Sunday Story...The End of the World

Sunday Story…The End of the World

As we know it. Well maybe not quite.

Last Thursday I had the privilege of listening to a Medical Doctor talk about aging, living, and health. This Doctor is 76 years young and has a lifetime of experience taking care of human bodies young and old, amateur and professional athletes. His talk inspired today’s story. There are some very sobering facts in this story.

In 20 years there will be over 1 million people in America over the age of 100. In 1900 there were less than 400. Medical science and technology has evolved to the point that we can be kept alive indefinitely. If you call being hooked up to machines and lying in bed living, that is. The statistics around medical care (notice I did not say health care) are truly frightening. You will spend 90% of your total dollars spent on medical care in the last 5 years of your life. The second most common surgery in the US is heart bypass surgery (after carpal tunnel). There are more people over the age of 65 today than there are under the age 5 (could be a little older). I could go on but I won’t. The facts are scary and very disheartening. Most of the medical problems that occur today are preventable and treatable with proper nutrition and exercise.

Life is about choices. We make them all day every day. Even if you take everything else away from me, I still get to choose my attitude. I get to choose the meaning I assign my life. No one can ever take that basic choice away from me. Most of you reading this choose the food you eat, the way you spend your time on a daily basis and the things you put into your mind and body.

Please stop reading now if you are 100% satisfied with your health and fitness the way it is today because the information that follows is radical and confronting.

Most health problems today stem from one simple thing: we eat too much and too much of the wrong things. Cancer, inflammatory diseases (CFS, Fibromyalgia), Heart disease, diabetes are often diseases of choice. Now there is a caveat: there are diseases like Juvenile Diabetes that are either hereditary or environmental. These are not the diseases I am talking about. We have been conditioned to believe that eating 6-11 servings of grain, pasta, potatoes and corn is the road to good health. This is flat out wrong. And all you need to do is look around you at the epidemic of obesity to prove it. The food pyramid that many of us grew up believing was fashioned by large food manufacturers with complicity from the USDA and the FDA. Here is a link to an article that helps explain some of this: http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com/2009/12/the-fatally-flawed-food-pyramid/

The bottom line in this area is that the food companies, the FDA, the USDA and even the AMA do not have your best interests at heart. The food companies want you to buy more of their processed food so they can make more money which will keep their shareholders happy. The USDA and FDA accept money for research and people from the same companies. And the AMA must just not know better because every recommendation we have gotten for the last 40 years has resulted in a fatter and fatter America.

So what are you going to eat? Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Simple, really. Did you notice there is nothing there that says dairy, bread, pasta, anything in a can or a box, or cereal? Dairy should be avoided. Grain should be avoided. More and more studies are coming forward that show inflammation originates with the digestive tract. And if your stomach and intestines are not functioning properly there is no way to get the optimum nutrition from the food. And grains are bad for your digestive tract. They inhibit the intestines ability absorb the nutrients in food. Also notice there is no category for sugar added or “diet” drinks in this description. Stop consuming those products.

Basically, if you can’t pick it and eat it, or kill it and cook it you shouldn’t be putting it in your body. You can’t eat wheat off the stalk. Oats can’t be fried, frozen or sautéed. Potatoes cannot be eaten raw. Beans, especially dried beans can’t be eaten without soaking and softening. Both corn and rice are grains. You can eat corn raw (I think) and rice can be eaten cooked but both of those items should be eaten in very small quantities. So no gluten based grains, limited potatoes, beans, rice, and corn. This is a radical idea in food. And I know you really don’t want to hear this so stop listening. Keep doing what you are doing and keep getting the results you have been getting. Try every new diet that comes along…it will work for 6 to 12 weeks and then you will put your weight back on.


Diets don’t work-- lifestyle changes work. Change your lifestyle to one of optimum fitness and health. Change your lifestyle to one that works with whole, natural foods that nourish your body, mind and yes even your soul. Stop eating food that doesn’t serve your health and fitness.

