Don’t know if any one ever notices that every once in a while, a breaking health scare, a heightened national security level, or natural phenomenon seem to suddenly bloom faster than any other news story? Its impact–devastating. Its reach–everyone. And most of all, it’s practically on every news channel, landing page, and paper headline.

Remember SARS in 2003? The H5N1 (aka the bird flu virus) a few years ago? First off, I am not denouncing their severity or their impact. According to the WHO, the total mortality count for H5N1 between 2003 and 2009 hovers around 250 victims.

What I am curious about is the timing of this latest health crisis in the midst of continual economic bad news. Like switching channels during a bad commercial, I wonder if the “powers that be” simply decided that this latest outbreak could serve as a temporary media band-aid to cover up an economic wound that just isn’t going to go away. Gloomy financial forecasts grab their share of the news spotlight, but after a few months, many of us would rather watch or hear something.

After all there’s nothing like a good dose of mortal vulnerability to put things into perspective. The potential smell of explosive residue or the sound of a grotestically abnormal cough on a crowded bus is enough to make you forget about Toyota’s latest stock losses…at least for a while.

I was diagnosed with Degenerative Disc Disease summer of 2007. What is Degenerative Disc Disease? And why would I talk about this on my blog? Because back pain affects so many people and too often (as in my case) people are often misdiagnosed. In fact, Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) is probably the most commonly misdiagnosed back problem.

Because it’s onset is gradual, it’s often perceived to be a sprained, pulled, or tensed-up muscle.  It is also often diagnosed as a slipped disk. So, after much rest and too many inflammatory cocktails, sufferers are often left back at square one scratching their heads.

What is Degenerative Disc Disease?

In a nutshell, DDD is normal wear and tear of one or more disks in your back. Everyone over time will experience some degeneration in the spinal area. For reasons that are still be debated among back specialists (as to why), one or more disks begin to shrink. Our disks are the spine’s shock absorbers. Start removing one or two and just like a car hitting potholes…well you get the picture.

I won’t copy/paste what has already been written out there. Here’s a pretty good site that talks about DDD (http://www.spine-health.com). As a matter of fact DDD is not really a disease at all, it’s more of a “condition”. A condition you can get used to living with.

I’ll try to give some advice in some upcoming posts about living and training with DDD.

Training the mind I believe is an often overlooked or neglected aspect of training.  I’ll be 41 this year and I have to say that until recently, I too ignored training the mind.

Why did I decide to train my mind and why should you? Simply put, training the mind is the hardest type of training, yet the results will have the greatest effect in your life.

After reading article after article and talking to people who have meditated for a long time, the feedback is always the same. Meditation will reduce your stress,  increase mental clarity, and augment one’s overall well being.

I officially started meditating a week ago. At first I was going to start attending one-hour sessions twice a week at the Shambala Meditation Center. I was primed and eager. Last Sunday, one of the volunteers I spoke to at the center said that I was better to start off with 15-minute sessions every day than to try committing long one-hour sessions. He said a lot of people get discouraged quickly when they realize how hard sitting for an hour can be.

So I followed his advice. I’ve meditated every night since then for 15 minutes. Interestingly though, I was able to reflect and think about personal issues with greater clarity right after my meditation (not during). In the midst of meditation you want to try and clear your mind (not think about a problem). I read that the best time to reflect or contemplate is right after meditation and it’s true.

This I found remarkable. My mind set was much more relaxed and objective. As a result, my conclusions about the topic were much more grounded. I feel that although my meditation has just begun, I am already seeing how one can tap into “mental tools” that lay hidden beneath the jargon of our busy minds.

In this day and age of declining medical care and rising insurance costs, I am starting to understand how taking care of our health is even more important and should be “multi-faceted”.

Cardio for the heart, weight training for the muscles, yoga for flexibility, good nutrition to feed the machine, and finally, meditation for the mind.

Let’s not forget, that it should be wrapped in a good positive attitude to boot!

So start meditating!

I attended an open house visit at the Shambala Center here in Montreal last Sunday. I had been to one before and even attended a “meditation information session” in the spring. For years I’ve wanted to learn to meditate. A few years ago I attended a series of workshops on stress management given by Gina Rubinsky. I badly needed to learn some stress management tools. The workshops were a success at the time. However I was the one who didn’t keep up my end of the bargain (to myself) and over the span of many months, I was meditating once a week and obviously not seeing any difference in my stress levels. “I’ll get back into it at one point…” I said to myself.

