Modern Health and Spirituality

What is the real significance of Martial Arts? Have we lost the original meaning and sense of this art form?

Martial Arts

There are so many forms of martial arts out there, they all have differing benefits. Someone once told me that martial art is any of the various forms of single combat pursued as a sport. Over the centuries they have become a sport and in some cases employed in an aggressive and confrontational manner.

In my experience many students have not realised the purity of the martial art form, in the sense that most people see it as a form of self defence and not seeing the health and spiritual benefits of these so called sports.

Practising martial arts is to take on a philosophy for life, a life filled with peace, joy and spiritualism. In the East where it originated, peoples mindset is different to that of the west. Here in the west we have taken this art form and have butchered it. Martial arts has been made popular by films, starring the likes of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li to name a few, although they have brought it to the masses, I feel the meaning has been lost, I have heard people saying “I’m learning Taekwondo, with this I can kick ass” it was not meant for that purpose, yes you can kick ass, but as a last resort, I have seen many people bragging about having a black belt in this and that only to come unstuck when they really needed to use it to defend themselves, the reason for this in my opinion was their mentality and stupidity. 

A martial art can only help you if you have the right mindset when using the techniques you have learnt. In my opinion someone practising martial art should strife to for humility, health, peace, spirituality and to lose the ego.

In my early days growing up I had tried various styles of martial arts, I tried Taekwondo, Sam Tu Dang, Kempo and Shao lin. I wanted to know more about the cultural and historical philosophy, the messages passed down from generations of these styles, but as I was doing more and more the other students used it as a form of bravado which put me off, however, I still maintained an interest in it.

I now practice DhanMuDo, which I am enjoying far more than the martial arts I had practiced when I was younger, this is more of what I was looking for and expecting.

DhanMuDo

“Only those who find the centre in their bodies can balance the world”

DhanMuDo is a comprehensive system of healing and martial arts that came from 5 thousand year tradition of healing and martial art training of Korea. DhanMuDo includes principles and practices for the enhancement of life energy (Ki/Chi/Qi) and the development of the capability to use energy. With enhanced energy-awareness and ability to use the energy, we can heal ourselves and others physically and energetically.

In DhanMuDo training, we learn how to use our body to enhance our mental and spiritual strength and integrity also. The ultimate goal of DhanMuDo training is to awaken and develop the integrity and wholeness within us in order to attain mastership over the body, mind and spirit.

Dhan in DhanMuDo means pure energy, which is the essence of life, permeates our body, keeps our life functioning, and integrate our body and consciousness into a living awareness.

Mu in DhanMuDo means ‘martial’ and ‘limitless’ . DhanMuDo is a discipline both to develop power and find limitlessness in us the limitless energy and limitless creative power. Eventually DhanMuDo is the art to attain limitlessness in awareness and energy, which is truly the source of freedom and creation.

Do in DhanMuDo is Tao which means the way, the ultimate truth and reality. 

In brief, DhanMuDo is a training system that enables people to develop their energy to reach limitlessness within them.

Benefits of DhanMuDo Training

The benefits are as follows:

• Align and correct the muscles and bone structure
• Strengthen the natural healing power and the immune system
• Build the internal energy
• Prevent osteoporosis
• Help diet and weight control
• Helps normalize blood pressure
• Activates brain cells and the brain’s left and right hemispheres
• Strengthens the self-confidence and enhances the self-esteem
• Improves learning ability and work performance
• Strengthens the lower body

As an exponent of DhanMuDo for a few years I have certainly seen the changes in me. I also now instruct occasionally and can see the improvements, especially in the more elderly students in the class.

There are so many vitamin supplements out there, do we really need them? Which one shall I take? These are questions I have asked not only myself but also friends and family.

What are Vitamins?

Vitamins are one of a number of naturally occurring substances which are necessary, though in small quantities for normal metabolism.

So far as is known for selected vitamins, their functions are:

• Vitamin A: Growth promoting and anti-infection
• Vitamin B1: Beneficial to nerves and bowels
• Vitamin C: Anti-scorbutic
• Vitamin D: Prevents rickets.

