Is This The Future of Sports Performance Drinks and Muscle Mass Optimizers Smart Waters and Diet Shakes?

Sports Performance beverages and Sports Supplements have exploded in popularity over the last decade. You can find sports drinks in every retail food store in the country. Gas stations have energy drinks sitting by the cash register. Once confined to the fringes of the food and drink market, functional beverages have vaulted to the front of the line. Sports Supplements have become big business, with Fortune 500 drink manufacturers—once solely known for making sodas—leading the charge.

The recent sales surge of nutrient-enhanced waters as well as Sports Supplements and energy drinks belies one fact: while these products are relatively new, the concept of functional beverages is as old as time. Sports Performance Supplements—defined as supplements that provide more than enhanced health and flavor—have been a revered staple in every civilization. The unfortunate truth is this: today’s mass-marketed Sports Performance Supplements have little in common with the healthy foods our ancestors consumed.

Where Sports Supplements are concerned, we’ve lost our way. Time—and greed—have ruined the best of intentions.

Perhaps the most interesting twist in the evolution of Sports Supplements is how they came to be. Thousands of years ago, “Super foods” existed.

And there’s the rub. When compared to what passes for Sports Performance Supplements today, even the nutrient-enhanced waters, sports drinks and energy drinks—it’s easy to see we’ve lost our way.

The Right Minerals and electrolytes are defined as substances, usually minerals, which contain free ions that make them electrically conductive. Our bodies are finely tuned electrical systems, and electrolytes are depleted when you perspire. It’s important for anyone who leads an active lifestyle to replace those electrolytes.

However, you want to make sure you are replacing them with the right electrolyte minerals. The minerals in Organic Sports Performance Supplements are bound to organic substances in the superfood itself and they are literally a part of it. Contrast this with minerals taken from rocks or are found in their salt forms, which are inorganic and not bound to any organic substance. Research proves these inorganic minerals are not the best form of electrolytes for the body since they are not a normal part of our food chain.

Learn more about professional strength Organic based Sports Performance Supplements here.

Is Earning a Living Through Alternative Holistic Healing Therapies Achievable? part 1 

In an Act of Absolute Desperation Ever Look to the Stars and Scream – “Is Earning a Living Through Alternative Healing Therapies Achievable!”

 It’s not your fault…

Alternative healing therapies have been around for 1000s of years ~ in the Middle East for over 5000 years, Ayurvedic medicine for over 4000 years

Millions of individuals have trained in a vast range of alternative healing therapies.

Yet the disappointing reality is that many alternative healing therapy businesses fail within their first 12 months! Of those who do make it beyond a year very few make a successful living…

Where Did the Holistic Healing Dream Fade & The Harsh Reality Become Real?

Just like the talented individual reading this now, these professionals were incredibly passionate about what they had to offer, they had the right attitude towards their clients, they were attentive, caring, committed to delivering the very best…..

You created the ambience, the relaxing music, the aromas, the warm, inviting surroundings…… the wonderful feeling of being nurtured …….

You as a therapist / healer / practitioner are devoted ~ you give an excellent service, found it rewarding on a personal level, the clients thoroughly enjoyed their experience……..

Sound Familiar to You?

So your professional holistic healing training went that extra mile delivering the most amazing treatments, the client felt loved and valued ……..a win/win situation you would think…

It’s dumbfounding – the Majority of Professionals have many holistic healing qualifications yet still do not succeed!

You will have invested 100s if not 1000s in your training, attended all the current holistic healing workshops and courses to keep up-to-date, paid additional amounts for assessments and examinations, uniforms, equipment…….even invested in holistic healing stuff you never knew you needed because of the sheer excitement of it all!

And the dream of healing people is exciting! Newly qualified, your friends and family have benefitted from all those deeply relaxing practice sessions, they have praised your virtues……

Words alone can not express the potential you hold in the palm of your hand, the world lies before you, you are empowered and excited…..this is the dream……. but where lies the reality?

You have been passionate to start your Alternative Therapy Business ~ Then What?

Your enthusiasm, expertise, equipment ~ all new and sparkling!… You have your first few paying clients, this is an achievement in itself, you have already done well to have got to this stage!

Paying Clients ~ The Thrill of a holistic healing dream coming into reality!

Life just does not get better than this! You are doing what you are passionate about, your handful of new clients are delighted and on top of this, they are actually paying you for what you enjoy doing! On some levels it appears too good to be true, you take a reality check, no ~ it’s real!

Time moves on, some clients rebook but not as many as you may like… You figure if they wish to book another appointment they will ask you – right? You know they enjoyed it, they are so complimentary but they haven’t asked to rebook?… You think it strange but you continue doing what you love…..

You are now proudly The Best Professional out there Yet No-one Knows You exist….

You can be the very best teacher, healer, therapist, practitioner… and feel justifiably proud…

However, the reality is you can be the best…. and still no-one knows you exist ~

Where did the Formula go Wrong?……..

Training establishments, colleges, schools, professional courses teach you your skills….the practical hands-on holistic healing profession that you are so enthusiastic about…..

The reality is they don’t teach you about holistic healing business development….

Without any business sense in how to market yourself, advise the world you actually exist and that you are excellent at what you do…

You will never succeed with your current holistic healing business plan ~

“Do I deserve to Earn a Living from Alternative Holistic Healing  Therapies?” You find yourself asking .

Many professionals struggle with this….. by their very nature they are caring, loving individuals who just adore being in a position to give…. The more you give the better it feels, clients adore it, you feel valued and all is well……is it not?

The Art of Fair Exchange

Those of you who work with a form of energy ~ Reiki, qi gong, healing, yoga, tai chi will know all about exchanging holistic healing energies?……

We are taught that energy comes in many different forms ~ financial transactions the most obvious for a business, but then there are the considerate acts, the thoughtful gifts, bartering….. All of these work to some degree, however one clue is in the phrase ‘fair exchange’……..

When running a business your outgoings are financial ~ fact!… Therefore the fair exchange needs to be a financial transaction ~ the taxman will not accept a ginger cake as payment as inviting as this may seem!

It sounds obvious yet so many professionals in the alternative world struggle with this concept of fair exchange……

On some level they know they need to charge their true worth, more often than not however the reality is they feel guilty accepting money for something they enjoy doing!

