My ideals at the time were art, music, nature, love and non-violence. I grew my hair as a sign to others that I was committed to my ideals. My awareness of the environmental movement started when Pollution Probe began in Toronto, and it has never faded. I ate health food and spent as much time as possible in nature with my friends. I was convinced of the inherent correctness of my beliefs and convinced that simply by waiting until my generation was at the wheel, we could steer the ship of state to a safer harbour.

I moved to the West Coast and I became a professional artist and mural designer, then a nightclub designer and finally an interior designer with a staff. Throughout that period, I slowly became more corporate myself, although my hair became shorter instantly in the mid 70s when long hair was actually in fashion. A top Japanese fashionista hair stylist, Suki, who like me had just moved to Vancouver, grabbed my long hair and said, “Too o’ fashion” and instantly cut my hair very, very short. This was at a time even before I designed the second mass-produced GreenPeace poster. Produced in 1977, the poster, titled “Stop the Slaughter”, protested the seal hunt. At the time, many of my friends, particularly those in the environmental movement, still had their long hair from the 60s.

In the arts and music scene, while painting murals, designing graphics and simply being cool was in, hair was a uniform again, this time of the urban hip genre. I became a style victim to the hippest hair stylists, at the height of my disco design period when my nickname was “The Lounge Lizard”. Pink lightning bolts were died into my short hair. My favourite moment of the lightning bolt phase was when I had to meet my girlfriend’s father in-law “Joe”, the wealthy, retired and very straight-laced former president of no less than US Steel. We met for the first time at her family cottage and he almost immediately questioned the look with some aggression, yet he was immediately placated when I told him I was a disco designer and this was good for business.

And business ruled my haircuts for the next three decades. I simply found the best hairdresser in town, (not a barber) Elizabeth Mincey (Luna Aveda Concept Salon, findable on Facebook), because Elizabeth was the only person using natural hair care products in Victoria (where my disco career took me). Elizabeth was the first hairdresser in fact in all of Canada to do so.

Fast forward a few decades to 2009 and my decision (while meditating at a week-long yoga camp at Hollyhock to completely change my business model and morph from seeking the largest and highest paying jobs to seeking only the best jobs, ones that — I repeated to myself — were to be:

1. Close to home (no more monthly international jet flights).

2. Only for my friends or people I really like (I had never worked for friends before because I’m too soft about money with them and had some old fashioned British ideals about not being able to charge your friends to help them).

3. Good work, the definition of which, as I meditated, became the catalyst for complete change (because good for me meant being totally green, totally eco and sustainable, even to the United Nations definition of sustainable).

This realization that I was serious about these changes — albeit in the midst of a recession with a large staff — was very profound. My company would change. It would have to downsize, at least at first, and we needed new branding.

All of this has occurred, we are now housed in the ecoDesign Gallery. Staffing is at 33 per cent of former levels and during the changeover I grew my hair, at first only semi-committed to the look but as more and more people criticized or commented, some favourably (not my partner) and I had to think about it, I realized that I needed to once again use my hair as a signal of my commitment to my environmental ideals.

I’m not saying all environmentalists have long hair, far from it; almost everyone in the modern sustainability movement for one thing is younger than me, and has never been labeled a hippie. But what I am seeing is that I am not alone. Many men my age, and those who are seeking change in our society, are quietly growing their hair again. Company owners, managers, professionals, people who for decades have had short hair, are expressing something.

Why do this? Does my hair get odd looks at the senior executive lunch club? Is this a wise financial move? All of this simply comes down to one thing: care for the planet, because I want to wear an expression of that eco-care everywhere I go, all the time. If you know anyone who was around in the 1960s, ask them, “Did you grow your hair?”, and if they answer yes, ask them why. It may be, like me, they wanted a more ideal world. Hope for a more ideal world is why I grew my hair…twice.

Photo Credits

Hair Poster – Creative Commons
JC Scott 1970 by Lenni Workman
JC Scott 2010 by Anita Rydygier

Why I Grew My Hair — Both Times is a post from: Life As A Human

Many of the greatest business ideas and inventions have been driven by a convergence between an emerging market need and the availability of a solution for that market need. Using technology as an example, when a technology becomes sufficiently affordable and available to address a growing market need, we reach a conversion point and a huge window of opportunity.

When the window first opens, there are not many competitors so margins are healthy. As the market matures, more competition enters the fray, margins begin to erode and the market becomes saturated. Eventually, the technology matures to a point where it is so low in cost that it is difficult to maintain a business model that worked when the window first opened.

