health

Timeless Reminders –
Leave the first response August 20, 2010 / Posted in Breathe, Meditation, Mindfulness

The numbers are pretty staggering when some statistics say that 75% of people in the United States are either moderately or extremely stressed. I’ve also read that it could be almost 90% of the conditions doctors see are related to stress.

You will find it interesting to visit Dr. Daniel Friedland’s website , Super Smart Health. You will find his section on Spirit Guided Health very helpful

This gives you a little about Danny Friedland’s background:

Dr. Friedland is uniquely qualified to teach the scientific and emotional skills needed to empower clinicians and patients become smarter health providers and seekers.

He is board certified in Internal Medicine, a member of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine and the author of Evidence-Based Medicine: A Framework for Clinical Practice, one of the first books to outline methods to frame questions and find, evaluate, and apply medical literature searches to patient care – now all doctors are trained to make medical decisions this way.

During his medical training at the University of California, San Francisco, where he is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, he founded the UCSF Medical Student Network to facilitate physician well-being and the compassionate delivery of care.

Inspired by this experience, he immersed himself in the fields of neuroscience, emotional intelligence and mindfulness, conducted research on self-doubt and discovered how the powerful decision making framework of evidence-based medicine promoting scientific intelligence also cultivates emotional intelligence needed to navigate stress and uncertainty to achieve a more holistic experience of health and well-being.

I like what Danny has put together in his app called Timeless Reminders. It allows you to create and schedule moments that bring you to “present moment, beautiful moment.” It give you a BIBO moment. (thanks Caroline Meeks, aka Dr Funshine and her Laughter Yoga & Stress Reduction) for introducing me to the “Breathe In, Breathe Out” acronym.

As he mentions:

Stress fragments our foundational sense of health and well-being and all too often drains our energy and leads us to forget what’s really important in our lives. What if we could schedule moments of inspiration to become more mindful, remind ourselves what’s truly important and recharge our day?

Timeless Reminders enables you to collect your most inspiring photos, videos, music, audio and text to create and send yourself personally meaningful Reminders to reconnect you with the wholeness you are and inspire you to take healthy and productive action in your life.

To learn more about this unique app and find the iTunes link to download it for free, click here now to go to Timeless Reminders.

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Leave the first response Subscribe via RSS ShareThisLeadership Virtuosity: Lee Thayer’s Call for Leaders to be Mindful
Leave the first response July 27, 2010 / Posted in Mindful Leadership
Chair Gathering-Chicago May 2010

Lee Thayer’s Leadership Virtuosity is his latest book that is a must read for all who want to see what is the cost of becoming a virtuoso leader.

It would be a good idea to remember to re-read Buddha’s Kalama Sutra as a reminder of leadership and followership and now jumping to conclusions. The example being the accusations of Andrew Breitbard about Shirley Sherrod and the truth coming out. More than ever we need to be mindful about what is being said through the media and through the internet.

However, after thorough observation, investigation, analysis and reflection, when you find that anything agrees with reason and your experience, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, and of the world at large; accept only that as true, and shape your life in accordance with it; and live up to it.

These words, the Buddha went on to say, must be applied to his own teachings.

Some of Lee’s thoughts for your reflection:


The Performing Leader

The primary advantage of de-personalizing performance–of making the person’s performance and not his psyche and/or personality the issue–is that the person’s performance is objectively measurable and improvable. The persons internal mind-set and other habits are not.

A second advantage of separating the “person” from his or her performance is that it permits the leader to have adult relationships with his performers without becoming their mother or their therapist or their day-cafe supervisor.

The Intolerant Leader

You get what you tolerate

It certainly has the logic going for it:

If you tolerate poor performance, you will probably get it
If you tolerate certain mistakes, you will in all probability have to put up with them
If you tolerate broken promises, you will get them…
If you tolerate deceit and conniving, you will get them
If you tolerate incompetence, incompetent people will know where to apply.

The Caring Leader

Those who are not competent in their roles in any collective jeopardize the lives of all the rest of us

Those who do not understand that the organization cannot care for their needs unless they first care for the needs of the organization put the lives of all the rest of us in jeopardy.

Any member of any organization, at any level, who expresses distaste for her role is doing so because she is incompetent.