In some instances they feel they should be giving even more, discounting prices, special offers even when they don’t need to ~ such is their need to give and feel valued…..

Who Values the Holistic Healing Professional?

So the your handful of clients are valuing what you do and are delighted. You acknowledge you are doing a great job on many levels yet you still feel you should be giving more…..

When does this stop?

The fact is that people will take as much as you are willing to give……without boundaries they will continue to take until you feel drained or become resentful….

Neither of these qualities will serve you in your business.

It is imperative therefore that you set some boundaries….not only do boundaries allow others to respect us but more importantly they allow us to respect ourselves. A fundamental quality of being a holistic healing professional is confidence. It is difficult to be confident when you are constantly undercutting yourself and giving too much for no reason…

You Deserve to Earn A Great Living at What You Do -

This is the reality not the dream…

It is possible and you simply have to allow yourself to succeed. You will need to gain knowledge in business areas to enhance what you do, to feel comfortable advising clients what is in their best interests and what they need…

And the great news is – your clients want to be guided, they respect you as the professional holistic healer and want you to take them by the hand and lead them…they want to be nurtured.

They look to you for the answers and want to know they are in safe hands. They already trust you…

You now need to trust yourself and your own impeccable intuition…

This is where the Exciting Adventure as a holistic healer begins….

You can do this….

You just need to gain the Holistic Healing Business know how to add to your existing, amazing holistic healing Skills…

The once distant dream is now the reality and it starts here ~

Discover How to Earn A Living From Alternative Holistic Healing  Therapies With a Proven Holistic Healing Business Development Strategy ~

Go Here and Get on the list for the next Free Holistic Healer Business Mastery Online Event Now

Author – Glen B. Stewart

There is Nothing that Creates More Anxiety and Fear of the Unknown Than Being Told – You Have Breast Cancer part 7

CB: Thanks you.

DM: I had one specific question and I would like to dialog with you on it because it’s been a concern of mine. I couldn’t agree more. Obviously, I have been promoting vitamin D for a long time now and I share your passion. I think that’s the central issue.

CB: I know you do.

DM: Our approach is to educate people and share the message. I think we were really one of the central roles to help catalyze this at least from a media perspective. But what is obvious to me is that there is an important subset of this because the tendency in American culture is to take a magic pill for everything – a pill solves something. So it’s great because there is a vitamin D solution but that’s not the way that it occurs in nature. I mean, yes, you can get oral vitamin D. It definitely happens and we do have the ability to increase our levels that way.

But the way that we mostly get it is through exposure to the sun. That’s a different mechanism than swallowing a pill. I don’t think any expert would disagree that it’s better to get that vitamin D from the sun and then secondarily through a safe tanning bed which is still superior to a pill. But then if there is no resort of course then the oral. It seems to me there is something magical that occurs that is actually beyond the level of vitamin D which is used as an arbiter or as a measure.

The question that I have is it actually useful – I mean, certainly you don’t have any other choice but do you get the same benefit from getting your level to 40 to 60 from the sun as you do by swallowing a pill and especially as it relates to your major focus which is the impact on cancer. I’m concerned and I’m not sure that there is a (indiscernible 15:31) of treatment, maybe prevention but in the treatment I just don’t think it works. I could be wrong. That’s my fear.

So I really encourage – my new passion and mission is to get people away from swallowing those pills and if for any way, shape, or form to get to the real source, to get the UVB exposure. That’s a long-winded question but take as long as you want to respond to that.

CB: I think that it is obvious that the reason that we have this deficiency is because we have become an industrialized nation. That may sound like, but that was a long time ago. It wasn’t that long ago. What we’ve done is we’ve come inside. We cover up. Even in San Diego where I live, when they measured my level it was 18 nanograms per milliliter.

DM: Dangerous. For those who don’t know, San Diego is considered I think the sunniest city in the country.

CB: It’s pretty sunny.

DM: Or close to it. It’s definitely top.

CB: It’s very nice. When we did a scientific test of what it’s going to make body to get enough sun in San Diego with the weather we have with my age – age has a factor in how much you absorb – we came to a test conclusion that it was going take 15 to 20 minutes a day in the prime time of UV between 10 and 2 during the day, each and everyday – and here was the hooker for me – with 40% of my body exposed. For me outside that was just not going to happen because it was chilly. San Diego is chilly at least along the coast of it where I live. But that doesn’t change the question and the source.

I think there are two major questions that go through my mind. One is what else you’ll be getting from the sun? That’s the big one to me because I think that you can get your serum level up with supplements of some kind or another. You can get it up with the sun. I think at that level, we got to say, to me I think it’s the same. On the other hand, I think the UVB does other things. And there is only recently some new research coming out to say, what else does the sun do?

DM: Well, enlighten us.

CB: What else of course…I don’t know. It’s like it’s barely there. The scientists that do this kind of research with the skin are just starting to ask the question which is like, you know, there is probably more to the sun than vitamin D. I encourage people to take advantage of the sun. The only message I have about the sun is don’t burn. That’s it.

DM: Yeah.

CB: Other than if you want to get that UVB, you really have to be out between 10 and 2 not evening walks and stuff like that. I think that’s ideal.

DM: That’s the key. I noticed you are concerned about yourself going out there because of the temperature but in my observation is even though it’s chilly – I tend to go to subtropical areas in the winter to get the sun but there are still chilly days but I noticed that if the sun is shining on you, you can tolerate relatively low temperatures even low 60s to even high 50s if the sun is directly on you. So it’s not that uncomfortable.

CB: The other thing that I have a major question about which we have talked about with our scientist panel is, what’s the ultimate public health step? I mean, if you think about the world which has a very severe vitamin D deficiency epidemic yet you have taken supplements, it’s ludicrous. I mean, that’s people who can pay the money kind of job.

DM: It’s still pretty inexpensive.

