DECEMBER ONE?!

Didn’t we take down the Christmas tree only last week?

This morning I stopped at a Dutch Brothers for a Latte—at a Kiosk I had never stopped at before. A darling girl stuck her head out the window, gave my dog a treat, and we chatted. She said when she saw the Dutch Love picture *she had tears streaming down her cheeks. She told me that corporate office had received a letter from a person who planned to kill themselves that day--after they stopped for coffee. The suicidal person didn’t mention his plans to the server but came away feeling that he had value.  He decided he wanted to live, and wrote to the company telling them about it.

Don’t you just love it?

* I Posted this picture a couple of blogs ago, but I didn't read the text. 

http://wsls.com/2016/03/23/dutch-love-goes-viral-after-encounter-at-vxr-dutch-bros/

VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) — A woman snapped a picture of a coffee order while in line at a Vancouver Dutch Bros., but it wasn’t your normal order.

According to Barbara Danner, who posted the picture on the Dutch Bros Coffee Facebook page, the woman in the car in front of her had lost her 37-year-old husband the night before. When the employees noticed she was emotional and struggling, they stopped to pray with her.

Peirce Dunn and Evan Freeman are two of the employees in the viral post. Freeman tells KOIN 6 News the woman is a regular customer and she was visibly upset. At first, the woman didn’t want to talk about her loss, but Dunn and Freeman say they could see she was suffering and they just wanted to give her love and to make her feel that love. They say they just wanted to correct the problem and make her feel happy.

The post has more than 341,000 reactions on Facebook and has been shared more than 100,000 times.

For those who have read my previous blog, I am in love with Dutch Brothers--the coffee people. I love their policy, their friendliness, and their attitude. "We can teach anyone to make coffee, but we can't teach anyone to be nice." Now I find that they are life-changing. My  seat companion at the Tony Robbins live event said the company sent 30 of their employees to the event--all paid expenses.

And now, dear ones, get ready for more of Tony Robbins, Unleash the Power Within --my experience in San Jose. This is the last post on the subject. 

Another seat companion asked if I would write about the nutrition talk, I said I would. so dear friend, here it is:

I’m not trying to encourage anyone to change their diet or their attitude regarding it. Just the facts as I heard them.

As I sit here, I am holding a Kleenex under my nose for my sinuses are working overtime to rid my body of whatever irritants got in there. And here I am faced with those wonder men who popped in and out of the event, and said they haven’t had a cold in 35 years.

That’s annoying.

Whatever bug is bothering me, is going through the family. First, daughter got it, then me, and today little grandson got sick. So far husband dear has escaped. He takes a supplement called “Cellular Forte,” and it seems to save him.

 I better add that to my repertory.

Okay, on to the event. First things first--First BREATHE. (You know if you keep breathing you won't die.)

     1) Breath

 I had never heard of Wim Hof, known as The Ice Man, until  he bounded onstage and led us in a breathing exercise.  

At 57, this Norwegian bundle of energy who looked like a mountain man said that when his wife died and he had four kids to raise, he went to the wilderness to grieve. He said he went to nature, to the cold, to get a warm heart.

Hof set 26 world records for feats accomplished in extreme cold, Including climbing Mt Everest to 22,000-foot altitude in his shorts, and with no additional oxygen. 

Watching the video of him swimming through ice-laden Alaskan waters will blow your mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUQwFZ_xFdM

Hof said it’s the mind and the connected breathing that’s the Golden Key to unlock your inner power.  When the adrenaline is up bacteria cannot survive.

I’m breathing.

Bacteria be gone.

He led us in a breathing exercise—super oxygenating ourselves, then we held our breaths for a minute. Breathe again, hold for two minutes.

 “Awk, heave, gasp.”
When asked if we ought to breathe through our mouth or nose, he said, “I don’t care which hole you breathe through, just breathe.”

His ice bath record is 1 hour and 44 minutes. When he climbed out, his skin temperature was normal. 

I don't think he is a daredevil or a superman. I do think he is a person who has learned how to control his metabolism, through meditation and breathing, It shows the power of the mind.

     2) Water

Breath work segwayed into the power of water.  

In Dr. Ferrydoon Batmanghelidj’s book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water,  Dr. Batmanghelidj explained that as a political prisoner, placed in solitary confinement, he reasoned that without physical exercise food would become toxic in his body, so he didn’t eat. He drank water only and found that relieved his stomach pangs.