The Accomplishment-Minded Leader

Having a purpose in life is not just New Age claptrap. It is inescapably pragmatic. In this way:

Those who don’t know or don’t care where they are going have nothing by which to niavigate except other people who don’t know or don’t care where they are going. They don’t know what is relevant to their journey because they are not committed to any particular destination. they carry no compass, having no need. They could, like the ancient Polynesians, read the currents. But on one seems to know how to do this. It is not on the test they had in school

…The leadership virtuoso takes a (habitual) posture something like this:

Who ought to own the problem? (in most cases, this should be the person or people who have the problem.)
Who ought to own the problem of fixing it? (Same as above.)
Who ought to get credit for eliminating the problem–the one who becomes aware of it, the one who figures out what to do about it, or the one who implements the fix? (that’s easy. They need to be the same person or group of people)

The leader who needs to get credit for any one of those three will never be much more than a mediocre manager

There is a difference between accomplishment as a way of life and accomplishment for the sole purpose of moving up in the organization. The leadership virtuoso takes great care not to reward the latter. In a great organization, not to be accomplishment-minded is to be wrong-minded.

…To accomplish anything at all worthy of being human will always be determined by how accomplishment-minded we are–individually and collectively

The “Good” Leader

What the good leader does is make it necessary for people to see their duty, and then to make it necessary for them to carry out their duty competently.

It is not the good leader’s role to make his or her people “happy.” It is her role to make learners out of them, to make it necessary for them to increase their competencies in their own roles.

…Until the people in a organization put the organization first, and themselves second, or third, their leaders are not good for them, for the organization, or for the future of this civilization. What’s incompatible is that if people have no duty to the larger whole (e.g. the organization, the society), there can be no virtue. The good leader teaches people what their duties are–to themselves, to others, to the larger whole. Until that happens, no good is likely to come of it. A leader who cannot make this happen is a bad leader. Under a bad leader, everyone loses.

…People who are not capable of leadeing themselves will choose leaders who are ot good for them.

It is our duty to be the kind of people who deserve “good” leaders. It is the good leader’s duty to make us do what we ought to do, to become the kind of people we ought to become. We clearly get the leaders we deserve.

The ingredient most often missing from all our talk about leadership is…power. The leader’s influence is limited by the limitations of her power. What brought Carly down at HP was not her incompetence. It was a shortfall of the power needed to fend off the opposing powers.

If a leader does not have the prerogative to choose his own personnel, he will likely fail. If the leader does not have or exercise fire-power, he will lose. If the leader cannot impose his will on his followers, he will lose. It is the leader’s prerogative, necessarily, to risk being wrong. If it becomes groupthink, everyone loses.

Leadership virtuosity requires leading people from where they are to where they ought to be, from who they are to who they ought to be. To fail at this is to fail in the leadership role and to betray those people.

If it is done for their long-term benefit, and the benefit of the larger whole (all of the organization’s other stakeholders), you must have the power necessary to make it happen. If you turn that moral obligation over to others, you have failed your leadership role. You have done harm.

Click here: Leadership Virtuosity if you want to be challenged to become who you ought to be.



June was my 24th year as a Vistage Chair. I have been blessed to know this group of men and women who do the work I do. The people pictured above have all been doing the work of helping leaders of small and mid-sized companies develop and transform themselves professionally and personally. It is about helping them develop and own their unique contribution to their people, their communities and in the wider picture the world.

What follows is my reflection on the work I do as part of my own transformation in sharing my own contribution of service, transformation and community.

A Reflection on the Odyssey of Chairing:
Are You Up To The Journey?

Chairing is about the original definition of Competition. Competition is “seeking with another” the quality of being the best at what one is or is doing. It wasn’t about beating another with the other being the loser. It was about who was the best at a moment in time and did one push the other to do what at one time was thought humanly impossible. The Greeks call it: Arete. We’re back to the “those climb highest who lift as they go.”

Chairing from my very beginning was about “seeking with.” I love the story that is often repeated. One Chair asks another chair to send them a template they’ve just heard about on Chairnet. The Chair receives it and thanks the other Chair for the great template only to have the other Chair email back that they got it from them 5 years ago. They just made some of their own embellishments to it. Chairing has always been about Kaizen: continuous improvement.

That got me to thinking about our lives as Chairs. We are so much more than Chairs as proven by our lives before becoming Chairs. However the vocation of Chairing, although it may be seen by the corporate entity as: professional Business Coach, is a calling because one in so many ways has to start anew.

The journey of a Chair is the unity of the contribution to the Vision, Mission and Values that were first modeled by Bob Nourse, It is also the diversity and unique contribution of each and everyone of us. We are the same in our own unique contribution.

