Matcha Green Tea: I Love It.

“I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.”–Dostoevsky

What has almost six times more antioxidants than goji berries, tons of amino acids, may aid in weight loss and give you a clean, focused, relaxing energy all at the same time? Matcha green tea: one of the most powerful substances for vibrant living on earth.

Matcha has roughly 140 times more EGCG’s than regular green tea. What is EGCG? It is a powerful and heavily researched antioxidant that has been shown to help boost the immune system. Paired with a healthy diet and exercise, Matcha can be an amazing addition to your lifestyle.

I first had Matcha about a year ago and did not think too much of it. Instead I preferred to drink the whole leaf, chlorophyll filled, Japanese delicacy Gyokuro. While having a similarity to Matcha, plus the ability to create multiple infusions (unlike Matcha), it is not quite the same.

Matcha is like the wholefood juice of tea. Often, Matcha starts with a high quality green tea—like Gyokuro—which is then ground into a fine powder giving you all the essential parts of the tea plus the fiber. Add to hot water, create a gentle froth and enjoy mood lifting energy. Enjoy the day. Enjoy life.

Now I try and drink at least one cup every day and it has become obsessive to the point where I may be addicted. I drink it at work and feel productive and focused. I drink it before I train and I feel energetic yet relaxed and calm. It’s awesome.

With only a small amount of caffeine it will not make you jittery but the caffeine + phytonutrients + antioxidants + amino acids combination can produce an relaxed yet energized solution to feelings of blah and lethargy.

Locally, you can find it at most tea shops and without a doubt at a Teavana in mall near you. For those looking for high quality all the way to affordable and culinary Matcha:  www.breakawaymatcha.com is the place to go. Also, watch their video on preparation. It’s good.

Life And The Power Of Finding Hype Within Yourself

In this darkness faith alone – which is dark also – should be the light we use. (not visions)—St. John of The Cross

Letting go of negative affirmations and inducing a transcendent energy within ourselves may help us reconnect with our own lives along with those in our lives. WE can all do this and do it together.  Look around, we are not alone in this. Ever.  Personally, I look around and see so much. What I lack in family I don’t actually lack because my family includes my friends: the people who are around me in real life and online. I see them for what and who they are: people in other people’s lives. This is amazing. When we feel down this can be what lifts us back up again so I can continue to find faith in myself.

What I am not saying is that feeling down is wrong.  I feel down and sometimes it feels right. I allow this to be all right and feel all right. What I am saying is that feeling down all the time because of something outside or inside of our grasp is counterproductive. It is more than likely a lie we continue to perpetuate. Even in cases of chemical imbalance help can be found and lives can be changed.

I know this sounds crazy or new-agey, but I do not mean any of this in a mystical way—although it certainly could be—for me it was a matter of earnestly assessing my state-of-being: depressed, lacking motivation and mourning the loss of my mom and direction, and deciding to change.  It was really hard and did not happen without suffering and moments of horrible lows. I just put the lows into perspective: they were just moments which would be followed by newer, different moments and those fresh moments did not have to repeat the cycle of the proceeding.

There was no secret to doing this. Books may help, step-by-step programs may help, churches and gurus may help…faith is what it relies on. Sometimes just the act of trying to help yourself through the struggle using any of those means can lift you up. Engaging in something new that requires intense focus or creativity are also healthy means. Go run, or make something. Who cares how far you run or what you make. Just do it.

Ultimately I feel like deeper self-discovery is the most ultimate anti-depressant and is an abundance of positivity.  Lifestyle is a key.  What we are is created by the life we live and the things we consume. Build yourself up or break yourself down single-handedly and if the break down is too much asking for help is something that needs to be done without question. If it is a matter of changing your way of life though, be honest with yourself.

For me, I had to look deeply through the grief and desire.  It sucked and I didn’t feel like taking the first few steps, but as cliché as it sounds once I moved forward I didn’t care to look back too often. Anything beyond me was useless. It was all beyond me.

No one needs to live in pain. Living in our culture is tough enough. Look to your family, friends, and those you admire but find solace in yourself to create a new self. Find yourself. Find your passion to create rather than destroy. Ultimately though, look to the light within yourself to get through the night, no matter how dark it feels. Something created us which loves us enough to live. I seriously love you all.

