At this point on the path for me ...

Given the choice between knowing martial arts ...

Or knowing my own mind ...

I would rather know my own mind ...

HOWEVER ...

For me ...

That path has begun through martial arts ....

Both the fighting side ...

And the healing side ...

And so ...

Through considering the fighting side ...

One can arrive at the side of "no fighting" ...

And know that the ground there is firm ...

Not shifting sand ...

And so ...

At any given moment in time ...

We are what we are when the measure is made ...

Like a container being filled ...

Must first be half-full ...

And so ...

Patience ...

Perseverence ...

Practice ...

Calmness ..

And so ...

And for our morning thought in here today, we have something to consider courtesy of TaiChiLady as follows:

"Your thoughts ...

Your awareness ....

And your perceptions ...

Are constantly evolving ...

And with each shift ...

A different you emerges.

You are not the same person you were five years ago ...

Or even five minutes ago.

Neither are your loved ones ....

Your friends ...

Or your acquaintances."

- p.166, Same Soul, Many Bodies by Brian Weiss, M.D.

One of the things that has kept me with the practice of Chi Gong, or Qi Gong as it is alternatively spelled ...

A practice which encompasses t'ai chi ch'aun ...

Is its scientific nature ...

I am not a person to do something "just because" ...

I like to know the basis of why I am doing something, which is to say, "where did this exercise originate, and what will it do for me, or to me ..."

It is easy to hurt yourself doing the wrong exercises for your particular body condition at the time that you are doing the exercise ...

And it easy to hurt yourself doing the right exercise for you in the wrong way ...

And many exercises do not stress the mental and spiritual sides, which are the parts of the equation that I find most important to me, especially as I put on years and miles ....

For me, Chi Gong, including t'ai chi, is not merely a set of exercises ....

IT IS A LIFE-LONG COURSE OF STUDY ....

There are exercises and thoughts for when you are young ...

There are more exercises and thoughts for when you are on your way along the path ...

And there are yet more exercises and thoughts for when you are older than you were the day before ....

And there is a ryme and a reason for all of it, although when you are young, some of it may seem obscure ...

But that is the way it is with much of life that lies out ahead of us all ....

There is where we are ...

There is where we might wish to be in our minds ...

And then ...

There is what is ...

And what will be, regardless ....

And so ...

BREATHE ...

CALMLY ....

GENTLY ...

RELAX YOUR MIND ...

RELAX YOUR FOREHEAD ...

Open your eyes ...

And enjoy the moment that you are in ...

Which is the only moment in time that you have any control over at all ...

And so ...

WHY I PRACTICE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY OWN LIFE AND HEALTH ....

"Who should doctors let die in a flu pandemic? Maybe grandma, health rationing report suggests"

By LINDSEY TANNER, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:42 a.m., Monday, May 5, 2008

CHICAGO -- Doctors know some patients needing lifesaving care won't get it in a flu pandemic or other disaster.

The gut-wrenching dilemma will be deciding who to let die.

Now, an influential group of physicians has drafted a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients wouldn't be treated.

They include the very elderly, seriously hurt trauma victims, severely burned patients and those with severe dementia.

The suggested list was compiled by a task force whose members come from prestigious universities, medical groups, the military and government agencies.

They include the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.

The proposed guidelines are designed to be a blueprint for hospitals "so that everybody will be thinking in the same way" when pandemic flu or another widespread health care disaster hits, said Dr. Asha Devereaux.

She is a critical care specialist in San Diego and lead writer of the task force report.

The idea is to try to make sure that scarce resources -- including ventilators, medicine and doctors and nurses -- are used in a uniform, objective way, task force members said.

Their recommendations appear in a report appearing Monday in the May edition of Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

"If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing," the report states.

To prepare, hospitals should designate a triage team with the Godlike task of deciding who will and who won't get lifesaving care, the task force wrote.

Those out of luck are the people at high risk of death and a slim chance of long-term survival.

But the recommendations get much more specific, and include:

--People older than 85.

--Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.

--Severely burned patients older than 60.

--Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease.

--Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.

Dr. Kevin Yeskey, director of the preparedness and emergency operations office at the Department of Health and Human Services, was on the task force.

He said the report would be among many the agency reviews as part of preparedness efforts.

Public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University called the report an important initiative but also "a political minefield and a legal minefield."

The recommendations would probably violate federal laws against age discrimination and disability discrimination, said Gostin, who was not on the task force.

If followed to a tee, such rules could exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability, he said.

While health care rationing will be necessary in a mass disaster, "there are some real ethical concerns here."

James Bentley, a senior vice president at American Hospital Association, said the report will give guidance to hospitals in shaping their own preparedness plans even if they don't follow all the suggestions.

He said the proposals resemble a battlefield approach in which limited health care resources are reserved for those most likely to survive.

Bentley said it's not the first time this type of approach has been recommended for a catastrophic pandemic, but that "this is the most detailed one I have seen from a professional group."

While the notion of rationing health care is unpleasant, the report could help the public understand that it will be necessary, Bentley said.

Devereaux said compiling the list "was emotionally difficult for everyone."

That's partly because members believe it's just a matter of time before such a health care disaster hits, she said.

"You never know," Devereaux said.

"SARS took a lot of folks by surprise."

"We didn't even know it existed."

------

On the Net:

CHEST: http://www.chestjournal.org

U.S. Govt.: http://www.pandemicflu.gov

The other day, on the news, I heard them talking about some drug that people take when they are trying to quit smoking ...

Apparently, the drug is causing people to commit suicide ...

They were talking about how the drug acts on the centers of the brain that are related to pleasure ...

The drug acts in such a way to inhibit that center so that people apparently are driven to then commit suicide out of the despair that it causes ...

And the conclusion was that if you wanted to quit smoking, simply stop ...

Throw away your pack of cigarettes and don't buy another ....

If you keep telling yourself that you can't, then that is where you'll be ....

If you take this drug, and it causes you to commit suicide, then you will have stopped smoking cigarettes, as well ....

So that is an alternate cure for the problem ....

And it's obviously a long-term cure ...

And so ....

As for me, I don't want nor desire to have foreign substances such as manufactured drugs racing around inside of me disrupting my internal chemical balance ....

Especially anything that is going to start messing around with my brain chemistry in some manner that is totally unpredictable ....

So I stay away from that stuff ...

And the purveyors of it, especially ...

And so ....

It is an alternative to consider ....

When you put the control over your life into the hands of another, especially someone who wants to load you up with various medications, then you are no longer in control of your life ....

It is exactly that simple ...

Life is about choices ....

Think wisely before you make them is my thought in here this morning ...

When I was wounded in Viet Nam, I was "triaged" and because I had a head wound, I was left for dead ....

I laid out there on a stretcher on the ground for hours, which seemed like an eternity ...

You learn a lot about a lot of things in that time ...

Chief among them being not to get yourself back into that predicament anytime soon ...

Or for the rest of your life ....

However long that might be ...

And so ...

And once again, it is time for my admonition in here to NOT MEMORIZE ...

CONSIDER, instead ...

Come in here with a relaxed forehead ....

Relaxed breathing ....

A relaxed mind ....

And CONSIDER ....

I have been quoting from Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming, and if you were to ask him if he was an expert, he would be the first to tell you "NO" ....