Later in the cell block with 250-300 prisoners, a fellow inmate was brought to him with severe abdominal pain. Having no medicine, he treated him with water. And although the man had peptic ulcer disease, the water relieved him. Dr. B prescribed two glasses of water every three hours for the next four months, and it seemed to be curing him.

Dr. B. treated 3,000 similar cases and being a scientist, documented them carefully.  Later the University of Pennsylvania hired him to further his research.

How much water should we drink?

One-half your body weight in ounces daily.

A 200- pound person  should drink 100 ounces of water. That is 6.25 pints or 3.13 quarts.

And now, my dear seat companion, I will attempt to explain some of the nutrition information.

3   3)  Nutrition

First of all, there is power in Living water and Live foods. Our plates ought to contain 75% water rich food, The other 25% can be protein, carbohydrates, fiber.

4   4) Fats

Tony emphasized that he gets his tremendous energy because he runs of fats not sugar as do most of the rest of us.

Essential oils are paramount.  Fish oil,. Krill oil is even better, purer. One oil recommended was Odo.

·     

Certified organic fresh omega-3, -6, and -9 oils from flax, sesame, and sunflower seeds, coconut, and evening primrose

·      100% plant-based (vegan), non-GMO, fish-, dairy-, and gluten-free, kosher

·      Ideal ratio balance of 2:1 omega-3s to omega-6s

Its originator was in the arena and he emphasized that it is made under the most stringent of conditions and is very pure.

Yesterday,  I ordered some.

     5) Alkalinity

We know about pH, the acid/alkalinity scale, and how for optimal health we ought to lean toward the alkaline side. (pH stands for “Potential of Hydrogen.” 7 is neutral, the middle of the scale.)

Our blood needs to be slightly alkaline.

Whereas urine, saliva, and the digestive tract should be slightly acidic. We tend to have an alkaline reserve which is stored until it’s needed to neutralize excess acid in the body. If the body becomes too acidic or depletes its alkaline reserves, the cells begin to weaken and break down.

Overweight and underweight problems tend to be an acid problem.

Cancer cells do not do well in an alkaline environment.

I’m leaning toward the acid right now. That happens with a cold. (Have you ever smelled your baby’s breath when they are coming down with a fever? You know they are getting sick.) Right now I’m going to the kitchen for some water laced with apple cider vinegar and a blob of honey. This isn’t from Tony, it’s from me. Yes, vinegar is acid, but it works the opposite in the body. And with a cold, it tends to restore homostasis (balance), which is out of whack.

First a glug of water.

Oh, yes, and put lemon in your water.

For alkalinity, Go Green

Some alkalinity producing foods:

almonds

carrots

avocados

dates

lemons

cucumber

broccoli

(Have you ever drank wheat grass extract? Wow, talk about green. Wheatgrass  is packed with good things, guess I ought to try it again.  It contains all 8 of the essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and it stimulates peristalsis and supports thyroid functioning.)

And it will curl your toes.

Meat and lobster are acid producing—eat with a salad.

      Exercise

Anaerobic (without Oxygen)exercise builds muscle.

Aerobic, (with Oxygen)  builds health.

Love this: The philosophy of “no pain, no gain,” is a fallacy!

Your goal should be to exercise for a longer period of time but in a totally enjoyable way.

And walk at a rate where you can talk.

This in the maximum heart rate:

Stay well below this otherwise, you’re working anaerobically and just burning sugar.

220  minus  your age = maximum heart rate.

Let’s say you are 35 years old. 220 – 35 is 185 your max heart rate.

To burn fat with aerobic use 180 - your age = aerobic training rate.

180 minus 35 equals 146 your aerobic training rate.

I found that all the exercise I was getting at the event helped my overall energy level. I talked of all the walking I did, didn't like some of the predicaments I got myself in, but it worked wonders on my body. Our dancing, jumping up and down, standing up at regular intervals, swinging our hips, took away the back pain I had experienced at home.

I was drinking protein shakes for breakfast and at night, and eating a nut blend trail mix throughout the day. I did eat a hot dog for lunch because that was available, and I like hot dogs. Oh yes, and drinking lots of water.

On the way home I was a bit early at the San Jose Airport and I had a salmon salad. It was excellent. The greens were fresh and the salmon perfect--a surprise for airport food.

I think wine and coffee are essential to a happy life, however, they then to dehydrate, so I will drink more water.

Tony said he hadn’t eaten a piece of chocolate for years. On the first date with his wife-to-be, she ordered a chocolate ice cream Sunday.

He exclaimed: “What are you doing!” 

“It’s called Living.”

His response, “I like that girl.” And, he said, “I even have a chocolate once in awhile and a bit of ice cream.”