Our Life And The Art In Our Fight

(Image by Steve Roggenbuck @ http://livemylief.com)

 

“Treat the fight like another training day.”—Royce Gracie

Very recently I experienced my first official class with the advanced students in my school. Coincidentally it was competition training for those who will be competing in an upcoming tournament. At first my professor was hesitant and for obvious reasons: injury from inexperience sucks and competitors need to be pushed. However, he chose to let me and a couple other non-competitors (also white belts) stay among the other blue, brown and black belts. It was a brutal class for everyone involved–Fitting considering I eschewed my invitation to attend this class for the past week. Nevertheless, it was a benchmark for me.

What I witnessed was the wild human spirit. We were in a four person rotation with a goal to give the training competitor someone to grapple with at one-hundred percent intensity for two minutes each. I watched my instructor do this, without reprieve, for forty five minutes. This is someone I have much respect for. The spirit to fight and perfect something that cannot be perfected is poetic. The act of fighting, at that moment, became like poetry to me. Oddly enough I had been mulling over the fight and what it means as a symbolic action for a couple weeks now, which lead me to struggle to write this.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of modern/contemporary life swarming around me in a nebulous and I feel like I have been fighting for the space for everything I love doing to materialize all while considering the fight and its meaning. I love it. Having so many things going on around me is something that I find thrilling and utterly motivating. This fight for space is actually enjoyable, no, it is preferred! Without it I would be bored which would cause me to create more things for myself to do which would bring me right back into it. I like to fight I guess.

Life is the art of the fight. From conception, through birth, until death ignoring the will to fight could be detrimental to our well-being. Ignoring the beauty in it can also make life suck. I try and enjoy the fight. Likely, we will all have to fight for something or someone at some point in our lives. The historicity and myths of the human are incomplete without the fight. However it may come, the fight is the fight: warring tribes; combat in a ring; getting ahead in your career or getting out of bed. Pushing through to something new… becoming reborn or a better person requires a fighting spirit. Sometimes the fight isn’t always a violent action or reaction but a concerted effort to never give up, move on and gain.

Although the truest fight in life seems to be with ourselves.  It is trite and true statement.

The Process and the Present: Breaking Down the Big Picture

In the creative act, the artist goes from intention to realization through a chain of totally subjective reactions.– Marcel Duchamp

For the past two weeks I have been working on a piece of writing. I began by analyzing its structure at first and then moved on to the individual pieces, cyphering out their meaning. Figuring out how it is working and moving together while attached to a greater whole, constantly adding or taking away. Loving it and hating it–Compulsively working on it; if not physically, mentally configuring it.

This is part of the fun for me. This process gives me some sense of meaning. I suppose it does for a lot of people in their work and life. It is a great thing when doing becomes a means of discovering.  Art and Science are like this; cooking is a great example too. Construction of buildings with blueprints and labor is (obviously) like this. I think of my entire existence as being like this. Art is especially this way for me though.

Step by step I process everything. Breaking things down into smaller components makes the whole manageable to learn, especially something that is vast and entirely complex. Writing a poem is like this for me and practicing martial arts is like this for me. Jiu-Jitsu in particular, due to the newness and utter complexity is like this for me right now. I see Jiu-Jitsu as an art form capable of physical and internal expression. Like any similar practice it can inform your perspective.

There is no point (or joy) in trying to jump around or move ahead because too much can be lost. Jiu-Jitsu is better learned slowly and methodically. Watching videos on technique can be beneficial and will improve your knowledge, but unless you actualize the physicality of it through consistent training it is impossible to master. Like a writer in a class on writing.

Writing is also a slow, methodical process, and a constant practice for the devoted. Total and utter mastery over it is unlikely. However, this shouldn’t discourage anyone. It does not discourage me (in both writing and Jiu-Jitsu). On the contrary, it creates within me a passion that can propel. I hope I am always in the Beginner’s Mind, never a Master and never forget that. As I mentioned in a previous post: the Beginner’s Mind is pregnant with possibility. Possibility means potential and growth and change. I never want to lose that.

