Tag: wellness

Breathe Your World Into Dust

He’s been in a world in his head, a world ingeniously designed to the specs of his limited view of the universe. A landscape of fears, should be’s, and can’t’s. And then he gives attention to his breath again. And he realizes that he hasn’t been with himself.

With incoming breath to calibrate to, his mind comes back to him. And he is all of a sudden able, seeing, and unafraid. The skyscrapers stretching into clouds of doubt, the unending streets, and the maze-like city blocks of his thought world are vanquished. They crumble in the quake of mindfulness and evaporate, thin as mist.

And in possession of his consciousness the beast moves forward to create the world. The world that does not disappear with a breath, but takes millions of breaths to make. He works with his mind. His body translates the blueprint of his mind into the world. Mind, body, and creation are one.

The solemn beast briefly remembers a different reality in the past. He gently thinks of the days in which his body worked separately from his mind. The days when his mind did not control the work of his body. The days when his mind wandered in the world of thoughts, staring up at the skyscrapers, turning down countless alleys, treading along endless streets. All the while his body worked for the minds of others, for the creation of a world in which he did not believe.

What is it for a beast to create what he does not see? Is it not a spending of his life, something that comes once, so precious and irreplaceable, irretrievable, for finite benefits? Doesn’t that reduce his life down to meaningless currency? As cold, forgettable, and pitiful as a bag of coins.

With another breath, the beast returned with joy to his creation. He allowed himself to be happy. For who else but his own self could give happiness to him? He took a moment to breathe in the atmosphere of happiness. The path would be long, he knew. The skyscrapers would be tall, taller than he could ever imagine. And the possibilities would be more convoluted than ever. Rest, and enjoyment of his happiness, was good to have.

He marveled at the parallel worlds of his past unpossessed self and his present conscious self. Both would look similar to any other beast who could have the chance to gaze in upon them. But one, he thought, is fundamentally different from the other. One he creates. This one he chooses.

Live powerfully,

Steve

The Brilliant Beast Blog Daily

Your Share of the Sun

The beast didn’t have exact measures. But he thought it was true that there was an optimal amount of sun exposure each day. He knew there was a certain time of day that the sun radiated good feelings through him.

There were also times of the day when it merely burned him and didn’t give him warm energy. He knew he did not feel well if he were not in the sunlight for more than a day. So the beast tried to go out into the sun, at least once a day, in the late morning and early afternoon.

When he first paid attention, and sat in the sunlight as it glowed down on him in the late morning, it felt amazing. He became vibrant and happy. It was so good he did this again the next day, and the next, and the next.

One day, the beast wanted to have as much sunlight as possible. He stayed outside in the bright day a very long time. At first he felt wonderful, just like the days before. The grass was green, the breeze tickled the trees around him, and the birds chortled with glee. The sun filled the beast with joy. But he became greedy and wanted more. He sat, and sat, and sat. Then he felt dizzy and weak, as though the sun were leeching energy from him. He knew it was time to go home to his cave.

The next day, as the beast washed himself, he noticed that his skin had darkened more than usual. In some places, it looked dry and wrinkled, like aged leather. It was soft, but no longer firm and strong. His skin was hurt, and he was humbled. He was astonished by the power of the sun. It brought him life, but it also ushered in death.

So there was a balance. Sunlight was good. And it was very good in the late morning and early afternoon. It made him calm and happy. He slept deeply at night and woke bright and energized. But meetings with the sun were only good for him if he respected the power of the sun. It was important that he retreat with his gift before he paid the price of overindulgence. He thought about this at length and decided it was worth the risk of death to seek life from the sun.

The beast made a daily effort to make his appointment with the sun. He went out into the daylight, receiving his share of the life giving force shining down on the earth. He walked amongst the trees, flowers, and grass that also received their share. He paid close attention to see when it was time to retreat. Some days he could take much, and other days he could not. He learned that when he was tired, he could not have as much. But it was fine. When he was well rested, he could have more. Soon, it all began to make sense.