Read There is Nothing that Creates More Anxiety and Fear of the Unknown Than Being Told – You Have Breast Cancer part 8 Here

Author – Glen B. Stewart 

There is Nothing that Creates More Anxiety and Fear of the Unknown Than Being Told – You Have Breast Cancer part 6

After that, I was sufficiently appalled, incensed, angered – I mean, you name the emotion I had – that I knew that something had to be done. I mean something had to be done. I have a lot of resources. I’m blessed with those resources – friends that actually work in the cancer industry. A son that works at MD Anderson who is a very known biostatistician that I highly respect and adore. It’s like, okay guys, you got to help me figure out a way out of this because we just cannot have people, women especially particularly with breast cancer survive and live these long lives with these side effects because the side effects do not go away. You’re not curing cancer with this. I spent the next two years – I mean, I get up in the morning and I’m on my scientific papers and I read them and I download them and I call people. I talk to people. I read about all kinds of alternative treatments.

On February 12, 2007 – this day will go down in my memory forever – I went to the doctor and was called based on some tests that I had osteoporosis. I said, “Why? I’m not heavy. I workout every day. I do all these good things.” She says, “Maybe you have a vitamin D deficiency.” I said, “What’s that?” I went home back to work for me which was researching what could be done about this. I still apologize to my friends now saying it took me two hours before I keyed in vitamin D and cancer but it did. I just decided to see what’s out there. And to this day, I get goose bumps thinking about what I saw. It was Dr. Cedric Garland from the UC San Diego…

DM: Which is where you’re from.

CB: It’s where I’m from. Morris Cancer Center had just published a paper saying that the risk of breast cancer could be cut by 50% if people had vitamin D serum levels – this is a blood level of how much vitamin D you’ve got – somewhere about 40 to 50 nanograms per milliliter. I just sat there and looked at that and I started crying which is kind of like, this can’t be true. I have friends at UCSD of course. I picked up the phone and I said, “Is this guy a flake? This is unreal.”

DM: It can’t be.

CB: It can’t be. I’m a very skeptical scientist. She says, “Oh no Carole, he is not a flake. He’s been doing this research for 30 years.” I said, “What? Thirty years, and I’m just finding out about it?” She says, “At this point in time, he’s really very depressed.” I said, “Why on earth is he depressed?” She said, “Because he thinks nobody is listening.” Can you imagine that? I said out loud I’m listening. I knew that I had some wherewithal to get something going – starting businesses and running stuff like that.

DM: It’s one of your experiences and your expertise.

CB: Yes. So in May of that year (2007) there was one of the best cancer conferences I have been to sponsored by the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland on vitamin D and cancer.

For two solid days, I listened to reports by scientists from all over the world talking about vitamin D and cancer. Not all of them were things to jump up and down about but there was so much there that was so positive from what they were doing with rats, from what they were doing with all kinds of experiments that at the end of the session, when the session leader asked a group of scientist, what’s next? I was waiting for the action item. The action item that they had was – we need to do more research.

I sat there for a minute. I was an invited guest. I’m not a vitamin D researcher. I listened to people talk a minute and they had these absolutely beautiful microphones coming up on the table to everybody and if you wanted to speak you just press the button. To this day, I swear the microphone little button throbbed and I pressed it and I stood up. I only had a very few words. I just asked them, where is your sense of urgency? And I sat down.

The meeting was over and almost immediately, I had fully half of the scientists in that room come up to me and say, how can we help? Talk about other goose bumps. It’s like here is a group of people who got a message and they want to get it out and they can’t get it out. It wasn’t just Dr. Garland. I said at that point in time I said, I don’t know. I don’t know what the message is yet. So Leo and I took off in our motor home and did a four-month trip.

DM: That’s your husband.

CB: Yes of course. Leo Baggerly, my delightful husband and partner. Leo is a physicist – that’s how I met him by the way – and researcher as well. He currently works with the kinetics of vitamin D. It’s easy to get excited about this project.

DM: Excellent.

CB: We took off in our motor home to go meet with the scientists around the country and in Canada to see what is the message. If I’m going to take on a public health project, what do we need to say? At that time, as there is now, this ongoing stuff about what dosage should I take was still the same which is like, shall I take 2000 IU? Shall I take 20,000 IU? What should I do? But that wasn’t what they come up with.

Every single one of them agreed. Every one of them, we now have 40 on this panel, that the focus should be on the serum level not the dosage. The reason being, if you focusontheserumlevel,youcanhavepeopletakewhateverittakestogetthere. It does take something different for everybody. Everybody’s human body just responds differently. So we had our message. Our message for entire campaign was get your serum level to 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter. That’s it. That’s really it.

DM: It’s a good action item.

CB: With that level, we really can reduce the incidence of cancer, heart disease, you name it. You get in that band of demonstrable evidence saying that you can prevent diseases. That’s how I got into it.

DM: Thank you for that explanation.

CB: It’s kind of long.

DM: No. It’s important to have a frame. It may not be obvious even from your explanation because you may appear to be a lay person so to speak but since you have committed essentially nearly four years now full time and interacting with your panel of experts which are some of the leading experts in vitamin D in the world.

CB: They are indeed.

DM: You’re doing this full time and you’re obviously very intelligent. You have an academic background. So it doesn’t take too long to get up to speed. You really do have a level of knowledge that is extraordinary, really at an expert level. We’re delighted to have you here and share your wisdom in that.

Read There is Nothing that Creates More Anxiety and Fear of the Unknown Than Being Told – You Have Breast Cancer part 7 Here

Author – Glen B. Stewart

There is Nothing that Creates More Anxiety and Fear of the Unknown Than Being Told – You Have Breast Cancer part 5

A Special Interview with Carole Baggerly By Dr. Mercola

DM: Dr. Joseph Mercola CB: Carole Baggerly

Introduction:

DM: Welcome everyone. This is Dr. Mercola. Today, I am joined with Carole Baggerly who is the director and founder of an organization called Grassroots Health which is primarily focused on educating and creating more awareness about the importance and the value of vitamin D and also developing and substantiating some research to support the use of that.

Carole, you got a really fascinating history personally and academically that sort of suits you really quite well for this role. I’m wondering if you can share with our viewers what your history is that makes you so appropriately suited for this task?

CB: As you were saying that the funny thought that came to mind most immediately was that which makes me most suited for this task is actually having been a mother taking care of all the things that one cares about with children and the intensity and the drive. Academically, I have a background in physics and mathematics.

DM: Hardcore science.

