Reducing Head-Forward Posture

Check it Out
Your head is balanced on your neck and back if your ears are aligned above your shoulders (looking from the side).  Another way to check this is to stand with your back against a wall, so that your heels, buttocks and shoulder blades are touching the wall.

Now reach up with one hand and feel how far the back of your head is  from the wall.  No cheating by tilting your head back!  Ideally, it’s less than an inch away.  This tends to get worse as you get older, so the best time to work with it is when you’re younger (when you think you’re invincible and don’t have enough brains to take on a practice like this).

Many folks have their heads well forward of their  neutral balance point. This places a lot of stress on the joints and muscles in the back of your neck and upper back.

Try This Experiment
Try this experiment to see how it works.  Hold a gallon of water right next to your chest.  This will actually work much better if you have something to put it in first!  Any other object of similar weight can be used.  This is roughly equal to the weight of your head.

Now, slowly move it further away from your body, and notice how it gets more difficult to hold it up. The weight is multiplied by the distance from your body.  Try to hold it several inches away for 5 or ten minutes and when your arms get tired, bring it back next to your body to feel the difference.

If you have a “head-forward” posture, this is what your joints and muscles have to do whenever you’re sitting or standing, which is often all day long!  But this must be your lucky day, because here’s a cool little exercise to help your brain and body learn to do things a little differently:

Click Here to view the exercise:

Reducing Head-Forward Posture

The Practice Works if you Work the Practice
It won’t change everything tomorrow, but you will begin to notice improvement if you faithfully do the exercise as recommended for a few months and practice awareness and correction of your posture throughout the day.

I know this is a “tall” order, but you can practice the postural “awareness and correction” part while you’re doing other things.  So you can’t use the time excuse for that!    Remember the part about lifting upward from the top of your head ( it’s in the article)!

Happy practicing!

Ten Minutes to Relaxation and Flexibility

A brief series of simple, awareness-based exercises to reduce pain, lower tension levels and improve conscious control of the muscles in your neck, back, abdomen and pelvis.

These are “neuro-muscular re-education” exercises, designed to strengthen the communication loop between your muscles and your brain.  They help with breathing, and are very relaxing to do.  (It’s a PDF file)

Ten Minutes to Relaxation and Flexibility

Elimination Diet

Halfway through  the stressful program at chiropractic college in 1981, I began suffering from intense allergy-like symptoms.  Feeling curious and somewhat desperate, I went on a juice fast for 3 days to see if foods were involved.

I was greatly relieved to find that my runny nose, sneezing, itchy eyes and fatigue completely disappeared.  Of course, I was still left with the task of identifying which foods were causing the problem.  That wasn’t easy in those days, as there were no reliable lab tests for food allergies.

A rigorous elimination diet has been the “gold standard” for food allergy testing for decades.  It’s started with either a fast, or very limited diet.  If your symptoms clear up, you know your problems were related to your diet.

To find out what was causing the trouble, foods are then reintroduced one at a time until the symptoms return.  But here’s the catch: reactions to food can be delayed for up to 5 days! The whole process can be very tedious, time-consuming, and difficult for most people to do.

I usually use  either Applied Kinesiology or a certain blood test panel to identify possible food reactions.  This makes it easier to navigate the elimination part of the program. The person then embarks on a modified elimination diet, similar to the one below. If food was the problem (and it was accurately identified),  they will usually start feeling better within a week.  Please see Food Allergy Testing for more information on these methods.

The minimum Trial Period is 7 days, and a 10-14 day period is recommended.
The most accurate is a plain water fast, but that has many inherent problems, and I don’t recommend it for such a long period. People can be allergic to anything, but following the diet below works very well for most.

Generally Safe Foods
These are the least allergenic foods, and are safe for most people.  A few people may be reactive to some of the foods on this list, so it is not 100% foolproof.  It is important to use relatively fresh, organic food which you have prepared yourself so you know what’s in it.