He encouraged other humans to take part in this powerful thing. Many of his kind had shied away from it, afraid of the death it could bring. Humans were intelligent beasts, and had wanted to separate themselves from the rest of the world, and from each other. They learned that many things brought death, forgetting that those same things, taken humbly, gave life. So humans restricted themselves from the earth and from the universe. They thought that they could become immortal by doing so.

They covered themselves in pastes that shielded them from the sun’s magic. Their intelligence often outweighed their instinct. But in hiding from death, they had forsaken life. So the beast kept telling them of the wonders of the sun.

Slowly, humans learned to cast away their fears and let the sun touch their bare skin. They came to experience the joy of the sun. People were all different, and so were their needs for this source of energy. Some beasts found that a small amount of time in the sun was ample. Others found they needed to be in the sun longer. Each had her own share and learned to take humbly.

Those that learned to see themselves as part of a world from which they could not part in mind nor body learned to dig deeper into the earth and the universe. They became even greater. Their energy surpassed those of beasts who chose to remain separate, because their energy incorporated that of the universe. With that energy and love they chose to encourage the rest of their kind to embrace life.

And with time, every brilliant beast shared in the same sun and vibrated with the energy of the universe.

The Brilliant Beast Blog Daily

The Perfect Boiled Egg

Is not boiled. It’s steamed, actually.

Plenty of egg yolks make you healthy and happy. But only if they’re done right. Overcook them, to where they get dried and powdery, and you get the opposite. Inflammation and unhappiness.

The surest way to get the right yolk is steaming. You need a steamer basket for the best results, from my experience. Put the basket in the smallest pot that will fit it. Fill the pot with water up to the bottom of the steamer basket. Cover and turn the heat on high, leaving the eggs out.

When it starts to boil, which you can tell by the steam coming out, get your eggs ready near the pot. Open the lid and gently place the eggs onto the steamer basket. It’s gonna be hot in there, so use a spoon or something to place the eggs. If you’re quick you can just nimbly place with your hands, but beware of burning yourself. Do this all very quickly, within a few seconds. Steam cooks fast and you’ll get different yolks if you take too long.

Cover and start a timer for seven minutes. As soon as the timer goes off, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the stove. Fill it with cold water up to the top, pour out, and fill again with cold water. The eggs will not crack. Leave the eggs in the water to cool. You can take the steamer out if you want. Watch out because it can be very hot still.

Don’t freak out about the cooling part. As long as you turn off the stove right away, you can delay the draining and cooling part. It wont make a huge difference. The key is keeping the eggs out of the boiling water, and timing the steam.

To peel, start with the fatter end. Gently smash where the air pocket is, and start to peel from there. Enjoy with lots of sea salt.

Live powerfully,

Steve

Fatten up your nutritional knowledge.

The nutrients in egg yolks and why cholesterol is good for you.

Reasons to stop avoiding salt, and why we should eat natural salt.

Saturated fat doesn’t cause heart disease and it’s good for you.

NL 102 Perfect Egg Yolk The Brilliant Beast Blog.jpg

The Brilliant Beast Blog Daily

Evolution of a Barefoot Walker

You walk out into the warm evening breeze. The urban air reaches your nose, scents of frying food, smog, and asphalt dancing with your senses. You examine the concrete savannah that is home, and take a few steps along the pale, neatly sectioned squares of sidewalk. Rubber sandal meets ground and you slowly stride forward. You’ve been wearing shoes your whole life. It’s just an extension of your postmodern body.

Suddenly, you have a desire to know what it’s like to shed the secondary skins of your feet. You slip your feet out of your sandals, bend to pick them up, and proceed to walk. The gritty texture of cement sparks millions of tingling sensations through your foot to your brain. Your ankles satisfyingly stretch. The back of your head tickles with the burst of sensation washing over your mind. And with the first few steps you realize that there are a few things to figure out.

First of all, what to do about your heels? Suddenly there’s so much stimulation and impact. The way you walk with shoes is to stomp on them, because that big cushion lets you. Bare, your heels don’t want that stomping. Neither does your ringing skull or jarred knees.

