Inner metamorphosis

4 C’s of addiction

Craving leads to
Compulsion acted out of
Control without regard for
Consequences.

Cravings arise from imprecision in judgement
Compulsion is unmanaged attention to a thought
Control is lost in a reaction
Consequence is more cravings.

Equanimity is precision in judgement.
Mindfulness redirects attention to object of choosing.
Freedom is won as control is gained.
Synchronicity is the consequence.

She told me she recalls some seriously down days which she pulled through only because she did not want to let me down.
I am amazed how people need so little... just someone to genuinely believe in them, few words of encouragements and a little time and space.  The truth has miraculous power.  I am blessed to be a witness to these beautiful inner metamorphosis.

Funerals

I was 5 years old. I wore a beige colored Kasaya. She peacefully took her last breath at a very old age during her daily bath. As the great grandson, my job at the funeral was to sit cross legged beside the monks and strike a wooden fish every 5 seconds. I never asked why. I think I must always knew it was just the way it is.
I was never afraid of funerals. I have been to only a few since. I enjoyed them. My friend’s son; my secretary of 25 years, my uncle. Never yet attended a patient’s funeral; I don’t know why. I think I will go one day when I have more time. I think I will really appreciate the moments to reflect.
The other day, I went to visit a friend at a cancer respite care. She was sleeping; so I had a chat with a young volunteer. I was surprised when she told me she was glad when her name finally came up on the waiting list for people who wanted to volunteer there. I think perhaps being able to share moments with people dying with cancer is a privileged opportunity to almost touch death and understand life just a little better.
I don’t know if I’ll die suddenly or slowly. Perhaps the advantage of dying slowly from something like cancer is that it might give me just enough time to realize life does have a last page; and decide what I want to write in my final chapter.
I now realize what’s in my bucket list:
1. Surprises
2. Blessings
3. Vividness of each moment
Thank you for the moment!

Two most common type of challenges in medicine

My patients mostly only have just two challenges:
1. Not paying enough attention to what the body needs; (Eg. 400 grams of non-starchy vegetables and fruits per day; appropriate physical activities)
2. Paying excess attention to what the mind don’t need. (Eg. suffers craving or aversion that is self-inflicted; a past that is unchangeable; or a future that may never happen).
Pain, suffering and illness opens up tremendous opportunities to redirect their misdirected attentions.
I ask my patients what is pain? After they have a brief moment to ponder I offer my take. The body has real need but often the mind is busy paying attention to some imagined needs. Pain is how the body speaks to the mind. Let’s say there is a bright orange warning lights on your dashboard and you decided to visit the mechanic. The mechanic sees that you are in distress and covers it up with some duct tape. You are then reassured that the tape has been shown by research to stop the annoying orange light. You are also offered alternative class of duct tapes in the event that the firrst-line doesn’t work well enough and should you be able to see the light come through the tape.
The other day, at the after hour clinic, a patient was in the exam room waiting when I entered. I noticed the near-empty prescription bottles of Percocet and Celebrex in front of her on my desk. She had pain from back to her left foot. After a detailed history, I explained to her that her “pain” is alerting her mind of three challenges.
1. Sciatica from nerve root compression in her lower back partially due to poor posture and weak core; solution: posture exercises and intra-abdominal compression lumbar-decompression exercises guided by pain.
2. Gluteal claudication likely due to iliac vessel disease as she had history of MI and the body wants to redirect her mind from cigarettes using pain. I sent her for doppler and lab studies but encouraged her to focus, in the mean time, on lifestyle management till a treatment plan can be made after the tests.
3. Osteoarthritis of the right knee due lacrosse injury when she was younger. I reminded her that the body is a miracle and has fantastic potential to self-heal provided it receives the proper care; and that the pain is the constant reminder to help the mind stay attentive to the essential nutritional substrates found in 400 grams of non-starchy vegetables and fruits per day, redirect attention from the thought of cigarettes and discover the “appropriate” posture and activities that prevents repeat injuries and permits healing with time.
She thanked me for the explanation and the plans; and asked me if I would dispose of the unfinished prescriptions for her.

What is virtual care?

