In this post I’m going to give a true secret that will act as a key to unlock the door to dynamic vitality. And although it’s a secret, it is also so simple that it would go completely unnoticed if someone saw you doing it. This secret has to do with essence, subtle energy and the breath. While it is a breath practice it is not a physical exercise. This must be understood first, because if one does practice with a lot of strength and effort it will not be effective.

For the practice to be the most effective it is important to drink some yerba mate tea with either some raw turbinado sugar or some honey. Doing so will act as a catalyst, while breathing, for the vibration of the body’s subtle energy body to rise. I suggest either Nativa Yerba Mate or Guayaki Mate San Mateo as both are organic and most importantly air dried. Most other brands are dried through the use of fire and smoke which adds toxic ashes to the grind. After taking the tea, allow at least 15 minutes or the tea to digest before practicing the breath technique. The addition of yerba mate with a little sweetener will make this practice dynamic. Try the practice with and without mate to experience the difference for yourself.

Now I know this sounds super simple, and you may think why don’t more people know of this deep breathing practice, but here it is. Stand straight with the hands on the waist, take a smooth slow deep breath through the mouth. Gently hold the shoulders back, but not in a restrained way. Hold the breath in for 5 mental counts and then exhale slowly in a smooth manner through the mouth. After 10 to 15 breaths you will begin to feel your subtle energy body expanding and feeling lighter in your spirit. Remember while breathing that this is a spiritual practice and not a physical exercise. Use as much relaxation and gentleness with the breath as possible and you will feel more essence rather than a physical work-out. Raising the body’s vibration and consciousness is the goal.

This technique should be employed once a day between 4 and 7 pm to be most enjoyable. If done the moment one wakes up you may hyperextend your oxygen levels and feel light headed and dizzy.

When done consistently on a daily basis in the correct manner one’s vibration will rise. One will begin to sense an energetic presence that feels like a magnetic resonance in the chest. One will also feel lighter in spirit, have more energy and feel less fatigue.

In Conclusion, The simple breath practice that I have disclosed in this short blog has the potential to raise one’s spirit to a high level of enlightened vitality. Also, if one takes medication, practicing this technique can be a blessing that can help one feel less heavy, less sedated and more alive. If done on a consistent basis one can achieve the dynamic health that has never been told.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and making a commitment to your mental health and physical wellbeing. If you find this information helpful please subscribe and track with me towards better mental health and a greater quality of life. To Health ! John

Today more and more people are widening their sphere of compassion from their immediate family, friends and pets to encompass a feeling of love and respect for all other sentient feeling creatures. In doing so we start to make a greater heartfelt connection to Nature and all living things. After such a realization it becomes a responsibility to no longer see and accept dead animals as a meal.

Even though I am a Christian I still don’t like it when people preach to me. Somehow, for some reason I feel that the Gospel and Jesus are so reverenced in my mind that hearing someone else give me their graded understanding as the ultimate truth lowers the bar of the glorified pedestal they have in my mind. That said I want to share a line of scripture from Genesis that I feel is appropriate for this discussion. KJV Genesis Ch 1. vs. 29 “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” While other previsions have been made for mankind to eat meat since the flood of Noah, the perfect vision that God had for mankind since the beginning was to be a vegan, and abstain from killing and eating the flesh of other animals.

It is interesting that the longest lived people in the Bible were those from Adam to Noah, that did not eat flesh. Along the same lines are those today living in what are called Blue Zones; places on Earth where people live considerably longer than the majority of others on the planet. Ironically or not a commonality these places share is a wholefoods vegetarian diet with little to no animal foods in their diet.

When we eat a wholefoods vegetarian diet that does not include animal products there is something miraculous that happens to us spiritually. It is as if a karmic chain falls off our soul and we experience a lightness in our mind and body. This acts to quicken our mind and spirit. Not only is this a diet it is a lifestyle that connects us to the living natural world.

