Sunday Story...Eat Your Veggies

Sunday Story…Eat Your Veggies

OK, I have to admit that I am just a little bit ticked off. Wait, that isn’t quite right…I am way pissed. I am tired of beating my head against a wall of popular, conventional wisdom and misinformation. I am sick of people telling me myth and legends as truth. Folks, the science is in. You can keep living in a world where the world is flat and the earth revolves around the sun if you want but I, for one, am tired of listening to it. And I am not going to do it anymore.

What am I ranting about? What has me so hot under the collar? Food. Nutrition. The lies we have been told about nutrition. The lies we continue to tell ourselves about nutrition and the lies we foist upon our un-suspecting children.

The standard American Diet (SAD) is crap---Calorie Rich and Pathetic. How many different colored vegetables did you or will you eat today? How many processed edible non-food products have you thrown in the hopper? How come if everyone knows so much about food and how to eat and how to eat right are there 100 million people who are overweight, diabetic, or pre-diabetic? Why is 65% of the population overweight? Do you think our standard diet and those facts are related?

Today a friend was relating what happened at a meeting of educators. The people who will be teaching our children lots of things but most of all they will be teaching by example. Children will watch and absorb the hidden messages…the ones that we send energetically without knowing it…much more readily than the ones we stand up in front of the class room and spew. While sitting in a workshop what does she find on the table first thing in the morning? A bowl of candy. The beverage of choice? Coffee. Later the chex mix comes out closely followed by chocolate cookies. Those that aren’t drinking coffee are drinking soda. This is the example our children are getting? How can you think clearly when you brain is loaded up on sugar and caffeine. How can you sustain your energy throughout the day? More sugar and more caffeine?

On Friday my camp kids and I were talking about school starting on Monday and the topic of lunch came up. They hate the lunch served at school. Now these are kids who still like fast food and other components of the SAD (I haven’t completely corrupted/converted them yet!) and they all said how bad the food was. They often don’t eat lunch because the food is so bad. What!! I mean could it really be worse than fast food? Apparently so. As a matter of fact last year while at one of the school assemblies I walked in during lunch. And some of my students were there eating. I asked if they had eaten any green vegetables. And the lunch lady looked at me and said, “are you kidding, this is school lunch!”

People, this is bad and it appears to be getting worse. The most popular vegetable in North America is the white potato---a high glycemic, starchy vegetable that when cooked at high temperature creates an acid know to be a carcinogen. And the most popular fruit? The banana---another high glycemic and starchy food. The average North American eats 7 different vegetables, most of which are barely vegetables (corn, beans, potatoes and peas). Way back when we were hunters and gatherers our diets were highly varied…up to 75 different plant varieties. And we are not even talking about the effects of factory farming.

I am sure you have heard about the recent recall of eggs…something along the lines of 500 million eggs have been recalled. The tainted eggs all came from a plant in Iowa. Eggs don’t come from a plant. Eggs come from chickens, the last time I checked. We are ruining our health with our food. We are the most over fed people in history and the most under nourished.

Today the camp kids picked 5 different vegetables that they helped grow…they planted, weeded, watered, harvested, cleaned, chopped, cooked and ate. The bounty included onion, eggplant, summer squash, corn, broccoli, tomatoes, and basil. We created a healthy and filling lunch in less than 45 minutes from harvest to table. There was no processed food, no added sugars, and no edible non-food products. All the macro nutrients were there…protein (we used organic local eggs), carbohydrates (from vegetables) and fat (olive oil) as well as many micro nutrients…the vitamins and minerals that nature provided in the food itself. And we enjoyed our meal slowly with friends. This is the way we are meant to eat, to nurture our bodies and our spirits. Not with fast food not with added flavorings, added sugars, added vitamins and minerals.

Eating right is not rocket science. It really is simple. About 70% of your diet should be derived from plants. Plants that come from the ground. Not plants that make stuff. There is no triscuit tree, no bagel bush. 70%. Think about what you ate yesterday…how much from plant sources? How much from a box, a can, or a foil packet?