To me virtual care can mean one of two things. First, virtual care(1) may mean a collection of tools that can be used to increased the ability to communicate over distances; but like most tools it can be inappropriately used; and used to replace the often much needed in person engagements.
Second, virtual care(2) may represent care that does not really solve the root challenges. It’s virtual in the sense that it only puts out the symptom but allows the root cause to smolder.
“A death knell is the ringing of a church bell immediately after a death to announce it. Historically it was the second of three bells rung around death, the first being the passing bell to warn of impending death, and the last was the lych bell or corpse bell, which survives today as the funeral toll.”
So perhaps virtual care is more like the “passing bell to warn of impending death”. I don’t think the death of our universal health care will be the real tragedy; rather it is the premature morbidity and mortality of a naive and misguided people blessed with all the resources but lack resourcefulness. I think introduction of private or hybrid care is a forced consequence of the growing appetite of the Golden Calf of “healthcare” which exist for one reason and one reason alone – sustain its ROE (return on investment)
Virtual care(1) is perhaps a valiant resuscitations attempt to meet the insatiable virtual needs not met by virtual care(2); or perhaps just another innovation of the Golden Calf that shall hasten the death knell.
Regardless of universal, private or hybrid, in my opinion, genuine and effective health “care” only begins when individuals are empowered to think critically and pay attention to real needs rather than perceived (virtual) needs. Who should be more capable and well positioned to take the lead than the physicians? Doesn’t the funeral bell ring for everyone?

What did I learned on a foraging meetup?

Two commonly passed around  “health advices” makes little sense to me.
1. Take lots vitamins and supplements such as gelatin, shark cartilage as they can only do good and no harm.
2. Avoid eating nightshade vegetables as they are inflammatory and worsens arthritis.

I think my common sense says too much of anything can be harmful.  I don’t agree with the notion that too much vitamins can’t hurt.
Only evidence I am aware of on vitamins and supplements is that other than 1000 units of Vitamin D per day; others are unnecessary.
I am of the opinion that vitamins can not and should not replace a healthy diets containing 400 Grams of a sufficiently diverse collection of non-starchy vegetables and fruits.

As for avoiding nightshades such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.  This made no sense to me either.

I don’t know and I don’t believe messages that is “pushed” to me.  There is usually some sort of hidden agenda: promotion of a vitamin, a supplement, a book, a website, etc..
I prefer to pull data from multiple sources.  So I googled and came up with the following.

The four predominant flavonoids in most tomatoes cultivars are:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/18318499/

phloretin, quercetin, kaempferol, chalconaringenin

Phloretin:
In an animal model, phloretin inhibited active transport of glucose into cells by SGLT1 and SGLT2, though the inhibition is weaker than by its glycoside phlorizin.[5] An important effect of this is the inhibition of glucose absorption by the small intestine[4] and the inhibition of renal glucose reabsorption.[3] Phloretin also inhibits a variety of urea transporters.[6][7] It induces urea loss and diuresis when coupled with high protein diets. Phloretin has been found to inhibit weight gain and improve metabolic homeostasis in mice fed with high-fat diet.[8]Phloretin inhibits aquaporin 9 (AQP9) on mouse hepatocytes.[9]

Quercetin:
Quercetin has been studied in basic researchand small clinical trials.[28][2][29][30] While quercetin supplements have been promoted for the treatment of cancer and various other diseases,[31] there is no evidence that quercetin (via supplements or in food) is useful to treat cancer[32] or any disease.[2][33] The US Food and Drug Administration has issued warning letters to several manufacturers advertising unauthorized health claims for treating diseases on their product labels.

