Happy Monday!
I hope you are all happy, well and excited about the Holiday season.
I decided to rest last Monday after teaching HLC 3 for six days, so that is why I didn’t publish a blog last week.
I have a lot to share with you today though! In my blog today, I will share:
1. Balancing The Emotions – A Native American Approach
2. “Who is the “Most Influential Barefoot Educator?” The race to win continues!
3. C.H.E.K Institute Advanced Training Program and Workshop Completions
4. Keeping Donald Trump Exposed!
5. Show-N-Tell with Paul:
– Education and entertainment videos I enjoyed recently
– Gifts and art
– Mana’s First Christmas tree
Balancing The Emotions – A Native American Approach
Today, people are flooded with emotions for many reasons, be they health challenges, family challenges, environmental and political challenges or fears.
I have shared a lot of blogs on a lot of topics, ranging from blackboard lessons, to exercises, mobilizations, foods and meditations.
Though the self-help marketplace is now becoming flooded with emotional healing literature, classes, workshops and online training programs, I feel that the first step to emotional healing is often to stop thinking and start feeling.
Unfortunately, our tendency is to avoid, bury or medicate our emotions.
We often come to realize that we need to “do something” about our emotional unrest. In our head-dominant, intellectual culture, often, that means taking courses.
In my experience, this generally leads to a “perpetual intellectualism” until one is ready to allow themselves to feel and rise above for a more grand perspective.
In my work as a Medicine Man and Spirit Guide (shaman), I test and use many different approaches to emotional balancing and healing on myself so that I can experience and better understand how to apply them with my students and clients.
One of the most powerful tools I’ve used for many years is simply taking time to “be with myself and rattle.”
In Native American cultures, rattles were both powerful healing tools for a variety of energetic imbalances and a source of emotional soothing and healing.
They described the effect of rattle energies as similar to rain. With rattles, we can wash the pain away, and often find clarity within ourselves.
Today, I offer you a chance to join me for a rattle healing session that can be used as a meditation. All you have to do is listen, turn the volume up on your speakers or use headphones so you can feel the rattles working within you (that’s more important than watching me in the video).
I hope you enjoy sharing a rattle healing session for balancing emotions Native American style with me today!
If you like what you experience, get some Native American rattles and start practicing. Participating with ourselves is always the first step to healing.
“Who is the “Most Influential Barefoot Educator?” The Race To Win Continues!
Matthew Wallden, C.H.E.K Institute instructor and co-owner of Primal Lifestyle, the UK’s distributor for Vibram FiveFinger shoes is conducting a survey to determine the most influential barefoot educator.
As you can see by the graph above, I’m doing well in the polls so far, BUT, Matthew just emailed me and said one of my HLC 1 students who wrote a book on barefoot training just passed me!
I would LOVE IT if each of you reading this could take a moment to fill out the short questionnaire being used to determine the winner of the “Most Influential Barefoot Educator.”
Voting ends Dec. 31, so if you are part of the CHEK Tribe and genuinely appreciate my contributions, please vote by taking this short questionnaire here: https://primallifestlyle.polldaddy.com/s/global-barefoot-awards
The actual truth is that my approach is, and has always been much more comprehensive than just going barefoot, or exercising barefoot.
My whole approach (as many of you who are my students and who’ve followed my career know) goes way beyond “the foot” to include one’s whole body, lifestyle and food choices, as well as the deep and important explanations of how the soil and farming work (watch “The Dirt Facts” video on YouTube).
The importance of infant development, along with functional, outdoor exercise for children and adults, shows how to use exercise to effectively reproduce the movement patterns (Primal Pattern ™ Movements) necessary for keeping our bodies healthy based on nature’s design.
You can do that quickly and easily here: https://primallifestlyle.polldaddy.com/s/global-barefoot-awards
As a summary of my work in the “minimalist” field of health and performance and for those of you that may not have read this short biography of my work in this area, you may be interested in a little background about my work in this arena.
In 1984, I became the Trainer of the U.S. Army Boxing Team, located at Ft. Bragg, N.C. There I worked directly with our team physician, Charles Pitluck, DO for two years managing acute and chronic sports injuries.
Our gym was the training headquarters for all elite army athletes stationed at Ft. Bragg and I worked regularly with athletes from many sports there.
