31 October 2006

Missing in Action

Tuesday 5:47pm 31Oct06

I've been missing in action on the EY Page blog front. I was off to the International Festival of Authors for ten days. Lots of inspiration for writers. See my other blog Writing2Live if you have any interest in that. (Click the Missing in Action title to go there)

I've got a busy November ahead with National Novel Writing Month starting tomorrow for the month of November. Basically you attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. I enter it every year because it's a good test to push yourself to write and hope one of these years that at the end of the month I end up with a decent piece to revise. Plus it's just good at making you build the habit of sitting down and writing every single day without letting yourself get stopped up by the constant distractions that can plague a writer. There's still time to sign up for it, if you're so inclined or to check it out just to know what a whack of crazy writers do every year just because they can... http://www.nanowrimo.org

I'd like to get back to posting more on this blog but can't promise much during November. My Writing2live blog is more of my daily blog with a variety of topics like the Zelda Diaries (about my new very cute and crazy terrorist kitten), Writing outings, Daily practice and the like.

But I'm always on the look out for inspiration and I'm sure I will need it in droves during Nanowrimo. Anything to get me writing and living with joy and loving which I'm finding much easier since the Festival of Authors and the new men in my life and my new best friend and and...

Keep looking for what inspires you.

EY

Joe Eigo

Tuesday 5:29pm 31Oct06

I met Joe Eigo in 2001 (when he was barely legal )because I work with his father. He was a nice kid, friendly, looked me straight in the eyes when he spoke to me. He had plans then. He wanted to do his thing freelance (he was selling Tahitian Noni) and looking for ways to take his talents to the next level. He's since been in a Jackie Chan movie, was in The Mirvish production of the Lord of the Rings and the sky really is the limit for him.
Someone commented after he left that he was arrogant and had his head in the clouds. "He should go and get a job like every normal person does."
Sometimes people confuse self confidence with arrogance, the arrogant brag about what they can apparently do boring you with their seemingly wonderful stories about how great they are, the self confident just do it.

Here's what they had to say about Joe Eigo in today's Toronto Star... (click the title to get the Toronto Star page and full article )...

Off the wall flips
T.O. flipmaster's online video puts him in the money
`I get hungry before I get tired,' stuntman says
Oct. 31, 2006. 05:37 AM
JEN GERSON
LIFE WRITER

Joe Eigo points to the dent his foot made in the ceiling.

It was a stupid thing to do: A three-kick standing backflip gone awry. The 8-foot ceiling of the Black Belt World martial arts studio at Bloor St. W. and Ossington wasn't high enough.

Now he takes stunts like that to the alley, where they belong.

In 2002, he uploaded a video clip of himself flipping off of vertical rocks at Ryerson University. He was jumping vertical distances most people can't climb. He looks like a video game character on acid.

The video went viral, garnering millions of hits. Now, thanks to an incentive program from a wannabe YouTube killing website called Metacafe, Eigo's received a fat cheque for his labours. For every 1,000 views, the producer of any video on the site receives $5 (U.S.). So far, Eigo has banked $23,000. That's 4.6 million views of his clip "Matrix for Real." Metacafe's owners hope the incentive program will pull the best content to the site, making it an online trafficker of the most addictive and distracting. Eigo's film earned its cash in a trial run of the program and has received the highest payout to date.

His tricks look fake, a product of camera tricks and wires. They're not. Eigo trained in competitive gymnastics for four years, between the ages of 9 and 13. "That's how I overcame the fear."

Raised in Aurora, now living in downtown Toronto, the 26-year-old stuntman can jump onto a platform his own height. Eigo is quiet and lean. He practises in torn black sweats. On request, without blinking, he jumps, flips and somersaults in the air. He lands like a cat....

... Eigo does about an hour and a half of intense workout every day and now says he can do stunts for about five hours straight. "I get hungry before I get tired," he says.

He's broken fingers and toes and has developed arthritis in his ankles. Sometimes passersby chastise him for attempting such complicated stunts on the fly, over pavement.

When he speaks about his abilities, he talks like he's in a video game. He "powers up" and tries to reach "new levels," he says. He's inspired by Bruce Lee. "Anything is possible," he says.

No one's quite sure how much better Eigo can get. His mentor and agent Tommy Chang says Eigo's mix of acrobatics, gymnastics and martial arts is the best in the world.

