This is a simple exercise you can do regularly in order to counteract tightness, soreness and weakness in the back from time spent on computer or mobile device.

Doing it every hour could be a real challenge, but as she states in the video just try to get used to doing it as a remedy whenever you feel that soreness in your back from being on your computer too long. Doing 5 to 10 breaths four or five times a day would probably produce noticeable results in short time.

Generally speaking, people are depleted of minerals, especially trace minerals. So are our food sources. Coincidentally, a number of modern pesticides and herbicides function as chelators (or so I have heard), which could remove macro- and micronutrients from the soil. This can of course have side effects for other plant and animal life. Other behaviors of industrial farming like fertilization, as well as water run-off can have effects on nutrient content as well.

How bad is it? It is hard to tell, and it will depend on the expert you ask. From my very limited perspective I have seen people benefit by supplementing with minerals, and I have benefited from it myself.

A quality mineral supplement is fulvic acid. Here is a link to a description by dr. Axe.

And here is a brief video description:

On a personal note, a positive experience I had with fulvic acid several years back taught me the benefits I was reaping from this supplement. It was a weekend evening, and I knew I was going to be drinking a lot because some friends were back in town. I was already enjoying a drink with neighbors and decided that I should get some nutrients since I wasn’t sure when next I would be eating. I threw a half teaspoon of a Lugol’s iodine supplement with fulvic acid into a small glass of wine, and I cut it with water. I also took a couple other things like high dose vitamin d. My mind harkened back to anecdotes that I’d heard about the ancient Greeks taking their wine cut with water and minerals.

I didn’t think about it again and went out. I stayed out late and drank enough that I knew I’d be in a precarious situation in the morning. Although, to my astonishment when I woke up I did not have a headache. I wasn’t really even dreary. Could it have been the supplements? I thought, having no other explanation.

In the not too distant future i would try this again and it worked. I started experimenting around to try and figure out exactly what it was that was curing my hangover. Sure enough, it was the fulvic acid, and it worked best if I took it at the beginning of my evening.

It works great, but I highly recommend you do NOT use this as a crutch for regular excessive alcohol use. Who knows the hidden damage that could occur to your system in a way no one could have anticipated. We get hangovers to remind us not to repeat our actions.

I’m not sharing this story to teach you how to avoid a hangover, but instead to show that there may be some substantial benefits to supplementing with fulvic minerals. A doctor is probably the one to consult in order to be responsible. Or i guess read the label. I take a tablespoon in the morning in water or in a smoothie, and sometimes with herbal tea or wine in the evenings.

An article from a few years ago came to mind recently. It was from Bloomberg and titled, “Americans are Dying Younger, Saving Corporations Billions.”

Even though the article is hidden behind a pay wall I believe this quote sums up the point quite well:

“[O]ver the last two years, at least 12 large companies, from Verizon to General Motors, have said recent slips in mortality improvement have led them to reduce their estimates for how much they could owe retirees by upward of a combined $9.7 billion, according to an analysis of company findings.”

If the reason why this article resurfaced in my thoughts is not obvious let me state that I find it significant that as we enter into a monetary crisis at all levels of society so to have we been assaulted by disease the effects retired populations most severely.

And coincidentally this brings to mind the looming demographic crises for first world nations which was emphasized at the beginning of this year (2020), focusing on China. The simple premise is that the elderly population is troublingly larger than its replacement population, which produces widespread monetary and workforce problems that can drastically impact and incapacitate a society (From the above link):

“First, China will have to pay for the care of a vast elderly population without the resources available to richer societies facing the same challenge. Second, China’s future growth prospects will dim with every year of below-replacement birthrates, because low fertility creates a self-reinforcing cycle — in which a less youthful society loses dynamism and growth, which reduces economic support for would-be parents, which reduces birthrates, which reduces growth …”

What is said of China can easily be said for North America and Europe. Once again, it is this particular demographic who is most effected by the current disease.

Speaking of demographics, a phrase has spread through the population—essential and non-essential workers. So in essence there are essential populations, and non-essential populations in new normal terminology.

