Old Dogs, New Tricks

Very mixed emotions this morning. Last year Tananarive and I tried to pitch a show about a married pair of spies called LONE WOLVES. We got shot out of the water when J.J. Abrams sold his own series along a similar theme. Disappointment, for sure. Now, this:

http://www.facebook.com/l/1d4dc;ausiellofiles.ew.com/2010/01/12/exclusive-meet-j-j-abrams-latest-discovery/

And it seems that he's cast black leads. This is probably a bad idea for him, but I love the sentiment. There have been so few successful dramatic shows with non-white leads that I'm surprised anyone still tries. But that is probably my cynicism talking there--Abrams is willing to put his weight behind this: sexy young black leads in a dramatic action show? Radical. I mean...they're not fat, or old, or passive...none of the neutering techniques that have been used in the past to try to make blacks more acceptable and non-threatening. I don't want to bet against its success, I really don't. It pisses me off that the average person, confronted with the statistics, will try to blame "Hollywood" for the problem. As I said a couple days back, my horrible suspicion is that whites will be slightly disconnected from the show--from directors to writers to audiences, that they won't have the level of investment that made "Alias" such incredible fun. And the quality will suffer. Is there enough black talent behind the camera to fill in that gap? I doubt it, because they can't just be "good"--they have to be great to create a series that can get enough ratings (read: white viewers) to thrive, or at least survive 2+ seasons. And as long as everyone thinks the problem is someone else's the elephant is still squatting in the living room. Keeping my fingers crossed. Would love to have a chance to pitch for them. And I'll be there on opening night.

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And speaking of spies, 24 premiers in four nights! The seventh season was a redeemer after that awful season six. Let's see Jack kicking ass and keeping America safe by breaking Constitutional rights. Love it. But I hope they have a disclaimer stating that it is a fantasy, so members of our government won't use it as a guideline for interrogation techniques. That was totally disgusting, and damned near ruined my enjoyment of the show.

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People are diving into deep "Avatar Depression" because their lives aren't as vivid as what they saw on the screen. The Vatacan is pissed that the movie promotes nature worship? Conservatives are pissed that it is anti-Corporate and anti-military? Liberals that it promotes the Divine White Male and his mighty penis? Wow. Now THAT is four-quadrant programming. I don't know what Cameron's got, but the man has MAD skills. I would purely love to have a conversation one day. Keeping my fingers crossed.

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The 101 Program: Day Nine addresses Energy. You could do far, far worse than aiming your life at:

1) Maximizing your energy

2) Learning to use it as conservatively as possible, matching the curve of energy and attention to the task at hand. Being able to do this intuitively is a pretty decent definition of Mastery.

Without increasing energy, you cannot change entrenched behavior patterns. There are basically four major aspects to increasing energy, and they all interact:

1) Fitness. Ideal muscle/fat ratio. High aerobic endurance. Proper skeletal alignment. Grace of motion. Proper relaxation. All of this can be attained in a couple of hours a week. The payback is gigantic.

2) Rest. Over on Huffington Post, there is some kind of "sleep in" competition, where people are promising to get at least seven hours of sleep a night. This boggles my mind: never have I been able to survive on less than eight. I know people who do the 3-5 hours of sleep a night routine. Usually, their complexions are horrible, their bodies like bags of garbage. It seems to me that they are so disconnected from their own bodies that they can't feel that they are killing themselves. It is so incredibly sad.

Of course, some people legitimately have to work multiple jobs, so that between that and taking care of their families, they have no choice. To these, my heart genuinely extends. But whatever time you do have for sleep, aim at that time being as deep and restorative as possible. Who out there has trouble sleeping?

3) Food. Check your fuel. Personally, other than having adhered to Intermittent Fasting for two years now, my discipline sucks. I definitely could use some more work there, but get away with it because of I.F. and my exercise program. Get your furnace turned up high enough, and you can burn almost anything...even if it's not recommended. There are tons of different "diets" but the only thing you need to remember is that life eating plans work, and temporary changes do not. In general, eat today for how you want to feel tomorrow. Be conscious about the food you put in your mouth. An easy way: use your cell phone's camera and TAKE A PICTURE of everything you eat. Every morsel. Force yourself to be conscious. This one step will improve your diet--the problem is automatic eating. In general, as a very broad principle, eat:

3 parts Fresh Fruit and Vegetables to

2 parts complex carbs to

1 Part lean proteins

With very few fats salts or sugars. Note that the typical diet pretty much inverts this. Tinker with these percentages: for instance, reducing carbs if you are trying to lose weight. But most diet recommendations orbit this ratio more or less.