Kaempferol:
Numerous preclinical studies have shown kaempferol and some glycosides of kaempferol have a wide range of pharmacological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, antidiabetic, antiosteoporotic, estrogenic/antiestrogenic, anxiolytic, analgesic, and antiallergic activities.[2]
Anti-cancer effects
Edit
In vitro studies along with some animal testinghas demonstrated the wide range of potential anti-cancer properties of kaempferol. It has been shown in malignant cancer cells to interrupt cell growth, limit angiogenesis, induce apoptosis, and to reduce their available energy and ability to metastasize. Kaempferol has also been shown to reduce MMP-3 protein activity inferring potential ability to reduce metastasis.[2]
Breast cancer
Edit
Estrogen receptors are important in both maintaining a normal mammary gland, and in the development of primary and secondary breast cancer. Kaempferol has been shown to interact with the estrogen receptor pathway and alter signaling in order to help slow growth. This compound exhibits ability to lower levels of Aromatase.[11] Kaempferol has also been found to induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells through extracellular signal-regulated kinase ½ activation [12] and up-regulation of p53.[2]
Ovarian cancer
Edit
Available evidence has shown that kaempferol can “inhibit VEGF production and suppress ovarian cancer cell metastasis in vitro”.[13]
Leukemia
Edit
Kaempferol has been shown to reduce growth in pro-myelocytic leukemia cells through altering the cell cycle.[14]
Bladder, prostate, and colorectal cancer
Edit
Various studies have shown that intake of kaempferol containing foods is not significantly associated with decreased bladder cancer, prostate cancer, or colorectal cancer risk.[2]
Gastric cancer
Edit
A case controlled study found that “consumption of kaempferol-containing foods was associated with a reduced gastric cancer risk”.[2]
Pancreatic cancer
Edit
An eight-year study found the consumption of three flavonols (kaempferol, quercetin, and myricetin) correlated with a lower risk of pancreatic cancer among current smokers, but not non-smokers or ex-smokers.[15]
Lung cancer
Edit
In A549 lung cancer cells, kaempferol up-regulated pro-apoptotic bax and bad genes, while it down-regulated anti-apoptotic bcl-2 and bcl-xL expression. This resulted in an increase in apoptosis of the cancer cells.[4]
Diabetes
Edit
A correlation was found between increased levels of kaempferol in the diet and a reduced relative risk of type 2 diabetes in a cohort study in 2005.[2] Additionally, 6-methoxykaempferol-3-O-β-D-robinobioside was shown to have significant inhibitory activity of aldose reductase, which plays an important role in diabetic complications.[16]
Cardiovascular disorders
Edit
A cohort study in men showed that consumption of flavonoid containing food decreased the risk of mortality from coronary heart disease. Another cohort study showed that high intake of tea is inversely associated with myocardial infarction.[2] Kaempferol has also been shown to have a protective effect on the apoptosis induced by the ischemia/reperfusion of cardiac cells. Due to this, it has a promising pharmacological role in preventing cardiovascular disease.[17]
Anti-bacterial activity
Edit
In a four-week study, kaempferol and its glycosides decreased the number of Helicobacter pylori colonies in gerbils. It also has been shown to work synergistically with antibiotics.[2]
Anti-viral activity
Edit
Kaempferol has been shown to inhibit or decrease the activity of enzymes that partake in viral infection such as reverse transcriptase, viral proteases and neuraminidase.[2]
Antioxidant effects
Edit
Kaempferol has been shown to have an array of antioxidant effects in vitro and in vivo. At low concentrations, its acts as a super-oxide scavenger, specifically against the highly reactive hydroxyl radical and peroxynitrite species. At high concentrations it increases the activity or expression of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, and heme oxygenase-1. Kaempferol can prevent the oxidation of low-density lipid proteins indicating a potential protective role in atherosclerosis.[2]

Chalconaringenin:
“...naringenin chalcone showed the strongest inhibitory effect of the polyphenols of the tomato skin extract. These results indicate that a tomato skin extract could inhibit allergic reactions.”  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/15322354/

Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, a carotenoid.

A 2017 review concluded that tomato products and lycopene supplementation had small positive effects on cardiovascular risk factors, such as elevated blood lipids and blood pressure.[29] A 2010 review concluded that research has been insufficient to establish whether lycopene consumption affects human health.[30] Lycopene has been studied in basicand clinical research for its potential effects on cardiovascular diseases and prostate cancer,[31][32][33] although results through 2017 have not changed the prevailing FDA view that evidence of benefit remains inconclusive.[28]

What is a “safe” injection site?