I guess all that water, vinegar, and breathing throughout this day helped for at the end of itI felt good enough to make cream puffs. Good comfort food, good fats, not much sugar. Not the best picture, but I can't take another for we ate the subject.

I'd offer you a cream puff if I could, but you're there, I'm here. (Where are you?)  I could give you the recipe, though.  Probably cream puff recipes have remained the same over the years but this one comes from a 50 year-old-plus recipe book. And the Bavarian cream is simple to make, delicious and essential. Filling with just whipped cream doesn’t do it.

"Stand Up"

“Stand Up!”

Swing your hips.

"Stand Up!"is #Joseph Mc Clendon III's battle cry.

Sit down.

Now, stand up.

Rotate your hips. It gets the blood racing, and as you know your lymph system does not have a pump, it relies on your body movement. Rotating your hips is one of the best ways. 

Should you go to an event such as I am writing about, (Tony Robbin’s “Unleash the Giant Within") you might ask: “Why am I here?"

Or here, you might ask: “Why am I reading this?’

Regarding the event: You chose it. You prepared for it. You agonized over it, you feared it, or you were excited about the possibilities. Did you get dragged to it? I hope not. You figured there would be riches to find, people to meet, truths to uncover. 

That registers as uncertainty. 

It might shove us over the edge or be a complete disaster.  It might test our belief system, or push our buttons.

On the other hand, it might be an absolute wonder.

We desire uncertainty in our lives—that’s where passion and adventure reside, however, we also value certainty.

Certainty such as where the next meal is coming from, security of home hearth, and friends. Our task is to find our tolerance for each.

I can’t think of too many things that guarantee certainty, death and taxes, right, okay, we’ve heard that for a long time, but I plan on the sun coming up tomorrow and for me to be here to enjoy it.

Regarding why are you reading this, I hope you find value here and will stick around, for I would like company on this trip.

I do have company. It’s our cat, Zoom Zoom. He tromps across my computer screen, then back. He must believe this is the jogging track. He is careful not to step on the keyboard, while the other cat, Obi, who also sees the jogging track ahead, either steps on the keyboard, turns off my WIFi, or lays on the keyboard every chance he gets—you wouldn’t believe the things he has written.

If I jump up to get something, water, coffee, iced tea, answer the phone, answer my grandson, Obi takes advantage of a hot keyboard to warm his butt.

Close the lid stupid.

I do…most of the time…

Perhaps you didn’t come here for a course on how to be successful or have the secret to being a billionaire, but I bet there is something in your life you would like to change, do, or have.

If you don’t you’re dead, and you wouldn’t be reading this.

  

What would your extraordinary life look like?

Is it to Live Life on your terms?

What prevents you from doing that?

How do you feel when someone says “You’re Wrong. Mistaken, Lying?” Those words cause a biochemical change in your body. (So does being in love.)

When I was a kid I would often hear this phrase when one kid teased another: “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”

That’s wrong. They do hurt.

They cause a biochemical change in the body. 

On the last blog I spoke about depressed people and how in our culture, we medicate them.

Guess we didn’t teach them that disappointment is a part of life, and to expect to be happy all the time is ludicrous.

If you want to achieve, however, focus on the future.

See “I CAN,” all over the place.

You know how it is when you are looking for a new car, or shoes, or outfit, or a couch—you begin to notice them, and they pop up in the most obscure places.  

Stand Up!

I got myself on that one.

That noticing of desired events comes from our #reticular activating system (RAS), the part of the brain that regulates sleep and wakefulness. The RAS also mediate transitions from relaxed wakefulness to periods of high attention.  

Stand Up!

(I suppose one reason Tony uses #Neuro-linguistic programming is that traumas, phobias, and limiting beliefs can be broken by a sudden change of state.  Of 100 suicidal persons he has helped he has not lost a single one.)

And remember, complexity is the enemy of completion.

So, what lesson is there in that?

MAKE IT SIMPLE.

Now, Stand Up!

We never knew when Joseph is going to yell that. 

Be Rocky, pump those arms in the air. Do the Hula.

I found that I sit entirely too much. I can go for four hours straight sitting in my chair--not good.

Okay, sit down.

Now, Tony Robbins' Two Skills of Life—

1). The Science of Mastery

This involves, besides having a hunger for what you want, a focus to achieve it, massive action on your part, but also a change in your physiology—that’s what makes change stick. Tony is a master on neuro-linguistic programming, that is breaking a pattern.