Each of us contributes in our own way as we work out our purpose and meaning in the second half of life. Each of us having succeeded in the first half as measured by the standards of our culture and society. Chairing, for me, is about our own transformation as we contribute to the transformation of those around us while still being measured by a corporate standard.

Mary Oliver’s poem talks about our starting out. The leaving of a life that was home and now the odyssey of going home. It a starting out for new Chairs that in their former and/or continuing profession is successful.

Like Odysseus having conquered Troy after 10 years of fighting with his Trojan Horse ploy (faking leaving and feigning defeat), we set off toward our Ithaca only to find that what worked in the past no longer works. The one-eyed Cyclops has an eye for sight but no eye for insight. Odysseus’s ego saying his name when out of harm’s way, only to realize he has blinded the son of Poseidon. His ego and it’s-about-me sealed a journey for himself that leads him on a ten year Odyssey to get Home.

In this part of his voyage, nothing he knew from the past works. He still retains his intelligence, intuition, insight and inner drive for home even during the years when lulled by Lotos with the drug of accedia (not caring), Circe (gluttonous & greedy for fame, wealth or power) and Calypso (I’ll give you your every desire, but you can’t return to your loved ones AND home).

Poseidon keeps him alive through all the catastrophes that befall him so that one day he can tell the story again to people who think that an oar is a winnowing fan. “No this is not a winnowing fan; it is an oar. Let me tell you a story about this oar…” Once the story is told…again, Odysseus is free to live out the rest of his life at home. So we share our stories that have brought together the transcendent and the world we experience. Kermit’s Rainbow Connection talks about this dichotomy .

So being a Chair is more than about being a Chair.

Some thoughts on returning Home. Having succeeded in the first part of our lives, Chairs set out, knowingly or unknowingly, toward Home where we find who we really are and what we’re suppose to become. (Ah, come on Oz, sometime a cigar is a cigar.) We can rest on the successes of our past and all we have achieved and the impact we have made on the world; OR head Home. Home, that inner journey that looks deeply at the meaning of one’s life and what is one suppose to be.

My simple purpose in life created many years ago when I was coaching and doing psychotherapy on the walk or run was: helping people become better athletes and world class humans. My odyssey is working on myself: “doing the only thing one can do. Saving the only life one can save.”

Home is where we both see and are seen clearly. It is a safe place. I like Michael Goldberg’s quote in his book Travels with Odysseus:
“Home is where you are recognized for who you really are, not more and not less.”

I like LinkedIn. When I link to my fellow Chairs I am in awe of all that they have already accomplished with their lives. I marvel at the impact they have had on the organizations and corporations as they became more accomplished, competent and confident. How impressive are these gifts differing that each of us bring as we start off toward Home.

The Journey of a Chair is truly an Odyssey. Ask any Chair of 10 years or more and they will share what they are continuing to learn along their path homeward. I would ask more Keepers of the Flame to share on Chairnet some of their inner journey so that newer Chairs…and those of us older Chairs that have been influenced by the preemptive striking (quick making assumers) Laestrygonians with their BAMS (review Pat Murray on Groups)…can be reminded of what Don Schmincke spoke about 12 years ago using Mintzberg’s distinctions: Are we a missionary or a professional organization.

After 12 years of reflecting on this, TEC, now Vistage is like that gestalt picture where you can see two faces looking at each other or a vase. The two faces are what the missionary aspect of Vistage is. It is about people and communication and relationship. Like the world sitting on turtles all the way down. The world of Vistage sits on relationships all the way down. Vistage is the vase. It is the business aspect. It is the crucible where Chairs come to have any slag or dross metal burned away. The slag are all those distractions that take us away from moving toward Home. Distractions self created about one’s capabilities and competence as a Chair. Distractions projected on a Mothership rather than looking inward through introspection. I am reminded: “What I say, says more about me than who or what I am saying it about.”

Several groups of Chairs going through training received a rock at the end of their training which had an owl painted on it. On the back is written either “Vistage Odyssey” or “The TEC Odyssey.” They were in either a royal blue or a purple amulet bag. I have been drawing owls on rocks since the late 60’s to commemorate moments in my life and then gave them away. The owls that I did for the Vistage and TEC Chair training were done as a way of reminding myself and the new Chairs about the journey they are setting off upon. Truly each new Chair is on an Odyssey. On one level a story about a 50 something year old company and on another level a journey of individual souls on their way Home…where they are recognized for who they really are, not more and not less.

