Running Is My Meditation – Don’t Sit Around, Move Something!

Yesterday I did a 10 mile run. Two days before that a 6.2 mile run.

This morning I ran over the Golden Gate Bridge in the early morning sunrise.
It was utterly gorgeous and I felt such a sense of freedom.
I run approximately 25 miles per week. That’s 100 miles a month at least.
I have run 446 miles this year so far. All my runs have been in the morning.
My best running time is 11am when it’s warm, preferably sunny.
I’m 59 years old.
I am fitter than I have ever been as an adult.
I’m pretty fast for an older guy. I average 9 minutes per mile and my average length of run is 5.1 miles.
My app tells me I’m usually in the top 8% for distance run.

I am motivated for running.
For me it’s physical and spiritual. It’s even a kind of meditation.
It gets me into a zone. It helps me sweat. It enlivens me. It brings a great spaciousness to my mind.
I connect with some deep inspiration when I run.
I feel it enliven my cellular body.
It doesn’t feel like a stretch in a bad way, ever.

But it really hasn’t always been like this. In fact it was the opposite for years and years.
I was the most unfit guy ever during my 20s and 30s, and even my 40s.
It has taken years of persistence and success, and failure, to get to this point.
And still I have to persist. But I found the groove and know the rewards.

And don’t forget:
I have been through chronic illness, on a long journey that lasted about 10 years. Some of that time I ran, but I struggled with exercise. I stayed with it. When the body and nervous system is under par and stressed it’s very hard to get the full benefit of exercise. So you do what you can. I did rebounding to keep the energy flowing. I did yoga for flexibility. I did core strength exercises to build muscle. All of this you can do, adapted to your own state of health.

The bottom line is, you can’t recover or heal or find true vitality without doing something for the body.
If nothing else, walking is great! 5 – 10 miles a day will get things going. Just don’t sit around. It will kill you.
Sleep is so very important, good quality sleep. We go to bed very early and get up very early.
Hydration is very important.
Nutrition is vital.

But of all things I have seen and felt over the years, enthusiasm and motivation are the two most powerful. With those on your side anything is possible.

Anything.

Thanks for reading, see you out there!

Kavi

ps. Any runners out there, connect with me!
SmashRun – https://smashrun.com/kavi.hockaday

 

Brain Health – It Matters More Than You Think

I have come to believe that our brains are probably the most overlooked organ in the whole body, until they go wrong!

We are more likely to notice, or get tested, or even feel, an issue with, say, our liver, kidneys, or thyroid, than our brains.  Because our brain and our mind are so entangled our experience is always totally subjective, which means we have no real way to tell if something is up, until it reaches the critical zone.

But maybe some of our ill health, stress, and mood inconsistency has more to do with our brains and what they are doing, or not doing, than we think?

Ask some chiropractors and they will say,’ Almost all imbalance (disease) comes from the brain-body communication system going wrong.’ Brain connects to nervous system in a bio-feedback relationship. It compensates and regulates. It operates via your conscious mind but, more importantly, via your unconscious mind. You have billions of processes, actions, complex activities taking place without any awareness from you whatsoever. Yet you are not a machine as such. You are a bio-electrical-organic-organism that interacts with the environment, constantly making adjustments and changes in order to survive and thrive. Everything that happens below the level of conscious awareness still depends on some aspects of its environment to help it. It is as alive as you are, and always adapting to its environment. That environment is you, your thoughts and beliefs.

What does that mean?

It means that if you carry trauma and constant stress, or pent up anger or fear, it affects some of your primary systems, namely your nervous system and immune system. Thoughts affect reality, and they affect matter. That interprets as, your thoughts, concepts and beliefs affect your body on the deepest levels, and the effects may well, over time, begin to impede the function of some of the unconscious actions that must take place for health and wellbeing.

That is where brain will become imbalanced and the bio-feedback relationship between body and mind may begin to break down.

If it’s not at ‘optimum’ then its always in ‘compensation’ mode.

In my opinion, by the time some of the very dramatic brain meltdown diseases happen, there has already been serious fragmentation of the brain-body relationship, but it has been hidden from conscious view.

That is why I favor a strong argument for brain and body detoxification, and a program of relaxation and sleep reprogramming, meditation and spending time calming down. If we take responsibility BEFORE things degenerate we may save ourselves a lot of trouble and money.

