The Five Essentials … For Health & Happiness – Guest Blog

I would like to thank fredphillips.wordpress.com for this guest blog post, which shows, that we humans are not so different; and if you ask the universe (or the internet) you will find people out there who you have a lot in common with. 🙂 thanks fred!

There are five things that are essential for our health and happiness. I call these, oddly enough, The Five Essentials. Catchy, eh?

We are in the midst of enormous suffering on the planet. Rates of disease are spiraling upwards. Bullying is an epidemic, especially in our schools.  Regional and domestic conflicts abound. Many magnificent species are disappearing, or at the risk of disappearing, from the planet.

I could go on and regale you with more depressing stuff, but I really don’t want you to stop reading.

The truth is (and I believe this with all my heart), there is a solution to all this misery and it has to do with … you guessed it  … The Five Essentials. So let’s get right to it. Here they are:

1. To have an awareness of the truths of our existence
2. To feel good about ourselves
3. To heal our emotional pain
4. To eat and drink healthy stuff
5. To get active

Let’s briefly examine each of these essentials to see what they’re all about. (Yes, I know, a couple of them are rather self evident.)

1. To have an awareness of the truths of our existence:

Understanding the truths of who we really are and why we’re really here on the planet (there is little evidence to suggest it has anything to do with getting rich & famous) is critical if we have any hope of changing human behaviour. It certainly inspired me to change mine. I think if we knew for instance, that we live in oneness with God and everything else that exists, we would not treat each other the way we do. We wouldn’t start wars. We wouldn’t exploit the animal kingdom and we wouldn’t pollute. We would let go of fear. We would live with more compassion and love. We would be more altruistic. And we would be more humble.

If you want to know more, immerse yourself in spirituality. Talk to spiritual people. Read books by Eckhart Tolle, Caroline Myss, Wayne Dyer, Neale Donald Walsch and my own book, The History Teacher. Read my spiritual posts at fredphillips.wordpress.com.

2. To feel good about ourselves:

If we all felt good about ourselves … if we all felt lovable, worthy, good enough and empowered … again, we would not behave the way we do. We would not mistreat others. We would be more kind and forgiving. We would be more honest. We wouldn’t put people out of work. We would eat healthier foods.

If you want to change the way you feel about yourself, just be kind.

3. To heal our emotional pain:

We are a society full of unresolved emotional pain. We are loaded with anger, grief, shame, guilt and resentment. If we have any hope of creating peace on earth (one of the reasons we’re here), we need to release this pain. We need to transform it into something healthier and more positive.

If you want to heal your unresolved emotional pain, forgive who you need to forgive, apologize who you need to apologize to, cry if you need to and when you feel anger, scream into a pillow until you feel better.

4. To eat and drink healthy:

With all due respect to those who earn their living working in the fast food, junk food and processed food industries, if we really want to put an end to cancer and all other forms of disease, we need to eat better. We especially need to drastically reduce our sugar intake and eliminate artificial sweeteners and gmos. Why? Because this stuff acidifies our bodies and weakens our immune systems (80% of our immune system is situated in our gastrointestinal tract), leaving us susceptible to disease.

If you want to do one simple thing to improve your diet and your health, start eating fermented foods, especially, sauerkraut. It will put much needed healthy bacteria in your gut.

5. To get active:

As a whole,  we are far too sedentary and we’re paying a high price for it. Our bodies aren’t fit, leaving us vulnerable to stress and disease. We need to get active. I highly recommend martial arts or yoga, but if you do nothing else, go for a walk every day!

I believe in my heart that having an awareness of these Five Essentials, understanding  them and incorporating them into our daily lives will bring us peace of mind, joyful living and love (sign me up for that). They will bring us happiness (that too)!

some of you may be interested in making a contribution to this post about ‘abiltiy’ or ‘disability’. I know I am.

The Autistic Voice

Hi Readers

Playing devil’s advocate today…

I recently gave a session on autoethnography and reflexive writing at Sheffield Hallam and I included several examples of autoethnography of my own.  One example was some reflexion I had done during the Paralympics.  Someone suggested I put it in a blog to encourage debate:

‘So the past month has been about planning, and watching the olympics and paralympics, which have really got me thinking about disabilities – in fact it is not about disability but all about ability.  Even the language used is interesting – political correctness talks about people of restricted height for example, but paralympics talk about dwarfism.  Language is much more direct, honest and matter of fact.  Is PC for the benefit of the ‘inflicted’ or is it to make the public feel more empathetic to individuals’ feelings?  Do we worry too much about upsetting people?

One amputee…

View original post 165 more words

‘It’s character building’ – Epilepsy and Karate part 2

I read an article written by one Sensei analysing how she felt following a car accident where she injured her back quite badly and found her-self lying in hospital thinking ‘none of this is as bad as a training session with our Sensei’.

Under the firm conviction that ‘it’s a man’s world a girl’s got to be able to look after herself’ I put aside my reservations about Karate and joint care to have a go as an adult.