CB: I spent about four years running my own business in the aerospace industry. We were a software interface to help the aerospace companies become more efficient with doing business with their suppliers and their trading partners. That plays an enormous role in this because part of what we’re doing with the whole vitamin D project is running a massive information technology study which I know how to do. Also, there is an awful lot of interfaces with experts and people who have vested interest in making this work.

DM: Just as a little side tangent, what was your specific role in that aerospace company?

CB: I ran it. I owned it. DM: So you’re responsible for all the moving parts making sure they worked.

CB: Yes. It’s still in existence. It’s a leading aerospace supplier of electronic data interchange services.

DM: Terrific.

CB: It still is.

DM: So you were running your business and doing very well and very happy and providing good value for many people including the aerospace industry and then something happened personally I would assume that redirected your efforts into this area.

CB: Actually in 2001 I had retired. I had started actually another business which both my husband and I have a big interest in which is various incendiary peace related activities and mediation. In 2005, I had breast cancer and that changed the world significantly. Would you like me to tell about that?

DM: Absolutely. Just to sort of put a frame on this. I mean you’re a woman and most of the people viewing this would be women in the United States and breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer in the Western world.

CB: It is. DM: It’s a significant issue that many people watching this today are struggling with or

have or will have. CB: Unfortunately. DM: I’m sure they will be interested in your experience.

CB: I was diagnosed with breast cancer in February of 2005. I had treatment for breast cancer. I had a mastectomy. I had radiation and I had chemo. I had the whole ball of wax.

DM: Cut, poison, burn.

CB: My total conclusion at that time or even during that time was that it was barbaric. I had no idea – I mean, back again kind of put that peace thing in mind. All of a sudden I realized the violence that was being done to my own body. That was just like – this is unacceptable.

One of the interesting things there just short whatever is I had a tumor that was literally 5 cm. That is an enormous sized tumor which was not detected by a mammogram. It was only much later that the doctor happened to tell me that well, you know, there are a lot of women that have dense breast and we don’t get that image with the mammogram and it turns out that those women with dense breasts occupy maybe 40% to 50% of all tissues that they look at. So it’s enormous.

DM: Just about half. CB: It’s about half.

DM: That is 2-1/2 inches which is bigger than a golf ball.

CB: That’s about 2-1/2 inches. It was enormous. It was a stage 3 cancer which is a sizeable progression up the ladder of severity. The surgery was not too bad. The mastectomy was pretty bad but regardless, that wasn’t the thing. I was doing the chemo. And then at one point during the chemo I was taking a particular drug that was so painful. It was Paclitaxel and it caused extreme peripheral neuropathy which is pain in the hands and the feet. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t feel. I just cried because my leg hurt so much.

I talked to the doctor about it and he says, you have only got two more treatments of that left. I did one and I said, I’m not going to do the next one, and he walked out of the room. That was my first score about the mental investment of a doctor in the treatment as opposed to the patient. I was appalled. I asked the nurse to send him back because I had some questions and she said, write them down. That was just kind of like shocking, stunning, I mean, just like hello. That was one. I did not take the last treatment because it was too painful and because I had also read that from time to time those side effects don’t go away. That’s one of the things you also learn as you go through those.

I then chose to do the radiation therapy. That is an angle they have certainly improved it so it doesn’t quite go head on but still I had no thyroid left. One day, I went home and I literally had sunburn on my back so you know the radiation is going all the way through. On my last session of that, I was literally laying there exposed bleeding on the table. I also did not have the full extent of radiation treatment.

Read There is Nothing that Creates More Anxiety and Fear of the Unknown Than Being Told – You Have Breast Cancer part 6 Here

Author – Glen B. Stewart 

Yoga is a Lifestyle not Just a Proven Form of Stretching Your Muscles and Feeling Energized

Yoga is a proven 5,000 year old way of healing and transforming the Body, Mind and Spirit

Yet with 5,000 year old track record, Yoga is a very unique experience to each and every Yoga Practitioner.

There are 18 formalized Yoga Styles globally. And in addition, there are countless adaptations to the 18 standardized ways of teaching Yoga. Some of these Yoga offsprings come in the form of a base of a classical form with a few personalized additions. This this “new” way becomes known by a different name suitable to the new Yoga instructor.

Yoga has blossomed from very classical teachings – especially in the Western World. This has happened primarily because of the demographics of the Western Yoga students of today. Most in the Western World do not worship “Krishna”. As a result many of the ancient teaching relating to Hinduism have been simplified to just include “Asana” terminology.

In addition some Yoga schools have carried forward the ancient form of natural based healing called Ayurveda Healing. Other Yoga Schools  have simplified to just their chosen Yoga Poses or “Asanas”

Here is an article written on the behind the scenes world of being a Yoga Practitioner as a Lifestyle….

Published in The Guardian:

“It’s meant to be spiritual, you know”

“Disco yoga? Laughter yoga? It’s more popular than ever before – but these days yoga is a lifestyle choice rather than a serious practice.”

Is there anyone who hasn’t tried yoga? Classrooms, gyms, studios and church halls are groaning with yoga devotees from Los Angeles to New York, from London to Sydney and more recently from Tokyo to Shanghai and Seoul. Movie stars, models, designers and television personalities have “found” yoga. We read about it endlessly (and inaccurately) in the media, snap up celebrity DVDs and books, go on yoga courses and retreats, not to mention taking it up as a career option (it used to be a vocation) along with the essential props of branded belts, blocks, mats and clothing, an organic diet and an ecologically conscious lifestyle which can be picked up and put down as easily as getting in and out of your 4×4.

So ubiquitous is yoga, and in so many forms, that we now have the British Yoga Championships, devotees of which are attempting to get yoga “recognised” as an Olympic sport. And one of the reigning British yoga champions has been doing yoga for only two years.

Pushing the Olympic dream forward is the Bikram school of yoga, founded by Bikram Choudry, who was always more of an athlete than an athlete. His system of the same 26 poses performed in a room heated to 41C was devised originally to restore his own health after a gymnastics accident at 20. Now, thanks to a nine-week teacher-training course and 840 studios world-wide, Bikram is claimed to be the fastest-growing yoga system in the world.