Weeks turned into months and months suddenly turned into a long time ago. So here I am. For years I’ve dabbled in meditation, read books, and attended information sessions. But somehow, I was never able to stick to it. Why?

I think meditation has to be one of the hardest things to do. Just sitting there, with yourself and your thoughts. And your thoughts is what you’re trying to clear. I guess I’m ready. I’ve always trained. Whether it was weights, martial arts, swimming, climbing, or yoga. Yet, I seemed to have let the most important part of myself out of my training routines.

I’ve read that the benefits of meditation are endless. I’ve finally decided to incorporate meditation into my daily routine. I even bought a mediation cushion last week.

At the meditation information session I attended, the instructor explained how important it is to maintain good posture (especially for people with bad backs like myself). He said too many people underestimate the importance of good support during meditation practice. It made sense to me to invest in a good meditation cushion, just like buying a good yoga mat or a pair of running shoes. And you know what? Having the proper equipment motivates you as well. I’ve already meditated three times since last Friday.

For now I’ll be aiming to attend meditation class at least once a week at the center to start. I figure, start gradually instead of going in full throttle and then quitting soon after.

I was in class last night learning a small series of moves from the first routine (I thought I knew). Then after 5 minutes I realized I had no clue what I had been doing and furthermore, I was even doing it wrong. “But I’ve been doing Tai Chi for over a year. Can’t I get even a little better?” I thought to myself.

I was also humbled by my teacher’s patience. He had separated the class into sub groups (depending on the level of the practitioners) and he was teaching 3 of us the same section of the first routine. If you take a look at my post “Why Tai Chi is Hard ? (Part 1)” the moves I speak of occur between 1:47 to 1:52 in his video.

My teacher would repeat and repeat the same 5 or 6 moves and we would do them over and over again. Often he would come and correct us individually (usually with a grin on his face). I wasn’t sure what I admired most about Sifu Yang—his skill or his endless patience. “How many faces has he seen come and go over the years?” I thought to myself. I’m aware that in most martial arts schools, the drop-out rate is high. I had heard that the softer the art (i.e., Judo, Aikido, Ba Gua, Tai Chi), the higher the drop-out rate.

I recently exchanged with a knowledgeable Tai Chi instructor by the name of Jeff MacKay. In his wisdom he says: “You can never force the movements nor can you let your mind figure out it’s strategies. The secret, as well as the beauty, is to simply “allow” it all to happen.” I understand it conceptually…I think. Now I have to try to integrate it.

At one point Jeff’s words came alive when my teacher (demonstrating an application within the routine) asked one of us to strike him. Out of no where came a block followed by a shoulder entry. Sifu Yang’s response didn’t seemed choreographed or planned, it was natural yet unnaturally quick. The attacking student was pushed back several meters BTW.

Tai Chi is hard because there are no winners or losers after a sparring match to dictate who prevailed and who didn’t. Tai Chi is hard because there are no belt rankings. And I think Tai Chi is hard because it doesn’t look possible or realistic as a self-defense system. It’s almost like taking a leap of faith in a way.

Kind of like the Tao. You read it, think it’s stupid or absurd, and dismiss it (and wonder why you thought of even reading it). Later you may read it again, then out of nowhere, suddenly something in the Tao “clicks” because a moment in your life mirrored what you read. Then you start wondering…

“maybe this works”

I never thought I’d ask that question. I’ve been doing martial arts all my life and I stumbled on Tai Chi by accident a little over a year and a half ago. I was taking a break from Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and decided I still wanted to do a martial art, without the pounding of drills and sparring. Over the years my lower back has taken its share of wear and tear, so I thought taking up Tai Chi would be something new and perhaps challenging. An “active” martial arts break I thought.

I signed up at Wudang Internal. At this school, the teacher specializes in internal arts. As the name suggests, these martial arts focus on the internal development of the practitioner. I’ll discuss the differences between internal, soft, and external martial in an upcoming post.

Having my share of martial artistic experience, I thought Tai Chi would be easy and possibly boring. After all I was taking an “active” martial arts”. I was in for quite a surprise.

Not only was I not able to carry over much from my previous training into Tai Chi, but I was faced with a new way of training. The focus was now on softness and pliability. The shift was now on learning whole body integration. Suddenly my kicking, punching, and grappling skills were hindering me.