Consider YouTube for a moment. Suppose that 15 years ago you had thought about doing what YouTube does today. It would not have worked because fifteen years ago, most people connected to the infant internet with low speed modems. It would have taken all night to transfer a video. PC’s were much slower and the applications to make videos were available only to a select few. Moreover, the price tag to host such a service would have been astronomical primarily because of the enormous data storage requirements and bandwidth costs.

On the other hand, if you had carefully looked at the market and the developing technologies, you would have seen that faster modems were on the horizon promising significant increases in connection speeds. In time, these speed increases would lead to low cost high-speed internet access. You also might have noticed that Yahoo Chat, MSN and ICQ were taking off like wildfire. So was instant messaging. This was the birth of Virtual Social Networking. Add to this faster PC’s, inexpensive video applications, affordable cameras and reasonably priced high-capacity hard drives. Now you have all the makings of a convergence. A window opens and entities like YouTube and Facebook jump into it. Do not doubt for one minute that some organizations like these were not looking ahead to this convergence and preparing for it.

Convergence happens all the time. Positioning yourself to take advantage of a convergence is always a good idea. An example today would be solar energy, or photovoltaics. Many factors play into this convergence. The price of solar panels is slowly coming down. They are becoming more efficient at producing energy and are smaller than previous versions. The price of oil, gas and hydro are all going up, as is their impact on the environment. Ultimately, solar energy offers the potential for clean energy at a much lower cost. The market size is enormous. Essentially, every roof in the world represents a potential sale. It wasn’t that long ago that Bill Gates said; “a computer on every desktop”. Today, someone out there is saying, “a solar panel of every rooftop”. If they aren’t, they should be!

You don’t need to start a huge company to take advantage of convergence. Perhaps you are a sales rep looking for a new career or a technician seeking a new challenge where you can apply your skills. Keeping an eye on technology developments and emerging markets that are one, two and five years out is a smart thing to do. If you see something that interests you, then spend some time every day researching this emerging market. Become well versed in all of the potential solutions that might address this market and then start talking about it. You will be seen as an expert or perhaps even a visionary and will be very well positioned to jump into that window of opportunity in whatever capacity you choose.

Photo Credits

Feature Picture Of Solar Panel – Some rights reserved by moondabor

Originally posted May 29, 2009 at synaptici

Convergence: Seeing The Windows Of Opportunity is a post from: Life As A Human

In our house, it started at 4pm and lasted until 2 am. It started with a little whimper, then a fuss, then suddenly our son’s face would crumple and a huge wail would burst from his mouth.

As he quickly reached his first of many crescendos, his face would become a brilliant shade of purple. Once or twice, he even burst a blood vessel on his face. I couldn’t believe so much pain and unhappiness could be etched on such fresh, smooth skin.

He’d draw his arms and legs into his body, becoming a compact little unit. And if he was lying on his tummy, he would arch his back up and almost rise on his limbs. I felt so helpless.

And hopeless. When you don’t know how to help and you are desperately sleep deprived, you aren’t at your most resourceful.

The sleep deprivation isn’t just because you get to bed late after trying to lovingly, patiently, gently cope with an inconsolable baby.

Most new babies eat every two hours, so theoretically you could quickly feed the baby, sleep for two hours, feed the baby, sleep, feed the baby…and on it would go.

Sounds tough, huh? If only it were that easy.

The baby wakes up, you change his diaper (and often sleepers if he’s soaked them though), then snuggle down for a nice little meal. If you breastfeed, then it’s about 10 minutes a side, with a pat and burp halfway through. And if you aren’t patient enough to wait for that burp, the entire dinner gets barfed back up and you have a hungry baby and empty breasts.

But let’s say all goes well. You’ve now spend 30 minutes on feeding, with only 90 minutes until the next feeding. But baby is wide awake, so you spend a little time in the rocking chair or walking the floor or singing the only lullaby you can bring to mind. Or in my case, a Joe Cocker song, but I digress.

You go to lay your precious little bundle back in the crib only to discover that the sheets are soaked too. Laying the little fella down on his quilt on the floor, you quickly whip of f the fitted sheet, expertly tuck in a new one, and ease baby back to bed. One hour later you creep back to bed, via the washroom for a quick pee.

One hour later, it starts again.

Please be reminded that sleep deprivation is illegal under the Geneva Convention. Then there is the special torture inflicted upon parents who have crying babies.

We tried everything. Walking endless circles around our townhouse. Rocking for hours in a creaky old rocking chair. Rocking for hours in a new glider chair. Nursing. Not nursing. Soothers. Driving up and down the mountain where we lived by the university. Getting stopped by the police who thought we were casing people’s houses at 1am.  Putting our son in his car seat on top of the clothes dryer while it was running. Putting him to sleep in a baby swing—that one worked until the swing wound down, then the screaming started again.

Oh yes, and all the remedies. Gripe water and such.

