Turn Your House Into a Home May 11, 2010

There are six key components to my KISS (keep it small and simple) healthy living philosophy. I have come up with this KISS analogy to make it easy to remember (that is if you care to remember).

Imagine your wellness lifestyle as a house. An average house, single family, one maybe two bedrooms, there are some common things you will find in the layout.

We enter on the first floor to find three main rooms- living room, dining room and kitchen. Beginning with the kitchen and dining rooms. This is where the family prepares and consumes nutriment.  The kitchen is a central area to any home.

Anciently, many cultures designed there living spaces around the meal prep. and cooking area called the hearth.

The hearth was the floor of the fireplace, usually made of stone or brick. The word hearth eventually became synonymous with house, home family.

The hearth was the first multi-purpose space. It was dining area, family room and guest/living room. This demonstrates the importance of diet and social support in the lives of human beings.

On the second floor, in a small house you will find the bedroom(s) and toilet/bathroom. The bedroom is where for the most part we sleep.

Sleep is one of the most overlooked healing elixirs at out disposal. Sleep is the repairer and restorer.

It is my belief that you should not have a TV in your bedroom and most certainly not go to sleep with the TV left on.

This is an invasion of your psychic privacy of the worst kind.

When you are asleep, you can still hear, you just can’t listen.  The conscious mind is the one that sleeps. It is the conscious mind (when functional) that screens, categorizes and files cultural data (words, stories,etc.).

When you sleep with the TV running in the background, you open yourself up to psychic intrusion. Your dreams are an open door to any and all messages; positive and negative.

The toilet is the central space for physical hygiene.  Many in the medical profession contend that medical technology is the root cause of life extension and public health in the 20the century.

But any medical anthropologist worth her salt, knows that the health and improved life expectancy of the western population improved exponentially with the advent of universal indoor plumbing, the toothbrush, public sanitation and the embrace of the idea that “cleanliness is next to godliness.”

The attic’ the highest space in the house, is where we store the things we don’t necessarily use daily, but would like to have access to them when the need arises. Much of it’s contents has been accumulated over a long period of time. And many things being held onto their, have long outlived there usefulness. I like to connect the idea of the attic to our mindset.

Our headset or belief system holds a high position in our hierarchy of values. This is the crossroads of the healing journey. When we are unable to get rid of the head trash that keeps us stuck in a non productive, de-evolutionary, diseased death-style holding pattern. We will be at the mercy of home invasion by the local riff raff: virus, germs, toxic foods, pollution, stress and the like.

If you truly want to attain and maintain a life of health, wealth and wisdom. Clean out your attic.

Lastly, the basement of the house, in addition to housing the laundry room and  core infrastructure, is where many home owners have their recreational space.  In a small house, the home gym is usually found in the basement.  Cool in the summer and not too warm in the winter. The concrete walls of an unfinished basement has the gritty, non-frills feel of a grunt gym.  This is the the space where we get our workout – in.

So, the six elixirs of Therapeutic  Lifestyle Alchemy are: Sleep, Hygiene, Exercise, Diet, Social Support and Mindset.  These are all aspects of our lives that are under our control. No rocket science required.

Get sufficient sleep. Pay attention to your hygiene (the rest of us will appreciate that also). Get moving. Eat whole foods. Share your life with, support and solicit help from family, friends and community. Periodically reassess your beliefs, values and idea of self.

These are the keys to transforming base metals (house) into gold (a home).

Dingman’s Falls Hike – Saturday May 15

BodyFit Boot Camp – Branch Brook Park

Mornings: Tuesday, Thursday 6 AM – Saturdays 7 AM

Evenings:  Tuesday, Thursday 7 PM – Saturdays 7 AM

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kazi@mybodytemple.net

Not Just for Pampering April 25, 2010

I see plenty of advertisements for Spas, Spa services and Spa parities these days. The promote the purchase of massage, facials, saunas, body scrubs and more. The Spa business along with fitness (sometimes combined in the same space) has been one of the fastest growing businesses in major cities around the country for the past 20 years.

The marketing of spa services has been very successful. The emphasis in the marketing has concentrated on the pampering aspect of going to a spa. The need for pampering in a fast paced, competitive society such as ours is legitimate and deserves exposure. At the same time, this emphasis on pampering may go over the heads of certain segments of the population, who could benefit greatly from regular of even an occasional spa experience.

In particular, many men still have not experienced the benefits of visiting a spa.  The idea of pampering in some minds is still something for women and metrosexuals.  Real men don’t eat quiche and most certainly do not enter the fru-fru halls of a spa.  Stone age thinking, but still very prevalent.

Massage is the one aspect of the spa that is pretty acceptable across genders. But it too fails to attract some people because it is looked at as a luxury. “I’ve had a massage before. I felt like a new man afterward. But it’s just to expensive to do regularly’”. This is something I’ve heard from woman also. Not just in reference to getting a massage, but in response to any sort of spa treatment.

I think there is an opportunity here for those of us in the health and fitness professions to highlight the health benefits of going to a spa or soliciting the services of a spa professional and integrating spa therapies into our clients healthy lifestyle programs.  The treatments that I listed above are not only delightful to experience, they are healing to the body, mind and spirit.  Spa treatments are detoxifying, stress reducing and can also be bonding for couples, families and friends. These three aspects alone are some of the most powerful preventive and curative medicines at our disposal.

The two that I find indispensable to maintaining my health are massage and saunas or steam baths. The sauna takes a few minutes to get used to if you haven’t been. But the moment of initial discomfort is worth it. As the body temperature rises, perspiration and blood circulation increases. The muscles and organs are stimulated and toxic waste is removed from your body through perspiration.