All the above can be considered folklore. If it works, use it. If it doesn’t, don’t give it a breath of emotion or feeling. Rather go out and find someone’s folklore that works for you and use it. Or if you can’t find anyone, create your own. Please be sure to come back and tell me so I can either learn other ways of telling the folklore or see if my folklore is incorrect.

The Kalama Sutra says it very well. Buddha reminds all of us: Don’t believe anything merely because….

Instead “after thorough observation, investigation, analysis and reflection, when you find that anything agrees with reason and your experience, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, and of the world at large; accept only that as true, and shape your life in accordance with it; and live up to it.”

In other words: This is what the Odyssey of Chairing is about. It is a Practice. So it is with Life. So it is with Chairing. A lifelong Practice.
Are you up for the journey?

Hic et nunc, semper cathedra non solum cathedra sed magister et studens,

Love, friendship and in the spirit of Chair collegiality,
Ozzie

The Journey
By Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save



I have had the privilege of know Jim Vaughan for over 15 years. And through Jim I met his associate and dear friend: Kelly Castor. I have been a champion of their work and an associate of their Life Design work.

I have used sections of the Life Design book for over 12 years during our Gontang Family Retreats.

Jim spoke to my Vistage executive group twice a number of years ago. He is one of the early developers of Organizational Development and from one copy that I saw where the CEO joined my group, Jim had created a truly high performance learning organization. I also saw a bank dismantle that same organization in less than 60 days; only to come back 6 months later and admit they made a mistake in their approach. They saw the service as transaction and destroyed the actual foundation: Trust and Relationship.

You can purchase a hard copy of the Life Design book from Amazon for $14.95 or download a free digital version. The content in both is identical

how you can help

“We must become the change we wish to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi

Reclaiming our communities and making them great places to live, work, and play involves deep cultural change. It will require the ongoing cooperative efforts of many people over a long period of time. It will require some change in behavior from virtually every one of us. We welcome your participation.

Join one of our ongoing programs:

* Local Food: Contact Maggie Castor to find out what you can do to eliminate hunger and poor nutrition in your community. (maggiecastor@partners101.org)

* Renewable Energy: Check out steps you can take today to conserve energy. Energy Saver’s Booklet Contact Kelly Castor to learn more about our renewable energy initiative. (kelly@partners101.org)

* Youth Program: Contact Kelly Castor to learn how you can use LifeDesign for Teens to help prepare youth in your community for a successful start in life. (kelly@partners101.org)

* Life Planning: If you haven’t done a gut check recently on your own priorities and the way you’re spending your time, you might want to take a 5-minute Quality of Life Checkup If you’re ready to get serious about taking full responsibility for achieving your life’s dream, get a copy of the LifeDesign Workbook.

* Sustainable Local Economies: Contact Kelly Castor to learn about developing and supporting local entrepreneurs. (kelly@partners101.org)

If none of our current initiatives strike a chord with you, we invite you to consider how LifeDesign can be adapted to address the unique needs of many specific groups and situations. Here are some examples:

* Returning veterans and their families

* Communities that have experienced a plant closing and/or multiple layoffs

* People struggling with obesity

* People re-entering civilian life after being in prison

* A community recovering from a natural disaster such as a flood

It is preferable, but not essential, that you have personally experienced the issue you want to address. We’ll work with you to adapt the LifeDesign process to the situation. Contact James Vaughan to explore these or related possibilities. james@partners101.org


Next weekend I am going to a training with fellow Chairs of Vistage. One of the shared readings we will have all read or in most instances re-read is Don MIguel Ruiz’s Four Agreements.

Four Agreements
Don Miguel Ruiz’s Code for Life

The simplicity and elegance of his thinking remains a source of great enlightenment and aspiration. The simple ideas of The Four Agreements provide an inspirational code for life; a personal development model, and a template for personal development, behavior, communications and relationships. Here is how Don Miguel Ruiz summarizes ‘The Four Agreements’

Agreement 1

BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD- Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Agreement 2

DON’T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY - Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

Agreement 3

DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS - Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

Agreement 4

ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST - Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

To this he and his son have written The Fifth Agreement.