And eat less. Smaller portions, less often. Most people underestimate the amount of calories they take in and over estimate the number of calories they need for energy. And move more. So that is the mantra…Eat Less, Move More. Eat Less, Move More. Eat Less Move More.

Next week we will tackle exercise. Get ready for more radical ideas on that! I can’t imagine an existence without movement or one where I am in a vegetative state unable to choose anything at all. There is no life there. This is not about the number of days in your life but the amount of life in your days. Give me 10 minutes of exhilaration on a mountain, in the ocean, or with my beloved over 10 years of mind numbing tedium any time.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday story...Time is on My side

Sunday Story…Time is on my Side

No, it isn’t.
Each of us came here with a certain number of breaths, days, and years. We look at time as a linear, limited thing. It is 4PM or Midnight on the 22nd of July 2010. This is a definite point in time that we can all agree upon. It is a set point, if you will. A place we can all agree exists. Since time was first realized some thousands of years ago we have all made an agreement that time is a straight line…time marches on, time waits for no man, time is running out; the clichés go on and on. We all agreed that each minute would have 60 seconds, an hour 60 minutes, 7 days in a week, and 168 hours in a week and so on.

But what if time is not just linear? What if time could dilate, become longer, wider? What if a second could be longer than a second? What would happen then? Could I have more than 168 hours in a week? Could I maybe get 169 hours in some particular week? And if I could get an extra hour would it count against the hours I was already planned for? Or would I get a freebie; an hour that would not count against the time bank of my hours? How luxurious could that be? A newfound hour that is completely free, that the breaths I take in that hour do not count against the total I was given at birth. Wow how cool would that be?

Physicists have proven that time is elastic. They used atomic clocks and airplanes and math and formulas to prove it. If you want to understand it more than that start here: http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2005-03/elasticity.html
Honestly I don’t quite get it but when I read it I seem to think it makes sense. And I am pretty sure I will never get my free hour from these scientists.

I was pretty excited about the idea of expanding time. Aren’t you excited about it? After all who among us hasn’t said…”if I only had more time” or “I could use one more hour in my day”. Vince Lombardi, the famous coach of the World Champion Green Bay Packers, once said, “the Green Bay Packers never lost a football game. They just ran out of time.” We are always lamenting our lack of time to get the things done in our lives that need doing. The “to do” list that never seems to get done. The lineup of goals and dreams that just never get realized and then are shelved for lack of time. Going back to school, getting an advanced degree, learning a new language, exercising more, spending more time with your family all seem to just get pushed away as we scurry around filling our time with the everyday stuff that makes up our modern life.

Do you suppose that the Bill Gates, the Oprah Winfreys and the Warren Buffets of the world have discovered some way to get more than 168 hours in their weeks? It seems that people like that get so much more done than the rest of us. And of course, they are richly rewarded for their time. Maybe they don’t sleep? Maybe they have a special room with a “cone of time” where they can go and spend the extra hour to get really cool stuff done and it doesn’t count against them. So when the rest of us are giving up our every breath they have discovered the secret of more time?

Well they have a secret. A secret that gives them the time to appear super human, the time to get all the things done that amaze and stupefy the rest of us. And I bet you would like that secret wouldn’t you? The secret of time expansion, of creating more time in your day is … (drum roll, please) … Do Less. That’s right, do less to get more done. This is a paradox on the surface. Do less, get more done. How is this possible?

So as I sit down to do the things that I need to do should I just do less of them? No. I should do the things that will move me forward toward the goals I have set for myself. If my goal is to learn a new language, I should have a certain time set aside every day for that pursuit. And when I am engaged in that pursuit, that is all that I am doing. Way too often I get caught up in checking, email, answering email, answering the phone and text messages or any number of other multi-tasking duties. And every time I pull my focus away from the task it is going to take me more time to re-focus on the original task. Thus I am losing time when I multi-task. Your ability to focus and stay on task is paramount. How many windows are open on your computer right now?

