I’d love to get your feedback too, so please tell me what you think, and send the link to your friends. This is an important resource that people need to have access to, become an HBS evangelist and spread the word!

It’s strange how sometimes things contrive to give you what you need, I would call it the Universe but some might find that a little out there.

I met a man, we’ll call him Steve, who was a toymaker. He was in Munich for a toy fair. We talked about the weather, I knew it was bad in Boston where he was from and he spoke about the comparative mildness of a balmy February day in Bavaria that felt more like spring.

Then we began to compare our situations; I told him I was returning from Ankara where I’d been giving seminars and workshops on living the Good Life, attaining and maintaining happiness and satisfaction; which he found, as most people do, fascinating. He was an inventor of toys. In demand for his skills because he could solve problems, work out ways to do things effectively. He was the centre of a hub of contacts, people who knew his skills and abilities and used him to move their own ideas forward.

We talked about pressure. The difference between creative people and methodical or systems people. How creative people without a system drift, how methodical people without creativity become stuck and so on. Then he told me about being audited randomly by the IRS, the inspector wanted to know what he did and so Steve took him to his basement.

He ran his business from home and showed the inspector Geppetto’s workshop. The IRS guy asked lots of questions, what exactly he was doing, why he travelled so much and so on. Steve answered all the questions and after a few hours the IRS inspector said, “I want to do what you do”.

Steve said, “No you don’t”. The inspector said, “Yes I do”. So Steve said to him, “When do you retire?” They worked out that the inspector could retire in four years if he chose. Steve said, “I can’t retire. Once you do this, it never leaves you alone. I know some of the greatest toy-makers in the world, legends in their field and they’re still working well into their eighties and nineties, coming up with new inventions.” I knew that it wasn’t a job, what he was describing was a vocation. It wasn’t a career, but a way of life. As far from a tax inspector as it was possible to get.

I reflected to Steve that I had a grid I was developing:

Apprentice

Mechanic

Engineer

Architect

Creator or Inventor

and asked him how he’d become a toymaker. He told me the story of helping his father who was a handyman and picking up skills. Then doing an engineering degree and finding himself working with toymakers because he could create systems that enabled them to create their visions in a practical way. He ended up as the chief engineer at a very well known toy manufacturer and had eighty people working for him. He was left to do his own thing by the owner because the company always earned money from his ideas, systems and products.

I reflected back to Steve what I thought he was doing relative to the heirarchy I had described and said that the reason he could not stop was because his work validated and utilised all that he had learned in his life. As an inventor he was able to ‘free range’ and build a platform through which a compelling frequency influenced him. This was the process of creating toys, inventing and solving problems.

He worked for himself now. Happy to freelance and work as he chose. And this is the key to well-being, a developing strategy that enriches and extends your skills and abilities and allows you to refine continzually and invent new ways of being. Steve told me that he felt energized talking about it in this context, he said that just talking to me had made him feel good about himself. That to me was worth a diversion.

Then he went to his toy fair and I caught my plane.

With Peter J Levine and Dr Ursula Rustler

Author, broadcaster and international speaker Peter J Levine and eminent physician Dr Ursula Rustler are inviting applications to be considered for a course in personal growth and development. The course will be held monthly in Vienna, starting on Friday 18^th February. Places are limited to twelve students, who will be taken through a complete programme of development and well-being for Body, Mind and Spirit.

Peter and Ursula share a combined experience of more than fifty years of practical application of the principles of the Secret Traditions of the West and the East. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for those who seek authentic growth and development. The setting will be intimate; each student benefitting from the personal assistance and guidance of two renowned authorities in their field.

The platform will be the achievement of:

1. Happiness,
2. Well-being,
3. Fulfilment, and
4. Satisfaction.

The strategy will be to:

1. Educate,
2. Inform,
3. Prepare,
4. Develop,
5. Demonstrate and show how.

The outcome will be to create:

1. Increased Understanding,
2. Perception, and
3. Initiate Enlightenment.

Written applications to

kontakt@drpovey-rustler.com

no later than Sunday 7 February 2011.

All applicants will be responded to personally.

The cost of each session is €40 or €25 for those attending the seminar on the following weekend.

