Happy Monday!
I hope you all had a great weekend.
Today, I begin my blog with a little show-n-tell from my weekend, then I share an overview of my vlog for today. I hope you enjoy you enjoy it!
Weekend Show-N-Tell
My weekend was split; I took Friday off, and then worked on Saturday with kettlebell athlete Mike Salemi. Sunday was a great day of having no plan!
Friday, I got together with a friend to do some acrylic painting. I’ve never painted with acrylics before, nor have I done much painting at all.
I’m a spontaneous expressionist, and feel most gratified when I can start and finish an art piece without a lot of set-up or clean up involved. Fortunately for me, my friend has experience painting with acrylics so I got a little help. We had a great time creating this mandala together and hope you enjoy it.
Saturday, Mike Salemi and his CHEK Practitioner Jonny Suarez came to see me for Mike’s monthly program update.
Mike recently entered a kettblebell competition just so we could get a benchmark as to where we are at with regard to our competition goal, which is his Master’s Certification. Mike did very well maintaining his newly developed kettlebell lifting form.
Now we are progressing deeper into the development of his strength and endurance, but not before looping back for another base conditioning phase.
Here you can see me introducing Mike to some reflex development. By using a movement pattern common to his sport while kneeling on a Swiss ball, we can heighten neural activation.
When the body feels threatened by the possibility of falling, the nervous system both up-regulates neural drive, speeding and strengthening muscle contraction, and overrides potentially old recruitment patterns.
Inevitably, athletes (and everyone else) have unresolved injuries that are still triggering faulty pathways. This results in reflex, or direct inhibition of some muscles, with resulting over-activation of other muscles.
Mike did a great job with this exercise, which is actually quite hard. Most people have a hard enough time kneeling on a fully inflated Swiss ball, let alone performing Olympic lifts with kettlebells.
I’m not suggesting you go out and try this by the way. This is advanced athletic training best used by those with adequate development and coaching to use such exercises safely and intelligently.
Sunday I woke up with a smile on my face. I had no schedule other than a massage at my house, and no place to be other than right in my yard with my plants, trees, and all the creatures that share space with me (and there are many!).
Before JR arrived to give me a massage, I got out into my garden for a little artistic exercise expression.
I created the stack you see in the foreground. I watched in amazement all weekend as the wind blew so hard I thought the oranges would come down off the trees, yet, my big stack in the background didn’t fall!
At one point, I was laying in the yard watching it through the blowing trees. It would begin to wiggle like a wave was going through it from top to bottom and back up when hit by a gust. Because I built it, I know just how delicately balanced it is, and to see it withstand such forces was quite amazing indeed! Great fun!
JR Bachman, CHEK Level 3, HLC 3 came to my home to give me a beautiful bodywork session. He did a FANTASTIC job too! JR gave me the best massage I’ve had in years!
It was well worth the money to have him drive out to my home. JR is also a Certified Neuromuscular Therapist, which is a great complement to his CHEK training, and “Paul Chek” got to benefit highly from the combination of skills JR has.
I got off the table feeling noticeably taller and must more relaxed and free in my body. JR did a great job of freeing the stabilizers and ligaments around my old neck injury, which really opened up my head nicely. If you live in the La Jolla or surrounding San Diego area and would like to hire JR, feel free to email him at: jr@ucsd.edu
Sunday, after JR’s great massage, I was inspired to try my hand at acrylic painting again. I’d been having this vision for a few days and felt inspired to try and paint it, now that I had a basic understanding of acrylics.
I found out right away that I don’t have nearly the brush handling skills I need to create an accurate representation of my inner-vision, but I reminded myself that my painting is for fun.
The shield had a complex pattern on it, which I couldn’t draw with the amount of time I’d allotted for painting on Sunday (click on the image and it will open up so you can see it in its entirety!).
It took me four hours to create my Kosmic Man (Kosmic means the inclusion of the physiosphere, biosphere, nooesphere or mind and causal sphere or Zero), and at that point, his shield was all black.
At this point, I had a good sense of how long it takes to paint with brushes, and how slow I have to go to begin to share the details I desire to, so I switched to what felt like a good, efficient way to express the Kosmic Man.
The bird is an ancient metaphysical symbol for the soul. The right wing of the soul-bird is green, symbolizing integration, and the left wing is yellow/gold symbolizing will power and synthesis of knowledge into wisdom through living experience.
The soul-bird’s wings are flying without flying, representing the three qualities of the soul as ascribed by Plotinus, representing, Abiding, and reflecting.
His headdress has six feathers, each representing that the Kosmic Man has fully developed his six chakras; the top of the head is open, representing that the Kosmic Man lives tuned to His Myth.
He holds a shield in His right arm, but the shield isn’t a war shield. It is a symbolic representation of His Myth, and represents the marriage of the life-death cycle into one eternal NOW, as life would be experienced from the perspective of the seventh chakra.
4 Steps To Mental-Emotional Freedom ~*~
In my vlog today, I recap the E.C.H.O. Pattern™ concept, showing how essential it is to have a health E.C.H.O., both within, and in your environment if you want to enjoy mental-emotional stability.
I then give a few minute explanation of how to use the 1-2-3-4 system I’ve developed for creating mental-emotional stability in your life.
For those that are interested in going through a guided experience that shows you how to fully utilize the 1-2-3-4 approach, and to learn to create your own 4 Doctor core values, feel free to acquire these resources:
1. The 1-2-3-4 For Overcoming Addiction, Obesity and Disease.
2. The Last 4 Doctors You’ll Ever Need – How To Get Healthy Now multimedia ebook.
3. How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy book and DVD
I hope you enjoyed sharing in my weekend today, and that you had a chance to view my vlog today.
I look forward to sharing with you more of my knowledge and tips about managing a healthy lifestyle throughout the month of September.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