Here are four questions to ask yourself as you set out on your daily tasks:
1. Is what I am doing right now on purpose?
2. Is this what I really want to do?
3. Am I following my passion?
4. How am I making a difference (to myself or others)?

Time is not on my side. Time is neutral. It does not care how I use it, spend it or waste it. It just is. It is up to you to use time to serve you. It is up to you to expand time to allow for the things that you really want to do, the things that make a difference to you, the tasks that create passion and bliss in you.

Do less get more done. Give it a try…you can always go back to multi-tasking later.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday story...Whose God is it?

Sunday Story…Whose God is it?

Every week for the past 18 months (76 weeks) I have sat down at my keyboard and wrote a story for you to read. I guess they are not really stories in the traditional sense of “story”. I suppose they are more like philosophical musings, or some learning I have had from my 50+ years of roaming the earth, and sometimes (often) a particularly poignant point of view about something that has happened in my life recently.

Many of you have commented over the year and a half. Most of the comments have been laudatory and polite. Some of the comments have been thank yous for pointing out something or some point of view that maybe you hadn’t thought of before my writing. And some of the comments have been less than nice. And that is OK. I welcome any and all comments. Looking down the page I would expect a comment or two this week as well.

I don’t, however, usually respond to the comments. Good, bad, indifferent, it does not matter; I just don’t respond. Seems to me to be the only fair thing to do…if I respond to one I should respond to all, after all. Please do not take it personal if I didn’t respond, it was not meant as a personal affront.

As I sit here today I have no idea what is about to happen. This is often the case. I sit down and start typing and 1000 words or so later there is a story for you. Frequently I read the story a week or two later and wonder who wrote it. Or I get a comment and have to re-read the piece to see what it is you are talking about. Anyway, that is the process…it is kind of like a download from somewhere into my fingers and onto the screen. Pretty magical when it comes right down to it.

Lately I have been thinking about God. Mainly because a “man of god”, Pat Robertson, was on his CBN television show claiming that the earthquake in Haiti was a punishment from God. If you don’t believe me here is a link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5TE99sAbwM
Now, honestly I don’t know Pat Robertson. I have never met the man and I don’t listen to what he says. But his comments really set me to thinking (and that is what these stories are really about).

Would God really punish an entire nation in this way almost 200 years after the alleged pact with the devil was made? Would God allow babies, and elderly people and pregnant mothers and more to die under the crushing weight of mortar and timber just to punish them for something they did not do? Really? And if God is really all knowing and all seeing wouldn’t he see the suffering and the struggle the Haitians live with every day and let that be punishment enough? What kind of being would do such a thing?

In the annals of human culture and existence the stories of Gods and Goddesses doing frightful things to humans are all over the place. Greek mythology is full of nasty and naughty little games the deities played with humans. Almost every society, every culture, every religion has these stories in some way shape or form. It appears that Pat Robertson’s God is a very big meanie who holds grudges for a very, very long time. I thought maybe we were getting past all these phantasmagorical tales of vengeful beings raining fire, frogs, and floods down on the human race. I guess I was wrong.

The people of Haiti need our help. Frankly, they needed our help last month and the month before and last year as well. The earthquake just served to put their suffering back on the front page of our awareness. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. Consider some of the other candidates…El Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba and others. Yet Haiti is the poorest. This is the first black-led nation to break free of colonialism in the world and the only one to win its freedom through a slave revolt. That is correct…the slaves overthrew their masters in armed revolt to win their freedom in 1805 (unless you believe Pat R. that is).

And today they are enslaved by poverty, lack of resources, and government greed. We will all send money and food and help for some little while until the next disaster strikes and then we will all send money and food and help there as well. Folks we have got to do better than that. Had the Haitians had proper buildings and building codes the death toll would have been so much less. But they don’t have those things. Actually, they don’t have even the basic infrastructures that you and I take for granted every day…clean running water, well maintained roads, free public schools, hospitals, and more. Every day I hear someone complain about the water that comes out of the tap…it’s bad, you shouldn’t drink it, blah, blah, blah. Hey…it’s clean, it works and it won’t give you parasites or kill you.