And as frustrated, as exhausted and as depleted as I was, I felt so terrible that my beautiful little boy was so miserable. Luckily, I had wonderful friends who supported me, walked him for hours under the streetlights so I could sleep in the evening,

My beautiful, but purple, baby.

Not everyone has that kind of support. Not everyone has emotional resources. Maybe the mom has postpartum depression, or both parents are teenagers. Maybe you didn’t even want a kid.

Maybe one day you snap.

You shake that inconsolable little creature and beg her to stop crying. You just don’t know how you can do it anymore. You want your life to change.

And in that split second, your life does indeed change. Now you have a baby with an irreversible brain injury.

Shaken baby syndrome. It sounds so easy to prevent, but in that moment of passion and exhaustion, some people just don’t know to walk away. They don’t know where to turn.

In British Columbia, where I live, the provincial Children’s Hospital is reaching out with an awareness campaign that reaches its purple crescendo on November 15^th, Canada’s National Child Campaign.

They are asking people to knit or crochet soft little purple hats for newborns to be distributed at BC’s maternity wards to raise awareness of PURPLE Crying and shaken baby syndrome. It’ll be an easy entrance to education new parents about the normalcy of infant crying, and how to cope with it.

I’ll be whipping up some purple caps myself, and I think I’ll attach a little note of love to each one. It’ll say something like, “If your baby cries, that’s okay. It’s a big scary world and he or she is just getting used to it. He’ll get over it­ and so will you. Love from a mom who’s been there.”

If you’re on Facebook, then join their Facebook group and share the information with your friends. Encourage them to knit a few caps over the summer months.

PURPLE caps should be mailed by Nov 5, 2010 to:
BC Children’s Hospital:
c/o Claire Yambao
Provincial Program Coordinator, Prevent SBS BC
BC Children’s Hospital
4480 Oak Street, K1-209
Vancouver, BC V6H 3V4

Photo Credits

“Crying Baby” courtesy of green health children

“Purple hats for purple babies” Courtesy of PurpleCrying.info

Consoling the Inconsolable: My Life with a Purple Baby is a post from: Life As A Human

Still, the full contingent of walkers representing South Australian childhood cancer charity, The McDermott McGuinness Foundation, made it to the high mountain plateau —and then scaled further still, up a trail usually taken only by villagers harvesting wild herbs, until we stood on an exposed, broken pile of rubble that we suddenly realized was the tip of the ancient wall, with a whole region of wild China sprawled before us in every direction.

This was the profound moment that defined our challenge, bringing a heady rush of euphoria and poignancy. Our group shared embraces, long silences and some tears as most remembered precious people now lost to us — many having been taken by cancer. In the stillness of such an awesome panorama, it reaffirmed how precious life is.

The 2009 McDermott McGuinness Foundation challenge to walk sections of the Great Wall of China was not as arduous as previous foundation ventures — conquering the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea and the Sandakan Death March in the Borneo jungle — but it presented complex and significant challenges to its 31 participants on two trips through June and July.

Beyond raising funds for childhood cancer research, we had to be physically ready for more than 110,000 vertical steps, and be culturally prepared to embrace the language, cuisine and customs of a land where we were most definitely the aliens.

The wall presented a fresh challenge every day, as we encountered nine sections — each with significantly different personalities — through six consecutive days of walking. There was the peculiar spectacle of a rebuilt section of wall jutting into the Yellow Sea at Laolongtou and a reconstructed city within the former garrison at Shanhaiguan Pass — the formidable First Pass Under Heaven — awaiting an initial hoard of tourists to fill its new, stylized accommodation.

We trudged through sheet rain at Jiaoshan, the first rugged mountain peak we encountered about 20km north west of the Shanhaiguan Pass. We saw the wall descend into the Panjaikou reservoir (created for hydro electricity in 1975) and emerge to climb the opposite ridges, scaling dizzy heights that dropped sharply into sparkling azure waters.

We scaled the eastern flank of the Huangyaguan wall at dawn (4.50 am), observing the strategic mastery of how it formed an impenetrable barrier across the stark, jagged mountainside created by extreme geological events.

Then there was the heat — a punishing opponent that roasted us slowly during our longest trek from Jinshanling to Simatai, even though local Mongol farmers were already at the highest of 57 towers we passed through, perched under umbrellas offering to sell us cold beer and engraved medallions.

As we learned about the wall, China revealed itself — and also we learned about ourselves, as the spirit of support swelled and friendships grew among our unlikely tour family that spanned five age groups, from live-wire grandmothers to teenagers.

Most were daunted by the physical challenge of scaling peaks, ladders and negotiating skinny, crumbling paths — though none shirked the task or complained.

