Lifting & Painting For Body-Mind Balance

Happy Monday!

I hope you are all doing great and enjoying life.

Today, I have a fun podcast and a video to share that are some of the fruits of my recent visit to the MindPump Media team in San Jose, CA. While I was there, I created several videos to share on their MindPump TV channel on YouTube.com, and on my blog too, so I’m excited to be able to share them with you as they release them.

Painting at MindPump Media HQ

In the meantime, if you haven’t subscribed to the MindPump podcast, it’s quite good. The Mind Pump guys – Sal Di Stefano, Adam Schafer, Justin Andrews and Doug Egge – interview a lot of interesting people, such as Mike Salemi, a personal client of mine and C.H.E.K Institute-Trained Professional who’s had many successes in Russian Kettlebell competitions as well as creating the CHEK Kettlebell Performance Workshop. They also have a great interview C.H.E.K Institute-Trained Professional Stephanie Obregozo about small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which is a very common problem today.

UP-CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH PAUL CHEK – HOLISTIC GANGSTER: Episode #517 on MindPump: Raw Fitness Truth

My New Job Title?

I had a lovely time with the MindPump team when they first came and visited me for an interview here at the Heaven House (my office) back in March. They are bright, inquisitive, straightforward and no BS-honest as men and in their approach to interviews.

So when the opportunity presented itself, I visited them in San Jose to sit for a much longer interview. Our conversation covered quite a diverse range of topics (see the “Show Notes” below). We received dozens of questions via Instagram and I was also given a new title by one subscriber – “Holistic Gangster.” I even have the T-Shirt to prove it! (Thanks MindPump crew.)

This interview is certainly the closest look into how I live and relate to the Great Spirit, and life itself ever captured on a recording. Though I don’t rush to talk too much about my intimate personal life because it tends to wind up the judgment mill, Adam got the pry bar out to explore my core relationships. I always share what is real for me, as Paul Chek, but many assume that I’m suggesting that they should live that way too – not the case! My core value as an educator is to not wear masks, but to live in harmony with what I teach others so I can teach from my heart.

I hope you can listen and find harmony with me, and be inspired to explore the C.H.E.K Institute’s many offerings for all aspects of holistic health, from body to emotions, to mind and spirit.

Enjoy the interview, and feel free to share your comments with me here on my blog if you feel inclined.

Listen on iTunes

Listen on Stitcher

MindPump Media Interview #517 With Paul Chek – Show Notes:

– Finding balance with eating healthy and relationship with food (26:50)

• Food spirits and a life of purpose
• Becoming self-aware, the connection between soil and soul, spiritual courage
• Food is the fabric that creates the matrix

– Does he feel like people look at him like a crazy woo-woo uncle (32:00)

• Just don’t know, resistance, no action potential
• Was told one thing their whole lives, the Hero’s journey, find their own path

– Different language (38:10)

• Steiner Model
• Start to question yourself, look at both sides of the equation, suspend judgment

– Paul discusses his living situation (50:00)

• Two wives
• Be present with what arises
• Sex

– What does he see wrong with religion (55:12)

• Drug industry comparisons, pray on keeping people sick
• Everyone has a choice
• Am I being honest with myself

–  Is he at peace with himself (1:04:00)

• Pay attention to dynamics
• Awareness, take god from noun to verb, spiritual gym
• Knowledge compounds itself as you get older and gain experience
• Needs time to himself, be empathetic to yourself

– The struggle with reaching people and the information out there – Big Business (1:09:00)

• Trust great spirit
• Do what his heart tells him is authentic and honest

– Exercise: Biggest mistake he sees the average person makes (1:15:00)

• Tail side, not doing enough
• Head side, doing too much, body doesn’t recover
• Temperature control

– Self-education (1:22:15)

• Research and find the experts
• Study with them
• Created many tools for assessments

– What differences does he see between the healthy and unhealthy athlete (1:44:20)

• Fit-sick person
• Feel the person’s energy,  Adam’s energy – young warrior to King, invest energy moving forward; Sal’s energy – #theJudge, inner dialogue, evaluating own self while hearing someone talk, responsibility, don’t rush, belief behind the behavior; Justin’s energy – not sure who he will be if he lets love come out of him, allow himself to feel, connect to feminine energy, #theFlower
• Shaman training, create harmony, you are what you eat, how to rest properly

– Final thoughts (1:47:00)

NOTE: For a list of links related to the experts/key people mentioned by me in this interview, and other related links, visit the MindPump Media home page, go to “podcast,” and click on episode #517 and scroll to the bottom. Special thanks to the MindPump Team for creating show notes!

LIFTING & PAINTING FOR BODY-MIND BALANCE 

Drawing on the Blackboard in my Gym During a Workout

I began incorporating poetry and art as part of my training, and in training sessions with clients, about 12 years ago. This process rose in me intuitively, as a means of balancing the autonomic nervous system by inducing right-brain activities on rest sets. This enhances the parasympathetic, anabolic state.

During that time, and for all the years since, I’ve been studying and practicing art therapy. There is a sizable amount of literature on the healing effects of art via its influence on the autonomic nervous system and hormonal system.

One of the key reasons I use it with clients is because it helps them develop creativity. When people come to see me as a therapist, it is commonly because they are stuck in some kind of health or life situation they can’t seem to resolve, even after seeing many different doctors or therapists.

What I frequently see is that people have often been given a lot of good advice, even if partial, but are stuck in patterns of behavior, or making the same choices that ultimately lead to more of the stress that they are suffering from. All of the therapists, supplements, drugs, surgeries and etc. will have only a palliative effect if one isn’t capable of implementing change.

Using art during rest periods opens the door to novel acts of creation, creative thinking and self-expression. For many, art is something that scares them for a variety of reasons, so learning to make novel acts of creation – engaging change from set to set – opens the door to becoming comfortable with small and relatively meaningless changes. We can always erase the board, so there’s no risk there!

After some initial resistance, my patients and clients most often find the art or poetry on sets practice quite fun, exhilarating and liberating. Some get so into it, I have to pull them away from the art and back into their next set.

When the MindPump team asked me if I’d do a video on exercise and art, I was delighted, and am happy I can share it with you here today. I hope you enjoy it:

I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog today, and that you find my Mind Pump Media podcast and vlog insightful and inspiring.

Love and chi,

Paul Chek