Have you ever been saying something and another person butts in and you forget what you were saying? You aren’t becoming senile, your pattern was broken. I can decide to go after something, turn around, and forget what it was I wanted.  It feels as though it falls out of my brain, and that drives me cuckoo. 

2.) The Art of Fulfillment:

I bet that sometime in your life you got something you wanted, and still felt empty. “Is that all there is?” you ask.

You have heard of movie stars who had fame, fortune, the esteem of their peers and love the world around, yet they killed themselves.

They missed the second phase.

If you have a goal and achieve it, but it gives you no pleasure, it was a hollow victory.

Let it in, dance, celebrate.

Oh my, I remember when I was twelve years old. One day my dad led my heart’s desire down the drive. It was a gift for me, a horse, the one thing I wanted most in my life.

I celebrated him for the next 9 years. He was perfect.

See why I like wishing on horses—and they don’t have to be white. Boots was a sorrel, a rather golden brown, and his mane and tail were flaxen, that is blond. And he had two white “boots” on his hind legs. He spoiled me, as I didn’t know that some horses can be cuckoo birds. (They suffer from the same trauma people do, and it takes a skilled person to gentle them for human interaction.)

There is much more I can tell about the Robbins' event, and there will be a little more, but not much. I am not going to repeat the course. That’s Tony’s. I’m not giving you a workbook version either. I will give something about the afternoon Tony spoke about nutrition--my seat companion asked if I would. 

Before I leave today I have to tell you Joseph’s story about his mother.

One night he came home around midnight after a seminar and was fiddling with his keys trying to get into the house when he heard his answering machine come on. (You remember the days when we had answering machines in the house, and when someone left a message we could listen to it in real time.)

It was his sister. Her hysterical voice came over the answering machine, “Momma’s in the hospital.”

He ran to the phone called her back, but she had already left, so he got in the car and drove the 180 miles to the hospital in L.A.

When he got there his sister was holding her baby and crying.

Mother was in surgery.

When the doctor came in, he was solemn. His mother had cancer. They took out part of a tumor, but left the other part in for to remove it would kill her. The doctor told Joseph she had, “Two months to live.”

Joseph remembered what #Deepak Chopra had said. “If a doctor tells a patient they have two months to live they will be dead within those two months."

Joseph told the doctor. “Don’t tell her.”

“But I have to.”

“No, you don’t. You can tell her she has cancer, but do not tell her she has two months to live.”

“I must.”

“No, you don’t.”

Back and forth they went with the sister and baby crying.

Joseph grabbed the doctor’s shirt and said, “Don’t tell her!”

“I’ll call security.”

Joseph knew about L.A. police pat down, and here he was a black man. He released his hold.

As he was leaving Joseph said, “If you tell her I’m breaking your back.”

Well, security did come, but they only said, “I know this is a difficult time, but do not threaten the doctor.”

So Joseph wondered what to do—get to momma before the doctor. And remembering what Norman Cousins did to heal himself he ran out, bought a VCR, and a pile of funny movies.

He ran to the room where momma was still unconscious and discovered she had a roommate. He asked his sister to leave, turned to the other woman and said, “Things are going to be happening around here, you can either stay or move to another room.”

Timidly, rather inquisitive, she said, “I’m staying.”

Joseph stayed in the hospital with his mother for two weeks. When the doctor came in he took up his stance--glaring with arms folded.

The doctor never told her.

Joseph and his mother laughed over the movies with her holding her incision and saying “Oh stop, stop,”... and laughing.

She lived for another 11 years.

“Your mind won’t let you enjoy---your heart will.”

“What better gift can you give your creator than to appreciate your gifts.”

“Life happens for you, not to you.”

Now go back and scan over this again, and Stand up when I yelled stand up, and you will find you feel a heck of a lot better.

How's Your State of Mind?

 We all smile in the same language

”If people are going nuts around you there is still a still place inside you.

”However, don’t get to blissed out or someone will come and take your furniture.” –Tony Robbins

I have heard that 80% of our population is depressed.”

And what do we do for a depressed person?

Drug them.

Are they still depressed?

Most. Yes.

Stop using the word depressed. Say pissed off, frustrated, angry, etc. 

What is your flavor of suffering?

Humm…

There are two basic fears that all humans share:

1.    That they aren’t good enough.

2.    That they are not loved.

The idea of a workshop, seminar, whatever you want to call it, is to Play full out. If the presenter is the one doing all the work, he gets all the muscle.

The state in which you learn something is the state in which you will apply it. If you listen passively you will get maybe 10% retention. Notes are 50-55% retention, Listen and take notes 90%.