4) Focus. You have to have something to DO with the energy, or else why bother having it? And that energy can't be used against you. I've had people actually say that if they had more energy, their boss, husband, or wife would just expect more from them, so they'd rather be tired. Wow. That is incredibly childish and sad.

We must expect better from ourselves than that. Energy is the stuff of life. The reason you "can't teach an old dog new tricks" is that the old dog is exhausted. Get your energy up! There are always new and fascinating tricks to learn...

Unlike Denzel or Will, the "Book of Eli" is coming

As "Avatar" creeps toward the all-time top box office, it is kind of fun to note the shots taken at it from the Left and the Right. A damned fine sign that Cameron is taking the middle course. You know that I consider Jim to be playing out of the box, an awakened artist archetype. He has much, much to admire: his filmmaking skills, as a total package, are as high as anyone I've ever known of, and he works in the genre I've loved all my life. If over the entire stretch of his career, only one black male character has ever survived his work (an unnamed, light-skinned non-com at the beginning of Avatar is not seen to die), he's just a typical white guy. No white critics or audiences, to my awareness, have ever noticed. No one cares. So what the heck.

But I notice that along with the inevitable "it's a left-wing screed on environmentalism" there is also an inevitable "it's a right-wing racist `white men save the universe'" myth. Well, again, there it is. The problem is that I think there is a basic myth pattern in human culture: one of "ours" goes "over there," meets resistance, masters their skills, rescues them, wins their women and synthesizes the two cultures. We happen to live in a world that has been dominated by white images long enough that it seems this pattern is exclusive to Caucasians. I think not--my attitude is that there is nothing special at all about white people, including their foibles and flaws. They're just as messed up as the rest of us (although organized in REALLY interesting ways.)

Someone pointed out the presence of similar themes in "I Am Legend" and the upcoming "Book of Eli" starring, respectively, Will Smith and Denzel Washington. Well, I haven't seen "Book of Eli" yet, but I'll bet you there is one very serious difference: Avatar's Sam Worthington got laid. Will Smith, confronted with the last women in the world, has no interest in sex at all, in fact, seems to try to die as rapidly as possible (almost as if aware of the audience's discomfort). Denzel? Ever see his house? Very clearly his advisors sat him down long, long ago, and said: "listen, D. You've got two choices: you can get laid in your movies, and have a wonderful Direct-To-Video career, or you can live in a palace. Your call." And Denzel, being no idiot, chose the palace. I'll see the movie on Friday. Here's another prediction: IF Denzel gets busy the movie will flop. White viewers will dislike the movie, for reasons that have NOTHING to do with the sexual content. Of course. Black viewers will have a FAR more positive reaction. For reasons that have nothing to do with the sexual content. Of course.

Amd yes, I'm talking about you.

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Thanks much for the feedback on WWW.DIAMONDHOUR.COM. I am horrible at HTML-speak, and the site has enough easy-edit tools that I can actually add to content and modify the templates. I am looking for feedback: what would you like me to add there? What free information or services would be good additions?

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I now have eleven coaching clients, half way to my maximum load. The most important thing I can do is to deepen my meditation, so that I am totally centered when I listen to their concerns. "I" am not sufficient to help these wonderful, accomplished people. But the space I inhabit, when I am careful to root deeply, is more than enough. It is not me, and never was. Every day, that truth has to be nailed into my ego. It is not me.

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Day Eight of the 101 program is Heartbeat Meditation. Pure coincidence. Even if one has no metaphysical bent, this is an incredibly powerful technique. In my mind, meditation is merely the ability to maintain a particular quality and quantity of mental/emotional focus, on either an external or internal locus. Candle-flames, sounds, images, breaths, motions, concepts, sensory impressions, phrases...all are valid "targets" for this practice, some version of which exists in every culture in the world.

The time frame is usually about twenty minutes or more. This is because the first fifteen minutes is usually filled with your mind's random chatter, so that you effectively get FIVE minutes of real depth in a twenty-minute session. That said, even a few seconds is far, far better than no meditation at all.

I learned the Heartbeat Meditation as a "secret" technique (I've yet to see it mentioned elsewhere, although that may just be my own ignorance) as a devotee of Sri Chinmoy, one of the truly remarkable men I have ever experienced. He was the first human being I'd met with a visible aura...but that's another story.

Even if there is nothing "spiritual" about the practice, the depth is remarkable for such a simple, safe method. Here are some reasons:

1) Pulling your attention into your body is marvelously focusing upon the physical root of your existence.

