.

“Well son, I think you should dig ditches because you don’t have the smarts to do….”

You can fill in the rest.

I think a guidance counselor should be renamed to a dream counselor.  I know that is a way too lame name, but I couldn’t come up with anything else.

I think we as adults could use a dream counselor visit every 6 months.  I know that sounds like a MLM training class, but it could be useful.  I need help calling it something else, but the idea is sound.  Dream just conotates  something that isn’t really possible.  My dreams of flying aren’t going to happen.

A goal is often too vague, ie…I want a new car.
Lame… For starters it is too general.  What kind of car, make, model, color, year, MPG, trim, and when do you want it by and how are you going to obtain it.  It has to have a deadline.  I think you can skip this as well.

You son- need a mission.   What are you willing to die for.  That may be extreme, but you get the idea.  You need something that will get you out of bed and ready to take off.  If someone beat you to a pulp, what would give you reason to get back up.  If you have that kind of mission and desire nothing else will matter.  You will make it happen.  I wish my guidance counselor would have helped me find my mission.

Hiking your way to the future.

I love to hike in the mountains with my family.  The mountains along with the ocean really give me the perspective of being insignificant and humble.  I think that is why some of the best CEO’s still backpack.  It keeps you in perspective.  Your mission is like a long trail through the woods.

Pick a path and stay on it until it is complete, or you realize that you want a different path with a better view.  If you read the Robert Frost poem “The road not taken”, yesterday, he made the clear observation that “way leads on to way”.  You will never go back to who you were and will likely never go back to where you started from.

If you don’t have a trail, map, compass, or GPS, and are just going out in the woods for a 8 hour hike.  There is a good chance most people will be hopelessly lost.  Even if you have a trail, the more you wander off, the more likely you are to get lost.  This is you life.  What path are you walking on?  The more you wander the less likely you will complete your mission.

What is your direction?____________________

Your path?___________________________
Why are you getting out of bed?________________________________

Is that a good enough reason?______________________________

.

This is pretty bold to do but you can do it by the time you are done reading.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to world peace or personal freedom for people living in North Korea.  But, many people feel the turmoil around them, whether that is personal crisis’s or a friend or coworker.  So many problems.

For your health, now more than ever, is a great time to start some new habits.  Depending on endless factors your personal peace could be tough to come by, but there is always one place to find it.  Your head.  Mine may be filled with rocks and sand.  But even sand can be at peace.  The interesting thing about your mind is that it has no boundaries and no weight.  You can’t see it or touch it.

It makes my head hurt just trying to think about it.  Your mind can be an instant escape to freedom.  It has been said that your mind can’t tell the difference between reality and something vividly imagined.  It has incredible power.  Let’s turn it on, or at least put some reigns on it.

    #1 Your mind controls everything you do.

    #2 Therefore everything is a choice.

An interesting insight to choice is the poem by Robert Frost “The Road Not Taken“.  Most people assume it is an inspirational poem based on the last few lines

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Go and read the whole thing and both paths “had worn them really about the same”.
The author / hiker just made a choice and followed it.  It is a poem of irony and really about making a choice.

For those of you who were at my last class, (thanks for all the kind “thank you’s”) in that handout was a daily menu from Ed Foreman.  His classes are about how to have a great day, everyday, no matter what.  He advocates “choice”  You really get to choose how you interpret the events of your life.  Next time you feel angry, stop for a moment and think about what your mind is doing.  Do you really have to spew out venom?

Unless you have some control over your thoughts Habits and Cravings will dominate.  If you put chocolate cake, ice cream, suckers, and broccoli in from of 100 kids and give them a choice of what they would like to eat.  I’ll bet 95% of them will not choose broccoli.  They are too young to really make good choices, their minds aren’t trained.  Unfortunately about 65% of adults are the same way.  What do you buy when grocery shopping?  Is your cart loaded with pop, and frozen dinners, or fresh fruit and veggies?

Your mind is the invisible extension of your body’s energy.  A strong healthy mind can give you a strong healthy body.  I often see patients under-appreciate this powerful asset to health.  If you believe that you are going to be sick, you are likely to get sick one way or another.  I’m getting pretty good at telling whether a patient will get better (no matter what they have) based on the first 5 minutes of talking to them.  Their mind power and desire to get better makes all the difference.  I am just a facilitator to health.  The real healing is done inside the person.

