Why don't you experience muscle pain in your sleep?

Stop & Think (but not too much!)
Answer this intriguing question - why is it that during your sleep you experience no joint pain, back pain, headache or muscle tension, not even any sense of hunger or thirst? Sure you may wake up and feel these things but during your actual sleep cycle you experience none of these ordinary, daily problems! Perhaps we've all had those extremely 'real' dreams where we do appear to experience physical harm or trauma but as soon as we awaken even that pain disappears once we realize it was just a dream. 

An Eastern Perspective on Sleep Cycles
Our mind is typically so busy that it's difficult to sit still unless we are being distracted by some entertainment. For example, I think we've all experienced many nights of attempting to get to sleep and our physical body is lay down in our dark, quiet bedroom, yet our mind is working overtime downloading events from the past and projecting to the future.

Within Buddhism they define mind as a formless continuum, its nature is clarity and it functions to perceive and understand things. They clearly differentiate between the mind (non-physical) and the brain (physical). The brain is easy to understand as part of the human body. We can take images of the brain and even have it operated on. However, although the mind is associated with our physical body it has no tangible or physical properties. Through the power of our mind and imagination we can travel from Earth to the Moon and imagine what it would be like but we can't physically get there without travelling in some kind of spacecraft. Another example I often give is that if the mind and the brain were the same then why couldn't we have surgery to remove our anger, depression, anxiety and other negative states of mind that appear to have no function, other than to harm ourselves and/or others. After all, are we not all seeking to be happy all the time and to be completely free from all pain and sickness? 

Depths of Mind
Let's go a little deeper into your mind for a moment. Have you ever noticed that when your partner or child is sleeping and you open their eye they don't suddenly become startled and see you? Again our Buddhist friends tell us that the gross mind and energy winds, upon which our five senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste) are mounted, have dissolved into our subtle mind and energy winds and thus they no longer function unless we are aroused from our sleep. Beyond the subtle mind we enter into our very subtle mind during our deepest sleep and it is during this phase that all our gross physical senses have ceased. Buddhist's believe that our cycles of sleep, dreaming and waking are very similar to death, intermediate state and rebirth. The simple difference between the two is that when we arise in the morning in our present body, our mind and body are still associated. At the time of death our very subtle mind separates from our present body and continues to our next life. Buddhism 101 for you there!

What does all this mean?
I challenge you to learn one of the greatest tools I added to my health program 9-years ago. Meditation. It is through correct meditation that you can train your mind to accomplish deeper levels of mind (from gross to subtle and eventually the very subtle mind). Imagine yourself arising every day with a deep sense of inner peace and contentment that regardless of what your daily life brings, your mind is tranquilly abiding in a state of pure happiness. Then all your muscle pain and other problems will truly end! 

This is the method of meditation I have studied for the past 9 years and I highly recommend this scientific method:
www.kadampa.org (Globally)
www.meditationalberta.org (for residents of Calgary & area).

To your pursuit of inner peace!
Jason.

You do this 26,000 times a day
And you are doing it without even thinking about it. Breathing. Could you imagine doing deadlifts incorrectly 26,000 times a day. Even the thought brings injury to mind, right? Yet everyday most every adult, unless they know this secret, is continuously reinforcing a faulty breathing pattern. In a nutshell, it means that we are breathing in the wrong pattern 

Why is this happening to us?
I'm sharing my own theory here. If you have young children around you from the age of being born to around 14-years of age then you'll notice when they breath they almost exclusively breath through the abdomen with minimal to no movement of the shoulders. For whatever reason though as we become adolescents we begin to switch our breathing pattern. Is it because we are taught to keep our 'stomachs in' or so body conscious we don't allow our belly to fully relax as we once did? Who knows for sure but these are my insights from over a decade in treating this common faulty motor pattern.

Is it such a big deal?
Naturally when we need more oxygen into the body we need to use every muscle available to help take that extra air into the lungs. However, the vast majority of our day should be more at rest when the additional muscles are not required. At this time, it should be just our diaphragm movement that is sufficient to fulfill our oxygen requirements. Yet I have just shared with you that most of us are not doing this when at rest. This means that over time, 26,000 times a day for many years, it can and will lead to the following common postures and/or injury symptoms:

- Forward head posture
- Thoracic Outlet Syndrome - including arm numbness and tingling
- Reduced range of motion (ROM) of neck, shoulder and thoracic spine
- Altered alignment of the cervical vertebrae
- Symptoms mimicking Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Digestive disruption - due to a lack of massaging naturally induced when breathing correctly.
 - Headaches, migraines, vision and vestibular issues.

So in summary, as your massage therapist, I say yes it is a big deal that only gets bigger over time if ignored!

What to do about it?
Watch this 5-minute video and immediately start putting it into action!

Be Healthy,
Jason.

Sweet tooth

Got the Sugar Blues?
I remember reading a book several years ago 'The Sugar Blues' by William Dufty in which he refers to sugar as being an addictive agent comparable to cocaine! Additionally, he highlights interesting research that determines another cause of motor vehicle accidents/deaths - sugar. A high sugar diet leads to such disruption to the human physiology that it can cause drowsiness and poor reaction time. Time for the police to start 'pancreas testing' alongside random breathalyzer testing!

The Fifth Estate Documentary
Thank you to a good friend who shared a recent Fifth Estate, eye-opening documentary about the negative impact that sugar consumption is having our health.