So I feel like a grumpy old woman as I clock up not two but 30 years of yoga practice, as well as a teaching qualification that took two years’ study of anatomy, philosophy, history and teaching practice. I despair at the idea that we now want to turn a 5,000-year-old spiritual system, seen in the words of the founder of Viniyoga, TKV Desikachar (an Indian guru who is still teaching today) as “the discipline of controlling the mind, rooted in ancient Vedic texts”, into a competition on a par with figure skating and gymnastics.

I feel even more depressed to hear that the egregious spread of any number of types of yoga has extended back to India itself, the home of yoga, where fashionable girls in Mumbai are taking it up for the first time because “Madonna does it”.

Power yoga classes, the Californian way, seem to have become a platform for both teachers and pupils to show off toned torsos as well as to perform and impress with their fabulous ability to bend and contort the body into ever more demanding positions. What happened to inquiry and the acquisition of wisdom? What happened to the teaching of BKS Iyengar, who suggested that all you need for yoga practice is a mat and some space in the shade?

No longer does the aspiring yogi have to choose from acknowledged schools such as Hatha, Iyengar, Sivenanda, Ashtanga or Kundalini – the Bhagavad Gita (regarded as a sacred text by the majority of Hindu traditions) actually names 18 different kinds, each with its own emphasis. Today, due to the proliferation of yoga across the western world, teachers with only a few weeks or years of knowledge are offering a plethora of new permutations, some of which have strayed a very long way from the original systems.

Today you can choose from any number of “yoga fusions”, among them power chi yoga (a combination of tai chi and Ashtanga yoga), Sport yoga (aerobics and yoga), Fitcamp Fusion (yoga and pilates), weight loss yoga, disco yoga and laughter yoga (the latest hot trend from Los Angeles) – and that’s not a joke. I could go on.

“In the 60s, we didn’t know anything about yoga and we accepted all things oriental with blind faith,” says Peter Blackaby, a distinguished teacher with a practice in Brighton. “But after 40 years yoga has flowered and, yes, diversified and some of it is mad. Absolutely mad.”

Indeed, some teachers think that if they throw in some pseudo-science, a bit of Sanskrit, some chanting but little instruction, then that is all right. In one class in LA they even played bagpipe music and I wondered if they thought that it was Indian. And remember the woman who came back from India some years ago practising a yoga that involved not eating, just breathing?

“There is such a thing as intelligent yoga,” says Blackaby. “It’s about letting go, unravelling muscles only where you need to. There is nothing mindless or sleepy about it. ”

“For this article, I went recently to a so-called Ashtanga class in central London with a friend who is happily caught up in a passion for yoga. I have been to classes all over the world, in chilly church halls, mouldy basements, Zen gymnasiums, hotel spas as well as on distant beaches and in shaded gardens.

I have woken at dawn and driven from London to Oxford for regular classes and workshops. I have tried classes in Thailand, New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Shanghai. I have done days of yoga, three- and five-hour sessions and 40-minute bursts; classes where “gurus to the famous” presided and joss sticks were burned; where there was Sanskrit chanting, mystic breathing, and yogic jumping. I have done classes on my own and classes with up to 100 people.

In the Ashtanga class I tried, the pupils were packed in so tightly that the teacher couldn’t possibly see whether we were unravelling or not and she had no assistant. (It appeared to be more about making money than sharing knowledge.) She had what I call an Ashtanga body – taut and defined – and she started the class with an extremely advanced set of breathing exercises that are potentially dangerous. We then progressed to the familiar, tiresome routine of endless down-dogs, up-dogs and chatarangas that seem typical of many of today’s classes; repetitious poses that merely add up to callisthenics with absolutely no attention paid to the very stiff who were trying to go much further than their capabilities allowed.

Rarely do I go to a class (except those with my own teacher, Chloe Fremantle) in which upside-down poses (headstand, shoulder stand and variations), let alone a series of thoughtful floor poses (twists and balances), are taught or the individual is considered. It is all about pumping people up, rather than bringing them down into a calm, mindful place – despite ending the session with a bit of chanting (Sanskrit? Hindu? Tibetan?), to add a touch of random spirituality.

“In 1976, studying with Iyengar in India, we were told that we were very lucky to be learning yoga because it was something that was only for high-class, spiritual Indians,” says teacher and yoga book author Mary Stewart. “Nowadays yoga has been dumbed down. Publishers demand a ‘celebrity’ on the book or magazine cover even if they don’t know how to do the poses,” she says. “And I was asked to include a 10-minute programme presumably because no one these days is thought to have the attention span to do it for longer. In 1983, I was told that the word yoga could not be used, if the book I was co-writing was to sell in middle America.”

Stretch and Relax (the title that was chosen, and her first of six books on yoga) has sold for more than 20 years. Today anyone can write a yoga book and, worse still, sacred chants, costumes and rituals have been ambushed and taken up without conscience.

And this is the same yoga that Carl Jung described as “the spiritual achievement of the East, one of the greatest things the human mind has ever created”. What would he say about Geri Halliwell’s video? Would he be disenchanted to know that the desire for money and fame has corrupted Indians as well as westerners, many of whom have played along with what they think westerners want, both in India and, particularly, in guru-friendly California, branding their schools and systems for the rewards of money, status, cars and jewellery.

“Beneath the bogus spirituality and superficiality of some of the yoga around,” says Stewart, “there is a yearning among generations all over the world for something deeper and more meaningful.” I agree.

Yoga that is about strength and competition misses the point and inevitably ends up with injury and disillusion. Poses should be beneficial, not detrimental, as we strive for balance and the ability to sit and meditate with ease. The practice is about grounding and releasing; it involves effort but not push and struggle.

With or without Olympic yoga, there are people who will take yoga onwards and who realise the deep significance and power of its roots. “How can I say what is good and bad?” said the great Iyengar, recently interviewed about the way yoga is going. “People will find what they are looking for.”

That seems to say it all.

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The author was on point in many ways in terms of Yoga as a lifestyle. Transparently speaking, if you interview 100 Yoga Instructors, you will have 100 very sacred yet very individualized experiences. Yoga, unless taught in a standardized format such as the globally famous Bikram Yoga Franchise, can indeed vary widely in terms of Yoga Practitioner experience. And this can vary from Yoga Teacher to Yoga Teacher within the same Yoga School.