Agreement 5

BE SKEPTICAL BUT LEARN TO LISTEN

Don’t believe yourself or anybody else. Use the power of doubt to question everything you hear: Is it really the truth? Listen to the intent behind words, and you will understand the real message

So many maps to guide one on the same journey. Each begins where we are. When the traveller is ready the map appears. When the soul is ready the Spirit appears. When the pilgrim is ready, the road appears.

I am continually drawn back to the Buddha speaking to the villagers of Kalama. The Fifth Agreement echoes what was said so long ago. The story was shared in my blog: Seeking Personal Experience & Personal Authority

The Kalama Sutra

The Kalama Sutra is the Buddha’s reply to a group of townspeople of Kalama. They asked Buddha who were they to believe of all the ascetics, sages, holy ones and teachers They came through their town confusing them with their contradictory truths, teachings, beliefs, and one true way.

• Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it,
• Nor traditions because they are old and have been handed down from generation to generation and in many locations,
• Nor in rumor because it has been spoken by many,
• Nor in writings by sages because sages wrote them,
• Nor in one’s own fancies, thinking that it is such an extraordinary thought, it must have been inspired by a god or higher power,
• Nor in inferences drawn from some haphazard assumption made by us,
• Nor in what seems to be of necessity by analogy,
• Nor in anything merely because it is based on the authority of our teachers, masters, and elders,.

However, after thorough observation, investigation, analysis and reflection, when you find that anything agrees with reason and your experience, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, and of the world at large; accept only that as true, and shape your life in accordance with it; and live up to it.

These words, the Buddha went on to say, must be applied to his own teachings.

Along the many paths remember as you set out:

After thorough observation, investigation, analysis and reflection, when you find that anything agrees with reason and your experience, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, and of the world at large; accept only that as true, and shape your life in accordance with it; and live up to it.



As someone who has run and walked with patients and friends for 35 years, this little article shared by Christine Messier brings out the fact that being in nature quickly brings a person to “present moment, beautiful moment.” What is interesting is that when one is in the present moment there is no cause and effect. It’s not the green space and it is the green space. It’s not the exercise and it is the exercise. It’s not being present and it is being present. In the present moment, one is observing and being. Thoughts are just thoughts that come and go. And being surrounded by the beauty of nature; and experiencing one’s feelings and one senses of, as George Sheehan would put it, one as being a good animal. Awake and fully present in the present moment. One with the world.

As the first Running Therapist trained by Tad Kostrubala, it is nice to know that the tradition of Running Therapy has been carried on by of group of psychiatrists and therapists in Germany. Since the early days, and learning the skills of a Running Therapist, I only run with friends and people who I am training to walk and run properly. Being out in nature and being out in public with a Running Therapist one only sees people walking or running. In those moments there is no mental illness. Only two people running, talking, laughing, crying, and playing together. And of course, the Running Therapist has learned that it is the walking and/or running along with the “Green space” that creates the healing.

Remember the word “therapist” comes from the Greek “theraps” which means to attend or listen to. Back in 400 BCE, the Aesculapian “theraps” would prepare the patient for their healing dream. The healing came from within not from without. It was only later that oracles, priests, physicians and others took on the role of healers to the wounded. The dialogue about Wounded Healers is for another time.

Green space is important for mental health

Just five minutes of exercise in a “green space” such as a park can boost mental health, researchers claim.

There is growing evidence that combining activities such as walking or cycling with nature boosts well-being.

In the latest analysis, UK researchers looked at evidence from 1,250 people in 10 studies and found fast improvements in mood and self-esteem.

The study in the Environmental Science and Technology journal suggested the strongest impact was on young people.

The research looked at many different outdoor activities including walking, gardening, cycling, fishing, boating, horse-riding and farming in locations such as a park, garden or nature trail.

The biggest effect was seen within just five minutes.

With longer periods of time exercising in a green environment, the positive effects were clearly apparent but were of a smaller magnitude, the study found.

Looking at men and women of different ages, the researchers found the health changes - physical and mental - were particularly strong in the young and the mentally-ill.

Green and blue

A bigger effect was seen with exercise in an area that also contained water - such as a lake or river.

Study leader Jules Pretty, a researcher at the University of Essex, said those who were generally inactive, or stressed, or with mental illness would probably benefit the most from “green exercise”.

We would like to see all doctors considering exercise as a treatment where appropriate
Paul Farmer, Mind

“Employers, for example, could encourage staff in stressful workplaces to take a short walk at lunchtime in the nearest park to improve mental health.”

He also said exercise programmes outdoors could benefit youth offenders.