Here are some allergen-free recipes, with a section on adaptation for certain food sensitivities.  This may be especially helpful if you are not used to preparing whole, natural foods from scratch.

It is wise to avoid foods with chemicals such as preservatives and pesticides in general, and especially during the elimination diet.  Before you begin your program, please see “Hazards Along the Way” below for some important tips.

Grains
Brown rice is the foundation, and millet is the other grain – neither have gluten (as do most of the rest).  Food for Life makes a nice brown rice bread, and they have a millet bread as well.  If you do not do well with brown rice, you can use white rice for the test period.

Legumes
Some people are reactive to legumes, especially soy.  If you want to try other legumes, it’s best to wait until you’ve been on the “test phase” for  seven days.  Go easy – maybe once every few days.  Stick to something like mung bean, lentil or alfalfa sprouts, which are the easiest to digest.  If you want to try cooked legumes, you can do so after making sure the sprouts are OK.  For this purpose, I recommend mung dahl, which is easier to digest.  You can probably find it in your local food co-op.

Veges
Carrots, celery,  chard, zucchini,  lettuce, spinach, bok choy, sweet potatoes, yams, onions & garlic are usually OK for most people.

Fruits (It’s best to avoid fruit if yeast (candida) is a possibility, which it might be if you are sensitive to mold)
Organic mango, pears, or blueberries are rarely a problem for people.  You can also try organic bananas (regular ones are full of fungicides), after a week on the trial elimination diet.

Nuts
Stick with raw cashews for a week or two, and avoid regular nuts or seeds of any kind for the trial period.  Organic cashew butter would probably be OK, too.  (Cashews aren’t really nuts, and have a different composition).  Reactions to tree nuts, peanuts and various seeds are fairly common.

Meats
Free-range or organic, unprocessed (other than grinding) turkey, chicken, or lamb.  Type Blood type “A” people are more likely to have trouble with red meats.

Condiments
Sea salt, white or black pepper (white is safer if you suspect mold allergy), organic olive oil or coconut oil should be OK. No vinegar – you can try fresh lemon or lime juice if you need something sour for a dressing (only if you know you’re OK with citrus).

Beverages
Herb tea, fresh carrot/celery/parsley juice (or combo with veges listed above). Lots of water!

Water
I recommend you avoid tap water and most bottled water, due to the likelihood of toxins from the water itself, or absorbed from plastic containers. Please see my water articles for more information.

The Most Common Allergens - the “Big Three” and Others
Dairy
Cow’s milk or its derivatives, such as cheese, butter yogurt, keefer, etc. are extremely common allergens.  Goat milk might be OK, but best to wait until the trial period is over. Blood type “O” people are more likely to have a sensitivity to milk products.

Wheat or Gluten Gluten is in almost all grains (including oats and barley.  Commercial oats often have some wheat mixed in, so you will need to use “Certified Wheat Free” Oats if you want to include them.  Rice & millet are gluten-free. Buckwheat and Quinoa are supposed to be OK, but I react to them personally, and I recommend you avoid them during the test period, just to be sure.

Soy
Avoid soy carefully, as it’s a common allergen and is found in almost everything that comes in some kind of packaging.  Watch the labels on packaged foods!  Most Vitamin E is made from soybeans.  The cleanest Vit E I’ve found is “Ultimate E” from Thorne Research.  Thorne products are carried by many chiropractors and some pharmacies.

I strongly recommend that all packaged foods be avoided for the trial period, because of they usually contain one or more of the “Big Three.” There is no guarantee that the label is truthful or accurate. Wait until the “challenge phase” to try anything that comes in a can, box, or other packaging!

Other common allergens:
Corn
Eggs
Nightshades (peppers, eggplant, regular potatoes, tomatoes, paprika, and cayenne)
Citrus – usually oranges, but sometimes lemons & limes
Chocolate
Nuts, peanuts
Vinegar
MSG
NutraSweet, and other artificial sweeteners

Unfortunately, your most favorite food is often a problem, especially if you crave it!

