My Left Shoe

The famous shoe….

On a trip to Porto in the North of Portugal last month, I made the mistake of trying to go for a swim in the sea.

The Atlantic waves hit the shore there with terrific force. After all, there’s nothing between there and the East coast of America to stop them.

Now I’m a strong swimmer and trips to the seaside never go by without my swimming in the sea. But in this case, I must admit I hesitated.

I stood and watched the waves for some time on this particular afternoon. The sea seemed calmer than it had for a couple of days.

I chose my moment and launched myself forward.

I never got to swim.

The waves threw me about a bit and knocked me down unceremoniously.

It felt like a betrayal considering my privileged relationship with water.

I crawled out as best I could, but not before the sea had swallowed my left shoe.

An outrage!

Now this was my favourite pair of shoes.

I can walk, run, swim, do virtually anything in my Vivo Barefoot Ultras and they’re as light as anything. I think it’s great to be able to wash them easily too.

I wear them all the time.

I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to lose one.

A man who was walking his dog on the beach looked rather concerned as I emerged from the water. He talked to me in rapid Portuguese, which I don’t speak, and he didn’t speak any English.

I managed to communicate that I had lost a shoe.

And he managed to communicate, as our attempts at conversation continued, with some additional drawing in the sand thrown in, that I should return between 9 and 10 the following morning because that was when the waves would be at their strongest and that I should look on the shore to the north of the point where I had lost it.

The Beach….

So we did.

I can’t say that we really believed we would find it. The chances seemed very slim.

It was raining as we progressed along the beach and my wife and I walked for a while, inspecting jetsam brought in by the sea.

But suddenly, at a distance and in front of a group of rocks, I spied my shoe.

It was sitting proudly upright on the sand as if held out on the outstretched palm of the ocean.

There wasn’t even any sand in it.

I was overjoyed as you can imagine. It really made my day to be reunited with my shoe.

A lesson in humility and hope.

Have a great Ascension weekend.

Love

Richard


P.S. I saw the man later on the same day, so I was able to thank him properly for his help.

P.P.S. Associate Links!

Anyone for Tennis?

I share one thing in common with my mother at least. (Well, probably a few others….)

I enjoy watching tennis.

At least for the moment.

As the game evolves though, that may change.

It used to be a rather civilized game, but it’s starting to become as barbaric as any other professional sport.

Those announcements of players.

Aren’t they confusing tennis players with boxers?

Why all this building up of players into super heroes? Why is being human no longer enough?

As super heroes, the players are something of a disappointment.

For one thing a super hero should set an example and not behave like a three year old.

Is the behaviour of players on court now an example to youngsters?

Tantrums, racquet smashing, invectives against umpire and linesmen.

The undisguised shouting of foul language.

The absurd clenching of fists after each and every point. Where did this come from? It looks completely stupid.

Even demanding more applause from the crowd when the player feels he’s played particularly well.

Interesting that you don’t see the women demand more applause from the crowd.

Something I’ve never understood though.

Why do the spectators applaud after each point?

It seems ridiculous to me.

Does a secretary receive applause after each letter typed?

Does a teacher get a pat on the back after every lesson?

Then why applaud tennis players for simply doing their job for a few seconds? Crazy.

I can understand applause for an exceptional point.

But as things stand, there’s nowhere to go when the exceptional occurs. Apart from more noise.

But don’t get me started on the behaviour of the crowd, which sometimes borders on the intolerable (2017 Australian Open for example).

Yes, we’re a long way away from cucumber sandwiches and the importance of participation.

But that, as they say, is progress.

May your life never become an endurance test.

Love

Richard

TTAC Live Symposium

Just a last quick reminder that the Truth About Cancer Live Symposium will start in a few hours (8.30am EST, 1.30pm BST, 2.30pm CEST) and goes on from 5th to 7th October 2017:

These are pretty good events which you can watch for free.

You’ll pick up all sorts of helpful information about improving your health.

The link again:

Health Symposium

Love

Richard

P.S. Affiliate links.