Yoga in this sense is like Martial Arts self defense instruction. In martial arts there are over 1,200 distinct styles globally as of the mid 1970′s. Bruce Lee was known to experience all of these before he set forth to sculpt his own “Highly Simplified” from called “Jeet Kune Do”. I am mentioning this because many contemporary Yoga styles such as Power Yoga, are essentially adaptations of more classical Yoga teachings.

In the end just as “No Man Is An Island” – no 1 form of Yoga is everything for everyone. And in the same vein, clearly not everything there is to possibly experience. Having shared that – I personally take part in Bikram Yoga when I am wanting to be part of that experience for a session, and my own form of “Sports Yoga” for the intense muscle building poses specifically for sports. I also combine my globally acclaimed Energy Healing Meditations with Bikram Yoga for optimized healing when needed.

Namaste -

 Glen
Glen B. Stewart
Master Trainer and Acclaimed Author

Ayurveda Mastery Academy for Breakthrough Healing Diet and Healing Supplementation

Author – Glen B. Stewart

Surviving Deadly Rectal Cancer – How The World Sadly Lost Actress Farrah Fawcett and How to Survive Cancer Using Energy Healing and Distance Healing

This Article on Surviving Cancer was written several years ago on my globally acclaimed “Mankind 2.0″ blog.

The alarming Cancer rates in the World today prompted me to repost it for the benefit of cancer stricken people globally.

“To Farrah ~”

I was floored today with the shocking news that famous Hollywood actress Farrah Fawcett is incredibly condition with deadly rectal cancer. Reportedly she has tried an alternative therapy in Germany but this cancerous condition has threatened her yet again.

As my global readers know I am a holistic health researcher and not an allopathic doctor.

In the traditional practice of holistic medicine – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In a crisis situation such as this there is another alternative that can provide assistance even in dire times of need. While this particular traditional therapy is not a panacea for everyone or every condition, Farrah Fawcett currently needs all the help she can get.

The particular holistic practice I am speaking of is called Reiki, Energy Healing and in this case Distance Healing. Energy healing has roots that date back to the ancient Atlantean civilization over 25,000 years ago. In the 1800’s energy healing was rediscovered by the Japanese and coined the term Reiki.

Energy healing is transmitted from one human to another through focused positive intentions and a connection to the divine. It can be applied through hands-on therapy by a certified Reiki Master. At a higher level it can also be applied to anyone anywhere on the globe through focused healing connection to the divine from experienced Reiki Master.

In my book “Visions Of A Champion” on Amazon.com I thoroughly cover this forward thinking and life transforming practice of energy healing.

For now I ask all of my global readership to inherently trust the unlimited power of their subconscious mind. While this post cannot completely cover such an advanced holistic therapy, trust in the fact that everyone can attract a healing difference using the powers of the Law of attraction.

With this in mind let’s gather together globally and make a life-saving difference to such wonderful and cherished human beings as Farrah Fawcett truly was – in your own family.

Let’s apply that Cancer Survival mindset to the sacred cancer stricken members of your family.

1) Sit comfortably with your feet touching the floor your back straight and your hands lying comfortably palms up in your lap. Have your thumb touch your middle finger on both hands.

2) Have the tip of your tongue touch the top pallet on the inside of your mouth.

3) Begin relaxing by breathing deeply into your nose and peacefully exhaling away all stress and daily thoughts.

4) Imagine your mind, body and conscious spirit being as peaceful as a silent pool of water on a truly glorious day.

5) Picture yourself connecting to the spiritually divine with a beautiful healing white light coming down through the top of your head.

6) Also picture the divine responding to your feeling intentions and sending your Cancer stricken family member a peaceful white light of healing energy flowing throughout their entire body.

7) Now picture yourself sending this beautiful healing white light gently and reassuringly to your Cancer stricken family member as she lies comfortably in their bed.

Feel the healing energies from the divine cascading down throughout your body.

9) Now experience the God-given beauty of sending this beautiful healing experience to your Cancer stricken family member and picture it flowing life-giving healing energies throughout their body.

10) Trust your subconscious mind and it’s divine ability to heal her and be part of this healing miracle together with them.

11) Imagine these energies slowly healing their thoughts and stresses and calming their mind to receive this miracle of healing.

12) Now imagine healing energies slowly and peacefully traveling down their spine and sending vibrant healing energies to all of the corresponding organs.

13) Spend several minutes bathing their spine is beautiful miracle of healing energy.

14) Next, languidly send these healing energies through their digestive tract for several minutes and finally sending these healing energies to their Cancer stricken area.

15) Spend the next 10 minutes or so manifesting this incredible healing energies to the Cancer stricken area.

16) Finish with sending healing energies flowing throughout their entire body through your blissful and healing connection to the divine spirit.

17) Close the miracle of energy healing your cherished family member with the reassurance of peaceful divine healing solitude to yourself and them.

18) Spend a few moments peacefully basking in one of the most precious moments you’ll ever experience as a caring human being on planet Earth.

Discover the divine gift of Healing Cancer using Energy Healing and Distance Healing.

Pick up a copy of “Visions Of A Champion” on Amazon.com today.

Godspeed Farrah ~

- Glen

Glen B. Stewart

Master trainer and globally acclaimed author

Other Alternative Healing, Weight Loss, Health, Fitness and Sports Performance related sites of mine you mat be interested in:

Ayurveda Mastery for Cancer Survival and Incredible Health Transformation as well as Breakthrough Diet and Healing Supplementation

Diet Of A Champion – Leading Edge Sports Nutrition, Sports Performance Drinks and Sports Performance Diet Secrets

Executive Fitness Mastery for Breakthrough Executive Performance Transformations

Visions Of A Champion for Sculpting World Champions using Breakthrough Diet, Fitness and Mental Training Secrets

Author – Glen B. Stewart

Energy Healing Secrets for Everything from Sports Injury and Sports Rehabilitation to Fighting Cancer as Well as Insomnia and Depression part 3

“In trying to envision yourself healthy, you need not view realistic representations of the ailing body part.  Instead, imagine a virus as tiny spots on a blackboard that need erasing.  Imagine yourself building new, healthy cells or sending cleaning blood to an unhealthy organ or area”

“If you have a headache, picture your brain as a rough, bumpy road that needs smoothing and proceed to smooth it out.  The point is to focus on the area you believe is causing you to feel sick, and to concentrate on visualizing or imaging it to be well.  The more clearly and vividly you can do this, the more effective the technique becomes”

Another method for banishing pain was developed by Russian memory expert, Solomon V. Sherehevskii, as reported by Russian psychologist Professor Luria.  To banish pain, such as a headache, Sherehevskii would visualize the pain as having an actual shape, mass and color.  Then, when he had a “tangible” image of the pain in his mind, he would visualize or imagine this concrete picture slowly becoming smaller and smaller until it disappeared from his mental vision.  The real pain disappears with it.

