If you look at the rising cost of healthcare and the way the nation’s health are going, you have to understand that this “plan” simply isn’t working. Obesity and childhood diabetes are reaching epidemic levels. Heart disease and cancer are ravaging our population. More and more people are getting chronically ill and our current healthcare system is ill-equipped to deal with this crisis.
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A couple nights ago I got off a plane from a two week trip to Europe. My wife and I had spent hours and hours walking around Paris and Amsterdam among people from all ages and walks of life. Young and old- people walked around and were moving their bodies.
Waiting for our luggage at the belt, there was a middle aged woman who came up to us and started to complain that the airport didn’t have golf cart service to bring her through the enormous terminal (maybe half a mile). She was pissed! How dare they make me walk that much!
This was the same woman we saw chain smoking in one of those “designated areas” in the previous airport. She was overweight, cranky, and, at this point, trying to enroll me in her fury. I smiled and consoled her but walked away thinking about the stark difference I’d seen in her European counterparts.
Why is it that we EXPECT people, the State, our companies, or the airports to take care of us when we have chosen to not take care of ourselves? Nobody forced those cigarettes on her. Nobody force-fed her the bad food. Yet, it is now the airport’s fault that she is tired because she is forced to do the one thing that we evolved to do best on this planet- move around. This is de-evolution in my opinion.
The socio-economic implications are also important. Her demanding a cart means the airport has to pay for it- the cart, the power, the staff, the insurance…all of it. Well, guess where the airport gets that money? US. Yeah- like any business, they either raise the airport fees or draw more tax dollars…however the heck they do it, WE are the ones having to pay that bill.
In the world of Health and Wellness, we have four spokes that hold together the wheel of Vitality. The are the critical elements that constitute one’s lifestyle. Each of them have to be balanced in their own right and all of them need to feed into each-other in order to attain the ultimate goal of good health.
The first of these spokes is Diet. We literally are what we eat. The food we intake literally becomes the makeup of our body and the energy we run off of. A balanced diet of organic and locally grown ingredients brings vibrant energy and clean fuel to the cells. In Chinese medicine we derive out Gu Qi (Food Qi) from our diet and this, mixed with the air we breathe constitutes the foundation of our energy body. Qi Gong is excellent for the circulation of breath. The digestive organs assimilate the food we eat and produce usable energy for the body and brain- energy we need to run our daily lives. An abundance of energy can be derived from keeping this system efficient and eating quality foods in small quantities.
If you’ve tried to meditate and can’t figure out why it didn’t work for you, please read on. Here’s the solution to your dilemma:
I often encounter mental blocks with students who are trying to learn how to meditate because their world view is jaded. People treat meditation like some sort of “chill pill”- something that helps them get through their hectic days. This form of thinking has relegated an ancient form of deep wisdom into an inconvenient substitute for a pill. That’s not the design and is a wholly inappropriate way dealing with one’s self.
I had the distinct pleasure of hanging out with Doctor Bruce Lipton yesterday. I was interviewing him for the Vitality Movie which is a documentary I’ve been working on with Sacred Mysteries Productions. The movie is set to release soon and has an incredible cast of notable figures in the Health and Wellness sphere in it.
I’d like to start off by saying that Dr. Lipton is a great guy. He knows his stuff but keeps the twinkle in his eyes from the rock and roll era he grew up in. He’s a musician which makes him an artist and a scholar- a well rounded combination. This was a fun interview.
We discussed the nature of how cells process information and how that impacts our overall health. We discussed the problems with the current healthcare system and he had wonderful things to say about how to create solutions for it. We discussed Acupuncture, Chiropractic , nutrition, energy medicine (qi gong), and psychotherapy as integral facets of the new healthcare model.
The power of the subconscious mind was a big subject and we discussed a variety of strategies on how people can change their lives and free themselves of their mental entrapment. Bruce has some very nice ideas about conscious parenting and what it means to take on that responsibility. I highly suggest reading his book: “The Biology of Belief” and I’ll be getting this footage over to the editing department so I can leak some excerpts of our talk.
I love meeting with scientists like Dr. Lipton because it offers an incredible opportunity for integration of esoteric knowledge with new science. My years of training in alchemy and energy work have introduced me to far out concepts and interesting people along the way. It is great to sit with someone like Dr. Lipton and discuss these topics through the looking glass of cellular biology. We really have come full circle and it is a wonderful time to be alive.
On October 26, 2010, In Health and Wellness, Popular Issues, By Pedram
How does the AMEX Black Card relate to your happiness?
In the classic series of “The Lord of the Rings”, J.R.R. Tolkein had created a masterpiece of literature and allegory. I remember reading a bit from an interview with him once and was interested in his description of Frodo’s Ring of Power. For those of you who have not become familiar with this work yet, drop everything and go read those books!
In the interview, Tolkein kept referring to the ring as “The Machine”. (more…)
Have you ever noticed that when you are stressed or afraid, you stop breathing? It happens all of the time. Our emotional state overtakes our energy field and we stop circulating the flow of vital energy throughout our bodies. This locks up the coherent flow of our Vitality and entraps thoughts, emotions, disease, and toxins in our system. We start to breathe in a shallow fashion and we feel compressed- actually we literally are. The torroidal field of our vital energy starts to collapse and we densify- losing the flow of the Levity inducing charge that keeps us young and vibrant. It is one of the most common ways we ail- something so simple.
Hanging out with Leonard Orr this summer, he and I discussed his form of circular breathing and how he uses prescriptions for people who come to him for a whole host of ailments. This is very similar to what we do in my Qi Gong tradition- breath work for homework. It is so easy yet so difficult. Why so hard? Because we don’t want to feel what has come up- breathing life to a thought or emotion dislodges it and moves it through our field. If we learn to observe it with equanimity and an open heart, it simply passes and is gone. The problem- we freak out and hang on- then the repressed charge gets so strong that we can hardly breathe.
The fix is easy- deep lower abdominal breathing for ten minutes or so and then breathe to the area of repression.
Find a track here and get to work!
On September 29, 2010, In Health and Wellness, Meditation, Popular Issues, Taoist Philosophy, By Pedram
post continued from Part I…
…Continued from [this post]
… Think of it like math. Most people hate math growing up. There is a given problem and we all think- oh no! Problem! But the answer to this problem is a given solution set that teaches us about the nature of this query and it teaches us how to come to a solution for this problem. Once solved, not only is the problem over, we also have learned how to solve similar problems to it! Imagine that- we actually develop a skill set that renders us more efficient at this kind of problem- we are a problem solver!
As we get better and better, we move to higher math and more complicated “problems”. So, back to your life- once you crack the code and learn how to get things done, the next thing gets easier and easier. The path to mastery starts with baby steps and, the solution set I put to you, hides in our relationship with time. Learn to adjust your expectations of yourself in time and you can do anything. This is what we see when a master performs a task effortlessly. It is a state of complete relaxation- effortless action. How we get there is (more…)
