our highest qualities of insight, we choose what aspects of ourselves are ripe for change.  We embark, courageously towards a better version of ourselves by deciding what is adding to our growth and what is taking us away from it.  At first glance, we are supremely in tune with the re-mastered song of our dance.  We are humble as beginners.  And then, we notice, as we pass our reflection in that storefront window, or stare down with our all-knowing eyes and all-giving hands that, Shoot, we look goooood,’ or, perhaps we do so much good, like, waaaay more than anyone else ever does.
Ironically, the ego loves self-improvement.  That’s part of the reason we are so attracted to New Year’s resolutions.  And, for those on the path to union, encouraging the ego to become more than it used to be, king-like even, could easily become a little distracting.  So, could you be just as happy that your best friend lost 10 pounds or quit smoking before you did? Could you lay down your efforts at the foot of your family, your community or the Divine without adding the jewels to your own crown?  Can you imagine winning your marathon and then laying your medal at the feet of a stranger in a wheelchair at the finish line?  That kind of inner resolve would really be worth celebrating.
Whether we fail or suceed, being mindful as we approach these new intersections of choice becomes the real challenge of our New Year’s resolution.  Dealing consciously with the inflation brought by our success, or the deflation caused by our failures, should be more than a footnote on the page of our intention.  It’s important that one’s success does not enable their judgement of others, and that one’s failure does not land them in a puddle of self-loathing.  Instead, we can choose compassion for ourselves and others.  The journey is the destination.
In Sanskrit, the word for ego is ahamkara, literally, the “I maker.”   Resolutions help us see ourselves, our egos, and they may create a new self-image, a stronger sense of ‘I’.  ‘I’ stands by itself, ’I’ stands for ‘individual’, ‘in divide’ or ‘in duality’.  That’s the paradox.  Can we improve upon ourselves, not to create separateness but to instill union?  Buddhist teachers attest that the ego is like an apparent puddle in the middle of a desert-dry highway.  It’s an illusion.  Swami Muktananda said that our real ego problem is that our ego’s aren’t big enough.  He said that we identify with our limited self when what we really should idedntify with is the pure awareness, power, and love that lives at the heart of everything.  It’s not that you aren’t special, it’s that everybody is fabulously special.  So, resolve to improve upon yourself with an attitude of teamwork.  Whether you beat your best friend to your goal or they beat you, be equally happy, for everyone else is another face of You.

Knowledge that Liberates Consciousness

This morning, as I read the latest issue of Truth Journal, a publication put out by Center of Spiritual Awareness, I came across the following statement on page 8.

“To have accurate knowledge of our true nature and Ultimate Reality, neither arduous, costly travels to distant destination nor long discussions with philosophers or sages are necessary. We only have to be informed about it once from a reliable source, learn how to allow our innate knowledge of it be unveiled and Self-revealed,  and skillfully do what we need to do.”  -Roy Eugene Davis

Stilling the Monkey Mind Through Yoga

This past Saturday Jeri Senor (Yoga Alliance RYT 500), yoga teacher and past owner of South Asheville Yoga, and I presented a seminar at the Asheville Community Yoga Center (http://ashevillecommunityyoga.com/) to a full house of intent yogis.   It was a 4 hour class called “Moving Into Stillness: Grabbing the Monkey by the Tail”.  Our goal was to share the yoga practices from the sutras of Patanjali, and how to move from a physical hatha yoga practice into a steady seated meditation, the end result being, stilling the monkey mind, to make way for an experience of pure awareness.

A clip from the lecture portion of the workshop is posted below.

 

Bisphenol-A (BPA) Free Can Lining

Dear Readers: This is not an advertisement (at least not on my end). However, since we are interested in food and how it supports our health, this is important information to pass on. The original article can be found here:  http://www.edenfoods.com/articles/view.php?articles_id=178

All Eden Organic Beans, Refried Beans, Chilies and Rice & Beans are cooked in steel cans coated with a baked on oleoresinous c-enamel that does not contain the endocrine disrupter chemical, bisphenol-A (BPA). Oleoresin is a non-toxic mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from various plants, such as pine or balsam fir. These cans cost 14% more than the industry standard cans that do contain BPA. The Ball Corporation tells us that Eden is the only U.S. food maker to date to use these BPA free cans and we have been since April 1999.