Okay, so you start to go lighter on the heels. Then you start to feel your insoles uncomfortably contacting the ground, which makes your feet turn inwards. That in turn causes your knees to buckle slightly, which just doesn’t seem right. Now you consciously put effort into keeping the contact outwards toward the blades of your feet. Oh, that’s a lot of foot mechanics right there.

And now that your steps are starting to roll on the outward edges of your feet, the ball and toes get the ground in a specific order. The side of your pinky toe gets a very small, but significant, head start on the ground ahead of your big toe side. How interesting. Who would’ve thought that toes touch the ground at different times?

Are your feet pointing forward now? If they aren’t, if they’re splayed out to the sides, it gets difficult to walk efficiently barefoot. Because your feet want to roll the ground out to the edges, and angled outward your insoles keep rolling down instead. Eventually, you figure it’s easier to point the toes forward.

And when your big toes touch down, the biggest surprise of all. There’s an irresistible reflex to grip down on the floor with that end of your foot, give a good push, and propel yourself forward. You get so into this natural feeling of springiness, locomotion, the ground, that you go further than you planned. And suddenly your feet start to get sore. You realize you now have to go back the same distance you came. And that’s going to hurt.

You’ve come to realize your current physical limit of walking. But you’re smart, and you brought your sandals along just in case. It’s gonna take a couple of days to recover from the soreness, but there’s no turning back. Barefoot, you are something else.

Live powerfully,

Steve

Things to read:

We stomp a lot harder in shoes than we would barefoot.

The forces on our joints is altered and magnified with shoes.

The heel and toe designs of dress shoes and heels completely disfigured our feet and posture.

The Brilliant Beast Blog Daily

Forget Being a Grown Up

What’s the aim of life? Is it to be happy? To make things better? To protect myself and my loved ones? To be the best at something?

There’s so much to do, so many people to look after and be concerned about, so many things to get, it’s hard to know each day where to begin. When I had a day job, it was easier. I would get up, wash up, make coffee, and go to work. There were no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. Well, not most days, at least. Life was simple. There was one place I had to be every day, and that was the company where I was employed.

Now, life is open-ended. I’ve quit my day job and I’ve been traveling. There’s no daily office to report to, no boss’s office to visit, no meetings to make. I have an open schedule, an open book. My agenda is to explore, discover, learn, and rest. My goal is to figure out how to bring wellness to as many people as I can, starting with the few who want to try.

The word wellness is so broad, so general, I know, I hate it. But I also love it, because there’s no one answer for everyone. Especially for me, the answers are coming from so many different fields of knowledge and practice I can hardly keep track. I thought I was looking for joint pain relief as I continued strength training. This led to a reevaluation of my diet. I then discovered the critical importance of the mind in resolving pain. As I kept going, I realized that mind cultivation not only helped to resolve physical pain, but also brought me above the basic struggle for survival and back into the realm of creativity.

Essentially, I ended up reconnecting with my childhood. Parts of my mind that I had forgotten, neglected, rejected, the childish elements of myself, opened up. I embraced my curiosity, my love of fun and mischief, and my unapologetic creativity. Maybe this is what wellness is. To be what we were as children, better able to take care of ourselves as adults, but always nurturing the core of our being that began in infancy.

In one way, I’m older than I ever was. In another way, I’m as young as I ever was. Maybe I’m getting delirious with age. Maybe not. But I know that if I keep following this path that I’ve come upon, if I hold the light in my sights, I’m going to get younger and younger, until I can say I fully rediscovered my child self. And I think this is the beginning.

As a factory-oriented world, we’ve come to believe that childhood should be enjoyed and then put away in a little box deep, deep inside our hearts. That we need to grow up into working adults, produce the goods that are to be sold in the markets, and collect money to be able to eat, sleep, breed, and perpetuate the workforce. This has been the model for the past few centuries. It’s deeply ingrained in our DNA.

I think that humankind has gone through this hurdle of the industrial age, and the modern and postmodern ages, as possibly a step up for our race. I’m not sure, as my perspective is so small. But it’s certainly brought us into a new age. Things are different. The percentage of people who are living well may not be any higher than it was before conquering one another became a trend, but we are certainly beyond a dip in the graph.