And Haiti is just the one example. There is country after country in the world almost as bad, as bad, or even worse (look at Somalia). And until there is a disaster we don’t do much about it. And what can we do? Throw money at it? Honestly I am stumped. I suspect this is going to require a paradigm shift. A shift in how each of us views the world. When we start realizing that a starving child in Somalia or Haiti or Appalachia is a starving child in our own back yard maybe something will shift. Then again, maybe not. I hope so. I hope we figure out how to eliminate poverty and hunger in my lifetime around the world. That would be a world any God would be proud of.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...The Year is 2010

Sunday Story…The Year is 2010
The year is 2010 and I have neighbors who don’t have enough to eat.
The year is 2010 and I have friends with no place to live.
The year is 2010 and I am aware that some people make a choice everyday between food and health care.
The year is 2010 and I know people who have no job because there is no longer a job for them here.
The year is 2010 and I live in the most prosperous country on the planet during the most prosperous time in history. We produce enough food to feed everyone in the world if we knew how to get it to them. We have lots of places for people to live. We could provide health care for the poor, indigenous and less fortunate. We could create jobs.
The year is 2010 and I live in a place abundant and verdant yet the people in it seem to operate from a mindset of scarcity and lack. Instead of being generous and giving, all of a sudden we seem to be worrying about making sure our piece of the pie doesn’t get any smaller, even though the slice I have is plenty big enough for me and a few others.
The year is 2010 and we are all more closely connected than ever before. Yet there is a profound disconnect between us that prevents me from truly connecting with the soul in you. I see your tweets, you status updates, all your friends and the various doings in your life. But do I really get to see YOU? The You that wakes at 3:12AM and wonders if tomorrow will be the day the company lays you off, or if the bank will repossess the house, or if your kids will need another prescription you can’t afford. Do I really know the YOU that dies a little when you see the line getting bigger every week at the food pantry. Do YOU let me know how your heart breaks when you see people living in tents in 0 degree weather?
The year is 2010; 10 years into a new century and our problems seem to have shifted into overdrive. We are all waiting for something…the economy, 2012, the second coming, global warming, something.
The year is 2010 and we sit upon the edge, the cusp of something truly amazing. We are at a tipping point in history. A time not unlike the 1770s when a new idea for governance was created and implemented among the blood, sweat and tears of a new nation.
The year is 2010 and we can continue doing what we have always done. We can try to go back to the economy we enjoyed before. We can try to re-do and correct the mistakes using the same tired technology that we have been using the past years.
The year is 2010 and the time has come for each of us to begin anew. To take a fresh look at our priorities and the things we really want in our lives. Do I want a giant house? Do I want to not see my neighbors in the food line. And yes, you could have both. But what is your priority? Where do you want to place your focus? The time is here when we should start valuing people over things, relationships before monetary wealth, and smiles over savings accounts, and a child’s well being before my own.
The year is 2010 and I am responsible for the way my world looks today and it is time to change it. I want a different result. I want a different world. I want a world where I am connected to people not separate from them. I want a world where no one goes hungry, lives in a box under a bridge, or dies from lack of basic sanitation and health care.
The year is 2010 and it is time for US to take care of each other. We have abdicated responsibility for each other to faceless governments, nameless corporations and uncaring institutions. There is no US and THEM, there is only WE.
The year is 2010 and things have changed if we allow them to be changed. Or we can return to the way things were before. But this is going to happen again and again until we change. Just like in our own lives the universe will keep giving us signals, opportunities and signs that our course is wrong. We ignore these things at our own peril. Our society, our culture, our world, is getting the signs that it is time to shift, to change, to transform into the next thing. Just like not paying attention to that stop sign, failure to pay attention now will result in long term pain and suffering.
The year is 2010 and all is not well. Yet. We can make it better but we must move forward, facing our fear and jumping anyway. After all we can always go back to the way we were, right?
The year is 2010 and I am hopeful. I believe in the power of individual effort and vision. I believe our birthright is to be connected and happy. I believe there is enough for everyone in the world to have what they want…if they know what it is, believe they deserve it, know why they want it and what it takes to get it.
The year is 2010 and …