“I wouldn’t have believed I could do all this,” said Deb Hanley, taking part in her first adventure trek. “I’m feeling pretty good about myself.”

For others, the challenge was leaving accustomed comforts behind. Gordana Kleut, a former model, had the taunts of her teenage children ringing in her ears, insisting that she not “behave like a princess” on the journey. Hauling her pack to the summit, sweating with the rest of the team, she flashed a contented smile. “No princesses up here,” she declared proudly.

What we achieved only became apparent once the challenge had been completed. Returning from the Simatai summit, after six hours of walking the wall in 38 c heat, we encountered a group of young Americans who had alighted a chairlift from the car park directly below and were labouring a short distance to the mountain peak.

They asked where we had come from. I looked to the distant horizon and the long crooked stone spine with its knobbly watchtowers stretching far away from us. “About double the distance of the furthest point you can see,” was my reply — not as a boast, but more a marvellous realization.

“This is the ninth section of the wall that we’ve walked during the past six days.” They looked at us in disbelief. “That’s incredible,” they exclaimed. And they were right — we had experienced an incredible week that will live in our memories forever.

The Great Wall is such a complex riddle to understand, due to the complexity of four separate and quite disjointed sections of walls built over 1800 years by four separate dynasties — the Qin, Han, Wei and Ming — across 6700km of violently jutting mountain peaks and sweeping desert plains spanning China.

While some decayed earthen sections of the first walls date from 220BC, the familiar sections of stone and brick reinforced walls in the steep mountains north of Beijing are the legacy of the last of the wall building rulers, the Ming Dynasty, which were completed in 1572 — not as ancient as many presume, as Elizabeth I was then on the throne in England and the Renaissance in full bloom in Italy.

Even as the youngest section of the wall, this area had fallen into such terrible disrepair that what tourists see now in the popular visited sections has been largely rebuilt since 1984.

Problems stemmed from bombing during the Sino-Japanese War and then the Chinese Civil War through the 1930s and 1940s, when ramparts were detonated to scavenge masonry for building roads and reservoirs, then picked over by local looters seeking building materials. In truth, this decay has occurred since the walls ceased to be a strategic defensive barrier after the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1664.

For generations, most Chinese viewed the walls in unsentimental terms, as an ancient stone spine across the landscape. However, now there is a rush to rejuvenate the wall — particularly in quiet rural domains — due to its lucrative tourism appeal. In some places, the Great Wall now has the look and feel of a theme park, while areas of the wild wall in more remote rural areas have you stepping over workmen placing new grey stone tiles over the ancient rubble to make an easier path for western visitors.

As the rush accelerates to make more of the wall easily accessible to more tourists, one wonders what type of historical monument visitors to the Great Wall will find in another 10 years time.

Photo Credits

All photos by David Sly

Stairway to Heaven: Climbing China’s Great Wall for Cancer Charity is a post from: Life As A Human

I was at Metrotown in Burnaby, BC. If you’ve ever been there, you know it’s a big mall with all the big mall accoutrements and  little surrounding it one would call aesthetically dynamic. However, in these situations I often challenge myself to find something that I can capture that has that artistic epiphany.

I left the mall to see what I might find outside on this cloudy day. Nothing struck me as I wandered the parking lot looking at signage, colours, angles, benches, grates and tiling. I decided to wander and see where fate would take me. I headed west and was about to run across Kingsway when I noticed a pedestrian bridge spanning the roadway. “Now that looks interesting,” I thought.

I headed for the stairs. I spent at least a half hour or more shooting that bridge from many angles. Here’s three shots, which I pushed with tone mapping once I got home, but I did shoot the photos with this in mind. What inspired me was the contrast between the wood and concrete, the clouds and the sky and the chrome and glass — all very strong subjects and all of them came together. I was cognizant of the potential of this conglomeration and am pleased with the results; albeit, I have pushed them far and have only begun to start experimenting with this type of technique.

Click on the photos and they’ll open up in a larger format.

Photo Credits

All photos © chrisholtphotos.com

Pushing It: Photographing Cathedrals to the Urban Spirit is a post from: Life As A Human

On a day-to-day basis, I don’t drop everything to play with my kids. I’m a firm believer that they need to learn boundaries. And, it is in setting these boundaries – like nap/quiet time – that I achieve my own moments of solitude. My children need to hear me say that I want to play with them, but that I also need to vacuum the house or that I need to finish my breakfast.

Corbin is a charmer and it’s all too easy to give in to his requests when batting eyelashes, sweet tones and please-don’t-deny-me smiles accompany them. But, if I always give in to him then how will he be able to respect my needs? And, if he can’t respect my needs then God help him because when he becomes a man — or sooner — nobody will respect his. I’ve taught him to ask for privacy when he’s in the bathroom and now when I’m in the bathroom and I ask for privacy, I get it.

