What I Learned in Nicaragua

This is what I learned in Nicaragua:

It doesn't matter what is going on or where we are, our lives provide us with the experiences we need to grow. No need to want or avoid, it is all the same.

I had five weeks to do nothing but learn Spanish, read, and reflect. I spent a lot of time walking the beach, trying to listen to what the Universe wanted to tell me. With enough time I did become quiet enough to here something important. A couple of ideas kept popping up.

It's all grist for the mill.

Ram Dass wrote a book with that title, but the phrase actually goes back to a sermon from the 16th century. The idea is that everything is life can be useful. There is no good and bad happening to us, it can all be used for the good.

My Spanish teacher is a Jehovah's Witness. He liked to read the Bible to me in Spanish. This lead me to read to him my favorite Bible passage, Romans 8:

For to those who love God, all things work for the good.

What does all this mean to me? It's this, it really doesn't matter where we live, what we own, who we are, we have to live life. We exist, we have a life to live, and I believe, lessons to learn while we are in this human body. We spend too much time trying to make ourselves happy and more comfortable. That is to miss the point of being human.

It was a shock to arrive in Nicaragua and start taking cold water showers. Then I had to deal with the heat, humidity, and mosquitos. I had avoid stepping in pig shit when walking in the street. I didn't have a refrigerator so I had to buy my fruit every other day. There was no television, nothing at all to do after 7 pm, no movies, no appliances. All the conviences were gone. Yet, within a week or two, it really didn't matter. I'd adjusted.

Then I was invited into several of the homes in Leon. Essentially, they have roofs over their heads and little more. Yet, they were living their lives just like we do, except they didn't have our conviences. (Although the kids do have tv's and sony play stations.)

I guess what I learned was that it is not our living situation that matters. We can adjust to all kinds of things that we think we couldn't. In America we worry more about the little things than the Nicaraguans worry about the big things.

So, being here in my nice warm house on this cold overcast day, all these wonderful things that surround me do not mean as much to me as they did before this trip. Now I know that it is not the things in life that make for happiness. Life is not about happiness. Or security. I'm not exactly sure what life is about at all. If anything, life seems more like a journey or a process, and not something that you can point to and say, "ah, this is life." The longer I live the more I realize that:

"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived." Kierkegaard

So here is the deal: I want to go back there. I'd like to live there at least part of the year. Why? Not because Nicaraguans are nicer or better people, people everywhere are the same, it's that it is easier to live with people and really enjoy life when there are not so many "things" to get in the way. Our life styles, our toys, our possessions, take away our lives. I already miss talking to the fruit lady, the coconut woman, the beach kids selling sea shells, Tio Toro asking me for money to buy "Ron" (rum), drinking beer with crazy old Perry, Juan trying to convert me into a Jehova Witness, and Ana Francis trying to say "George Bush."

To read my travel blogs from Nicaragua go to:

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/francesco0/
nicaragua_again/tpod.html

You may have to cut and paste the url in two steps.

Perspectives on a Poor (Financially) Country

I arrived home late last night after being in Nicaragua for five weeks. My reason for the trip: to study Spanish, reflect, and learn. And I wanted to escape the dreary New England end of fall.

In the past when I travel I am happy to be home. Most of the time traveling is more of a chore than a vacation for me. I miss my family, my home, my routines. This trip was different. I stayed in one place and became part of a village and a city. I got to know people, their homes, their jobs or lack of jobs, their struggles. This is the first time that I have come home wondering where home really is.

I spent my time between Leon (Nicaragua's liberal, radical, university city) and Las Penitas (a poor seaside fishing village thirty minutes away). There is no hot water in either of these places (except hotels for foreigners). There are only curtains for doors. No glass for windows. No air conditioning. And in Las Penitas, no sewers.

That being said, the influence of American business and advertising is insidious. While many cannot afford to buy fruit and vegetables, they do consume plenty of Coca Cola. Their diets consist mostly of rice and beans. All but the very poor have cell phones, which they are always playing with (text messaging and music). And every kid I met in Leon had a Sony Play Station.

So, why have I come home feeling so unlike myself? I think it is that the country of Nicaragua got under my skin. My friend Perry, a crop-duster from Louisiana who lives there half the year, says that Nicaragua is like California one-hundred years ago. There is a sense of the wild west, a country that hasn't found itself yet. You can't even buy land securely because after the revolution, the Sandinistas took land from the rich and just gave it away without any titles or legal documents drawn up. It is like the old west here. In fact, I was told that up until five years ago everyone carried hand guns.

That being said, Nicaragua is the safest country in Central America. And the people, while struggling with their economic challenges, have a kindness about them that certainly made me feel a welcome part of their lives in the short time that I lived with them. Something about the way they carry themselves, kind of a humble pride, that is so appealing, makes me want to be a part of their unfolding future.

So here I am back in America where I can buy my organic fruits and vegetables at Whole Foods, I can entertain myself with movies and Internet searches, I'll run on the tread mill tomorrow instead of through dirt streets and dust filled with particles of animal waste. Why does it appear to me that those people in Nicaragua have so much more than we do? Why when I compare our lives to theirs, theirs seem so richer, colorful, so much more alive?

I don't know where I am going with this, except that I feel drawn to go back there and experience more of whatever it is they have that we don't. I am sure this isn't for everyone, but I hear the call to "go West young man." Alright, it isn't West and I'm not young, but complacency is for cows, not cowboys.

But before I head West I am heading East. January third I'm off to Thailand for five weeks. We'll see what this mostly Buddhist country has to teach me. I admit I'm a little nervous and that going to Asia is definitely out of my comfort zone.

Leaving the Comfort Zone

Tomorrow I begin my winter traveling. I'll be in Nicaragua for five weeks, come home for the holidays, and then leave for Thailand. While this may sound like a great way to get out of the cold New England winter, if you know me, this isn't as much fun as it sounds.

I have spent the better part of the last three winters traveling. Each time I go somewhere I struggle with being away from home. I miss my family and friends, my routine, my house, my food, my bed. I complain about everything. So why do I go? I don't have a choice.

I have to leave home and put myself somewhere where I do not know what will happen. Maybe I just like surprises. I stay in hostels or cheap hotels, I usually go to third world countries because I like the people there. I go to places that are warm and not far from the ocean. And I promise you, the next blog you get from me I will probably be complaining that I am terribly lonely and want to come home.

If I am lucky I'll last the five weeks and not come home early. Whatever happens I will receive a few good life lessons and my life will be richer as a result of leaving the comfort zone of my home.

If all goes well I'll spend the next five weeks studying Spanish, learning how to salsa dance, writing, reading, and discovering new things about myself. I guess I better start packing my bags.

Morning meditation: "Transformation is through the body, not away from it." Eckhart Tolle

This reminds me that if I can focus on my breath, be in the moment, I will continue to grow. You would think that growth would come from abandoning the body, but that is just not the case.

Life's a Suspense Novel

I woke up this morning thinking that I would like my life to be more exciting than it is. In other words, I wanted some drama. Then the thought came to me that I probably wouldn't have to wait too long because looking back on my life I've had plenty of drama and excitement.

The comparison to a novel came to mind. My life is a suspense novel. Right now there is a lull in the action, but that doesn't mean that important things are not happening. While I want to hurry up and turn the page, the writer of my life is developing character, characters, setting scenes, adding textures.

I think I'll try to enjoy the suspense of not knowing what will happen next. Why not, if my life were a book I'd be totally into the thrill and drama of not knowing what is going to happen. Instead of being in a rush to turn the page, I could enjoy the detail of the page I'm reading now. Soon enough a new character will appear, a new problem to be solved, who knows what danger lurks around the next corner? Might as well snuggle up with the book and enjoy the ride.

Before going to bed last night I read this in A Course in Miracles:

Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything.

Holistic vs. Reductionism

I'm reading a great book on the relationship between diet and disease, The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell. In one chapter he discusses his experience as a research scientist involved in understanding the connection between the food populations consume and illnesses. His work goes as far back as the late 1970's. Some of what goes on behind the scenes is fascinating.