Enjoy the process of the present. I tell myself this almost every day in hopes to fully actualize this and become more present. It’s hard though. Often, discouraged by my inability to always do this, I need to be reminded of it. Engaging in methodical (even if unorthodox) Art and exercise brings me eye to eye with my present, the present. I see a great presence in some of the people I practice and train with. Interacting with their present, locked in process, while they experience being alive is a simple reminder to move step-by-step and remain present.

The Imperfect Copy

A certain mental ability is beneficial while training in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. The same ability is required for certain aspects of any education. It is one that is able to intake the visual/physical process and copy it as close to exact as possible to get the appropriate outcome. In Jiu-jitsu this mind also takes into account size and the ability to move within set parameters continuing to make up for any subtle differences from the original production, intending to be exact.  Or, as close to exact as physically possible; slightly tweaked in order to accommodate the individual practitioner.

Obvious as this concept is I was still blown away by it after another week of training. While working from the bottom of the closed guard we learned to break the posture and position of the person in our guard. I looked around the class at some point and slightly marveled at the entire involvement in the same process. Together in one space, all of us in a different place, both on the mat and mind, practiced what we had just been shown by our instructors. All working; struggling to gain exactness with a particular move with our partners. Copying the copy.

It goes like this: Reach your arm and hand across your body, grab the gi sleeve. Place your opposite hand under the armpit and grab. Using your legs with both of your arms, pull towards your chest. Hip-escape. Stay close. Hip escape again. Stay close. Hook feet into their hips and roll the person over, gaining the dominant position. Stop. Return to the instructors for the second part of the instruction–Return to zero. Stop. Go back to drilling with partner. From the dominant position of having their back, after rolling them over, hold them with a “seatbealt” positioning of the arms: one arm over the shoulder, another arm underneath the opposite arm pit. Clasp hands. From this point, open hands and open the gi, get proper choking grips: apply the choke.

These actions, done repetitiously, allow us to learn and build muscle memory so we can be exact every time a certain action is required. However the more I watched the class, and performed the actions myself, I noticed the Frankenstein-construction of everyone’s game. The odd construction of a person’s game seems necessary and unavoidable. Not having it could mean having no game and no endgame; it could mean you are not really playing or have no real interest in learning it, let alone practicing it. Jiu-jitsu is a sport that may also be an existential pursuit shaping your perspective of the world and your interactions within it. The thing itself is so highly regarded that what it is made of is important too. A multiplicity of odd construction is what makes up life and the achievement of exact precision is impossible. After all, most of our masters are/were imperfect copies, constantly becoming perfect rather than just being perfect before they were actually perfect. It can take years to create a new mold out of an older mold. Why should those of us who are masters of nothing in Jiu-jitsu, be any different? Let go. Have fun.

Laying the Groundwork: Eating Right, Living Healthier

“To keep the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom, and keep our mind strong and clear. Water surrounds the lotus flower, but does not wet its petals.”  –The Buddha

The importance of good nutrition is paramount to healthy living and it cannot be overstated. Nutrition is important. Not only is nutrition important for successful health, it may also aid in a successful recovery:  physical, mental, emotional and perhaps even spiritual. The extreme imbalance in society concerning health is alarming. Obesity, heart disease and cancer (to name a few things) are clearly huge and growing problems (sic). They are epidemic. For me, accepting that I had a bad diet and deciding to change it was a critical step in fixing the damage. It could be for you too. It may not be easy.

Poor nutrition takes a toll, obviously, on the body but also on the mind.  The mind and body are intrinsically linked and much too useful to waste on bad foods that have confused our pallets with their lies. We need our bodies and our minds. How can anyone trim the lamp of wisdom while the body and mind are breaking down?  The rates at which many people consume processed chemical laden food are unfortunate. Also unfortunate is the lack of physical exercise. Destructive to say the least.  Much of it is choice or lack of knowledge. Don’t be stupid or allow yourself to be ignorant. Stop the downward spiral.

Starting out step by step is essential. It can take a good amount of time for the mind to reprogram the body—and the pallet. However the resources available online today are awesome. With the body free the mind will catch up.