The heat also relaxes the muscles, making them soft and pliable. Try stretching after spending a few minutes in a sauna or steam room.  You will find that your range of motion has increased significantly. Minor aches you may have been experiencing many times melt away.

To put the icing on the cake, have a massage done after spending at least a combined half hour in a sauna and hot tub.  You will arise from the table so relaxed, you would be wise to take a little nap before leaving the spa.

High powered business executives, pro athletes, politicians, royalty and entertainers have been taking advantages of spa treatments for hundreds of years. If you feel you can’t afford a massage, get a 30 minute chair massage. You will not regret it. Most chair practitioners charge somewhere in the region of $1/min.  Shop around for a spa or freelancer in your area that has reasonable rates. You can usually save on treatments by buying multiple sessions as part of a package.  This will also motivate you to get treated on a regular basis.

My favorite place here in New Jersey is King Sauna. I go mainly for the variety of heat treatments available. Women swear by the body scrubs they get there.

Make spa services an integral part of your Sacred Wellness Lifestyle Program.  See you at the spa.

muchpeace,
Kazi

PS. Free Pre-Boot Camp continues Tuesday. 3 sessions remaining.

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kazi@mybdoytemple.net

Will I Am – That I Am March 10, 2010

My taste buds are in an uproar.  They are usually the chief protagonist during a fast.  At least for me.  My taste buds are mad bored right now.  They yearn for something tasty.  Anything really.  Salty, Spicy, Bitter, Sour of Sweet.  Just one stimulating jolt of oral bliss could send me to heaven.  And set me back 2 days.

Fasting has a way of revealing things about you.  Things you may or may not have already known.  One things for sure, you will witness a battle of will vs temptations in the first few days.  But it’s not your belly that’s rebelling, it’s the mind.  The part of your mind that is dedicated to ensuring your survival as a egg/sperm carrying member of the species will prop up every argument against and alternative to not eating.  Especially when it knows good and well that food is readily available.  This too shall pass.  Literally.  Just say no and have a sip of the universal solvent.

Fasting has been promoted as a way of detoxifying the body.  Not sure I would put alot of weight behind that.  What I do know is that it has a way of stilling the mind chatter (after the initial battle), and body tension.  Successful fasting also strengthens your will.  If you can resist the natural inclination to eat when hungry, you can resist most temptations that will enter your life.  This alone is a good reason to make fasting an integral part of your sacred lifestyle.  The part of our brains that will try to sabotage the fast means well.   It is concerned with maintaining the bottom line – survival.  But our ability to tame this part of our nature is what separates us from our animal cousins.  It’s our ability to choose that evolves our humanity.

I hear so much these days about teaching people, especially young people about making the right choices.  But I’m not convinced that we teach people how to build up their choice muscles.  Every box of cigarettes has a warning lable on it’s side that tells us that smoking is hazardous to our health.  Yet, we still have millions of smokers in America and worldwide.  Addiction is the absence of choice.  And addiction is the number one disease in the modern world.  Addiction to substances, the past, comfort, ideas, people, cultures and the hardest one to kick- addiction to who we think we are.  Fasting is preventive and healing medicine for addictions.

Tomorrow I anticipate the experience of physical weakness and frailty.  This is part and parcel of the journey.  The weakness although physical has a profound impact upon the psyche.  When you feel weak, your aggressiveness is automatically diminished.  It’s as if there is a voice in the back of your head saying: “Hey, I don’t want no trouble.”  It makes me very humble.  Humble but not fearful.  It’s like becoming water.  You lose interest in resisting.  When the world pushes, you just roll with the pushes until it wears itself out.  Then extend a hand of assistance to get the world spinning again.   If you really want to walk in master teachers footsteps, try a 40 day fast.  I assure you, you will become a master cheek turner 🙂

spring cleaning thoughts March 7, 2010

Tuesday will be the first day of my Spring Cleaning campaign.  It’s a time when I focus my attention on reducing the old, stale, dis-functional, non useful, diseased, excesses in my life.  The roots of my cleaning frenzy are anchored in a physical detox process that can last anywhere from 7 – 14 days.  My diet becomes narrow and lite.  Raw, low starch fruits and veggies are the staple during the cleansing, accompanied by lots of fluid intake (and out take). 

I take a look at my projects, activities, groups, relationships.  Are they fruitful, balanced, living or stagnant?  Where do I need to trim the excess?  Where can my energies yield the most growth?  The life force I put into any situation during the next 3 months is going to lead to exuberant growth  and development.  I’m Choosing carefully.  But gotta weed before I seed.  So apologies are in order.  Fences need mending.  Burnt bridges need rebuilding.

I’m reducing old ideas, beliefs, reasons, likes, dis-likes.  Supplementing the newly born glimpses of the now.  Stepping out on the strength of what can be.  On the strength of the possible, potential and destined.

Stay tuned, this could be more than interesting.  Feel me!

stay tuned for some “ain’t necessarily so” pearls of wisdom March 6, 2010

At 50 years of age I am seeking, experimenting with and embracing ways to use emerging wisdom to balance waning strength.  Juggling with ideas sacred, profane, fun and sometimes frightening. Playing the role of child, brother, father, friend, neighbor, coach, educator, activist, researcher, therapist, wilderness guide, entrepreneur and wanna-be blogger. This blog will serve as a place for me to share thoughts, experiences, experiments, results, questions, stories, encounters, insights, conflicts, confusion, obstacles, progress, plans, images of  the unknown.  About Life, Wisdom, Health and Wealth.  Enjoy the ride.

The blog is a work in progress.  Learning by doing.  Suggestions are welcome.  Comments are encouraged.  Criticism is accepted , though painful. Don’t hesitate to spread the word.