“A challenge for policy makers is that policy recommendations on physical activity are easily stated but rarely adopted widely.”

Paul Farmer, chief executive of mental health charity Mind, said the research is yet further evidence that even a short period of green exercise can provide a low cost and drug-free therapy to help improve mental wellbeing.

“It’s important that people experiencing depression can be given the option of a range of treatments, and we would like to see all doctors considering exercise as a treatment where appropriate.”

Mind runs a grant scheme for local environmental projects to help people with mental illness get involved in outdoor activities.

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2 Comments... What do you think? Subscribe via RSS ShareThisSharing Mindfulness: A Gift from Juliet Adams
3 Comments April 26, 2010 / Posted in Mindfulness

Juliet Adams has just put her website online to gather in one place as much as is possible about mindfulness. You will find it rewarding and rich in content and in a context created with a spirit of Mindfulness.

I have just launched a new website to provide information on mindfulness: Mindfulnet.org . It aims to provide “everything you need to know about mindfulness on one website”.

I have included a simple video on the subject of “what is mindfulness” which can be found on the home page or on you tube.

The website also includes an extensive list of research, overview of the neuroscience of mindfulness, links, resources, DVDs, workshops, events and news, and links to hundreds of websites.

This has been rather a labour of love for me, so do let me know what you think!

If you like it, please share it with others, as the higher up the search engines it becomes, the more people will read it, and hopefully more people will become mindful!

You will find Dan Siegel’s writings helpful. His work Mindsight and his dialogue with Daniel Goleman good reading and good listening.

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3 Comments... What do you think? Subscribe via RSS ShareThisProper Running: Mindful Movement in the Moment
1 Comment April 26, 2010 / Posted in Mindful Running, Running Form & Style, Running Injury Prevention, The Running Mind

http://www.flickr.com/photos/asvolcans/ / CC BY-NC 2.0
Mindlessness is made of those habits and behaviors that that we do automatically and habitually with little or no awareness. Mindfulness focuses attention and awareness on the present moment. As there is only “Hic et Nunc” - Here and Now.

Last month the San Diego Marathon Clinic celebrated 35 years of service to the running and walking community of San Diego. The journey has been an interesting path. For so many of us, our run brings us into this present moment.

In an article in May of 1996, Joyce Wycoff of ThinkSmart wrote an article: Today’s Certainties and Tomorrow’s Absurdities. She quoted me regarding what I had been saying for years about the issue not being the running shoe rather the improper running that was being championed and taught by the majority of people coaching the masses of runners and joggers. The focus was to strike on the heel first when running.

Running shoes will continue to advance in design and technology. They will continue to neglect a major component: Man, the thinking body.

An atavistic paradigm shift will take place. Runners and walkers will realize it’s not the shoe, it’s an innovative thinking body. A new line of shoe will be created that allows proprioceptive feedback to the thinking body. All of the thick running and walking shoes will be replaced by thinsoled foot covers which allow the human animal to take control of their youthful movement once again.

Traditional Tai Chi, Yoga, Stretching for the Thinking Body, etc. will grow. Companies like Nike, Addidas, Reebok and their approach to shoes will be tomorrow’s absurdities. Weight machines with computers will be used to measure gradual progress in strength. These weight machines will be revolutionized as they now measure the correct increase in range of motion as they strengthen muscles.

But as Alfred Adler said in dealing with the diagnosis of why people are the way they are: “But it could be different.”

I posted an article on RunningBarefoot.org back in February of 2001: Ball Heel Ball Is The Correct Way To Run and another dialogue with Steve Freides about Running Cadence that also talked about landing ball heel. If you want to see the whole thread you can check out Ball Heel Ball here. My years at the Maintainer of the FAQ at rec.running was to have my answers questioned. It was an excellent training ground to be present and now swept away by what others said or wrote.

You’ll want to check out the Harvard barefoot running website of Dan Lieberman and his team of collaborators and their research on how early man ran and some great video footage of the running foot and some good tips for those who have been decided to become barefoot or minimalist shoe runners.



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1 Comment... What do you think? Subscribe via RSS ShareThisThe Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings
6 Comments April 6, 2010 / Posted in Meditation, Mindfulness You will want to visit the website of The Community of Mindful Living (CML). Below are the 14 Mindful Trainings which guide the Community.

Located just north of San Diego is one of the CML’s Retreat Centers: Deer Park
Under their Mindful Practice you will find a series of short reflections that are very helpful in all aspects of being mindful.