Your aging process is dependent upon what you put in your body. And we are all aging. We are, from the moment of our birth, getting older. If you put C.R.A.P. into your body your experience of that process is going to be exactly that…crap.

You only get one body folks and you better take care of it. None of you have a spare body in the closet. No amount of technology will ever be better that what you were put here with. Taking care of it honors your maker, honors your loved ones and sets an example for the rest of the world.

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

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Sunday Story...What you Really Really Want

Sunday Story…What You Really Really want

Everybody wants something. Else. More. Something. You, me, them…something. Might be more health, wealth, happiness, good looks, or a better body. If you really look deeply there is something you want.

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that you can get anything you want if you can do just a couple things.
First, you must know what it is that you want.
Second, you must believe that you deserve it.
Third, you must take action to get it.

I have gone to coaching classes, read books, talked to people who are more successful than me, and generally been on the hunt for whatever “it” is that I am looking for. And I have come to the conclusion that step one is actually the most difficult.

So I have done all the things that I was told to do. Write affirmations. Create a vision board. Be a positive thinker. Spend money I didn’t have on things I thought I wanted and then figure out how to pay for them doing the job I wanted to be more successful at. Go shopping for all the things on the board. There are so many strategies for the implementation and I did all of them I could find. Yet “it” still seemed to elude me.

I thought I knew what I wanted. Success as defined by our culture. Money, acknowledgement, house, car, blah, blah, blah. I believed I deserved all those things. I worked hard, really hard. I studied more, read more, and consulted more. I was in action all the time. Yet, I never really felt that I achieved my goals. That I just set them too high or that I just wasn’t good enough, or organized enough or something enough.

On Saturday I had an epiphany. I never really wanted those things. Not really. I thought I wanted them, I thought if I got them I would be happier, more fulfilled, and more successful. Because I didn’t really want them I never got them. And when I say want I mean really want. Down deep in your belly want. Want like you want your next breath want. The kind of want that burns a hole in your soul until you get whatever it is that you want. I didn’t have that. I thought I did but I didn’t. Not really.

Further I would postulate to you that what most people want is not money, power or other “things”. No, what most people want is the thing that gets them the other things. Did Bill Gates set out to be a billionaire or did he set out to create an operating system for computers? His fortune is a byproduct of being really good at what he set out to do. If I earn a million dollars a year is that the mission? If I get to drive a new BMW is that the mission? Maybe for someone else it may be the mission. But honestly that does not burn my soul in a way that has me hop out of bed in the middle of the night and work on a new and wild idea. Now, that isn’t to say I won’t cash the check or park the car in the garage. I will. But that just is not the thing that will run my motor into the red line.

So to return to the very first thing…knowing what it is that you want. That statement is just not quite correct. You must know, and when I say know, I mean you must know like you know your own name…that deeply and that intimately…what it is that fuels your passion. What it is that has you wake up in the middle of the night sweating and trembling because you have not achieved it yet. Or you have not begun to go down the path toward achieving it. Because hopefully it is a mission so big and so vast you will need a lifetime to fulfill it.

And when you figure out what that “it” is then you can fill in the blanks with the rest of the “stuff”. The trappings and the gravy that will make life easier or more fun. Because if I can be on the mission then the world, the universe will move and shift to help me get it done.

There is nothing more powerful than the human mind. And when that power is brought to bear in a single minded, laser beam sharp pursuit…Watch out! Things are going to get done.

As many of you know it is my mission to teach focus and inspire transformation. And it is working. But it is not big enough. It is not a goal that is big enough to truly inspire me to shift and transform my life again. And frankly that scares me. A lot.

There is something that is eating at the back of my brain. I am not quite sure what it is yet but it is there. I can feel it trying to get out, trying to worm its way up to the surface of my consciousness. Something that is going to require me to rip asunder all that I know and all that I am. And when I figure it out, then I will be, truly, a man on a mission.

I once heard it said that it is not a quest unless you might lose your life. Are there quests of this nature left in the world? There are but they are not the quests of yore. No, these modern quests will require us to discard and kill our consciousness we have been so comfortable with these years. And then we will construct anew from the ashes of the old.