2) "You can awaken your Kundalini from the heart out, or the root up, but never from the head down." In other words, your intellect just can't get you there, no matter how it may try to convince you differently. Nothing sadder than watching smart, over-intellectualized people wobbling through their lives, convinced that intelligence actually makes their existence more difficult. Hardly. Intellectualization makes life difficult, but intelligence, defined as problem-solving capacity, is fabulous...assuming you address the appropriate problems.

3) You have to relax deeply to "hear" your heartbeat. To relax deeply, you have to extend your spine as if held by a string from above, allowing the skeletal structure to do its job while the muscles release tension. This in and of itself is a wonderful practice.

4) Our culture associates deep emotion with the heart. For that reason, thinking or concentrating on the heart connects us with the emotional center of our lives.

5) Listening to the heartbeat familiarizes you with the way mental or emotional focus affects the heartbeat. You can begin to slow it down (NOTE: this is NOT a technique dangerous enough to cause the heart to stop. Such techniques exist, but trust me: this one is kindergarten, while the dangerous ones are graduate school. The chances of "accidentally" stumbling onto one of the dangerous ones is nil.)

6) Concentrating on the breath is terrific. But we have no direct voluntary control over the heartbeat--and that can help humble us.

7) There is more. Much more. But this is a damned fine place to start. This is, quite possibly, the best and safest "doorway" into the inner world.

Small Steps, Big Change

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

-Gautama Buddha

I think this is why I consider myself a "Zen Christian." That is: any of the principles of the religion I was raised in, which also seem to be in alignment with the behavior of animals and the interaction of natural forces...that's what I hold to be true. Further, I look for the principles which are consistent across the world's major religions, and consider that to be the center, and generative. What remains?

Well, "do unto others" sure survives. As does the idea of protecting the children, being honest, kind, industrious, and remembering that the domains of spirit and flesh overlap but are not exactly the same thing. Loving my neighbor. Forgiveness (which is NOT forgetfulness, or allowing people to hurt you repeatedly.)

That's how it sorts out for me. Starting there, I can see very easily how the rest of various religions' various rules grow out of cultural conditions, politics and personal prejudice. I feel comfortable ignoring that stuff.

The whole "reality calibration" thing uses body, career and relationship to cross-check theories and ideas. Not that it isn't possible to be in the very highest rank of human energy without being anchored in the material plain (as all three of these aspects are), but that it is WAY easy to lose yourself in illusion if you can pretend you don't want relationships, or money, or fitness. Yeah, I know I'm using prejudicial language to say "pretend" but that's 99% of my experience: people act like they don't want things if they don't have faith they can have them without pain.

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The whole Harry Reid situation seems to be a teachable moment. What is racism? I would say that strictly speaking, it is differentiating between people based on race--most specifically assigning a pejorative on that basis. Especially when whatever differences you are assigning are genetic instead of environmental. That said, a racist is not necessarily a bad person--it would all depend on what they DO with that opinion, and whether they are willing to judge individual members of that group as, well, individuals. Believing the average member of group X isn't as smart as the average member of group Y is very different from denying all members of X the right to attend your school or live in your neighborhood.

That said, Reid's comments just don't seem to meet that standard. It was "racist" in the strictest sense that it was discussing race. But it seems to me he was just commenting on some common-sense things.

1) That as a light-skinned black man, Obama would be more acceptable to white Americans than he would be were he darker skinned. Duh.

2) That speaking the Kings English is more acceptable than speaking some mumble-tongued argot. Such vocal fumblings can be found in disadvantaged groups across the country and around the world. Reid and Bill Cosby would probably have a long, good conversation about this one.

3) Usage of the word "Negro" is a generational thing. As those of African descent did not have the opportunity to define themselves in America, or ever have the isolation necessary to create what I would consider a real society. As a result, there was never a heirarchical structure speaking for black people, and different groups at different times stumped for different terms to apply to the descendants of African slaves. "Colored," "Negro," "Black," and "African-American" have all been used. But just as Bruce Lee referred to himself as a "Chinaman," a term that might now be considered racist, the fact that certain words in certain quarters are no longer fashionable simply doesn't mean that using them is indicative of disrespect.

A number of times I came across comments that these comments were acceptable in private black-on-black conversations, but not for white people. My thoughts there:

1)I can understand how some people feel uncomfortable about this. Yeah, well, I don't. So no one can say there is "agreement" on this issue. Who exactly is Reid supposed to listen to? There is no single voice, and never has been.