He knows now that dishes need to be done after breakfast so he asks me, “When you are finished the breakfast dishes, will you help me with my puzzle?” Sometimes he’ll turn it back on me and tell me, “I will have a bath but first the cars have to have a race.” So long as it doesn’t turn into procrastination or avoidance, I respect this because in his four-year-old head he is setting up some parameters around time and priorities. He’s catching on to this as quickly as he did his rudimentary style of arguing; “I can have four because I’m four, right?”

One day last fall, though, we left the house without doing dishes, without folding laundry or picking up toys. We left our PJ’s on the floor, I forgot to take out the garbage and I left the fruit flies a buffet. Rain be damned, we went to the Saanich Fair. As we drove, Corbin chatted on and on and on about the animals he would see and the hotdog, bun, dip-dip and juice box that he would consume. The Wee Wrestler, Hamish, listened contentedly, making only the occasional comment. Somewhere along the Pat Bay Highway we started a game whereby I would say “Ga!”, Corbin would say “Ga!” and then the two of us would wait with baited breath for The Wee Wrestler to say “Ga!” Then we would laugh and start the whole game again.

At the fair, Mr. Three Because I’m Three rode three rides that cost three tickets each. The Wee Wrestler watched his older brother from the comfort of his front row stroller seat. We stood in line for way too long to buy a hot dog and fries from the Boy Scouts and then I attained a combo plate and chai tea from the India Canada trailer.

Carting all this food around on the hood of our stroller was tenuous to say the least. And, just when we found a dry place to enjoy our spread, my older son announced his need to use the facilities. So, we burdened our food/people carrier cart once again to make the pilgrimage to the washroom. When we returned, our dry seats were, of course, taken, but the rain had subsided and with the help of a receiving blanket on a wet bench, we settled once more to enjoy our fair food. The rain came and went as we made our way through the fairgrounds and not once did I think of what we left behind in our house.

However, by 10:00 pm and after an hour of mindless but entertaining television drivel, I found myself at my computer for the first time. In many ways, I love this kind of a day but by 6:30 pm I felt myself starting to shut down. To me, leaving the dishes is like a holiday. Fun, full of adventure, but definitely not sane for the day-in-day-out. I am of no use to my husband because my kids have taken it all from me. However, some days I have to trade in my solitude for a bit of adventure because it is in those moments of adventure that I find a different kind of peace altogether.

Photo Credit

“Alex in Wonderland 8″ independentman @ flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.

Leaving the Dishes is a post from: Life As A Human

For eight years, I suffered severe lower back pain. It started in my early twenties. Over that time, five different diagnoses were given to me. You have sciatica. You have Ankylosing Spondylitis. You have low fluid levels in your spine but these pills will help. They didn’t. Instead, I gained fifteen pounds in one month which only served to further aggravate the problem. You have Rheumatoid Arthritis and will be crippled by the time you are in your mid thirties. Gee thanks! Last but not least, my favorite. Your fine Gil, it’s all in your head.

My pain was real. It was not in my head. It was in my back and it was debilitating. Some days it felt like a hot knife stabbing through my gluteus. Other times it was a constant searing pain from my mid lower back all the way down my left leg. It would cause my hamstrings and lower back to cramp up which caused me to hunch forward. This eventually puts your neck and upper back out and your shoulders end up in knots. There were many days when I could not get out of bed without first turning over on my stomach, then sliding out on to my knees and using my arms to push myself up. Walking was difficult. The only help I had was a good chiropractor and way too much Tylenol.

I think I could have written a book on new yoga poses back then. The positions I had to get into just to put on my socks and shoes were, unique! Getting in and out of my car was at least a thirty second procedure, getting out being the more painful of the two. After a while, I became accustomed to the pain. There were days when I was “ok”. Mostly though, there was pain.

I made a choice. The choice was to not let the pain stop me from doing what I wanted to do. In all those years I may have missed a total of two or three days of work. I sponsored a baseball team and even played on days when I was “ok”.

Eventually, my new GP referred me to a rheumatologist who gave me a bone scan. In layman’s terms, which I really appreciated, he told me there was a fire burning in my lower back and he believed that if he could control that fire or put it out, there would be a huge improvement. The inflammation was causing swelling that pressed on my sciatic nerve. He explained that even if it worked, the many years of trauma would have a lasting effect. Still, he felt there was a good chance he could help me. He prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug called Voltaren which I was to take once a day for a month. After only three days on the pills, eights years of pain evaporated. I stopped taking them on the fifth day and only took them when I would feel it flaring up. To say that I was grateful is a huge understatement.