She asked me for help with addiction; I ask her if she wants to live or die. She said she wants to live. I then told her that her real challenge is her mind – the collection of imprecise thoughts that has her constant attention (Eg. Cravings for the object of her addictions); the inability to redirect her attention away from these thoughts resulting in habitual and body-destructive behavior (Eg. compulsion and loss of control regardless of consequences). In reminded her that without the body there can be no mind. I then asked her if she can trust her mind to know as to what to do to live? She said no. I then suggested that for now, she not trust her mind and trust mine instead. She agreed. I asked her if I may remind her of our agreement from time to time. She agreed again. I told her that the mind does not work unless the body works; so the first step is to start each day with something equivalent of an egg omelette with 5 oz of spinach added. She wrinkle her nose and said I don’t eat breakfast and certainly not spinach. I told her that is her mind speaking, her body would appreciate the nutrition and reminded of our agreement. She nodded her head and agreed. I then asked her to attend our mindfulness training classes every Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I waited while she struggled with her mind’s multitudes of “I can’t”. Each time I reminded her of the choice she has already made. 1. To live. 2. To allow me to help. 3. To trust my mind rather than hers. It’s been 3 month now, she’s never yet missed a class. She sits for 50 minutes with the group twice a week and meditates daily on her own. I tell her every time how wonderful she is doing. He daughter told me how she no longer says mean things and has changed. Her husband is also considering coming to groups.
Is a “Safe injection site” an addiction treatment facility? Is it there to help patient free themselves from addiction, to help them perpetuate addictions or something else? If a patient has chosen to die, would that be a matter of expanding the eligibility criteria of MAID?
“In order to be eligible for medical assistance in dying, you must meet all of the following criteria. You must:
be eligible for health services funded by the federal government, or a province or territory (or during the applicable minimum period of residence or waiting period for eligibility)
generally, visitors to Canada are not eligible for medical assistance in dying
be at least 18 years old and mentally competent. This means being capable of making health care decisions for yourself.
have a grievous and irremediable medical condition
make a voluntary request for medical assistance in dying that is not the result of outside pressure or influence
give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying.

Pain is a friend

My patients mostly only have just two challenges:
1. Not paying enough attention to what the body needs; (Eg. 400 grams of non-starchy vegetables and fruits per day; appropriate physical activities)
2. Paying excess attention to what the mind don’t need. (Eg. suffers craving or aversion that is self-inflicted; a past that is unchangeable; or a future that may never happen).
Pain, suffering and illness opens up tremendous opportunities to redirect their misdirected attentions.
I ask my patients what is pain? After they have a brief moment to ponder I offer my take. The body has real need but often the mind is busy paying attention to some imagined needs. Pain is how the body speaks to the mind. Let’s say there is a bright orange warning lights on your dashboard and you decided to visit the mechanic. The mechanic sees that you are in distress and covers it up with some duct tape. You are then reassured that the tape has been shown by research to stop the annoying orange light. You are also offered alternative class of duct tapes in the event that the first-line doesn’t work well enough and should you be able to see the light come through the tape.
The other day, at the after hour clinic, a patient was in the exam room waiting when I entered. I noticed the near-empty prescription bottles of Percocet and Celebrex in front of her on my desk. She had pain from back to her left foot. After a detailed history, I explained to her that her “pain” is alerting her mind of three challenges.
1. Sciatica from nerve root compression in her lower back partially due to poor posture and weak core; solution: posture exercises and intra-abdominal compression lumbar-decompression exercises guided by pain.
2. Gluteal claudication likely due to iliac vessel disease as she had history of MI and the body wants to redirect her mind from cigarettes using pain. I sent her for doppler and lab studies but encouraged her to focus, in the mean time, on lifestyle management till a treatment plan can be made after the tests.
3. Osteoarthritis of the right knee due lacrosse injury when she was younger. I reminded her that the body is a miracle and has fantastic potential to self-heal provided it receives the proper care; and that the pain is the constant reminder to help the mind stay attentive to the essential nutritional substrates found in 400 grams of non-starchy vegetables and fruits per day, redirect attention from the thought of cigarettes and discover the “appropriate” posture and activities that prevents repeat injuries and permits healing with time.
She thanked me for the explanation and the plans; and asked me if I would dispose of the unfinished prescriptions for her.

When is the best time to plant trees?