Dates are 18^th Feb. 18^th Mar. 8^th Apr. 13^th May 17^th June 2011 (followed by a Summer break)

The series is a detox for the Mind and Spirit that addresses a range of topics and issues. The seminars offer accessible insights, new ideas and ways of thinking in an informal and friendly setting. The emphasis is on practical application and the “How to” rather than a parade of useless information and dry ideas.

I have over 30 years experience in the field of personal growth and development. Ursula has practiced Western and Eastern medicine for more than 20 years. The result of our combined experience is an exhilarating cocktail of knowledge that calls upon the best from the past, the best from now and the best from your life to create a dynamic vision of the world and the future.

The seminars will be held in Dr Rustler’s premises, conveniently located in the centre of Vienna. For this reason numbers are strictly limited to the first 15 applicants.

The first seminar, “Energy and Happiness or The Mystic Path”, takes place on Saturday 19th (4-8pm) and Sunday 20th February (10am-2pm) 2011.

The titles of all twelve are:

1. Energy and Happiness, or The Mystic Path
2. Understanding Others- what your behaviour reveals about you and how to understand others better
3. The Journey to Ascendency
4. How to Think or Train Your Brain
5. How to Overcome Stress, Pressure and the Diseases of Today – Self-healing and personal well being – Proven strategies to improve the quality of your life
6. The Significance of Colour
7. Standards, Principles and Values
8. Symbolism and Mythology
9. You Are Your Own Messiah – How to Apply Common Sense in Spirituality
10. Numbers and Numerology
11. Male and Female Paths in Spirituality
12. Dreams, Visions and Divination

The events will be held in English with simultaneous German translation. Cost is €120 per seminar or €997 for all twelve.

For further information contact: Dr Ursula Povey-Rustler
Neubaugasse 4/2/18 1070 Wien
0664 336 96 29
kontact@drpovey-rustler.com

“What values should we live by in order to live the genuinely good life?”

1. Stay physically active

Physical activity floods the body with oxygen which is a little like turbo charging the body’s systems. Those systems work more efficiently, the net result being a greater level of performance from the body; everything from brain function, cognitive processes, cell repair, disease resistance and all of those functions that we associate with a healthy body.

A naturally occurring regulatory agent of the body’s functions are free radicals, necessary for functions such as killing bacterial growths within cells and also cell transduction which is the way that cells signal or communicate with one another in the body. As with anything in excess, too many free radicals can have a negative effect. That effect being the equivalent in our physical bodies, arteries and organs, of rust or oxidation on ferrous metals. They are necessary in cell function but in excess are toxic by products of what we eat, what we drink and those external agents we ingest such as cigarette smoke and other pollutants. So, moderation is the key here (sound familiar?). Free radicals have been implicated in many of the diseases associated with ageing and may also be involved in Parkinson’s disease, senile and drug-induced deafness, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s.

The damage caused by free radicals can be seen as the action of the body’s own defences turning on itself, which is clearly far from ideal. The counterbalance to the action of excess free radicals is antioxidants, these are such things as Vitamins A, C and E and what are called polyphenol antioxidants. The main source of polyphenols is dietary, since they are found in a wide array of phytochemical-bearing foods. For example, most legumes; fruits such as apples, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, cherries, cranberries, grapes, pears, plums, raspberries, and strawberries; and vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, celery, onion and parsley and honey are rich in polyphenols. Red wine, chocolate, green tea, olive oil, argan oil, bee pollen and many grains are sources. Ingestion of polyphenols occurs by consuming a wide array of plant foods.

Physical activity enhances oxygen intake. This increases the levels of oxygen entering the bloodstream. The bloodstream being, quite literally, the river of life that flows through our physical bodies. Over 90% of our energy is derived from oxygen; it doesn’t require much imagination to see just how important this is for maintaining physical health and resisting the negative effects of ageing.

2. Be careful about what you eat

Hippocrates said, ‘Let your food be your medicine’.

Following on from the preceding step, avoid excess in all areas and try to eat those things which add to the well-being of your body. Actively seek out foods which are low in calories but more significantly eat foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. This means avoiding processed foods if a fresh alternative can be sourced.

Avoid assiduously those foods packed with preservatives and trans-fats which are often found in biscuits, cakes and fast food and have been identified as a major cause of cardiovascular disease.  They are fats which the body cannot metabolize and stay within the bloodstream unprocessed for longer which can lead to harmful build ups and deposits within the arteries and organs such as the liver. Trans-fats have been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s, various Cancers, Diabetes and obesity. In the developed world, trans-fats have become a pariah but it is still diffcult to know exactly where the food processing industry uses them due to ambiguous labelling.

