Lesson 14. Get Healthy Fast!

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1 The Way of Martial Arts MONTHLY INTERACTIVE LESSONS TO HELP IMPROVE YOUR DAILY LIFE B Y M A S T E R E R I C S B A R G E Lesson 14 Get Healthy Fast! If you have a beaker of clear water and you start adding drops of muddy water, it doesn t take long before the clear water becomes cloudy. And if you pour a full beaker of muddy water into a beaker of clear water, it all instantly becomes muddy water. Conversely, if you take a beaker of muddy water and you start adding clear water, how much do you need before the muddy water becomes clear? If you add a full beaker of clear water to the muddy water, it will still be muddy water. Ten beakers of clear water won t do the trick. Even adding 100 beakers of clear water will still leave you with cloudy water. Well guess what, your body follows this same model. We re kind of like a big beaker, filled mostly with water. If you add even a small amount of dirt to your clean and pristine body, your body becomes cloudy. If you add lots of dirt, your body turns to mud. And once it turns to mud, figuratively speaking, you can t turn it back into a clean and pristine body by simply adding a little clean water. You d need hundreds of beakers of clean water! THE REAL PROBLEM: TOXINS Last month I wrote about the option of a meatless diet, urging you to examine and make purposeful decisions about your eating habits. This month I m going to continue with the theme of eating and

2 lifestyle choices and their impact on your health and well being, your energy for martial arts, and the well being of our environment. The subject this month isn t about meat or vegetables, it s about clean and natural versus artificial and toxic. The truth is we are bombarded with toxins on a daily basis. It s true that we have a liver and kidneys and other body systems that were designed by God (or whomever) to filter and clean the body. But they were designed for normal levels of waste not for the severe levels of toxic debris that we now subject them to. Your car has an air filter to keep the engine clean and running smoothly. Under normal conditions you can clean or change the filter once or twice a year and be fine. But if you always drive through heavy dust storms, you might need to clean that same filter weekly or even daily. Failing to do so will quickly make your car run worse and worse until it soon won t run anymore. Maybe evolution or God (or whomever) will eventually equip our bodies with super heavy-duty filters to deal with the massive amounts of modern day toxins our bodies must cope with. But it won t be in our life time or our children s or our grandchildren s. JUST WHAT ARE THE TOXINS I M TALKING ABOUT, WHERE DO THEY COME FROM? AND I m talking about man-made chemicals as well as natural elements in the air that are now out-of-balance due to combustion of fuels for cars, factories and our industrialized lifestyles. You might argue, Well, I eat pretty well and I exercise every day with my tai chi and kung fu, so I don t think I have a lot of toxins in my body. If you doubt that you have a massive toxic build-up, take this simple test. Answer Yes or No, then count how many of these questions you say Yes to. 1. I eat out at restaurants sometimes. 2. At home, I eat foods that are not all certified organic. 3. I barbecue or cook with non-stick pans sometimes. 4. I eat at fast food restaurants at least twice a month. -2-

3 5. I drink soda, diet soda, non-organic coffee or tea, or bottled juice. 6. I drink unfiltered city tap water at least once a week (even in coffee). 7. I shower without a water filter on my shower head (your skin absorbs as much city tap water in a 15-minute shower as drinking an 8 oz. glass of water) 8. I take over-the-counter medication (aspirin, athlete s foot medicine, for example) or prescription medication sometimes or always. 9. I have taken antibiotics in my life time. 10. I have gotten vaccines in my life time. 11. I periodically swim in chlorinated or public pools. 12. I use a cell phone, lap top or remote electronic devices. 13. I drive in heavy traffic often. 14. I use soap, cream, shampoo, deodorant or makeup that is not certified organic. 15. I use sun screen that is not certified organic. 16. I use standard cleaning supplies in my house. 17. I use standard bug sprays or air fresheners in my house. 18. I use standard soap or softeners to wash my clothes. 19. I use non-organic fertilizers and standard products on my lawn. 20. I live within 100 miles of an industrialized city. If you answered Yes to more than five of these questions, you are likely quite toxic. If you answered Yes to more than ten you are surely quite toxic. The unfortunate news is this list of 20 items could easily be expanded to a hundred or more. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE SYMPTOMS OF TOXICITY? 1. Tiredness despite enough sleep 2. Inability to lose weight despite exercising and eating less 3. Periodic or frequent headaches 4. Periodic or frequent backaches or body aches 5. Joint stiffness, inflammation and soreness 6. Allergies or difficulty breathing around smokers or bad air 7. Excessive bloating, heart burn, gas 8. Constipation 9. Depression -3-