Dr. Campbell was asked to serve on the Public Nutrition Information Committee in 1979. This was organized within the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and Medicine. One of the responsibilities of the committee was to "decide what is sound nutritional advice to give to the public." The intention was to identify nutrition quackery. Campbell was the only member of that committee not to have ties to food and drug companies. The others "earned" consulting fees from various animal foods companies. After two meetings Dr. Campbell was asked to leave.

A few years later Campbell was asked to become part of the American Institute for Cancer Research. At the time there was research linking diet and cancer. However, this research was a threat to too many people. The US government even got involved and did everything they could to quash this information. Essentially, they were attacking a nonprofit organization doing cancer research. Turns out that the American Cancer Society even went after them. They did not like anyone competing with them for funds and they did not want to shift the focus of research away from medical treatment and towards a more healthy diet.

Campbell learned that the medical establishment is "in the business of treating disease with drugs and surgery after the symptoms appear." This is anything but a holistic approach. Scientific reductionism happens when the focus turns to individual nutrients instead of whole foods. Billions of dollars were spent looking at the effects of fat or individual vitamins, when they should have been looking at whole systems. It does not help to isolate chemicals and food components, taking the results out of context.

The China Study takes information from whole populations with the same genetic background and demonstrates that cancer is due to environmental and lifestyle (diet) factors. John Robbins, in his book Healthy At 100, takes a similar approach when he writes about the Hunza in Central Asia, the Abkhasia in Russia, and the Japanese of Okinawa. These people regularly live to be 100. What is it about their cultures that make them so healthy? Do you think it is a low fat diet? Or they take vitamin C pills? The answer is to be found in the whole, not the parts.

Healing Requires Forgiveness

I again woke up in the middle of the night to a voice, or maybe it was just a persistent thought. "You got the idea of healing right, now understand that healing requires that you forgive. Forgive yourself, forgive everyone that you need to forgive. Not that they need forgiveness, you need to forgive for yourself."

There is not much to add to that. This just pounds home the idea that for me right now I have to pay attention to my emotions and heart, the learning and intellectual stuff takes care of itself. Learning means nothing if I can't be healed, if I can't forgive.

The voice, or thought continued that "every time you feel unease about some person say, 'I choose to be healed, I forgive.'"

It's About Healing, Not About Understanding

I've had a bit of a breakthrough last night and this morning. I had been asking for more understanding, more explanation, more reasons for this and that. Tell me, show me, I want to understand what is going on.

I'm being aware. This can't be bad.

Suddenly last night in bed, I think it was in the middle of the night and I had awakened, I realized that it is not about having the universe and my place in it explained and made understandable. It's about healing. My life isn't about getting more knowledge and information. My life is about healing. And right then and there I knew something shifted.

So this morning and today when I felt myself feel anxious about wanting to understand my life, immediately came the thought: "ask to be healed instead." Up until last night I thought the purpose of life was to learn, now I understand it as to be healed. That changes my perspective on things.

The Push to Go Deeper

Since I returned from Denmark I have had this constant "uneasiness" hanging around me. Almost like the flu, symptoms of concern, not quite really happy, persistent thoughts about things I don't want to think about, all colored with a touch of sadness. All of this has made me spend more time reading my "spiritual consolation and direction" type books for...well, consolation. And, I've made an effort to meditate and reflect more on what is going on.

While meditating this morning I asked the question: what was the purpose of my trip to Denmark and why am I so out of whack since then? And the answer came clear as a bell: "It's time to learn how to go deeper, become stronger, develop better strengths, so that when things don't go so well you will be able to keep your spiritual perspective, and not let your compass get totally screwed up just because you hit a strong magnetic force. You need to learn how to navigate by the stars!"

It seems like an awful lot of work for such a simple lesson, but I guess God doesn't care all that much about money and expenses as long as we get the message. So, basically, I get it: My little compass has gotten me this far, and that's good. But, it is subject to malfunction in the presence of tough situations and rough seas. I need a back up. A compass to me implies an external aid, where learning to navigate by the stars is all about learning how to travel relying on...God? Is that what this is leading to? Did somebody trick me?

Back to A Course In Miracles: "Be happy, and you gave the power of decision to Him Who must decide for God for you." Fine, I'll do that, but I'm going kicking and screaming. Couldn't we just use GPS and leave God out of this? I'd rather rely on electronics...okay, I take that back, that's what got me here in the first place.

Therapy

So, I went to my therapist today and got a clean bill of health...mental health, that is. I like working with Jenny, I try to be as honest as I can and I get to find out if I'm still, as we sailors say, "between the buoys."

We discussed a situation in my life, and I knew going in not to expect any answers. That is not what therapy is about. For me, it is a chance to discuss my life and listen to another person's perspective. It helps me to see some things that I might overlook because I am either too close or maybe I don't want to see.

So, here's the deal. I am like the trapeze guy who's between bars. I can either hurry and grab onto the next one, or live in the space between for a while. I feel safe enough to stay in the space. I've learned that grabbing doesn't work in the long run.

Nothing says it all better than this from A Course In Miracles (the book I turn to when I really need help): "All that is asked of you is to make room for truth. You are not asked to make or do what lies beyond your understanding. All you are asked to do is let it in; only to stop your interference with what will happen of itself."

Can anything be better than this: a great therapist and a book that speaks directly to your heart?

Purpose, meaning, and goals

Since I returned from Denmark I have been in a bit of a funk. Not depressed or anything, but generally having a feeling of sadness. The good thing is that I've learned that when I feel like this it is best to spend more time reflecting and becoming more aware of what is going on. And when things get really painful I pick up my copy of A Course In Miracles. I can always count on that to go right to the heart of the matter. I did that on Sunday.

In the workbook, Lesson 25, I read: "I do not know what anything is for." Sound familiar? And: "Purpose is meaning. Everything is for your own best interests. That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means." I am reminded of Richard Bach when he writes: "Some of the best things that happened to me turned out to be the worst, and some of the worst things that happened to me turned out to be the best."

It's a struggle as usual, but in the pain I at least feel peace. I can live with that and even be happy about it. And somewhere in the purpose of all this is meaning.

Near the end of the lesson: "It is crucial to your learning to be willing to give up the goals you have established for everything."

I am willing. After all, I don't know what anything is for.

You know, life does give us plenty of challenges, but we are always given the choice...the easy way or the hard way. Letting go is the easy way, having to do it our way is the hard way. I'm letting go.

Going Deeper

I'm not sure if it is because I read to much, or it's my imagination, or maybe it is God pushing. But, here we go again. I am being "encouraged" to go deeper into some kind of awareness. No, encouraged isn't strong enough. I'm definitely being pushed, as in not having a choice. I'd like to yell back, "can you just leave me alone and let me do what I'm doing." But, no, now I have to be more aware. Aware of what?

I envy people who can get up in the morning, wash up, eat a normal breakfast, go to work, come home at night, have dinner, watch a little TV, and go to bed without ever having to think about anything any deeper than, "Would you like paper or plastic?" For some idiotic reason, ever since my first year in college, having that Quaker English professor who insisted on us asking questions about our values, the meaning of life, etc., I have had to dig deep into whatever it is that lies underneath our daily, normal, waking, existing, lives.

Now it's about becoming more self-aware. I can't just do things. I have to be more aware of what I am doing, and I have to be doing it for the sake of itself, not because I am trying to get somewhere. Are you following me? We are talking mindfulness . Vietnamese monk Thich NhatHanh says: "Washing the dishes to wash the dishes." Well, why else wash the dishes? I know, it's a clever way of saying be mindful, don't wash them thinking about what you are going to do next. And I guess that is what this is all about. Being with what is happening in the moment and stop living in the past or the future. I guess when you put it that way, going deeper isn't so bad or dumb.

Fine, so the new thing I am being pushed towards is being more present in the things I have to do every day, all day. That sounds a lot easier than being more aware. Although, I guess being present is being aware.

Maybe I just like to argue with God just because I like to argue. Well...I gotta go wash the dishes.

...just finished the dishes.

By the way, my book Holistic Perspectives, is listed on Amazon with a really good discount. Last time I checked they were selling it for only $13.57. You can see the listing by clicking on the amazon link on this blog.