If you currently are a flesh eater, when you start to transition to a vegan or vegetarian diet you will undoubtedly go through a detox and withdraw period. Being aware of the adjustment and transitioning slowly can help manage the process. First start by cutting our read meat and pork, then chicken, then fish, and then dairy and eggs. Adding more fresh squeezed fruit and vegetable juices is very healthy as well.

In Conclusion, Our body is a temple where our consciousness temporarily resides while we are alive. Giving this body of ours pure vegetarian foods supports a clear conscience and a pure mind. Fruits and vegetables are the intended food of original man, and when we give our body’s this clean source of sustenance we are made more alive in body, mind and spirit. Not only does this way of eating support greater health, it also widens our sphere of love and compassion and creates more peace on earth.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and for making a commitment to your mental health and wellbeing. If you find this information helpful please subscribe and follow along towards a greater quality of life, To health, John

It is easy to be caught up in the distractions of every day life. Especially in the times we live in, with mass media, and constant external stimuli trying to get our attention. Because of this, we can become emotionally spread thin, and physically worn out. Taking time to practice self-care is very important if we are going to master our mental health. The aspect of self-care I want to discuss today is I believe the most significant aspect of maintaining our well-being; and that is relaxation.

Relaxation is something we must practice at to become effective. The type of relaxation I’m talking about is more than the response to being physically or mentally drained and crashing. What I am referring to is a practice that can be tapped into in order to refresh. This form of relaxation is not a reaction to being tired, but a deliberate act of becoming still and slowing down, in order to rejuvenate.

For relaxation as a practice to become effective it must be treated as a ritual. Not in the religious sense, though if one is religious this is a great time to pray, buy I mean ritualistic in the sense of being able to use this time as a standard. When relaxation becomes a standard the act of sinking into calmness can be remembered and therefore repeated more easily.

I like to practice relaxing sitting in a lounge chair, under a blanket, listening to some soothing music, with the lights low and some candles or a Himalayan salt lamp lit to set the ambiance. I find the afternoon hours between 4-7pm the best time to vibe out. In the beginning it is helpful to use the will to consciously slow down. Sinking into the chair, relaxing the eyes closed halfway while looking at the mind’s eye and breathing slow are all helpful to slow down and get into a state of deep relaxation. Also allowing time to come out of relaxation slowly is more pleasurable than jolting out of calmness. The more one is able to consciously transition back to normal consciousness the more one can implement the remembrance of relaxation in to daily life.

By dipping daily into this pool of rejuvenating relaxation you may find you have more stamina, and are able to better cope with normal everyday stress. If you master this relaxation technique you may be able can carry the feeling of being unburdened with you at most times. That is what is meant by mastery in terms of taking a practice and using it to permeate all areas of your existence in a complete way. As you get more proficient at remembering the essence of relaxation and carrying it over throughout your day you will find that you get thrown off course less and less as time goes by.

In Conclusion, Every day we face challenges and distractions that can stress us out. By dipping daily into the cool calm pool of relaxation we support our physical and mental well-being. It may take some time to learn how to fully relax, but if you follow the simple steps outlined in this blog, you will be able to learn this valuable tool of self-care. By mastering the art of relaxation you will be able to carry yourself calmly throughout your day.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. If you find this information helpful please subscribe and follow along towards better mental health and a greater quality of life. Thank you, John

If you are someone who suffers from mental health issues, you may find that often you feel negative emotions that are hard to shake. These are common feelings. If you didn’t feel, you wouldn’t be human. But how we deal with hard feelings can make a great difference in our level of happiness. In this blog I want to share with you how we can flip the script and profoundly make the emotional connections that can set our spirit free when we are feeling bad vibes.

Our awareness of our feelings are the key to being able to accept our feelings. And our acceptance of our feelings is the key to forgiving ourselves for our limitations. Having a mindset of complete forgiveness is the key to unlock the door to emotional freedom. Also, the understanding that taking any offence to any injury only harms us, and contributes pain to the planet, can be a source of freedom for our spirit. This paragraph is worth rereading.