Take a look at these ten world stats highlighted by Peter Diamandis. Poverty is at an all time low and decreasing. Life is lengthening. Violence is decreasing. Now is the time to think about what is truly best for us as people. And part of that is to discard the notion that childhood is separate from adulthood. We don’t have to be so serious.

We can play. We can prank. We can question. We can giggle. We can be vulnerable, innocent, ignorant, simple, and mysterious. We can be illogical. In a physical sense, we can be flexible, agile, nimble, we can jump, run, roll, swing, climb. We don’t have to wear suits and sit still in chairs in office buildings, and act polite.

Of course, we have rules. We have government. We have responsibilities. So do kids. The difference is, a kid can go to school, be in class, and then jump outside and run around in the sun right after. He knows who he is. He can express that. A grown up doesn’t. He takes his work self with him, back at home, and continues to act repressed. Why?

There’s a way to be all of ourselves. Not just the adulthood, but also the childishness. We’ve got to try to find this in ourselves, and when we do, whether intentionally or accidentally, we must embrace it and let it thrive. And like most things, the more you feed it, the more it grows.

Be the child you were born to be.

Live powerfully,

Steve

The Brilliant Beast Blog Daily

 

 

Let Grow And Shape With Intention

The best shaves happen after letting hair grow.

The effect is more pronounced. Closer to the skin. Smoother. More hair cut off. You make a bigger difference, a bigger contrast. You feel a higher level of appreciation for the shave. The before and after is great. Plus, if you shave too often, your skin starts to get irritated. The excessive grooming is abrasive rather than satisfying.

Same goes for creating. Write, draw, let it come out, then edit. The finished work is more pronounced when you cut the full flamboyant bush. Snipping at developing art limits the final vibrancy.

Same goes for planning life. Brainstorm like crazy. Pour it all out. Don’t be afraid to explore with your mind every impossibility. Leave reality checks, trimming, and logic to the end. Let your mind print it first. Be amazed by what comes.

Same goes for physical training. Take long breaks in between strong improvements in strength. Rest. I let myself unravel from the stress of training for four months, and its seems to have spurred a new itch for training.

Same goes for relationships. Not every interaction with a new acquaintance needs a beginning, middle, and end. Movies set that in my head. So did the corporate workplace. It just felt awkward when people didn’t introduce themselves, get to know a little about each other, and then say a nifty phrase to get themselves out of the situation.

I realized a lot of this is due to ridiculous time constraints. When you have two minutes to meet someone before you end up working on a high stakes project with them the next week, you try to dig down into the relationship.

Traveling with time taught me these things don’t have to be so concise. Just like a beard, new relationships should be allowed to slowly flourish before any major efforts are made to shape them. Trying to squeeze all the essentials in at the beginning can squelch a natural interaction.

Even at hostels and guesthouses, where it’s important to get to know the host and other guests to some degree, I’ve realized that there’s no need to rush it. Some of our first interactions with hosts have been simple, heartfelt hello’s. There’s not a lot to say with fourteen kilos on your sweat-drenched back.

And having stayed in over fifteen places in the last couple of months, I find that there’s plenty of time for learning about each other. Where we are from, what personality types we have, and how much of the local language and customs we understand are all eventually seen. What time we wake up, when we leave and when we return, and what our room looks like are little things that say a lot too.

A short stay of one night can be ample for a deep connection with the host. But over the course of a week at one place, people can get very close. We have developed fond relationships with many of our hosts. Usually not more than a few sentences are exchanged at each interaction. But trust builds, respect solidifies, and love grows amongst people who share good intentions and a common philosophy.

That philosophy is one of camaraderie between travelers and hosts. It is one that believes in the good of travel. The mindset that the world belongs to no one, that we are at the mercy of our own and each other’s actions, and that sharing leads to fortune. The belief that money represents a fair transaction, and that trust and love earn more than what is paid.