During my work as trainer of the boxing team, we had many problems with foot (Achilles tendon, plantar fascia and shin splints) and ankle injuries from extensive time skipping rope and running.
I used massage therapy and taping techniques and encouraged boxers and athletes to do their rope work on the wrestling mats to reduce kinetic shock and injuries, which helped tremendously.
I also worked with athletes to urge them not to do weight training in running shoes because I could easily see how it disrupted their proprioception (spatial awareness) and encouraged injury.
In 1988, I began working at Sports and Orthopedic Physical Therapy, the largest physical therapy clinic in San Diego at the time.
We had 22 physical therapists and athletic trainers, and shared the facility and surgical center with 13 orthopedic surgeons.
During this time, I saw a LOT of lower extremity injuries, and knew that many of them were related to poorly designed footwear, or using the wrong footwear for the task, such as weightlifting in running shoes, or wearing running shoes (designed for sagittal plane–straight forward–movement) during work activities, like working as a UPS truck driver, construction worker or nurse.
It just happened that Dr. Bronson, one of the resident orthopedic surgeons, was a foot expert who had done a six-year fellowship on the foot. His thesis was the application of foot/ankle exercises in orthopedic rehabilitation. He and I shared many patients and concepts over the four years I worked there.
The best weightlifting shoes I could find (long before Vibram FiveFingers ever existed) were Birkenstocks. I encouraged athletes to go barefoot whenever they could, and often gave specific foot and ankle conditioning programs that had to be done barefoot, preferably in grass.
I left Sports and Orthopedic Physical Therapy after four years, and started my own physical therapy clinic with my partner, Steve Clark, PT, OCS, SCS, an expert at shoulder and knee injuries. I was well known for my work with spinal injuries, particularly those that had been tagged as “medical failures.”
By this time, I had been lecturing professionally for many years on functional training, including how the foot affects our training and how footwear can be very damaging if incorrectly selected, and how the foot related to the entire kinetic chain.
I spent many years researching the biomechanical, kinetic and neurological control mechanisms, which ultimately led to the creation of what is known of today as The CHEK Totem Pole.
To learn more about the CHEK Totem pole, feel free to view this video blog:
Around the year 2000, I went to the Czech Republic to complete an advanced training program in orthopedic and neurological rehabilitation with Vladimir Janda and Karel Lewit.
There, I was introduced to the Vojta method of infant development therapy. This triggered a deep interest in infant development methods and concepts, and I studied the field quite extensively.
The fruits of my studies and practices were implemented into C.H.E.K Institute training programs.
When I was lecturing on functional or “minimalist” training methods around the world, as well as functional exercise, I was, to say the least, a lone wolf.
Many, if not most of the “well educated” professionals thought I was nuts, but soon learned that this “nut case was a dangerous guy to enter into a debate in public with!”
Unlike 99 percent of the “educated” who challenged me on stage, I was a living, breathing example of my teachings, and often challenged them on stage to “show us the goods, the results.” I had developed a variety of functional testing methods that were “obvious means of demonstrating the evidence, or lack thereof.”
By the time Vibram came out with their FiveFinger shoes, I was a well seasoned, well traveled professional who had taught thousands of people how to understand and use the human body the way it was designed to be used.
In fact, what many of you know as my “Primal Pattern” approach to exercise selection and program design came out of my many years of research in primal human movement patterns.
Penny (my wife) was very helpful to discuss my concepts with because she has a Masters degree in Biological Anthropology from Cambridge University in England.
I had began teaching my Primal Pattern movement system in 1988, before I susepct some of the contenders for this contest were even born!
If you are familiar with my work in the filed of minimalist, infant development and barefoot training concepts, and would like to help by voting for me, please take the short survey here:
https://primallifestlyle.polldaddy.com/s/global-barefoot-awards
C.H.E.K Institute Advanced Training Program and Workshop Completions
HLC2 Carlsbad, Calif., with Angie Chek
Angie Chek taught HLC 2 in Carlsbad while I was teaching HLC 3 at the same location.
It was a fantastic opportunity for the students to mingle and share experiences with each other. From what I could see, they really had a lot of fun and enjoyed each other’s company.