2) Are there subjects that only whites can talk about publicly? I've never been aware of black people refraining from commenting on anything they want. Where, again, is the official list of those things blacks can talk about, but not whites? Men but not women? Gays but not straights?

I just think that this is a waste of breath, and serves no purpose at all. We have bigger fish to fry.

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The Golden Hour

In the 101 program, we discuss the concept of the "Golden Hour." In all honesty, my new website, WWW.DIAMONDHOUR.COM would have been called "Golden Hour" except that was already taken. All right, I'm flexible, and the concept of facets fits into my teaching quite smoothly. Many have heard of "pay yourself first" when it comes to income and bills. But the exact same concept applied to time management is slightly radical. Many people claim to have no time, and use that to excuse their lack of meditation, planning, exercise, or whatever. Careful examination of their time, in 99+% of cases, shows that lack of time isn't the problem. The problem is wasted time, lack of prioritization, fatigue, denial, and fear. That's what the Five Minute Miracle was about: creating a powerful program for change which could be implemented in only 300 seconds a day. Never in my life have I met anyone who doesn't have five minutes a day. That means that if they commit to the program, whatever comes up to distract them can be clearly labeled as b.s.

But how do you move on from there? One minute at a time. Add another minute a week. In a year or so, you'll be at an hour. What can you accomplish in an hour? Miracles. If you draw the line, insist on taking just one hour a day for yourself: not for your kids, your family, your pets, or your job, you can meditate, exercise, time-manage, and write a book a year.

Not bad. But to do that, you have to find the technologies and approaches that are hyper-efficient, and operate without your psychic "brakes" on. Let's see:

5 minutes goal reading

10 minutes Meditation

15 minutes exercise

30 minutes writing (flow or editing)

There are many different variations on the above, but if you are sufficiently serious, you can create massive change through small daily actions. Believe it.

Nervous Daddy...

All right. Sigh. I guess I can't put it off any longer. Check out my new web site at:
WWW.DIAMONDHOUR.COM.
Please give me an honest opinion.

Physical Flow

I admit to being stunned at the dishonesty of current Republican leadership like Giuliani claiming that "there were no domestic terror attacks under Bush." Good Lord, has the former Mayor of New York forgotten a little thing called 9/11 so soon? Is he senile? Three thousand dead Americans, forgotten so quickly, in the cause of political expedience? And anyone who dares consider the media Liberal, I'd love for you to explain why this bald-faced revisionism isn't being trumpeted from the rooftops.

GOD I hate politics.

Do you want to have a bare glimpse at the forces Obama is pushing against? Because the only way you know how strong someone is is to quantify the amount of stress they are withstanding. THIS is what his enemies are willing to say and do publicly. You had better bet it's ten times worse in private, behind closed doors. Never, ever, forget this, if you want to know why a ship of state can be so unwieldy.

I have to warn you in advance: one of the reasons I'm so angry about this is that I didn't hold Bush directly responsible for 9/11, figuring that whatever happened in the 1st year was a matter of a new President getting his sea legs. Looking at these vicious, dishonest attacks, I can see that I was, politically speaking, colossally naive (I guess on one level I always knew that, and warned you guys in advance, multiple times.) I have to warn you in advance: I consider anyone who tries to defend these lies to be completely warped by partisanship. I almost HOPE you are lying, that you at least KNOW you are distorting reality to make political hay. That would be better than the alternative. If you defend this stuff, and don't know you're lying to yourself, I fear for your sanity, just a bit.

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I'm moving my coaching business to the next level. I'm putting the finishing touches on the new web site, and will be announcing it next week. Oh, it's lurking out there in Cyberspace, but we're still kind of shy..
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The 101 Day Six: The Five Minute Miracle

The whole idea behind the 5MM can be broken down as follows:

1) We need to take breaks to center ourselves. We have to "shift gears" between activities, and often forget to place ourselves in Neutral before we upshift.

2) The breath is the best measure of stress reaction. By applying the breath-movement-structure model, we gain a perfect monitor of our internal state.

3) Synaptic facilitation: skills are best learned when practiced in short sessions several times during the day. This is much more effective than the same period of time performed in a lump.

4) The abdominal girdle is the most important single muscle system to tone. They hold everything else together.

5) The health of the back is critical for energy and wellness.

6) Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has five minutes a day. If you cannot make this much time, the problem is you. Period.