Disease does effect us.

I am reminded of an anecdote that someone once told me, and it effected me greatly. He said, “If you were to die your place of business could replace you inside of a month, maybe even in as brief as a few days. But your family and loved ones could never replace you for all time no matter how hard they tried. You could never replace any of them.

Now are good days to define what essential means to you, and how it manifests in your life. Does it manifest? Do you feel the love emanating from your partner? Heard the laughter of your children lately? Does a deep longing within remain unfulfilled? Do you know the embrace of your own soul? Were you providing the light needed for a seed to grow?

In one of his numerous treatises Manly P. Hall made the insightful comment that for all the successes of scientific understanding we are still left with the mystery: what is force? what is life? what is consciousness? what is mind?

Singling out one piece of that mystery, what is life? It is not so easy to summarize. On the one hand, life can be described objectively as animated parts—biological functions. It could be measured in heartbeats or breaths over time. And then there is the so-called subjective aspect to life…Here the objective accounts seem to melt away. From an experiential perspective perhaps all attempts to measure life feel inadequate.

It’s one thing to say, what is life out there, and it is another to say, what is life to you. Even as people try to resolve this duality they sublimate one to the other. People emphasizing an objective approach might describe existential experience as an illusion (the more romantic types might call it a lucky accident), whereas the subjective approach might infer purpose out of biological complexity.

I could imagine Nature saw humans as a resolution to the question, “When life observes itself what will it see?” I am reminded of Nietzsche’s statement: “When you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you,” his lesson on the etiquette of staring.

I have a default to write cryptically that I probably need to resolve. What I’m alluding to is how we choose to perceive life can be a healthy approach. Rather than see life as an empty illusion, which is a deleterious statement about your-self ultimately, see life as magnificently purposeful, perhaps inefffably so, which ultimately nurtures your own spirit.

The timeline of your life could be meted out in heartbeats and breaths, but it couldn’t account for the character and timbre of each inhalation, each exhalation. No heart monitor could comprehend the secret language of evocation of each heartbeat pulsing your unique embedded signature upon each tidal waveform, returning with gifts from other pulsing life forces to inspire you until you expire. Now this is breath, this is anima, this is spirit.

I am wondering, but of all the things that impact us in our lives, love, and the lack thereof, are the most powerful forces to impact upon us. Love is a special nourishment.

This is just off the top of my head; also, I’m not trying to be romantic, but is it not our family’s level of compassion, their degree of embrace that shapes our mental health, and even our physical health, and even our spiritual health? It certainly shapes our character.

When I see someone with depression, for instance, my first thoughts go to what his diet is like, or to get a read on his mineral profile, but it may be equally wise to learn about his upbringing. How was he cared for? The effects of loving kindness can be profound on digestion and sleep, the production of neurotransmitters, wound healing, and there are even epigenetic effects that can be signaled from nurturing behaviors of a family. And the reverse also has profound effects.

But if it is his upbringing through which depression has taken root what then? One must learn to give love and care to himself, and to practice forgiveness.

Lee Cowden, an excellent doctor and teacher, once pointed out in a lecture that the average person growing up hears one hundred “No”s to every one “Yes”. Now obviously many of those “No”s were well founded, “Don’t touch that hot stove,” some less so, “You’re not able to do that,” and perhaps some statements that were actually mean spirited, or cold and indifferent. When we take in the entirety of youth and the various characters, teachers, relatives, friends, classmates, store clerks, police officers, doctors, and television personalities we received numerous directives until our vision begins to narrow. So just take a minute and look carefully around you at your prescribed path, and all the “No”s you have learned not to see…