There are many more vitamins covering a wide range of benefits. All these vitamins are occurring naturally, if that is the case why do take them as dietary supplements? Would it not be better to eat more healthily and eat the right foods containing these vitamins?

Vitamins and Supplements

There are a variety of supplements and super foods out there, which is the best for you? Each one is trying to sell itself to you, they all have different qualities, enticing you with the benefits gained by using their product. So which one do you choose and why?

I was once told not to take any vitamins unless ordered by a doctor and then on the other hand, others have said as we get older we need to take extra vitamins.

I am of the opinion that we should only take vitamins if we have been diagnosed as being deficient in a particular vitamin. I do not necessarily agree we should take them just because we are ageing. I think we should continue to eat healthily to maintain good health, although these supplements maybe beneficial, there is nothing better than having a good balanced diet. Making sure we eat the right foods to give our bodies the right nutrients.

How to choose the right Supplement for you?

It’s not easy to be able to choose the right product, so how do we choose?

I have been fortunate to have a friend who is a Nutritionist and kniesiologist, she did various test with three different products and the reaction of my system to each product was noted and a recommendation was made for which would be the most beneficial for me.

Not everyone has the luxury of having a friend who is in the field of nutrition. My suggestion would be to get an allergy test carried out, these are not expansive, the results will tell you what you are allergic to and also if there are any deficiencies in your system.

I had one carried out many years ago, the results was quite conclusive, I had no major allergies but found out that I was deficient in digestive enzymes, so my quest was to find something to restore my deficiencies.

Armed with this knowledge you can now wade through the tons and tons of literature available both on the net and in health magazines on the numerous supplements that are widely available out there in the market place. So choose the one that is most beneficial four systems deficiencies.

Nutritional Supplements.

As I have mentioned there are numerous supplements out there, I have had experience with three which I will describe below:

1. Alveo

Alveo (in Latin means “To Be Well”) is a unique, high quality botanical food supplement blended from herbs, it is a balanced formulation to meet our needs from today’s demands. It is a superior blend of 24 herbs, made only from the highest quality botanical extract all organically grown and free from all chemicals and alcohol.

Benefits of Alveo:

• Brings balance and harmony to the systems within the body
• A complete nutritional supplement containing many of the components missing in our normal everyday diet
• Builds and strengthens immune system
• It is a guarantee to strong and long lasting health

The extraction of herbs in Alveo:

• Supports function of the immune system
• Supports the maintenance of a healthy heart
• Supports the digestive system
• Supports the intestinal micro flora and functions of the liver and gall bladder
• Supports vitality, healthy, active lifestyle and wellness
• Maintains joint flexibility and comfort

 2. Pro VITAMIN Complete

Pro Vitamin Complete provides delicious and complete liquid nutrition that helps take the guesswork out of what to meet your body’s needs. Most health professionals opt for liquid products since liquids naturally provide a superior delivery system and ultimately more bio-absorption.

Composition of Pro VITAMIN Complete:

• 13 Natural Vitamins
• 23 whole food greens blend
• 4 essential fatty acid blend
• 7 plant enzyme blend
• 63 ionic trace mineral blend
• 6 multi-fiber blend
• 28 fruit and vegetables phytonutrients
• 18 liquid protein amino acid blend
• 19 propriety herbal complex blend,

and Ellagic Acid from from red raspberry and pomegranate extracts in a natural cranberry flavour.

Benefits:

• 178 vital good-for-u ingredieints
• Nourishes your body snd soul
• Supports a healthy immune system
• Brings you the best of nature  through science

3. Mangosteen - XanGo^®  

XanGo^®Juice (derived from the words XANthones and manGOsteen) is the first, the original mangosteen beverage.

The whole-fruit formula of XanGo Juice delivers a host of essential and complementary nutrients, including the potent antioxidant properties of xanthones—a vigorous family of phytonutrients found abundantly in the rind of the mangosteen fruit.

To support the discovery and development of a singular dietary supplement with sensational taste, the founders of XanGo referenced decades of mangosteen studies. From ancient beliefs to modern research, the whole mangosteen fruit is regarded for its antioxidant powers and health-enriching attributes.