“The best time to plant trees is 20 years ago; the second best is now.”  Chinese proverb

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in … “.  Greek proverb
(applies equally to women)


Why fight Mother Nature and hang on to disease prone native species only to have it perish, rather than tough, drought and disease resistant “invasive” species?  I just began working on changing a cattle farm to agroforestry - a diverse, edible, low-maintenance, chemical-free, nature-driven, mixed trees-berries-wild-vegetable orchard that shall provide food for foragers of future generations.  I don’t know much but internet community is a generous collaborator.  All it really takes is sun, rain and patience.  Infinite patience solves infinite problems.


Universal care

Given 80% of Canadians have modifiable risk factors (Health Canada); why is there no conversations about “Universal cradle-to-grave education program” or “universal non-starchy vegetable program”?  Do Canadians know enough about health maintenance?  Do Canadians eat enough non-starchy vegetables?  How often is a citizen reminded of importance of wellness perspectives vs disease promoting behaviors?
If welfare money are often spent on a illness producing diet; then isn’t public’s money being used to promote illness?
If some drugs are already being used frequently to block symptoms and hence enable lifestyle illness; then why direct more public funds in the same manner?

Shouldn’t a “Universal cradle-to-grave education program” and a “universal non-starchy vegetable program” take precedence?

What would you do if you are the prime minister?

I love my “work”. It is a pleasure for me to interact with people I consider to be no different than my friends. Patients ask me when I am going on vacation. I say I am always on vacation for I am doing what I love. If I want to be on a beach; I close my eyes and I am under a cabana with a cool drink. The mind is a powerful tool once mastered. Until then it can be a curse. I refuse to live only from vacation to vacation.
I know many who don’t “work”. To me that is ok too. We really don’t need many geniuses to produce the truly needed goods and services. Most of what is produced and services rendered are only needed to meet needs imagined.
If I was to be a prime minister now, the country would likely be no better off; and I’d go crazy. I’d have to first get my act together. I’d try to be a good example. Learn how to eat, exercise, meditate, listen, think, speak and be genuine. By the time I get myself together, I’d probably give enough people reason to shoot me.
Yes. Even for people who don’t have or choose not to have an occupation; the task of self-management and self-care remains non-discretionary.
I would like to see a “cradle to grave” education system replace our culture of addiction with a new culture of wellness.

Elephants never forget

During hurricane Katrina, New Orleans drainage system was simply overwhelmed. All there was to do at the time was reacting to emergencies.
As an economic machinery of the Golden Calf, our healthcare system has been immensely successful by being reactionary – churns a revenue of $250B dollars a year. As a mean to reduce pain suffering and illness, it has performed dismally. 30% of Canadians are either diabetic or pre-diabetic, 80%, having modifiable risk factors and 50%, having a mental health “diagnosis” by age of 40. Our healthcare system has for a long time, at the least, enabled lifestyle illness by defining disease based on symptoms or test results rather than cause; mostly directing resources to draw attention only to immediately profitable interventions; training care providers to follow clinical guidelines informed by research that focus mostly on modifying symptoms and test results rather than modifiable root causes. Sooner or later everyone is a patient. We are in it together. I think it’s in everyone’s interest to wake up to the lunacy of our situation. The objective should not only be helping each one of us navigate and pay the Golden Calf for our passage through the river of illness; it should be to discover together alternative rivers of wellness.
I think the fundamental obstacle to wellness is the inability to differentiate between real needs vs discretionary needs. Oxygen is a real need, smoking (even if you don’t inhale) is discretionary; water is a real need, Coca Cola is discretionary ( even though we have been told “It’s the real thing”); 400 grams of non-starchy vegetables and fruits daily is a real need (WHO), chocolate cake daily is discretionary (some may disagree!); appropriate physical activities is a real need, running a marathon is discretionary (unless I am stuck in a desert and the oasis is 42 km away); the body has real needs, the mind only has discretionary needs.
No amount of innovative policies or system redesigns will be enough; without individual’s developing the ability to differentiate between the body’s real needs and what the mind wants. I think as death and illness effects everyone it is everyone’s business to learn, live and share wellness perspectives. I think my purpose is to participate in Talking Circles where everyone have opportunities to directly and authentically share and learn perspectives; and where everyone’s diversity is appreciated and valued. During our weekly groups, we place a feather, a wooden elephant and a foam model of a ear on a little box placed in the middle of our circle. They are used as talking pieces. Feather represents transparency. Elephant never forgets. Who holds the ear has everyone’s attention.

