Personal and Environmental Wellness

For many years, I have explained to questioning family members and friends why I cannot support conventional cancer-fighting fundraising campaigns.

I am not completely against conventional medical treatment options for different types of cancer. For example, for a good number of people that I have worked with over the past several years, I have fully supported and encouraged surgical excision of malignant tumours. My wariness of the mainstream cancer-fighting industry pertains to what I believe is excessive and often times inappropriate use of chemotherapy and radiation, as well as the lack of attention that is given to relevant environmental and personal lifestyle factors. Read more »

In searching for a lawn mower over the past few days, I visited our local big-box stores and compared the latest models. Wanting the most eco-friendly mower available, I was thinking push reel. But I wasn't sure that I could find one that could handle the significant grade along the sides of our home. Read more »

Wow. I just watched a 1-minute film that completely blew me away. I had to watch it five times in a row. Please have a look here: Read more »

September 4, 2010

Greetings!

Well, here I am again at the cybercafe, to report that I am indeed enjoying this ancient but new-to-me and certainly no longer "pure" way of life in rural and small-town Mexico (which has been contaminated significantly by capitalism in all its worst aspects). Read more »

I was once asked to do an interview with a focus on what overworked and overstressed people could do to stay healthy. After giving it some thought, I decided not to do the interview because I didn't want to send the message that people can experience their best health by following a few tips on diet and lifestyle without regularly ensuring adequate physical and emotional rest. Read more »

If you are finding it difficult to overcome tendencies to experience fear and anxiety about a health condition or any other aspect of your life, I hope that you realize that you are not alone. Fear and anxiety are emotions that are common to every person's life journey, but especially for those who are living with a long-standing health challenge. Read more »

One of my favorite movies of all time is Unbreakable, a film by M. Night Shyamalan. What I love most about this film is its suggestion that if you are not doing what you are meant to be doing with your life, you will wake up each morning with a little sadness in your heart.

I realize that every person's life is made up of countless conscious and subconscious experiences, and that it can be self-limiting and even depressing to think that there's just one thing that each of us are meant to do really well. Read more »

Back when we had a whole-house water filter installed to remove chlorine and other undesirable chemicals from our water supply, the friendly technician who did the work was thoughtful enough to give me some tips on how to significantly reduce energy consumption. Read more »

Originally published on January 9, 2009, updated on September 28, 2009

Over the past couple of years, I've had dozens of people recommend The Secret, a popular self-help book on the law of attraction. I have yet to read this book, but my understanding is that "the secret" boils down to this: we should continuously focus our thoughts on everything we want in life, as we tend to manifest what we regularly think about.

Most people would probably agree with the idea that visualizing a desired outcome is just one important step to manifesting that outcome. Visualizing all day long and not taking action to realize one's hopes just doesn't inspire confidence, at least not for the masses.

Updated on July 3, 2009

Several years ago, I was fortunate to meet a lady named Deborah at a fasting clinic in northern California. I had several conversations with Deborah over the course of a year, and what I remember most is that her kindness was amazingly genuine - the feeling for me was that she had done a lot of inner work to identify the life principles that she strove to live by.