I recieved an email asking how I integrated spirituality into my health and wellness profession.   This post flowed very easily from that excellent question.

I was introduced to true physical culture at 17 in the form of martial arts. My instructor was in his 40’s and could barely speak English. There was not a shred of western culture or mindset present once inside the doors of his dojo. In a matter of fact way, the philosophy of the body as a temple, self defense as a means of decompressing violence, commitment to cultivating the mind, and working through life from a base of harmonious integration was always in the air as we trained our bodies. Every training session started with 15 minutes of sitting meditation, followed by another 15 minutes of form movement gradually increasing to full speed movements. Training was completely engaging of our total physical and mental self as we practiced refining our strikes, kicks, attacking and evasive movement, defending techniques, interspersed with fitness exercises for strength and athletic explosiveness for 90 minutes, 6 days per week. We trained without acting the fool, showing emotion or taking a fraction of our focus and concentration off our actions. This was my introduction to physical culture and spirituality. For 10 years I floated in and out my practice, at times getting as far away from a spiritual base as one could. After enough futile effort at living a selfish, unhealthy, external based life I returned to my base and have never swayed. The paths to self realization are many and varied, one certainly does not have to be an athlete or practice a martial art to find enlightenment. One must, though, take care to do all within one’s ability and means to illuminate  their personal health and energy.

“Your body is precious. It is your vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care” - Buddha

I believe that energy capacity is paramount in getting through life’s winding, at times, uneven, and challenging terrain. To navigate this physical path, and integrate into its limited time space our personal self realization takes optimized energy. It is not about getting in shape but creating a system of continual enhancement so as to be able to serve at the our individual capacity and potential. It must also be noted that with an applied system of continual enhancement, capacity and potential is continually expanded allowing you to increase your value to the world.

“….man acts as a guardian of his body. It becomes his duty to take such care of his body as to enable it to practice the idea of serving to the best of its ability.” - Gandhi

Creating a healthy vibrant, performance able, physical vehicle is each of our obligation to God, self, and humanity. Outside of physical limitations there is no rational to argue or excuse of not pursuing such a state of being. It is not about muscles, and sexiness, but about creating a capacity that allows us to perform physical labor, have balance, compassion and empathy in our emotions, clarity and stamina in our intellectual efforts, and a harmonious, humble, altruistic spirit.

Whether my client be a senior rehabilitating, an athlete improving performance, or a fitness client desiring more energy, improved health or cosmetic body improvement my guidance, educating, and recommendations include an integrated approach of breathing meditation, sound nutrition and hydration, functional movement training, and energy system development incorporated into their program. To provide anything less would be irresponsible, and a gross underachievement on my part. It is my belief that to provide those I touch with the means of improving their ability to accept responsibility, and self manage their own health, fitness will help them serve better and find their own desire and pursuit of self realization.

A state of integrated health and fitness supports a natural transition of evolving spiritually — Blue Collar Zen

The above quote is a take off from George Hebert’s “Be Strong to Be Useful,“ and Gandhi’s, “man acts as a guardian of his body. It becomes his duty to take such care of his body as to enable it to practice the idea of serving to the best of its ability,“ which epitomizes the philosophy of Blue Collar Zen. We live in a time of body-mind-spirit struggling. ”Madison Avenue” chants a never ending mantra equating to external pleasure gratification and material possessions being the keys to happiness and a satisfying identity. We all know better, so I must beg to differ. A cultivated state of body, mind, heart & soul wellness is where true joy and happiness are rooted. Having your life efforts realize their potential, thus allowing for your optimal contribution to life, satisfies one to the soul. To accomplish this, a fortification process from the ground up must be implemented. A strong body, full of vitality and able to perform creates improved mental clarity and endurance, emotional patience and empathy, and prepares us for the natural process and objective so as to continually evolve spiritually throughout our life. This is the purpose of the Blue Collar Zen lifestyle and philosophy.

The Blue Collar Zen lifestyle is a means of managing and making adjustments as needed to the elemental pillars of our physical existence:

Air - Controlled full breathing through sitting or moving meditation exercises stimulates the body from the internal organs out acting like a tonic and metabolic accelerator.

Food - Your performance quality and quantity are predicated by your what you eat!

Water - Activity/weather adjusted hydration with clean water for maximum energy, detoxifying and recovery is irreplaceable.

Physical Activity - We’re animals designed to move and move we must to maintain our physical performance ability.

Energy management - This is the X factor of performance and wellness. Energy renewal is not automatic. Each of our lives is unique and must be managed accordingly to ensure maximum energy regeneration.

Stress management - Physical, mental, emotional, and environmental stress must be recognized and managed; stress kills!