Trans-fats are chemically altered vegetable oils. They are produced artificially in a process called hydrogenation which turns liquid oil into solid fat.

Trans-fats can be found in thousands of processed foods from sweets and biscuits to ready meals. They are used because they are cheap, add bulk to products, have a neutral flavour and give products a long shelf life. They have no nutritional value.

In less developed countries without such rigorous food standards it is likely that they will still be liberally used becase they are cheap and give food products an un-naturally extended shelf life. You wouldn’t knowingly introduce volatile compounds into your body; it will have to deal with those things so your first line of defence has to be greater awareness and your own attitude to what you allow yourself to eat.

Eat what you need, not what you want. You are familiar with the saying ‘eyes bigger than your stomach’? It is this over indulgence that has become so prevailant in our instant access culture that has created the corresponding crisis in general levels of health. Clearly successful aging is not founded upon a poor dietary regime and this is an area where, because much of the food industry is profit rather than health driven, you have to take responsibility for yourself.

Where possible eat raw, fresh and lightly cooked natural ingredients. You do not need to be a dietitian to work out that these foods, particularly vegetables or fruits, will be packed with essential vitamins and minerals that add to the body’s well-being rather than detract from it. As a rule of thumb, the fresher it is and the less processing it has been through, the more healthy that food source will be.

See my earlier post on healthy diet and the, so-called, superfoods, ‘How to get the best of you’, for further information.

3. Stay mentally active

There can be no over emphasis of the importance of mental activity that is stretching, challenging, testing and demanding. Revel in problem solving, celebrate the obstacles that you encounter because they are the keys to greater understanding. Consider the words of Winston Churchill, ”The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” If you are not an optimist, if you do not have a positive outlook, then make their development a priority!

You are never too old to learn, the day will never come when you have it all worked out. Be settled to a life of continually evolving perception and understanding. As the world changes, so does your mental landscape alter to accommodate that. If you take the position that the world must meet you on its terms then you will become mentally brittle and rigid; just like a dead branch,  pressure or resistance will lead to it snapping.

This is largely dictated by attitude, which defines your responses to everything you encounter. Stay busy, work, keep mentally active; your interface with life is conducted via a mental assembly that you construct. This will determine everything from positivity to optimism to how you approach adversity as well as how you deal with the good times too.

Get rid of the idea of retirement. A study published in 2005 by the British Medical Journal indicates men and women who retire early at age 55 have a significantly increased risk of death as compared with those who retire at 65. In this research, death was almost twice as likely in the first 10 years after retirement at age 55 compared with those who continued working. You may change what you do, do voluntary work for example, but retirement is an absolutely lethal concept and as the word indicates it is a state of mind. The idea of people getting older and retiring is an alien concept. As people get older their experience and broader terms of reference become a communal resource that benefits their whole community; embrace and celebrate the fact that your mind as it ages is becoming a more precious commodity that your community cannot do without and is greatly enhanced by.

4. Develop and maintain an effective social network

From close in, family, to further afield, casual acquaintances and people we encounter on a one off basis, social interaction is absolutely fundamental in promoting all round well-being and establishing a blueprint for successful aging. This requires work, it is not something that just happens – which is the case with all five steps.

One of the greatest inhibitors to aging successfully is isolation. People who become isolated tend to internalise adversities and problems which consequently leads to disease, stress, inhibited functionality and mental and emotional volatility.

Friends, family and those with whom you interact on a more casual level are all components of your world view. How you perceive yourself and the world at large is in no small part defined by your interactions with others and specifically the quality of those interactions.

Communicate with people; establish contact at all levels and maintain that contact. Do not become isolated. Develop social skills that enable you to forge meaningful relationships from a life partner or soul-mate to someone you meet informally. Value the relationships you nurture with others, don’t internalise problems, speak about things, communicate and have a network of people that you deal and interact with on a regular basis.

5. Have a spiritual dimension to your life

It is important to not see your life only as a journey from birth to death. Cultivate an appreciation of the ‘other’. Whether it is through meditation, yoga, specific religious practices or simply doing something that you really enjoy, aging successfully has this aspect of life as a significant component.

