What I Learned From a Bucket!

Happy Monday to You!

Well, it’s great to be back home again, enjoying my home and my “Heaven House” office after a month on the road in Australia.

As you saw from the photos on my last blog about the trip, there were some very heavy storms, so though the trip was productive, it had its turbulent moments.

I’ve been home since last Wednesday, but I’m still feeling the consequences of many years of jet travel and the jet lag effects, particularly in the gym; weights feel much heavier than normal…

I’ve been enjoying some down time, and have done some art and some great reading and meditating on products and programs I’m intending to create.

In today’s blog, I’ll share:

– A little story/lesson about what I learned from a bucket

– Updates from the recent Paleof(x) conference

– Angie Lustrick just graduated from her three-year advanced Shaman training, so Angie will share a little about that, and

– I’ll finish with some shots of my recent playful creations.

What I Learned From a Bucket!

Today, my vlog is about what I learned from a bucket, well, my watering can actually (a bucket with a nozzle).

I love observing the little things around me because I’ve found that the little, seemingly insignificant things can actually teach us as much in life as the seemingly big things.

For example, our culture is full of people with advanced university degrees – smart people – yet we overlook the most basic things that are essential, such as food, rest, movement, and doing what “we love to do” instead of what “we convince ourselves we have to do”…

My blog today is quite simple, and in it, I encourage you to simply make an honest 1% improvement each day in any of your 4 Doctors, and in just 100 days, you are a 100% new person.

I explain how (small) states of change grow to a become bigger, clearly noticeable stage of change.

I hope you enjoy my simple, but important video blog sharing today.

References and Resources:
1. The Last Four Doctors You’ll Ever Need – multimedia ebook
2. 1-2-3-4 for Overcoming Addiction, Obesity & Disease – MP3 audio + workbook
3. PPS Lesson 3. Goal Setting

PALEOF(X) Conference 2015 Well Received!

The recent 2015 Paleof(x) conference was held in Austin, Texas. There were many CHEK Practitioners, CHEK HLC’s that participated, and the C.H.E.K Institute had a booth there.

I was unable to attend because I was teaching in Australia, but I’ve had many excellent reports of the events, and quality of education offered there – maybe in 2016.

The Paleof(x) conference is directed by CHEK HLC 3/ Exercise Coach Practitioner, Sara Eye. She not only did a great job of pulling the conference together, she had other CHEK Practitioners and HLC’s presenting there, which is lovely to see.

Above you can see “strong-woman” Aimee Brouillard (HLC3) from Ontario, Sara Eye, and Aleks Rybchinsky (HLC3/ CP2) from Chicago.

I asked Sara to write a little about the conference to share with you, and this is what she shared with me:

Paleof(x) is the largest conference in the world of its kind.  We focus on issues far beyond diet or food choice or macros.  Contrary to the stigmas developed around the growing popularity of the Paleo Diet, Paleof(x) is simply about living life to your fullest, and being able to do so by getting educated on holistic health, clean foods, sustainability, functional movement and exercise, breaking bad habits, modern diseases and how to heal, manage and prevent. 

Paleof(x) is about finding your n=1 approach to health and fitness by connecting ourselves to the most basic and primal wisdom of our own bodies and using that fundamental approach to change our health, our bodies, our spirit and our world.

Every year we have doubled in size, however we welcomed the 2015 event with triple the attendees and number of vendors than the years behind us. The quality of vendors, speakers, coaches, presentations, workshops and events under one roof in Austin has proven that we can continue to uphold our standards and values in this industry and still grow. 

The more we grow, expand and evolve, the more we can teach the teachers and reach the listeners to spread the message that health, fitness, and spiritual evolution doesn’t have to be boxed in and compartmentalized from each other. 

There is no one size fits all. We all have our own blueprint, and Paleof(x) aims to help individuals understand that while guiding a very influential industry towards a collective evolution in holistic health, fitness, love and bad-assery.

– Sara Eye
Director of Operations

It is quite exciting for me to see functional exercise and the paleo concepts growing. I’ve been teaching these concepts for a very long time, and when I started lecturing on functional exercise and holistic health in 1988, I was definitely the black sheep.

My attempts to bring awareness to natural living concepts with many professional groups includes the exercise industry, massage industry, strength and conditioning for elite sports, physical therapy, chiropractic, osteopathic, mainstream medical practice, and more.

The whole journey has been a real lesson in patience for me. First, I had to be patient and wait for people to “see the obvious”, and then…I had to learn to stomach the ridiculous…

The complete abuse of such concepts in the creation of clicks and fads that are often as dangerous as what we’ve been leaving behind… and so it is…

CHEK HLC Instructor Angie Lustrick Completes Her 3 Yr Advanced Shaman Training Program

Angie Lustrick teaches CHEK HLC1 and HLC2 courses, and is training to teach HLC3 as well.