Blue Collar Zen is a means of guidance, motivation, support and accountability to make the changes needed to optimize your lifestyle for health, performance and enlightenment.

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Morehei Ueshiba

A true warrior is always armed with the three things: the radiant sword of pacification; the mirror of bravery, wisdom, and friendship; and the precious jewel of enlightenment.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to look good. It is human nature to want to look our best and if passing by the mirror after getting out of the shower does not elicit a, “That’s what I’m talking about ” response to your reflection, the culprit is, for the most part, your diet, it is not the mirror. What you see is what you have earned. You are what you eat. That is the absolute bottom line. To look and feel your best your must have diet habits that fit your needs. The undeniable fact is that what you eat and drink is a pillar of your health and performance ability. Before you can expect results from your physical activity, you need to ensure you are fueled for the performance. In referring to performance, I am talking about not only game day performance but your every-day performance.

The key to maintaining a base of balanced wellness is a healthy diet and adequate physical activity. Your diet gives you the fuel and your activity maintains or enhances your physical vehicle. They are inseparable. Activity without the fuel breaks down the components and/or limits your efforts. Although the main activity in my services regards varying methods and degrees of physical activity, I always emphatically emphasize diet as an irreplaceable, foundational component in any program whether it be health, fitness or competitive in its objective. A healthy, sufficient diet combined with daily low intensity exercise is more beneficial to wellness than moderate to high-intensity exercise supported with poor nutritional habits. Bottom line is, what you eat is more important than what you do physically. Ignoring a sound nutritional base is the equivalent of building a custom, million dollar home on an unstable, imbalanced foundation.

We are what we eat. As a society we are fat, lacking energy, suffer from sexually dysfunction, depression, and a plethora of degenerative diseases, yet for the most part, are accepting of it. People will take a pill before taking the first step in attempting a holistic approach to self healing, by refining their diet. I do not get it. How is it not possible for our education system to provide an applicable understanding of this? How irresponsible is it for a college course in nutrition to pass a student without equipping them with the knowledge and ability to create a personal diet plan that provides specific nutrition for optimal performance? Think about it.

As a believer in the benefits of the human potential, I promote healthy living to create a foundation of quality of life. Everything we do starts with that foundation. A healthy body leads to a healthy mind which is what’s needed as a base to realizing potential and self. Blue Collar Zen promotes physical culture as a method of creating a base for service productivity and enlightenment

Physical Culture is a philosophy, regimen, or lifestyle seeking optimal physical development through a healthy diet, mental discipline and varied means of physical activity such as martial arts, yoga, dance, weight training, aerobic activity, and athletic competition. Benefits include improvements in health, mental clarity and capacity, appearance, strength, endurance, flexibility, speed, and general fitness as well as greater proficiency in sport-related activities.

As you can see from the above definition, the exact combination of activities you may choose for your own state of physical culture is vast. You have choices to fit your specific needs, personality, climate, facility or equipment availability at your disposal. Just like the wild animal, the human animal needs movement and to expend physical energy to maintain physiological and mental balance. Without that needed movement animals become lethargic, atrophied, stressed, neurotic and fat. Although there are countless recreational activities, sports and fitness approaches that will satisfy our activity needs, your diet has personalized, specific volume and composition requirements.

The problem with the plethora of information and advice on physical activity and diet choices is that they much of the time contradict each other, and are simply attempting to negate the ill effects of unhealthy, degenerating life style habits instead of promoting good health.

I can guarantee if you get your food intake right every aspect of your health will improve. You will have more energy, better workouts day and night, better recovery and improved mental clarity. It astounds me that this is not understood and applied. Getting it close is not good enough. Your oxygenation, hydration and nutrition are the foundation of your health and performance ability.

Healthy Diet Guidelines

• 5-6 small to moderate complete meals per day
• Eat plenty of high-fiber foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains, to get 30-50 grams of fiber daily.
• Consume raw food: green, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds. Eating a salad with raw vegetables and a little bit of raw seeds or nuts with lunch and dinner is a good recommendation. Baby carrots and edamames are good snack and boxed lunch ideas.
• Cut the sugar; eat mainly complex carbs: Limit your intake of sugary foods, refined-grain products such as white bread, and salty snack foods.
• Avoid all saturated and trans fats.” Saturated and trans fat calories hurdle their way past metabolic adjustments and sit themselves in the fatty tissue of the body.
• Consume lean protein products with each meal.

“Your body is precious. It is your vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care” - Buddha

Energy is life. The amount we can generate is a return on your investment into life itself. The brilliance of your energy as well as its endurance is self made.  The unrealized state of energy that most accept, is a  tragedy. As with much in life; what we know and understand through our own physical experiences is is but a fraction of what is possible. Your energy is the essence of who and what you are. If your energy is not optimized your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual efforts aren’t either. It is not about how our efforts in life compare to others but if our efforts are truly the best we are capable of. To establish optimal energy an applied system of production, maintenance and regeneration must be in place. Are you operating at your potential?