Meditation or deep contemplation reduces stress, it allows a more meaningful dialogue to be established between the individual and their own existence. Find out what you love to do, then do lots of it. Personal religion is by definition unique to each individual and is not dependent upon an orthodoxy or a dogmatic approach. You are a spiritual entity, that is an inescapable fact, there is a quality within you that, whatever name you give it, makes you more than a piece of meat. Actively place yourself in the path of those things that uplift you and allow that spiritual dimension to flare.

___________

One of the great advances of our time is the personal emancipation or freedom that is available to us all should we want it. Within this there is a rich source of inspiration that enables you to develop a meaningful philosophy of your own. Cultivate this as a gardener cultivates their own plot, in the sure knowledge that this will produce nourishing fruits.

The result of the interplay between these five easy steps will increase longevity, quality of life, personal satisfaction, happiness and general levels of well-being as anyone who has already accomplished it will confirm. Who are they? Well, consider the example of individuals you may know, also studies have revealed what are referred to as Blue Zones in the world,  places where there is significantly higher longevity than for the world population at large.

Five have been identified so far,

• Sardinia, Italy: One team of demographers found a hot spot of longevity in mountain villages where men reach the age of 100 years at an amazing rate.
• The islands of Okinawa, Japan: Another team examined a group that is among the longest lived on Earth.
• Loma Linda, California: Researchers, studied a group of Seventh-day Adventists who rank among America’s longevity all-stars. Residents of these three places produce a high rate of centenarians, suffer a fraction of the diseases that commonly kill people in other parts of the developed world, and enjoy more healthy years of life.
• Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica: The Nicoya Peninsula was the subject of research on a Quest Network expedition which began on January 29, 2007.
• Icaria, Greece: The April ‘09 expedition to the island of Ikaria uncovered the location with the highest percentage of 90 year-olds on the planet – nearly 1 out of 3 people make it to their 90s. Furthermore, Ikarians “have about 20 percent lower rates of cancer, 50 percent lower rates of heart disease and almost no dementia”.

All these places tend to share common characteristics,

• Family – the importance of family is put ahead of other concerns.
• No Smoking – Centenarians do not typically smoke.
• Plant-based diet – The majority of food consumed is derived from plants.
• Constant moderate physical activity – Moderate physical activity is an inseparable part of life.
• Social engagement – People of all ages are socially active and integrated into their communities.
• Legumes – Legumes (beans, peas, soy, lentils, peanuts, alfalfa, lupin) are commonly consumed.

Wherever and however you consider yourself to be within this scheme, even if it paints a picture of life that you simply don’t recognise, what is absolutely critical is the understanding that it is never too late to start. The benefits of engaging with these five steps and the enhancements they bring can be life changing and felt almost immediately.

I shall present you first with the facts of the narrative. As someone concerned with development, the esoteric and the mystic path I have my own thoughts on this event, but it remains remarkable enough in itself to merit telling without embellishment.

It was dark outside and there was a disturbance of some kind in the rear courtyard. This is a small walled garden measuring perhaps 30 feet square. I looked through the kitchen window to see what kind of an intruder there might be. As I did so, a large Golden Eagle flew at the window, the window is five feet wide and its wingspan easily filled and extended beyond the window.

The bird flapped its wings as it seemed confused by the glass; it appeared to be trying to fly toward me in the kitchen and struggled to find a foothold on the window boxes. The eagle startled me, this is not a usual occurrence. Unable to find a satisfactory perch, the eagle tried to alight on the washing line, which was equally unsuitable and offered little support to a bird of its size.

My first thought was that the bird was injured or lost. I decided to go out to see if it was in some way distressed and if I might be able to assist it. As I went out the bird continued flapping its wings; not wishing to alarm it, I said soothing words and made calming sounds. The eagle perched itself on a wooden patio table, it was about two feet tall and I got close to it and examined it to see if it was injured, it did not appear to be.

The huge bird looked at me. Large talons on the table and its hooked beak there, inches from my face. I had no idea where the bird had come from, what it might want and quite what this surreal situation meant. I continued to make soothing noises and tried to indicate to the eagle that it was safe. It stayed calm and looked at me with a very steady gaze.

My sensible self kicked in. I wondered if the eagle had escaped from some aviary and was lost. I called the police and explained the situation; they said they would try to find out.