Stay tuned. I am excited. How about you? Up for the quest for the Holy Grail? The grail that is everything that you should and could be. The grail that is your highest and your best?

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

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Sunday Story...A Walk on the Wild Side

Sunday Story…A walk on the wild side
A good friend and teacher of mine, Tom Callos, inspired today’s story with a recent post on Self Defense. Spending time in nature is self defense. It touches us spiritually, physically and mentally. Being balanced and aware is just good self defense as well as keeping us in touch with our own humanity.

When I was growing up we pretty much got kicked out of the house and spent most of the day outside playing and inventing and just doing stuff. We learned how to play with each other, sometimes nicely and other times not so nicely. We learned about ourselves, we learned about others and we learned about the world around us. We had to draw conclusions and draw up plans.

We learned which tomatoes made the biggest mess when they hit the target and which ones hurt the most. Dirt clod wars happened, forts got built, trees climbed, and, most of the time, no one got hurt (too badly). We came home when called and left after the chores got done.

Almost everyone grew something in their backyards. Gardens and small farm animals kept us in touch with the “cycle of life.” Things grew, got eaten, had to be fed and watered, cared for and then died. They did not come back after death. There was no re-set button. Maybe next year we would re-plant or get some more lambs (most of which died before the end of the week) so we could repeat the process. It was the way life worked.

Actually it is the way life still works. We are just further away from the process. As many of you know, I am in the 2nd year of a community garden project. This project is a two pronged project for me.
On one hand we grow and produce produce for the community. Some of it goes to the families here at the studio and other people we know. But most of the produce gets donated to the community food pantry. Last year we produced approximately 500 pounds of food. This year we are little behind and have produced a little over 100 pounds---mainly because the squash is a little slow and no cucumbers!
The other hand is the really exciting part. In my work with children of all ages and types I have noticed that they really are disconnected to nature. What Richard Louv calls “Nature-Deficit Disorder”. So in the spring my after school martial arts kids come to the garden to clean up and ready the beds for planting. We have a bon fire sometimes for the excess old material and turn the ash into the soil. We move the humus out of the compost bin and into the beds, set up the water system and plant when the time is right. All summer long the summer camp martial artists weed, water, plant more and harvest. And yes eat off the vines for tomatoes, peas and beans. Many of these children did not know you could pick and eat things. Most Friday afternoons we harvest and prepare a meal using the bounty we just reaped. In the fall the harvest will continue along with the gradual death of the garden and the after school martial artists will be there for that as well.

This activity puts everyone into the cycle of life. The seasonality and the rhythm of life goes on and on and on. Last week the children found a frog in the garden. Lady bugs and praying mantises reside as well along with spiders and lots of creepy crawlies. The bee hive is continually droning with activity. No longer do we feel the need to smash every bug and swat at bees and wasps. These creatures work in our ecosystem in this mini-world. We understand how the process of composting puts nutrition back into the soil just like good food puts nutrition back into our bodies.

When I saw this video (thanks Tom):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ3J0szCGqk&feature=player_embedded

I was amazed at how little time people are spending outdoors. Part of spending time in the garden or the park or the forest is realizing with wonder the world around us. And a large part of that realization is our connection to the divine source that resides within us all. The further we get from nature the farther we travel from our original face.

When we get so far away from nature we become afraid; afraid of wet and cold, dry and hot, afraid of creatures we don’t understand, afraid of trying something outside our comfort zone, afraid of stepping out of our little box and into the unknown. Remember the stories of the ancient sea-farers afraid of falling off the edge of the earth? Now we are afraid of stepping into the garden with all the terrors that await us. Our food is sanitized and homogenized and pasteurized and sterilized. It has lost all connection with the source that created it. The dirt is depleted and in some cases we are radiating the food to make is last longer and to remove any connection it may have to the earth. Folks this is just plain wrong. This is the ultimate kick in the teeth to the divine. This over reliance on technology and science to produce more, faster, and “safer” disconnects us from the world around us, from the life and death struggle that is happening each and every moment in the world, in your life and even in your body.