About e-cigarettes

It takes 25 years for asbestos exposure to manifest as lung cancer.  I don’t think inhaling vegetable oil into the lungs can be a good thing.  The full extent of the damage to the body is unknown.  Time will tell.

How to make someone happy?

Happiness is an emotion that has its place just as unhappiness; it’s neither good or bad; it is the experience of each moment determined by the object of attention of each moment.  As Sadhguru might say, it’s a crime to miss the present moment completely by paying excess attention to an unchangeable past or a future yet to happen.  State of bliss is being able choose the object of attention moment by moment.  As Sadhguru have said about teaching children.  “Don’t tell them what to do, they don’t listen anyways”.   So as to “make others happy”; two ways this can be accomplished in each moment are
1. if I manage to redirect their attention to an object they haven’t imprecisely assigned with negativity.  
2. Another way, more durable than last, is to help them see that their assignment of negativity is imprecise and the very source of their sufferings.  

The former can be targeted with mindfulness-based interventions.  The latter may respond to some sort of talk therapy or just genuine and authentic conversations.  Even if I choose to do all this for another, it is important to know that the other’s experiences are others choices and not mine.  Like Sadhguru says, “Don’t fix others, fix yourself first; and others might learn from what you do”.

Voluntarism prevents dementia

In Taiwan, most seniors volunteer. They have successfully built a culture of voluntarism.  They incentivized their seniors to volunteer at least once a month with a discounted monthly bus pass for volunteers.  They stay engaged and maintain a sense of purpose.
Social engagement (SE). According to research, “Participants with consistently high or increased SE had a lower risk of dementia than those with consistently low SE ((OR = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.06–0.28 and OR = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.23–0.48, respectively). Higher SE can reduce the risk of dementia. Furthermore, consistently high or increasing SE is associated with a lower risk of dementia.“ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5784173/
Exercise. “According to the Alzheimer’s Research & Prevention Foundation, regular physical exercise can reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by up to 50 percent.”
Vegetables and fruits. According to Alzheimer’s Society Canada, “Healthy eating can reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. But did you know that these conditions also increase your risk of developing dementia?
Healthy dietary choices not only improve your general health, in the long-term nutritious food helps maintain brain function and slows memory decline.”
According to an article in Frontier Research in Neuroscience, “among participants with mean age over 65 years and combined sexes. Dose–response meta-analysis showed that an increment of 100 g per day of fruit and vegetable consumption was related to an approximately 13% (OR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.77–0.99) reduction in cognitive impairment and dementia risk”.

The Golden Calf is having the sleeping citizens of the world for breakfast.

think The Golden Calf is having the sleeping citizens of the world for breakfast.


Why the Hong Kong unrest, the Venezuelian exodus and Trump phenomena?

As a North American, who would benefit from me knowing?
Who benefits from Hong Kong unrest?

What are the most powerful interest in the world?
What is the largest industry in the US?
What is the largest concentration of capital (The Golden Calf) in the world?
How does this largest capital concentration maintain its ROE?
Who has the power to shape world politics?
What industries benefit from chaos?
Who benefits from US’s oil sanctions against Venezuela?
Why did China’s Biggest Energy Company for the first time shuns Venezuela Oil on Tighter U.S. Sanctions?
Who has the largest proven oil reserve in the world?

Who benefits?

Top 6 our of top 10 are oil interest.

What is the only two ways to make lots and lots of money?
1.  Ingenuity and inventiveness of Googlesque or Buffetesque magnitude.
2. Steal it.

Oil was already invented  in Paleozoic age 541 million years ago.

Stealing in a global proportion requires muscles and stealth.

Oil corporations already own 5 out of 8 of the largest proven reserves. 

Russia and Iran are too tough to steal from; I think it might have been tried but did not work.

There’s is only one left.

As for stealth, chaos is an effective distraction.