The huge raptor was a guest in my home. By whatever means, it had arrived and was obviously quite contented to stay. I went to the kitchen and sliced some liver that was for the next day’s dinner. I placed this in a bowl and went back to the eagle. I offered it the fillets of meat, which it took from my hand and devoured hungrily, holding chunks in its talons and shearing pieces off with its hooked beak.

After a while, two police officers arrived. They were surprised to see such a large bird andto find it relaxed and at ease; locally the raptors are small, kestrels and sparrowhawks, and a bird of this size is unusual. They told me they had assumed it was a hoax call; an eagle had landed in someone’s garden. No eagles or other birds had been reported missing and they contacted local falconers who reported no missing birds. I checked if the bird was ringed, but it was not. The police stayed a while; an eagle has a mesmerising effect on people, they were no longer police officers but two people absorbed by something so powerful and so close, and then said that they would have to leave as there was nothing practical they could do.

The bird made its way to my meditation seat and perched there. I sat with it and fed it some more meat. It looked intently at me,  its eyes followed every movement. I continued to soothe the bird and reassure it. Then it ruffled its feathers, opened its wing and placed its head beneath it. The bird slept, stirring when it heard noises.

I sat with it. As a guest and even if only temporarily under my care, I wanted to ensure that it was safe. After an hour or so, the bird awoke. I moved my hand toward it and caressed its wings and head with the back of my index finger, making soothing noises as I did so. The bird ate some more. It then looked around the courtyard and began to focus upon a statue of an angel on a plinth. It flew to the statue and perched there.

The night was idyllic, the moon was rising and the stars were bright in a clear sky. The Pleiades were directly above and especially bright. I stood near to the bird and felt myself adopting the stance of a guardian and protector. The eagle once again ruffled its feathers and placed its head beneath its wing to sleep. I stayed with the bird for a further three hours, it stirred occasionally but I found that it was calmed by a quiet ‘shushing’ sound and returned to sleep. My own thought process while I stayed with the eagle was quite profound, the situation was remarkable, and I considered augers, signs and omens. In terms of a narrative, that strays from the facts. I was confident that the eagle was safe and left it on its perch, checking it occasionally through the rest of the night.

At dawn, I returned to check on the eagle, as the day broke it looked even more spectacular than it had during the hours of darkness. The bird was awake and hopped from its perch to the ground. I offered it more food but it was no longer interested in eating. It made its way to a perch just above head height in a Rowan tree in the courtyard where it stayed for a while. The magnificent creature seemed to be surveying me and I was equally fascinated by it.

The usual morning visitors, tits, finches and sparrows were startled as they arrived to feed only to find a huge Golden Eagle perched on their habitual branch. They contorted as they flapped and wheeled away, no doubt shocked by the huge predator that welcomed them. My concerns for the eagle’s well-being were dispelled as it took stock of its surroundings, cast me one more glance and then launched itself effortlessly with a silky whoosh. As the eagle departed, the local crows and magpies shrieked in alarm. I stood there watching it fly away, the morning unfolding;  the small regular visitors seemingly unperturbed as they soon returned to feed on the nuts and seeds set out for them and with the majestic eagle’s departure the extraordinary became less so once more and a sense of calm stillness descended.

image: © Hobby Photo

Try to approach eating this way:

Remember what we have discussed previously regarding vitamins and minerals. Keep your intake of them up, especially the B group. Eat lamb’s liver at least once a week; it is an excellent source of nutrition. Eat lean meats, chicken is good. Eat oily fish at least once a week, salmon, mackerel, anchovies, herring, sardines or tuna.

For your meals, one third of the plate should be protection foods, one-third energy foods, and one-third repair foods, and there should be a healthy fat source within that meal such as Omega 3 (oily fish) or olive oil, avocadoes, almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds.

The energy foods are carbohydrates and brown are better than white grains. There are more B vitamins within the brown grains and these benefit the body more. Specifically these are breads, pastas, beans, potatoes, bran, rice, and cereals.

The repair foods are proteins, try to eat meat that is lean and clean, free range organic if possible, trimmed of any fat.

The protection foods are vegetables, minerals and fibre sourced locally and seasonally if possible.

Eat as much fruit as you want, use this list as a guide:

Commonly mentioned superfruits

Format: common name, botanical name, main country(ies) of origin supplying the commercial market.