If you haven’t had back pain like this, it’s hard to relate to it. In my twenties, I owned a computer store. I shared a facility with a video store owned by someone who would become a very good friend. He would see me come in to work hobbled up and he would tease me joking that I was a wimp. Many years later, I hired him to run the service division of a company I was managing. One day, he put his back out. He is not the type of individual that misses a lot of work. It takes a lot to keep him down for too long, but this laid him up for four days. When he returned to work he was still sore. He came into my office, closed the door and said.. “Gil, I am so sorry!” I told him he had nothing to be sorry about. I totally understood how it felt. He said.. “That’s what I mean. I had no idea it hurt so much and what I am sorry about is that I teased you about your pain all those years ago.” I hugged him and thanked him. He is a good man.

At 47, I started karate. I checked with my GP first and he gave me the green light. I began this journey with a body that had gone through two left shoulder separations, a right shoulder dislocation and a back that was prone to injury. I went at it a step at a time. I listened to my body and let it dictate what was doable on any given night. Its four years later now and next week I am up for my brown belt promotion. That’s one shy of black belt. I can do a full front splits and am about 10 degrees away from a full side splits. I attend classes 2-3 times a week for 2 to 2 ½ hours per class. We work hard and do lots of pushups, sit-ups, squats, lunges, stretching, sparring and kata. I am stronger now then I have ever been and probably in the best shape of my life. Along the way, there have been several bumps and bruises, two cracked ribs and a few back tweaks. I worked through them all and am so very happy that I did. I could easily have denied myself of everything I have gained by choosing to believe that my body would never let me achieve this. Yes, it hurt when I started but over time I became stronger and the pain diminished.

If you have physical pain that is preventing you from achieving your goals, consider the following ideas.

Watch your thoughts and feelings.
While your pain is not in your head, your attitude is. Don’t walk around painting stories of what you are missing or blaming the universe for your plight. Say I can. Better yet, say I WILL. Paint a vision in your mind of what you want and never stop moving towards it.

Don’t give up!
Learn what has helped you, educate yourself as best you can and keep seeking out new ways to deal with your pain.

Exercise.
For me, doing an exercise routine that involves heavy weights is just asking for trouble. On the other hand, exercises that increase core strength and flexibility work wonders for me. Find some kind of exercise you can do and do it. Your body will thank you and so will your spirit.

Know your limitations and work within them.
If you have an arm that is permanently disabled by some type of injury, being a pitcher or quarterback is probably out of the question. Golf however may not be. I played eighteen holes with a one armed golfer some years back. He shot a 6 over par! Tennis, Tai Chi, swimming, cycling, power walking and yoga are a few other forms of exercise that come to mind.

Watch your weight.
I lost 20 pounds over the last few years. A few months ago, I was carrying a rock that weighed about 20 pounds from one end of my yard to the other. I thought, wow, that’s actually pretty heavy to carry around. I carried it for another five minutes as an experiment. Try it sometime, it’s very enlightening!

Remember that you are not alone.
There are many who have suffered pain and yet achieved great things. Consider Stephen Hawking. As a youth, he rode horses and coxed a rowing team. He became afflicted with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and at twenty one was told he had two to three years to live. He gradually lost the use of his arms, legs, and voice, and is now almost completely paralyzed. What did he do? He went onto become one the most brilliant theoretical physicists this planet has ever known. He describes himself as “lucky” despite his disease. He is now sixty six years of age. Or think about Nick Vujicic. He was born without limbs. He now travels the world as a motivational speaker and has touched thousands of lives. There is a very powerful video clip of him called “It Matters How You Finish” that has been a source of inspiration for thousands of people.

Don’t give up – Hang in there
One Step At A Time
You Can Overcome All Things!

Photo Credits

All photos from the MS Word Clip Art Collection
Originally posted February 27, 2009 at synaptici

Overcoming Our Pain One Step At A Time is a post from: Life As A Human

My energy has been up and down for the last couple of weeks, ever since that first healing session. For a few days I was great, but then the crash came and I spent a week barely able to crawl through the day. It was worse than before. Pain in every joint, a feeling of nausea that killed my appetite, constantly nagging. I know what it is – it’s the poison from the snake, released into my system as it was removed from my energetic self. (In case you’re wondering, I have no doubts about the reality of that snake. I feel amazing shifts in my body now that it’s released, even with the poison.)

My EFT/TAT therapist worked with me to release the poison, but it held on. My osteopath and myofascial massage therapist tried to release it. I still felt putrid. I can feel it now, not of me and yet within me. I’m trying to allow my body – both physical and energetic – the rest and recuperation time it needs to heal. But I must admit that I’m growing impatient as I reached the third anniversary of the beginning of my healing. And the physical trauma started a year before that. Wow. Four years of me being down. I am so ready to go!