I remember when my relatives came to visit me from the country. My two younger cousins, my aunt and I took a walk in my affluent, suburban neighborhood. We were walking on the sidewalk on the way to the park when my cousins caught sight of a tree they’d like to climb in some random person’s front yard, which they did, shouting, arguing, and playing all the way. At the time I was embarrassed by them, and I remember I looked down on them; after all, what they had done was a clear “No” in my community. You don’t just go walking on to someone’s property you don’t know and climb their tree, but upon reflection I see how domesticated I had been made already. Somewhere deep down I think I was a little jealous, and a little alarmed that they had so effortlessly broke a social more. I knew my path was the sidewalk, and an internal wall had been erected to guide my behavior. And maybe it’s for the better in that case. I’m not here to contemplate the morality of property or societal pressures. I’m just trying to illustrate the behavioral and emotional impact directives. We swim in a sea of legal statutes and social obligations/expectations, and as the good doctor above mentioned on average it’s 100 to 1 “No”. (As a side note, this could be one reason why it is easy for a youth to succumb to peer pressure. It is a way of saying yes)

One of doctor Cowden’s solutions to this disparity is to create a journal of positive statements. Write down “Yes”s for yourself each day. Positive statements about yourself, or things you are proud you accomplished that day. As a corollary to this journalling technique doctor Cowden suggests to write down every “No” that occurred that day first on one page, then tear it out of the journal and rip it up or burn it, then continue on with the positives. He argues, and I think it is a sound point, that the subconscious responds to the action of discarding the “No”s by releasing a bit of that charge from the bioenergetic system. It’s important to do this until you finally get back to equal.

Another technique is the inner smile meditation as taught by Mantak Chia and others. The technique is simple yet powerful. The aim is to deliberately direct the sensation of your own smile throughout your body giving yourself compassion and kindness.

There are for certain a wide range of quality meditations for the very purpose of bringing love to oneself. I would suggest the heartfulness meditation as an excellent one, but certainly there are others.

Lastly practicing forgiveness is vital for healing. I’m not sure I fully understand why, but it releases a powerful charge of trapped bioenergy. How? well, I don’t have a slick method, but I would say to get yourself into a state of relaxation, and then start saying, “I forgive,” followed by whatever comes to mind, and repeat it as many times as it feels right, and over as many things as it feels like you want to release. Do it often. You will need too. We all need to.

Most of all remember to forgive yourself. You deserve it. We really do need to nourish ourselves with compassion. It’s to our great benefit, but it’s always the last thing we want to do. To some it feels weak and foolish, to others it feels like too much of an investment of time, but for the most part I think we are just scared to honestly reflect on ourselves and see who we really are. I think we don’t love ourselves and it hurts to face that. We’ve heard too many “No”s and it distorts our expectation of what we ought to be.

But I say Yes! I say Yes! to myself, and Yes! to you. We are worthy of compassion and respect.

The healing nourishment of love begins with you.

Finish what you start.

Imagine that Da Vinci felt more fulfilled by a fully swept floor than an incomplete masterpiece. With the floor there is the sense of a job well done, whereas with an unfinished masterpiece there is torment and sleepless nights, longing and hardship.

I simply say imagine because I don’t know if it was true. I’m just making a parable. We all have to acknowledge that a masterpiece is more valuable than a swept floor, and so should ought to take precedence. And we are not all Da Vincis, in fact likely none of us are, yet I know we all have our own masterpieces within us, our own expression from our souls that should speak, our own priorities to complete. When you accomplish the priorities you have set it has the satisfaction and clarity as if you had swept clean the floor of your mind.

But finish the tasks too: the laundry, the dishes, the garden, and make sure to see them to the end. This is a real challenge for me. I get so closed to completing something, but I will leave the dishes out and not put away. Then clutter arises. But I have found when I complete these little tasks, I clear the way to work more clearly on larger goals.

I suppose we all know this. It is certainly no great revelation by me. It is elementary. And so easy to overlook.

Finish what you start, your daily tasks, and your works of art.

Which brings me to the second lesson, embrace imperfection.

I wonder if imperfection is the companion of completion (Gödel would have it so). I do know that all-too-often for myself striving for perfection stifles my ability to complete what I am working towards. I am no artist but I would say that it is the artist who is most familiar with this pairing and its problems. He or she observes in her mind’s eye something far more profound than could ever be reproduced in reality, but not for want of trying.

Also someone focused on tidiness and order may never feel resolved that a project is complete.