Lessons From Denmark

There is a teaching in Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now that talks about the difference between working toward a goal and being excessively focused on that goal because you think that goal will bring you happiness, fulfillment, and a better sense of self. It is a good thing to have goals. In going to Denmark I had certain expectations, hoping for certain things to happen. They didn't.

I spent a lot of time wondering, actually begging the Universe to explain to me why I made such a long and difficult trip and investment if there was nothing to be gotten from it. I've been to Denmark before, it is a beautiful country, but not as pretty as New England in September.

I got all kinds of answers from "it was a mistake" to "next time you'll know better." In the end though, they weren't really answers at all. I've learned that I really don't know very much. And worse, as our brilliant vice-president points out, "we don't know what we don't know." That has more wisdom in it than any thing any politician has said in recent memory. We don't know what we don't know.

All of this thinking that we know what we don't know leads to being pretty miserable. Sometimes, maybe all the time, it is best to not be so attached to what we think we want. When I e-mailed my friend Mike Ryan telling him of the situation he replied: "Dude, you aren't meditating, are you? I can always tell. Go do it now. Do the one on how the root of all unhappiness is desire...You need to let go."

I did follow his advice about meditating, but I didn't do it on desire and letting go. I did it on what I thought I wanted. Am I not an idiot or what? I meditated on getting what I wanted. How stupid is that? I thought I knew what outcome would be best, so I thought I was being holistic, having a holistic perspective. I was having my own, limited perspective, is what I was having.

Tolle says that when we do that our life's journey is no longer an adventure, just an obsessive need to arrive. No longer an adventure. An obsessive need to arrive. I want my life to be an adventure. It is hard to let go, but that is the only way I will allow my life to have mystery, suspense, surprise, excitement. I want that.

We can't have it our way AND have adventure. If we did control everything that happens to us, our lives would become boring so quickly. Geez, the Red Sox would win the World Series every year. What fun would that be?

So, I'm back home in Rhode Island doing my best to do what Michael told me to do. I am going to let go and see what happens. I'll live with the not knowing. And even though it is hard not to get your own way, that is the price you pay to have the kind of quality life that I truly want to build and grow into. This letting go does feel a lot better than trying to make the world be the way I envision it should be. There is a deep sense of peace.

Poisoned in Denmark

So, I have been making fruit smoothies every morning like I usually do. Today I ran my five miles and Helen, my host here in Denmark, had them waiting when I got back. "I've used lots of elderberries that I picked by the road." She was looking so proud of her work.

I had two full glasses. A short while later I began to feel nauseous. Maybe it was just the stress of being in Denmark. Then I had to run to the bathroom with diarrhea. As we started to get in the car to go to the University I had to stop. I threw up my breakfast there on the driveway. Not long after Helen lost hers into the toilet.

That felt better so we left for her school. Half way there I felt cramps but thought I could hold it. They got worse and I asked Helen to find the nearest station. I didn't make it. Not a lot of fun washing your pants in a public bathroom, standing there in your shoes and shirt.

It turns out that elderberries contain cyanide, cooking them destroys it but raw ones are mildly poisonous. Next time someone offers me a fruit smoothie I'll check out the ingredients.

I've never been poisoned before. Hard to have a holistic perspective on that.

Magical Music In Denmark

I do not buy music that was published after the 1970's, other than Bruce Springsteen and a few others. Contemporary music does nothing for me. I am in Denmark this week and my friend Helen played for me a CD of songs that her daughter wrote and sang.

The first time through I listened to her voice and could not believe what I was hearing. I heard Barbara Streisand, Janice Joplin, Shania Twain. And I heard a young woman with soul and unearthly passion.

Then I listened a second time. The words and emotions of her singing took me by surprise and I had to hold back my tears, just barely. The third, fourth, and fifth times, I just cried. All I could think of was that I wanted to be involved in making a musical documentary about her message. I am still trying to make sense of all this.

Her name is Freja Eriksen.

Go to www.myspace.com/frejaeriksen and download "The Spring," listen to it twice and be prepared to be blown away. If the thought that the trees will stop breathing, and the sun will be gone cold, and birds not singing, and that we are the spring on hold...if that does not get to you...you may be dead.

Holistic Perspectives & Integral Theory Published

A couple of years ago I decided to write a book on holistic perspectives and integral theory because:

1. I couldn't find a book that explained what holistic is. There were books on holistic medicine and nursing and business, but none that actually dealt exclusively with what a holistic perspective is.

2. Integral theory is a very important method for understanding our world and seeing what is, but often books about it are difficult to understand. I wanted to write about integral theory in a way that would make it easily grasped.

So, here it is--now available on Amazon.com. I suggest that before you spend any money, go to holistic-perspectives.com and read as much of it as you like. In fact, if you are short of funds, the whole book is available on line.

I totally enjoyed the process of researching and writing the book. I did my dissertation (which is also available on Amazon) on Ken Wilber's work and this is an extension of what I learned in the process.

While writing Perspectives I was also working on another book, Spanish Lessons, which should also be available in about a month. It's not really so much about Spanish as it is about what happens when you don't have to work, but can't stand hanging out doing nothing. As some of you know, the last three winters I have been traveling around the world taking Spanish lessons, but what I really have learned has more to do with the meaning of life and finding passion again. In the end I did find it and it's all in the book.

I'm off to Denmark tomorrow. Who knows what will happen there?

Nirvana?

The world may be round, but it sure feels flat. Everything I do, especially walking, I do as if the world were flat. If I hadn't seen pictures of the planet from space I'd have a hard time believing in a round world.



My experience of my self sure feels like I'm an individual self. I mean, I'm me, you are you, and everybody else is who they are, separate selves. If I had not experienced for my self, one time during meditation, that my separate self is an illusion and that I am only a manifestation of some larger all-inclusive self, I would still believe that I am just little old me and nothing else.

Nirvana has been defined as a breakthrough in consciousness in which one never thinks of oneself as a separate self again. It is never seeing the world as flat anymore. All it takes is that one experience. Often when I mediate I recall that awareness of being one with all consciousness and I remember who I really am. I experience the universe as an organic whole, of which I am a part. Subject-object duality is seen for what it is--an illusion.

By the way, the picture on the side is of the equator in Ecuador. The yellow line is the equator itself.

Michael Vick and the Question of Animal Cruelty

How interesting. Did you notice how many people are enraged at Michael Vick? That is a pretty horrible thing, dogfighting. Animal cruelty. So how many years should he get in jail, how much should it cost him? Looks like he will lose at least $100,000,000 of his football contract.

I don't think anyone reading this blog would accept what he did as morally acceptable. Now, I have to ask you: when was the last time you had eggs, or milk, or chicken, or pork, or beef, or fish? If you read the book The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, by Peter Singer and Jim Mason, you will realize that if you are eating these animal products, you might want to place yourself in the same moral category as Michael Vick, because your food choices are producing as much and more animal suffering.

Unfortunately, most of us will utilize the psychological tools called denial and rationalization to avoid confronting this unpleasant fact.

I am not telling anyone to become a vegan tomorrow, just asking you to think about it. If Michael Vick disgusts us, maybe it's time to look at our own actions.

I haven't reached the point where I can avoid all animal products myself, but I am no longer in denial either, as regards to what I am doing. When I make my green smoothie in a few minutes I will be taking one big step along the way to making that change. You would be very surprised how good kale and watermelon can taste after a few minutes in the Vita Mixer.

Best Day Ever!

The best day ever! That is David Wolfe's promise when we eat raw foods. I attended his seminar in New Hampshire this weekend with Gina, Steven, and Cathy, and I am more convinced than ever that a raw food diet is the way to a healthier, happier life. If David Wolfe is any indication of the energy one can get from being a raw-foodist, I am going there. He has more energy than any person I have ever come across. I'm talking back to back three hour lectures without stopping for a breath.

This is what I learned:

1. Consuming raw food will eliminate just about any health problem you can think of, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression, and obesity.
   