Now, we don’t always know what our feelings are and what cause them. But there is a signal to understanding our feelings, and this is how we feel. Our feelings are either Positive or Negative, or Expanding or Contracting, Good or Bad. If we can take a moment to tune-in to this internal response, we can mentally decipher what we are experiencing to see if it is Positive or Negative. After we are clear about how we are feeling, we can work backwards to spot-light what it was that triggered this response. Most of the time, just by acknowledging what caused us to feel a certain way, we can make the connections we need to move forward.

In Conclusion, Our natural innate feeling is happiness. Happiness is our birthright. We were born to be happy. That is why whenever we don’t feel happy we are miserable. It is not be because we are just miserable, but because we are not experiencing our natural joy. Thus we feel pain, being separated from our natural happiness. Sometimes we get off course. When we get triggered by negative or toxic people, we can spin out and feel bad vibes. It is at this time that we need to make the emotional connections to why we are feeling a certain way so we can connect the dots. This will set us free. By taking time to contemplate our inner terrane we can map out our emotions and get back on track.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. If you find that this information is helpful please subscribe and track with me as we journey towards better mental health and a greater quality of life. Thank you, John

At this point I’ve covered a lot of information about practices to refine one’s mental state, achieve peace of mind and reach a higher level of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness. If you follow the practices discussed in previous posts it will be possible to rise above the suffering mark and be an overcomer. As this blog is about mental mastery I will in future post expand on practices related to mastering one’s mind, but now I’d like to share a way to not only achieve greater physical wellbeing, but at the same time make some money. The greatest part about it, is that it is easy, rewardable and can be as lucrative as one desires based on how serious they are about it.

We all know that eating more fresh fruits is healthy. This water-rich source of nutrition is not only good for us, but fruit tastes great. And home grown fruit is so much more delicious than store bought. If you’re fortunate enough to have even a small back yard you can start producing your own fresh fruit and making money. I’ll show you how to make it work. Doing so will not only provide you with great produce, it will save on grocery money and you can make money from your plants.

As an example, take for instance a hardy kiwi, this type of plant can grow in almost any climate and it can produce up to a 100 lbs. of a delicious edible smoothed skinned fruit the size of a large grape. Each year you can take hundreds of cuttings from just one plant and sell these cuttings in 2-1/4 inch pots on ebay.com or amazon.com for 10.00 + shipping. Soil can be bought by the yard at most local landscape supply stores and pots of this small size can be purchased for pennies.

While you will need to learn a little about taking and rooting cuttings, the process is not hard to do and one can learn it in a matter of a couple hours of online research. Basically, your taking a cutting from your stock plant, dipping it in a rooting hormone and sticking it in moist sand until it roots. While some plants differ in the time to take cuttings, and some are easier to root than others, it’s not rocket science. A great site that you could check out to learn more about taking cuttings and setting up a backyard nursery is mikesbackyardnursery.com

I suggest getting started with a bunch of fruiting shrubs that are hardy in your climate zone, such as hardy kiwi, grape, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry, jostaberry, honeyberry and currants. These shrubs will start fruiting within the first 2 to 3 years. They are incredibly nutritious and delicious and you will be able to take tons of cuttings from them. They also don’t take up a lot of space around your yard. From each cutting your should be able to net about 5.00 to 7.00 per plant during the same year that you root them. Another great thing is that whatever does not sell in the first year gets moved up to a larger pot the next year and sold for twice the amount. You can’t lose.

Before you start selling your little baby plants, you will need to get a business license and a plant license. Each of these will run about 50.00 per year. Your plants can be sold online as well as through plant yard sales and at farmer’s markets if your willing to put in the effort.

Now, I’d like to share a website with you where you can source wholesale plants from. In the beginning while your just getting started in the process of learning the ends and outs of taking cuttings, you may want to flip plants. What I mean by this is just buying them wholesale, bare-root or liners, (i.e. cuttings with roots) pot them up and sell them for a profit.