Embracing imperfection is an exercise in conscience. It is a deliberate, mental effort to acknowledge limitation, and to see the beauty in a thing as it is. All works of art are imperfect. It is only the entirety of the creation that we do not observe with our eyes that is divinely beautiful.

Which brings me to allude to the third lesson, conscience. How healthy is your conscience? A consideration for another day. For now I leave it unfinished. I embrace the imperfection of this post.

Which leads me to the fourth lesson for well being, nothing ever ends.

Or, one who rejects his own faith.

This modern day white cloaked magi is venerated by many people. He is the Priest archetype of the secular west, and people have put their faith into his words. They have faith in Science, and that he knows its way.

The scientist disparages faith. He is devoted to no such “superstitions”. Yet, he does not know his own faith. Even though he does have it.

Why? to begin with he must have faith that truth exists! The scientist—an empiricist really—holds that all knowledge is gained experientially through observation, but within this framework one can never conclude that something is true, only regularly observable under certain conditions, a seeming constant conjunction; and, experiment alone, even infinite experiments, cannot demonstrate that a class known as truth exists (Empiricism alone does not even have the capacity to establish its own existence since sensory experience does not provide enough information to produce a non-sensory category known as empiricism), so the scientist must have faith that truth exists, and not only that truth exists! But that it is orderly, consistent, coherent, systemic, in order to make conclusions, build theories, integrate into a whole, or else all would fall apart. And he must believe that truth is relevant, that he has a purpose for finding truth, and that it is more valuable than non-truth; And so, he has faith too in Purpose…

This is why the scientist is one who rejects his own faith, his faith in science, and in this way he does not see the truth. Where does he lead the people, this man of science?

Following up a bit on yesterday’s post, there are definite qualities to how emotions feel in the body, feelings that elicit behaviors, or need to be addressed. With happiness there is often a feeling of flushness, you may become more extraverted, and the volume of your voice may rise. Fear can bring on shivers and stiffness; there is the sense the body shrinks, and your posture may mimic this sensation. Someone with a heavy heart often places the weight of his upper body and on the spine just below the heart as if the heart itself were using the spine as a crutch.

Obviously these are generalities, but I think they are familiar enough that most people would recognize them. I am reminded of theatrical actors who use very pronounced physical actions to convey emotional states visibly, like a worried man rubbing his hands together, or someone who has eaten too much and is rubbing his belly.

But what is significant about this? well, a lot more than I could describe succinctly, but I will point to one important factor. First, your emotional states have physiological corollaries that include both complex chemical reactions, and structure and posture. Second, unresolved emotions and subliminal programs (stored charge) can leave lasting chemical and structural conditions, that given enough time require some form of medical intervention. Third, the deliberate, continued manipulation(for lack of a better word) of structure, or posture, or behaviors, or emotions can stimulate your body to release the stored emotional charge with positive health benefits.

To make a point we can imagine emotions as various types of tensions in the nerves that build up a charge, this charge being an energy potential. Depending on how we actualize this charge, meaning how we expend/utilize this potential, we have either resolved the tension, reduced it, converted it in to another form, perhaps moved it, or maybe deeply internalized it, among other possibilities.

Considering the charge, the way I’m looking at it is literally in electrical terms. The human body operates generally as an electron donor, but imagine an emotion like severe anger. Might this arise in the body as a potent electron stealer? That is, as something highly acidic? and say that this anger is something that can’t be openly expressed or resolved. The body may have a specific method for managing a particular charge like that. As an analogy, Fluoride is highly toxic to the body, and it can’t detoxify it quickly so it stores it in bone until it can get to it little by little.

Hopefully this makes sense because I don’t believe this is a trivial point, and it is something I want to explore going forward. Obviously there are some intelligent researchers who have laid the foundations. One who comes to mind is Wilhelm Reich, or Dietrich Klinghardt, also the founders of Recall Healing, but I know there are many others as well.

If anyone does read this, let me know if what I’m talking about makes sense to you. Let me know what your perspectives about emotions and the body are.