There is nothing quite like picking a red ripe tomato off the vine. One that you planted yourself nurtured and saw to fruition. Plucking it and biting into the tensile skin, your teeth breaking into the hidden summer sun within. And the slightly acidic bite hitting your tongue, the sweetness that follows as a bit of red juice runs down your chin. This is divinity and you are part of the process of bringing divinity down into the everyday world to be experienced on a most visceral level.

Why would anyone want to deny you of that experience? Why would we want to eliminate that amazing knowledge from our children’s understanding? Are we that afraid? And what are we afraid of? A bee sting? A spider bite? Warts from a frog? Really? All of these things have been going on for a very long time. And I hope they will continue for a very long time in the future. We cannot and should not allow corporate food and corporate TV and corporate production to take over our lives. The corporation is not nature.

Rocks move. Leaves sing. Bees drone. Plants grow, produce and die. We get to participate in the process if we choose. It isn’t scary, it isn’t strange or weird. It is wondrous and amazing and, if we let it, it will nourish our bodies and souls. Today my summer camp martial artists are at the Stillwater Wildlife Refuge learning even more about eco-systems and playing in the dirt and the mud and chasing lizards and fingerlings and just experiencing the natural wonder of the world. How about you?

And speaking of fresh tomatoes:
Harvest some fresh tomatoes and cut in to chunks
Harvest some fresh basil and chop.
Put both into a bowl, sprinkle a small amount of good olive oil and toss.
Then sprinkle with a bit more balsamic vinegar.
Salt and pepper (if you must) to taste.
Divine…

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

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Sunday Story...Inane, Insane and Profane

Sunday Story…Inane, Insane and Profane
Inane
The trivial stupid stuff that passes for important today
Insane
The amount of space given to the extremes of any group
Profane
The proliferation of amazingly unacceptable material that we allow into our homes and our brains

All of these things take away from being our highest and best. Are you doing your highest and best work? Have you given your very best effort? Are you moving toward the highest reaches of your goals? Do you even know what your highest and best would be? Think about it.

Inane, Insane, and Profane…these things make it OK for us to stop being in the arena and getting things done. It is much too easy today to be a self-styled “expert” on anything. I can watch a few videos try out some ideas and BOOM I am the expert in the field. We often call this the green belt syndrome…when someone knows just enough to say they know something but nowhere near enough to really know anything. This is a dangerous place to live, a place where it is easy to get hurt, easy to hurt others without knowing why. Yet for many people this is their perpetual dwelling, this is where they permanently reside.

Inane, Insane, and Profane…all too often I see people quit or go away from something rather than getting in the middle of it and participating. Often times they don’t even complain about it…they just quit. When what they should be doing is digging and figuring it out and then trying to contribute and make it better. If you are complaining without suggestions for improvement all you are doing is whining. STOP IT. STOP WHINING.

Inane, Insane, and Profane…then there is the twisting of things to shape and mold them into your own little reality. A reality, which, by the way, is based simply upon what you want to see. It has no objective place in the world. Just like an infant whose entire world is made of 1 or 2 people and 3 or 4 bodily functions. That is all you can recognize and all you want to deal with…when in fact there are billions of people and billions of things going on moment to moment.

Inane, Insane, and Profane…the time we spend on the truly trivial. The day to day things that no one will ever remember tomorrow or often even 10 minutes after we have done them.

Inane, Insane, and Profane…where we allow our brains to reside all too often.

Your Highest and Best.

Think on that for just a moment. What would your life look like if you could spend it in pursuit of your highest and best in every arena?

If every workout, every physical pursuit, every golf game, every race, every kick, every punch was reaching toward the highest and best. And at the end of any one you could say “Today I have done my highest and best”? What would your physical condition be? How good could you be?

If every sales call, every letter every contact you made today was made in the highest and best way you could make it? What would your career trajectory look like?

If every time you talked to someone, every contact you made in a grocery market or convenience store or on the street you gave your highest and best to that person in that moment. What would your life look like?