Also avoid vinegar, mayonnaise, and wine or booze of any kind.  This would include common products like salad dressings and protein bars (they almost always have milk, wheat, oats or soy).

Hazards Along the Way
Packaged foods (even in the “health food section”) almost always have common allergens in them, and should be avoided completely during your 2 week period, and avoided as much as possible in general.  Packaged foods are usually “dead” foods.

Package labels can be deceiving, and the fact that something is not listed on the label is no guarantee that it is not present in the food.  This is one reason why I ask people to prepare their own.

Eating in restaurants will almost certainly mess things up, as the employees have little understanding of the issue, and poor knowledge of what’s actually in their food. An Organic Food Co-Op deli is more likely to be knowledgeable of what is really in their food.

After the Trial Period
At the end of the period, assuming you feel better than when you started, introduce one new food a day, and see what happens.  Reactions can be delayed up to 4 or 5 days, but usually occur within 1-2 days.  This means if you have a reaction, you’ll need to backtrack a few days (eliminate recently added foods) until things improve again, then re-challenge with those foods, introducing a new one every 3 or 4 days, until the culprit is discovered.

Tricky business – it requires commitment and patience!

If making dietary changes or breaking habits are difficult for you, please see the short article on PSYCH-K.

How Stress Happens – Part 1

Dane Roubos, D.C.     www.BodyMindPeace.com

Describes how stress works, and reveals little-known causes of stress which do their mischief behind the scenes. Empowering information gives you the tools you need to create your own oasis of peace. It’s not a quick fix, but if you make the commitment to yourself, the results will last a lifetime.

The purpose of this article is three-fold:

• To give you some background on stress and it’s basic causes
• To alert you to other causes which are not yet part of mainstream thinking
• To offer empowering resources to assist you in reducing stress in your life, and optimizing your response to it
  

“The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat!”

Lily Tomlin

Stress seems ever-present in our lives today. Exploring the hidden nature of stress and its many causes can help us to recognize its signs and take more appropriate and effective action to restore balance in our lives.

While I don’t consider myself an expert on stress, I’ve learned a lot through my personal life experience, and through working with many people who were struggling with its effects. I’ll be sharing several important, but little-known, stress factors that could make a big difference for you or someone you love. I suggest that you simply take what works for you and leave the rest.

Some Conditions Caused by, or Worsened by Stress:

• Pain
• Heart disease
• Digestive problems
• Sleep problems
• Depression
• Obesity
• Autoimmune diseases
• Skin conditions, such as eczema

Your thoughts, beliefs and attitudes, traumas, and life experiences directly influence your biology. We know that stress and other psychological factors can have a major impact on your health. Now we understand that 95% of all illnesses are either caused by or worsened by stress.

The UltraMind Solution, by Mark Hyman, M.D.

What is Stress?

The term, “Stress” means different things to different people, and has multiple definitions which apply to various branches of science.  In this article, I’m speaking about mental-emotional distress and the body’s response to it.

To begin, my basic definition of stress will be: “our mental, emotional or physical response to challenging events or situations in our lives.” Later, we’ll modify this to incorporate a new understanding.

Common Signs & Symptoms of Stress

Cognitive (Perceptual)
Memory impairment
Difficulty concentrating
Poor judgment
Seeing or focusing only on the negative
Anxious or racing thoughts
Constant worrying

Emotional
Moodiness
Irritability or short temper
Agitation, unable to relax
Feeling overwhelmed
Sense of loneliness and isolation
Depression or general unhappiness

Physical
Aches and pains
Diarrhea or constipation
Nausea, dizziness
Chest pain, rapid heartbeat
Loss of sex drive
Frequent colds or infections

Behavioral
Eating more or less than usual
Sleeping too much or too little
Isolating yourself from others
Procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities
Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax
Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing)
Source: HelpGuide.org http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm

What Causes Stress?