Your mind can’t do everything.  When a bone is physically knocked out of position by an outside force.  It takes an outside force (me) to put it back.  Once it is back in place, then the power of the person takes over.

Put your mind on the path to control.

#1 Put good things in, so you get good things out.  Read inspirational things, stop reading the newspaper.  Watch nice TV or NO TV.  Watching horror shows, constant killing, desperate people sleeping around, and terror (wait that’s just the news) doesn’t make a good mind.  T.V. commercials alone could give you nightmares.  Don’t watch that stuff before you go to bed.

#2 Monitor what comes out.  Until your mind is under control and filled with good stuff, don’t pollute the people around you.  No one else is inside your head.  You alone have a choice to live in a pigpen or paradise.

#3 Spend 5 minutes in quiet and let your mind roam and wander.  Just let it go and follow along.  It is amazing where it will take you.

…qualify for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia  was Mary Beth Larsen (she came in 4^th).   She is the first U.S. female pentathlete. The Pentathlon is a grueling competition of 5 events in one day- swimming, air pistol shooting, running, riding, and fencing.  She has used chiropractic care her whole life to stay in good condition.

Dr. Altman & Mary Beth Larsen

“The biggest benefit I have received from chiropractic care is that I haven’t had to take much time off from training to recover from injuries.  Regular maintenance care combined with more intense care when I’m injured has helped me to compete at a higher level – without missing important training time…If my knee twinges or if something hurts in my hip, I know I can get it adjusted, and it will be fine.” She said in a recent interview.

She continues to tell her story about her chiropractic care growing up. 

“I’ve been adjusted my whole life.  My great uncle and several cousins were chiropractors.  So I’ve really been under chiropractic care since I was very little.  As a child I would get sick a lot with sore throats.  So my dad suggested we get treated.  Back then the whole family could get treated for about $30 a month!  We’d all line up and get adjusted.  I’ll never forget those days.  I remember after a while I just didn’t get sick any more.”
-excerpt from an interview with Dr. Frank Corbo

This is the interview I did with her about her supplement use.  I thought it was interesting what an Olympic athlete noticed about her supplement use.

1.What Standard Process (SP) Products do you take?
2.Why did you start taking SP vs. other supplements?
-why is SP different?
3.How long have you taken them?
4.What difference have you noticed with performance or general health?

Mary Beth’s response –

“ANYWAY…I would be happy to answer your questions. “

1.  I currently am taking Cyrofood, Cyruta Plus, Wheat Germ Oil Fortified, Symplex F, Ovatrophin PMG, Linum B6, Drenamin, Myotrophin PMG, Zymex and Lact Enz.  I will soon be adding Diaplex after I finish my Zymex and Lact Enz.  Plus I use SP Complete every morning in a smoothie and eat Standard Bars for between -meal snacks.

2.  I started taking SP when I was participating in a 10 day-long bike trek from St Louis to Orlando, FL (we averaged about 100 miles per day).  We took SP products to keep us going and healthy.  After the trip, I liked the product so well and felt so much better taking them that I continued with the program.  It was really the first time I had such results from “vitamins”.

3.  I began taking SP in 1997  and probably will always use SP products!!

4.  The biggest difference I notice is when I stop taking them for whatever reason (or when I have forgotten/got lazy) is that I feel much more fatigued than when I stick with my program. If I have missed my supplements, I notice my menstrual periods are more painful and disrupt my training ( not good for anyone, but particularly athletes).  When I take my supplements, I also notice that my digestion is better and I don’t have as many problems (yeast, acne, muscle aches/pains, gas, heartburn).  SP has done wonders for me in the time I have taken the products and I have every confidence that I am taking the highest quality supplements I can.

Sincerely,

Mary Beth Larsen

When you work you are a flute through whose heart
the whispering of the hours turns to music.  To love
life through labor is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.
All work is empty save when there is love, for work is
love made visible.
-Kahlil Gibran

Can you get up and smile about what you are doing tomorrow?