If every time you communed with the divine source you could say with conviction:”Today I gave my highest and best in every endeavor to every person I came into contact with.” What would your soul say to that?

We all know we should be giving our highest and best. Yet we spend so much time in the Inane, Insane, and Profane places. They are easier, not so demanding, and normal places to be. Most of our friends are there. If we are going to be in the highest and best mode we will need to make some new ones. Not everyone wants to go here. It is hard work.

It is hard to dig in and contribute rather than whine and complain.
It is hard to be constantly vigilant against terminal mediocrity.
It is hard to change. And this is the bottom line. We, as humans, are resistant to change. We would rather put up with a very bad status quo than change. If you don’t believe me just take a look around at all the people who keep doing things to hurt their health. Smoking comes to mind. This is a bad habit…pretty much a recognized fact. It is hard to change...you have to want to, you have to be willing to endure some pain, and you have to shift your thinking. And for many people it is just too hard. And it is better to continue what I am doing the venture out into the unknown, even if I know that the unknown has to be better than what I am doing.

But you can’t get to the highest and best without shifting and changing and moving into a new gear. The old track can’t take you to this destination. You will need to forge a new trail. But…what if (go read last weeks’ story!)…The fact of the matter is it is better to fall short of reaching for your highest and best then never pick yourself up out of the swamp of the Inane, Insane, and Profane.

You know you really want to and I know you are really scared to try. Look the Inane, Insane, and Profane will always be there waiting for you, you can go back. But I suspect that once you attempt shooting for the stars you will never again be content aiming into the dirt.

This week’s recipe:
A classic!
Shrimp Scampi
I like this for its simplicity and ease of preparation.
Get a pound of fresh shrimp…big ones not the bay shrimp and not the ones already cooked. Clean and devein them or ask the fish monger to do it.
Use 1tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil in the pan and heat on med til melted. Yes real butter. It tastes better and isn’t related to petrochemicals in any way.
Chop 2 cloves of garlic and 4 scallions (green onions).
Throw into the hot oil for about 1 minute and add the shrimp.
Stir it is done when the shrimp is a nice white color instead of translucent…maybe 5 minutes
If you want to add a little cayenne pepper…go ahead. Serve it with a nice fresh green salad, maybe garlic bread, and a crisp white wine.
Enjoy with people you like!

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

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Sunday Story...What If

Sunday Story…What If?

There once was a girl I knew quite well. As a matter of fact I wanted to marry her. I was smitten. We are talking head over heels in love. I ignored several signals that were probably pretty obvious had I been in my “right” mind. And, on another level, I held back from jumping head first into the pool. Finally I realized it just wasn’t going to work. The letting go was the hardest part. I found it very difficult to disconnect from her. Today I still think of her and wonder…what if?

What if it could have worked? What if I had only ________? What if she had _____________?
What if? What if? What if?

This is a question that comes up a lot in my life. When I am teaching, inevitably a student will ask something like…What if a bad guy has a gun. Or what if he has some buddies? Or what if he is a ninja? What if is a game that gets played out a lot in these young minds. And mine as well.
What if does not play well in our present moment awareness. How can we be in the present moment and wondering what if I had done this or that or said this or the other thing. What if I had somehow changed my life to create more space for that girl? What would have/could have been possible??

Yet we all play the game to some extent. We all try to project what is going to happen in the future. If I go to this school and get this degree then I can do that thing over there. If I invest in that thing I will be rich. If I marry that person I will live happily ever after.

Isn’t that what all the stories and legends are all about…Once upon a time and happily ever after? Not the present moment awareness is happily ever after. Yet if all do is live moment to moment how will I ever get anything meaningful done. Even in the planting of a garden I am in some small way living into the future. I have to plant to today to reap tomorrow. Aren’t I outside the present moment when I am doing that? Yes I am.

Yet there is no way to plan for the future without being outside the present moment. There is no way to create a legacy, build a business, or even build a house without making future plans. So how am I going to be here now and still project myself into event in the future?