2. We do this little by little.
   
3. We do this by adding raw food to our diet, we are not giving anything up.
4. Food is our number one relationship to the earth.
5. We need to be aware what ratio of fats, carbos, and protein in our diet works best for us personally.
6. Drink about a quart of water on rising to flush out your system.
7. Drink super food smoothies! This is a big part of the adding element of becoming healthy. Start with a base of water, tea (goji berry or vanilla) , coconut water. Add macha, coconut oil, hemp seed, cacao beans, spirulina, honey, etc. Play with it.
8. When you start consuming high quality food your body starts telling you what it needs.
9. Don't try to use willpower.
10. Put diluted seawater in your garden and fruit trees.
11. Real spring water is healthy, avoid filtered tap water.
12. It isn't calcium that makes bones, our body makes calcium from silicon and magnesium.

There you are in a nutshell. (By the way, the cacao nutshell is good to eat.)

So, do you want to be really really healthy? Little by little add the following to your diet:

• Fruits (especially berries and the best of these are goji berries)
• Vegetables (especially green leafy veggies; salads and smoothies)
• Nuts and seeds (especially cacao-raw chocolate)
• Minerals (especially from seaweeds like Kelp powder)
• Sprouts
• Grasses
• Herbs
• Superfoods (cacao, spirulina, honey, bee pollen, macha, etc.)

Okay, there you have everything you need to have the best day ever! E-mail me if you have any questions about this stuff.

The Pleasure of Meditation

One of the first things I do every morning is meditate for about 20 minutes. I tell myself that this is the most important thing I will do today. I am trying to add another time to meditate around noon and another later in the day. I want to stay connected to what is real.

Usually I read a passage from Ekhart Tolle's "The Power of Now" to help me get in the mood.

This morning I was feeling how enjoyable it is to meditate. My body was peaceful, as well as my mind. Everything felt calm and pleasurable. But another part of me was pushing to finish up and get on with my day. How strange. Meditation is so enjoyable, but don't we often think of it as something we have to do before we get on with things? Like it's a chore, or a job.

At that moment I realized that there was a part of me, I think it is the mind, that doesn't like it when I meditate. It is the same part of me that wants to eat what makes it feel good, or wants to watch TV and be entertained. The mind wants what it wants (it wants problems and drama), and I don't think it is often what I want. I like the pleasure and the peace of just sitting there, my thoughts (and mind) not cluttering up things.

I am going to pay attention to this part of me that tries to control my life and isn't who "I" really am. There is a deeper, truer Self that knows better what will make my life whole, healthy, and happy. And I think that real Self comes out when I meditate. I'd like to see it also when I make my food choices, when I make choices about what I am going to do with my time.

I'm not going to listen to my mind trick me into believing that meditation is work--hell, it's not work, it is a real pleasure.

Super Food Overdose

Okay, so I made my green fruit smoothie this morning after having more ice cream than I would have liked to this weekend (thanks mom for the mud pie). I put in everything that I had: kale, mango, melon, frozen banana and blueberries; cacao, maca, flax seeds, agave, spirulina. I'm going to feel really good today, right? Wrong!

Green fruit smoothies are the best first step on a raw food life style; but you gotta use common sense, unlike me. I probably won't be eating anything else today (which is a good thing), but I feel really terrible right now. It is as if my whole body has shut down and is working full-time trying to make sense of all this really good food it just got. Like, "hey, let's not waste this stuff, fellas! Put everything thing else aside and get to work absorbing all these 'superfood' molecules!"

So, I'm home today contemplating how I can do this a little more "smoothly." From now on, one kind of fruit, one kind of superfood (two at most), and more water, along with a little less kale. It'll just take a little longer to get raw.

On a happier note: I've finished putting up my website. Please check it out at holistic-perspectives.com. (Don't forget to put the dash between holistic and perspectives or it doesn't work.) There is also a link to the site on this page over on the left hand side with the other links. I have uploaded all the pages to my book, Holistic Perspectives, if you can't wait to read the whole thing. It's free. Or, you can wait, and in a month or so it will be printed and available on Amazon and I'll send you a copy free, if you ask for one.

I'm gonna go lay down now and digest some more flax seeds.

Ten Miles and Still Raw

I ran the 10 mile Narragansett Blessing of the Fleet with my daughter Angela yesterday. Like an idiot I thought I could run it faster than I did two years ago. Back then, my first race, I paced myself. Yesterday I ran faster, until I reached the five mile marker and began to get tired. The last half of the race was pure pain in order not to suffer the humiliation of walking.

I had passed Angela, who is a better runner than I am, around the two mile mark. I was dragging along towards the end when she passed me after nine miles. I kept her in sight and within fifty yards of the finish I sprinted to catch up, I did, but she then sprinted away from me. I had to keep sprinting, after nearly ten miles of running, to finish the race right behind her. Like I said, I'm an idiot. I'm paying the price today, sore all over.

The best thing about yesterday, besides running with my beautiful daughter, was that I stayed raw and lost three pounds. I had a green smoothing this morning and feel good, inside at least. Life is good. A little yoga now and I'll be back in ship shape. I am keeping firmly in mind that it is not about having perfect bodily health, but health of body, mind, and spirit.

100% Raw--Finally!

My daughter Gina and I discussed how she makes green smoothies for earlier in the day and then makes tasty fruit smoothies with cacao and vanilla bean for later in the day. The second smoothie gets her through the tough afternoon cravings (I think that's how she put it). This morning I was desperate and decided that would be my new plan for today. I've been trying everything I can think of.

Just to make sure that I succeeded Gina came this morning and removed all of the bread from my house while I was out running. She didn't need to, the fruit smoothie (with all the extra goodies) worked! Today I finally made it 100% raw.

This may just be a little gift. I had the strong sense today that maybe some of us are not allowed to take perfect care of our bodies if we don't also try to do the same with our minds and souls. If we want to succeed in having a healthy diet for our bodies, maybe we are required to do the same for our thoughts and our spiritual lives, too. It makes sense to me, since we are wholes and not parts. Again, the holistic perspective and approach to living.

I've Been Robbed!

Be very careful what you tell people. I came home from running today and all of the bread in my house had been stolen. The suspect even left a note on the counter.

Struggling, But Not Discouraged

In Argentina when they were fighting the British over the Faulkland Islands the newspapers announced everyday, "we are winning, we are winning." Everyday, "we are winning, we are winning!" Then, one day, "we lost."

Everyday I start out to be 100% raw. My morning green smoothie, "we are winning, we are winning." My afternoon salad and veggies, "we are winning, we are winning." My dinner, "we lost."

Today, perfect all day. I am determined to stay raw tonight. I go to the market and buy all the fresh fruit that appeals to me. I come home. Banana. Peach. Almonds. Pumpkin seeds. I'm full. I'm not taking chances, I make and eat an avocado cacao vanilla bean pudding. I can't eat any more.

"Please, just three little pieces of toast, wouldn't you love that right now?" the voice in my head insists. I am not hungry at all, so I make and eat the toast. Whoever said that man is a rational being needs to have his head examined.

Another day, another day not totally raw. This is a real struggle, but I'm not giving up. I am totally convinced that eating raw is one of the most important things we can do to live vibrant lives. The good thing about all of this is that I realize that will power isn't working and so I've resorted to meditation. I'm meditating more in hopes of finding out why I haven't been able to do this yet. And I suspect that the answer itself is to get me to be more mindful, meditative, more aware of my choices and actions.

Tomorrow I will start all over again with a wonderful, refreshing green smoothie. One of these days...we're winning, we're winning, we've won!

Runner's High

It has been exactly two months since I've gotten serious about changing my diet. During this time, I have for the most part stopped eating animal products and cooked foods. Notice that I didn't say "give up" eating, that would indicate that I was "not" doing something. Instead, my perspective on this is that I am doing something positive--I am eating raw, living food.

The interesting thing is that I do not feel as though I am depriving myself of anything. I will be honest, every so often I do have ice cream. (I know there is a recipe for raw ice cream out there and when I find it...) So, I am losing weight and I feel lighter not only in body, but also in spirit. I don't feel as attached to things anymore.