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How Eden Foods Pioneered BPA-Free Cans
Interview with Eden Foods President, Michael Potter by Investigative journalist
Nena Baker, author of The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of
Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being (enviroblog.org)

No one is more pleased to see the hazards of bisphenol A in the spotlight than Mike Potter, father of six, grandfather of four, and founder and president of Eden Foods. His company began using BPA-free cans in 1999, after two years of frustrating negotiations with his can suppliers. “It’s regrettable that the use of BPA has gone on so long,” Potter told me. “I’ve been flabbergasted as I’ve observed the lack of will on the part of the rest of the food industry to take advantage of an option we created.”

Here’s the back story on Eden Foods’ switch to BPA-free cans for its bean products: In 1997, Potter learned that new research was raising questions about the safety of bisphenol A and that one of BPA’s many applications was in the linings of cans. “Being a canner, it got my attention,” said Potter.

He asked his can suppliers — three of them at the time — if bisphenol A was in the cans they were selling to Eden Foods. “I made hundreds of phone calls to these three manufacturers,” he said. “Remarkably, I couldn’t find out if it was in the cans I was using or not.” The can companies didn’t have to disclose what chemicals they were using as long as they claimed it was a trade secret.

“I was flabbergasted that legally, it was none of my business. I had no right to know, as a consumer, a food manufacturer, a parent or grandparent.” Two of his can suppliers (who he declined to name) gave Potter “half information and half answers.” One can supplier, Ball Corp., “ascertained that I wasn’t going to go away. They weren’t going to disclose specifically what was in the linings of their cans, but they did help me understand the complex chemistry that goes on to make the linings and how that process leads to bisphenol A.”

So Potter asked what he describes as the “high-school question.” What did Ball Corp. use before the days of the formulation that results in bisphenol A leaching into canned food?

“They told me they used an enamel made from vegetable resins. So I asked: Can I get my cans with that on it, please?”

The answer was yes, if Eden Foods paid 14 percent more for the BPA-free cans. “That’s hundred of thousands of dollars a year for us, ” which is a big deal for a small company in a very competitive canned food business.

Potter felt he had no choice but to switch to BPA-free cans. “It was the right thing to do. I didn’t want BPA in food I was serving to my kids, my grandkids, or my customers.”

Eden Foods did not promote its switch to BPA-free cans 10 years ago. “At the time, consumers hadn’t heard about bisphenol A. The name itself was like Swahili.”

But with growing awareness about BPA’s laboratory links to recent trends in human diseases — a chilling list including breast and prostate cancers, increases in urogenital abnormalities in male babies, a decline in semen quality in men, early onset of puberty in girls, metabolic disorders including Type 2 diabetes and obesity, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder — Eden Foods recently began labeling its bean cans “BPA-free.”

For the moment, Eden Foods tomato products are packaged in industry-standard BPA-containing cans. “The FDA hasn’t approved any other type of can lining for highly acidic foods,” Potter said.

But Potter, who is also involved in the Non-GMO Project, is convinced that “today’s modern chemists can solve this problem” — especially if consumers demand it. “It’s not fun dealing with this stuff, ” said Potter. “But where there’s a will there’s a way.”

Support for Quieting the Mind

Ramana Maharshi - Great Sage from the early 19th Century

In Ramana Maharshi’s book Who Am I?, he answers the following question:

“Are there no other means for making the mind quiet?”

Ramana replies, “…the practice of breath control, meditation on the forms of God, repetition of mantras, restriction on food, etc., are but aids for rendering the mind quiet.

…Of all the restrictive rules, that relating to the taking of sattvic food in moderate quantities is the best; by observing this rule, the sattvic quality of mind will increase, and that will be helpful to Self-inquiry [meditation].”

What are Sattvic Foods?

In Ayurvedic and Yoga traditions, foods can be divided into three categories: sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic.

A good diet for meditation

Tamasic foods are heavy, dead, stale and cause inertia.  Foods that fall into the tamasic category include meats, processed foods in boxes or cans, foods that are stale, sugary foods, overly cooked, old or even rancid. These foods have a dulling effect on the mind.  They incline one to have a dull mind and a stagnant body.

Rajasic foods are stimulating, heating, promote activity and restlessness. They disturb the equilibrium of the mind and may cause agitation and frustration. Rajasic foods include alcohol, spicy foods, eggs, garlic, chocolate, coffee, or any other stimulant. Meats and processed foods are also said to fall into this category.