4 10. Skin problems 11. Erectile dysfunction 12. Excessive PMS symptoms 13. Frequent colds or infections 14. Failure to heal quickly from illness or injury 15. Yeast or parasite buildup in the body 16. Feeling stressed, anxious or angry without good cause 17. Worsening vision 18. Loss of hair or hair luster 19. Bad breath 20. Body odor requiring deodorant The symptoms of toxicity appear differently in each of us, and they worsen as we get older often resulting in cancer or other fatal illnesses. Many of these symptoms now appear in teenagers or even children, which was unheard of a few decades ago. If you have even a couple of these symptoms, you could certainly benefit from detoxifying your body. Amazingly, detoxifying the body and changing to a natural diet and lifestyle actually cures most of these ailments. The blood changes back from acidic to alkaline, the intestines can again work with their natural efficiency to assimilate nutrients, and thousands of other problems correct themselves. The body will naturally heal itself once it isn t over-burdened with toxins. The typical practice in our society is not to detoxify the body and get to the root of our ailments. The typical practice in our society is to cure the symptom by taking over-the-counter or prescription medications which only aggravate the problem. All drugs are toxins! Unless you regularly and systematically take steps to clean and detoxify your body beyond the essential practices of exercise and drinking plenty of filtered water daily your body will remain toxic even if you decide you want to change to less toxic practices and habits. You must detoxify your body before you can really get the benefits of improving eating habits or any other habits you decide to change. It s like the beaker of mud: You can t expect that by adding a little clean water you will change the mud. You need to remove the mud! If you think that taking a few vitamins, or eating a few healthy meals, or doing a little exercise will clean your muddied body, god bless you. -4-

5 HOW DO YOU DETOX YOUR BODY? The most efficient, effective, tried-and-true way is with periodic fasting combined with herbal purgatives or mechanical colon cleansing. Only when you fast can your organs purge themselves of the toxins and waste that have been trapped for years or decades. Fasting and cleansing was practiced by ancient Greeks, Hebrews, Buddhists, Taoists you name it. Even China s famous Yellow Emperor s Classic advocated fasting nearly 4000 years ago. If they needed it then, imagine how much more we need it now! You don t need to do a water only fast, though a modified seven-day water fast is often my personal choice for my body type and lifestyle. There are juice fasts, fruit and salad fasts, even grain fasts. If you ask your average western MD if fasting and detoxifying is important for general maintenance or to cure an illness you may have, it s like asking the Chemlawn guy if compost is good for your lawn. You re talking to the wrong person with an obvious conflict of interest. You need to ask an organic gardener who is informed about natural approaches to lawn care about the benefits of compost. Likewise you need to ask an alternative medicine physician about alternatives to drugs and surgery such as fasting. Standard MD s have their strengths accident surgery, diagnoses of many diseases, surgery for advanced disease but naturally cleansing and building the body to eliminate and cure disease isn t a strength of most MD s. I hope you will consider integrating fasting and detoxification into your lifestyle. If you do decide to fast, follow a plan. Either do it under the guidance of an experienced alternative physician, or follow a program outlined by reputable authors or practitioners. Don t wing it it is possible to harm yourself. I m not a doctor or medical expert, but I can tell you from personal experience that fasting is tremendous. You ll feel clear-minded, light and energetic after a proper fast. It s not only great for your physical health (and a great way to quickly lose 5 10 stubborn pounds) but it is spiritually rejuvenating as well. Fasting remains an important part of the Taoist and Shaolin traditions -5-

6 that we follow, and with each passing day it is becoming more, not less, beneficial or even essential. EXERCISE: Take a few minutes at home and walk from room to room. Just eyeball all the toxic sources in each room and closet, including your garage. You ll probably see lots of obvious ones such as electrical devices, Doritos, cleaning fluids, etc., but also look for synthetic carpeting, pressed glue furniture, foam mattresses and the like that continually give off toxic fumes. This isn t to depress or scare you, just to make sure you re facing the facts. Like deficiencies in our character, we can only fix them if we recognize and face them. ASSIGNMENT Write your score on your quiz of toxic sources in your life, and list any ailments you might currently face that you believe might be impacted by a toxic and overloaded body. Explain how you feel about your score and symptoms, and whether you feel compelled to do anything with this information. Send your thoughts to Master Sbarge at lessons@thepeacefuldragon.com. Please put Lesson 14 in the subject line. RECOMMENDED READING This month I m recommending two books: The Tao of Health, Sex & Longevity, By Daniel P. Reid You ve probably already read Daniel Reid s The Complete Book of Chinese Health and Healing. In the Tao of Health, Sex & Longevity he fully explains good eating habits from the Taoist perspectives of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as perspectives from modern science. Most important, however, he includes chapters on fasting and body cleansing. I have personally followed his recommended system with just a few of my own modifications for over ten years now and I highly recommend it. -6-

7 Natural Cures They Don t Want You to Know About By Kevin Trudeau I know, this is a pop book as seen on TV. But if you still think natural diets, detoxifying and avoiding most regular doctors are only for exhippies, this book will help you see why they are imperative for all of us. And it will help you really see how every other commercial on TV is for food that is not organic and healthy, and drugs and medications to help us cope with the poisonous food they just enticed us to eat. As the author puts it, it s all about the money. But the good news for us is it costs nothing to decide to do something about it! SSSS Every month a book or article will be suggested by Master Sbarge. Reading about topics related to the arts you are training in will help you get the most out of your practice. Just remember that reading can never replace your practice! Each month s recommended reading is purely optional, though Master Sbarge may on rare occasion ask that you do read a particular book. For additional reading suggestions by Master Sbarge, go to For any book or other item you purchase through The Peaceful Dragon website s link to Amazon.com, a percentage is automatically sent to The Peaceful Dragon. We appreciate your support of our school. Note: All Peaceful Dragon students are urged to complete monthly assignments because they are important for you to fully benefit from your training. -6-