There are other reasons too, but when I learned "Be Breathed" from Coach Sonnon, the possibility of creating a very special exercise protocol, with applications far beyond the physical. To be "breathed" by a motion is to confine yourself to exhalation and relaxation, with no deliberate inhalation. Instead, work to find the muscle contractions within a motion that force the air powerfully from your lungs. Relaxation allows the muscle to relax, and air pressure will fill your lungs. When you do this over the course of several minutes, you are learning an exceptionally useful way to enter your inner realm. Later, this will sophisticate into the production of physical Flow, the most fervently sought of all athletic states. The value of learning this tool--free to anyone with the courage and discipline to spend less than an hour a week--cannot be over-stated.

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Maybe I'm just too damned naive, but I can't get over Giuliani's lie. Maybe some of you can point me toward a more egregious one. Please remember: the truth has to be an historically demonstrable fact, undisputed and accepted by all the world, like the fact that 9/11 happened during the Bush presidency. Is this as bad as it seems?

Take A Day...

"Me and my friends get no respect.
What does Scooby-Doo that we neglect?
We be puttin' all our foes in check,
but me and my friends get no respect."

That, of course, is the immortal theme from "Jabberjaw," Hannah-Barbara's friendly shark cartoon. It is also evidence that, once again, Tananarive is out of town and I'm hanging out with Jason. Also that my brain is turning into puree of bat shit.

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Coached Scott Sonnon yesterday. This guy, preparing for the U.S. Martial Arts Team's assault on Vegas later this year is doing three-a-day workouts, any one of which would kill a rhino. The only reason, and I mean the ONLY reason it's doable is that he is one of the world's experts on recovery, and has a world-class wellness team to monitor every physical sign of overtraining, as well as re-aligning all physical systems. And in addition, his beautiful, incredibly intuitive wife Jodie is on board with this. It is an inspiration to watch: athleticism carried to the level of spiritual expression. I've never been this close to the process before, although gurus like Sri Chinmoy certainly lived in that space.

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THE 101 PROGRAM: Be Breathed

"Be Breathed" is the deceptively simple abdominal exercise series Coach Sonnon created. Together with the Flow State Performance Spiral, it forms the last major piece of the puzzle I've sought my entire life: first, how to free myself from the bondage of illusion. Second: how to communicate the truth I found to students and clients a hell of a lot faster than it took me. If you create challenging goals in all three arenas, your demons will go berserk, creating stress like you won't believe (actually that's wrong: you do believe it. That's why some of you will never try it.) If you then teach yourself a breath-centered stress reduction technique like "Be Breathed", and begin to apply it throughout your life (the Five Minute Miracle), you can manage your level of strain exquisitely. If you then begin to "load" your physical frame with more intense motion while maintaining your smooth thread of breath, you attain the ability to stay centered in the midst of stress that would kill the average person. And in life, they pay you for how much stress you can take without buckling.

The essence of the "Be Breathed" technique is to perform a sit-up motion, concentrating on exhaling the entire time. As the spine come perpendicular to the ground, allow the muscles to relax momentarily. The diaphragm will drop, and air pressure will create a shallow inhalation. Continue forward as if trying to touch your toes, again being smooth and non-stressful--and allowing the compression to squeeze air out. As you come back up, your spine will again pass the perpendicular. Relax at that moment, allowing the air in again. NO DELIBERATE INHALATIONS. As you lay back down, you are using your abs to control descent. As you lay flat, relax for an instant, allowing yourself a shallow breath. Raise your legs as far as you can , even taking them behind your head if you have that strength and flexibility. As you return them to the ground, continue to concentrate on the exhalation.

Rinse and repeat. Done in rhythm, slowly, this is one of the very best exercises in the world, teaching so much about the body-mind connection it is almost impossible to overestimate it. Turning the second "Tibetan" into a Be Breathed is a pretty smart idea, trust me. If you have weight or back issues, modify by just lifting the knees to squeeze the diaphragm. The point is to make NO CONSCIOUS DELIBERATE INHALATIONS during the entire cycle. Do this, and you have taken a vital step toward centering and self-mastery. Once you've learned this, you can incorporate this idea into all exercise, all motion. And the benefits go way, way beyond the "merely" physical, into the arena of intellect and spirit. That that, my friends, is serious magic.

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"Take a day to heal from the lies you've told yourself and the ones that have been told to you" ~ Maya Angelou

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So...what lies are you guys still recovering from?

The Billion Dollar Man

Avatar has crossed the billion dollar mark, worldwide, making it the 4th highest grossing worldwide film of all time, and #17 domestically. Yes, Cameron is King of the World.