Dozens of studies demonstrate the incredibly beneficial properties of the whole mangosteen fruit. Research shows that xanthones—as found in the whole fruit formula of

Benefits of XanGo^® Juice:

• sustain a healthy cardiovascular system
• support cartilage and joint function
• strengthen the immune system
• promote a healthy seasonal respiratory system
• maintain intestinal health
• neutralize free radicals

The above in a nutshell are the benefits of the 3 different supplements, each claim to have benefits to enhance our well being.

I believe that everybody should take responsibility for their own health, living a life of health by eating healthily, exercising and if required taking a nutritional supplement.

We always make new year resolutions, we start diets, new exercise fads, for some reason we find it difficult to keep to them beyond 2 weeks. We start get some good results but often then not we go back to square 1, why is this? 

It’s not just resolutions, there are other areas of our lives where we just don’t seem to get what we want or be what we want to be, for example, why do we always fall for the same type of person? Why do we yo yo with our weight? 

Is it we lack the will power, don’t know how to change ourselves or is there something far more fundamental?

So why is it we can’t we keep our resolutions, stay slim or find someone different from the ones we have always fallen for?

I think it stems from our childhood, we are programmed to think in a particular way, this is basically the beliefs we take from our parents and the environment around us.

Our parents always said things like “You have to work hard to get on in life”, “No pain no gain”, “Money is the root of all evil”, “Money does not grow on trees” these are some of the things we heard when we were children growing up.

What are the significance of these phrases, how did we interpret them and how does it shape our thinking and therefore our futures? My analysis of these statments are as follows:

You have to work hard to Succeed

You have to work hard to get on in life or to succeed. What does that actually mean? We have all been told if you work really hard you will achieve what you want, we all go through life working hard during school and university so that we can get the grades we need to get a good job thereby have a good career and get the rewards, although this true to some extent.

What I feel is that we all work hard but some of us don’t necessarily get the rewards we believe we deserve. In all cases everyone thinks they work harder the the next person, although this maybe true there are other factors that needs to be taken into consideration.

The success within the corporate system is made from different and often complicated criterion and not everybody gets the promotion or the recognition they feel they deserve, so what happens, they get despondent and lose motivation and before you know it they go through a crisis in their life.

I have been quite fortunate that I had reasonable success within the corporate environment, I was given promotion and a more reponsible position without looking or asking for it. Why is this so? I learned somewhere along the way that for me to get on I had to work harder on myself than my job.

I remember talking to a salesman many years ago, he was telling me his story.

This is his story:

 ”I thought I was doing really well, I was working long hours and therefore working hard to get the results that I was getting. I was making enough money to get by, paying all the bills and having the holidays, but was not happy with my situation, I wanted more, I never won the salesman of the month.

Then I met someone who was very successful businessman by a chance meeting and he had a profound effect on me. He asked me “Are you happy with your life? What you are earning? Happy with your relationship?”

I told him my life was fine, that I was doing o.k. not earning greats amount of money but just comfortable and that I had a wife of 15 years and 2 children who did not know me. Over a period of 6 months we would meet often and he would give me his philosophy on life, which I had heeded.

He told me that I did not need to work harder on getting more sales but start working harder on how to be a better salesman, thereby increasing the amount of sales. I listened to him and after applying the philosophies he presented, I became the company’s best salesman and shortly after started my own business and am very successful.”

I did not go too deep into the story as the thing I took from that story was that I had to work harder on my self to succeed, it does not necessarily mean that I did not work hard at my job, it’s just I was performing better and it got noticed by my peers and management.

No Pain no Gain

I remember my father telling me  ”No Pain no Gain” It’s telling me that life is hard, we will only succeed if we go through some sort of suffering, so what do we do? we suffer. Life is not meant to be hard, we are not meant to suffer.

We start having this mindset life is meant to be hard and we carry this all the way through our lives, so when we are experiencing some sort of suffering we think it’s normal, we are meant to go through this adversity, it’s character building. Why do we still believe that there is no gain without pain? 

Money does not Grow on Trees, Money is the root of all evil.

What is money? Money is only paper, nowadays it’s just digital information. When we were told that money does not grow on trees, we were given the idea that money is scarce and hard to make, so what happens we start struggling for money.