I had another session with my shaman this week. My healer saw that poison immediately as we began our work. She told me that it was to be expected, and she would clear it. She asked for help and a magical healer, a unicorn, agreed to help release the first layer of the poison. Interesting, this unicorn. I immediately felt the love of my horses all around me – my magical teachers and healers. They worked together to release the first layer of poison and then I felt great. For 12 hours. That was four days ago.

As I write this I’m exhausted again. I had to lay down at 10:00 this morning I woke up at 3:30 this afternoon. It’s 7:00 pm and I’m still groggy. I’ve been like that three out of the four days since the most recent release. I’m in the dead zone – what I call the physical state in which our subconscious releases bad things. It’s also like being a walking zombie. I’ve been here so often in the last three, make that four years. I know it well. Even if it drives me crazy – it’s a good thing, more cellular slime is clearing – another layer of me is peeling away to leave room for the new and true.

I know that the place of light and limitless energy is ahead of me on my path. I also know that after holding that dark energy for all my life, I must be patient and allow the healing to take it’s own best path and pace. I am lifting, clearing, rising to my own clear vibration. But sometimes, like today, my patience wears thin. That doesn’t really change anything, it simply makes me cranky.

Funny, just as I was powerless as a child to defend myself, today I find myself powerless to push forward in my healing. Pushing only sets me back, and I’m committed to nothing but forward progress. And so I must accept the pace and flow of my healing, saver the energetic days in the same way I honor my slow days.

That too is a new learning for me. I’ve pushed through every other blockade or barrier in my life. Now it’s time to flow with my own path and push no more.

Photo Credits

Brute Force -Creative Commons – Some Rights Reserved – Eric Peacock
Feature Photo – Microsoft Clip Art Collection

The Other Side of Me: Push No More is a post from: Life As A Human

It’s great that people are becoming more aware of the importance of having a healthy body; however, there seems to be a general disconnect between looking healthy and actually being healthy. The focus seems to be predominantly on having the appearance of a healthy body.

Being buff, slender or fit are all media induced illusions of what the marketing specialists hired by big corporations want you to believe being healthy is all about. And they do this not because they care about your well being, but rather in order to sell countless amounts of fitness merchandise, diet products, protein powders and energy drinks, filled with preservatives and sugar, most of which are anything but healthy.

There are way too many people who still buy into this illusion, going to the gym and ingesting these products for all the wrong reasons, with little to no knowledge about the potential damage they might be doing to their bodies, not to mention their psyches.

So what does being healthy truly mean?

Don’t get me wrong, working out and getting fit is definitely a fabulous place to start, as long as we make sure we are doing our exercises – whatever method we choose – correctly so as to not badly injure ourselves. For this, hiring a personal trainer to get started can be of great benefit. We learn about setting fitness goals, proper techniques, how the body works and what particular exercises will be most effective to help us reach our goals. A good personal trainer will tailor workouts to each person’s current fitness level to minimize the risk of short-term or long-term injury.

If going to the gym isn’t your thing, then there are a variety of different physical activities to get your blood pumping through those veins. Walking, hiking, cycling, swimming … to name a few. Whatever your particular fancy, there are activities for you. The most important thing is to do some form of exercise daily to help develop and maintain a healthy body.

The other and most crucial component to promoting a healthy body is what we put in it. Something as seemingly simple as eating well phenomenally affects not only our overall physical health, but also our energy level, our ability to focus and be productive, our hormones and even our moods. Consequently, the very quality of our lives and well-being are greatly governed by the foods we eat.

More and more these days we hear about severe food allergies and sensitivities. People suffering from Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance are almost commonplace, making food choices even more difficult because wheat and other forms of gluten are found in just about everything. Those affected by these sensitivities must always carefully read product labels to make sure of all ingredients. Most Celiacs, however, must rely on specifically made “gluten free” products. Fortunately, these products are more readily available in larger cities due to the increase demand for them.

This epidemic, if you will, of food-related diseases is largely the result of the food industry’s penchant to over-process. Educating ourselves about the nature of our food, where it comes from, how it was produced/grown, and proper nutrition, as well as being mindful of what we put into our bodies, are fundamental as preventative measures in significantly reducing the risks associated with many of the diseases that increasingly afflict our population.

Although making healthy food choices takes a conscious and valiant effort and can at times be challenging and overwhelming (especially if our existing habits are particularly unhealthy), it is definitely well worth it. Consulting a nutritionist and/or naturopath can be of great value when wanting to learn more about the foods we eat and to help revamp our current lifestyle.