Angie informed me that her students were excellent, highly motivated to learn, grow, heal, and “be the change the world needs” today.
I got to meet several of them and am grateful to all of you for coming to HLC 2 with Angie.
I know you were probably quite blown away by the depth of Angie’s skill, knowledge and intuition as a teacher, therapist and healer!
I look forward to seeing all of you in HLC 3 once you’ve integrated your HLC 2 training into your life.
HLC3 Carlsbad, Calif. with Paul Chek
I had the most well prepared, open, honest group of HLC 3 students I’ve ever had!
And that’s what I said in my last class, but to my amazement, my students keep getting better and better each year! Ah Ho Great Spirit!!
That’s due in part to my amazing HLC 2 instructors like Angie and Jo Rushton.
My students got together and created a lovely hand drawn and hand written book of the key “Chekisms” and their implications meanings, and made them into very funny experiences. I absolutely loved the book they wrote as a gift to me!
They also did something very novel, they all agreed to participate in three gongs of working in back-to-back!
You can see the invitation to join on the green heart I’m holding. A very powerful journey you are all on now, and I look forward to hearing about and witnessing the rewards of your commitment to love and well-being.
Several HLC 2 and 3 students shared the same lodging, and got together in the evening to continue their healing explorations.
In class, I was informing my students that a man isn’t truly whole or “balanced” until he can express his feminine potential in balance with his masculine energies and potential.
This came up because I had several “manly men” in my class, and wanted them to know that the macho stuff may be fine in some circles, but it becomes quite a limitation when working as a therapist or coach to others.
As you can see, they took this to heart and got some guidance from C.H.E.K Institute instructor Nicole Devaney on just how to do that! Great work guys!
Mana had a great time being cuddled and kissed by all the beautiful ladies in HLC 2 and HLC 3 when he was there on breaks and at lunch.
One of my HLC 3 students, Helen Padarin, is a Naturopathic physician, Nutritionist and expert in herbology.
She wrote a beautiful book on gut healing in partnership Pete Evans, one of Australia’s famous chefs.
Helen is a very loving, intelligent and compassionate woman with a wealth of clinical expertise and experience to share. She’s made gut healing and health easier for you to accomplish at home with this lovely book, and her other books and teachings.
She and Pete are also a co-authors with Charlotte Carr for a new online book: Bubba Yum Yum – The Paleo Way for New Mums, Babies and Toddlers.
Helen’s books are available via the links below.
BubbaYumYum on iBooks / iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/bubba-yum-yum/id998067135?mt=11
BubbaYumYum on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bubba-Yum-Paleo-Way-Toddlers/dp/0994326408
Mike Salemi’s Kettlebell Workshop
Mike Salemi is a highly accomplished Russian Kettlebell athlete, a former client, and athlete I’ve rehabilitated and coached extensively over the past few years.
I encouraged Mike to develop his own system of Kettlebell training that combines the best of what he’s learned from me, and from the variety of other elite Russian KB coaches and lifting coaches he’s worked with.
Mike just ran his first full-length (2-day) workshop at our new C.H.E.K Institute offices in Carlsbad this past weekend, our first-ever event there.
It was great that he had a small class because this is his first time to teach the course, and it gave him time to work on the specific details with the students.
Thank you to the students for joining us for this special event.
From my conversations with Mike after the event, he was very pleased with how the workshop turned out, and said that he got excellent scores on his student feedback forms!
He said, “I feel fortunate to have had such an intimate group of students who were all so motivated to learn and get right down to business. They came in with little to no Kettlebell experience, which was neat for me because it allowed us to begin discussing, introducing, and applying how to lay a solid working foundation for more advanced topics which will build off this workshop.
That said, we covered A LOT of material and went far beyond a basic introductory view of Kettlebell training in many respects. Two days flew by! I’m super exited to see how each of them practice and evolve over time into training via an integrated system using kettlebells… SO MUCH FUN!”
Great job Mike!
We are excited to run more of Mike’s excellent, unique KB workshops. If you would like to be notified about upcoming KB education events with Mike, feel free to go to www.chekinstitute.com and put yourself on our mailing list.
Keeping Trump Exposed!
The devil you know is always better than the devil you don’t know!