Money is the root of all evil, this is implying that money is evil, it’s not good. How can this be? If money is paper or digital information how can this be evil? We start having a bad relationship with money and think of money as being bad, that all rich people have got rich by being evil. This could be the reason why you don’t have enough money.

If we changed our perception of money and not seeing it as an evil our relationship with money would change. If we think that if we had money we could do something good and positive with it, then we would change our mindset and money is something good, it can actually be used to do good.

Our futures have been shaped by these limiting ideas, these beliefs were passed onto us by our parents and our environment. We as human beings tend to have habits we always revert to, we need to break the cycle.  

I believe that life is a series of results. We take action, because of desire and our emotions which come from our thoughts.

I guess what I am saying is that our mind controls us rather than us controlling our minds. Unless we can control our unconscience we will not have free choice or be as successful as you want to be.

Here’s to taking back your mind and creating your life as you want it to be and breaking all those recurring habits.

I’m sure some where along the you have asked the question “Were is God when I need him?” Why do we ask the question?

In some respects it is a comical and funny question to ask. The fact that we live in a high tech world during an information age aside, the fact that you must ask implies you have never heard the gospel.

The fact that you are in need of God actually means that the defenses you have in place are keeping god out in your own mind.

So we are still asking “Where is God” or are ready to get honest with ourselves and grow up? Perhaps we should pause at this point in order to allow any mortals reading this the opportunity to leave least their status as a sub-human species be violated when they WAKE Up. So if any wish that their separation from God remain intact, please discontinue until such time as you can handle the TRUTH!!!! If this seems appropriate then perhaps you see the profound comedy, if not why did you not leave with the mortals? Where is God indeed, it’s a good thing they don’t shoot people for blasphemy because most mortals would all be standing before the firing squad.

So where is God when I need him? If you are ready for the only option to mortality then let us tell you. God is hiding inside of you because he is everywhere outside of you.

We like to think: God is omnipotent and omnipresent meaning he is everywhere and all powerful. But then they grovel before this idea in some kind of beggarly servitude persecuting all who would heal the separation between them and God. Now it may not seem like this is what we are doing unless you are among the religious elite, but they are the ones who trained you, so guess what, yes, that is what you do. If you have discovered Life in the Spirit and renounced religious servitude then congratulations, this does not apply to you.

If God is everywhere all the time, why is it, that he is suspiciously absent everywhere we go? Now if this doesn’t sound like the standard dilemma of all mortals, then we don’t have a clue as to what does. Since this does seem to be the standard let us assume that it is and begin our exploration here.

God is everywhere all the time but he is suspiciously absent wherever I go, this means that the thoughts you are thinking produce the absence of God in your experience. This is where it gets scary because this statement means that you will have to take responsibility for your creation and get honest with yourself about creating. It is so much easier to blame someone else and that is your right as a mortal who wants to stay mortal, but I thought we were beyond that by now. So like it or not responsibility is the First Immortal Law. If you are actually creating your experience (and you are) how can you blame it on someone else without being deceived, even if you call that deception truth? You just can’t do it and that is what we are talking about.

So then if every experience is a reflection of your thoughts and you have no thoughts of God within. Perhaps it’s time we give you some thoughts to think to overcome that handicap. Now we could go all off on a quantum fields and perceptual mechanics with a lot of hoopla and fanfare. But instead let’s try to keep this simple and as easy as possible.

Assuming you are a believer in the Bible as most claim to be, let us give you the single most important reference in the whole book that explains what the whole rest of the document is all about. “I HAVE Made you ONE with Myself” is the promise of God in New Covenant. Now so long as you relate to God as a mortal via the law of sin and death, I will not leave is your promise, but the reason he cannot leave is because he is you.

So where is God when you need him, right where he has always been in the Self that cannot be confined to an idea. That is why it is so hard to think about God because you cannot confine yourself to an idea. Otherwise you must think about God instead of thinking the thoughts of God.

To find God as self hiding deep in your heart of hearts is what you have known all along would be the answer but who wants to admit the truth, let someone else get honest with themselves and maybe then we will believe.