Although you won’t be getting food from your plants, it might make sense while your edible stock shrubs are getting started. The website is oan.org, which stands for Oregon Association of Nurseries. On the site your can do a plant search and find the wholesale nurseries that supply most liner plants starting around 1.00 a plant. It is feasible and realistic to turn these around for 10.00 or more the same year. Your can also find many wholesale plant nurseries online throughout the US that are happy to sell you liners.

In Conclusion, If you have even a small yard space you can get started growing fruiting shrubs and take thousands of cuttings from them to sell every year. In fact by cutting back your shrubs while taking cuttings, you will be stimulating your shrubs to produce more shoots and subsequently more fruit. These fruiting shrubs can also provide you a surplus of fresh, delicious and nutritious produce that you can enjoy throughout the growing season or frozen to carry you through the dormant parts of the year.

With a little investment of time and a relatively small amount of money you could have a back yard nursery providing you with some or all the income you need to thrive. Check out the websites discussed in this post to get you started. It’s simple, fun, and can provide for a healthy lifestyle that does not require working an hourly job.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. If you find this information beneficial please subscribe and follow along as we journey towards better mental health and a greater quality of life, Thank you, John

If you’ve read some of my previous posts you will have been introduced to the concept of embryonic breathing which is a form of qigong meditation introduced in the book by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming, titled Qigong Meditation, Embryonic Breathing. If you have the opportunity to read this book it will be helpful in better understanding qi, energy, spirit and the many intricacies of the meditation techniques of embryonic breathing. As I’ve said before breathing meditation is the link between the body and mind. Through regulated breathing the mind can be trained to remain calm even through challenging times. In this post I want to give you a meditation technique so that you can begin making progress towards mental mastery.

I would suggest printing this out and reviewing it until you become cemented in this form of meditation. It will act as a starting point if you decide to get Dr. Yang’s book on Embryonic Breathing to go further in your practice. The best time to meditate is between 11am and 1pm and again between 5pm and 7pm. During this time the electromagnetic force of the planet will allow for the most fluid movement of qi or chi throughout the body. Start by sitting for 15 minutes and then increase as time and lifestyle will allow. It is also helpful while meditating to supply your body with a nutritious wholefoods vegetarian diet to support the increase of qi in the body.

Start by using the restroom to relieve yourself. Dress with comfortable loose fitting clothing. Sit on your bed, on top of a few pillows to elevate your bottom. Cross your legs by placing your right leg and foot closer to your body and your left on the outside of your right leg. Place your hands together at your abdomen with right palm on top of your left palm with both thumbs coming together in the middle. Keep the spine straight and erect but not ridged or held too tight.

Start by closing your eyes half way and look at the tip of your nose. Once you have stabilized this distance of view, raise your eyes to look at your mind’s eye between your eye brows within your head. The eyes should be able to see the tip of the nose in the distance. The tongue should be against the palate of the mouth and the mouth should be closed. Swallow saliva when it becomes necessary. While focusing on your mind’s eye with your eyes, focus on this area with your concentration. Breathe slowly through the nose in and out of the diaphragm. The breath should be so faint that it is imperceptible to the ears and does not strain the heart.

As thoughts arise do not resist them, but return your awareness to your breath. Be patient when you first sit down to meditate as it will take time for the mind to settle. This is similar to a jar full of muddy water that takes time for the sediment to settle at the bottom so that the water can become clear. With time and repetition the mental chatter will settle faster as you get more proficient at training the mind to be still. After time and mastery, even when you are active in the normal world you will still be able to carry your meditative mind.

If possible I suggest practicing twice a day, but if one sitting is all you can get in, it would be better to meditate in the first half of the day. This will allow you to practice carrying the meditation throughout the rest of your day . Remember that this is a practice, and like any practice you will get better at the task the more you practice it.