Goji berries--get 'em! For the last two weeks I've been eating dried goji berries before running in the morning. Goji berries are the most sacred food in Chinese medicine. They are extremely high in protein and have ten times the antioxidants of blueberries. I now eat the berries as a pre-breakfast snack. (My main breakfast is a green smoothie that I have after running, at around 10 am.)

So, yesterday, I am running as usual, and after five miles I decided to keep going. Somewhere between six and seven miles I experienced the most intense runners high I have ever had. Oh, what a feeling! I ended up running eight miles yesterday and I am sure the goji berries had a lot to do with it. This is why I am not worried about becoming totally raw and the perfect vegan: if I just pay attention and keep learning, picking up new ideas, foods, recipes, if I improve a little each week, the process can be fun and painless.

Creating Space

Every morning, the first thing I do before doing anything is to create space. I sit on the floor, cross-legged, and do my best to empty my mind of things to think about and allow something from beyond me to enter into my life. I say to myself that this is the most important thing I will do all day long.

Most of the time my thoughts are running my life. "I have to do this...remember when...tomorrow I will...wouldn't it be nice...I'm hungry..." It never stops. Who is in control of my life? It's not me, it's my mind. Wouldn't it be nice to shut the damn thing down once in a while? After all, most of what that mind thing is doing is repeating thoughts from a hundred thousand yesterdays.

That's the problem. We never have room in our heads for something new to enter into our lives. I want a little creativity, I want new life in my life--every day!

So every morning I make time to make space to allow something from outside of me (my mind) to come into my life. It is the most important thing I do every day. It is the only way I can open up to more than little old me and allow whatever it is that creates the universe anew each morning into my life, my thoughts, my actions.

I sit and pay attention to my breath. I feel my chest rise and expand, fall and deflate. I feel my body become soft and open. I look out my window and see the leaves on the trees in various shades of green. I become aware of the space in which all of this exists. I allow everything to exist. I am here, now. And it feels really good. And I bring it with me to the next thing I do.

I wonder what would happen if I try making space more than just the first thing in the morning?

Pruning Perspectives

I have this lemon tree that my Dad gave to me. He grew it from a seed. I've kind of neglected it and it became--rather ugly looking. In fact, after having it for about 10 years, I was about to throw it out. Sorry to see what happened to it. Maybe I could have done a better job tending it.

I'm not sure why, but instead of dumping it I cut back all the dead leaves and branches and put it outside on the porch. There was not much left of the thing but two little surviving shoots. I did not expect the tree to survive.

It's been three weeks now. This morning I counted six new vibrant branches busting out all over the place, one even out of the ground! The thing has a new life--and I'm determined to make this new one better than the old.

Here's the moral of the story--sometimes we gotta cut out the dead parts of our lives in order for the new aspects of ourselves to bust out. We can start over, we can have a second chance. Sometimes loss can be a good thing. And change. But--along with the cutting out we need a little sunshine and water, don't forget the water!

Finding purpose in Life

We all feel shitty at times. I don't mean physically here, but emotionally. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I realize that there is nothing interesting or exciting to do for the day. It's going to be just a normal, nothing to get excited about kind of day. My first thought is more like a feeling of numbness or "so what?"

I would say that happens a lot, wake up, just a normal day, so what. I don't know if it is from reading good books, or trying hard to be like all of the great people in my life, but then a much better thought comes running calmly into my mind: I am here only to be truly helpful. That saying comes directly from A Course in Miracles. And right then and there it is as if someone flipped a switch on my emotions and I feel myself lift and look a my day from a whole other perspective.

When I am thinking about myself and making myself happier I do not get happier, I either get anxious--as in "what can I do now?"-- or I get depressed if I can't think of anything good to do. I don't know why but more and more, right away I remember that saying from the Course, and the my feelings change immediately. I think that may have a lot to do with me being happier now than at any time in my life--and there is nothing especially exciting going on to cause that.

Another aspect of this is highlighted by research done by UCLA psychologists. They are finding out that when we name our emotions, we calm ourselves down. This is believed to be one of the reasons that meditation is so beneficial. Mindfulness techniques help people to pay attention to what they are feeling, and in noticing these feelings, making them more explicit and aware of what is going on inside, those negative emotions tend to dissolve. Another good reason to take up a meditation practice.

This may be what is happening to me when I become aware of my morning feelings, only I move directly to something positive to fill the empty space of letting go of that emotion. Whatever it is, I plan on keep doing it--I like what is going on.

Asomatognosia: not seeing what is there

Asomatognosia is a neurological disorder where the patient does not recognize a part of his or her body as their own. For instance, it could be an arm. They see the arm, but don't believe it is theirs. When pointed out that it is attached to their body they would say something like, "You can't always believe what you see." Asomatognosia usually happens when there is damage to a part of the brain.

I am interested in this phenomenon because it involves perception and a particular inability to see what really is. I am hoping to develop a more holistic perspective in myself, but what if I have some kind of asomatognosia and I don't know it. What if there is something in my brain that does not let me see what is really there? And how would I know about it?

People who have this rare condition are convinced that these parts of their bodies are not there and if they are there they do not belong to them. We again have a case where reason is over-ridden by another factor. This time, instead of emotion, it is a brain lesion.

What if there is some kind of brain lesion, and it doesn't have to be a lesion, it could just be the way our brains are constructed, that does not let me see....God, for instance. Or miracles when they happen. Or that what we call coincidences that are really not coincidences at all. What if the whole world is not anything at all like we think it is. We could be living lives just like the mistaken patient!

I bring this up only so that we will consider that maybe the world is not the way we have always perceived it to be. Maybe it is something quite different. For a number of years now I have looked up at the moon and wondered: what a coincidence it is that it is exactly the same size in the sky as the sun, even though it is much smaller. Of course, the reason is that it is much closer to the earth. But still, an interesting coincidence. And I also wonder how it happens that the moon takes the same amount of time to circle the earth as it does to rotate around itself. In other words, its day is exactly equal to its year. That is why the same side faces us all the time. Another interesting coincidence. My question is: is my thought that it is a coincidence just my way of rationalizing (like those patients who have asomatognosia) or is there something weird going on in the sky and I just don't want to admit it?

Do we all suffer from existential asomatognosia?

Knowing and Believing

The human brain and the mind play tricks on us all the time. Most importantly, they really screw around with what we know, what we know we know, and what we think we know, and what we believe. (For vice-president Dick Chaney it's what we don't know and what we know we don't know.) Often, what we think we know is really only a belief. But, we can, with a little use of the mind, change a belief into a knowing.

What I know comes from my experience. I know that I am a little cold right now. That is not a belief, or a theory, I know it from my experience. I believe that it will be sunny today because the weatherman said so. Let's make this a little more interesting. I have a belief in a God type person, or being, or universal creative force, whatever. Why? Well, I have reasoned this all out, and my mind tells me that some thing, or some one is behind all the order and beauty of the universe.

Now isn't that interesting? My belief comes from a rational thought process.

My belief in this God person, however, does not give me that much consolation. It satisfies one part of my mind that needs to make sense of things, but it does not give me any emotional fulfillment. On the other hand, if I think about something that happened to me about 20 years ago, when I had what you would call a "spiritual" experience, when I felt God do something to me, that I know. I know that I had that experience, I know that it was beyond the physical universe, I know that what happened could only have happened if there were a being outside of the material world that I live in.

So here is a knowing that is actually more meaningful to me than my actual belief. I know I experienced this God event, but I only believe in a God person. What is more powerful, knowing or believing?

Where am I going with all this? The point is that what we know is more dependent on our experiences than on our rational thinking. Example: I have a close friend who does not believe that God can exist. Until she was 20 she believed in God. Then she experienced a terrible tragedy. Because of that event she "knows" that there is no God. How unrational is that? Guess what, we all do that in our own ways. We just do it differently.

The holistic perspective takes all of this into account. Keep in mind that what you know, you know from your experience, and that involves your emotions more than your rational brain. I think I would hold onto all of my "knowledge" a little less tightly. I'd look at my feelings a little more closely. For me, I want to know more than believe. I want to "feel" what it is that I really know. I'm going to spend a little more time (maybe a lot more time) feeling what it is that I know about this God experience. It is better to feel this Creative Intelligence that to believe in It (Him-Her).