What is faith? What is Religion?  Why do we ask “What faith are you? or What religion are you?” and generally get the same answer. Is Faith and Religion interchangeable? At what point in life do we start believing in a faith/religion? Just some questions I often hear, not sure of a convincing argument or answer.

Faith

The assent off the mind to what is stated or put forward by another. Firm and earnest belief, spiritual apprehension, operative belief in the doctrines and moral principles forming a system of religion.

Religion

Belief in a superhuman being or beings, a personal god, controlling the universe and entitled to worship and obedience. The feelings, effects on conduct and the practices resulting from such belief. A system of faith doctrine and worship. 

The above are dictionary definitions for both faith and religion. It would appear that they can be interchangeable, they both use the words to define the word e.g when defining faith “operative belief in the doctrines and moral principles forming a system of religion” and religion “ A system of faith doctrine and worship.” you need have a faith and belief to follow a religion.

Why follow a religious path?

It has been increasingly clear to me that as we grow older or when we have children, we tend to gravitate back to our faith. I say back, because it started when we were children and probably didn’t really understand too much about religion and were expected to have faith in something we could not see or feel.

I believe we follow a religious path to give ourselves some kind of discipline, trust in a higher being to lead us in the right direction, to have higher moral standing and to live a full life with peace and love in our minds and hearts.

This faith and belief is passed down by our parents or in some cases we are born into the religion, nevertheless they are our point of influence. We then go through the teenage years where we start rebelling, ”I don’t want to go to church, mosque or temple, I find it boring, it’s a waste of time, I’d rather be with my mates playing football”. Our faith becomes less important, it starts to take a back seat to “being with friends, playing sports, going clubbing or partying” Why is this so?

The Experience

What did we learn about our religion or faith during our formative years? Why did we start to rebel? Did our parents and elders lose their ability to influence us? Were we searching to find ourselves? These are just a handful of questions I wanted to ask others to find out how it influenced their attitude to their faith, what is their view point now and how strong is their belief.

I shall try to answer these questions from my experience. I did not feel I had a good doctrine of my faith, frankly, I was not really interested, my parents tried hard to educate was but were on a loosing wicket, I did not see the need and was just going through the motions to please my parents. The way we (My brother and I) were taught about our religion was we got a religious teacher in house. Over the next 6 months it became clearer to the teacher that we were not interested at all, he tried to control us, but our spirit and enthusiasm for other things were overwhelming.

Although my parents practiced their religion, I was far removed, I had internal conflicts, did my religion allow me to get ahead in this society? Would I be alienated by the people around me as I was of a different creed and race? these were questions I would ask myself. I started to question myself and actually found an answer from an unlikely source, a group of people from the community I aptly named “The God Squad”

The God Squad

The god squad were a bunch of people who read everyone the riot act without looking in their own back yard. They were very moralistic, they would intimate that so and so from the community are sinners and that they would rot in hell.

I realised I not and did not want to be like them, even though they had their faith they were so empty, all they did was gossip in the name of god, I found them to be hypocritical. Had they not been hypocrites and explained the essence of the religion/faith then I probably would have followed that path to help me grow. I would have practiced my religion for the greater of human kind.

Chosen Path

So from that day onward, I chose not to follow the religious path completely, I would take the best bits from different religions, I would read books, making a comparison of the basic fundamentals of each religion, I would then conduct my life applying the different philosophies I read. Having made the choice, for a short while I started living life a little carelessly, I was falling into the peer pressure syndrome, I started to do things to fit in, a short while later I was constantly challenging myself by asking is this what I really want?

As I was got older, there was a shift to my way of thinking, I started to look inside me more, I was in that phase of being despondent of my surroundings and started to search for myself. I was on a journey, for I started my spiritual journey. My view is that I think that people have missed the point of religion, the spiritual side has been neglected. I am far more spiritual than religious, I am on the path of enlightenment, to complete my soul.

Influence

As we grow older our parents have less influence on us, we start to make decisions for ourselves, this is definitely the case when it comes to religion.

We see life from a different viewpoint, however, this goes full circle when we have children of our own. We do somehow show traits in ourselves we did not like in our parents.