Stress is commonly thought to caused by external forces, such as our boss, spouse, mother-in-law, or the IRS. (Nobody mentions tigers much these days). We may feel overwhelmed or threatened by people or circumstances in our lives.

External factors are really just the tip of the iceberg – the superficial viewpoint. While not insignificant, they mostly act as “triggers” that set off our internal (and automatic) stress-making machinery.

In Part I, we’ll focus on how external events trigger the cascading stress response in our body.

In subsequent parts, we’ll explore the subtle network of thoughts, beliefs, perception, and chemical-nutritional influences that determine the nature of the interactive playing field where your game of life is played.

In turn, the nature of this playing field determines how the events in your life affect you in terms of stress. It can even determine whether a challenging life event brings you to your knees, or catapults you to a whole new way of being in the world.

At the end of each part, I’ll offer suggestions and other resources to assist you in your personal journey with stress in your life.

How Does Stress Work?

Episode 1 – Vacation in India
Let’s imagine you’re on vacation in India, walking along the edge of the jungle in a grassy area, daydreaming about that attractive person you met at the coconut stand this morning. Suddenly you see the proverbial Bengal tiger bounding through the grass, straight toward you and closing fast. Nah, that isn’t scary enough – let’s say it’s a real Bengal tiger! Most everyone would agree that this was a stressful situation, right?

In the milliseconds that follow, your subconscious mind transmits an urgent alert to your adrenal glands via your sympathetic nervous system (the fight or flight part) to release a healthy dose of adrenaline into your blood stream, pronto!

Slammed back into the present moment by the sight of the tiger, you feel the jolt of adrenaline coursing through your arteries. Your heart rate, blood pressure and respiration surge, and glucose is released into your blood as emergency fuel.

Blood flow diverts from your digestive tract to your muscles for drastic action. You experience a real-life “Oh, shit!” moment, as your bowel and bladder lighten their loads. Oops!

But you barely notice. Blood has also been diverted from your conscious, thinking cortex to your subconscious primitive brain stem for rapid, programmed survival instincts to take over.

Your next thought, if you can manage one, is likely to be, “RUN!!!” In fact, you discover your body is already running, having decided not to wait around for you to make up your mind.

And forget that romantic spiritual stuff about “becoming the tiger,” because you’re certifiably freaked out and running like you’ve never run before. In fact, you’ve never felt this strong before.

You sneak a glance backwards and see he’s only 20 feet away, bounding directly toward you. Realizing that running is hopeless, in a moment of bravery you stop to face him.

He’s right behind you, launching into a powerful leap with a heart-stopping roar . . . 500 pounds of muscle, fangs and claws are hurtling forward . . . you fall backward . . . as the 9 foot long tiger sails gracefully over your sprawling body and bounds off into the jungle in pursuit of that hot babe he spotted a minute ago!

You see, he wasn’t even hungry, having just eaten Ronald McDonald at the hamburger stand in the local village a little while ago. He was just looking for a party . . . but being a practical joker, he thought he’d give you a little thrill along the way.

Heart still racing, and body trembing, it takes you a few minutes to begin to calm down. You replay the “movie” in your mind, but that doesn’t help matters. So you stumble to your feet and head back to the village, casting furtive glances over your shoulder.

The mess in your pants gradually comes to conscious awareness, along with a strong urge for a beer, well, maybe a six-pack. At some point, it occurs to you that it might be a good idea to stop at your room and get cleaned up before going to the bar.

Sorry I had to put you through all that, but you know what they say, “Experience is the best teacher!” While probably not “up there” with an Indiana Jones movie, hopefully it gave you a better understanding of how your natural stress response was designed to work as a survival mechanism. Perhaps you even had a bonus chuckle or two.

Let’s rejoin our hero/heroine now, for a look at the type of stress most of us are familiar with . . .

Episode 2 – Back at the Office
Having had the “time of your life” in India, you’re relieved to touch down back home, far away from pesky tigers. Things are different here, in the concrete jungle.