Your brain is not a computer--it is hardwired to your emotions. Reason doesn't rule, guess what does.

Always a Struggle

It's seems like months since I have been trying to eat mostly (80%) raw foods. I can do vegan. I can do breakfast (smoothies) and lunch (salads, nuts, avocados) and feel healthy raw. But I reach for the starches (breads), the fats (butter-like spread), and the sweets (semi-sweet chocolate chips) at dinner-time or evening snack. Sometimes it's worse. And the end result is that even though I am not eating animal products, I've found a way to still put shit into my body!

This is so not easy. I swear to God it is a full-time commitment just eating healthy. I read tonight about a doctor telling the story of a man with elevated cholesterol. The man didn't want to go on statins to lower it and he had a heart attack. The doctor was selling his services--come to my office and let me give you the magic pill.

Of course, first the doctor told the patient to change his eating habits. So, you know what the man did? He stopped putting mayonnaise on his double bacon cheeseburgers. You'd think the doctor would have said that that wasn't really enough. I'd rather give up the crappy food than take the pills. Statins are know to cause liver and muscle damage.

So, tomorrow morning I will, I promise, take out my raw food books, get some inspiration, and eat in a way that honors my body.

(Can you hear the soft fan of my dehydrator making flax seed crackers? They've been drying all day. I wonder how tasty they will be?)

The Whole Story on Dairy Products

Here are some reasons to avoid dairy:

1. Cheese is a major source of dioxin in our diet (a prominent cause of cancer).

2. Cow's milk is designed to grow calves fast. Foods that promote fast growth cause cancer.

3. While milk itself contains calcium, the acid load from the animal protein can actually produce a negative balance because of loss through excretion. (Eskimos consume huge amounts of calcium from fish bones, but have the highest rates of hip-fracture because of all the animal protein.)

4. Milk produced on factory farms (nearly all milk) comes from cows that live miserable lives, not out in the pastures that the pictures would like us to think.

5. Drinking milk supports the veal industry. Male calves are sent to the veal factory farms. And you know what that means.

6. While fruits and veggies (especially green leafy ones) contain less calcium, our bodies retain more of it than from milk, creating a positive balance. (Populations that do not consume animal products have far lower rates of osteoporosis.)

Excellence in Sports--A Holistic Perspective

What makes a great athlete great? According to the hosts of the sports talk show on WEEI it is the ability to see the whole field, or the whole court. Talking about how great a basketball player LeBron James is, they pointed out that what made him so great is that he can see the whole playing court, see all that is going on, during the game.

The hosts then pointed out that that was what made Tom Brady, winner of three Super Bowls, such a great quarterback. Brady has the ability to see down the field and comprehend everything that is taking place in front of him. In a sense, it was pointed out, these men were able to slow things down enough to get a hold on what needed to be done.

I thought to myself when I heard this that if that isn't what having a holistic perspective is all about I don't know what is. In life, if we want to be winners, if we want to succeed, if we want to be all that we are meant to be, we must learn from these athletes the value of seeing the whole and not just the parts. We must widen our perspective and strive to see the whole playing field of life. The big question is--how do we do that? The answer has to do with personal development and growth.

Four Days in New York City

I just spent the last four days in New York City attending the PMA Publishing University Conference. Yikes! People are taking publishing back from the big New York publishing houses and producing books themselves. It is exciting to realize that individuals, even without a lot of financial resources, can get their ideas literally out across the entire planet.

There is no excuse for any writer to be shut out of the world-wide conversation. Books, articles, audio and visual presentations all can be made available either in print, plastic, or on the Internet, without a lot of money. I came away from the conference with a greater understanding of the whole book publishing process: writing, editing, production, and marketing. It all can be done by one person or a small team. So many possibilities, so little time (just kidding, we have the rest of our lives).

From a holistic perspective I must balance my enthusiasm to want to do everything with what I am best suited to do. I want to learn editing, book layout, web design, marketing, how to write better, manage a publishing house, acquire enlightenment...better stop there. Anyhow, I am determined to organize what I have learned and then do what is best for me to do.

Staying healthy in NYC was not as easy as I thought it would be. Instead of a great variety of food options, most of the restaurants repeated the same themes. I am glad to be back home where I can make my own fruit smoothies and salads the way I like them.

Okay, gotta go, lots to do! Power to the people!

Buying Local Food

The idea of buying our food as close to home sounds like an environmentally friendly and ethical thing to do. After all, we need to support the local farmers, and the transportation of produce over long distances uses up fossil fuels and pollutes the environment.

However, it isn't as simple as that. Sometimes it is better to buy from longer distances. For instance, it uses less energy to buy rice from Asia, even factoring in shipping costs, than to buy it from California...because farming in California is so energy intensive. There are a great deal of products that are better bought imported.

Foods flown in on air freight are the most wasteful, but foods (like fruit from Central or South America) brought in on ships are 10 times more energy efficient than shipped on trucks. So, actually, it can be more responsible to buy oranges from Panama than Florida. You do not have to feel so guilty eating pineapples, bananas, etc. imported anymore, as long as they come in on container ships, which they do.

Another consideration is which farmers do we want to support. Buying locally we may be helping local farmers send their kids to college. Buying from Central America and we may be helping those farmers send their kids to elementary school...and feed and clothe them.

I am leaving out a lot of details, but you get the point. It isn't as simple as we think when it comes to making the best choice of where and what foods to buy. I think the bottom line is to reduce or eliminate animal products as much as possible and consume more fruits and veggies...if we are trying to be more friendly to our planet.

Back on Track

Okay, after that wonderful dinner, I am back to mostly raw and all vegan. And feeling much better. I sleep so well on an empty stomach.

More than ever I am determined to learn how to eat differently. My sister Joyce was over yesterday and we talked about how hard it is to eat when you try not to eat animals. What is left? Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, grains. I do well with my green fruit smoothie for breakfast. I'm satisfied till early afternoon. I then have a salad and snack on fruit till dinner time. But then I am ready for something more substantial and that is where I am struggling. And that is when I go off the raw food.

I'm not giving up. I've moved my food dehydrator off of the living room floor and onto the counter. I shall try some recipes this weekend using it. Let's see how this experiment works.

A Major Setback!

My dear friends Mark and Gerre invited me over for dinner last night. They just got back from spending three months in Greece and Morocco. Mark is an excellent cook and made a gourmet meal that he got from watching Emeril the night before.

"You don't mind if we serve chicken, do you.?" he asked. "We read all your blogs. Can you have more than just salad?"

"Hey, I'm not going to be rigid about this. I'll eat what you cook."

I love Mark and Gerre. They are just plain good people who can really dance and know how to enjoy life. We have shared some wonderful times together. So, the meal is to die for. Probably one of the best home cooking ever, top five all time. Simple and sweet, cous-cous (or something like that) and grilled chicken and totally tasty. I devoured my share like I hadn't eaten since the beginning of spring. And I had no regrets or guilt. That is until the middle of the night.

Maybe I'm used to sleeping well on my new diet. Last night I paid for the sins of eating meat again. I slept like I had a small bowling ball rolling around in my stomach. What's worse, I gained a pound and a half in one day. I'm still groggy this morning as I write this.

What's a guy to do? I don't believe in being a pain in the ass when invited over for dinner. And I have absolutely no willpower...especially when Mark is cooking!

Well, back on the raw food wagon today.

Living With Raw Food

I was thinking that maybe I could do this raw food thing. Give me unlimited access to fruits, especially watermelon, pineapple, and bananas, and I'd be fine. Then the third book comes my way, Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine, by Gabriel Cousens, M.D. Why does everything have to get more complicated and extreme? I would have been fine with Eat to Live.

Dr. Cousens has been into this live food thing since the seventies and has done more research than he should have. According to Cousens the biggest problem with achieving optimal health is more complicated than just giving up animal products and cooking. The real problem is the toxicity in our blood caused by mycotoxins, which are caused by eating acid-promoting foods, stress, and our bad thoughts. (I can deal with the stress and thoughts, but what about these foods?)

