Tag Archives: body-mind mastery
Having committed the past few months to becoming more aware, understanding, practicing and playing golf using the art and science of creative visualization, intuition is offering that imaging is quite simply another body-mind mastery skill that we need to learn, practice, experience and commit to trust when making shots on the golf course. Working with creative visualization reminds of a memorable experience while in Gangtok, Sikkim India in during the Fall of 2003.
As a Naropa University Study Abroad student, it was a priceless treasure to study Tibetan Buddhist thang-ka painting for six weeks with Thinlay Gaytso, a Tibetan Buddhist thang-ka painter. (A thang-ka is a scroll painting which generally uses gouache on a cotton canvas and depicts various religious topics such as Buddha, episodes from his lives, tantric deities, mandalas, Buddhist scholars, and saints.) Thinlay’s studio was in bustling, downtown Gangtok in a second floor apartment where his family lived and operated an adjacent internet cafe business. The studio was a 12’ x 12’ cubicle with a large window, one bed for lotus seating of Thinlay, and one bed for lotus seating of a guest, student or client. Between the two beds was a small table that held some paint brushes and multiple glass cups of different colors of paint. On one side of the room were a bookshelf and a door; and on the other side of the room were a few thang-kas, in various stage of completion, hanging from the ceiling. The room was quite cozy; conducive to silence, solitude and contemplation; and was an inspiring place to learn and practice the art and science of thang-ka painting. When commissioned to paint, Thinlay’s thang-kas would sell for as much as $15,000 U.S. dollars.
A very first lesson that Thinlay shared was that he had studied thang-ka painting in a Buddhist monastery for 11 plus years; and that an essential element of learning to unleash the artist we all have is to experience the desired image within before attempting to create and share the experience of an image. During my six weeks studying with Thinlay, my first assignment was to create a big toe on paper. I was never able to get it right because my effort was to draw a toe, as opposed to experiencing and creating the toe on paper from an inner image. His lesson lives with me today on the golf course when commencing to visualize a desired shot: unless the visualized shot comes from within, the artist is not able to freely create and unleash an optimum shot.
A recognition is that unleashing our artist on the golf course is not an easy task and it demands on-going practice and evolutionary development, as with any desired skill. As discussed in Golfer’s Palette: Preparing for Peak Performance, unleashing the artist within suggests skillful grooving and integration of five pillars…philosophy, the game, practice and learning, body-mind mastery and technical skills. Creative visualization is merely a body-mind mastery skill that demands evolutionary learning, practice and trust for optimum use on the golf course.
Life is a precious gift; and we each need to accept 100% responsibility for the care of the remarkable human systems that need optimum cellular health and wellness for a good quality of life. As Bruce Lipton offers, “Inherent in our essence is the power to create an inner environment that is not susceptible to disease and illness.” The purpose of this blog is to offer a learned prescription for optimum cellular health and wellness. At the outset, it is important to offer that I am not a medical doctor and my perspective is drawn from background, interest and experience.
In 1973 it was humbling to be invited to join the Adolph Coors Company management team. A frequent reflection about my twenty-one year career with Coors is of Bill Coors, then Chairman of the Board of Directors, and his “leading edge” passion for the concept of health and wellness for the Company’s employees and corporate America. During Bill’s quarterly management team meetings he would always take a few moments and discuss the necessity for personal wellness and the wellness of our employees. My first introduction to wellness at Coors was participation in an annual, confidential health and wellness process: each employee was encouraged to take a preventive healthcare survey to establish personal benchmarks and build a foundation for annual wellness action plans. During the final five years of my career with Coors, my Human Resources responsibilities included oversight of the Wellness Center and Wellness Programs for the employees. A highlight of my career was traveling with Bill Coors, sharing the podium with him and conveying the Coors wellness message to a variety of audiences.
A PRESCRIPTION
Commit to 100% responsibility: Life happens because of us and not to us. We each need to manage our own health and wellness; and trusting medical professionals and medical information with our health is not an option. Medical information that is without a hidden agenda and medical professionals are valuable resources for medical decision-making input. However, it is important to remember that pharmaceutical companies are in business to sell drugs and make a profit; and medical professionals are trained to treat effects and/or symptoms. Moreover, these professionals are not inspired to cure our maladies.
Be open to new paradigms and possibilities about health and wellness: Be curious and do your homework before making medical decisions. A recent experience has been with statin drugs. To lower genetic high cholesterol, I have been on a statin drug since 1984. A gym friend recently mentioned that he had been on a statin drug for several years. Because of bad side effects and not feeling well, he had opted to no longer take a statin drug. I am reading the books he recommended; and will be making a decision whether or not to remain on a statin drug. It was alarming to read, “Statins indiscriminately kill any cell including human cells.” (Yoseph & Yoseph, How Statin Drugs Really Lower Cholesterol and Kill You One Cell at a Time.)
Listen to your body and be sensitive to how you feel: Use appropriate professionals and data as input to facilitate your medical decision making; however, the best decision maker is “you” based on how you feel.
Become a body-mind master: Have a health and wellness program that includes care for the physical body, the mind and emotions and the spirit. Some ideas: meditation practice to quiet a busy mind, provide stress reduction and offer peace of mind; an exercise program that includes cardiovascular exercises, stretching and weight training; consume nutrition that ensures optimum cellular health and wellness; and have good sleep habits. Golfer’s Palette: Preparing for Peak Performance, Chapter 3, Body-Mind Mastery, offers a more detailed discussion about the concept of total wellness and wellbeing.
Have energizing and meaningful relationships and conversations: Remember that small minds talk about people; average minds talk about events; and great minds talk about concepts and ideas.
Model the way as a person, in relationships and when helping others.
My message is quite simple: accept the 100% responsibility challenge and consciously manage the care and maintenance of your gift of life. Your cells will thrive on the commitment to wellness; your quality of life will improve; you will feel good; and you will have the root of happiness, peace-of-mind.
RESOURCES
Bhaerman, S. & Lipton, B. (2009). Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future (And a Way to Get There from Here). New York, NY: Hay House.
DeVore, J. (2015). Golfer’s Palette: Preparing for Peak Performance. Bloomington, Indiana: Xlibris.
Lipton, B. (2008). The Biology of Belief. New York, NY: Hay House.
Yoseph, H. & Yoseph, J. (2012). How Statin Drugs Really Lower Cholesterol and Kill You One Cell at a Time. jandhyoseph@yahoo.com.
Yoseph, H. & Yoseph, J. (2012). Poisoned: Recovery from Statin “Side Effects.” jandhyoseph@yahoo.com.