Consider the benefits of eating well: improved health, more energy, proper digestion, clearer skin, better moods, more focus and clarity of thought … and the list goes on. Even just knowing that what we are putting into our bodies is “good” for us can make a world of difference in how we actually feel about ourselves. Self-care is a crucial factor in our overall sense of well being and in the creation of a happier, more fulfilling existence in mind, body and spirit.

However, out of those people who are willing to step up and take action in obtaining a healthier lifestyle, most are more apt to do the nutrition and fitness aspect because it is seemingly more tangible, yet they more often than not neglect to do the inner work that will help them cultivate a sense of inner peace and create and sustain authentic happiness throughout their daily lives. With the body generally being the focus, mind and spirit are too often forgotten. We can look fabulous and eat all the nutritious food we want, but if our internal dialog is tormenting us, then nothing will ever be good enough.

What will it take for us to start loving ourselves enough to realize that we are worth the investment of time, energy and money in order to truly be healthy in a complete and holistic way? Sadly, a lot of people would rather invest in the instant gratification of a daily $5 latte than invest in their actual emotional well being.

We choose to numb and distract ourselves from our internal reality rather than go inward and take inventory of our thoughts. How we think about ourselves determines how we behave and respond to the world around us and will consequently influence the quality of the life we lead. If we are “glass half empty” kind of people then undoubtedly the circumstances and people we attract into our lives will reflect that negative attitude. If we are “glass half full” kind of people then life becomes an absolutely wonderful place full of amazing people and opportunities.

Quite simply, a positive outlook attracts positive circumstance. And even in those moments when ‘not so great things’ happen, because they inevitably do, if we are happy within ourselves on a profound level then it makes those moments way easier to deal with.

Shifting our inner dialogue is crucial to our overall well being. It is truly the only way to attain any measure of sustained inner peace and happiness. It’s amazing how all other things seem to start magically falling into place when we begin to make the conscious effort to shift the energy that brews within our spirits. So how do we begin this journey to a healthier mind and spirit?

Well, there are many avenues to choose from. There are a plethora of self-help and personal development books on the market. One book I highly recommend to my coaching clients is The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. It’s a simple read that transformed my life quite profoundly. It truly helped shift how I saw myself, the world, and myself in the world.

Of course, self-help books aren’t everyone’s bag. Some people prefer a more hands-on, proactive approach to personal development. They might consider hiring a personal life coach to guide them along their journey towards a healthier, happier and more fulfilling life. Working with a coach can have enormous benefits in helping create and maintain the momentum for making positive and lasting changes in our lives. (If you are unfamiliar with the whole concept of life coaching you can read my Life as a Human article called “From Impulse to Opportunity: Navigating Life Changes” for a more comprehensive overview). However, there are times, depending on our life experiences, when we may feel that our internal struggle is way too much to handle due to past traumas and need a more specialized approach. At times like these, we may want to seek the help of a therapist or counsellor.

Whatever our circumstance, there are countless resources to tap into that will facilitate our personal growth, and overall health and well being – in mind, in body and in spirit. It is important to remember that one cannot exist without the other; they are all connected. It’s all about finding a holistic balance, and that is the true meaning of “being healthy”.

Photo Credit

“Retreat” h.koppdelaney @ Flickr.com. Creative commons. Some Rights Reserved.
Feature Photo – Microsoft Clip Art Collection

What Does “Being Healthy” Truly Mean? is a post from: Life As A Human

The card that arrived this week had such a wee token, sent because she knew it would make me laugh. It was mounted on a business card and self-proclaimed as a “Belly Button Lint Brush”.  She was right. It made me laugh.  It was this tiny bit of pipe cleaner looped around and joined to a “handle” the size of the plastic cap on your shoelace.

So what does one do with such a gift? It sat with the card on display for awhile, and normally would have ended up in a drawer, or sent along to someone else, but thankfully I’m a writer, and because I’m a writer, it became one of the most useful things in my home. Nice try, but no, not because writers sit and stare at their navels. But you’re close!

We procrastinate. Our minds wander. We suddenly notice things, like dust on a lamp, or a clock that needs a new battery. This day, I noticed how very dirty my keyboard was. Not just the parts around where my fingers don’t touch, but in between the keys. Like dust balls, and dust curly-cues, and other fuzzy stuff. Suddenly, in the manner of all great procrastinators, er…I mean writers, something had to be done, and done right away.

There followed one of those magical moments when the planets line up and you birth an idea so brilliant you can hear the angels singing over-chords. That belly-button lint brush would slide perfectly between these keys!  So I ripped it off of it’s display card and pressed it into service.

The last time this keyboard was this clean was when it first came out of the package. What a delight. What joy my sister gave me. Now, what was I writing?

Photo Credit

“Belly Button Lint Brush”
Keyboard Cleaner – Peg Ainsley

The Little Gift is a post from: Life As A Human