What is your song to the world?

As I sit down at one of my favorite cafes with a hot cup of green tea and open up my new book of the week, Killing Sacred Cows, I stumbled across a great quote by Henry David Thoreau that really got me thinking: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." I sit here and watch hundreds of people walk by. Tall people and small people, young people and old people, rich people and poor people, mothers and fathers and single people, people in a rush and people walking slow, happy people and sad people, and I think to myself,  "How many of them know the song that is inside of themselves just asking to be sung to the world?"  I believe that our song, or stated a bit differently, our life's purpose, is a bit of nature and nurture; a bit of intrinsic talent combined with TLC; a bit of innate gifts combined with profuse sweat and an unwavering work ethic.  I do believe that everyone in us has a song to sing.  Here are the keys to finding out your song: #1: Spend some time alone every day to reflect and listen to the voice within. It's during times of peace and quiet that the noise within becomes louder than the noise from outside.  You may be met with intense discomfort during these times, but it important to still yourself and listen with your mind and your heart.  It is precisely this internal confusion and internal dialogue that will lead to clarity and certainty.  When I began to meditate, it was intensely challenging for me to sit still for even  10 minutes in perfect silence and internal contemplation.  Minutes felt like hours.  But the more I practiced, the easier it became and the more I looked forward to it.  I got out of it for a while and let other things take precedent over my meditation practice, but this is my declaration to recommit myself to sitting in silence everyday because I know how valuable it will be to me. As Rumi says, "Silence is the language of G-d. Everything else is only a translation." #2:  Read. Read voraciously.  Read every book on personal development, spirituality, finance, autobiographies, relationships, purpose, leadership, etc that you can get your hands on.  Fall in love with reading.  You can literally have conversations with the greatest minds that ever lived in the history of mankind without ever leaving your house.  You can read about the songs of the greatest minds that ever lived and find out what made them tick and what brought meaning and purpose to their lives.  I've invested thousands of dollars in books on all of the subjects I have mentioned, and it is the best investment I have ever made.  The return on my investment in books is incalculable.  It has fed me spiritually, physically, and emotionally.  Books have fed my mind, body, and soul.  Reading has changed my life.  As Confucious says, "You cannot open a book without learning something." #3:  Surround yourself with people who love you enough to call you out on your BS.  Our ego loves to be surrounded with people who constantly feed it and give it praise, but what is good for the ego, is not always what's best for the soul.  What the soul needs is to be around people who are going to lovingly challenge the ego and force you to confront your feelings of doubt, insecurity, and insensitivity as well as your feelings of overconfidence, carelessness, and laziness.  It is not during periods of comfort and praise that we grow.  It is during times of emotional, mental, and physical challenge that we grow.  What we need most are people that are going to provide us with a healthy dose of praise and challenge.  This allows us the certainty that we are safe while still providing us the avenues to challenge our minds, souls, and hearts to higher levels of consciousness.  As Sai Baba says, "Life is a song - sing it. Life is a game - play it. Life is a challenge - meet it. Life is a dream - realize it. Life is a sacrifice - offer it. Life is love - enjoy it." #4 Write.  And write. And write. You should write as much as you read.  Writing gives you the opportunity to take all your wonderful, and not so wonderful thoughts and work on creating cohesive ideas out of all of the concepts and ideas jumbled up in your mind.  Writing well is a skill.  Like any other skill, it takes practice.  Lots of practice. It is through the practice of writing, however, that you create clarity out of the thoughts in your head.  It is where you take all of the wonderful information you have read and absorbed from your day to day activities and make it real for yourself and your life.  You see, when I write these blogs, it is as much for myself as it is for the people I write for.  For example, when I sat down just a few minutes ago to write this blog, I had no idea what I was going to write about.  I saw a quote in a book and it inspired me to write.  It is through the action of writing that I created much more clarity around the ideas I had circulating in my mind.  This has reminded me of the importance of meditating, reading, surrounding myself with the right people, and of course, writing! It doesn't matter whether you think you are a good writer or not.  As Nike says, "Just do it!" You don't have to show anyone what you write.  There is no one to judge you or your writing.  You don't need to write for anyone else except for you.  Grab a pen and a notebook and just start to write.  Your heart will thank you for it. So what are you waiting for? Don't wait for life to come to you.  You may be waiting forever.  If you want a better life, go out and take control.  Meet confrontation and challenge with an open heart and a loving mind.  And most of all... "Don't ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman.

Being healthy is simple!

All of our philosophical constructs must be followed by practical application in order to transform abstract ideas into massive value for our lives. It is when we create powerful action steps to back our philosophy that our lives really begin to take shape. If we truly want to live our best lives, we must remain congruent in our beliefs, thoughts, and actions. We must create an identity for ourselves and display that identity authentically in all areas of our lives. For example, my identity as a chiropractor is based on the premise that the body has an amazing power and intelligence inside of it that controls and regulates every cell, tissue, and organ of the body. It is that intelligence that attracts a sperm cell to an egg cell, creates a union, and divides and differentiates continuously until a 4 kg miracle of life is brought out to the world. It is an intelligence that is unmatched and unwavering in its commitment to keep us functioning at our highest level throughout our entire lifetimes. My belief is that we were not designed to live a life of poor health and suffering decline from the time we are 30 years old until death like many of us were brought up to believe. My belief is that we were designed to live our life like a candle. We were designed to shine bright for a lifetime. For example, imagine you buy a big beautiful candle that is guaranteed to burn for 7 days until it burns out. How does the candle burn on the 6th day compared to the 1st day? Is there any difference in the expression of that candle when 80% of its life is over? None! The candle shines bright throughout its entire life as long as it gets an essential requirement - oxygen. Maybe at the very end of its life, it will struggle, flicker a few times and then peacefully dissolve into the atmosphere, but that only occurs at the very end and not after half of its life is gone. As humans, we are designed to live an amazing, abundant, energy filled life until the very end where we may struggle to hang on to that very little bit of life left in us and then relatively quickly pass away , but not before we left our mark on the world through living a life of maximal expression. Sounds pretty great, right? So now that we have our philosophical construct, how do we make it happen? What action steps must we have in place to make this dream a reality? The answer to this is so simple that it eludes many of us. It is simple, yet not always so easy. The way to live this way is to live innately; to live a life from within; to live a life from above-down-inside-out; to live congruently to our genes and maximize our G-d given potential. As a chiropractor, my purpose to is free up that innate intelligence in the body to express itself at its full potential by detecting and correcting vertebral subluxations. It is primarily these subluxations that reduce the brightness and quality of your "flame." It is also through teaching people how to live an innately driven lifestyle which consists of moving our bodies consistently and rigorously on a regular basis, keeping a healthy mental attitude that is fed and challenged on a regular basis, and ingesting quality nutrients to nourish all of the cells of the body. Living an innate driven life is simple, although not at times all that easy. For example, you already know what foods to eat. Are there more nutrients in a bowl of blueberries or a bowl of rice? Are there more nutrients in a plate of strawberries and banana, or a bowl of cereal? Choosing what to eat is simple. If you can eat it directly from a tree or the ground, eat it. If it flies, swims, or runs, eat it occasionally. Other than that, don't touch it. Wait, so does that mean I should only be eating mostly fruits, vegetables, and nuts, and meat occasionally? That's exactly what I'm saying. We make health much more complicated than we really need to. Get back to the basics. Do you really think there is something more valuable in a bowl of Special K that we can't get in fruits and vegetables? Anything other than that is reducing our "flame." Quiet your mind and look within and I think you will find the answers to many of life's most important questions. Dream big, love often, live from within, and create a life of abundance where anything is possible. You deserve it.