This is my observation, as I do not have children but I have seen this in my siblings and friends who have children.

I still don’t know at what point we start believing, I think it’s in our DNA make up, all humans have a faith and wants to follow a spirit path, this is within us but lays dormant until the point we are ready to release and live a fulfilled life, after which we try to pass on to the next generation.

I am writing this as my mother is in hospital waiting to die. I say waiting to die tongue in cheek. God forbid should anything happen to her. In a way it’s a dig at the health system.

The story so far:

About a year and half ago my mother complained about chest pains so naturally we went to the GP and as per usual he could do nothing and so subsequently sent her on her merry way to the local A&E, she arrived and after about 2 hours of excruciating pain they saw her and took a few X-Rays found nothing wrong so sent her on her way home. On arrival at home she still felt a pain in her chest, which was getting increasingly painful. She could not sleep at all that night.

Next day she collapsed, so off to hospital we go, again. This time she was admitted into hospital and after further tests and there was still no conclusion, as a result of this it was agreed to conduct an angiagram. 

The Angiagram

It took some time, after lots of coercion, the doctors agreed to conduct the angiagram, on many occasions they would give some excuse as not to do it, my favourite one was a younger patient was in more need then my elderly mother, ageist or what? What happened to first on the list gets treatment, that is fine I guess as long as you are not old. The results showed there were blockages in her arteries and thereby requiring to have a triple heart bypass. She was now on the waiting list for the bypass procedure.

The Triple Heart Bypass

Fortunately she did not have to wait too long for the procedure. The procedure went well and she was still in hospital recovering. About three days later we found out that the wound got infected and she contracted MRSA septicemia, we thought here we go again, if it’s not one thing it’s another.

So after months of being in hospital she was discharged, great she can come home and we can look after her. For a few months it was great to have mum at home, she was feeling better and smiling again. We were happy and relieved.

The False Dawn (The Homecoming)

A few more months went by, everything appeared normal, we are joking and laughing, mum was enjoying being back with us her children and even more with her grand children. However, this was a false dawn, that evening she was restless and could not sleep. 

The next morning she could eat, did not want breakfast. The health visitor came, everything seemed o.k. the medicine was being administered by the health visitor and then it happened, suddenly she stopped breathing, we did not know what to do, we called the ambulance and got her to hospital.

This seemed a little serious, it transpires that her heart was not pumping properly leading to fluid in her lungs and subsequently backing up into her kidneys. She has been in and out of hospital three times with this condition, and is currently in hospital.

The Health Care

All through this saga the attitude of the doctors in my humble opinion was appalling, they were condescending, arrogant and frankly failed to communicate the issues properly, this not the level of care one expects from doctors, there was one incident in particular which frustrated my mother and angered me a little, it was when my mother was feeling hot and asked the doctor to turn on the fan for her, he was no more than 1 foot away, he had the audacity to say I’m too busy I’ll get the nurse to do it, who was in the next room. Is this the level of care we should have to put up with?

The thing that annoyed me the most is that the doctors still don’t know the real cause. They are doing test after test and getting the same result, which incidently is giving a clean bill of health, clearly this is wrong.

The question I have asked is how can you do these tests if you don’t know what you are looking for? I feel all these tests already carried out are superfluous, they don’t have a diagnosis so what are the tests really telling you?

I am perplexed, my mother is in hospital and we really don’t know why? She seems to be in pain and has difficulty breathing. The answer we keep getting is it’s a combination of things. Is it me or is it for real the new generation of doctors are less caring, with poor people skills and less knowledgeable than the doctors before them.

Is this how health care is meant to be? Are we waiting to die in the hands of our illustrious health care system.

We can all walk and we know it’s good for us, it’s easy, takes no effort was so ever, we walk to the car, to the bus stop or the train station, we don’t even think about it, we put one foot in front of the other and off we go, it’s that simple.

If it’s that simple, why is it we cannot find 30 - 45 minutes a day to take a walk? Does the way we walk give us the real benefit we can gain from walking? So the question is, do we walk to improve our lives or do we just do it because we learned to walk when we were babies and it will get us to where we want to get to?