Isn’t it interesting the defense sector as well as the top 6 out of top 8 corporations all come out winners?
Even Walmart is a winner in the trade war; posting growth in its first quarter after 2 consecutive years of declining profit due to Amazon.

Accident?

I think it’s not US, not China, not a nation or its people.  It is the Golden Calf, or the amoral corporate psychopathy, that is having the sleeping citizens of the world for breakfast.  I am sure my ideas are not novel but of course the media also belong to the Golden Calf.  We only hear what it wants us to hear; it’s up to us to pay attention to what is not said.

US defense (collectively) $760B


What about video games?

I think compared to drugs, alcohol, smoking; video games are in many ways a far safer temporizing attachment for so many youth and post-youth until they
1. develop the ability to choose the object of their attention and
2. accumulate sufficient perspectives of reality.
The solution is to offer mindfulness training and Talking Circles in every school, college and university, workplace, healthcare facilities, government and private institutions.

Yes, Dear

  1. A friend told me the most important words a young husband needs to learn are “yes, Dear”.  It took me 30 years; my mind finally understand that we have different perspectives, neurodiversities and experiences; and that of our oneness. My mind now see us as the right hand and the left hand. In a way my hands are far more intelligent than my mind. They simply know their oneness. I think if my hands could talk to each other; there would just be lots of “yes, Dear”.

Real threat to our children

Directing attention to climate change can distract from what’s at the root of the challenge.  The challenge is and has always been the lack of knowledge, awareness of interdependence and sense of oneness.
“About 29,000 children under the age of five – 21 each minute – die every day, mainly from preventable causes. More than 70 per cent of almost 11 million child deaths every year are attributable to six causes: diarrhoea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery, or lack of oxygen at birth.”
Much of these are preventable.  These children don’t die from climate change; they are permitted to die by a world of people too distracted by their delusion of a contracted sense of self.  They are permitted to die by the lack of awareness of our interdependence with each other and with the universe.  They are permitted to die from the lack of sense of oneness.
Hosea 4:6 says: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

An epidemic of “test-itis”

“You are eating the same way and have no plans to quit smoking; I am confused as to why you are requesting yet another cholesterol test?”
Many also suffer “MRI-it”, “CT-itis”, just two more examples of the growing family of “test-itis”. They are due to the fears arising in patients who know only a little, an inability to pay attention to what they truly care about and the need to cover our “behind”. Yup! I am also part of this epidemic of “test-itis”. Telling physicians how to choose wisely is only small part of the solution. Patients wants to know and needs to know. I try to share my perspectives every chance I get. I think educating the public is the responsibility of everyone that knows. I think ignorance hurts all and we are interdependent and in it together. Wellness perspectives need to be a culture of our education system, media, government and corporations.

Ferris wheel

The best part of being on the “Ferris wheel” is that I can see more as I ascend.
He had been diagnosed long ago with “borderline” after an one hour psych assessment. He had spent years studying what that means and learning about himself. He now has a most kind psychiatrist whom he rarely sees now. He was in the very first psychotherapy group I ran. He has since acquired a Master degree and completed an MBSR program. He grows a beautiful vegetable garden, continuous to study and has found peace and contentment.
The other day he came to see me and we travelled back in our memories together. He told me the story of a time when he went to see a family physician for the first time; and the young physician looked him in the eye and told him “I don’t treat alcoholics”. He said “the funny thing is that I didn’t even drink any more by then… I think he assumed I drank because of all the crucifix tattooed on my knuckles”. He then told me that physician was me. For a moment I felt a sense of shame; I quickly reminded myself, the young physician who judged imprecisely due to his inexperience deserves the same compassion as anyone else. I reminded myself not to judge anyone, not another patient, another doctor or anyone. I have learned that people do change; it just takes time and some growing awareness. I have learned that patients foremost suffer an inability to choose the object of their attention. I have learned that pain is the language by which the body speaks to the mind. All they need is some new perspectives and to develop sufficient mindfulness to use them. I love going to work for each patient engagement is now an opportunity for me to help someone else see more clearly how life really is. I am not sure if this is the top; but I am pretty sure I am still ascending. In any case, the view is already fantastic!