However, of the people out there with extensive background knowledge of this field of study WHO ARE AT THE SAME TIME ACCESSIBLE to us here in America, and in the world, for that matter, I hold Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming in high regard ....

Like myself, Dr. Yang is trained as an engineer in a similar field of engineering study, which makes some difference in terms of understanding energy ...

Dr. Yang also has knowledge of Chinese thinking, so that he is able to explain where differences in modes of thought lie when he is translating ancient Chinese documents into English for us to be able to consider over here ...

And to me, that is an important part of this learning process, because not everything in life is automatically intuitively obvious ...

And much of what Dr. Yang "transmits", while scientific in basis, is still the results of personal discovery, and without the narrative that he provides, this field of study would be that much harder to pursue, because the knowledge is transmitted in concepts and metaphors ....

For example, in t'ai chi, one of the forms is "Search For Needle At The Sea Bottom", and if you watch people doing the Yang 24-form, towards the end of the form, you will see people doing this form as a part of the set, and if you watched a host of people, likely you would see this form done in many different ways, all similar, perhaps, but not exactly the same ...

And what you are seeing is the "external envelope" of that form ...

The manifestation in the physical plane ...

As an interesting experiment, it would be enlightening to go up to the person afterwards, and ask them where is the "needle" and where is the "sea bottom", to see what they would say ...

Now, since t'ai chi is what is considered an "internal" martial art, it would have to be considered that both the "needle"and the "sea bottom" are "inside", or "internal" to us, and for my answer, that is what I would say ....

YES, there is an external martial arts application, or many, associated with that form ...

But I don't consider or think of the external applications when I am doing the form ..

Ultimately, that is merely a distraction that wastes valuable time in your life ...

For if you have your mind on "fighting forms", then you are limiting yourself, since life is about "not fighting" ...

And the "needle" is not a needle as you would have one in the external world ....

The "needle" is a part of your body, as is the "sea bottom", and the external form that you would see me doing is merely an intentional "shaping" of my body in such a way that I am focused on those two specific places, which are at the bottom of the abdominal cavity in an area of the body known as the perineum ..

A goal of Chi Gong is to be able to gently move the perineum up and down if you are in a standing position, which means that you are working against gravity when you raise the "needle" and draw the perineum up as a result ...

You don't want to tighten up the muscles in the perineum, although that is what is likely to happen when you are a beginner ...

You want to gently draw up on the perineum, and then gently relax to lower it back down ...

There is where the concept of the "needle" is so important to the exercise ...

Look at a needle ...

It is very thin ...

If you could take a piece of thin rubber sheet and put a border around it to hold it down on its edges, and then you could attach a needle at its center, you would have a good approximation of the "sea bottom" or perineum in the human body, and the "needle", which can actually be found with your mind if you focus on yourself internally while trying to lift the perineum ...

If you lift that needle attached to the rubber sheet, the rubber sheet will follow the needle upwards with uniform tension throughout the rubber sheet ...

If you grabbed a bunch of the rubber sheet with your fingers, you could also raise it up, but then, the stresses would not be distributed the same, and that would be akin to clenching your muscles in the area of the perineum ...

Having control of the muscle tension in the perineum with your mind is important to maintaining good health as you get older, because the perineum muscles provide support for your abdominal cavity and your internal organs ...

And so ...

That is why it is so important in here to have a relaxed mind, rather than locking onto these words in here as absolutes ....

It is not the words so much that are important; rather, it is the mental pictures that the words are trying to create ...

If you are too rigid in your thinking, too oriented on the words alone, then the mental pictures will not be allowed to form by your mind ...

And that is where I will cut off in here this morning ...

Thank you all for your continuing interest in this thread ....

It is appreciated .....

It is what keeps this thread going ...

And so ...

AND TAKING A MOMENT OUT FROM THE DISCUSSION ON EXERCISING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO MAINTAIN GOOD HEALTH TO POST SOME HEALTH-RELATED MAIN-STREAM NEWS IN HERE THIS MORNING ....

We have ...

"U.S. obesity rates alarmingly high"

By Megan Rauscher

Mon May 12, 5:54 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research shows "alarming levels" of obesity in most ethnic groups in the United States, principal investigator Dr. Gregory L. Burke, of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina told Reuters Health.

The study also confirms the potentially deadly toll obesity exacts on the heart and blood vessels.

"The obesity epidemic has the potential to reduce further gains in U.S. life expectancy, largely through an effect on cardiovascular disease mortality (death)," Burke and colleagues warn in the latest issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Among 6,814 middle-age or older adults participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, or "MESA" study, researchers found that more than two thirds of white, African American and Hispanic participants were overweight and one third to one half were obese.

Obesity rates were far lower in Chinese Americans in the study, with 33 percent overweight and just 5 percent obese, suggesting, Burke said, that high rates of obesity should not considered "inevitable."

The investigators also found that obese adults, compared with normal-weight adults, had higher rates of high blood pressure (up to more than twice as high), abnormal lipids (two- to three-fold higher), and diabetes, despite a "huge number" being on costly medications to lower blood pressure and lipid levels and control diabetes, Burke said.

"As the obesity numbers increase further, we will spend an even larger amount of health care dollars just treating risk factors," Burke said.

Obese adults also had more silent vascular disease (blood vessel disease that causes no symptoms); they had more atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and thicker heart walls, even after adjusting for "traditional" risk factors like high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

Given the higher amount of silent blood vessel disease with obesity, Burke said "one could worry that this will cause us to reverse our 50-year decline in cardiovascular disease mortality due to the obesity epidemic."

This will likely be accompanied by an increase in diabetes, other heart disease risk factors, and silent disease - "on top of the aging of the baby boom generation."

"Our findings support the imperative to redouble our efforts to assist in increasing healthy behaviors and to remove...barriers to maintaining a healthy weight," Burke and colleagues conclude.

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, May 12, 2008.

AND GOING BACK TO THE MAIN-STREAM MEDIA ONE MORE TIME IN HERE, SINCE IT IS RELEVANT TO THE OVERALL THEME OF THIS THREAD FROM THE "STATE OF MIND, STATE OF BEING" STANDPOINT, AND ALSO THE "INTERNAL" ASPECTS OF T'AI CHI AND CHI GONG, WE HAVE ...

"Exercise may protect girls from future breast cancer"

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:52 p.m., Tuesday, May 13, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Get your daughters off the couch: New research shows exercise during the teen years -- starting as young as age 12 -- can help protect girls from breast cancer when they're grown.

Middle-aged women have long been advised to get active to lower their risk of breast cancer after menopause.

What's new: That starting so young pays off, too.

"This really points to the benefit of sustained physical activity from adolescence through the adult years, to get the maximum benefit," said Dr. Graham Colditz of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the study's lead author.

Researchers tracked nearly 65,000 nurses ages 24 to 42 who enrolled in a major health study.

They answered detailed questionnaires about their physical activity dating back to age 12.

Within six years of enrolling, 550 were diagnosed with breast cancer before menopause.

A quarter of all breast cancer is diagnosed at these younger ages, when it's typically more aggressive.

Women who were physically active as teens and young adults were 23 percent less likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer than women who grew up sedentary, researchers report Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The biggest impact was regular exercise from ages 12 to 22.

"This is not the extreme athlete," Colditz cautioned.