What if I told you that there is a way of walking that could improve your health, increase your vitality and thereby increase your life by at least ten years, would you think that I was crazy, Yes most probably.

You are probably thinking, hold on !! is walking not just putting one foot in front of the other and moving in a forward direction as you do it? How can one improve ones life and health by doing that? Read on you may be surprised or it may obvious.

Vitality Walking

By following the five steps written below you will feel better in no time, have plenty of energy, probably loose some weight and even tone up. All you need is 30 - 45 minutes of your precious time and an open mind. Remember that walking is a whole body exercise, something you can do that costs no money, uses no machines and can be an enjoyable activity to do with a partner.

1. Step Symmetrically

When we walk we don’t walk in a straight line, our feet are either pointing towards each other or away from each other. The fist step is make sure when you walk your feet are parallel, stepping on either side of an imaginary line.

2. Activate the wellspring

At the bottom of your sole there is an energy / acupressure point, when walking for vitality it is important to stimulate this point on your sole. This is stimulated by leaning your body forward slightly about 1 degree so that your body weight is shifted to that point at the bottom of your sole. Now walk forward concentrating on that point and use the strength of your toes, as if you were grabing the earth, as your weight is placed on your toes, the heels will move to the front almost like a skip, this is the spring in your step.

3. Position for Power

The point in our body where the energy is stored is in the lower abdomen, in order to gather and retain the energy the posture has to be correct. To achieve this tilt the lower part of your pelvis forward, by doing this you are storing the energy by a slight tightening of the lower abdomen. Imagine that your pelvis is like a bowl full of water, by tilting the pelvis forward you are lifting the bowl slightly which means the water (Energy) stays the bowl, otherwise it just pours out.

4. Walk with joy

Whilst we are walking smile, by smiling you are keeping your head straight and chin up, naturally keeping your head at the right posture and allowing the energy to flow. By tilting your head too far forward or too far backward you are blocking the energy flow. Walk with your back straight with confidence and joy.

5. Engage your Body

It is easy to think we only walk with our feet, to engage your body think of the energy coming from the cosmos around you, imagine the energy entering through the top of your head and from the earth below through the energy point on the sole of your feet, the energy goes up your legs and joins the energy coming down through your head and chest to the lower abdomen, here both the energy sources is stored. Have mental picture of the energy flow as you walk.

Breathing

Knowing how to breathe is very important, I don’t think we as adults remember how to breathe.

Breathe from the lower abdomen. As we grow older we stop braething properly, as a baby and a child we used breathe from the lower abdomen. If see a new born you can see it’s abdomen rising and falling as it breathes in and out, for some reason as we get older we start breathing from the chest. We need to be baby like once again.

Lets take the five steps and put the spring and joy back into our step and live a healthier life.

We all want to live a healthy life but do not necessarily know how to do so or do the things we need to do, as sometimes it is easier to put things off for another day, “I’ll start tomorrow”, we have been there at some stage during our lives, right.

One of the most important route to success and being successful in life is to live a life of health, work towards total well being.

Total well being

Total well being is working on all aspects of your health, I was once told or may have read somewhere that there is something called 3 dimensional health, at first I remember wondering what was that? What is he talking about? It then became apparent and obvious, that he was referring to the Body, Soul and Spirit. Each part needing to be healthy as one is interdependent with the other two.

The three aspects are like layers in an onion, you have the core which is the spirit, on top of that is the mind and then the third outer layer is the body. Each has to be strong enough to support each other, the inner most core (Spirit) has to be strongest as it supports the other two, the second layer (Soul) in turn has to support the outer most layer (Body).

The Body

It is quite common to pay more attention to one over the others, I would say most people look after their body only, the physical aspect, while this is good as we need to look after ourselves right, to look good for the opposite sex etc…, however, a lot of people neglect their physical bodies, I am amazed how some people take more care of their pets then themselves, some peoples dogs can run and run for hours, but their owners can’t even get up the one flight of stairs.

