Gee, Think.

I’m not much of a gardener, but I have managed to grow wheatgrass!  All you have to do is let it germinate in water, and then place it on the top of the soil, keeping it moist for the first several days.  Of course you must water it often thereafter, but following those simple instructions will give you a great crop of highly nutritious grass to add to your vegetable juices.

My brother in law is an avid juicer.  He actually has supplied me with all of my wheatgrass see to date, which is four plantings.  I’ve been planting my wheathgrass in gardening containers up until today.  I made the switch to soil because I noticed the pot planted wheatgrass would only produce one crop while the grass my brother in law planted re-grew after each clipping.  So today I dug my first gardening plot.  This was quite satisfying.  I turned the soil, and discovered what I think could be mycelium:

I first heard of mycelium in a TED talk by Paul Stamets, which I have to say was truly amazing.  If you think you know what fungus is, think again and watch his presentation.  I’m a fungus newbie, but I’m excited that maybe this is the amazing organism that he describes.  I found it just an inch under the soil while turning it over with the shovel to create the planting bed.  There was a lot of it.  At first I thought it was merely decomposing leaves clumped together, but when I peeled one apart, that distinct mushroom aroma told my nose otherwise.

So I ended up with the little plot you see here:

One day, I plan to be raising my own vegetables on an acre or more of land, so this is the first step and I’d like to commemorate it.  In addition, maybe it will encourage others who have yet to start gardening, but always thought of it as something they’d like to try.

Hello Personal Trainers! This is my personal call to you! I am looking for advice on how to go about becoming a personal trainer. I just don’t know where to start. My only intuition is to reach out to existing professionals to see how they got where they are today. So here it is, my video message to you:

This is a call to personal trainers out there on the interweb.  Who are you?  How did you become a personal trainer?  Why did you choose that path?  What led you to it?  Looking back at it now, would you choose personal training again?

Over the past several months I have become increasingly interested in physical health and wellness.  I feel naturally drawn to learning more about these subjects.  I feel this naturally attraction to it. I can’t completely explain why.  It sparks my interest and curiosity.  I like the idea of learning how to be more healthy.  Wellness is a state that I am happy to enjoy most of the time, and I would love to know how to increase the likelihood of staying well.  I’ve been making small gradual changes to my lifestyle recently.  Some of these changes include alterations to my diet.  On a daily basis I include more fruit by drinking a smoothie of bananas with berries, soy milk, flax seed, and wheat germs.  Sometimes I include or substitute peaches or melons too.  I’ve also started to eat more soy products, more fish, more vegetables, and less red meat.  I cut down on caffiene as well.  I used to drink several cups of coffee each day.  Now I may have one, but usually I stick to green tea.  This morning I actually had two shots of homemade espresso, but I regard that as a once in a while treat that I enjoy.  There was a time where espresso was the norm.

Since making these dietary changes, I feel much better.  I think my digestion as a whole has improved.  I have more energy and vitality.  I’ve also been exercising more and more through my training with Yee’s Hung Ga Gung Fu association.  There’s no doubt that gung fu has also contributed to my health.  There are also meditative practices that go along with gung fu practice.  Some of these fit into a category called “Hei Gong” in Cantonese.  I have seen greater mental clarity, less stress, and more even emotional shifts since undertaking these practices.

So to sum up, I’ve been making these changes in my own life.  I have seen the results and I’m excited about them.  I feel much more alive and well.  I’d like to devote more time to understanding health and well being, mental, phsycial, and spiritual.  My inituition tells me that the personal training occupation could allow me more time to do this.  So personal trainers, I’m reaching out to you.  If you’re reading this post, please send me some information on the path you’ve taken.  Thank you.

I’ve recently started reading “Awaken Healing Light of the Tao” by Mantak Chia.

What a wonderful book. I really enjoy the discussion of Chi that extends over the first 50-70 pages. Chia goes into great detail explaining the Taoist theories of the universal energy (known as Chi), its role in the cosmos, as well as our individual well-being and health. I am personally drawn to the idea that we are all connected, and I think the explanation of that theory here is beautiful. This book would be great for anyone who wants to get a better understanding of the concept of Chi, which is often heard in relation to the martial arts. However the idea of Chi is applied to many more circumstances and situations.

The first exercise in Chi flow mentioned in the book is the Inner Smile. I have only attempted this exercise twice. I am a novice in the general practice of meditation. My only other experience with meditative practice is the Chut Gum Moon (7 Golden Passages) of Hung Ga, and Jam Jong (Zhan Zhuang). I think that these practices have helped to prepare me for the Inner Smile meditation, but that I still have a long way to go. Basically, the Inner Smile consists of drawing positive energy into your body, and systematically focusing it on various internal organs. In the Taoist theory, each organ is associated with specific character virtues and emotional states. The goal of the meditation, as I understand it, is to bring positive energy into your body in order to make your own virtues stronger and positive emotions more abundant.

Both times that I attempted this practice I did go through my day with much more positive energy. I think that it had a great affect on my emotional disposition. I felt more relaxed, happy, and able to deal with the hustle and bustle of my daily life. Specifically I was much more at peace during my commute to and from NYC. I hope to make the Inner Smile a frequent part of my meditative pratice. Maybe with time, I will feel the effects grow stronger.

So I have taken it upon myself to study Mindfulness.  This is the teaching of the Buddha.  In a time where I feel that my life has become too hectic I feel that mental training is in order.  So far I am in the information gathering and beginning application stage.  I’ve read a book and a bit more on the topic so this is still very early for me yet.  My goal is to apply these simple techniques to my everyday life in order to make better use of my time by being more effective.  I would rather work 8 hours efficiently than 10 hours in a disorganized manner.  This is my effort to improve my professional skills, but also my attentiveness to all aspects of my life.

A funny anecdote:

One day last week, while reading “The Heart of Buddhist Meditation”   I left my umbrella on the PATH train.  Whoops.  I guess I could really learn a thing or two about it!  However I was reading Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness  and in the introduction the author describes an incident where one of his students was reading his first book “Mindfulness in Plain English” while crossing the street, and was subsequently hit by a car!!  At least my little lesson in mindfulness was not one inducing misery!

I look forward to understanding more about the concepts of Bare Attention and Clear Understanding.  I plan to put into practice Mindfulness of Breathing as often as I can.