Anyhow, these mycotoxins create all kinds of havoc: suppress the immune system, make bad cholesterol, cause cancer. (Pretty nasty creatures if you ask me.) Actually, the list goes on: depression, anxiety, PMS, fatigue, allergies, weight problems, colds, flu, gas, really bad health. I'm beginning to feel lucky to be alive. Essentially, it's the sugars and acid diet (along with acid thoughts and emotions) that makes the body self-compost. Yuk!! Double Yuk!! Think fungus, mold, and bacteria, giving off waste products, weakening our cells, bringing about disease.

Do you want holistic health? Get rid of foods high in sugar (sweet fruits), most grains, potatoes. There goes my watermelon and pineapple. Grains are high on the list because they are acid-forming and contain mold and fungus from being stored so long. Of course animal foods are off the list too, mostly because animals are fed grains infected with fungus.

Specifically, Dr Cousens warns us against eating sugar (and honey and maple syrup), flesh, dairy, yeast, corn, alcohol, coffee, caffeine, mushrooms, dried fruit, peanuts, cashews, soy sauce, and all processed foods.

What is allowed? Nuts and seeds, raw veggies, avocados, tomatoes, lemons, legumes, unheated oil, coconut pulp, and algae. As for fruits we can eat grapefruit, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and cranberries. I'm in big trouble.

After a week of being vegan I don't have any cravings for meat or dairy, not even ice-cream. But how can I live without watermelon? At first I was thinking forget the whole thing. That just made me depressed. I've decided to just try and do my best. As my daughter Gina says, eat as many greens as you can and let the rest take care of itself. Fine. I'll use my green smoothies in the morning, my veggies in the afternoon, and my salad at dinner as my starting point and try to be as good as possible after that and see what happens.

Healthy Diet Continued

So what do I do now? I really don't want to eat animal products. As fate would have it, another book crosses my path, Eat to Live, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Perfect timing. Dr. Fuhrman supports his writings with over two-thousand research articles. His book is inspiring and rational. I think it is one of the most important ever written on the subject of food and eating habits. These are the most important lessons I got from the book:

1. The formula for a healthy diet: Health = Nutrients/Calories. Optimal health comes from eating large quantities of nutrient rich foods.

2. The more we feed our bodies with high-nutrient foods, the less we want food that is bad for us. Cravings for junk food arise because we don't feed ourselves healthy food. We are left hungry.

3. Healthy foods are fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Unhealthy foods are meats, poultry, fish, refined (processed) white products such as white bread and rice, dairy products.

4. The phytochemicals found in fruits and vegetables protect against heart disease and cancer.

5. All the protein we need can be easily derived from plant foods.

6. Raw, leafy greens (romaine lettuce, kale, collards, spinach) are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet.

7. We have been brain washed by big business (meat and dairy industry) and corrupted government officials to believe that we need animal products to be healthy.

8. The most comprehensive study on diet and disease shows that populations eating little or no animal products were much healthier than those that did. The China Project data shows that as animal food consumption approached zero so did cancer and heart attacks. This is by far the largest study ever completed.

I highly recommend reading this book. Now I had something positive to hold on to. I was turning away from animals, but now I had something to go towards. I could eat all the fruits and vegetables I wanted. Things were looking up. I could see the light. Maybe I could become a vegetarian after all. It looked like clear sailing...until another book came to my attention. More on that tomorrow.

A Healthy, Holistic Diet

I'm not talking diet as in trying to lose weight, but as in a way of living. It seems as if the whole universe is trying to make me change my eating habits. I've been health conscious most of my life. I have been jogging since college. I have paid attention to what I eat since I left home and got married in my early twenties. Tried to become a vegetarian many times...but hamburgers always did me in. Even in failure I still did my best to eat lots of fruits, veggies, and whole grains.

Now the pressure is on. Why? I don't know. Maybe because my cholesterol isn't where it should be, as well as my blood pressure. How is that possible, I ask my doc? I take really good care of myself. Apparently not. The figures don't lie. Something has to change.

Books start calling for me to read them. Fine. First, The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. Yes, I would really like to be a vegetarian. I don't like the idea of eating animals and fish. I don't believe animal products are good for me. I don't like big business farming and all of the pollution and waste of resources.

Well, Singer and Mason pull no punches. This is why our food choices matter:

1. Cattle, pigs, chickens, and fish suffer horrible deaths because of our choice to eat them. Most of them suffer their whole lives, too (except non-farmed fish). It isn't just disgusting what happens to them, it is immoral and perverse. Factory farming is much more horrible than you have been led to believe. They do not want you to know about this.

2. The production of meat, fish (including shellfish), dairy (eggs and milk), contribute enormously to the pollution and destruction of our environment through volumes of waste and consumption of fossil fuel. You would not believe how much oil goes into raising a cow. If Al Gore really wants to do something about global warming besides buying energy credits he should go on a diet (vegetarian, that is)

I have spared you the details. If you really want to do something helpful for yourself and the planet, read this book. It will inspire you.

Next time I will share with you what I've learned about eating now that I choose to stop killing animals. I know this is not going to be easy. I can't imagine a world without burgers and fries, but maybe it's time to stop ignoring the facts.

A Happy Holistic Mother's Day Story

My mother is lying in a hospital bed; her heart is so weak and damaged that it cannot keep fluids from accumulating in her lungs. Nearly twenty years after quadruple bypass surgery, she may be on her deathbed. My sister and I are talking to her about the past and my brother Ronnie, who died of asthma when he was four years old. His death became the fulcrum around which my mother's life has fallen and then risen. It is the lowest point of her life, and also from where she has become a source of strength to all who know her.

At the end of our conversation about my brother, my mother said something that nearly took my breath away. Leaning forward and looking to some far away place, in a voice barely audible, she said, "At least we had him for four years. Some babies are lost after only a few months." And then she lay back in her hospital bed and closed her eyes.

I could not stop thinking about my mother's statement. How could she be so positive, so grateful? This woman has such strength. Her perspective on the life and loss of my brother made her life more meaningful than I can comprehend. The perspectives that we take impact the quality and meaning of our own lives in ways that most of us are rarely aware.

Happy Mother's Day Mom...and thanks for being such an inspiring teacher! Love you!

Perspective Evolves

Throughout the history of humankind we can see the evolution, not just of the species, but of perspective. Perspective widens and humans evolve. One way of looking at perspective is in the context of values. Another way would be through belief systems. Perspective determines what we can see; it plays a major role in how we interpret what we see and experience.

Over the years philosophers and scientists have theorized about how human development takes place, both individually and as a species. We will look at both aspects. For now, let's look at the big picture. European philosopher poet Jean Gebser has done research in this area and describes evolving structures of consciousness throughout history. These structures provide a framework for individual perspective. Perception changes from structure to structure. The following is how we humans have evolved according to Gebser:

Archaic stage: humans are essentially unconscious, embedded in the natural world with zero perspective, non-dimensional vision. Seen in newborns.

Magical stage: the dawn of humanity as we know it. Humankind experiences a magical unity with the universe, involves witchcraft and spell-casting. Perspective is one dimensional.

Mythical stage: religion and poetry arise, as does a sense of time. Vision is two dimensional. Seen in fundamental religions.

Mental stage: rationality rules, objective and analytic thought is possible. Three dimensional perspective. Gives rise to the Renaissance.

Aperspectival stage: integral thinking, holistic perspective, multiple viewpoints accepted and appreciated. Seen in Picasso's paintings and Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics.

As you can see, perspective is ever-widening and evolves to become more inclusive. Humanity is evolving towards a more holistic perspective.

Reality is Strange

The fact (or appearance) of the universe is really strange if you think about it. Have you ever thought about existence and why there is something and not nothing? Science says that first there was nothing, then there was the big bang, and here we are...doesn't that strike you as, well, interesting?

Our regular everyday lives work out just fine. We work, play, eat, live, die. Everything is normal. That is life. However, the minute we step outside of the ordinary and look at really big things, or really small things, uh-oh. Poof, things get really weird. Problems arise.

