Ageless Energy

Farming food and healing is the title of this show and I brought on Seann Bardell on to talk about his experiences with each. I believe you’d be hard pressed to find a more traveled, educated man in these fields which is clear from all he’s done and everywhere he’s been.

Farming food and healing with Seann Bardell

In short Seann has been active in the holistic health movement since 1970, he has degrees in both education and zoology and actually won a lifetime teaching award. And one of my favorite parts of his highlighted career is his time spent as a public health officer in the peace corps in Micronesia on the island of Yap.  This is where Seann’s knowledge and experience came from studying and living with a civilization that ate from the land, who didn’t use herbicides and pesticides and ate wild animals fresh from the sea.  Seann explains how the culture as a whole (of Yap) has far less chronic disease than we do in North America.  You can have a look at Seann’s full bio here.

As you’ll find out in the interview Seann has tons of knowledge on the subject and is happy to share through his experience what he learned and what his company has to offer.

If you’re looking for more information on Bioimmersion you can click here.

Thanks so much to Seann from coming on the show and sharing his knowledge with us, and thank you for tuning into another show of Exploring Mind and Body, all the best in your life directed towards farming food and healing.

Winter travel is on my mind because in Alberta Canada we live in an area where we’re pretty much vulnerable to how much we can control in the winter time when it comes to weather. -32 degrees Celsius (-25 Fahrenheit) is a reality for us up here and could be a daily occurrence for long stretches at this time of year.

With blizzards and cold weather, road conditions, along with tires and conditions of vehicles (although many times it doesn’t matter what type of vehicle you have) it seems like choice is taken from us at times (don’t get me wrong though, the ultimate choice to live here is ours).

There are times throughout the winter where we literally are not able to travel because it’s too dangerous, highways are shut down or we simply don’t want to leave the house. At times this makes it difficult to run a business, make it to work, or take the kids to school.

The reality of living in an area like this is, appointments will be canceled, people will be disappointed and going from A to B isn’t always the best choice. This makes it difficult for me because I grew up in an environment where nothing else mattered but the end results. All that mattered was if you were safe or out, weather you got a hit or didn’t, weather you made the team or had to find somewhere else to go. Your end stats (simply numbers) for the most part determined what kind of season you had or how well you played (we call it the law of average in baseball, everything seems to even out depending on how good you are).

With that mindset I struggle with making a better choice. The last thing I want to do is cancel an appointment of any kind, because in my mind all that matters is whether or not you showed up, no other outside circumstances. Unfortunately, recently I had to cancel a class and a presentation which was incredibly difficult to do. People are depending on you, people are expecting you and above all else you made a commitment to do something or be somewhere.

As much as this is a learning experience for me, I hope maybe you can learn something from this too. Road reports suggested staying off the road; shortly after I was supposed to leave they closed the highway North of me due to an accident, South (the direction I was going) had similar reviews of staying off with little to no visibility in certain areas.

I think we can all understand in this area (at least to an extent), it’s not worth the risk by forcing yourself to travel if the situation isn’t right.

Do you support local or stay with the big box stores?

So today being #SmallBusinessSaturday I walk into this one store and had an incredible experience. Beautiful store, tons of cool items, many #local and handmade items, and the service was exceptional.

Those big box stores (even though I know some are run locally) are usually filled with cheap items on sale that will break without much use, they’re cheap in price and quality, they’re made from somewhere around the world in likely difficult living conditions. And don’t get me wrong I support some of these and know owners that do their best to offer quality service and a service that’s hard to find otherwise. What I’m saying here is MOST of the time, those big stores have little customer service if any. Their main goal is to produce sales and that’s it.

When we buy from small mom and pop stores we’re usually supporting an individual with a family, we’re supporting our neighbour, the same one that sends their child to the same school as we do. Often products are handmade or made locally, customer service is usually much better (or should be) and it’s normally coming from people that actually care about you, not just the business.

It always shocks me when I hear other small business owners talking about the cheapest whatever, wherever it is. Meanwhile we run quality businesses, where the price may be a little higher because we don’t move the volume it takes to have such low prices. On top of that we may pay more or treat our employees better, maybe we care more for the customer and offer quality customer service. So of course the cost of products or services are more. But there we are (as business owners) looking for the cheapest product, for the biggest sale, and even though we depend on local sales ourselves we look to purchase from the biggest store there is who has the best prices….no matter what.

There are so many benefits to supporting local, it not only improves our local economy but you also improve the quality of life for small owners that has likely worked years just to get off the ground. Sure you might pay a little more but if you’re looking for quality, something that’s not going to break, from someone who cares, why not?

Why do we look to cheap products that easily break and fill our landfills just so we can save a couple bucks? There are tons of great places to shop locally, now that Christmas is coming there will be tons of sales everywhere and cheap items easily accessible online.

Why not try just a little to buy locally, maybe not everything, how about starting with a few, how about visiting a shop you normally wouldn’t? How about spending just a little more, for that much more quality? How about putting a smile on your neighbors face instead of adding to the piggy bank of a corporation who’ll never know you supported them?