“If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” - Thomas Edison

Energy management is the most important aspect of realizing your potential in life. For most of us it is critical. If you are a saint, blue chip athlete or genius you will have a big head start in respective spiritual, intellectual, and athletic accomplishments.  Most of us are not saints, blue chip athletes, or geniuses. For us it is critical to get the most from ourselves, to operate at full throttle. For most of us it is the difference in making the team, landing that job, getting that promotion, finding the one you love, keeping the one you love, and ultimately enjoying our lives. Narrow degrees of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual application differentiate our outcomes. A system of  energy/health management has a paramount, positive impact on our life performances.

“ He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building.” - Machiavelli

What I am talking about here is nothing new. What I am presenting has contemporary scientific evidence to support it, but has been understood to be a benefit as long as history has been documented. Many ancient healing practices conceptualize “energy” as a critical component in their actions-from acupuncture to meditation to yoga to qigong.,  We have gotten away from INTEGRATED LIVING. We strive to get as much as we can so that we can retire and enjoy the fruits of our labor. I see this as a very flawed approach, as by the time most get to that point they are a shell of their former self and a fraction of their realized body-mind-spirit potential. The solution is to apply a system of integrated self-health management sooner than later. The human body is a miraculously resilient organism, which regardless of the physical degradation it has seen will respond, as long as there is still breath and movement within it.

BODY-MIND-SPIRIT wellness must start with the BODY. The body is the base our being. Without physical energy we cannot maintain consciousness and apply our mental ability. When our physical energy is low or impaired our emotional response is affected. It is a serious mistake to ignore the need of a healthy, high performance vehicle in our worldly and spiritual pursuits. To pursue healing the body through spiritual enlightenment or to pursue intellectual cultivation without the balance of physical fortification is fractional, illogical and potential limiting. A state of integrated health and fitness supports a natural transition of evolving spiritually.

There are times when I am fatigued and uninspired. The ebb and flow of energy is a natural order. When I get to this state there is no worry, it is part of life. I quickly recap the actions responsible for the state and immediately start applying the regeneration my body needs. If I am physically fatigued from heavy training, I know that my body needs rest, water and food. If someone close to me has taken me off my mindful balance with friction or conflict, I know that separation and meditation are needed to restore my balance. Ignoring imbalance takes much of the contol we have of our energy away. If I have been sitting for a long period writing or reading and feel my focus and clarity waning, I know some moderate exercise or mindful physical activity will regenerate my circulation and revitalize my energy. These are just a few examples of the endless assessments and adjustments we must continually make throughout life. As you can see most of these are very simple, common sense based realizations and actions. As simple and beneficial as they are, these applications of management are not within the operating framework of most of us. Not only is this limiting our potential, but it’s depleting our joy and happiness. There is a place of absolute truth in your consciousness that realizes the quality of our actions in life. We can only be happy and joyous when we recognize, at this level, that the qualities of our life efforts are equal to our present potential. Balance is the key to health, energy and long term satisfaction with your efforts.

When our energy is depleted too low, it takes time to replenish. It is affected by our activity. This is an ongoing, never ending, constantly changing part of life, one that it in all of our best interests to understand and do our best to manage.  The regeneration of this irreplaceable resource is not automatic as many assume. To be able to constantly make adjustments to maintain balance, and progressively enhance our energy level, a foundation must be in place. The basic foundation is very simple, yet can be difficult dificult to apply consistently as a whole in our busy contemporary lifestyles.  Maintaining and regenerating optimal energy cannot be discussed until an integrated foundation of production is applied

Progress comes to those who train and train. Reliance on secret techniques will get you nowhere.” - Morihei Ueshiba

Ok. I am sure you have an understanding of my stance by now, and are looking for the formula. Before we start talking about “The Fountain of Youth”, which we all want with one pill or treatment a basic foundation must be in place and applied as an integrated effort, daily. Oxygen, water, food and sleep are understood as pillars of life. Although exact needs are unique to the individual, applying these four components to the best of your ability, with the knowledge you are already equipped with, will suffice to produce very noticeable, positive results to your state of health and vitality.