The women at lowest risk reported doing 3 hours and 15 minutes of running or other vigorous activity a week -- or, for the less athletic, 13 hours a week of walking.

Typically, the teens reported more strenuous exercise while during adulthood, walking was most common.

Why would it help?

A big point of exercise in middle age and beyond is to keep off the pounds.

After menopause, fat tissue is a chief source of estrogen.

In youth, however, the theory is that physical activity itself lowers estrogen levels.

Studies of teen athletes show that very intense exercise can delay onset of menstrual cycles and cause irregular periods.

The moderate exercise reported in this study was nowhere near enough for those big changes.

But it probably was enough to cause slight yet still helpful hormone changes, said Dr. Alpa Patel, a cancer prevention specialist at the American Cancer Society, who praised the new research.

And while the study examined only premenopausal breast cancer, "it's certainly likely and possible" that the protection from youthful exercise will last long enough to affect more common postmenopausal breast cancer, too, Colditz added.

If you were a bookworm as a teen, it's not too late, Patel said.

Other research on the middle-age benefits of exercise shows mom should join her daughters for that bike ride or game of tennis or at least a daily walk around the block.

Many breast cancer risks a woman can't change: How early she starts menstruating, how late menopause hits, family history of the disease.

Even though the exercise benefit is modest, physical activity and body weight are risk factors that women can control, Patel stressed.

"I'd say you and your daughter are getting off the couch," she said.

"Women who engage in physical activity not only during adolescence but during adulthood lower their risk."

EVERY STORY PAINTS A PICTURE ....

AND THREE SIDE BY SIDE A TRYPTYCH OF OUR TIMES DO MAKE ...

And so ...

"More Americans are taking presription medications - Study shows more than half of insured Americans are taking prescription medicines"

By LINDA A. JOHNSON, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:42 a.m., Wednesday, May 14, 2008

TRENTON, N.J. -- For the first time, it appears that more than half of all insured Americans are taking prescription medicines regularly for chronic health problems, a study shows.

The most widely used drugs are those to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol -- problems often linked to heart disease, obesity and diabetes.

The numbers were gathered last year by Medco Health Solutions Inc., which manages prescription benefits for about one in five Americans.

Experts say the data reflect not just worsening public health but better medicines for chronic conditions and more aggressive treatment by doctors.

For example, more people are now taking blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering medicines because they need them, said Dr. Daniel W. Jones, president of the American Heart Association.

In addition, there is the pharmaceutical industry's relentless advertising.

With those factors unlikely to change, doctors say the proportion of Americans on chronic medications can only grow.

"Unless we do things to change the way we're managing health in this country ... things will get worse instead of getting better," predicted Jones, a heart specialist and dean of the University of Mississippi's medical school.

Americans buy much more medicine per person than any other country.

But it was unclear how their prescriptions compare to those of insured people elsewhere.

Comparable data were not available for Europe, for instance.

Medco's data show that last year, 51 percent of American children and adults were taking one or more prescription drugs for a chronic condition, up from 50 percent the previous four years and 47 percent in 2001.

Most of the drugs are taken daily, although some are needed less often.

The company examined prescription records from 2001 to 2007 of a representative sample of 2.5 million customers, from newborns to the elderly.

Medication use for chronic problems was seen in all demographic groups:

-- Almost two-thirds of women 20 and older.

-- One in four children and teenagers.

-- 52 percent of adult men.

-- Three out of four people 65 or older.

Among seniors, 28 percent of women and nearly 22 percent of men take five or more medicines regularly.

Karen Walker of Paterson, N.J., takes 18 prescription medicines daily for high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic back and shoulder pain, asthma and the painful muscle disorder fibromyalgia.

"The only way I can do it and keep my sanity ... is I use pill boxes" to organize pills for each morning and night, said Walker, 57, a full-time nurse at an HIV clinic.

Her 69-year-old husband, Charles, keeps his medicines lined up on his bureau: four pills for arthritis and heart disease, plus two inhalers for lung problems.

Dr. Robert Epstein, chief medical officer at Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based Medco, said he sees both bad news and good in the findings.

"Honestly, a lot of it is related to obesity," he said.

"We've become a couch potato culture (and) it's a lot easier to pop a pill" than to exercise regularly or diet.

On the good side, he said, researchers have turned what used to be fatal diseases into chronic ones, including AIDS, some cancers, hemophilia and sickle-cell disease.

Yet Epstein noted the biggest jump in use of chronic medications was in the 20- to 44-year-old age group -- adults in the prime of life -- where it rose 20 percent over the six years.

That was mainly due to more use of drugs for depression, diabetes, asthma, attention-deficit disorder and seizures.

Antidepressant use in particular jumped among teens and working-age women.

Doctors attributed that to more stress in daily life and to family doctors, including pediatricians, being more comfortable prescribing newer antidepressants.

Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen's Health Research Group said the increased use of medications is partly because the most heavily advertised drugs are for chronic conditions, so most patients will take them for a long time.

He also blames doctors for not spending the time to help patients lose weight and make other healthy changes before writing a prescription.

The study highlights a surge in children's use of medicines to treat weight-related problems and other illnesses previously considered adult problems.

Medco estimates about 1.2 million American children now are taking pills for Type 2 diabetes, sleeping troubles and gastrointestinal problems such as heartburn.

"A scarier problem is that body weights are so much higher in children in general, and so we're going to have larger numbers of adults who develop high blood pressure or abnormal cholesterol or diabetes at an earlier age," said Jones, of the heart association.

Dr. Richard Gorman, an American Academy of Pediatrics expert on children's medicines, said more children are taking medicines for "adult conditions" partly because manufacturers now provide pediatric doses, liquid versions or at least information to determine the right amount for a child.

The Medco study found that among boys and girls under age 10, the most widely used medication switched from allergy drugs to asthma medicines between 2001 and 2007.

Gorman said that's because over the last decade, asthma care has gone from treating flare-ups to using inhaled steroids regularly to prevent flare-ups and hospitalizations.

------

On the Net:

http://www.medco.com

Every now and then, especially after being barraged with a bunch of "medical news" as seems to have been the case the last couple of days and this morning as well, I come in here somewhat shaking my head, and I find myself at a loss for words ...

And so, I sit here and don't think ....

And when I did that this morning, the word "belief" popped into my head, and so, I went to the trusty search engine feature in here and put in that word ....

And what came back to me are the three prior posts above here ....

So I will leave those stand in stark counterpoint to the news article that I posted yesterday as this morning's thought exercise in here ....

And so ...

AND ONCE AGAIN, I AM GOING TO GO TO THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA FOR SOME HEALTH NEWS THAT IS RELATED TO WHAT WE DISCUSS IN HERE ABOUT MAINTAINING LIFE AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN THESE TIMES THAT WE FIND OURSELVES IN TODAY ...

"Low Vitamin D Tied to Depression in Older Adults"

Fri May 16, 7:02 PM ET

FRIDAY, May 16 (HealthDay News) -- Low levels of vitamin D and high levels of a hormone secreted by the parathyroid glands may increase the risk of depression in older adults, according to a new report.

The Dutch study, published in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, supports previous speculation by researchers that vitamin D, depression and other psychiatric illnesses are linked, according to background information in the article.