In this show I talk about how small talk makes me terribly uncomfortable. It’s not like I do it on purpose and it’s not like I try to brush people off, it’s simply who I am.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with small talk, all I am saying is it’s not for everyone.

I also talk about a friendly young gentlemen changed my entire day with his small talk, which actually made me rethink my almost anxiety towards it.

I don’t exactly have anxiety toward small talk, I simply feel that’s the way I am. I feel like I’m an introvert at the best of times which there certainly isn’t anything wrong with, but I also feel that many people think I’m blowing them off or ignoring them because I don’t stop and talk. The truth is I rarely know what to say, don’t know when to say good bye, how long to talk for or how it exactly works, so that’s why I avoid small talk as much as possible.

I have a real issue with tipping for service because it seems like the price always goes up, then it seems like new places pop up with tip jars and expectations of giving more than you pay for.

Who decides, when will it end, feeling cheap and who’s right.  I talk about it all right here in this show.

The truth of the matter is, the more I think about it more I think tipping is ridiculous. I don’t think there should be an expectation on how much you tip, a tip is extra money, it’s for service, it’s for a friendly smile, it’s supposed to be food good food. But that’s not the case anymore. Tipping is for extra money for restaurants; it’s so they can charge what they want on top of their original price. If that’s not the case who decides what the tip should be?

Why don’t they just add more to the price of their food? Because then their food would look more expensive and you’d know up front what you’re paying for which makes perfect sense to me.

In Australia they don’t tip, and they frown on visitors tipping because then they’d start expecting it from locals. What they do and what seems right to me is pay the servers a fair price and got rid of tipping all together (at least that’s the way it was when I lived there).

What decides who gets a tip jar, who decided when the percentage moves up from 10% to 15% to 20%? When will it end?  When it comes down to it I think tipping is nonsense and we should get rid of it all together.

I have a real issue with tipping for service because it seems like no matter what the service is like they expect at least 15%

As you’ll notice, everything comes back to stress and I’m going to explain how increased stress gives our body less of a chance to have a restful sleep. That’s right it’s all connected which is why we need to detox reduce stress to sleep better. At the end you’ll see how it’s all connected through stress.

If you haven’t checked out show #105 Lifestyle Detox, it would be a good idea to see my philosophy around conventional detoxes, which is certainly not the norm.

In this show I’m not talking about conventional detoxes, soup or juice detoxes; I don’t believe in the quick fast or cleanse, it simply isn’t for me.

I’m talking about a real lifestyle detox, through getting rid of toxins, paying attention to everything we put in our body and avoiding: MSG, GMO’s, Coloring, preservatives, fillers (i.e. corn) and more.

And let’s not forget about toxins we’re putting on our body as well. The main toxins we should look to avoid are:

* Mineral Oil

* Parabens

* Aluminum chloride

* fluoride

These are preservatives and fillers or coloring scents and more substances that shouldn’t be entering our body in any way. We really need to pay attention to these substances if we want to detox reduce stress to sleep better.

Where can these be found:

-fluoride is in water

-the rest in shampoo, soap, toothpaste, deodorant

-ironic things we think are cleaning our body is filling it with toxins

If you’re looking for some help around Detoxifying Your Body, there we have a fantastic 30 Day Challenge that offers a private group detox with facilitators to help you work towards detoxing your body.

This is a crystal free of toxins used as a deodorant. Be careful of conventional ‘cosmetics’ they are usually packed full of toxins.

Sleep

So when it comes to sleep we need to remember we are creatures of habit. We sleep on the same side of the bed, we eat breakfast in the same chair, we even watch tv on the same side of the couch. If we use proper sleep habits to improve our state we’ll be able to sleep better. We talked about forming proper habits in a recent show with Jesse Hanson called Somatic Healing.

Before we form proper sleep habits we need to address what we’re doing that is preventing us from sleeping. Before bed it’s important we stay away from stimulants: alcohol, tobacco, loud music and even working into the late hours of the night can be considered a stimulant. This is an essential part of detox reduce stress to sleep better because if we aren’t in a proper restful state it will be very difficult for us to relax and get ready for bed.

Side note, if you have trouble turning your mind off in the evening place a note pad next to your bed and write down your ‘to do’s’ you can’t get out of your head.

Once we’ve kicked our old habits of stimulants before bed we’re going to start new habits. How about:

* having a warm cup of chamomile tea in the evening (or another soothing herbal tea)

* Relaxing music

* An easy read

* a warm bath

* incense

The goal here is to change our state. Slowly start putting our body at ease so you’re relaxed and ready for bed. If we do this often enough our body will soon start to develop habits and actually expect to start slowing down at a certain time especially if we start to go to bed at ab...

Warrior Pose with Bhava Ram in an extraordinary book and interview which I can’t wait to share with you today.  Bhava is a former network news war correspondent whose career was abruptly ended due to a broken back and failed surgery. Declared permanently disabled, he was heavily medicated and confined to a body brace.

On the brink of death, Ram left western medicine, detoxified from all medications and found mind/body medicine. Through the sciences of Yoga and Ayurveda, Ram healed himself and now devotes his life to helping others reclaim their inherent power to achieve profound self-healing, overcome life’s greatest challenges, find their authentic voices, and manifest their fullest potential.