• açaí (Euterpe oleracea), Brazil, Venezuela
• blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium and Vaccinium corymbosum), North Europe, Russia, Canada (Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia), United States (Maine, New Jersey, Michigan), Chile
• cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon), North Europe, Russia, United States (Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington, New Jersey), Canada (Quebec, British Columbia), Chile
• goji (wolfberry, Lycium barbarum), China
• grape (red, Vitis vinifera), parts of central Asia, Europe (native), United States (California)
• mango (Mangifera indica), Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, South Pacific
• pomegranate (Punica granatum), Mediterranean Region, United States (California)
• sea-buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), Asia, Europe

Apples (Malus domestica), oranges (Citrus sinensis), tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) and common berries, such as strawberries (Fragaria vesca), red raspberries (Rubus idaeus) and blackberries (Rubus ursinus) used for a large number of consumer products, achieve many of the criteria to be superfruits. They are, however, commonly known in the public and have not attracted interest as novelty ingredients, so are not usually included in industry reports as superfruits.

Instead of sugar in your tea, you could try honey, locally produced is best, lemon or sucralose, mainly marketed in the US and UK as Splenda. You will have to check if it is marketed locally under this brand name.

Exercise:

Begin a regime of going to the gym every other day and gradually increasing your aerobic/cardio workout.

Have a warm up routine of stretches and gentle work on the treadmill, rowing machine and bike.

Once you have warmed up, push yourself to the edge of your stamina, taking care not to over exert yourself. Once you are in the ‘zone’, spend time there working and oxygenating your muscles, this has the dual benefit of triggering endorphin release and increasing the flow of red blood cells. This oxygenates the blood and improves all round health.

Spend between 15 and 20 minutes in the ‘zone’ if you can.

When you have finished your cardio session, remember to cool down just as you warmed up.

Balance your session between aerobic (cardio) exercise and anaerobic (stamina)  exercise such as weight or resistance work, something that requires short bursts of energy and has less than a two minute duration.

In the context of this regime you can consider the concept of ‘flow’ from positive psychology, another name for being in the ‘zone.’

Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.

According to Csíkszentmihályi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. In flow the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand. To be caught in the ennui of depression or the agitation of anxiety is to be barred from flow. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task.

Colloquial terms for this or similar mental states include: to be on the ball, in the moment, present, in the zone, in the groove, or keeping your head in the game.

Endorphins:

Endorphins are chemicals produced in the brain, which bind to neuro-receptors to give relief from pain. Discovered in 1975, endorphins are believed to: relieve pain; enhance the immune system; reduce stress; and delay the aging process. Exercise stimulates the release of endorphins, sending these chemicals throughout the body. Endorphin release varies from person to person; some people will feel an endorphin rush, or second wind, after jogging for 10 minutes. Others will jog for half an hour before their second wind kicks in. You do not have to exercise vigorously to stimulate endorphin release: meditation, acupuncture, massage therapy, even eating spicy food or breathing deeply – these all cause your body to produce endorphins naturally.

Endorphin release promotes increased well being and a generally improved condition, which enables a person to function more effectively.

Visualization:

You have an image of the ‘best’ you. Think of a time when you were absolutely on top form. Reconnect to that. Remember what you felt like, what sensations you experienced and reconnect to those feelings. Replay them in your own theatre; this means have the thoughts, evoke the feelings, and remember things like smells, tastes, pieces of music, and conversations with people and so on.

When you prepare for work in the gym, for example, visualize the ‘best’ you and reconnect with her. Do this regularly, every day until you have reached your optimum condition. As you are doing this work, have it in mind that you are actually laying the foundations for increased health and well-being and establishing a healthy maintenance regime whose benefits will completely change your life for the better.

Meditation:

Undertake a course of meditation. Take time out to do this, it does not have to be extensive; it may only be a few minutes a day but make the time to still yourself and to focus upon your goal, you at your best. Simple meditation, at first, being still, being mindful and being aware. This is something we can explore in more depth at a later stage.