Underlying causes of vitamin D deficiency -- such as less sun exposure due to decreased outdoor activity, different housing or clothing habits, and decreased vitamin intake -- may be secondary to depression, but depression may also be the consequence of poor vitamin D status, the article's authors wrote.

Moreover, poor vitamin D status causes an increase in serum parathyroid hormone levels.

Symptoms of depression often appear when the parathyroid glands are overactive, then disappear after the gland condition is treated.

Since both low vitamin D levels and high parathyroid hormone levels can be treated by increasing vitamin D or calcium in the diet and boosting exposure to sunlight, the findings could bring hope to depressed seniors, the researchers say.

About 13 percent of older individuals have symptoms of depression.

Researchers at VU University Medical Center, in Amsterdam, found the vitamin D levels were 14 percent lower in test subjects diagnosed with major and minor depression compared with those non-depressed participants.

Parathyroid hormone thyroid levels were an average of 5 percent higher in those with minor depression and 33 percent higher in those with major depressive disorder than in those who were not depressed.

The researchers measured blood levels of vitamin D and parathyroid hormone among 1,282 community residents over the age of 65.

They also assessed symptoms of depression, diagnosing 26 with a major depressive disorder, 169 with minor depression and 1,087 as not depressed.

Additional studies are needed to determine whether changes in levels of vitamin D and parathyroid hormone precede the onset of depression or follow it, the authors said.

Parathyroid gland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The parathyroid glands are small endocrine glands in the neck, usually located behind the thyroid gland, which produce parathyroid hormone.

In rare cases the parathyroid glands are located within the thyroid glands.

Most often there are four parathyroid glands, but some people have six or even eight.

Anatomy

The parathyroid glands are four or more small glands located on the posterior surface of the thyroid gland.

Histologically they are quite easily recognizable from the thyroid as they have densely packed cells in contrast with the follicle structure of the thyroid.

They distinguish themselves from the thyroid gland histologically as they contain two types of cells:

a) parathyroid chief cells

b) oxyphil cells

Physiology

The sole function of the parathyroid glands is to maintain the body's calcium level within a very narrow range, so that the nervous and muscular systems can function properly.

When blood calcium levels drop below a certain point, calcium-sensing receptors in the parathyroid gland are activated to release hormone into the blood.

Parathyroid hormone (PTH, also known as parathormone) is a small protein that takes part in the control of calcium and phosphate homeostasis, as well as bone physiology.

Parathyroid hormone has effects antagonistic to those of calcitonin.

It increases blood calcium levels by stimulating osteoclasts to break down bone and release calcium.

It also increases gastrointestinal calcium absorption by activating vitamin D, and promotes calcium uptake by the kidneys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parathyroid

And that is my morning thought in here today, what is stated in this box right above here ....

After having all of this time to re-think my thoughts as expressed right above here, I still think them ....

And so, I will leave them for you to consider in here this morning as your own thought exercise ....

In the light of what I posted yesterday and in the last few days in my Tryptych ....

And so ...

Renunciation ...

Is not getting rid of the things of this world ...

But accepting that they pass away.

Mindfulness ....

Is the aware, balanced acceptance ...

Of the present experience.

It isn't more complicated than that.

It is being open to or recieving the present moment ....

Pleasant or unpleasant .....

Just as it is ....

Without either clinging to it ....

Or rejecting it.

TOUGHNESS: strong or firm in texture but flexible and not brittle ...

Characterized by uncompromising determination ...

DURABILITY: able to exist for a long time without significant deterioration ...

- Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

Techniques ...

And words ...

Over the course of my lifetime, I have been a collector of "techniques", mostly in the mental sphere, that have allowed me to continue to work on regulating my own mind in conjunction with my body, to maintain my own state of health and balance as a permanently disabled person down here on this earth of ours ...

And what I am doing as we move along in here is sharing those techniques in such a way as to provoke thought on your part ....

And so these words above here, "toughness" and "durability" ...

Those are attributes or qualities that are to me as an older person in life valuable to have ...

But not "toughness" in the macho sense of the word ...

I am not and don't advocate being a "tough guy" in life ....

In my own life, I actually prefer gentleness .....

And "toughness" as I have it defined above here does not in any way preclude gentleness ...

To the contrary, it enhances it, as I see it, because having toughness allows you to be gentle in life ...

Gentleness is not a weakness or a liability when it comes from toughness ...

And so ...

When you are having intrusive thoughts that you don't wish to have ....

DISPLACE THEM ...

And then REPLACE THEM with your own word or words for how you would wish to be in life ....

For me, those words include "toughness" and "durability" because they are to me "building block" words ....

Out of those two things comes many things in my mind, anyway ...

Out of "toughness" comes firmness and gentleness to name but a few ...

Out of "durability" comes longevity, and quality of life can then flow from that ....

BUT ....

That is merely how I happen to see things in life up here where I am ....

And so ...

As I say in here periodically, do not be rigid in your thinking towards anything in here ....

Be relaxed and considerate ...

MUSE about things ....

It is allowed, after all ....

To MUSE about something that can or does affect your life, or has the potential to affect your life, IS NOT A WASTE OF TIME ...

To the contrary, it would seem to be an essential to moving along in life on the path that is yours, and not anyone else's ....

And so

And by way of review in here this morning ....

YES ...

We are still talking about the FIVE REGULATINGS throughout here ...

The FIVE REGULATINGS always remain in the background, serving as a backdrop for the discussions in here ....

The FIVE REGULATINGS also serve as the outline to these discussions ...

They should never be far from your mind ....

Which leads to a simple mantra to use when your mind is in turmoil ....

BODY, BREATH, MIND, BODY, BREATH, MIND .....

Over and over and over again ...

BODY, BREATH, MIND ....

Linkages ....

Remember, where your mind is, is where your mind is not ...

If your mind is on strife or turmoil, then it has departed from where you would like to have it, unless, by choice, you have put it over onto strife and turmoil, which we must sometimes do as human beings down here on this earth of ours ...

But even then, running in the back of my mind is that simple mantra - BODY, BREATH, MIND ...

Keep them all connected ...

Keep them all functioning as one living thing ...

And the rest then will take care of itself ....

Or at least it always has ...

And so ...

Well, it is another day out there in the world ...

And the dawning of another day in here as well ...

And so ...

I just got done posting an e-mail to a friend from t'ai chi who I have not seen in some time, as I do not travel anymore ...

In that e-mail, I was re-iterating my thought or belief that patience is the first most important component to long-term healing in our lives ...

And so, I will restate that belief in here, as well this morning ...

I also related to this person how over the years, chi gong and t'ai chi have given me a pretty good "tool box" of techniques for restoring and maintaining health ...

BUT ...

Those tools are exactly worthless if they never get used and applied, and that is what I am doing now, applying them to myself in my own life ...

And so ...

To do that, one has to invest in the loss of all the things in life that prevent one from taking the time to actually use these tools to enhance one's own life and health, which means to invest in the loss of distractions and outside strife and turmoil ...

When one is younger, that is difficult to do, since as a young person, you have to be out there in the world where these distractions exist on a constant basis ...

Conversely, if you wait until you are old and weak, you may be too weak to pull the fat out of the fire ...

And so ...

When the time comes in your own life to withdraw a bit and work on your own self, you will be the first to know, and so ...

To draw this towards a conclusion, keep in mind that it is said in t'ai chi that softness overcomes hardness ...