It’s not base to feel that payment is necessary to begin a relationship between host and guest. Payment is healthy. It is the established form of beginning a relationship beyond one’s own family. It’s the language we can speak with strangers before opening our mouths. It tells the recipient that you have earned, through your own creation of value, the means to stay at their place. After money, the rest is art.

People exchange performances of communication that express and request respect, dignity, beauty, mastery, and ultimately, love. This isn’t in the form of a dance or painting, although it could be. It’s in the subtleties of interaction. The words, the facial and bodily expressions, the presence, and all of the actions that communicate are designed to establish a relationship. They may be intentional, and they may not. The difference can mean the divergence between a lasting connection and a sorry waste of life.

No one wants to waste life. But so few of us act to build on life. So the key is, from my observation of myself, that I have intention. Because when I consciously tell myself that I’m doing something, it is almost always something good. Not to say I’m a saint, but that most evil actions come from my lack of initiative or motive or creativity. If I intend to be a good guest and build a positive relationship with my host, I avoid the haphazard experience of oops’s, maybe’s and sure’s.

Let relationships develop naturally, give them time. And be intentional when it’s your turn to assert your beauty into the world.

Live powerfully,

Steve

The Brilliant Beast Blog Daily

Feed Your Grandkids

Eating affects not only you, now, but your offspring, in the future.

I think I eat this bread tonight and I’m okay the next morning, that I can handle the after effects. But I forget that I’m shaping my progeny’s lives as well. The food that our parents and grandparents and even great grandparents ate affects the genes we express.

I see lots of badly behaving kids in my travels. Parents don’t seem to care how their kids act in public. They let them scream, disturb strangers, and give them what they want at the slightest start of a tantrum. My guess is that this behavior is affected by what the parents, their, parents, and their parents, ate and did in the past.

Of course, the same would go for those kids that are sweethearts, that behave amazingly, and exude vibrant health.

The stuff we’re exposed to also affects the genetics of our kids and their kids. Pesticides and other chemicals in our environment not only affect our health but our future family’s health. The thing is we can also reverse the effects by what we do and eat.

I may not be in the best shape possible. I can be reactive to stress, I have stomach issues, I’ve been prone to depression. These are things that could have grown from my ancestor’s lives. I can do much to thrive and to protect my kids and grandkids from the predispositions I’ve experienced. We can eat and do to turn things around for ourselves and for our future.

Past, present, and future. The more we learn, the more we find that these are one and the same.

Live powerfully.

Steve

The Brilliant Beast Blog Daily

From the Feet Up

My feet continue to get better. Huarache sandals made by Earthrunners have helped for the past couple of years. A flat surface is all my feet needed to develop their structure on their own. However, nothing has been more effective than simply walking around barefoot.

Whether it’s long walks outside, or a gym training session, having my feet on the ground makes the most pronounced difference in arch and toe alignment. There’s something about direct tactile interaction that stimulates my feet to the point of change. There are landmark improvements in my foot structure, and these are times when I’ve been barefoot. No amount of walking or running in sandals has compared yet.

It’s been a few years since I started looking into barefoot walking as a solution to my flattened arches. I’ve had flat feet most of my life. Neither of my parents had very high arches, and lots of running in typical tennis shoes caused problems. The favorable setting for developing or maintaining good foot structure and function are a free standing arch, room for toe splay in all directions, and the heel being level with the rest of the foot. Most shoes allow for none of these, but it is possible to obtain this with flat sandals or barefoot time.

I’ve been athletic my entire life and most of my steps were pounded out through the deforming tennis shoe. When I worked a day job I wore even more constrictive “dress shoes” all day. So I’m grateful to be able to walk barefoot or in flat sandals and to see marked improvement in my feet. The change in footwear and foot structure has affected the rest of my body as well. Knees, hips, back, shoulders, and head are relieved of pain with a strong foundation.

If you haven’t tried walking around barefoot for an extended period of time, meaning at least half an hour, try it. Sidewalks are much safer than you’d think. The effect of letting your feet do what they want, freely, can be startling. I exaggerate not. Also, to touch down on the concrete or grass or dirt will neutralize positive charge in your body. Both of these things can be life changing. Barefoot walking and earthing.