Paraphernalia

Wikipedia définition: “Paraphernalia most commonly refers to a group of apparatus, equipment, or furnishing used for a particular activity.”

When I was a kid, I had a bike.

Whenever I wanted, I leapt on my bike and went for a ride.

It was that simple.

Now it seems you can’t go for a ride unless you’ve got the right shoes and togs, preferably smeared with advertising so you look like you’re on a pro team.

And don’t forget the gel-padded gloves, the water bottle, the pump, the tinted protective glasses and the indispensable crash helmet.

Bicycle clips on your ordinary trousers are passé.

You need a special low friction, ultra high-speed, no wind-resistant pair of tights.

Whatever happened to simple?

Whatever happened to inexpensive?

Let’s take another example: fitness.

All the advertising suggests that you need an expensive gym membership to stay fit or at least have a few costly machines at home.

Not so.

Even if you have no exercise ideas of your own, the internet abounds in excellent exercise suggestions that require nothing more than willpower and a functional body to perform without any equipment whatsoever (see list at end of post).

So why are we constantly cluttering up our lives with all this unnecessary equipment and expense?

Perhaps we’re trying to convince ourselves that if we don’t have the equipment we can’t do the activity.

Perhaps we’re afraid that if there is no one to look at us, then we won’t exercise.

Ultimately, though, it’s between you and you.

The rest is just distraction.

All that equipment, all that clutter – it’s a hindrance rather than a help.

Keep it simple.

Do what you can.

Go slowly – you’ll quickly become disgusted if you overdo it.

Here are a few YouTube exercise channels that I particularly like:

Bowflex Workouts
Although this company makes fitness equipment, the workouts without any equipment at all are very interesting. The link I’ve given will take you to a series of standing abdo exercises that I’ve tried out myself, but the are plenty more videos like that. It’s a little macho with the man giving the orders and the girls doing all the work, but my goodness those girls are beautiful!

Tapp Brothers
These guys are into parkour but their exercise suggestions without equipment are really interesting and useful for anybody.

Flipping 50
Targeted at people over fifty, the lady presenter may be a little less flamboyant but her suggestions are good.

K’s Perfect Fitness
The girl has the obligatory stunning looks of a standard get fit channel, but she actually has some good exercise tips without equipment as well as with. The poor sound is a minor irritation (microphone on camera so no presence).

Very important – don’t get depressed if you don’t look like the presenters in these videos!

Hope that helps.

Have a great week.

Love

Richard

mesunglasses

The Truth About Cancer Symposium 14th-16th October 2016

300x250-liveevent-ad2-startstomm

Just a heads up about the latest event organized by Ty Bolliger and featuring numerous authorities on cancer and health in general.

The Truth About Cancer first live Symposium is taking place from 14th October to 16th October 2016. There will be input from all sorts of experts about cancer and in particular about preventing and curing the disease by natural means.

The event features over 40 of today’s most popular and in-demand health luminaries… including Dr. Joe Mercola, Mike Adams, Dr. Josh Axe, Ocean Robbins, Chris Wark, Sayer Ji, Dr. Eric Zielinski and many others!

Well worth checking out:

TTAC Symposium

Just to refresh your memory, Ty started to look into the disease after not one but seven members of his family died from the disease and its conventional treatments.

He has made it his mission to inform everybody about natural ways of preventing and treating the disease and the dangers of the traditional approach to dealing with cancer – namely, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

He has made a series of remarkable documentaries about these issues.

So here’s the link again:

TTAC Symposium

Hope you find it useful.

Have a great weekend.

Love

Richard

P.S. The links above are affiliate links.

mesunglasses

Pull Ups Without A Bar

Just a heads-up about a rather amusing video from the Tapp Brothers:

In the video, one of their subscribers asks the question, “How can I do pull-ups if I don’t have a pull-up bar?”

Seems like a valid question to me. Not all of us are happy with a gym environment and not all of us have access to a bar.

So the brothers show a series of 5 basic ideas, and some variations, for doing pull-ups without a bar.

Some of the ideas are really simple and the presentation is a lot of fun.