And in my experience of life to this date, that saying has much truth to it on many different levels ...

The art is accomplishing that degree of softness, and that is something else that I am working on ...

To achieve softness, one must invest in the loss of hardness, and that alone can be a lifetime's worth of real hard work ...

The longer one waits to begin that work, the greater the likelihood that one will have deprived one's own self of sufficient time remaining in life to accomplish that goal ...

And keep contemplating the concepts of Kan and Li, water and fire, and how those concepts apply to the production of hormones in our bodies that keep our metabolism in balance, and how the chi gong exercises work internally to keep those endocrine system organs, the spleen and liver and pancreas, in good shape so that the metabolism is functioning well at all times ...

For out of that, good health can come, I have found ...

And so ...

Those are my thoughts in here this morning ...

Here I will conclude ...

Enjoy the day out there, those of you who come by this thread to read these words ...

Keep an open, relaxed mind ...

Breathe slowly and in a calm manner ...

And take the day as it comes ...

EQUANIMITY ...

And so ...

And here, I want to get back to some more chi gong "theory", or relevant background ...

And so ....

Returning to Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming in Qigong Meditation, we have ....

Scientifically, it is known that we have two brains that constitute two inner energy poles (or polarities) of the body (Yin and Yang), which are connected via the spinal cord.

Qi (or chi), known as bioelctricity is constantly circulating in our body in order to maintain our lives.

The upper pole regulates our spiritual life while the lower pole manages our physical life.

These two polarities synchronize, coordinate, and harmonize with each other.

- p. 160, Qigong Meditation by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming

This one statement above here by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming is highlighted and repeated in order to emphasize that statement, especially with regard to people who are beginners, or are contemplating taking up chi gong and t'ai chi to maintain and improve their state of health and fitness ...

This thing of Qi, or Chi, can be very confusing to beginners and even people who have been practicing these arts for some time, since it is as much a concept as it is an actuality ...

Like heat, chi is energy ...

Like heat, chi can be sensed, and perhaps measured, but at the same time, it is not a material thing ...

You can buy a gallon of milk, which will have chi associated with it, but you cannot separate out the chi from the milk ...

Just as you can buy a hot meal, but cannot separate out the heat that makes it warm ...

In my experience over time of working with people learning chi gong and t'ai chi, it is with respect to Qi, or Chi, that I have noticed the most confusion ...

People have it in their minds that if they do t'ai chi, that somehow, this mysterious thing called "chi" is going to come to them, and that will somehow separate them from "normal" people ...

BUT ....

The qi is already there within you, right now, in fact, if you are reading these words and have never done t'ai chi or chi gong ...

Or else you would not be alive enough to read these words or to do t'ai chi in the first place ...

If you are lying there on your death bed right now, you still have Qi, or as it alternatively spelled, Chi, flowing within you, however weakly that might in fact be ....

Qi, or Chi, is "lifeforce" as it relates to us specifically as living beings down here on this earth of ours ....

You can improve the quality of your chi, and you can improve the quantity ...

You improve the quality by what you do or do not put into yourself ...

We are what we eat, after all ...

And we improve the quantity of chi by removing blockages and dissipations ...

WHAT YOU DON'T FOOLISHLY LOSE ALONG THE WAY IS WHAT YOU STILL HAVE LEFT FOR LATER ON DOWN THE TRAIL OF LIFE ...

It really is that simple ...

By improving the quality and quantity of your Qi, you are enhancing yourself as a living organism ...

And there is no mystery to that, at all ...

The real mystery to me is our seeming lack of awareness of any of this at the beginning ...

People will tell you that if you maintain your car, it will run better and last longer ...

BUT WHAT OF US?

And so ...

Simply stated ...

IF you don't feel in control of yourself in the "environment" in which you find yourself at any given moment in time ...

Then your mind is "scattered" ...

If your mind is scattered, then your chi will also be "scattered", or not "coherent" ...

We have no real control over the external environment ...

What we have control over is ourselves ...

Having control over ourselves at all times means that we have control over OUR RELATIONSHIP with the environment at all times ...

Having control over that relationship keeps the mind calm, and the chi will then be more concentrated ...

Which is to say, "not dissipated" ...

WHAT IS NOT WASTED IN LIFE IS CONSERVED ...

And so ...

COHERENT: Having the quality of cohering ...

Relating to electro-magnetic waves that have a definite relationship to each other ...

Composed of wave trains in phase with each other ...

COHERE: to hold together firmly as parts of the same mass ...

- Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I will likely be scarce in here for the next so many days ...

And Livyjr is back on line ...

So this thread can resume ....

And so ...

These flower photos are courtesy of Snuffysmith ...

The opening of the flower is a metaphor for the opening of our own lives ...

And so ...

I had a nice visit the other day with my good friend TaiChiLady ...

I demonstrated for her where the 24-form of t'ai chi has evolved for me, and why ...

I like the 24-form as a base form ...

I compared the base form to a christmas tree ...

The base form is the tree itself ...

If you are going to have a fiinished chistmas tree, underneath all of the external finery and such, there must be a structure ...

Once you have that structure, then imagination takes over, and you can hang your ornaments on that structure however you choose, keeping in mind that the laws of gravity still prevail ...

After watching me, and listening to my explanations, TaiChiLady remarked that I had turned the form into a healing form, and I agreed with that ...

And also a strengthening form, as well ...

And so ...

Flowers don't worry about if they are "doing the form correctly" ...

Flowers just are ...

We should try and emulate the flowers in that respect, both in our lives, and when we do t'ai chi ...

Flowers aren't rigid and they don't look around them to see what the other flowers are doing so that they can imitate them ...

Flowers exist in the moment, and they are spontaneous ...

IS THERE UNDERLYING FORM AND STRUCTURE TO A FLOWER?

Of course, there would have to be, or roses and dandelions would look just the same ...

BUT ...

And so ...

And here I want to get back to some of the underlying "thought" that accompanies the practice of chi gong and t'ai chi from Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming ....

And once again my admonition or proviso ..

Consider these words ...

Do not be rigid with any of these words ...

These are thought exercises ...

They can stimulate thought on many different levels, and should ...

However, if treated as some kind of dogma or religious theory, or such, all that promotes is a hardening of the mind, not an opening ...

And so, without further ado ...

All lives originate from nothingness, therefore, in order to see the repetition of lives, we must first reach this nothingness.

This nothingness is called the state of Wuji (No Extremity), where there is no discrimination of Yin and Yang.

It is a neutral state of everything.

Therefore, nothingness here means the emptiness of the emotional mind and the material world.

In order to reach this state (Wuji), the first step is to maintain extreme calmness of both mental and physical bodies.

- p. 160, Qigong Meditation by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming

And here I am going to pause for a moment ...

With that last thought expressed ...

It takes me back to a conversation that TaiChiLady and I have been having about the t'ai chi forms, and "purpose" and abdominal breathing ...

And so ...

Courtesy of Snuffysmith ...

Courtesy of Snuffysmith

Through T'ai Chi Ch'aun, the practitioner learns to move the body IN ONE UNIT, utilizing Chi energy rather than muscle power.

Without the circulation of Chi through the channels, muscles, and tendons, the T'ai Chi Ch'aun movements are only physical exercises with little effect on THE INNER STRUCTURE of the body.