I am going to be 100% committed to what I am doing right now. Even if what I am doing is planning for the future. Even if what I am doing is playing what if? Now there may be some what if games that are more productive than others. But I need to be 100% attentive to the moment I am in, even if the moment I am working on is future related. There is no way to live in this world and do nothing other than be completely, totally focused on only the present. I need to do things that will have an effect in the future on things that will affect me and other people. I am not a monk in a cave, meditating on the nature of the present.

But I need to be careful how much energy I put into the what ifs. It is one thing to plan for the future, to create a vision and a mission to live into. And when I am doing that activity that is my focus. But how much energy do I want to put into playing fantasy games? What if that truck had hit my car? Do I really want to focus on that possibility? What if I had gone to different school, taken a different job, fell in love with someone else? There is no mileage in this game…I cannot change the past. I can plan for the future, not plan for the past. And I cannot allow the past to dictate the future. So If I want to live in San Diego I need to get present to that possibility and start designing a life that will take me there. This is diametrically opposed to fantasizing about what life would have been like had I moved there 20 years ago.

Present moment awareness says I can create my life by being focused on the activity I am doing now, provided that activity is moving me toward the outcome I want to reach. I often see people spending a huge of amount of energy worrying about what might happen…spiraling out of control into depression and self abuse. This is not present moment awareness.

I start every moment with a breath. And I finish that moment with a breath. In between is all the rest. In the beginning and the end is breath. When in doubt I go back to breath, completely focused and in that moment. So when I start wondering about what If…I go back to my breath. It may take more than a few, by the way, but eventually your monkey mind will stop hopping around, stop zooming here and there and you will begin to return to center. Then in your breath you can begin to plan and work and work the plan.

Now what if I stop breathing???

This week’s recipe….
The Smoothie is one of my favorite ways to get fast nutrition.
1 frozen banana (a way to use those ripe bananas…peel and freeze)
Handful of frozen blueberries
You can use cantaloupe or strawberries or just about any fruit you want just don’t go overboard!
½ cup Plain yogurt --- I like Greek yogurt or goat yogurt
1 organic free range local egg (Thanks Toni)…not everyone will eat a raw egg so you can leave this out if you want
1 tbsp flax seed oil
2 tbsp of your favorite protein powder…egg, whey, hemp, whatever as long as it’s high quality…use more if you want especially if you didn’t use the egg.
2 tbsp of psyllium powder for fiber..this is optional
1cup pomegranate juice…you could use just about anything here but I like pomegranate or acai for their antioxidant properties.
A handful of ice
Blend until thick. Drink slowly so your brain doesn’t freeze!

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

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Sunday Story...You Made Your Bed

Sunday Story...You Made Your Bed


So you got up this morning and made your bed, brushed your teeth, and washed your face. Prepared your morning beverage and breakfast. When you looked out the kitchen window you saw nothing. There was nothing there. A blank slate. No trees, no sidewalks, no back yard, nothing. Just a big empty world, almost as if a giant pencil had erased everything you once knew and expected. Fear arises in your throat, almost choking and gagging you, like blue green sputum meant to be expelled. What now??

Every day is like this. You get to decide what your life is going to look like from here on out. It looks the way it looks because you designed it that way. Think of your life like a picture you drew when you were a child...the grass may have been blue and the sky green. Maybe you colored in the lines and maybe there were no lines...your art looked the way you wanted it to look. Your life is the same way...you are creating art every day you wake up.

Every day you get to live your mission. Even if you think you don't have one, you are living one...maybe someone else's mission, or the mission someone else picked out for you...but you living it nonetheless. So this morning as I looked out at that blank slate, that new world waiting for me to color it in, I got to decide how it would look.

My life looks the way it looks because I have made the decisions over the years to create it that way. Many years ago I wrote an advance biography of my life for a school project in the 8th grade. It is scary to look at that report and see all the things that have come true. My life was designed by a 13 year old kid. What!!!! Are you kidding me? Who put him in charge? And who left him in charge? Who wrote the report on your life? A 10 year old? Maybe a 4 year old? And when are you going to wrest control back? Isn't it time?