I don’t know how you take notes without listening, maybe borrow them like in college. Maybe just write and not listen. Oh well.  Here, with no sound or visuals you are stuck with reading.

You remember sitting at a lackluster lecture, fighting sleep, the chair gets hard, your legs go to sleep, your butt turns numb.

And you were paying for it!

Tony Robbins is like the Energizer Bunny on speed. He can go fifteen hours straight, dancing, jumping up and down, yelling at the top of his lungs, and pushing his voice over its limit. (He has damaged it, and takes a day on, a day off.)

When I heard Tony wasn’t going to speak the second day, I thought, Hey, I thought we got Tony for 3 and 1/2 days.

However, Joseph McClendon III won me over. I love him.

His story is that he was homeless for a time sleeping in a box in Lancaster California. You can drive for miles around Lancaster and only see sand and telephone poles—that story comes later.

The reason he was sleeping in a box was that someone tried to kill him because of the color of his skin. He thought, “If someone would do that to me. There must be something wrong with me.”

One day a man gave him a book.

It was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

He read it and went back to the man who had given it to him with the understanding that when someone gives you a gift you ought to give them something in return.

The man said to pass it on, not the book specifically, but the principles and now McClendon is a neuro-psychologist in L.A. and a presenter at the Tony Robbins event. He says it isn’t the motivation, it’s the “Do.”

While McClendon was urging us to believe we rocked, he suggested that when we approach an automatic door where two doors part like a theater curtain, that we swing wide our arms as though we caused it, stand in the open doorway, blow kisses and bow.

He had been doing that. One day he walked with up to the automatic doors at a grocery store with his little 2- year-old son holding on to his finger. You know how toddlers hold your finger? As they approached the automatic doors he felt his son pull away.

The little boy stood before the doors, waved wide his arms like a magician, and stood there arms spread with a big smile on his face.

There was a Starbucks Coffee shop right inside the doors, and seeing the little boy standing like a composer who had just conducted the Philharmonic orchestra, they applauded.

Strange, isn’t it, how something that means so much to you can be received negatively by someone else?  I just tuned into a long tirade online from an attendee at a San Jose event who took a month to recover! That was in 2012. Holy cow, I was ready to go the next day, and I am twice her age.

I suppose having Tony say if you are a pessimist you are gutless, might shake some up a bit.

Tony says we use softeners in our language, and after reading the book Taboo Language, he uses Adult Language to jolt, to emphasize, to jar people out of their present state. That might bother some people too, although he states up front, that Adult language will be used.

One reason I went to the event was to learn how to change my state. Of late I had been grouchy, irritated and angry a lot of the time.

We practiced going form sad to happy, sad to happy, sad to happy in an instant.

Although there are a million beautiful states, to think you can be happy all the time is ludicrous.

We have a two-million-year-old-brain (evolutionarily speaking) that is wired to look for saber-toothed tigers. Finding no tigers, that beautiful brain of ours looks for something else to scare us.

 It “thinks’ it is looking out for us. Misguided thing that it is.

And so the mastery in life is to control our brain instead of letting it control us. The idea is to notice the fearful thought as it passes through and let it go on past. 

And think of this. We are stupid to fuss over what is predictable,

when we know someone will mess up.

I am used to events. I’ve attended channelers, consciousness raising groups that was something akin to EST, if you remember that. Taboo language doesn’t bother me. I love it when someone goes full out. To me it like Barbra Streisand singing “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”

Hit number two: Why affirmations and presentations such as The Secret that everybody went cuckoo over don’t bring the desired results.

It takes more that positive thinking or wishing—although having a positive attitude is definitely better than the opposite.

The trick is that is whatever you put out, affirm for, focus on, or pray for must be done in a peak state. (Perhaps desperation works too, for that is highly emotional.) I’ve heard that focus and affirmations must be done with emotion, many guru’s tell us that, but few pump you up like Tony Robbins.

So do whatever it takes to put yourself the in a peak state before you ask for your heart’s desire. Music, walks in nature, whatever floats your boat.

And remember to give thanks, to live in an aura of Gratitude.

One question was: “What amount of uncertainty can you take?

We need a certain amount of certainty in our lives to function well—food, money, love, those sorts of things.

Yet we need uncertainty. The call to adventure. The urge that pulls us toward a goal, those sorts of things. We just need to know where in the spectrum we fit. Remember all passion is in the realm of uncertainty, and remember this: You are more powerful than your dopey moments.  

Watch this orangutan watch a magic trick, it’ll make you fall out of your chair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLrYzY3jVPY