Improper body movements restrict energy flow causing energy blockages, poor posture, and, in some cases, serious illness.

Quite often, back problems are the result of improper posture, accumulated tension, weakened bone structure, and psychological stress.

Through T'ai Chi, one learns how to use one's own mass as a power to work WITH THE FORCE OF GRAVITY rather than against it.

A result of increased body awareness through movement is an increased awareness of one's environment and the potentials it contains.

Since T'ai Chi is a gentle way of exercising and keeping the body fit, it can be practiced well into advanced age because the movements do not strain one's physical capacity as some aerobic exercises do.

- Mantak Chia

From my experience with t'ai chi and chi gong, this statement right above here about "INNER STRUCTURE" is one of the hardest "thoughts" to get across to people who are just beginning t'ai chi, or even to people who have been at it for a while ...

This concept of the "INNER STRUCTURE" of the body, especially in this day and age of people who are all bulked up externally ...

This is something that TaiChiLady and I spent some time discussing between ourselves when we met last week, in connection with the concept of "abdominal beathing" ...

It is this concept of "INNER STRUCTURE" that has caused me to enhance the movements of the 24-form t'ai chi set in the manner that I have done to date ...

Which takes me back to the practice of SELF-RELAXATION CHI GONG I discussed at length in this thread earlier on, which discussion can be found beginning at page 37 of this thread ...

You can get to page 37 by touching your curser to the block with "pages" on it either at the top or bottom of the screen page and clicking on it ...

It will then open, and all you have to do is to type in 37, and click to go and there you will be ...

Your "INNER STRUCTURE" is your skeleton for all practical purposes, or it certainly must include your skeleton or bones, since your skeleton supports or provides support for the rest of you ...

To have chi flowing in the body without blockages, it is imperative that you relax all of your joints or spaces BETWEEN each bone in your body, and especially the hands and feet ...

And so ...

The practice of Taoism (path of life study, not a religion) builds internal strength and creates peace of mind.

It is pointless to worry about the world's problems while still vulnerable to your own.

Do not concern yourself with the lack of peace and harmony in your family or among your friends until you have establshed peace within yourself.

Your capacity to help another human being depends upon the surplus of energy that you can channel towards that purpose.

SUCH INTERNAL STRENGTH CANNOT BE PROVIDED FOR THE BENEFIT OF OTHERS UNLESS YOU CULTIVATE IT WITHIN YOURSELF FIRST.

- Mantak Chia

As I continue to write these words in here, or to post them, I am and remain a combination of all that I have been in life, plus all that has been done to me, or has happened to me, or that I have seen or felt ...

Because I practice t'ai chi or chi gong, or consider this or that philosophy, that does not automatically in some mysterious way wash me clean of life's experiences, nor does it give me some future immunity to the impact of what is going on in the world on myself ...

I am and remain, for example, a combat veteran from the Viet Nam war ...

Whatever that does to one, I am the one in my own life who has to "deal" with that, in this way or that, MY CHOICE ...

So too do I remain one who was twice-wounded in armed conflict ...

That does not just "go away" ...

Sooooo ....

WHAT IS THE POINT?

The point is that life is life ...

It is what it is ...

And what we have control over is ourselves, IF AND ONLY IF we make an effort to exert that control ...

HENCE THIS THREAD FOR ME ...

It is an alternative to all the other threads that I have in here, plus all the other threads that are on-going in here where I might comment in my capacity as a human being, or an American citizen, or as an engineer ....

When I post these words in here, as with these words above here, I am talking to myself first ...

POSITIVE FEEDBACK ...

By going through the motions of transferring the words to "paper" in here, I am performing mental manipulations on purpose ...

REINFORCEMENT ...

I am not just "learning" these words above here now ...

I have actually known these words for some time now, over 30 years, I would say ...

But simply knowing these words 30 years ago means nothing, since the words alone cannot get you through the next 30 years without diligently practicing them every day ...

YOU ARE NO GOOD TO ANYONE OR ANYTHING IF YOU ARE NO GOOD TO YOURSELF ...

Over and over and over and over again, until today ...

SELFISHNESS ...

TO IMPROVE THE WORLD, I MUST FIRST IGNORE THE WORLD TO CONCENTRATE ON WHAT IS STANDING ABOVE MY OWN FOOTSTEPS ...

IF I DON'T LIKE WHAT IS STANDING ABOVE MY OWN FOOTSTEPS, THEN I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS AT ALL POKING AROUND IN WHAT MIGHT BE ABOVE SOMEBODY ELSE'S FOOTSTEPS ...

AND I HAVE NO BUSINESS IN SOMEBODY ELSE'S LIFE, IF MINE IS NOT IN CONTROL ITSELF ...

SELFISHNESS ...

Think about what that really means ...

It does not mean pushing and shoving people out of your way to get something or someplace first ...

That is simply ill-manners ...

SELFISHNESS means taking charge of yourself, improving yourself, instead of poking around where you don't belong, which only serves as a distraction ...

Without morality, martial arts is just street-fighting ...

Without depth, life is simply shallow ...

This thread exists to cause me to have think and consider what it is I am saying to the candid world out there about my own self ...

The candid world then gives me feedback in here by the simple fact of stopping by, and adding to the "count" each day, which in turn keeps this thread running ...

So once again, I want to take a moment to thank all of you out there who do come by here to see what is going on ...

And I want to thank CGCS for giving me this space in here to have this on-going dialogue ...

And as always, be of an open mind when you come here ...

DO NOT BE RIGID ...

You are in your own life where YOU are ...

Your own experiences will have an effect on you as to how you take any of these words ...

If you are open-minded, that relationship between these words and your own life experiences will be that much easier to discern ...

And so ...

You can only share what you have in abundance.

Otherwise, you will drain the energies of those around you as your needs become excessive.

An emotion such as love exemplifies this truth.

Taoism (path of life study) teaches that the body needs love from the inner self to survive and to nurture those energies that can be shared.

Further, you cannot share the energy of love until it overflows beyond the needs of your body.

In other words, you must love yourself to cultivate love for others.

- Mantak Chia

We assume that it is natural to age and to die, yet we often overlook the un-natural aspects of these processes by anticipating them.

In truth, today's society simply lacks the education to understand how aging and death are choices we have made in our worldly endeavors.

This is not to say that the human race is unknowingly immortal, but rather that we have far more control over these factors than we know.

Death can be a choice in the sense that we can choose to live longer.

Aging is a choice in that our bodies need not deteriorate as an effect of time.

The effects of aging can be counteracted if we make the choice to do so.

Taoists (study of path of life) choose to prolong life to create the best circumstances under which they can leave it.

Since people know little about realities beyond physical existence, they often fear such knowledge, leaving it in the hands of God.

However, this fear has often negated the inner knowledge that God IS NOT RESPONSIBLE for mankind's spiritual search; man is responsible.

In Taoism, destiny lies SOLELY in the hand's of the participant and not in the hands of God, for we choose our actions in life.

- Mantak Chia

In the search for truth, one can leave the questions in order to experience the answers.

- Mantak Chia

AND HERE IS A NEWS ITEM WHICH SERVES TO UNDERSCORE IN PART WHY I AM TAKING THE TIME IN HERE TO HAVE THIS DISCUSSION ON THE MANAGEMENT OF STRESS AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ....