The bottom line is help your brain to maximize it’s ability to regulate and communicate. It will serve you well as you age. Here are some ideas.
1. SLEEP. This is probably the most important. In the deepest of sleep, known as ‘delta‘ sleep, the brain detoxifies. Your brain has lymph nodes in it and when this state of sleep is reached the channels of detoxification open and the brain is effectively ‘cleaned.’ It needs to happen regularly. The problem is most of us are living lives that are way too stressful and over active, and our sleep patterns are all over the shop, exaggerated these days by the amount of cell phone and computer use before bed time. Think of delta as the battery recharge time.

And it is not just sleep hours that matter but when you sleep. Ayurveda suggests that for optimal wellbeing we need to go to bed when the sun goes down and get u when the sun rises. Most people I know go to sleep very late after eating a big meal in the evening. For myself, I go to be about 8pm! and get up at at least 5am. That rhythm works well for me. And yet still at times I have to deal with erratic sleep patterns. So I use visualizations and sleep programing visualizations to help with it. They work. In the next few weeks/months, I hope to be able to offer you a new brain entrainment system that will help. I have been trying it out and so far it is working well. Stay tuned!

2. RELAXATION. When you relax, really relax, it has a profound impact on your body and brain health.  Just as sleep helps heal you, so does relaxation. We are designed to be relaxed, to deal with stress, and to return to the relaxed state as quickly as possible, like most animals. But as modernization has enveloped us we have lost the sacred and natural art of deep relaxation. So we spend much of our time in a hyper vigilant state. That means our ‘fight or flight’ mechanism is always switched on and we are prepared for danger. Unconscious mind can not tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined, and so it responds to anxious thoughts, thoughts of the future, thoughts of the past, fear of imagined events, in the same way.

What I am saying is that most of us don’t reach true relaxation even when we are asleep. So we have to create ways to help us. Get off your phone and get outside into nature. Meditate. Breathe. Do yoga. Do nothing at all. Practice stillness and just silently sitting. 

3. EXERCISE. A vital component of brain health ad mind body wellbeing is exercise. Just a little regularly keeps the whole system active and moving.
‘One project found that women over 65 who walked 30 minutes a day slowed their cognitive decline. When measuring mental acuity, the researchers found that the people who exercised appeared several years younger than those in the control group, who did not exercise at all.’ Huffington Post.

4. HERBS, SUPPLEMENTS AND DIET. Fruits and vegetables, anti oxidants and Omega 3 fats from natural sources are all helpful. Heal your gut and it will heal your brain. Stop processed food and toxic sugars. Here is a good article to help you:
https://drjockers.com/the-3-most-important-steps-to-boost-brain-function/

The purpose of this short blog is not to give you the definitive answer to this issue but to prompt you to think about it some more and to begin your own investigation. Believe me, it matters. The brain is not as fixed as we think. Research now is suggesting that it can be repaired, that is is much more ‘plastic’ than we imagine, but we need to really take care of it else we begin to lose function. We have seen the rise of dementia and alzheimers, motor neuron ailments, nervous system related problems, depression and insanity. We don’t have to go down that route, but we must intervene and take responsibility for our own brain/body health.

Most doctors are not going to help with this. They are symptomologists and will only respond to what you present. It is really up to you to dive into this area and figure it out.

Sorry to end this early but I really must go and relax in nature! Thanks for reading!

 

 

Exercise – Movement of Energy – Is Not Optional

I feel called to talk a little about exercise. I don’t think enough people actually do it regularly.

That’s the key, regularly. There is no real point in just doing a bit here and there. It doest work. It is regular movement of energy that works and gets the the flowing going. And that is one of the keys to health.

It sounds obvious but from what I see not many people actually act on this information.

Exercise is simple. All it really is is movement of energy. Energy must move or it stagnates. If it’s energy inside the body, inside the blood system, lymph system, bones or nervous system, it needs to move, period.
The lymphatic system is a major drainage system for cellular waste, but it relies on movement of energy to work. No movement, no elimination of lymphatic waste. No elimination of lymph waste and there will be build up of toxic residue in the body. That is trouble. That is toxicity in the system that cannot get out and just circulates. We call that the onset of chronic disease.

So exercise, or movement of energy, is necessary for regular health. And it is not just necessary for the body. Oh how the mind loves movement. It gets the chance to hatch ideas, dream, reflect and contemplate.

What constitutes movement of energy?

Walking, running, hiking, cycling, yoga, etc etc, you know the kind of things. Even breathing, deep diaphragmatic breathing can be a form of exercise. Rebounding is excellent.

But you have got do it often.