The brothers are really Parkour adepts, but I love the way they come up with alternative solutions for exercising that are useful for anyone.

Why not take a look?

Hope you enjoy it.

Have a great weekend!

Love

Richard

mesunglasses

Sounds Like Placebo

I was reading an article about grounding and the benefits of walking barefoot when I saw a comment suggesting that there was no scientific evidence for grounding and that it “sounds like placebo.”

I’m always amazed at the way people sneer as they say “placebo.” It’s a bit like those stories of doctors looking patients over and then declaring, “There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s all just in your head.”

You’re merely stupid and weak-headed, right? Ready for the loony bin.

My advice if this happens to you is to walk out of that surgery and never look back. Find someone who is capable of seeing you as a human being and not just a series of moving parts.

We underestimate the power of the mind to affect our health at our peril. Even if the doctor is right and the symptoms are entirely in your mind, that doesn’t mean you’re not ill. It just means the illness is in a different place.

There have been numerous studies which show the power of the mind in healing. A lot of people feel better just by fixing a doctor’s appointment. There have been controlled studies where patients healed better on a placebo than using the prescribed drug for the problem (not really surprising if you consider the crap that goes into patented drugs).

You’ve heard of Quantum and Newtonian physics? Well, there’s Quantum and Newtonian medicine too.

Let’s say you have a pain in your knee. You go to the doctor and he looks carefully at your knee. He might take an Xray. He might suggest an exploratory operation. He might tell you that your cartilage is worn out. But the chances are, he won’t examine the rest of your body to find out if something else is causing the problem in your knee. Essentially, he’s looking at the knee as the site and the cause of the problem. This is Newtonian medicine. You look at the result, but you don’t necessarily search for its real origin.

Quantum medicine is when you look at the person as a whole and try to understand the forces at work behind a problem. A physical problem may very well have its origin in your mind, your emotions, your experiences or in a completely different part of the body from the site of the pain. It’s important to realize this, because until you get to the root of the problem, it will never really be solved. This is where good nutrition, for example, or tools like tapping come in handy.

Last summer, I talked to a school friend that I hadn’t seen for some years. He was a GP (General Practitioner doctor) for many years after leaving school and one of his tasks these days is to go round medical surgeries in the UK and verify ‘best practices.’ I suggested that one way of tackling the soaring health costs that bug the UK – or any other developed country for that matter – might be to use more alternative medicine.

‘What about nutritional advice?,’ I said.
‘No scientific evidence that it makes any difference,’ he replied.
‘What about tapping?’
‘No scientific evidence.’

To be fair, the medical care system in the UK is so blinkered that a doctor suggesting alternative protocols can lose his right to practise. It does, however, indicate the problems that individual patients face in using conventional medicine.

‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,’ said Hippocrates (he of the Hippocratic oath).

Most doctors now practising spent approximately one morning learning about nutrition in the course of their seven years of study. Things are gradually changing, but it’s going to be a slow process.

The person in the best position to look after your health is YOU. No one else can be in your skin and no one is going to care about your health as much as you. So if you feel that your health interlocutor is not really listening to you or your concerns, take matters into your own hands. Research on internet, change your diet, do more exercise, try working on your self-limiting beliefs, your traumatic past experiences, even find another doctor who takes your problem seriously.

But don’t give up and don’t underestimate the power of your mind, both as a prime cause of illness and as an indispensable tool for healing.

Have a great week.

Love

Richard

mesunglasses

Just When You Thought It Was Too Late….

Ty Bollinger and the team at *The Truth About Cancer are giving a last chance this weekend Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th April to watch the 9 episodes of *“The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest” for free.

Here’s the info:

TTAC Replay
TTAC Replay

So if you missed an episode or two or never got around to looking at the series, here’s your chance to make up for lost time.

I watched this series in October 2015 while in Corfu.

It doesn’t sound like the sort of thing to watch on holiday, but I sat and watched the first couple of episodes on the terrace in front of the studio we were renting and I was so passionate talking about them that my wife finally had a look. After that, we sat together and watched an episode each morning. The weather was pretty appalling, so you have to imagine us watching on a laptop on this covered terrace, turning the volume up to max when the rain really came down.