Live powerfully,

Steve

The Tourist Or The Traveler

First off, you don’t have to be in a foreign country to be one or the other. Everyone is more inclined to be either a tourist or a traveler.

Tourism focuses on consumption. You go somewhere to eat something, do something, get something, feel something. When it’s done you’ve achieved the purpose of your visit. Traveling focuses on relation. You meet people and find out who they are, why they are. You notice things that make a place special, whether they are the goal of your trip or not. Each of us has the option of being either. Your mode of life at home will translate greatly to your journeys abroad. And your journeys abroad might change your mode of life at home.

The tourist and the traveler may both visit an important mountain. The tourist might appreciate the beauty of the view from the top and take photos as a souvenir and as a badge of achievement. The hike was the price for the treasure of the vantage point at the end. The returning path down is a necessary evil for having gone up. The traveler will take photos for memory’s sake, but will remember the people along the way who greeted and helped with finding the path to the top. He will ask for directions as much for the chance of human connection as for staying the course. The trek up and back down may be difficult, but every step is special because it’s over ground in a special place.

The tourist pays the admission ticket to the mountain trail reluctantly. It’s unexpected money pulled from his wallet. The traveler gives the money to those who maintain the trail and keep the earth’s beauty and sacred essence intact. Yes, it flattens the wallet a bit, but it’s the very reason for the money being there.

The tourist judges the mountain by it’s pleasantness, incline, and view. This assessment is shelved in the tourist’s mind next to other mountains hiked and sights seen. That’s when phrases like, “Don’t do it, it’s not worth the effort,” are painfully heard.

The traveler learns of the significance of the mountain to the locals, and sees how they relate to it. She then adopts this sentiment as much as possible. It becomes a part of the place. The traveler cares much about how locals feel about the hill. She knows it is a part of their lives, and that it might have a part in how they see the world, how they were raised, what they eat, the language they speak, and the reason for their existence. The traveler is a different person from when she started at the base. More than just the sweat shed, she has learned about fellow people, touched a new part of the world’s skin, and found the part of her own self that connects with it all. She is no longer the same. She’s grown.

So replace that mountain in your mind with a temple, a beach, a restaurant, a library, the subway, a neighborhood, your own apartment complex, and everything still applies. Yes, we get calloused from daily life. It’s probably not possible or feasible to notice all the little things around you all the time. But maybe we can notice some of it. Maybe we can be aware that the world is made of everything, and it’s not just a manufactured structure for you and I to flow through the designated corridors.

What is your neighbor like, for one? The pitch of their voice, the type of greeting they give, or respond well to, the way they walk, the time of day you run into them? Are they angry, sad, or cheerful? The tourist cares only that their neighbors don’t endanger or inquire about his personal sphere. He will observe enough to determine that his neighbor is docile, clean, quiet or loud, and not a threat. As long as he can go about his life undisturbed, the tourist is satisfied with his neighbor. The traveler is open to discover who her neighbor is. She will risk embarrassment by greeting them, asking how they are doing, offering to help with heavy groceries, and letting them find out who she is. And she lives day to day ever learning, ever growing in her awareness of those around her and herself.

I’m oversimplifying things. No one is purely a tourist all the time. Neither is any traveler completely free of tourist behavior or thoughts. As a foreigner and visitor to new places, I’ve experienced and acted as both a traveler and a tourist. But I’m being an intentional traveler, so to speak, making a habit of experiencing a place for who, what, where, when, why, and how it is. For me, it’s less about going to the “good” places for this or that, and more about going to any place and finding more about the world, myself, and others. I’m trying to learn to travel as I travel. And I’m glad I started at home.

My wife and I haven’t been perfect, but we strive to learn from people and engage them respectfully. We know we are the outsiders, the guests, and we acknowledge that we are being accommodated as we eat, sleep, and move about a town. Courtesy and warmth come easily through this mindset. Travelers meet, greet, and share with each other, because there’s camaraderie among those that respect the place they visit. We open up to people and find that in response to an ounce of generosity, tons are returned.