Are you loving what you do?  Can you feel the music of your work?

Kahlil calls this “life’s inmost secret”.  This is often hard to do and sometimes impossible at some moments.  I think if you work in Haiti right now this would challenge you.  Through out my life I haven’t always had the jobs I long for, but I have always worked towards that.

Life is too short to hate what you do for work.  Just think about spending 8 hours with mental negativity and mayhem going on in your brain everyday.  That is tough on the body.  Remember health comes from a good mind, body, and spirit.  So what do you do?

You only have two choices:

#1 Get going and do what you love to do.  The money will follow.  Your mind “health” craves this.

#2 If you can’t change your job right now, you must change how you “think” about it.  Don’t waste another minute hating it.

If you don’t do one of those two things you are sacrificing 1/3 of your health.  Would you throw 1/3 of your money away.  Get the matches and strike them up and start burning your dollar bills.  What if you’re stuck?  Can’t find a direction?  Can’t find your purpose?

A few tips for you:

#1 Change your routine.  Get off the treadmill of life and just sit still and be quite and keep your environment quite for just 5 minutes.  That’s it.  Let your brain run wild and let it go.  Don’t stop it, don’t control it, just let it wander.  Give it time and you’ll be surprised.

#2 Prepare for rain.  If you want to be a weather man, you need to study clouds.  If you want to be an artist, you need to spend some time drawing.  Spend some time everyday on what you want.  Watching T.V. doesn’t count unless you want to be a potato or a an actor.

When you are inspired by some great purpose,
some extraordinary project,
all your thoughts break their bonds;
Your mind transcends limitations,

….You discover yourself to be a greater person
than you ever dreamed yourself to be.
-Patanjali

Love what you do one way or another.  Your health depends on it.

Health is more than what you eat.  It is how you live and think that also matters.  This was a warm destination trip in November.

I have been a fan of packing light and fast ever since I was in College and went to England in a carry-on for 3 weeks.  I got reminded of weight on my first backpacking trip across Glacier National Park when I over-packed by a lot, because I never counted ounces.

For a simple vacation you don’t need to count ounces but packing light is essential.

For that warm destination you don’t need anything more than one bag unless you are bringing a computer.  You might be wondering why I’m talking about packing on a healthy living blog.

Two reasons:

#1 Taking a vacation is essential to your health.   I feel bad for people who are proud that they never take a vacation.

#2 Packing light is a skill that takes practice, but it can benefit you by eliminating the stress of wondering if your bags are going to make it.  You  can easily move about the airport, taxi, hotel, anywhere you need to if you aren’t dragging a kitchen sink.  But, but, but, ” I need 3 pairs of shoes”  -no you don’t.

You can make your connections easier.  My wife and I were going to Hawaii and landed late and were very close to the time that the LAST puddle-jumper of the night was taking off to our island.  We RAN and were the last and ONLY ones from our plane who made it.   We know that because we met people from our plane at a Luau who spent the night in Honolulu instead of the place they were supposed to.  We have also run through the Amsterdam airport, and Atlanta.  Traveling light makes that possible.

Making life simpler and easier decreases the stress for you.  The world is a very small place now.  If you forget something buy it there, and now you have a souvenir.   It works the same way at home.  Less stuff is freeing.

Being from Minnesota I know about 1/2 the state is heading to Mexico in the next few months, so try going light and see how much easier it is.  Less stress is a good thing.

This is what I took to Mexico and I had one of the best vacations ever.  Mininal gear -  no-plans.

Here are the pictures of what I took.

I shot these in Mexico.  This is what I had in my computer bag.  Things I didn’t use: the extra notebook, mp3 speaker, extra Shell’s drinkholder, and camera tripod (looks like the clamp).

This was in my backpack.   Yes, there were 2 sets of snorkeling gear including fins.  If I were to do this again I would leave the snorkel stuff behind and take just a slightly larger backpack (21″) and I could combine both bags into one carry-on.

Clothes I wore on the plane.  The pants convert to shorts.

If you want to travel better, lighter, and easier here are some more references for you from the king of travel.  You have probably seen him on PBS.

Rick Steves Why to Pack light tips

Rick Steves Packing list