Now if you are truly wishing to improve your health, the health of your family and those you know I highly recommend you watch the full documentary. However, I'm summarizing below the key points that you need to know about:

• The average Canadian is consuming 26 teaspoons of sugar per person per day or 40 kg per year (that works out to be 20 bags of sugar per year)
• Sugar is prevalent in highly advertised food products that are literally 'designer foods' with high sugar content designed to sweeten the products and spike the profits generating a near $3 trillion per year revenue in North America alone.
• Dr. Robert Lusting author of 'Fat Chance' states that sugar is a 1000 times worse than fat. The latter of which gets all the attention in media and nutrition books.
• Dr. Lusting estimates that 100 million + in North America are either diabetic or pre-diabetic and predictions are that by 2026 there will be nothing left in health care funds as diabetes will have chewed (pardon the pun) through it all.
• Dr. Lewis Cantley of Carnell University is a cancer specialist and believes cancerous tumors have insulin receptors that essentially increase the demand for sugar in the diet and that through the average North American diet this supply is being provided leading to a perpetual growth of any existing cancerous tumors.
• Professor Suzanne Delamonte of Brown University is finding more evidence to support their theory that Alzheimer's is another version of diabetes that directly affects the brain tissue. I highly recommend you review this segment of the documentary at 28-minutes in to the documentary.
• Bruce Bradley, a food industry insider and author of 'Fat Profit$', declares that food manufacturers are quick to retort that 'if you're getting sick, it's your fault' placing full responsibility on the part of the consumer. However, if we are not provided with the correct information it can be challenging to make the right choice. http://www.brucebradley.com/

The full documentary can be viewed at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mzf4KSG6oQ&feature=share

The Way Forward

It's all about supply and demand. The more we continue to buy these 'designer foods' the more foods will be supplied. I recall a few years ago a McDonald's restaurant in the UK that had to close its doors within a few months of opening as most of the people in the village refused to eat the fast-food. I believe that if we each take accountability for our own health and avoid buying the designer foods then similarly without the demand, the supply will eventually disappear. 

Health is your choice.

Jason.

All For A Great Cause!

Working for World Peace
I want to say a thank you to those who were scheduled for their massage treatments last Fri Nov 1 2013. I worked for one of my favourite causes - World Peace! 100% of my wage that day went to the New Kadampa Tradition Buddhist Temple Foundation. Just this week I had some good friends who returned from Portugal where the newest of the temples were officially opened and over 7,000 people gathered from all over the world for one purpose - to become a little wiser! 

Buddha's teachings
The idea of World Peace sounds great to all of us but how can we ever accomplish it? Now maybe we do have a long haul ahead of us but like anything else I feel we have to first be the example of what we wish for our family, friends, children and future ancestors to be in years to come. 

I remember when I first heard this wonderful quote from Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.

"Without Inner Peace, Outer Peace Is Impossible."

Now if you've never meditated here is your opportunity. Simply re-read the above quote and memorize it. Then close your eyes and continue to recite quietly in your mind and deeply contemplate the reasoning behind this statement. Then imagine that you are directly experiencing a wonderful feeling of pure, inner peace. Notice how you feel and then try to maintain this new feeling for 5-minutes. If you wish you can then imagine that the whole world is suddenly overcome by the same blissful feeling through you. Again try to maintain this thought and feeling for 5-minutes. 

A Daily Practice
Taking this above meditation as a daily practice when you then step away from your seated meditation, in a quiet space and all alone - the true measure of your practice becomes the familiarity and recollection of these thoughts and feelings when we meet unfriendly people, difficult circumstances at home or at the workplace and our desires are unfulfilled! Again, this takes time and lots of practice. Training the mind is very similar to training the body. With a regular practice, good teachers and suitable resources we can accomplish our final goal. Visit www.meditationalberta.org for more information on meditation programs in and around Calgary, Alberta.

What You Want More Than Anything Else
Ultimately, if you think about it deeply, we are all searching for the same two things - freedom from all pain & suffering and to experience everlasting happiness. Buddhism has taught me and many, many other people how to actually work toward these ultimate wishes and my wish in supporting this great cause is that my family, friends, patients, community and eventually everyone, have the same experience.

To your Inner Peace

Jason.

We should all be able to do this exercise

The Healthiest Exercise on the Planet?

This is one of my favourite daily exercises to awaken all 600+ muscles, my internal organs and revitalize my mind!

Watch the video above and then read below for some additional insights....

Did cavemen have low back pain?
This is a great question I once heard Paul Chek, HHP ask. Just think about it for a moment. Now I have no doubts that they did suffer back pain but I firmly believe the causes of their low back pain were very different to ours of modern day. Maybe they just fell out of a tree. Injured it whilst wrestling a native tribe member or traumatized it during a hunt falling down a rock face. Let's put it this way I don't think it was from the 2-hour daily commute, 8-hour workday behind a desk and 3-hours of sitting on the couch watching TV, before retiring to bed and repeating the cycle!

"A  picture is worth a thousand words"
I've said this many times over that if we got up from being immobile and walked around on our hands and feet, as a pain therapist,  I'd be out of business! The challenge we face is that our body never fully returns to its fully upright posture and we tend to hold this pattern of bending forward (a.k.a. a flexion pattern) and then return to it time and time again - sitting in the car, sitting on couch, even sitting on the toilet!

Reversal takes time
My advice is either 1) start walking around on your hands and feet (good luck with that one) or 2) ensure that you are 'rebooting' your muscle patterns regularly. Briefly, this means that if you have spent several hours in a bent forward position then ideally you need to afford a similar amount of time reversing this pattern by doing an extended backward position. Obviously that isn't realistic, so at the very least 10-20 minutes of daily stretching focusing almost exclusively on all the flexors and the rest of your day should be absolutely dedicated to your awareness of good and bad posture choices. For example, that 2-hour commute to work can now be a 2-hour daily workout of some of your extensor muscles that hold your spine upright and your head square upon your shoulders. Do this for a week alone and you already have close to 12-hours of postural correction happening!

Remember that health is a choice and it's your choice alone.

Be Healthy,

Jason.