Concentrating on just the physical aspect, I believe you miss out on far more of what life has to offer, you don’t see or appreciate the beauty of the things around you, cannot get the wisdom and knowledge without reading books from great writers of the past and also our current generation. Don’t have a faith or beliefs to give you the foundation and grounding to allow the growth of a person in it’s entirety.

The Soul

Then there are those who concentrate on their soul, the intellectual side to their being, although this also good as it keeps the mind active and you gain a lot of knowledge and wisdom. 

However, what good is that if are not able to benefit or appreciate what physical exercise can do for health of your body and mind, when you don’t have the energy to play with your children or your partner. Although you gained a lot of knowledge and wisdom from reading and observing life around you, I feel that you are not complete if your physical health is ignored, one is missing out on all the possibilities the combination can achieve.

The Spirit

Then there are those who concentrate on seeking spiritual enlightenment, they get so enlightened that they don’t seem to be earthly, have a belief and reached a point where they are so peaceful they don’t exist.

Having said that the spiritual side of any being is the core, the pillar of strength which all the others can be built on. Being strong spiritually can bring miracles to life, the peace, self believe and the faith gathered within will never be lost, the use of this strength and faith can move mountains and create far reaching peace.  

Creating a Life of Peace 

We can change the way we live and create the way we want to live our lives, to achieve this we must change ourselves, work on ourselves first, we function best when we live in balance, let’s go and re-instate the balance in our lives, go and create a peaceful world for yourself and everybody around you.

Look after your Body, Soul and Spirit.

Health is a very important issue and something very dear to my heart and something I feel passionate about.

What is actually meant by the word health, can it be defined, is it an interpretation or just a feeling? A single word that encompasses so many concepts.

What is health:- a dictionary definition I have found is as follows:

1. The general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor: Good Health: Poor Health

2. Soundness of body or mind; freedom from disease or ailment: to have one’s health; to lose one’s health.

3. A polite or complimentary wish for a person’s health, happiness, etc., esp. as a toast: we drank a health to our guest of honor.

4. Vigor; Vitality: economic health

When we say we are in good health what do we mean? We look at our physical body see it’s form, be it slim, fat or be it medium build, but in all forms we can still be in ill health.

To be free of disease, our body must feel at ease, to me a disease is saying your body is not at ease, it’s under dis-ease.

To be in good health or healthy, we need to have our mind and body working together.

Good health is all those things, I don’t believe that we can be in good health if our physical body is not strong or flexible and our mind is not in tune with the body. One needs to feel the energy inside and release any stagnant energy which remains due to lack of activity and constantly sitting in one position for long periods of time.

To become healthy I have start a programme of self healing, I have attended various courses of self healing and healing, subsequently I am delivering energy healing to family and friends. Although I have the acquired skills and knowledge to be able to become a practitioner and offer it as a service with payment, I have decided to pursue this on a voluntary basis, I get more satisfaction by concentrating on delivering a good service and not worrying about trying to build a business.

A good way to speed up the self healing is share with others, as result of this I regularly engage my family and friends to exercise with me, working on different exercise to energize the different parts of the body.

I explain how the particular excise can heal the particular organ before commencing with the exercises which leads to greater vitality.

One of the most frustating thing for me is that in our society we are discouraged to live healthily, in terms that to buy healthy foods it costs more, to exercise to help the mind and body it’s expensive, to become a member of a gym it’s becoming expensive, is it that only the rich should be healthy?

Our government does not do enough to encourage everyday people to start a journey to good health. I do not only mean physical health but also mental health. In our society we are under more and more pressure to deliver and “Succeed” so we all fall foul of stress, I don’t think we are educated sufficiently in the area of stress management.

In my opinion our health practitioners of modern medicine have failed us, they do not see us the patient as a whole, they diagnose a problem but do not look at the patient as a complete system, every part of the body is linked and an ailment should not be seen in isolation.

Many years ago I had decided that I was going to change my lifestyle and follow a holistic way of life, that was the best decision I have made, I am for complimentary therapies, some would say alternative, I say modern medicine of being given a prescription for anything and everything is an alternative, I chose to live naturally. I would recommend reseraching all the complimentry therapies that is available out there, they work, in my view because you take responsibility for your health.

Here’s to a life of good health and enjoying every moment in the present.