Mindfulness is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. It is the continuous practice of touching life deeply in every moment of daily life. To be mindful is to be truly alive and present with those around you and with what you are doing. We bring our body and mind into harmony while we wash the dishes, drive the car or take our morning cup of tea.



Here is a short biography of Thich Nhat Hanh on the Deer Park website.

The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings Introduction
(from Interbeing by Thich Nhat Hanh)

1. The First Mindfulness Training: Openness
Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help us learn to look deeply and to develop our understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or die for.

2. The Second Mindfulness Training: Nonattachment from Views
Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. We shall learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to others’ insights and experiences. We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.

3. The Third Mindfulness Training: Freedom of Thought
Aware of the suffering brought about when we impose our views on others, we are committed not to force others, even our children, by any means whatsoever - such as authority, threat, money, propaganda, or indoctrination - to adopt our views. We will respect the right of others to be different and to choose what to believe and how to decide. We will, however, help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness through practicing deeply and engaging in compassionate dialogue.

4. The Fourth Mindfulness Training: Awareness of Suffering
Aware that looking deeply at the nature of suffering can help us develop compassion and find ways out of suffering, we are determined not to avoid or close our eyes before suffering. We are committed to finding ways, including personal contact, images, and sounds, to be with those who suffer, so we can understand their situation deeply and help them transform their suffering into compassion, peace, and joy.

5. The Fifth Mindfulness Training: Simple, Healthy Living
Aware that true happiness is rooted in peace, solidity, freedom, and compassion, and not in wealth or fame, we are determined not to take as the aim of our life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure, nor to accumulate wealth while millions are hungry and dying. We are committed to living simply and sharing our time, energy, and material resources with those in need. We will practice mindful consuming, not using alcohol, drugs, or any other products that bring toxins into our own and the collective body and consciousness.

6. The Sixth Mindfulness Training: Dealing with Anger
Aware that anger blocks communication and creates suffering, we are determined to take care of the energy of anger when it arises and to recognize and transform the seeds of anger that lie deep in our consciousness. When anger comes up, we are determined not to do or say anything, but to practice mindful breathing or mindful walking and acknowledge, embrace, and look deeply into our anger. We will learn to look with the eyes of compassion at ourselves and at those we think are the cause of our anger.

7. The Seventh Mindfulness Training: Dwelling Happily in the Present Moment
Aware that life is available only in the present moment and that it is possible to live happily in the here and now, we are committed to training ourselves to live deeply each moment of daily life. We will try not to lose ourselves in dispersion or be carried away by regrets about the past, worries about the future, or craving, anger, or jealousy in the present. We will practice mindful breathing to come back to what is happening in the present moment. We are determined to learn the art of mindful living by touching the wondrous, refreshing, and healing elements that are inside and around us, and by nourishing seeds of joy, peace, love, and understanding in ourselves, thus facilitating the work of transformation and healing in our consciousness.

8. The Eighth Mindfulness Training: Community and Communication
Aware that lack of communication always brings separation and suffering, we are committed to training ourselves in the practice of compassionate listening and loving speech. We will learn to listen deeply without judging or reacting and refrain from uttering words that can create discord or cause the community to break. We will make every effort to keep communications open and to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.

9. The Ninth Mindfulness Training: Truthful and Loving Speech
Aware that words can create suffering or happiness, we are committed to learning to speak truthfully and constructively, using only words that inspire hope and confidence. We are determined not to say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people, nor to utter words that might cause division or hatred. We will not spread news that we do not know to be certain nor criticize or condemn things of which we are not sure. We will do our best to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten our safety.

10. The Tenth Mindfulness Training: Protecting the Sangha
Aware that the essence and aim of a Sangha is the practice of understanding and compassion, we are determined not to use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit or transform our community into a political instrument. A spiritual community should, however, take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.

11. The Eleventh Mindfulness Training: Right Livelihood
Aware that great violence and injustice have been done to our environment and society, we are committed not to live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. We will do our best to select a livelihood that helps realize our ideal of understanding and compassion. Aware of global economic, political and social realities, we will behave responsibly as consumers and as citizens, not supporting companies that deprive others of their chance to live.

12. The Twelfth Mindfulness Training: Reverence for Life
Aware that much suffering is caused by war and conflict, we are determined to cultivate nonviolence, understanding, and compassion in our daily lives, to promote peace education, mindful mediation, and reconciliation within families, communities, nations, and in the world. We are determined not to kill and not to let others kill. We will diligently practice deep looking with our Sangha to discover better ways to protect life and prevent war.