A little movement often is better than a lot every now and then.

It needs to become a habit, the same way not doing it has become a habit. Children do it naturally. You and I were children. We became lazy and distracted and forgot the joy of movement.

And here is my final point in this short call to movement.

Before you start you might have a lot of resistance. The mind is lazy and says ‘I don’t want to, it’s too hard, lets do it another day.’ and so on.

But if you persist, the reward is satisfaction and a warm body glow, and a sense of pride and achievement. Even if it’s small its there.

And you get to choose which feeling you want to respond to. The resistance or the possibility of satisfaction.

I know which I choose, and I do that over and over. And it has been hard for me to be motivated. But it works.

Yes of course when you are so out practice it is tough at first. But thats where your will, your desire, your determination and your warrior nature, kick in. You make it your business to keep going. One foot in the front of the other. Not just when yo feel like it.

Exercise is not something you do just when you feel like it. It is beyond that limited thinking.

Make it you business to find something that suits you. Experiment.

And persist.

If you want support with motivation or you have any other issue you feel you need support with, get in touch.
I could help you change the course of your life.

https://www.kavijezziehockaday.com/sessions/

What Creates Wellbeing? Food or Feelings?

What is it that causes health and wellbeing?

What is it that restores health and wellbeing when it is lost?

Is it what we do with the body – meaning what we put in, or don’t put in, and whether we exercise it or not?

I have been reminded of these questions by a Facebook friend earlier today.
I had said something in response to a picture of a cake stand loaded with sweet, wheat filled cakes, I think it was,’ Dangerous cakes.’

Well a friend responded, ‘What is wrong with cakes, I am the fittest and healthiest person I know and I love a cake now and then?’

And it set me to thinking. And here are some of my thoughts.

I know the person who asked that leading question, and I know he is very healthy and fit and so on. But I also know his wellbeing arises because of love and joy, a vibrant and varied lifestyle, lots of refreshing sun, and a great sense of purpose in the world. His life seems afire with enthusiasm and vibrancy.

Thats the kind of thing that creates wellbeing and great health.

And under those circumstances a cake now and then doesn’t mean a thing.

It’s got nothing to do with the cake and everything to do with the cake eater.
To him, and his fabulous wife, the cake is a treat to be enjoyed and savoured.
I doubt they eat cake all the time.
But to many other people the cake means something very different.

To the person who doesn’t have love or joy, lives a sedentary life, feels somewhat lost, and has little sense of self worth and purpose, the cake could be an invitation to addiction, to greater sadness or self negation.

The cake…and the chocolate…usually the toxic chemical addictive foods…are symbols of how we feel about ourselves.

It is how we feel about ourselves, and about our relationship to other people and the world, that is the issue here, not the food itself.
Of course these foods are addictive, we know that. But why do some people get sucked into the addiction and others dont?
Why doesn’t my friend lose himself in endless cakes?

Cakes, candy bars, drink, even heavy drugs like heroin, are like guns. In some hands they are lethal weapons. In other hands they are harmless and inert.

It’s all about the user. And it is all about the consciousness of the user, and how well they know and love themselves.

So when we are looking at recovery from illness, or being truly well, we have to look much further than just food.

The truth is it is all energy in vibration. The body, emotions, mind, spirit, all of it just different levels and frequency vibrations.

Positive, affirming, loving and joyous thoughts, feeling and sensations have a huge positive impact on the more dense aspects of being, including the body.
And equally, hate, fear, stress, anxiety and depression have a destructive and debilitating effect on the cellular body.

The positive feelings and thoughts vibrate higher than the negative ones. Research tells us this, and it is self evidently true.
The higher vibrational thoughts and feelings seem to create movement and flow. They break up stuckness and blockages.

It has been found that laughter itself is an incredible tool for healing.

So really, as always with blogs I write, the call is always to look within at what, if anything, is blocking this joy, laughter, love and purpose from vibrating through you? Whether you are ill or not, doesn’t matter.

What matters is to consciously attend to those things inside the mind and emotions that may create these blockages and lead us down the rocky road of addiction and self negation. I have been there, as many people have, and it’s not a happy road. It’s a tortuous path of increasing destruction for self, family and friends. 

I clawed my way out and transformed all that negativity to love. And my life is utterly and totally different because of it.

The way out is always available.

Thanks for reading!!

 

Podcast – I thought I was more Bulletproof than I actually was!