I saw it again yesterday, in 2-D, and actually liked it better the second time. The images "pop" amazingly, and make me wonder if the familiarity of the story isn't part of the point. Does anyone think that it would be making MORE money if the story was startlingly original and the beats weren't telegraphed? I mean, this story has been done countless times...but as I said, that may be part of the point. The images Cameron wanted to create were so remarkable, that it is possible he wanted a very simple, direct, racial-memory kind of story (One of Us becomes one of Them. Within the "Civilized" man is the nobel savage. Etc.) so that we would be overwhelmed by the immersive experience. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit, but I'm not sure.

One thing fascinating is the way it has been criticized by both Left and Right based on their prejudices about the opposite end of the political spectrum. After all, it both criticizes Corporations (Left!) and is a typical White Male Can Do Anything (Right!) story. Ah, hang it up, folks. It's a story. Damn near the exact same story could have been told in any era of human history (and probably has) and people would complain: You're criticizing the Emperor! You're talking about the British East India Company! You're referencing the Vietnam War...etc.

It is quite funny to listen to people whose cinematic or cultural education goes back twenty whole years swearing it is "Dances With Wolves." Sorry, Charlie...these memes have been around a very, very long time. The point of all art is NOT originality of story. It is also presentation. And at that, Avatar does some things better than anyone, ever. Some of those images are so startlingly clear in 2-D that 3-D just ain't necessary. And hey! Cameron actually had a black male character who didn't die. So far as we know. I'll take it.

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My favorite Christmas present this year was one I gave to Jason: a gel ant farm. This uses a jello-like blue substance instead of sand. The neat thing is that the ants not only tunnel through it and live in it, but actually eat it and get their water from it. Developed by NASA to test the influence of microgravity on insects. It is far more stable than sand, and therefore could survive take-offs. It is uber-cool to watch the Carpenter ants tunnel--looks surreal. Little buggers are SMART! Every time I tried to open the top to remove ant carcasses (several arrived dead) they knew and swarmed up to the top, trying to escape. So I put it in the refrigerator for fifteen minutes to gentle 'em down. Worked pretty well. They get all groggy and stoned, and only one got out. I corralled him and dropped him back in. Swear I heard him cursing at me, but somehow "May two of your six legs swell until they are as fat as twigs!" just doesn't have much zing.

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Day Four of the 101 program (sign up at WWW.LIFEWRITE.COM) deals with the difference between stress and strain. People try to avoid stress. They should not. Life itself is a succession of stress tests, and you are rewarded in direct proportion to your ability to handle stress without folding. The secret is that stress refers to the AMOUNT of pressure you are under. But when that stress begins to deform your structure, it is called "strain." It is strain that is "bad" for you, not stress. The name of the game is to learn how to handle higher and higher levels of stress. "It ain't how hard you can hit" Stallone says in "Rocky Balboa," "It's how hard you can GET HIT and keep going forward."

Well, it's also how good you are at slipping punches, of course. But the point is that at times, life is a storm--better bring your raincoat. The 101 approach to this is to connect everything through your breathing. Once you learn the "Be Breathed" technique (exhaling on active compression, passive inhalation) you practice it five times a day for sixty seconds per session. Then you integrate this breathing into the Five Tibetans, and later into other movements. By pausing five times a day, you will begin to interrupt negative breathing patterns before they become pathological, or spiral you down into a self-reinforcing loop of recriminations, negative results, and depression. You "interrupt the pattern" with sixty seconds of positive breathing. And the breathing is the "canary in the coal mine"--you literally cannot be depressed without breathing in a non-resourceful manner. And you cannot breathe in a resourceful, positive fashion without feeling better.

Because the breath is the link between the conscious and unconscious mind (the only process which is both voluntary and autonomic) it is the key to control of the deep self, and every culture in the world has known this. If you can control this, stress will never become strain. And if stress does NOT become strain, the only way your mind and body can react to pressure is by becoming stronger. It's how we're built. And if you set goals in all three major areas, and manage your breathing as you move forward toward them day by day...every demon in your unconscious will arise to confront you. It is fascinating to watch clients go through this "a meteor will hit your dog" syndrome. I swear it looks psychic or metaphysical the way coincidence will collaborate against you.

This is the path to growth. Nurture your relationships, your community obligations, your body, your relationship with the divine within and without. Walk the thousand mile road, one breath at a time. And from the corner of your eye, you will begin to glimpse your true self.

And what an unbelievably beautiful sight it is. You are. We are, every one of us. If we just learn to drop our fear and limitation.