In all fairness, once you get behind the smoke and mirrors, its doubtful that Donald Trump is much different, or any worse than many of the U.S. Presidents we’ve had.
It is always a bit shocking when the public finds out “who the president really is after being voted in,” but we have an opportunity to get more involved in an awareness campaign.
If we learn “what to watch for,” we as a people do need to voice our concerns and opinions – and to get involved.
We often think about big events, like war, terrorism, taxes and jobs when we engage in politics, but many are unaware that these are often elaborate smoke screens to direct attention away from other issues that may be even more invasive and harmful in the long run.
Examples are things like taking away our rights as citizens, passing laws that make corporations more powerful by allowing them to evade responsibility for their corruption and poor management, allowing drug and chemical corporations to force their Frankenfoods and dangerous drugs and vaccinations down our throats and manipulating finances and banking agendas.
I just took action to tell Congress to investigate Trump’s potential corruption and foreign entanglements, and I think you should too: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/trump_cummings_corruption?sp_ref=251211888.4.177165.e.561732.2&referring_akid=.8340983.gunPQH&source=mailto_sp
Show-N-Tell With Paul
Education and entertainment videos/movies I enjoyed recently:
I have seen orbs from time to time in my life, and have always felt the presence of love, wisdom and higher intelligence when they are around.
This documentary is a lovely expose of Orbs, and has great information from some highly intelligent, spiritually developed healers and scientists.
I think it is worth watching, particularly for those of you who feel fear over the state of the world today, or who feel alone in the world (you are not alone!).
This excellent documentary is an exploration of a new paradigm of health, science and medicine, based on the interconnections between nature and us.
I thought it was very well done and contained a lot of excellent information. I highly recommend it.
Bought is an excellent documentary that does a very good job of following the money trail and the connection between big food corporations, drug companies and “corporate headquarters,” otherwise known as the White House!!
This documentary looks not only at the issues of food, drugs and vaccinations, as well as all of the scams, coverups and “inside jobs,” it highlights the dangers of commercial farming, biotech follies, false promises and false “premises.”
There is a section on bees in the documentary that clearly shows that we are putting the world bee population in serious danger with the use of GMO crops and farming chemicals.
I’d like to point out that all the way back in the early 1900s, Rudolph Steiner warned us very clearly that human life depended on two essential forms of life: Trees and Bees!
He said that if we push either of these to critically low levels of health, or reduce their population too much, human life, and life on earth as we know it, will end!
We are very dangerously close to doing just that!
Please watch this powerful, informative documentary and share it with everyone you know, and then start supporting organic producers of all sorts. You do NOT save anything by buying cheap food, and there is now way to “be healthy” other than to “live healthy,” which requires us to nurture Mother Earth.
In the end, money doesn’t buy love, nor take your pains away with drugs, nor feed your family more “cheaply.” The best money you can spend is supporting the people and products that are “life affirmative!”
We really enjoyed the 2016 re-make of the classic “Ben-Hur” movie. If you want to see a very will filmed movie, with great acting and a great story, this is a winner!
Gifts and art
My longtime client and best buddy, Jason, gave me this beautiful Alex Grey blanket you see above recently as a gift.
The art on the blanket is very powerful. I showed it to some friends and they were immediately moved emotionally and spiritually be it. It is awesome.
Thank you Jason, for your love and amazing things you share with me!
This is a recent painting Jason created and shared with me. I call it “The Man Of Love” since he didn’t give me a title.
I love Jason’s art and feel so blessed to see my students express their creativity, use art as a healing tool and grow their consciousness. Great job Jason!
Mana’s First Christmas tree
Penny, Angie and Mana went out shopping for a Christmas tree.
This is Mana’s first Christmas, and though we are not practicing Christians in the traditional sense of the concept, we do love celebrating “Christ Consciousness” and each other on Christmas.
We are very excited for Mana’s first Christmas. He’s getting his first little pushbike, which we know he will LOVE!
On Sunday, we went to Carlsbad to let Mana meet Santa and get photos taken with him. We had a great time, and people loved seeing Mana and Maggie in their outfits on the way to, and at the photo shoot.
We haven’t received the photos of Mana with Santa yet, but I’ll share them soon.
I hope you all enjoyed my blog today, and I look forward to sharing more with you next week.
Have a lovely week.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