It’s your first day back at work in the ad business, and you’re hoping it will take your mind off those recurrent nightmares of the tiger leaping at you. Before long, you get your wish, at least temporarily.

Your boss calls you into her office. She explains that business has been slowing down, and the president has decided to downsize the company. Twenty percent of the employees are being laid off. She pauses.

You feel a slightly nauseous as your gut turns over and a few drops of sweat drip from your armpits. Your palms feel moist, and you realize you’re holding your breath.

“We’d like you to stay,” she says, “But the hours will be longer, and for the same salary. You can think it over and let me know tomorrow.” She gives you a sheet with the details and ends the meeting.

Back at your cubicle, you find it hard to concentrate on your work. The knot in your stomach has eased, you’re no longer sweating, and you feel relieved, relatively speaking.

But you’re already working 50-hour weeks, which is putting a strain on your relationship. And the prospects of looking for a new job in a dismal market is no more appealing. “I should be grateful to have this job,” you tell yourself, but somehow you find it difficult to feel that way.

Your “inner critic” is giving you a lecture, letting you know in no uncertain terms that you’re a weakling, and don’t really deserve to keep your job anyway, nor your relationship for that matter . . . “Oh, shut up!” you mutter, as you reach for the phone to make an appointment with your therapist.

You’ve been at this job for nearly ten years now, with only two weeks off each year. You’re 36 years old, and feeling like 50. You’re already taking pills for blood pressure and cycling through alternating constipation and diarrhea. Not only that, but you’ve been loosing your sex drive, which isn’t helping the relationship, either.

You have to take a sleeping pill to get any rest that night, and wake up with a nasty headache. You decide to see your doctor, before anything else goes wrong.

Your doctor is very understanding, as he writes you a prescription for an increase in your blood pressure meds and some Valium, as needed. He tells you it’s “just stress,” and recommends that you “take it easy,” and to see your therapist on a regular basis for a while.

The pills relieve the intensity, but something still doesn’t feel right. You’re tired before you even get out of bed in the morning. You’ve taken to checking under the bed at night, to make sure the tiger isn’t there. Sometimes you feel a bit disappointed when you don’t see it – you’d almost prefer the tiger to this . . .

Epilogue

Yes, it’s a made-up story, to illustrate an important point and do a little teaching. You now have a sense of our built-in survival stress response. It’s designed to deal with dangerous situations we would commonly encounter in a more primitive world.

Wild animals still live like this every day, and so do we, in a way. Living in our concrete jungle instead of a natural one still exacts a heavy toll on our mind and body. The difference is that most of the stress in our modern world is much more subtle than a tiger leaping at you.

You can still encounter the concrete jungle’s equivalent of a hungry tiger, like a street gang, other human predators, or war. Most of us experience milder challenges on a frequent or constant basis. It “comes with the territory” of being a human on Planet Earth.

Instead of bam, you’re done, it’s the slow torture of constant pressure wearing us down. Some of us seem to have more than our share of pressure, and others less. It’s only a matter of degree.

Even though there is no tiger under our bed, our sensitive nervous system is perceiving danger, and acting accordingly. Our adrenal glands are still secreting stress hormones, and our body is following their orders. The results are not as obvious, but they are occurring to some degree in each of us, nonetheless.

Our unhappy hero/heroine is teetering on the brink of adrenal exhaustion (or some other catastrophe), when our adrenal glands can no longer deal with the demands we place on them. When that occurs, we no longer have a choice. We have to rest, because there is not enough energy to do anything else.

How to Cook a Frog (or Stress a Human)
You’ve probably heard the story of the frog in a pot of water on the stove. I can’t imagine doing this experiment myself, but apparently someone did, and here’s what happens. If the water is heated slowly, the frog doesn’t notice until it’s too late, and it can no longer leap out of the pot!