13. The Thirteenth Mindfulness Training: Generosity
Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, we are committed to cultivating loving kindness and learning ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals. We will practice generosity by sharing our time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. We are determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. We will respect the property of others, but will try to prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other beings.

14. The Fourteenth Mindfulness Training: Right Conduct
(For lay members): Aware that sexual relations motivated by craving cannot dissipate the feeling of loneliness but will create more suffering, frustration, and isolation, we are determined not to engage in sexual relations without mutual understanding, love, and a long-term commitment. In sexual relations, we must be aware of future suffering that may be caused. We know that to preserve the happiness of ourselves and others, we must respect the rights and commitments of ourselves and others. We will do everything in our power to protect children from sexual abuse and to protect couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct. We will treat our bodies with respect and preserve our vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realization of our bodhisattva ideal. We will be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world, and will meditate on the world into which we are bringing new beings.

(For monastic members): Aware that the aspiration of a monk or a nun can only be realized when he or she wholly leaves behind the bonds of worldly love, we are committed to practicing chastity and to helping others protect themselves. We are aware that loneliness and suffering cannot be alleviated by the coming together of two bodies in a sexual relationship, but by the practice of true understanding and compassion. We know that a sexual relationship will destroy our life as a monk or a nun, will prevent us from realizing our ideal of serving living beings, and will harm others. We are determined not to suppress or mistreat our body or to look upon our body as only an instrument, but to learn to handle our body with respect. We are determined to preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realization of our bodhisattva ideal



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6 Comments... What do you think? Subscribe via RSS ShareThisAttitudinal Healing: Mindfulness In Another Key
4 Comments April 2, 2010 / Posted in Mindfulness, Uncategorized The work of Jerry Jampolsky and Diane Cirincione has touched the world one person at a time. Their work spans the globe and the hearts of all those who have practiced the principles Attitudinal Healing This section on their website summarizes and clarifies the principles of Attitudinal Healing

…there are numerous areas in which the Jampolsky Outreach Foundation (JOF) continues to serve, the common thread that unites them is clear and consistent. Namely, the principles of Attitudinal Healing transcend situational differences, customs and cultures, religions and races, and are the cornerstones of how to practically apply universal spiritual principles in everyday life.

Attitudinal Healing

Regards our primary identity as spiritual beings and that the essence of our inner nature is love.

Defines true ‘health’ as inner peace and ‘healing’ as the letting go of fear.

Offers the willingness to find another way of looking at the world, at life, and at death.

Views everyone as equal students and teachers to each other, recognizing that we can learn something from everyone we meet.

Teaches that forgiveness is the key to happiness through healing our relationships with all others and with ourselves.

Experiences love as the most powerful source of healing in the world.

Views the purpose of all communication as joining and regards happiness as a choice.

Recognizes that we are all worthy of love and that happiness is our own responsibility as well as our natural state of being.

Affirms that it is not other people or circumstances outside ourselves that cause us to be in conflict or upset. Rather, it is our own thoughts, feelings, judgments, and attitudes about people and events that cause us distress.

Discovers the negative affect that holding on to grievances, blaming others, and condemning ourselves has, so that we can choose to no longer find value in them.

Asserts that when we let go of fear, only love remains and love is the answer to all the problems we face in life.

Recognizes that we can choose to perceive ourselves and others as one of two ways; either loving, or as fearful, giving a call for help. Fear is shown as anger, rage, violence, etc., towards others and ourselves.

Sets the goal of inner peace and living a life focused on unconditional love.

Supports the notion that as we reach our own hand out into the darkness to help another back into the light…we discover that it is our own.

Introduces the dynamics of personal choice and total responsibility for healing our own minds and for having harmony and integrity in all that we think say and do.

The core of Attitudinal Healing is that rather than trying to change other people, we focus on changing our own minds. In order to experience peace in the world, it first must begin within ourselves. When inner peace is achieved by replacing the destructive feeling generated by fear, our outer world also changes. As each of us heals, the world heals with us.

JOF is a 501(C) (3) non-profit organization formed in 1979 and is funded by private donors and foundation grants.


Find more videos like this on Project Peace On Earth

This clip of Jerry and Diane is from Judy Colvard’s Project-Peace on Earth.