The universe is expanding. Where is it expanding to? What's outside of the universe, and what's outside of that? If that isn't enough, things are even more problematical in the sub-atomic level. Particles don't appear like they do in our "real" world. They exist as probability waves. You can't pin them down. Read a good book on quantum physics and you will want to become a mystic like many of the early discovers' of the field.

But why bother? Most of us have enough problems just living. We have to act as if the universe made sense. To survive we let ourselves be shaped by what psychologist Charles Tart calls "consensus consciousness." Reality, which if we really thought about it, is too strange for us. So, our consciousness gets formed by our culture and we live our lives...but at a great expense. We miss out on the mystery of this incredibly strange and interesting universe. We live our lives playing with illusions. Holistic perspective gets at the heart of the illusion, stepping back to see what is really there...strange or not.

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. " Albert Einstein

In future blogs I hope to open the door to seeing reality from a holistic perspective.

Perspective on Holistic Perspectives

Perspective is a two-way process. We are changed by what we see, and what we see is determined by what we are. What I see changes how I feel and what emotions I have. It also changes the way I treat people and, in return, how I am treated. What I see determines my life!

Holistic perspective is all about seeing: not so much about what is out there, but what is happening inside our heads. Acquiring a holistic perspective involves first becoming personally aware that perspective is subjective, an opinion, if you will.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not is seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust

Dancing...An Integral Transformative Practice

Living an integral holistic life is fostered by doing what some call ITP, Integral TransformativePractice. Ken Wilber says that it is the exercise of body, mind, and spirit in self, nature, and culture. That is the simple definition and it works for me. Last night I took my first Tango lesson and it felt like ITP in it's best sense of the word.

Dance may be the very best of transformative practices. First, you are certainly exercising your body. Following the instructor's direction requires total concentration of the mind. And when we flow to the music and our partner we are definitely having a spiritual experience...especially when doing the Tango. (God it's sexy.)

My dance career began in high school doing the bouncing up and down in place to rock and roll, that is, when I got up the courage to ask a girl to dance. Some years ago I learned how to Cajun and Zydeco dance at a Roots type music festival. That totally broadened my social life. I went on to take Country and Western line dancing (and drink beer). In the last few years Swing, Lindy Hop, Salsa, and now Tango, have enriched my life--physically, mentally, and spiritually. I gotta tell you, if you are not dancing you are missing out of one of the best holistic integral experiences around!

Let's see...that was quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow...

The Mind Body Connection

My friend Mike and I were having dinner last night and he told me what happened when his doctor informed him that the batteries in his pace-maker were running low. All at once he began to feel his heart beating harder. He made an appointment to see a specialist in Boston and for the next few days he lived in a stressful situation, still feeling his heart beating abnormally.

When he was examined by the new doctor he was told that there was nothing going on with his heart and that the reason he was feeling the new sensations was that he was more sensitive to what his pace-maker was doing. Mike said that immediately the sensations stopped and never came back.

Sometimes we forget the power of our minds. There is a lesson in A Course in Miracles that says all physical illness comes from a belief that the body can create, that sickness is a belief in magic. Studies show that a very high percentage of people who visit their doctors are suffering from symptoms that originate in the mind. I'm not saying that all illness is an illusion, but who knows? I think that is one area worth more exploration in our quest for a holistic integral perspective.

Several years ago I drank several glasses of diet coke with dinner and my heart began to race. I had also eaten quite a bit of food. I thought I was having a heart attack. Not wanting to go to the hospital I began to meditate to relax myself and my heart calmed down. But now, whenever I have too much soda or food, the feeling comes back. I say to myself that it's just my mind and guess what...the feeling goes away. Gotta love that mind body connection.

Holistic Beginnings

I could not believe the peace and love that radiated from the face of my Freshman English professor. His name was Hobart Mitchell. I was 18 years old. Up until that time my passion in life was baseball and soccer. The only reason I was in Junior College was a soccer scholarship. My interior life consisted of batting averages, baseballs, and the Boston Red Sox. In that one face my life turned a corner.

Mr. Mitchell offered to teach meditation to any student interested. A small handful of us met on Thursday nights in his office. It was there that my quest for the meaning of life began. The following year I transferred to the University of Rhode Island and continued my search, majoring in Philosophy. Unfortunately I graduated not much farther along the road. That, however, did not put an end to my need to find answers to my questions of what life is really all about.

Entering the job market, getting married, and having children, took my mind off the quest, but by the time I hit 40 the problem was staring me right in the face again. Money and all the pleasures of life did not leave me satisfied. I knew that all of this was just a way of minimizing the pain of not knowing what the hell I was on this planet for.

And then things started happening again. My now ex-wife gave me Marianne Williamson's book A Return to Love. That introduced me to A Course in Miracles. For the first time since meeting Hobart Mitchell I was back on a path that was leading me to where I wanted to go.

I spent 8 years meditating on the course and at the end of that time was led to enroll in the Holistic Counseling program at Salve Regina University. I had no interest in becoming a therapist, but felt in my heart this was what I was supposed to do. It was in the first semester that I was introduced to the works of Ken Wilber. Dr. Jack Childs taught a class on holistic perspectives and his assigned reading included A Brief History of Everything by Wilber. Something clicked and I knew I would find more answers, so I read all 20 of Wilber's books...three times! (over the course of 4 years)

The program at Salve taught me about holistic and Wilber taught me about integral. Together many of my life-long questions began to be answered. Of course, now I have new ones. However, the result is that my life is meaningful now. I feel full of peace and a sense that my life has a purpose. And probably most of all I feel satisfied, knowing I am where I am supposed to be. It is my hope that in sharing my experiences and learning of holistic and integral others may find some of that also.

Integral Imus

The whole debate over Imus can be viewed from an integral perspective. One way of doing that is using the four quadrant map of reality (the view from the interior and exterior of an individual and a group. Here's how it looks to me:

From the interior of the individual, Imus' perspective, he said some despicable things. And he has appologized profusely. I'm satisfied that he is sorry.

From the exterior of an individual, his critics perspective, they are calling for his head...which they got. What I don't understand is how "THE REVERAND" Al Sharpton can be so unforgiving. Sharpton and others would earn a lot more respect from me if they acted more like the Christians they profess to be. Instead they look like men grateful for one more reason to be interviewed on CNN.

From the perspective of the interior of the group we all have to make up our own minds how we feel about this and act accordingly--which would be to turn Imus off or not. We as a society will be judged by our making it worth while for a man like Imus to be on the radio. We make our values known by our actions.

Lastly, from the perspective of the exterior on a group there are the advertisers who make their decisions based on financial considerations. They are not interested in the right or wrong of the situation but how they will be affected financially in the long run.

This holistic perspective on the Don Imus incident makes me wonder...was he just a victum of a slow news week? There are people dying in Iraq and we are talking about Don Imus all week. Thank God Anna Nicole Smith is off the front page.

It's all about perspective

Richard Bach wrote Illusions back in the 1980's. The book calls into question what it is that we are really seeing when we look out into our worlds. Maybe much of what we take for granted is just an illusion, albeit a convincing one. Reading that book was like walking out of a dark cave and while my eyesight wasn't clear, it wasn't totally darkened anymore either. Since then I've tried to stay out of the cave and improve my vision. While blindness can be from within, I've found that most of my difficulties haven't originated from my genes but from my perspective.

If there is one truth that I've learned in my life, it is that what I see is determined more by who I am than by what is out there in the physical world. This blog is dedicated to finding ways to improve perspective, make it more holistic, more integral, more comprehensive, and more balanced. And as expected, it all starts within. My intention here is to share what I have learned and continue to learn about all things holistic and integral.

After years of searching, getting more education than I ever imagined possible for someone who barely graduated from high school, I been putting my lessons on paper. It's time to share them with whomever finds their way here. I hope that I can call into question what most of us think of as reality, in the long tradition of philosophers and fools, and make a little contribution to the betterment of our existence on this planet.

In the coming weeks I will post sections and chapters of a book I have written on the subject, Holistic Perspectives: An Introduction to Integral Thinking. It should be published before the end of the year, but you can read it here for free.

Meanwhile, I will leave you with this thought from Baruch Spinoza which probably summarizes everything that will ever be written here: "The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is."