She’s an excellent teacher and her students love here because she’s got a very diverse education and background. In addition to degrees in biology, energy medicine, and clinical nutrition, Angie has done extensive training in mystery schools, and is a bonafide shaman.

Angie and I work very closely and I’ve enjoyed the benefits of her healing powers on a number of occasions. I’m very proud of her for completing this three-year advanced shaman-training program because I’ve seen how hard she worked and practiced the whole way through it.

Angie and I are very parallel in our interests, and we often have deep, meaningful discussions about life and the life process, as well as how shamanic teachings fit into the grand scheme of things today.

Above, you can see Angie with her primary instructor, shaman Alicia Gates, who Angie speaks the world of.

It was a special last visit to shaman school for Angie because not only did she graduate, her teacher announced that she’d be retiring from the program.

Angie was very excited she got to be in her class before she retires because of the quality of Alicia’s training and her depth of experience.

Additionally, the founder of her program, Michael Harner came to class to celebrate his 86th birthday with the class, which is a rare event, and one well appreciated by Angie and her fellow students.

Angie was over the moon to see Michael, and couldn’t stop laughing as she pondered all the amazing, intelligent, witty, and humorous things he shared with the group. She said, “even though he’s an old man, his mind is as sharp as ever, and he’s FUNNY!”

He is the author of this classic about Shamanism:

I asked Angie to share some information about her training, and her experience with the training, and this is what she gave me to share with you:

I just completed the 5th North American 3 Year Program offered by the Foundation for Shamanic Studies (shamanism.org). This program was created by Michael Harner and was led by faculty instructor, Alicia Gates, and assistant, Glen Campbell.    

This course solely dealt with core shamanism. Here is a brief description from the Foundation’s Website:

Core shamanism consists of the universal, near-universal, and common features of shamanism, together with journeys to other worlds, a distinguishing feature of shamanism. As originated, researched, and developed by Michael Harner, the principles of core shamanism are not bound to any specific cultural group or perspective.

Since the West overwhelmingly lost its shamanic knowledge centuries ago due to religious oppression, the Foundation’s programs in core shamanism are particularly intended for Westerners to reacquire access to their rightful spiritual heritage through quality workshops and training courses.

Training in core shamanism includes teaching students to alter their consciousness through classic shamanic non-drug techniques such as sonic driving, especially in the form of repetitive drumming, so that they can discover their own hidden spiritual resources, transform their lives, and learn how to help others.

Core shamanism does not focus on ceremonies, such as those of Native American medicine men and women, persons who do both shamanism and ceremonial work.

Shamanism has helped my holistic lifestyle coaching practice by teaching me how to deepen my connection to spiritual guidance through drumming, rattling, and spending time in nature.  This spiritual guidance has allowed me to work with clients at a much deeper, spiritual level.   

Angie Lustrick, CN, CPT
author of BODY BY ANGIE
Angiesworld.com

What I’ve Been Up to Since Coming Home

The day I arrived home, I felt very congested from sitting for so long in the flight from Sydney, but didn’t feel that doing anything but tai-chi was the right medicine.

The next day, I had the urge to be outside and get some lifting in, while expressing my creativity. I went out to my stone circle, where I lift my heavier stones (some over 300 pounds) and just agreed with myself to only lift what “felt good” to me.

Angie’s pug, Maggie, was my mascot for the stonework session; I was watching Maggie while Angie was away in shaman school.

She watches like a Buddha as I work, and occasionally gives me a grunt of approval.

This stack took me about an hour to build, and a few minutes to clear the circle at the end. I left feeling happy, alive, vitalized, and balanced in my body-mind.

There is no workout in the world like stone stacking. It requires exquisite awareness, presence, balance, coordination, agility, strength, and endurance.

Going to the gym after spending time in a rock garden is quite interesting…it’s very easy, even when its hard.

It wasn’t long after I got home that the urge to paint had to be fulfilled. I was too tired from the jet lag to get into anything that required focus, and careful brush strokes, so I decided to do a simple mandala to express my inner-state.

This mandala is titled “I’m Home”, and I painted most of it while visiting with Angie on FaceTime while she had a long wait in the airport for her connection from San Francisco to San Diego.

Just looking at the mandala and feeling what occurs within you will give you the experience of how great it feels being home, and how fun my conversations with Angie are. I hope you enjoy it.

Well, that’s it from me today.

I’ll be sharing more with you soon, maybe even before next Monday. I’ve got some fun CHEK inspired athlete success stories to share.

Love and chi,
Paul Chek