Gentle complimentary exercise:

Do some Pilates or Yoga to compliment the aerobic and anaerobic exercise. This will enable you to be more thorough in your approach to creating the best possible state of well being for your body and mind. Yoga, in particlar, works on a different frequency and will be dicussed in more detail later.

image: theloushe

The Multiverse is an idea of multiple universes, hence multiverse as opposed to universe. The fundamental principle behind the idea is that there are many universes of many different constructions, some with laws like our own, some with different laws. So this was a seminar with theoretical physicists, philosophers and writers expanding current thinking within the scientific and academic world on these ideas.
 
I was reminded why I am neither an academic or a scientist. Their work is far too limiting in that they have exacting criteria to meet that sidesteps the most basic issues of living here; namely, given the evidence, how is one to live in order to progress? Western thinking dismisses so much of the pre Enlightenment wisdom and it is slowly beginning to realize it. Today I heard an eminent and obviously very clever physicist say that physics was all about prediction. Physicists traditionally have looked at physical phenomena, and from their observations have been able to predict the way that things will happen. They have dealt in what can be called reasonable probabilities. However, since the advent of quanta based physics and theory, it has become apparent that they can’t predict what will happen, the diversity and upredictabilty of the quantum realms being so absolute. This is something which un-nerves them because their ideas of reality have been shown to be flawed and physicists like to deal incertainties.

 
Strangely enough, some of the most cutting edge thinking at the moment has a geneology that was proposed by Cicero, who was inspired by Democritus who wrote down the ideas of his mentor Leucippus. He was active in the early part of the 5th cent. BC and is credited with being the originator of Atomism or the idea that all matter is composed of atoms. Nothing of his work survives except one statement:
 
 
Nothing happens at random (maten), but everything from reason (ek logou) and by necessity.
—Leucippus,
 
I like to keep fresh and up to speed with current thinking in as many areas as possible. Theoretical physics is quite vibrant at the moment, simply because it is opening doors to rooms whose decor and layout it cannot dismiss even if it does not understand. Philosophy appears to be building an ever greater box for itself based upon its desire to be adversarial and fight everyone in its quest for ultimate proof; I do not know why anyone would want to study contemporary philosophy at the moment. It is so joyless and misses the magic of being alive; at some point you have to surrender in this life, and just be happy to be lost in a majestic and elegant Universe that is itself but a component of an even greater manifestation of God.
 
In the West scientists and academics are allergic to the idea of God. They blush and get embarrased as if caught doing something they shouldn’t if they find that there is more compelling evidence for the idea of a purposeful Creation rather than a random and meaningless sequence of events that happened to result in all of this. Us; you, me and everything that we are aware of from individual muons, leptons and protons to stars and galaxies and black holes.
 
Awareness, rather than being an emancipation has become a millstone. Grist to the mill of fundamentalism. The more we discover, the more a certain mindset seems to consider it evidence for the randomness and complete arbitrariness of Creation. Things get painted in black and white, a culture of extremis has emerged, you either believe totally in the word of God as expressed in the Bible or you are a nihilist who believes that everything is meaningless, without purpose or reason and devoid of any underlying cause that we might recognise as pre-emptive on the part of anything.
 
Both are ridiculous, yet they stare at and demonise each other. Insisting that there is only one camp or the other and nothing in between. Which is a little like closing your eyes and wishing all the difficult things in life would go away. Then being shocked when you open them and… they’re still there.

In Multiverse theory, there exists a Universe somewhere populated by people just like us that has no meaning. I don’t believe that Universe happens to be this one.

image: stephen oachs

Here are some considerations that may help. Forget any belief systems for the moment; let’s deal in absolutes, known commodities and things that are outside of the realm of speculation.

1. You have this life.

2. You have this moment, now.

3. You have dominion in your own affairs – also called choice.

4. You know yourself better than anyone else does.

5. You are the sum of all that you have processed so far. Thoughts, feelings, emotions, intuitions, knowings and all that has presented or revealed itself to your awareness.

What is certain is that you have a finite amount of time. You do not know how finite but let’s imagine that you had a week left. What would you want to do in that week? How would you spend it? What things have you not done yet that you would have to do in that week? That will give you some clues regarding what you want. However, it is a false economy to imagine that your time extends so far ahead that you don’t have to address pertinent issues now. It is later than you think. Knowing what you want is an extension of knowing who you are. Your life will not be dealt with tomorrow; it can only be dealt with now.

The person who does not know what they want lives forever in the shadows. Knowing what you want, and going for it, is a step into the light.