AP IMPACT: Debt stress becoming a major pain in the neck - and back and head, AP-AOL poll says"

By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:22 p.m., Monday, June 9, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The stress from deepening debt is becoming a major pain in the neck -- and the back and the head and the stomach -- for millions of Americans.

When people are dealing with mountains of debt, they're much more likely to report health problems, too, according to an Associated Press-AOL Health poll.

And not just little stuff; this means ulcers, severe depression, even heart attacks.

Take Edward Driscoll, 38, of Braintree, Mass.

He blames debt -- $10,000 worth -- for contributing to his ulcers and his wife Kimberly's panic attacks.

"Just worrying, worrying, worrying, you know, where the next payment of this is going to come from," he says.

Although most people appear to be managing their debts all right, perhaps 10 million to 16 million are "suffering terribly due to their debts, and their health is likely to be negatively impacted," says Paul J. Lavrakas, a research psychologist and AP consultant who analyzed the results of the survey.

Those are people who reported high levels of debt stress and suffered from at least three stress-related illnesses, he says.

That finding is supported by medical research that has linked chronic stress to a wide range of ailments.

And the current tough economic times and rising costs of living seem to be leading to increasing debt stress, 14 percent higher this year than in 2004, according to an index tied to the AP-AOL survey.

Among the people reporting high debt stress in the new poll:

--27 percent had ulcers or digestive tract problems, compared with 8 percent of those with low levels of debt stress.

--44 percent had migraines or other headaches, compared with 15 percent.

--29 percent suffered severe anxiety, compared with 4 percent.

--23 percent had severe depression, compared with 4 percent.

--6 percent reported heart attacks, double the rate for those with low debt stress.

--More than half, 51 percent, had muscle tension, including pain in the lower back.

That compared with 31 percent of those with low levels of debt stress.

People who reported high stress also were much more likely to have trouble concentrating and sleeping and were more prone to getting upset for no good reason.

When their construction business went under four years ago, Pamela Crouch, 61, and her husband, who had retired from General Motors, found themselves struggling under IOUs totaling $30,000.

"We just kind of felt desperate."

"We just really didn't have enough to live on to pay what we had to pay," recalls Crouch of Eaton, Ind.

She remembers having trouble sleeping and concentrating.

"We ended up paying a lot of our bills just on the credit card," says Crouch, a medical assistant in a nursing home.

"We were stressed and depressed."

" ... It was really rough."

Their son, a manager of a construction supply company, recently helped them out with their debt problems.

"Things are doing much better," she says.

"It made a world of difference in how we feel."

It isn't known for certain whether such stress is causing health problems, says Lavrakas, who while at Ohio State University in the late 1990s helped to develop an index to measure the extent to which people are stressed from financial debts.

But medical research suggests that most of the symptoms reported in this poll are indeed typical of chronic stress.

The body reacts with a "fight-or-flight" response, releasing adrenaline and the stress hormone cortisol.

That helps you react fast in an emergency, but if the body stays in this high gear too long, those chemicals can wreak physical havoc in numerous systems -- everything from a rise in blood pressure and heart rate to problems with memory, mood, digestion, even the immune system.

And no, stress doesn't cause stomach ulcers -- most are caused by bacteria -- but stress can worsen the pain.

Regardless of the health implications, Americans are taking on more debt as tough economic times -- slowing economic activity, job losses, soaring energy and food prices, slumping home values and record home foreclosures -- strain many people's budgets.

Revolving consumer debt, almost all from credit cards, now totals $957 billion, compared with $800 billion in 2004, according to the Federal Reserve.

Average car loans are up, too, to $27,397, from $24,888 four years ago.

Home mortgages total $10.5 trillion, compared with $7.8 trillion in 2004.

If that's not enough to rattle you, consider this.

The share of households' after-tax income that goes to serving financial obligations was nearly 20 percent in 2007, up from 18.5 percent in 2004, said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody's Economy.com.

No wonder people are feeling stressed.

So, why do they let debt spiral out of control?

A significant life crisis like a major health problem or the loss of a job drives many people into debt.

Others build up bills "trying to keep up with the Joneses" -- according to Patricia Drentea, associate professor of sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who studies debt and stress.

For the middle class and beyond, it could be a push for a bigger house, an SUV, high-tech TVs, computers and other electronic gadgets, gym memberships, nicer clothes and restaurants.

The list goes on and on.

Indeed, the survey found that upwardly mobile, middle-class families were among those who had the most debt stress.

Others were women, couples with small children, low-income working families, Democrats and those who graduated high school but haven't taken college courses.

Those least likely to be stressed from debt include men, retirees, empty nesters, college graduates and Republicans.

The AP-AOL Health poll involved telephone interviews with 1,002 adults from all states except Alaska and Hawaii and was conducted from March 24 to April 3 by Abt SRBI Inc.

The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Cynthia Roberts, 36, of Tawas City, Mich., is "slowly crawling out of the hole that I've been buried in for four years."

At that time, she lost her job as a convenience store manager as she battled health problems.

She eventually lost her home to foreclosure.

These days, Roberts, a mother of four, the oldest in the Army, makes a living through a series of odd jobs -- hauling metal to the scrap yard, selling firewood, mowing lawns and cleaning houses.

She's now making payments on utility bills and on her car.

But not her credit card, where hundreds of dollars in charges are several years old.

At the height of her financial troubles, "I couldn't function," she remembers.

"I'm surprised I'm not in a white straitjacket in a nut house."

"It was that bad."

"I had to go for counseling because I was freaking out."

------

On the Net:

AOL site: http://aolhealth.com

------

Associated Press Director of Surveys Trevor Tompson, and writers Christine Simmons and Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.

Generally, we only read about "medical things" from the perspective of those who are doing research or from those who are "treating" people ....

The observers recounting their observations ...

This thread is "written" from a different perspective, that of the "victim" or "sufferer" ...

Although I don't really think of myself that way, as a "victim", although by some kind of definition, I suppose that I might be classed as one ...

So maybe I have some insights, although I don't pat myself on the back about that, either ...

Or "rest on my laurels", as the saying goes ...

For me, each day is a new day, and whatever I did or didn't do yesterday is gone ....

If I did t'ai chi yesterday, which I did, that does me no good today ...

YES, IT DOES PROVIDE A "BASE" TO SPRING FORWARD FROM ONE MORE TIME ...

But that is it ...

Today is a new day, and once again, like everyone else out there, I am still faced with "choices" ...

MAKE THEM ...

OR NOT ...

Those really are all the alternatives that there are ...

Continue forward ...

Or not ...

Of course, in the course of moving forwards, "lateral drift" is entirely permissable ....

And that is where the "art" comes in ...

As well as a "key" to continued survival ...

And so ...

Hence this thread ....

To keep exploring that concept ...

And so ...

"STRATEGIES FOR COPING ..."

I suppose that could be another sub-title for this thread, alongside "just thoughts" ....

Or maybe "STRATEGIES FOR COPING WITH ____________"

And the blank space in that phrase can be filled in with anything, or everything ...

What is going to be confronting YOU five minutes from now?

Or five hours?

Or five days?

My answer would be, "I don't know and it doesn't matter" ....

Which is not a lackadaisical answer ...

I'm not saying "I don't care" ....

I'm saying instead that it does not matter ...

Whatever it is, I shall act as is appropriate to that moment ....