The Basics of Energy Production:

• Breathing Exercises
• Adequate hydration
• Wholesome nutrition
• Daily physical activity
• Adequate sleep

Deep breathing exercises are an integral pillar of Blue Collar Zen habits for health and performance. In the book, Blue Collar Zen, an in depth explanation of the health dependency and positive effects will be presented. Here I will stay with presenting it with all esoteric, and metaphysical veneer peeled away: Without oxygen we die within minutes, with optimal oxygen we thrive and operate in an enhanced state. Deep breathing, via the central nervous system, creates stimulation and circulation from your internal organs throughout your musculoskeletal system. It is the physical act that generates Chi, Qi, or Prana, in martial arts, Asian healing arts, and yoga, respectfully.

Basic Breathing Exercise:

1. Find a quiet place where you won’t be distracted. If doing the exercises inside, make sure the window is open to allow plenty of fresh air into the room.
2. Sit on a chair, cross-legged on the floor, or lie on your back on the floor. The best benefit will be attained with a straight spine, so do your best, if sitting to sit up straight.
3. Breathe deeply and slowly, without strain, through the nose.
4. Exhale, through the nose, at the same pace as you inhale. Exhale each breath as completely as possible
5. Maintain a connected focus with the process.
6. Do this for 50 - 100 complete breaths (approximately 5 minutes), to start, upon waking.

Try this basic approach, and I guarantee you will feel better because of it. If you need assistance get it. You have but one life, take responsibility to make it your best effort.

I watched “Gandhi” the other night, again, and was inspired to write a post in tribute to the beautiful, little man, with a mind devoted to peace, love and humanity and possessing the heart of a warrior.

“….man acts as a guardian of his body. It becomes his duty to take such care of his body as to enable it to practice the idea of serving to the best of its ability.”

All the great prophets and spiritual leaders are very clear in their belief that creating an optimal state of health and fitness is a primary responsibility for each of us so as to create the energy needed to live a life of harmony, continual growth and contribution. Gandhi was no different.  He had plenty to say on diet, hydration and exercise. In his own life he provided a very real example of the effects on health with his own fasts. In his historic Calcutta fast Gandhi used a, fast to the death, threat as a means of stopping the Hindu-Muslim violence uprising. http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/study_res/gandhi/gandhi_fast.html

Gandhi knew very well the fact that quality, balanced food intake was irreplaceable fuel for the physical action of life. He stated it irrefutable that 99.9% of men and women in the world eat merely to please the palate. Gandhi is often associated with strict vegetarianism. For 6 years he was exactly that. Not taking into account the accumulative effects that diet could have, his health forced him to make a change in 1917, and recognize the need for adequate protein in his diet. He said, “In year 1917, as a result of my ignorance, I was laid down with severe dysentery. I was reduced to a skeleton, but I stubbornly refused to take any medicine and with equal stubbornness refused to take milk or buttermilk. But I could not build up my body and pick up sufficient strength to leave the bed. Gandhi believed that he who is able to control the palate, will easily be able to control the other senses, and that there should be an odium attached to those who slavishly pander to the palate.

“modern education….  has no relation with our everyday life. Thus, it leaves us almost utterly ignorant about our own body. ”

Much has remained the same since Gandhi’s time, and much of what he lived and promoted have fallen to the wayside. Almost 100 years ago he was commenting on the need for individual health management. Today many are still starving, most are malnourished, a sub-species of obesity has formed, and the majority of the population apply minimal effort, if that, to their health and fitness.  His quote, “The modern generation is delicate, weak and much pampered”, has only multiplied in quality and quantity in time.

“No matter what amount of work one has, one should always find some time for exercise, just as one does for one’s meals. It is my humble opinion that, far from taking away from one’s capacity for work, it adds to it.”

Gandhi was very clear on his opinion of physical labor as part of life and believed, “… a man should be able with ease to walk ten to twelve miles a day, and perform ordinary physical labour without getting tired.”

“Exercise is as much of vital necessity for man as air, water and food, in the sense that no man who does not take exercise regularly can be perfectly healthy. Exercise, as is food, is as essential to the mind as the body. The mind is as much weakened by want of exercise as the body, and a feeble mind is, indeed, a form of disease. A sound mind in a sound body alone constitutes true health.”

Gandhi’s health advice stressed the need of adequate hydration for health and performance, recommending, at least 9 cups of pure water per daily.

‘”…everyone should carry his drinking water with him. Many orthodox Hindus in India do not drink water whilst traveling on account of religious prejudices. Surely, the enlightened can do for the sake of health. What the unenlightened do in the name of religion”

As you can see the game has not changed that much. Whether coming from Aristotle, Hippocrates, Buddha, Morihei Ueshiba, Gandhi, Jack Lalanne, or a Blue Collar Zen master it is acknowledged that health and fitness is an integral pillar in life that has no replacement, and if ignored detracts from our life performance and thusly our happiness and harmony. Make the commitment to yourself, and honor your obligation to God and mankind to be your best by taking charge of your health and fitness.