Do you have a written mission statement? A written vision statement? A set of goals that you have written down. Or are you living out of a vague sense of where you want to be? Some long lost career path that you went to when you were 19 or 20? Or worse yet are you just trudging down the path, myopically moving toward the day when you can “retire” and do nothing? Nothing? Really? If you aren't on a path now what makes you think you will be on a path when you “retire”? Or maybe your path is just one long trip in a rut that will end up as a grave after your 78.8 is up?

If you don't know where you are going, you can pretty much bet you are going to end up there. And if you keep doing what you are doing you can bet you are going to keep getting what you have gotten. So what are you going to do about your blank canvas that is the rest of your life, or even the rest of your day?

My mission statement is pretty clear...To lead an authentically transparent life purposefully designed to teach focus and inspire transformation. This is not the life I envisioned when I was 13. or 33. I am not living in the place I thought I would live. But I am living the way I knew I always would..with purpose and intent. And I fail often. More often than I would like to admit...but every once in a while I hit it.

You see, I always said I wanted to change the world. And about a dozen years ago I decided I better start right where I was, so I did. And yesterday a mother, after watching her children test for their first belt, came to me with tears in her eyes.
Her gratitude was evident and she was so happy with the transformation her children made in just a few short weeks. More focus and more confidence, more joy, and more respect. This is changing the world. I don't have to be Gandhi, or Mother Theresa. I don't have to mobilize thousands to my cause. If I can shift one attitude just one degree the effect over a lifetime will be immense.

The canvas is not so blank. I am painting it with the attitudes and shifts in consciousness I want to see in the world. Is my mission fulfilled ? Not yet? It will never be done. You see it is a quest, like the one for the grail. Elusive and stubborn, the ultimate goal will may never be reached, it is the journey, the path that is the joy, the lesson. In the painting I am painting the people in the world are focused and transformed into the people they were designed to be. Not who I think they should be or who anyone else thinks they should be but the people they were designed by their creator to be.

What are you doing to your canvas?

Namaste

John
"Teaching Focus Inspiring Transformation"

www.martialartsnevada.com
http://sunday-stories.blogspot.com/
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http://mondaygift.blogspot.com/

This Week's Recipe

Grilled Veggies

This is the time of year my outdoor grill gets overused.
And it is the time of year for fresh veggies!

These two things combine for a miraculous combination...

Grab your veggies...broccoli, carrots, beets, onions, cauliflower, asparagus, peppers whatever you can find...cut into pieces about 3 inches long so several will fit into the chard leaves (see below). Throw all these in a baking dish and drizzle with your favorite olive oil. Sprinkle crushed red pepper and maybe some powdered garlic. Chop some fresh rosemary and basil and mix. Toss it all together. Get some really big Swiss chard leaves and place the veggies in a leaf and wrap. Fasten with a skewer or toothpicks. Place in the tray above the grill if you have one. If not turn the heat down low and place the skewers on a pizza plate. Let the veggies roast/steam in the leaves for about 15 minutes. Unpin the leaves and squeeze lemon juice over the veggies. Serve with your favorite fish or chicken (also grilled!)

Sunday Story...Intensity

Sunday Story…Intensity

Recently I took the Crossfit certification course. Crossfit is an exercise modality that consists of highly varied, functional movements done with high intensity. Basically, the routine is that there is no routine. Whatever the workout is it is different from any other. Repetition is the enemy. This is a very different exercise modality than what most of us have been doing in the gym over the years.

In many ways what Crossfit does flies in the face of the current exercise common thought. The bottom line is fitness. Not looking good. Not having big muscles. Not spending hours on end doing mindless exercise. No, Crossfit is a training ground for athletes. And every one of you is an athlete. Somewhere inside of you there is an athlete lurking, waiting to bust out of the hard shell you have trapped them inside of. This is part of the reason we marvel at athletic games, especially the world cups, super bowls, and other championships. We love to watch highly trained people do things at the top of their games. And secretly we all want our bodies to do some measure of what those people can do.