If you would like to take your meditation practice more seriously I highly recommend getting Dr. Yang’s book titled Qigong Meditation, Embryonic Breathing. By knowing the intricacies of qi, essence, spirit, and the many forms of breathing introduced in this book one can build up greater levels of qi in their body and have a road map for where meditation can take them.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and investing time in your mental health. If you find this information beneficial please subscribe and follow along towards better mental health and a greater quality of life, Thank you, John

The mind is too cleaver for its own good. We try to control out thoughts by it seems impossible to do so. For those of us who face mental health challenges the battle to subdue our mind is even more of a struggle. We did not ask for this challenge. Sometimes it makes simple daily habits like even getting out of bed hard to do.

But I am here to tell you that you can win this war. You might not win every battle, but you can overcome. You can achieve mental mastery. I have been through challenges so extreme that I almost lost my life, on many occasions. There were times I was so hampered mentally that I could not tell you more than my name. From a combination of psychosis and overly medicated, I was a human zombie. Today though I have mastered my mind, and with it comes a feeling of peace and serenity that lasts throughout the day. This blog is a dedication to helping you get to this same state of mastery.

If you go back through many of my previous posts you will be introduced to numerous techniques to achieve this mental mastery. However, this post is about giving a context or road map for the journey.

First we must understand the battle ground, which is our mind. Our mind is the field upon which this war is raging. Our senses are the way the enemy confronts us. As our eyes see, ears hear, nose smells, tongue tastes and skin feels, our senses project themselves to the external world where distractions occupy us. In the beginning before we have mastered our senses, they are constantly bombarded by stimuli. Thus the mind is intruded upon.

However we have a tool to subdue the senses. And it is our only weapon to overcome our raging senses and control our mind. And this is the breath. The breath is the link between the body and mind. With proper use of it we can master our senses, thereby controlling the filter in which the mind responds to sensory data. Doing so we can take back the power and live consciously.

The breath is both involuntary, whereby it functions without our control, and voluntary, in which we can use it consciously to regulate our mind. Thus proper use of the breath is our strategy. Using the breath as strategy we can strengthen our body’s vital energy, known as chi or qi. Qi is thus the infantry that we circulate throughout the body and mind. Once the Qi has built up enough vitality it is transformed into spirit. This spirit brings us back to our original state of existence and gives us the ability to see Reality clearly. This Reality is the state of overcoming the mind.

A great place to start in learning to invert your senses so that you can start to control your mind is to learn embryonic breathing as disclosed in the book by Dr. Yang, Jwing Ming titled Qigong Meditation, Embryonic Breathing. Here you will learn the technique to reconnect the mind and body through a simple breathing technique that will strengthen the body’s Qi and start to develop greater vitality and eventually transform this vitality into spirit.

In Conclusion, We are in a war and our mind is the battle ground. Through using the breath as a strategy we can consciously summon our body’s natural energy to subdue the senses and strengthen the mind. By training our mind, it can be transformed into our greatest ally, whereby we can use it with conscious control. In Qigong terms this high level of achievement mean enlightenment. In everyday life this experience is that of fluid, mental freedom and lasting peace.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and investing in your mental health. If you find this information beneficial please subscribe and follow along towards better mental health and a greater quality of life, Thank you, John

While it may be argued that some people could go without food for a couple or weeks, and that it’s possible to go without water for a couple of days, no one can deny that without being able to breathe for more than a minute or two one would faint and die. Oxygen in the air we breathe is so critical to the functioning of the body that we cannot live without it for a few minutes. The oxygen we breathe is inhaled into the lungs, where it is then transported throughout the body. Because the brain is the control station, where nerves interact and send messages throughout the body it is critical that it gets ample oxygen to function.

When the brain is given surplus amounts of oxygen via deep breathing the brain is able to function at its optimum level. Medications that support mental health have a great influence on how the brain and its nerves function. Because of this it is even more important to supply the brain with surplus amounts of oxygen. By doing so we give the brain the extra support it needs to function optimally as well as reducing some of the side effects of medication such as brain fog, fatigue and tiredness. I have found that the best way to get surplus amounts of oxygen to the brain is through a practice called Super Power Breathing.