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Death Be Not Proud

Sunday Story…Death Be Not Proud

“For death begins with life's first breath, and life begins at touch of death.” --- John Oxenham

Each and every one of us is going to pass from this earthly existence. It has been our fate since our first breath; a guarantee that some day we will take our last. In between our first and our last breath is the life we will live. We can’t always determine when our last breath will be but we can determine how well we live in between those breaths.

Recently a friend of mine took her last breath. It was an unexpected event as most deaths are. This one even more so since the age and the health of my friend would not warrant any one to predict or expect this, the ultimate complication to occur. She was kind, loving and generous. Her husband and children and grandchildren will miss her terribly. The world is less for her no longer being a part of this earthly plane.

Fortunately she was a very organized person and she left her affairs in order. Things were easy enough to find, wishes were carried out and the tedious day to day tiny things were more easeful because she was organized. Me…not so organized. If I were to draw my last breath today things would be a mess. Actually that is an understatement; they would be a disaster. I have stuff in 4 different places, no last will and testament, no durable power of attorney, no advance directive. And since my daughter is reading this…and since she will be the one to deal with it…I will make it a priority to get those things done, I promise, before the month is out. Not doing these simple things is dis-respectful of the people left to deal with the detritus of a life. You can join me in getting these little things done.

The other part of not doing them is, in fact, an unreasonable fear of death…a denial of the obvious and the inevitable. We all know, intellectually, that we are going to pass. But maybe if we just ignore it, death will go away; just neglect our door step until….when? I mean even if you got to pick the time and day of your passing…when will you finally get all those little details done? So why not just do them now and get it out of the way?

You could even plan your memorial service…pick the music, the inspiring readings, the pictures you want the world to see, how you want to be remembered. You could write your own obituary…of course you would want to update this fairly often but you could write what you want to be written. As a matter of fact writing your obituary is a very good exercise…you get to write about your life like your passing is 10 years in the future. What will you accomplish in the next 10 years? What will you have completed, started, or released? How will the next 10 years differ from the last 10? Other than you being 10 years older than you are today?

This leads us right into the goal setting part of the exercise…if I write my obituary 10 years in the future I am creating my life for the next 10 years. And when you and I look back on New Year’s Day 2020 what will you have done? What legacy will you have created? What life will you have led? Who will you have influenced? Who will you have let influence you? Will you have spent the time or will you have just let it slip through the hourglass? We create budgets for our money…we should also budget our time. And time is more precious than any dollar…since I cannot create more time. Once that moment is gone it is gone for good, never to return or be recreated.

Every one of us is going to die. Our earthly body will crumble and fail at some point. The question to contemplate right now is twofold…one, are your affairs ready right now? Can someone come in and find all the paperwork, the bank accounts, the requests, the legal mumbo-jumbo that needs to be around after we are not? And # 2...is your legacy ready? Have you planned what you want the rest of us to remember? And if you have planned it, are you working that plan? Are you doing something right now to that will move your legacy forward?

Death be not proud…you are coming for each of us. There is no pride in solving the inevitable. Life affords us the occasional window to see what is coming. We can pull up the blinds and look out and decide to deal with the inevitable or we can keep the blinds down, sit in the dark and hope death passes us over. It won’t but you can always participate in self delusion. Those of us left won’t be very happy with you but we will get through it. You, on the other hand, missed your shot at creating the life you could have had, the life you always wanted, the life you richly deserve. So what do you say? Look up and create something or stuff your head in the sand and hope everything turns out OK?

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” --- Anonymous

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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