The hapless frog can serve as a metaphor for you or I, and humanity as a whole. These are times of increasing personal, cultural and environmental stress. The complexity of our life and the extent of our commitments often increase gradually, and we adapt to the hotter water. If we’re paying attention, however, our cerebral cortex can grok (comprehend) the situation, and where it will likely lead us. With that awareness, we can choose one fork in the road, or the other:

1. We can choose to ignore the warning signs, and greatly increase our risk of winding up with one or more stress-related illnesses.
2. Or, we can wake up to the reality of our situation and make a course correction. We can start by taking better care of ourselves. I think it was Mark Victor Hansen who said, “If we don’t take time for health, we will eventually have to take time for disease.”

We don’t have be victims of stress. We have the power of choice. We can say “No” to certain things, and “Yes!” to others. When the choice is hard, it helps to remember what our choices are.

In the hundreds of choices we make every day, we are literally choosing between health and disease; life and death. But because so many of these choices are little ones, they seem trivial at the time.

“Disease starts out humbly in the body as some imperceptible imbalance, and proceeds slowly from there. The outcome of a full-blown disease may be devastating, but it has been built up through insignificant everyday actions.

What we eat and drink, how we behave, how our emotions affect us – these are small things. When they support well-being, we don’t give them a second thought.

But no action is lost on the body. We are always building. Every bite of food, every breath, every thought, is like laying a brick, even if we aren’t aware that we are building.”

Deepak Chopra, Return of the Rishi, pp 91-92

We often make crucial choices unconsciously, by default. This happens when we’re not aware that we even have a choice, or cannot see the path of possibilities before us.

We can make a commitment to “waking up,” to becoming aware of our choices, and where each choice will likely lead us. We can ask Spirit for clarity and guidance when we face tough choices. We can also ask for the strength to follow our heart and walk down the path we intuitively know is best for us.

Conscious choice is the most powerful tool we have to change our lives for the better, and it works on all levels. I consider it a Divine Gift, and I’m hoping you can see it that way, too.

Recommended article: The Art of Being Your Own Best Friend. It will help you in your choice-making!

How Stress Happens – Part 2 will continue where this leaves off.  We’ll begin exploring the powerful hidden causes of stress: our thoughts and beliefs.  I refer to them as “hidden causes” because they are rarely acknowledged as factors that contribute to our stress load. Please stay tuned!

To learn about an effective way to change subconscious limiting beliefs, see the short article on PSYCH-K.

Health Articles

This section will contain a variety of articles to empower you in building your health on many levels. They will be organized in the general categories of:

• Diet & Nutrition
• Body & Breath
• Mental-Emotional-Spiritual
• Environmental

Dr Dane’s Bio

In the Beginning

I was halfway through the second grade when I decided what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I was going to be a scientist and a writer!  This desire apparently came from my fascination with nature and love of good books.  My favorite books usually had animals as the main characters.

After high school, I did a four-year tour in the US Navy, then returned to California for college.  At Sonoma State University, I studied biology, expressive arts and psychology.  Drawn to working with people, I then completed a training in massage  therapy and started a small practice in bodywork.

The Clouds Parted
I had forgotten about the scientist and writer, and was back to wondering what I was going to be when I grew up.  I felt there was something more yet to come.  Then one day a very intuitive friend said, “I keep getting this image of your hands – have you ever thought of being a chiropractor?”  To make a long story short: the clouds parted, trumpets sounded, and I knew I was going to chiropractic college.

Chiropractic College
Six months later, I was a student at Logan College of Chiropractic near St. Louis.  There, I learned about stress from first-hand experience as I went through the non-stop 4,000+ hour program.  I graduated in 1982, having paid for my Magna Cum Laude with a stress-related case of food allergies!

Expanding My Viewpoint
I moved to Minnesota, and passed their state board exams for my chiropractic license.  Shortly thereafter, I opened my own chiropractic office in a suburb near Minneapolis.  As a new practitioner, I soon received an education about taxes and overhead, while I continued my study of “stress.”