I don't pre-suppose ....

I don't have a store of canned responses that I would have to mentally scroll down through in a hurry to try and match up some type of response to the developing situation ...

I simply have control of myself ....

And so ...

If you are confronted with a developing situation, MUST YOU ACT?

Remember that there is no place in Taoism (study of path of life) for the glorification of masters.

These teachers consider it a wasteful expenditure of energy for students to pay them anything more than a casual but genuine respect.

(Respect is for the knowledge the teacher is able to impart)

Taoist philosophy suggests that no "middle man" is worth the expense when we can find our own answers.

The enlightenment we seek demands that our efforts be channeled directly into the spiritual paths we choose.

Those who would teach should only be considered helpful guides who offer assistance rather than salvation.

There are many more disciplines available than we need to attain enlightenment.

Our spiritual inclinations, therefore, must eventually focus upon choosing wisely rather than searching endlessly.

A Taoist (one who walks the path of life) cannot rely upon the good graces of a spiritual heirarchy because it is one's own responsibility to learn what spiritual needs are and how to fulfill them.

The physical life we have chosen has many tools to offer.

THE TAO IS SIMPLY A FINGER POINTING THE WAY.

- Mantak Chia

Some initial thoughts of Mantak Chia on the differences between internal discipline versus external exercise to consider in here this morning:

The Western world generally believes that daily physical exercise helps to slow the aging process.

In our society physical fitness is guaged according to the external manifestations of arduous training.

An example of this is the trend towards muscular development through weight lifting.

Athletic competition has also influenced many of our concepts of health and well-being.

If one considers, however, that body builders and athletes enjoy the same life span as the average human, one might reconsider the assumption that they are the most "physically fit."

The professional athletes we admire expend enormous amounts of energy to attain top positions in their sports.

As they overdraw on their resources for long periods of time, their internal organs often lose the capability to feed such exhaustive energy requirements.

The inexorable effects of aging then impede them until they can no longer compete.

Some may delay the exhaustion of their energy sources through vitamins and nutrition, but their digestive capabilities usually decrease with age, making a dependency upon food and vitamins even less promising.

Nutrition and physical exercise are not comprehensive approaches to health, even when they are combined.

To be continued .....

And Mantak Chia now brings us over into the "ball park" as I have understood it to be these last 30 or so years of my own searching for stability in life as a disabled Viet Nam combat veteran:

In your own fitness training, you may be indirectly exercising the internal organs and glands; however, if you do not emphasize their cultivation above and beyond that of the muscular system, you can ultimately do more damage than good.

The organs and glands nourish every function of the body, just as the bone marrow nourishes them through the production of blood.

Still, we unknowingly tax the internal system beyond its limits because we believe that muscular development should take precedence.

Without the energy supplied by the internal organs and glands, there can be no lasting muscular development.

In short, muscular strength and stamina may not be the best medium by which to judge overall physical health.

To be continued ....

And concluding the initial thoughts of Mantak Chia on the differences between internal discipline versus external exercise, we have:

The Taoist approach to health is very different from Western concepts of exercise because the Taoist disciplines are always internally focused.

These exercises, therefore, emphasize the cultivation of the organs and glands.

After the organs and glands have been enhanced, the needs of the tendons, bones and muscles are fulfilled accordingly.

Energizing the bone marrow is crucial to the development of that internal power which has a lasting quality unknown to external systems of health.

We have all heard that inner beauty lasts when outer beauty begins to fade.

The Taoist practices cultivate inner strength and lasting beauty, as they enhance the external aspects of the body.

THIS HAND-WRITING WAS ON THE WALL QUITE A WHILE AGO, ACTUALLY .....

"Bernanke: Improving health care is one of the biggest challenges facing US"

By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press

Last updated: 2:32 p.m., Monday, June 16, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Bolstering the performance of the U.S. health care system is one of the biggest challenges facing the country, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday.

New medical technologies and treatments are allowing people to live healthier, longer and more productive lives.

However, the aging of millions of baby boomers coupled with rapidly rising heath care costs are accounting for an ever-growing share of both personal and government budgets -- strains that will become increasingly burdensome unless changes are made, the Fed chief warned.

Challenges, he said, fall into three major areas: improving access to health care for the 47 million Americans -- or about 16 percent of the population -- who lack health insurance; bolstering the quality of care; and controlling costs.

"Improving the performance of our health care system is without a doubt one of the most important challenges our nation faces," Bernanke said in remarks to a summit on health care reform organized by a Senate panel on Capitol Hill.

On the health care front, Bernanke didn't recommend specific solutions, saying the difficult choices involved with improving access and quality, and controlling costs were best left to policymakers in Congress, the White House and elsewhere.

"Taking on these challenges will be daunting," he said.

Given the complexity of health care matters, he suggested that it might be better for policymakers to consider an "eclectic approach," rather than one single set of reforms to address all concerns.

"We may need to first address the problems that seem more easily managed rather than waiting for a solution that will address all problems at once," Bernanke offered.

When policymakers contemplate changes, Bernanke urged them to "not lose what is good about our system."

The system has produced innovations in basic science, in the understanding and diagnosing of disease and in advancements in medical technology, he pointed out.

These advances have produced more effective treatments and significant reductions in mortality across a wide spectrum of diseases, he added.

Bernanke, once again, warned high health care costs will put an increasing strain on people's and government's budgets, unless those costs are curbed.

Spending on health care is the single-largest component of overall consumer spending -- larger than spending on either housing or food, Bernanke said.

For the federal government, spending on health care accounts for about one-quarter of total spending.

By 2050, it will account for almost one half, Bernanke said.

"Per capita health care spending in the United States has increased at a faster rate than per capita income for a number of decades," he said.

"Should that trend continue, as many economists predict it will, the share of income devoted to paying for health care will rise relentlessly," Bernanke predicted.

That will make health insurance and out-of-pocket payments increasingly unaffordable, he said.

However, if the government doesn't rein in the growth of entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, those exploding costs in time will balloon the U.S. budget deficit, which would hurt the country's long-term economic vitality and could lead to higher interest rates, Bernanke said.

"Certainly, it will have effects on interest rates, it will have effects on economic growth and on stability," he said.

The government, he said, needs to move ahead sooner, rather than later, because these issues "are not going to get better" and instead will only "get worse."

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On the Net:

Federal Reserve: http://www.federalreserve.gov/

And getting back to Mantak Chia on the internal energy known as CHI, or QI, we have:

Taoists describe the world as an interaction of positively and negatively charged electromagnetic energies.

"Chi" is an overall term used for these energies, which comprise the ultimate nourishment derived from food, air, moon, sun and stars.

Chi is also generated within our bodies by the organs and glands, and it extends around us as part of our emanation.

This is why the cultivation of our organs and glands is so important to the enhancement of our life-force energies.

Just as the positive and negative terminals of a battery must both be engaged to generate power in an electrical circuit, the "Yin" and "Yang" qualities of Chi must both be engaged for the proper functioning of the body.

Yin is analogous to the negative charge and represents a cool, gentle energy often associated with femininity.

Yang is the positive charge, and represents a hot, volatile energy that is characteristic of masculinity.

Both qualities can be found within us, although there is often a lack of harmony between them.

The knowledge of Yin and Yang and their proper balance is critical to our daily lives because an imbalance can create a negative effect.