I have recorded a new podcast that I am very happy with. It is very personal, but also includes ideas and possibilities for each of us when faced with adversity.
Here is the breakdown.
“Up close and personal podcast where Kavi talks about his recent experience with ‘illness.’
It includes a confession about how he tried to be more bulletproof than he actually was, and the valuable lessons he has learned from recent events.
It is call for each of us to discover the Guru within and learn to listen to the voice that whispers in all the noise.
It is a call for a new peacefulness and calmness in the face of life’s turbulence and drama.”

I hope you will listen, and would love to hear from you, particularly if it speaks to you in any way.
And please share it if you are moved. Thanks!

Or here:

Click on the image.

Or:
https://soundcloud.com/the-power-to-change/023-i-thought-i-was-more-bulletproof-than-i-actually-was 

The Power of Illness to Change Your Life is a new ebook written by Kavi Jezzie Hockaday.

This is an inspirational book in which Kavi does two things.
First he shares his own experience of how early emotional traumas led to lifestyle decisions that finally led to a diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease.

He then describes the long ten year journey when he turned his back on the treatment orthodox medicine offered him (lifetime medication and/or surgery) and pursued a natural course. This deeply profound journey took him to every level of being, from the physical to the emotional, mental and spiritual.

It was a total transformation. That transformation is what led to this book.

The second thing Kavi does in part two is talk about some of the elements the reader might face if they decide to ‘walk the path less trodden.’ The healing path is mysterious and certainly not a ‘one size fits all’ journey. Kavi’s book is not a how to heal your condition the book.

It is, primarily, inspirational.

He says, “After going through such a deep and mysterious journey, one that took me to the depths of my being, brought me face to face with God, and challenged me physically over and over again, I realised that so many people might want to go the ‘natural healing route’ but are so discouraged by friends, family and those in apparent authority, that it was my karma and my responsibility to give voice to the power that illness offers to heal our lives. It healed my broken heart, it healed my emotional wounds, it brought me to personal power, and it brought a level of peace that was previously unavailable to me.

When I consider what might have happened if, back in 2006 when I received my diagnosis and treatment plan, I had simply taken all the drugs and not questioned anything or walked out of the hospital, I shudder.

I feel blessed to have been given this opportunity to Know Myself deeply and intimately, and I see that this possibility is there for everyone who becomes ill, and all we need is encouragement, support and sometimes some guidance by those who have walked some of the path.”

The book is available on Amazon Kindle for Pre-Order.

Runners High

Yesterday I ran 14 kilometers in the heat. I was transported to bliss. It was like meditation and calmed my mind. I was absolutely at peace with myself and the world. It was such a transcendent yet ordinary experience that I became instantly addicted. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a runner a long time, but this feeling was at another level to anything I have previously known.
It wasn’t exercise, it was life, it was spiritual, it was euphoric. And of course it didn’t last, but in those fleeting moments I was at home. Runners know what I’m talking about.

In the 90’s my current wife, who has transformed into a (spiritual) teacher, wrote her phd on the Runner’s High and was one of the first people to study the direct connection between exercise and feeling good, or meditation. Nowadays we know these things and take them for granted, yet they are easily forgotten.

And yesterday I was there, in the zone, no time, no space, just running happening to me, one foot in front of the other, body delighted, mind quiet and occasionally distracted but always returning to peace.

I am saying this to encourage those of you who get defeated real easy, those who give up, those who think they will never get to a place of effortlessness.

I got news for you…IT TAKE TIME, PERSISTENCE, PATIENCE AND TRUST.
I am 54, healthier now than ever before in my life. From the age of 16 to about 40 I did NO EXERCISE. None!  I drank, took drugs, smoked, walked to the pub, got on trains, but never any exercise. And then I have experienced Major illness in the last 9 years and had to deal with that, healing it bit by bit, slowly slowly..
And all the time gradually getting fitter and fitter until this year, when I can finally say @I’m pretty fit!

I can run. I love running, I am a runner. It gives me everything I need, space, motion, outside, time.
When you couple this level of exercise with great nutrition, which for me in Summer is RAW and very Fruit based, then you just feel fantastic!

Don’t give up hope. Keep on keeping on, gradually and suddenly. It will happen if you aim in the right direction and trust, and of course keep training.

I’m going again today! I don’t expect the same experience, I learned long ago never to expect the same experience, you are just setting yourself up for disappointment.
Don’t expect anything, just give all you’ve got and leave grace to do the rest.

Have a good run!

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• Why Exercise Gets You High (dangerouslee.biz)