As a child I struggled to hit people with conviction. Not being the slightest bit athletic I was happier doing kata as it meant remembering patterns or dancing around as I saw it (all wannabe ballerina’s do!). I only learnt 3 kata because I didn’t stay long enough to learn any more.

As an adult, thankfully, like ‘Cat- woman’ in the latest Batman film ‘The Dark Night Rises’; I don’t feel quite so strongly about not hitting people. Preferring the approach of ‘varying degrees of massage’ I did feel strongly that it is important to be able to defend myself.

I went to see the film ‘Lawless’ last night (based on a true story) (1). The story of 3 brothers, the youngest of whom is Jack Bondurant (played by Shia Lebouf) who wouldn’t hurt a fly.

The film is interesting from the point of view that we see the events that change Jack.

How violence and injustice cause people to behave and the outcome at the end make for a gripping movie. What is more interesting is that the final straw is not violence inflicted on Jack, but against those he loves that is the emotional turning point.

The film is a study of fear and survival at a time of great hardship.

Physical and psychological attack is something that happens in life. No-one wants a big sign over their head saying ‘kick me’.

Sickness and disability in particular make people vulnerable to harassment, discrimination and abuse.

The way sick and disabled people are viewed in Britain currently is a whole new Dickensian novel. (2)

The Paralympics have just been hosted In Britain and while this has brought much discussion and debate in our country about ability in the context of disability; society has a long way to go before everyone is treated as equal. (3)

My own personal ‘fight back’ campaign began with Karate as a child and somehow stayed in my head as a ‘Nemesis’.

If I could draw a line pinpointing where it all started to go pear-shaped at 12 years old after falling down the stairs from having a seizure then Karate was the defining event.

Ultimately to beat epilepsy it felt like I had to do karate.

If I were a computer it would be like going in and re-writing the programming. Who doesnt need a copy of ‘Toumb Raider’ amongst the microsoft office software?

Is this going towards the ‘Dark side’ or facing up to my own demons?

Personally to me it felt like I was addressing something within myself.

I wake up every day and look at myself in the mirror. I see my best friend and my worst enemy. That is before I even have to deal with anybody else.

When I first started training I was very ill. I purchased a t-shirt with a superman ‘S’ on the front. It was like I needed to create my own personal alter ego to make me superhuman and to protect me.

Nearly 5 years down the line I can honestly say that karate training has helped me keep a job (despite discrimination), keep my home and given me the help I need without having to resort to violence.

I think that everybody can find their inner ‘grit’. For me I just needed to find the people who could show me the way.

There is no such thing as superheros who can protect us.

If we are lucky we have friends who care enought to look out for us.

It would be nice to think that there is someone out there that would fight for you when your screaming but no-one can hear you.

1)      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawless_(film)

2)      http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/blog/press-release-former-paralympian-joins-activists-to-target-atos#.UDaRnwwg0j0.facebook

1)      http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/commentisfree/2012/aug/23/paralympians-state-help-disabled-benefits-cut

Pushing The Boundaries – Epilepsy and Karate part 1

Wearing a Gi (karate suit) is a bit like going on camera because you gain a few pounds.
What on earth was I doing?
My first brush with a Dojo (Japanese martial training hall) was when I was 12. It was my good friend (or fiend depending on how you look at her) who thought it would be a good idea to go and train with or local karate club under Sensi Roger Sayce.
Roger was well loved by everybody who he taught and to this day I will never forget how every time he saw me he would ask when I was going to start training again.
So it didn’t last long.
Roger never gave up on me, if only he were alive today I would be able to tell him how much I now appreciate this and thank him.
There were a couple of reasons training came to an end. One was the distance and effort required to get to town for after school training (a mile to a milk stand outside a farm, 12 miles to town with my neighbour who was going training and her very kind dad who offered me lifts), Seizures and medication and also the grading examiner who was a bit scary. As a 12 year old I think I started shaking when he started shouting and shook all through the examinations – just two of them in two years. I was not brimming with confidence as a child and so I was quite happy to go and train without re-visiting grading’s (where you get a shiny new belt).
Mum and Dad were not enthused by my new found hobby and steadfastly refused to support me in my pursuit of ‘violence’. Unfortunately they missed the bit about fitness, discipline, confidence, self -defence, spirit, etc.
Eventually after a couple of years I stopped training at the level of temporary red belt or 8th Kyu.
Years passed and I declared I would start karate again ‘over my dead body’.
Time passed and my good friend married someone who also eat, slept and breathed karate. She and everyone else I started training with reached dizzying heights of ninja skills and I just got more and more sick.
And so, years later, I started karate training once more for a large number of reasons.
After being described by my friend’s husband as a ‘tai chi tree hugging hippie’ I thought I should check out the local club once more (pride in NO way played a part).
In all seriousness there are good reasons to train with people who seem to have turned out confident, self -assured, independent, assertive individuals. When faced with life’s problems they all seem to stand firmly in the face of adversity.

What did I have to loose?