Even when we are being tourists, though, we return in moments of clarity. Places that just take our breath away, prevent us from holding up the camera to block our view. People who blow us away with kindness, or anger, or strangeness. Smells that no stubborn tourist can ignore. These experiences crack open a tiny fraction of time that spans past, present, and future, a memory that will never fade. And then we open our hearts again.

Traveling is not just about being in overseas countries. Rather, it is learning to have an open mindset and a respectful attitude about the world at home. Before going overseas, try visiting your grocery store, library, or coffee shop as an outsider. Assume nothing. Be courteous, observant, and willing to roll with the punches. Remember, it’s not just about consuming stuff. It’s about relating to the place and the people with whom we live.

So live powerfully,

Steve

A special thanks to Rolf Potts and Tim Ferriss for helping me prime myself for extended travel.

The Brilliant Beast Blog Daily

Be A Brilliant Pooper

It’s pouring rain this morning in Seoul. The sky is gray, everything is dulled by the chattering drops of water, and there’s a lovely humidity in the air. And what better time to reflect on going two when I haven’t in two days. Sometimes things aren’t so smooth while traveling. Sometimes, the simplest of human tasks is not so simple.

No creature wants to be chocked full of waste. Most of an animal’s incremental existence is preoccupied by eating and excreting. As a pet owner, there was never a more satisfying day than when my dog ate his bowl full of food, and then pooped a full poop. Humans have so much else to worry about that these basic activities get forgotten or stalled from unnatural levels of stress. In daily living, and while traveling, regularity is key to wellness.

Not only is it satisfactory to go, it is also indicative of general health. How often, how much, and what kind are good questions to ask about your deuces. When, as in what time of day, is also good to observe. Ideally, poop comes at about the same time or times every day, is not watery, and correlates to the amount of food you ate since the last release. This speaks of good organ function, adequate hydration, and a diet that suits your needs.

When you pay attention to your stool, you pay attention to your diet. If something is off for me, I look back to my last couple of meals. Have I had a lot of green leafy veggies? Have I avoided sugar, wheat, dairy, and excessive spice, the wrenches in the workings of my digestive system? Did I eat enough? Too much? Did I drink any water (a night time task I too often forget during travel)?

These questions came to me after figuring out the most effective ways to keep myself regular. Green leafy veggies just can’t be replaced. They have vitamins, minerals, fiber, and magic that do wonders for me. In Thailand, Indonesia, and Korea, fresh green veggies are cheap and easy to find. But they’re also easy to forget if I’m not paying attention. One of my Chinese-style favorites is on choy, also called kankung, or morning glory, depending on the country. Spinach is another go to, particularly in Korea and Japan. I love the type they grow there and how it’s prepared. With most green leafy veggies, it’s important to minimize heat time. They should look vibrant and supple, not drab and sloppy.

Magnesium also helps to keep traffic flowing. It’s a natural laxative and relaxant, which makes it perfect for bedtime. Regardless of when you usually go, or if you do, magnesium supplementation can help if taken near that time. I take it at night and make my move in the morning. Check out Natural Calm.

Body position matters. Using a footstool to elevate the knees into a mock squat on the toilet allows for ideal bowel movement. I’ve had quite a few episodes of pooper’s block on the road that were vanquished by simply putting my feet up on a small trash bin. The most effective position, thought, is the actual squat. I’ve experienced no quicker solution than an old school hole in the ground loo.

And try drinking water, if you haven’t for a while.

When all else fails, breathe. Slow, deep breaths. Sometimes we’re just so tense in the head that it closes up other channels. Take your mind off of it.

Pooping is all about getting back into your skin, kicking into the parasympathetic gear, and letting nature proceed. It’s all too common that we remove ourselves from ourselves. Centering through nutrition, physical position, and mind cultivation keeps us well oiled. In a manner of speaking. And that first dump at a new place makes it home, doesn’t it?

Next area of investigation for me: gut microbiome.

Live powerfully,

Steve

The Brilliant Beast Blog Daily