Mindfulness in running

While I was running yesterday, I realized that I can zoom out from my mind’s habitual labeling and generalizations of the body’s language and discover a greater awareness of each moment’s vividness — life alone can offer.

Intention, action, consequence, perspectives and object of attention

Consequence is locked to the collective of everybody’s actions, everymind’s intents and everything else.  Each mind’s experience is locked to its collective of perspectives and  choices of, moment by moment, objects of attention.

About Universal Healthcare

Obesity and diabetes epidemics did not exist prior to the invention of the automobile. Personally I am not going to horse and buggies ( though that might be fun on my farm) or stop eating goods trucked to my local grocery store (though I am learning to forage and freeze wild vegetables this season); I’ll just learn when and how to use them. While every invention is used to meet real needs and misused to meet imagined needs; the pains and sufferings caused by its misuse will teaches me the difference. A hammer gets the job done faster provided I hit the nail rather than my thumb. The solution is probably not to throw the hammer away.
I learned long ago realestate is “location, location and location”.
Now I also know that healthcare is “education, education and education”.

What is ideal healthcare?

I recall once, as a witness in court, I was asked during cross examination to pick an answer from a list of choices when the question really had no answer.
Perhaps it is for the same reason why it is so difficult to choose an ideal health care system that might seem fair to all. “The greatest and most important problems of life are all in a certain sense insoluble… they cannot be solved but only outgrown” — Carl Jung.
If wellness is everyone’s interest, then perhaps it is worthwhile to understand what wellness is. 
I know I will die. I also know I won’t be taking anything with me when I do. I don’t know how or when. Until then, my body will continue to be an accumulation of all that I eat; my mind, everything I learn. Like a vehicle, if given all the “non-discretionary substrates” and “used appropriately”, my body will still fail but less likely prematurely. My moment by moment experience is determined solely by the object of my attention. So if I have the “power to choose, moment by moment, the object of my attention” from a “sufficient numbers of perspectives”, I can choose a blissful existence. (or whatever manner of existence of my choosing).
To this mind, the important wellness perspectives are; please add your perspectives!
1. Knowing what are the “non-discretionary substrates” to feed the body. (Eg. 400 grams of non-starchy vegetables and fruits per day — WHO)
2. Knowing how to “use the body appropriately”. (Eg. Understand that much of pain is the way the body speaks to the mind; not to be neglected or blocked; but to be recognized as an indispensable element of wellness and convalescence.
3. Developing the ability to choose, moment by moment, the object of my attention. (Eg. Understand that much of mental suffering is the consequence of the inability to choose the object of attention and that mindfulness trainings of some variation may be potential solutions)
4. Accumulating “sufficient number of perspectives” to choose from. ( Eg. Facilitated by authentic conversations, group psychotherapy or Talking Circles — http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/aboriginal/strategygr05lancircle.pdf
And if wellness is everyone’s business; would it not be helpful to redefine “healthcare” to be inclusive of the education systems, media, governments and private corporations?
Then in a larger conversation circle, can we redesign a “cradle to grave” education system that facilitates the collective awareness of different wellness perspectives?
Can we incentivize media to promote wellness – in novel and entertaining ways?
Can we select leaders more aware of wellness perspectives; and capable of redirecting the attention of the populace from imprecise judgments, self-harming and myopic fixations to perspectives of wellness and sense of oneness?
Can we recreate an economy where private corporations were incentivized to market gratitude, generosity and self-empowerment; rather than cravings and addictions?
While as a physician I have seemingly endless opportunities to share my perspectives with people made attentive by their pain, sufferings and illness; I think the responsibility of sharing wellness perspectives does not belong to any single group of people but to anyone and everyone who is aware.

Masks I wear

I think “masks I wear” intentionally or otherwise are merely my mind’s imprecise judgement of other’s opinions; they are more informative of my true opinion of what I consider to be self; and no mind pay more attention to them than my self-identifying mind.  I am learning the need and the how to ground my attention to the vividness of each moment, to see things as they truly are and to respond with an awareness of oneness — an awareness that blossoms under the sun and rain of other’s genuine perspectives.

On the topic of polyamory

  When your parrot falls in love, it's called polyamorous; When you play games with your parrot, it's called polygamous; When your p...