In our house, after our daughter was born, my partner and I began to experiment. Simply adding more vegetables (the rawer the better) was a big step in the right direction for us. We coupled this with eating free-range, hormone free poultry and beef. Quickly we were consuming far less sodium, chemicals, fat and hormones! Doing these things began to retrain our pallets. I cut back on sodas and snacks. I was a sugar junkie. Replacing them with juice and fruit—this sucked a little—helped the transition even more. Treats become a treat again rather than a diet staple. Much more rewarding that way.

From that point we went even further out on the limb and bought a high-end blender, started wholefood juicing (greens, vegetables, and fruits) and it was done! Never again could we go back. In about a two year span we found ourselves eating and living healthier. Blogs like terawarner.com became an invaluable resource to us. Use them too. Sites like these are packed full of useful and pragmatic information that can help you change your life.

Next we both started working out as many times during the week as possible. It also helps to be surrounded by people of positive mind and body for support. For me, my partner along with the Professor, instructors and teammates at Supremacy Brazilian Jiu-jitsu have been a major influence on my mind and body. Ever since I studied Tae Kwon Do as a child and into my early teens the positive effects of the Martial Arts were obvious to my mother and now, as an adult, to me. It has been for many people for centuries. It may be for you too. Regardless, good nutrition and physical activity will benefit anybody. Reminding yourself it is a worthwhile struggle is awesome too. Living healthy can be a constant struggle. Be like the untouched petal surrounded by water, don’t be influenced or weighed down by the things around you or within you. Don’t ever, ever, ever give up.  Live free.

Here are a few additional resources to get you started; we have found them incredibly helpful:

http://www.mercola.com/ Sign up for free information from Dr. Joseph Mercola, a great paleo diet advocate.

http://purelytwins.com/ Raw and gluten free sisters.

http://thepaleodiet.com/ Dr. Loren Cordain

Push, Suffer & Struggle: Success and The Joy of Training in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu

“While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, your experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life.” – Shunryu Suzuki Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

 

Some things come so easy. Some things do not. Learning something new often has inherent challenges: some that are obvious and some (most) which are less obvious. Obviously there is so much to know with only one way to do it: to start doing it. Jump headfirst into the waves.

Albeit preparation can be beneficial but there are things that you cannot prepare for. Just have to do it. Less obvious are those things that have nothing to do with the things at hand, which are just as important if not paramount to the obvious. Namely, desire the will to keep going and remain dutiful to your initial desire to do something, no matter how difficult the learning process may become. Push through it all. Rewards come.

Suzuki’s quote appeals to me as a white belt at Supremacy Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Heck, the entire premise of the book appeals to me as a human being that is alive on Earth! Basically, the beginning is a great place to be (although intimidating and scary). The unknowing beginning is pregnant with so much possibility it’s invigorating. In the martial arts there is nothing but the present and unlike an academic course there is no syllabus, no text, and no ability to look ahead or intuit. What is even more awesome is that even a black belt can be in this beginner mindset—full of potential and possibility; always learning and improving.

Again, I’m a white belt and every single time I bow to step onto the mat the outcome of that moment and the subsequent moments are unknown to me. Even if I have previously gone over something during a training cycle there is some element of that training which can be improved.

Getting better is a struggle. The struggle is full of peaks and plateaus. For example, in one of my own instances of struggle, I had my shoulder dislocated while rolling with another white belt. A set back to say the least, but also a moment to reevaluate my own game—the little there is of it (lol). This suffering—struggle–while taking me away from learning in class, allowed me to understand another aspect of the art which is mental. So much of the martial arts are obviously mental. Maybe not so obvious, but it should be obvious.

Coming back was tough. Physically I had to reestablish myself, so much so that even warm-ups brought a renewed chance to suffer. Mentally I had to combat the fear that injury may cause. This was a great chance to reset back to a beginner; a mental reset that impacted me off of the mat as well. Like the Suzuki quote implies: your experience informs your life. Helping me along the way were my teammates, instructors and Professor at Supremacy Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Without a good support system like this there is little room for growth—for being in the beginner’s mind.