Super Power Breathing was introduced by Paul C. Bragg in his book Super Power Breathing: For Super Energy, High Health & Longevity. The back story of the book which Paul writes is that his Dad expanded on the techniques he learned from a Sadhu, also known as a Holy Man, during his travels throughout India. Interestingly the Sadhu said that at the time he was well over 100 years old yet looked only middle aged. The reason the techniques in the book are so powerful is that when doing them oxygen crosses the blood brain barrier and super oxygenates the brain.

In the next blog I will tie all these practices that I have been discussing together to make it easy to practice all of them in a normal daily lifestyle. This will allow one to get the maximum benefit from them all while still allowing for one to live in the world. Mastery can be achieve within a relatively short time while still living in the world if one applies themselves to the work daily.

Thank you for taking the time to invest in your mental wellness and tracking with me as we walk the journey towards mental mastery and a greater quality of life. Thank you, John

Today I’m excited to share with you three books that have the potential to revolutionize your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing. These three books cover different aspects of Taoist philosophy, meditation techniques and exercises that can rejuvenate one’s blood. If you ascribe to a certain religion, don’t worry that this information will conflict with your beliefs. They are not a traditional religious system. They are an understanding of Nature and a way of feeling truth.

The first of these three books sets a foundation for understanding the other two books that pertain more about methods rather than philosophy. It is The Dao De Jing, a Qigong Interpretation by Dr. Yang, Jwing Ming. The Dao can be understood as the Root of Nature, and De its manifestation. Jing can be interpreted as a book that is Classic. This interpretation of the Dao De Jing, analyzes the Way of Nature from a perspective of understanding Qigong, i.e. Energy Work. Its emphasis is on balance, freedom from emotional bondage, having a neutral mind and quelling desires in an effort to acquire peace and serenity. Through understanding the Dao one can be set free from impulsivity and obtain a balanced mindset that does not fluctuate with emotional moods.

The Dao De Jing is an introduction to the second book that details a meditation technique called embryonic breathing. The purpose of embryonic breathing is to generate an abundance of Chi, also known as Qi, in order to create a spiritual “baby”. With this practice there is nothing to conjure up. The embryo that forms from this type of breathing meditation is a feeling within abdomen region. This is the first stage on one’s journey towards enlightenment, which precedes Christhood, or Buddhahood. The process begins by the creation of the embryo which is then led up the spine to the ‘third eye’ where is then matures, before taking on an independent journey to heaven as a Christ-conscious individual. To learn embryonic breathing, I highly recommend the book, Qigong Meditation, Embryonic Breathing by Dr. Yang, Jwing Ming.

The third book I am excited to share with you is Bone Marrow Nei Kung by Mantak Chia. This book reveals Taoist techniques that were kept secret for thousands of years and just recently revealed to the public within the last 20 years. While some of the book includes techniques that I would not suggest, such as those in the latter half that deal with ones reproductive anatomy, the primary technique of Bone Breathing in order to rejuvenate the blood is highly important to restoring the organs. After practicing bone marrow breathing also known as bone marrow washing, I can attest that the side effects of medication have been significantly reduced, I sleep better and wake up more refreshed.

In Conclusion, The Taoist books of the Dao De Jing, Embryonic Breathing and Bone Marrow Nei Kung can significantly increase one’s mental stability, emotional balance and physical wellbeing. Applying yourself to the information contained in these three books just 15 minutes a day can revolutionize your experience of Reality and your connection with Nature in an energetic heartfelt way. I hope that you will check them out and start doing the energy work to take your emotional, mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing to an optimal level. You won’t be dissapointed.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope that you find it beneficial. If so please subscribe and follow along towards better mental health and a greater quality of life. Thank you, John