Others have modified this same technique and suggest that you imagine a big bird or eagle taking the concrete image of the pain away.  As it flies over the horizon, see it becoming smaller until it disappears from your view.  The actual pain will disappear with it.

“Life’s blows cannot break a person whose spirit is warmed at the fire of enthusiasm” – Norman Vincent Peale

Of course, the effectiveness of this imaging technique depends on the strength of your desire to improve your health and your ability to visualize well.  But there is no harm in trying it, because unlike drugs, creative visualization has no side effects.

Practice any of these visualization techniques three times a day for one week and observe your health improve.

Creative visualization and success in Sports

“Success means never letting the competition define you. You are the only one who should define yourself!” Chappell

Let me guess.  You are grinning like Michael Jordan upon reading the title of this chapter, right?  Sure, every athlete on earth wants to be successful, wants to be somebody that others can look up to and emulate.  More often than not, if you are successful in sports, you learn how to pursue your dreams and live life to the fullest.  You also have the greater responsibility of “paying forward” everything that you have accumulated. There is nothing wrong with hankering for success.  It only becomes a mistake if you let it go to your head and allow it to make you an arrogant fool.

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away” – Author Unknown

In whatever type of sport you choose, success is the mark of excellence.  It is the distinction which separates you from ordinary individuals.  It is the delineation between the mediocre and the best.

If you want to be an amazing success in sports, follow these tips:

“There is nothing like a dream to create the future” – Victor Hugo

Pay close attention to the thoughts in your mind.  Try to distinguish whether the thoughts are mostly reflecting optimistic or pessimistic views.  Are you happy with what you’ve discovered?  If your often-repeated thoughts are constructive, well and good.  If not, don’t fret.  It’s not the end of the world yet.

“Raise the Bar of Your Commitment so High that Excuses can’t Jump Up and Pull You Down”

Review what you have learned earlier.  Like attracts like.  If you think of breakdowns in the workplace or at home and a miserable life every day, that’s what will come to you.  Again, your predominant thoughts are the key to success or failure.  Use this knowledge consciously and in a positive way.

Unlike most people, you already know that creative visualization is a portal to success.  Use it to your advantage.  Utilize certain traits of characters and skills that you have such as faith in yourself and in your abilities.  Add to these limitless patience, perseverance, powerful concentration, willpower, intense discipline and strong ambition.

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be” – Sheehan

Success is within your grasp, if you believe it to be so.   What you imagine is the seed of what you will experience.  Every success in sports starts in YOUR mind.  The mental images you have attract the corresponding situations and circumstances into your life.  Believe that you can impress the detail minded coach. Trust your potential to be selected on the “All Star Team”.  Carry on in completing the seemingly insurmountable workouts with passion.  Do your road work without hesitation.  Use your passionate desire to Win – to bring out the best in every situation.

By following the tips given above, you will find out what your true goals and abilities in sports really are.  You will have more more satisfying and rewarding experiences to be sure.  Make the necessary focused changes in your life.  Do not be afraid to prune the unwanted aspects because it will ultimately help you attain your goal of being a successful athlete.

They did it — and so can you!

“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” - Paolinetti

- Glen 

Glen B. Stewart 

Master Trainer and Acclaimed Author

Author – Glen B. Stewart

Energy Healing Secrets for Everything from Sports Injury and Sports Rehabilitation to Fighting Cancer as Well as Insomnia and Depression part 2

The Simontons also noticed that those who got cured had a distinct personality.  They all had a strong will to live and did everything to get well.  Those who didn’t succeed had resigned themselves to their fate.

While the Simontons were exploring the motivation of cancer patients, they were also looking into two interesting areas of research at that time: biofeedback and the surveillance theory.  Both areas had something to do with the influence of the mind over body processes.   Stephanie Simonton explains in her book The Healing Family:

In biofeedback training, an individual is hooked up to a device that feeds back information on his physiological processes.  A patient with tachycardia, an irregular heartbeat, might be hooked up to an oscilloscope, which will give a constant visual readout of the heartbeat.  The patient watches the monitor while attempting to relax…when he succeeds in slowing his heartbeat through his thinking, he is rewarded immediately by seeing that fact on visual display.

The surveillance theory holds that the immune system does in fact produce ‘killer cells’ which seek out and destroy stray cancer cells many times in our lives, and it is when this system breaks down, that the disease can take hold.  When most patients are diagnosed with cancer, surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy are used to destroy as much of the tumor as possible.  But once the cancer is reduced, we wondered if the immune system could be reactivated to seek out and destroy the remaining cancer cells.

“There is a powerful driving force inside every human being that once, unleashed, can make any vision, dream or desire a reality” – Anthony Robbins

The Simontons reasoned that since people can learn how to influence their blood flow and heart rate by using their minds, they could also learn to influence their immune system.  Later research proved their approach to be valid.

“Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don’t want.” – Abraham

For instance, according to the Time-Life Book The Power of Healing, “chronic stress causes the brain to release into the body a host of hormones that are potent inhibitors of the immune system”.  “This may explain why people experience increased rates of infection, cancer, arthritis, and many other ailments after losing a spouse.”

Dr. R.W. Berthop and his associates in Australia found that blood samples of bereaved individuals showed a much lower level of lymphocyte activity than was present in the control group’s samples.  Lymphocytes are a variety of white blood cells consisting of T cells and B cells, both critical to the action of the immune system. T cells directly attack disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and toxins, and regulate the other parts of the immune system. B cells produce antibodies, which neutralize invaders or mark them for destruction by other agents of the immune system.