Because of my personal experience, I began to see my patients through new eyes.  I noticed how the stress in their lives seemed to be causing much of their spinal, muscular and other problems.

Curious about the mental-emotional aspects of healing, I explored NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and the deeply relaxing CranioSacral Therapy – even a bit of hypnosis.  I sought out healing approaches which incorporated the Body-Mind-Spirit model.  I talked with my patients about what was going on in their lives.  They liked it, and so did I.

Teaching
Eventually, I sold my practice and accepted a teaching position at Northwestern College of Chiropractic in Minneapolis.  I loved working with the students, and sharing what I’d learned.  During my ten years at Northwestern, I was certified in Acupuncture and earned an advanced certification in Diagnosis and Internal Disorders.

New Therapies Prove Successful
Over the years, I studied other disciplines offered by the Upledger Institute in addition to CranioSacral Therapy.  They included Lymph Drainage Therapy, Visceral Manipulation (gentle work with the organs and other soft tissues), Interactive Guided Imagery, and SomatoEmotional Release.

These modalities emphasize a sensitive touch and hold the client’s process in deep respect.  Each approach opens a new window through which to view the body-mind, and reveals another important factor in the healing process.  Best of all, they work extremely well when combined.

Personal and Spiritual Growth
I’ve been a long-time student of personal and spiritual growth, and was ordained as a minister with the interfaith Universal Brotherhood in 1998.  I’ve had a natural and growing interest in empowering others in the area of health and well-being for over 35 years.

Traveling Photographer
My wife and I left Minnesota in 2003 to travel, and landed in Ashland, OR in 2005.  Since 2003 I’ve been passionately into nature photography.  You can view the results in my online gallery, www.Inner-Light-Images.com.

Back in Practice
After this long vacation, I began to feel the call back to active practice again.  I dug out my books and sat for the Oregon chiropractic board exam.  I received my Oregon chiropractic license in Dec, 2008.

A Deeper Understanding of Stress
Learning from my own experience and that of my clients has led me to a deeper understanding of stress and stress-related health problems.  I learned about its causes & effects, and how it can be eased with natural therapies.  It can even used as a catalyst for personal and spiritual growth.  Stress plays a huge role in causing and perpetuating an estimated 90% of the health problems we face today.

I’ve published several articles on health and well-being, including The Art of Being Your Own Best Friend. This article has helped many people re-evaluate their priorities and reduce their stress levels.  You can browse these articles in the sections on Health Articles, Stress Mastery, All About Pain, and Therapies by clicking on these links, or using the Category List to the right.

Creations
I’ve taught advanced myofascial classes for massage & physical therapists.  I authored a personal & spiritual growth course with a focus on reducing stress.  It’s called Four Steps to Transformation, and includes a CD called Transformational Meditations.  I also led a six-session workshop in its practical application.

I’m currently working on a DVD entitled Enduring Peace, to facilitate heart-centered awareness, relaxation, stress-reduction and personal growth.  You can find out more about the DVD in Relax Now.

Second-Grader’s Dream

So, as the wheel of life has turned, that second grader may have known something his twenty-something self did not.  Here I am, being a scientist of sorts, studying healing and the human body, and writing to help people live happier, healthier lives.  That’s what Body-Mind-Peace is all about, and I feel blessed!

Sincerely,
Dr Dane

Save Money with a High Quality Water Filter

Would you like to save $1900 on a year’s worth of drinking water for a family of four?  Simple!  If your family drinks bottled water, just buy a Multi-Pure® counter-top Aqua Dome filter, and stop buying bottled water! *Estimate based on 750 gallons a year usage.

This estimate allows for the cost of the entire filter unit (not just the replacement filter), so you would essentially receive a free filter system and save about $1900 over your first year of use.  In subsequent years, you would save nearly $2200.   See What About Bottled Water?