We were fortunate to have a roof on our terrace, I can tell you.

It’s hard to describe the impact these films had on me. I experienced many emotions while watching, but if I had to choose one, it would be anger. Anger that so much suffering is caused by treatments that just don’t work, that so few people seem to be aware that there are natural alternative protocols to the cut, poison and burn strategy of ‘conventional’ medicine. Anger that over $600 billion have been donated and spent on cancer research without anything to show for it except higher dividends for shareholders in the big pharma companies.

It’s got to stop. People have to wake up. Your doctor is not necessarily your best friend and advisor. There are conflicts of interest.
And in the end, the only person responsible for what you do or allow to be done to your body is YOU.

For me, watching this series galvanized me into action. In the last six months, I’ve done more research into health and diet than in all my 60 years (birthday next month!) put together. I’ve always done some kind of exercise, and I’m in fairly good shape, but I’m determined to approach old age on my own terms.

I’m tired of hearing people say that it’s normal for someone to be in crappy condition because he or she is old. No, it isn’t. And it isn’t a fatality. We can all look after ourselves better.

But for that to happen, we have to value our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health more than the accumulation of wealth and objects.

So my advice is to watch half an hour of the first film in this series.

If you don’t like it, then you can go to the mall and buy yourself an ice cream.

But don’t say, “Oh, I don’t want to think about this. It’s so depressing. It makes me afraid.”

Your life or the life of a loved one might very well depend on your taking the time to watch these films.

Isn’t that worth more than buying a new shirt that you’re never going to wear anyway?

The link again:

*“The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest”

And yes, if you click on the link I do stand to gain a dollar or two as an affiliate. But if you think I’m suggesting that you look at the films so I can earn some money, you haven’t understood the whole point of this website.

Have a great weekend, whatever you decide to do.

Love

Richard

mesunglasses

* denotes affiliate links

Important Documentaries About Cancer

Just to let you know that the fascinating and eye-opening documentary series “The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest” is showing again on the internet for free starting 12th April 2016 at 9pm USA Eastern Time.  More details at:

*The Truth About Cancer

This is a must-see series for anyone who wants to be properly informed about cancer, its causes and remedies.  As 1 in 3 of us is likely to be diagnosed with cancer during our lifetime according to the latest predictions, we owe it to ourselves to know what we’re dealing with.

This series offers viable alternative solutions to the standard cut, poison and burn treatments that conventional medicine has used for decades and continues to use without any real regard for patients.

I guarantee you will come away from watching these films with a new sense of hope with regard to this devastating disease.  As Ty Bollinger, the producer says, a diagnosis of cancer need not be a death sentence.

Here’s the link again:

*The Truth About Cancer

Hope you find this invaluable.

Love

Richard

mesunglasses

P.S. * denotes affiliate links.

About Exercise (and other things….)

I wanted to give you a heads-up about this video:

I found it while reading an article about making exercise easier at:

Mercola.com

which, as you know, is a site that I really love.

The point is that Alexander Heyne, alias Modern Health Monk, is spot on about much more than exercise in this video.  The bit about money not being sufficient to motivate us in a job is priceless.

I teach English a few hours a week to a class of 15 to 16 year olds. Some of them have signed their apprenticeship contracts and feel it is no longer necessary to work in class.  I ask them what they will do when their employers give them tasks to perform in a few months’ time.

“Ah, but that’s different,” they say.  “We’ll be getting paid.”

My reply is that doing things for money will be the start of their problems, not the end.

This video indicates in the space of a few seconds why that is true.

Real progress in exercise, as in life as a whole, depends on creating healthy habits, whether we’re talking about our mind-set, work, relationships, eating or an exercise routine.  Ultimately, it’s all the same thing.

A habit, though, is not necessarily cosy and comfortable.  The best habits push us out of our comfort zone at least a little, and this is when the most progress is made.

A closing thought:

“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”  Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Sneaky ancient Greeks!

Have a great weekend.

Love

Richard

mesunglasses