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure” – Napoleon Hill

The Power of Healing concludes: “The idea that there is a mental element to healing has gained acceptance within the medical establishment in recent years.  Many physicians who once discounted the mind’s ability to influence healing are now reconsidering, in the light of new scientific evidence.  All these have led some physicians and medical institutions toward a more holistic approach, to treating the body and mind as a unit rather than as two distinct entities.  Inherent in this philosophy is the belief that patients must be active participants in the treatment of their illnesses.

Using positive visualization for minor ailments and injury

“Believe in the impossible, hold tight to the incredible”

Today, many scientific breakthroughs have proven that minor infections and viruses may be healed, or at least lessened in severity by employing mental techniques similar to those used by cancer patients who have successfully shrunk tumors through positive imaging or visualization.

“Visualize in your mind the perfect solution without knowing what it is! Visualize the challenge being over and being peaceful with everything around you. Don’t tell Spirit how to solve it. Instead, visualize it as being finished” ~ Kryon

The theory is that creative visualization can create the same physiological changes in the body that a real experience can.  For example, if you imagine squeezing a lemon into your mouth, you will most likely salivate, the same way as when a real lemon is actually being squeezed into your mouth. Einstein once declared that, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

In the 1985 World Conference on Imaging, reports OMNI magazine (February 1989), registered nurse Carol Fajoni observed that “people who used imagery techniques to heal wounds recovered more quickly than those who did not.  In workshops, the same technique has been used by individuals suffering from colds with similar results.”  The process has been hailed as a positive breakthrough and is currently being used by more enlightened doctors, according to OMNI magazine.

Visualize that part of your body which is causing the problem.  Then erase the negative image and instead picture that organ or part to be healthy.  Let’s say you have a sinus infection.  Just picture your sinus passageways and cavities as beginning to unclog.  Or if you have a kidney disorder, imagine a sick-looking kidney metamorphose into a healthier one.

Read “Energy Healing Secrets for Everything from Sports Injury and Sports Rehabilitation to Fighting Cancer as Well as Insomnia and Depression part 3″ Here

Author - Glen B. Stewart

Energy Healing Secrets for Everything from Sports Injury and Sports Rehabilitation to Fighting Cancer as Well as Insomnia and Depression part 1 

Your mind can help with sports injury

“When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you” – Lao Tzu

Did you know that it is only recently that medical doctors have accepted how important the power of the mind is in influencing the immune system of the human body?  Many decades passed before these men of science decided to test the proposition that the brain is involved in the optimum functioning of the different body systems. Recent research shows the undeniable connection, the link, between mind and body, which challenged the long-held medical assumption.

A psychologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Lean Achterberg, suggests that emotion may form the link between mind and immunity. “Many of the autonomic functions connected with health and disease,” she explains,” are emotionally triggered.”

Exercises which encourage relaxation and mental activities such as creative visualization, positive thinking, and guided imagery produce subtle changes in the emotions which can trigger either a positive or a negative effect on the immune system. This explains why positive imaging techniques have resulted in dramatic healings in people with very serious illnesses, including cancer.

“Minds are like parachutes – they only function when open” ~ Thomas Dewar

OMNI magazine claims (February, 1989), in a cover article entitled “Mind Exercises That Boost Your Immune System”:

“As far back as the Thirties, Edmund Jacobson found that if you imagine or visualize yourself doing a particular action – say, lifting an object with your right arm – the muscles in that arm show increased electrical activity. Other scientists have found that imagining an object moving across the sky produces more eye movements than visualizing a stationary object.”

One of the most dramatic applications of imagery in coping with illness is the work of Dr. Carl Simonton, a radiation cancer specialist in Dallas, Texas. “By combining relaxation with personalized images,” reports OMNI magazine, “he has helped terminal cancer patients reduce the size of their tumors and sometimes experience complete remission of the disease.”

“Some people are so afraid do die that they never begin to live” – Henry Van Dyke

Many of his patients have benefited from this technique.  It simply shows how positive visualization can help alleviate – if not totally cure – various diseases including systemic lupus, migraine, chronic back pain, hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, hyper-acidity, etc.

However, individual differences have to be taken into consideration when discussing each patient’s progress.  It’s understandable that individuals have varying abilities to visualize or create mental images clearly; some people will benefit more from positive-imagery techniques than others.

Nevertheless, if visualization can help people overcome diseases, it could possibly help healthy individuals keep their immune system in top shape. Says OMNI magazine: “Practicing daily positive-imaging techniques may, like a balanced diet and physical exercise routine, tip the scales of health toward wellness.”

“Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them” – Anonymous

The Simonton process of visualization for cancer

Dr. Carl Simonton, a radiation cancer specialist, and his wife, Stephanie Matthews-Simonton, a psychotherapist and counselor specializing in cancer patients, have developed a special visualization or imaging technique for the treatment of cancer which is now popularly known as the Simonton process. Ridiculed at first by the medical profession, the Simonton process is now being used in at least five hospitals across the United States to fight cancer.

“There are two ways to live your life – one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle” – Albert Einstein

The technique itself is the height of simplicity and utilizes the tremendous powers of the mind, specifically its faculty for visualization and imagination, to control cancer.  First, the patient is shown what a normal healthy cell looks like.  Next, he is asked to imagine a battle going on between the cancer cell and the normal cell.  He is asked to visualize a concrete image that will represent the cancer cell and another image of the normal cell.  Then he is asked to see the normal cell winning the battle against the cancer cell.

One youngster represented the normal cell as the video game character Pacman and the cancer cell as the “ghosts” (enemies of Pacman), and then he saw Pacman eating up the ghosts until they were all gone.

“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting” – Buddha

A housewife saw her cancer cell as dirt and the normal cell as a vacuum cleaner.  She visualized the vacuum cleaner swallowing up all the dirt until everything was smooth and clean.

Patients are asked to do this type of visualization three times a day for 15 minutes each time.  And the results of the initial experiments in visualization to cure cancer were nothing short of miraculous.  Of course, being medical practitioners, Dr. Simonton and his psychologist wife were aware of the placebo effect and spontaneous remission of illness.  As long as they were getting good results with the technique, it didn’t seem to matter whether it was placebo or spontaneous remission.

“Everything That I Have Done For You – You Can Do For Yourselves” ~ Jesus Christ

 Read “Energy Healing Secrets for Everything from Sports Injury and Sports Rehabilitation to Fighting Cancer as Well as Insomnia and Depression part 2″ Here