Guess what…you already do. The difference is intensity. Every day you get out of a chair. Every day you bend over and pick something off the ground, reach over your head to put something away, walk from the store to your car carrying bags of things, pick up a child or bend over to talk to someone smaller/lower than you. These are all functional movements. Compound movements using more than one joint that cannot be broken done to any smaller movement. Things you do every day. Things you would want to do more often, easier and with more comfort.

I cannot dunk a basket ball. But I can work on my jumps. And I can be focused on what I am doing while I am doing it. And I can be very very intense when I am doing it. A professional athlete trains because he is called to do it. He or she will do it even when it is hard, or they just don’t feel like it. And they will train hard no matter what because they know that their competitor is training hard. An amateur trains when they feel like it. When it looks like fun and sometimes is just not connected to doing whatever it is they are doing.

This is the wrong attitude. I train to inhibit, to slow, to derail the process that is happening everyday to my body. I am getting older, so are you. Since about age 30 I have been on a slow yet slippery slope of degeneration and decrepitude. So have you. I am competing against time, age, and nature. I may not win but I believe I must try. And so I train with intensity and focus, like my competitior was on my tail or worse yet in front of me.

Many of you have given up the race. You have admitted defeat before you ever really got in the game. The good news is that you can still get back in the race. The human body is an amazing thing. Your bones are 4 times stronger than concrete. Your blood travels 60,000 miles on its journey. Your liver can de-toxify almost anything. Your job is to give your body the tools it needs to maintain and repair itself.

And one of those tools is focused intensity around exercise (the other two tools are rest and nutrition). Just getting on a bike and reading a book is not going to do it. How many people do you know that have been doing that for years and have not gotten any better and may have actually put on weight or inches? No intensity.

You know all those television preachers? Screaming and yelling and ranting and raving? Intensity. An NBA basket ball coach screaming on the sidelines? Intensity. An Olympic power lifter getting ready to deadlift 1000 pounds? Intensity. Two fighters facing off across the ring? Intensity. A single minded focus upon one thing. No multi tasking, no distractions, no maybe, no sort of, no hedging or playing it safe. No questioning why…just to do or to die. Intensity.

Where are you applying intensity in your life? Watching TV? I think not. Going to the job you hate? I think not. Friday night out with your friends? I think not. Where then? Where are you playing full out? Where?

It is time for you to start playing a full out, championship style game. Pick a place and start turning your powerful laser beam focus on to that spot. Fitness? Food? Education? Where will you be the next Jordan in your life? Where will you give a herculean effort to the endeavor? What would you do, what would you be if you knew you could not fail? If you know your focus and intensity was going to drive you to heights you only previously dreamed of? How intense could you get? Would it be worth it? In a word…YES?

Highly intense. Constantly varied. Functional movement. Sounds a lot like life doesn’t it? Or it would if we got off the couch and into the world and started living into the power and purpose you were sent here to perform. You can do this…you just have to decide and take one step. The rest is simple (not easy).

This week’s recipe….
It’s summer…start picking stuff!
Grilled Pepper encrusted Ahi Salad
Take some black peppercorn and a tablespoon of rosemary and crush the two of them together.
Get some Ahi Tuna (I buy mine at Costco) and rub the pepper rosemary mixture on it.
Throw it on the grill for 5 or 6 minutes. (3 minutes or so each side) ---more if you want it more well done.
Get fresh greens, radishes, tomatoes, cucumbers raw zucchini, cilantro, and anything else you pick in your garden and make a big salad.
Slice an avocado (eat ½ or 1/3)
Dice up a mango
Fan the avocado on the side of the plate and put the diced mango in top.
Cover the rest of the plate with the greens.
Slice the Ahi and fan over where the salad and the avocado meet. Serve with a nice sparkling water.
Salad dressing: 1/3 olive oil, 2/3 vinegar (I uses ½ balsamic and ½ apple cider with a tsp. or so of plum vinegar)
Simple and easy and healthy.
Enjoy!!!


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

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