I’m an independent distributor (#120926) of solid carbon-block water filters by Multi-Pure®. As far as I can tell, they are one of the best filters on the market, and have won numerous awards.

Most recently, their economy counter-top Aqua-Dome unit was one of only 15 models out of 5,000 to be rated a “Best Buy” in the August, 2009 Consumer’s Digest.

The Aqua Dome lists for $224.95.  We offer a promotional discount on most Multi-Pure filter systems, including the Aqua Dome.  We have doubled this discount through Dec 31, 2009. Visit our Multi-Pure website to see photos,
view product information, or place an order.

You can receive a promotional discount on the Aqua Dome
by entering this code at checkout: 120926-disc

But you would be saving more than money.  The cost of bottled water does not include the environmental damage done from all the plastic generated by the 8.3 billion gallons of bottled water sold every year.

Some other companies, such as Amway, actually use carbon block filters made by Multi-Pure®.  The other companies use their own housing, but the “business end” of their filter unit is purely Multi-Pure®.

Multi-Pure® units filter down to 0.5 microns.  This is the size necessary to remove fungal and bacterial spores.  These filters do a fantastic job of removing the organic pollutants and most heavy metals, without removing the healthful minerals.

Multi-Pure® filters are certified to remove more than 99% of lead and mercury.  They are the only manufacturer with a filter system certified by NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) to reduce levels of Arsenic V (this is a special filter, which is a bit more expensive than their standard models).

Their filters are certified by NSF to reduce the widest range of contaminants, including many cancer causing contaminants that may be found in your water.

Other incentives are Multi-Pure’s 90-day money-back guarantee, and their lifetime warranty on all their filter housings.

I will be updating some water articles I wrote about 10 years ago and posting them in the “Health Articles” category.

You can visit my Multi-Pure website to find more information about the company and their products, to learn more about the importance of clean water, current special offers, or to place an order.

You can also call me at (541) 821-3263 if you have questions about a filter system for your home, business, RV, or survival kit.

Nature Posters

I’m considering doing poster-runs on a few of my photographic images, which will make them available at a deep discount to the actual photograph.

Since I have to order 250 at a time, I’m waiting to see if there is interest to warrant the expense. You can visit my photographic galleries at: www.Inner-Light-Images.com. I’d like to hear which images you might like to purchase as posters.

Your input would be appreciated!

Dr Dane

PS – I also have the ability to include an inspirational phrase or quote in the image, or under it.

Flower Essence Blends

Ariel ( my wife), is a former chiropractor. She is a “sensitive” who has the ability to track physical and mental-emotional problems to their deeper cause. Some people refer to this as being a “medical intuitive.”

She is also an excellent herbalist and has a personal relationship with the plants. She has an extensive herbal pharmacy which she personally wild-crafted. Her specialty is Flower Essences, which she uses to help shift the “frequency” of a person and what is at the root of their health concerns.

She is developing a set of flower essence blends which people can use to aid their personal situations.

You can contact Ariel at (541) 482-0297.

Enduring Peace DVD

I created a DVD in 2008 to support people with stress reduction, relaxation, and personal & spiritual growth. I have demo copies, but it hasn’t gone into production yet.

It begins with an inner body guided meditation, to help you become more aware of your body and breath, and find the restful space in your heart.

It then shifts to a 10-minute visual presentation of beautiful photographic nature images accompanied by the lyrical cello music of Andrea Bauer. The intent here is to tap into the restorative power of nature.

The final segment is a second guided meditation that picks up where the first one left off – in the heart. These meditations are not “visual” journeys, but rather kinesthetic ones, focused on your internal body sense & feeling. There is no “imagery” other than the photography.

You are left with a deep peace by the end. The entire program is 30 minutes long, and a “short” version can be chosen, which is only the nature images and music. I’m also planning a version for video iPods, for use when traveling.

Some of the “support materials” for this DVD are now available on this website, under Stress Mastery and Self-Care Wisdom.

Actual product availability will be announced on this website.

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