Sattvic foods are “sweet, fresh and agreeable”. Most fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and vegetables fall into this category, as do any foods that are considered whole foods.  “Whole foods” means that they are as unrefined and unprocessed as possible before consumption.  (Note: By sweet we are not speaking of sugars or desserts. When one’s palate is healthy, most vegetables and fruits have a sweet, pleasant taste.)

Ayurveda and Yogic diets can be quite specific depending on the individual. But as a general rule, eating a whole foods diet of fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds, is often enough for most people to experience the benefits of a Sattvic diet.

You may find the documentary Forks Over Knives interesting as a stimulus to try a sattvic diet, and explanation as to why a whole foods plant based diet is so beneficial for the body and the mind.  As of this writing, it is available on Netflix Watch It Now Option.  This documentary is based on a book called, The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health, by T. Colin Campbell

The video below expands on this idea of Sattvic foods as a positive support towards quieting the mind.  It focuses on how overall lifestyle contributes to our clarity of consciousness and quiet mind.

Magnesium Oil – Detox, Heart and Brain Health, Work Out Recovery, Better Sleep, Stress less

Magnesium oil has recently been brought to my attention, as a positive supplement for our health and well being.  Scroll to the bottom of this post for a list of applications.

Having an intensive meditation routine and also an intensive exercise regimen, optimizing my health is top on my list of priorities, so I can continue to meditate well, exercise well, and live to the best of my ability.  Have a listen to the following youtube video by Mike Mahler on Magnesium Oil’s benefits.

Magnesium Oil Benefits

• Magnesium works inside our tissue cells bonding with ATP to produce energy pockets for our body’s vital force
• Magnesium is required for the body to produce and store energy
• Magnesium helps obesity genes from expressing themselves
• Magnesium is necessary for the production, function, and transport of insulin
• Magnesium is one of the most important neuroprotectants known. Magnesium helps protect cells against environmental neurotoxins such as pesticides.
• Magnesium is critical for protein synthesis which is a must for muscle building
• Magnesium allows the body to burn fuel and create energy in an efficient cycle during exercise that does not lead to lactic acid production and buildup
• The feel good hormone serotonin depends on magnesium for its production and function.
• Magnesium is the ultimate stress management nutrient and supports the adrenal glands that get worn out from stress
• Magnesium activates enzymes that control digestion, absorption, and the utilization of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
• Research shows a direct relationship between the amount of magnesium in the diet and the ability to avoid high blood pressure.
• Magnesium is just as important as calcium to prevent and treat osteoporosis
• Magnesium keeps calcium dissolved in the blood so it will not form kidney stones
• Magnesium is necessary for insulin to open cell membranes for glucose
• Magnesium is the second most prolific element inside human cells
• Magnesium is nature’s calcium channel blocker: too much calcium entering cells can cause symptoms of heart disease, asthma, and headaches.
• Adequate levels of magnesium are essential for the absorption of and metabolism of calcium.
• Magnesium converts Vitamin D into its active form so that it can help calcium absorption.
• Magnesium is required to activate an enzyme for new bone growth.
• Magnesium is a vasodilator, opening up blood vessels
  

  Hormonal Balance, Weight Loss, Stress Less, Heart, Brain and Bone Health...

• Magnesium therapy reduces cholesterol levels
• Magnesium is required for the enzyme activity that lowers LDL cholesterol
• Magnesium lowers triglycerides and raises HDL cholesterol
• Magnesium is needed for an enzyme that converts omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids prostaglandin’s which are necessary for heart and overall health
• When sufficient levels of magnesium are present in the body cholesterol will be limited to necessary functions such as the hormone production and the maintenance of membranes.
• Sweat loss during intense exercise depletes magnesium
• Outside of the bones and teeth, the highest concentrations of magnesium are in the heart and brain
• Magnesium helps to transmit nerve signals
• Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant
• Magnesium relaxes blood vessels in the fingers to treat Raynaud’s syndrome.
• Magnesium helps alleviate PMS and PMS headaches
• Magnesium is an important part of treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.
• Magnesium helps detoxify toxic chemicals
• Magnesium binds with and helps eliminate heavy metals from the body

Click Here for An Excellent Source for Magnesium Oil

Getting the most out of magnesium

• Both calcium and magnesium are required for either mineral to work properly (1 to 1 ratio works well)
• Adequate Vitamin D is critical for the body to utilize magnesium
• Magnesium needs support from B vitamins to get into the cells
• Selenium helps magnesium stay inside cells for maximum benefit

(Information above, from www.mikemahler.com)