How Yoga Literally Saved his Life

This was an absolutely incredible interview as we talked about Warrior Pose with Bhava Ram.  You know what’s funny, I picked this book up a number of times and then put it back down. For whatever reason I continued to be drawn to it until I finally picked it up and then booked the interview with Bhava.

Beginning as a real live war corresponded on the front lines, Bhava said he lived his dream job, however as his career flourished his health diminished. Finally Bhava couldn’t go on any more as his initial fall years ago finally cracked his spine and left him in excruciating pain. The only answer he could find was conventional medicine at the time.

After the doctors gave him two years to live he was left highly medicated, severely depressed and pretty much lifeless. That was until he heard the few words out of his son’s mouth that would change his life forever “Get up Daddy”. That was enough right there for Bhava to make a decision to change his life for the better, get off medication and begin healing himself like he knew he could.

In Warrior Pose with Bhava Ram he talks about the painful detox he went through, and how he later began teaching himself yoga and visiting his ‘healing room’ up to 12 hours a day. Soon after Bhava began fasting and implemented a Vegan diet to help cleanse his body of all the toxins his body was under from conventional medicine for so many years.

Bhava now teaches through his website Bhavaram.com and also through deepyoga.com.

One of my favorite things Bhava said in the interview is how he teaches others to empower themselves, how we can heal ourselves if we can find a way to reduce the clutter, toxic thoughts and be in silence.  And finally how food will nourish your body and living in a less stressful environment.

Bhava knows very well and explains that conventional medicine masks our pain instead of getting to the root of the issue which I talk about here. It’s incredibly important to get to the root of the issue if you want to heal from the inside out.

In the studio with Bhava Ram’s Warrior Pose

Alright so this show is called let them haters hate because there’s always someone that will show their true colors from time to time and let them know how they really feel about you (and often your work).

I threw up this post not too long ago which received an incredibly positive response which also triggered a private message that was less than friendly, in fact it was downright mean.

One of the most frequent questions I’m asked from young entrepreneurs is ‘how do you deal with the negative people that come out’. So I thought I would address it here in this show and let everyone know how I deal with it.

I also talk about other types of failure and rejection and how I’ve dealt with that in the past and how I’ll deal with it in the future.

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Post by TRUE FORM.

Somatic Healing is a more natural approaching to improving lives. Personally I believe the world as a whole is working more toward natural approaches and that’s no different from what Jesse Hanson is doing at the Helix Healthcare Centre. The Helix Healthcare Group is a stat of the art wellness facility in Toronto Canada, that specializes in mental health, addiction and trauma resolution. Through our ground breaking programs, catalyst wellness and spectrum recovery, they connect the mind and body and create lasting change.

Jesse Hanson has a Master’s degree in Clinical and Somatic Psychology and is a doctoral candidate for Clinical Psychology. He specializes in neuroscience, somatic (body-centered) psychology and holistic healing. Trained in EMDR and other forms of cutting-edge therapies, Jesse helps clients release held trauma and negative emotions from the body and inspires them to create themselves anew. After more than decade in the field and many years as a lead therapist at Passages treatment centre in Malibu, Jesse brings his experience to the Helix Healthcare Group as Clinical Director.

Somatic healing with Jesse Hanson

Summary

As I mentioned in the show, I found Jesse on twitter which I’m more than grateful for. Throughout the interview I think Jesse does a great job of explaining what both he and the Helix Healthcare Group does to work with clients in a trusted environment to ‘less than conventionally’ address issues that at times we all need help with.

Jesse talked about habits and how to systematically reduce negative patterns in our lifestyle. He talked about letting go of anger, and even preventing as opposed to just treating.

From the sounds of it Jesse and the Helix Healthcare Group are doing a fantastic job of ‘treating’ to improve lifestyles as a whole.  I enjoy their whole mission or game plan if you will and what really caught my eye was “they connect the mind and body and create lasting change“. This right here resonates with me and their whole approach.

One of my favorite lines Jesse shared in his interview was ‘labels are for cans not for people’. I feel that in todays day in age, we’re so quick to label a person and not try to understand what they’ve gone through and where they’ve been. I think if ‘we’ that are so quick to judge could experience of even put ourselves in anothers’ shoes for just a moment we may be able to understand just a little more of some else’s experience in life.

One of my favorite books The Four Agreements explains how it’s usually best not to make assumptions on an individual, seems trivial but something I’m sure we could all do a better job on.

Thanks

Just a quick thanks to Jesse for coming on the show. And thank you for your interest in this interview. If you’d like to follow the Helix Healthcare group on facebook you can do so here.

In this post I really wanted to give Derek Jeter his due. He’s a professional baseball player that recently ended his career and will go down as one of the best players that ever played the game.

I very much disliked the Yankees for most of my career but it’s worth noting that Jeter did an incredible job or representing a hero we could actually look up to.

Maybe someone from back in the day where kids really looking up to sports figures and had good reason to.

We simply don’t have the figures we used to and people to look up to like we did in the past and like children could and should of Jeter.