A personal mission...
My personal story begins four and a half years ago. One morning I couldn't bear the idea of attending yet another day of work. Stress. I "needed" the day off - not 'wanted the day off or 'I could use a day off' - needed the day off!
I was so desperate for some advice / answers / relief and was determined to do this without the use of marijuana, alcoholic or over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. My girlfriend went to work and left me to myself to reflect.
The daily pressures of being an indy magazine publisher had wrapped the very fabric of my being, nerves, muscles, emotions, etc... I felt real close to having my own personal nervous breakdown. It was a mind, body, spirit collapse.
I remembered reading somewhere that if you wanted to remove stress, an hour of reading would do it. i found myself looking through the bookshelf in the loft and seeking non-stressful reading for the morning of my first day off in well over a year. I worked weekends, holidays, basically whenever I was awake (yeah, it was bad news).
I perused The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, having had it recommended from a friend 10 years before. It was my girlfriend's copy, not mine. Three hours later I began to understand what was happening to me. Then, there was a reality shift. A strong one. That book changed the way I would relate to people, eat, drink and sleep. It was my first step on a path of a thousand miles.
I read it once a year for old times sake. Also to remind me of what I forgot to remember.
Over the next 30 days, We worked half as hard and made more money, and began studying Taoist texts. We even enrolled in a weekly Tai Chi class and began doing yoga. Two months later, I developed a daily practice of reading at least one verse from Tao Te Ching every day for the next two years. Contrary to Buddhism and Confucinism - Taoism is a philosophy and, in fact, opposes organized religion. [When I find something I like, I repetitively do it to embed it on my subconscious and make sure it gets in there. But, that's just me.]
We also came across The Complete Book of Chinese Health and Healing: Guarding the Three Treasures by Daniel Reid which was purchased on a Brooklyn street for a couple of bucks. That book brought us both to yet another level of understanding the Body, Mind and Spirit.
We modified our diet: removed all refined sugars, refined flour, refined salt and went home at 6pm every night to cook vegetables, make a fresh juice, drink green and herbal teas and read, read, read. We avoided drinking, smoking, and "going out" to dinner with friends, and began to take our health obsessively seriously. Vegetables and fruits we avoided were Nightshades. Most of our friends never heard of nightshades. Hmmm... Neither had we until this book.
These two books placed a focus on learning to trust our own intuition and inner awareness / body - first and foremost. We both became quite astute at doing this. My ex-girlfriend, Beth, had a bit of an advantage over me, being a female. It is my view, women are taught at a young age to express, feel and release their emotions, where many or most of us men are not.
If this is not the case with men you know, it certainly was the case with me.
continued...