Weeks turned into months and months turned into a year and a half. I’m still trying to understand Tai Chi. Many questions that I had about Tai Chi are slowly getting answered. As a skeptic and long believer in “live sparring” I had previously dismissed Tai Chi as something “older people” did and would never had considered it as form of self-defense.

A year and a half later, I have more questions now than when I started, although I am beginning to understand its subtleties.

Tai Chi is hard because you have to pay attention to an endless amount of physical details. Anyone who practices Aikido would appreciate the subtleties hidden within Tai Chi. For Tai Chi to work, you need to understand proper body mechanics “under a microscope”. You need to coordinate breath with movements and most of all, you need to relax.

Tai Chi demands your utmost attention to both your external and internal self at all times and that is often the toughest part (at least for me).

In my previous training, I’d often be focused on the physical aspect of the moment; a sit up, an armbar, a drill, a take down, or a throw. Now the complexity hidden in Tai Chi’s simplicity demands more of my attention and leaves me mentally “worked out” by the time class is over. How could this be?

I’ve leave this post with a video of my teacher doing the first routine (Chen Style).

Recharging In the Quebec Laurentians (Part 1)

Ever need to recharge? I mean, really recharge–as in, calming the inner dialog inside your head. I know I do. Although I live close to the city, I’m fortunate enough to be blessed with plenty of parks and wildlife around our area, but once in a while, my wife and I just need to get away. That’s what we did over the past weekend.

We went up in the Laurentians to the Crystal Inn, a cozy little place that is short of illuminating. We discovered the place last summer. We had a weekend package given to us by my brother and sister and law as a wedding gift. Little did we know the impact of this gift.

So a year later we went back. And as it was last year, we always walk away with tons of ideas, reflections, and new perspectives on life. One of which I will share with you in the upcoming entries.

If it wasn’t for Mario and Bibi (the owners) the experience wouldn’t be the same. They’re the heart and soul of the place. They have a lot to say and share about what is really going on behind the spiritual scenes. They talk about the power of crystals, making positive conscious life changing decisions, and always bring up awesome coffee conversations as you start your day.

Our experience at the Crystal Inn is also coupled with a visit to Le Scandinave Spa. We’ve been going there for years. The effects of a spa on your body goes a long way. If you’ve never tried a Scandinavian Spa I highly recommend it. As a long time sufferer of sinus infections (sinusitis) a steam bath with essential oils (usually eucalyptus) clears everything.

I guess over the years, learning to enjoy simple relaxation away from the core stressors of work and the cities has become more and more important. So, combining the Crystal Inn and The Spa Scandinave have become a new positive tradition for us. But this summer, another experience was added to our excursion.

A Buddhist Monastery in the Quebec Laurentians?

Yep. Who would of thought? While having breakfast Sunday morning, Mario (the Crystal Inn owner) mentions that we should pay a visit to a Buddhist monastery. So shortly after breakfast we did.

Boy, were we in for a surprise…

Friday August 1st 2008
I was in the gym today training legs and shoulders. At one point I was doing seated calf raises, and somewhere between a grunt and a rep I caught a glimpse of older gentleman probably in his early fifties performing some yoga postures in the stretching area.

I guess he struck me because he was doing the series of Sivanada postures I first learned some 15 years ago. For a moment I caught myself looking into a looking glass of what I might look like a few years from now. His thinning grey hair, a slight awkwardnesses in his movements. “Is that going to be me?”

Maybe he’s like me, always training and never planning to stop. Maybe he just recently started training after some revelatory experience or doctor’s warning.

Then the moment became interrupted by two teenagers. Their presence blocked my view of the older gentleman. I watched them as they stared across the gym at another teenager perhaps a few years older than them, only twice their size. The boy they stared at couldn’t be more than 18 years old, his right arm completely tattooed from wrist to shoulder. He hoisted weights neither of them could even dream of lifting.

I recognized their gaze and for a moment I saw myself in the mid 80’s. Awkwardly walking around the gym beholding the sculptures I swore I would look like.

I got off the machine and put the weights away. For a split moment it felt like I had just time traveled in two time directions in the span of a few sets.

Not sure what the feeling was. Melancholy? Fear? Or maybe the realization that one should never stop training.