"We all have different talents. I love to jump and flip. Who knows what other talents I can unlock?"

With Chang, he's now working on a new stunt jumping over a moving car. No one's been able to do that. Yet.

For more of Eigo's videos, see http://www.multilevelmoves.com

16 October 2006

Evening Prayers

Monday 7:18pm 16Oct06
I started reading this again at night before I go to bed. It's from the Og Mandino book The Greatest Miracle in the World. Hmm, Anthony Robbins turned me on to Og Mandino...

It's a long one.

Click the Evening Prayers Title to be led to the page.

15 October 2006

Inspirational Short

To get what you've never had you must do what you've never done...

Click the title for the link.

How to Get Motivated

"Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice."

-Wayne Dyer

How to Get - and Stay - Motivated (an excerpt)

By Michael Masterson
Once your image of yourself changes, your motivation will become permanent.
if you see yourself as someone who may be able to start out strong, but never really accomplish anything great, you need to drastically revise your vision of yourself. You have to turn yourself into number one at whatever you do - the person to go to when no one else can get the job done.

To become that person, you will have to:

1. Get up early, and give your day a jumpstart by doing something meaningful ... first thing.

2. Work as late as you have to.

3. Do at least 50 percent more than what is asked of you.

4. Volunteer for challenging assignments.

5. Educate yourself on the side.

6. Become better than anyone else at the essential skills you need to accomplish your goal.

Becoming top dog takes a lot of extra time, so you'll have to make significant sacrifices.

If you are like most people, your biggest distractions will be television, the Internet, friends, and family. Get rid of your TV. Limit your Internet use to one hour a day. And let your friends and family members know that you won't be able to spend much time with them in the foreseeable future.

Work like mad until you've become number one in your class, job, or hobby. When that happens - and it shouldn't take more than six months - you'll feel great about yourself. And once you experience that feeling, you'll never have to worry about motivation again.

Well ... almost never.

For the full article click the title.
EY

13 October 2006

Conversations with God

Friday 10:21pm 13Oct06

My friend invited me to see the pre-screening of the movie, Conversations with God. It was at a church (Unity) in the Yonge and Eglinton area. I got there an hour early. It was a nice change to be out of my own neighbourhood and walk and admire some of the houses. It's good for the brain too to think of dreams that lie dormant. Maybe I might like living in a house. Maybe I could be happy with a family of my own choosing brought together on my beliefs of what a family could be. You never know, maybe I'm ready to live a different sort of life.

I was looking forward to meeting my friend's new friends. There was to be four of us in total. It turned out to be just us three. Three is always an issue when it's three people, I find. Especially when you don't all know each other. My friend and his new friend are working on a major project together, their excitement and subsequent conversations are filled with their project. I couldn't hear what they were discussing nor could I add anything even if I could hear them. At one point they both left me at the seat so they could mingle with people they knew and then they stood at the back of the theatre together chatting. I had a longer conversation with the guy across the aisle from me. Apparently attending the church changed he and his wife's life. "It's not one of those churchy churches. The Sunday discussions are inspirational," he told me. "You might consider coming one Sunday morning to see for yourself."

I just might.

I wasn't mad about feeling left out. I kept thinking about my blog entry about the Law of Recognition and repeated in my head, I don't belong here.
"Your assignment is always to a place. You don't belong every where. There's a place where your gift will blossom. There is a place where you are celebrated. "

The amount of people that stood in front of me in the aisle where I was sitting (including my friend's friend) reaffirmed that this new trip my friend is on is not my trip, it's not my place. And it's good not to force ourselves into the wrong place.

The movie takes a leisurely pace. I'd wondered how they would handle Conversations with God. It's not like there's any action in the books. Overall, come the end of the movie, I felt they did a great job. Without giving any thing away, it made me want to hand more change to the homeless. You have to rethink why someone is dirty. One powerful scene is when Neal, after having the strong intention to never eat food out of a garbage, succumbs to his hunger and pulls food from a plastic container inside a dumpster and eats it and he cries from his shame. But he can't stop eating it, he's that hungry. A child stands there staring at him and the child's mother pulls him away. I kept thinking, "give him some money, give him some money."

No one ever dreams of becoming homeless and scrounging out of garbage bins or dumpster diving. But with anything, our shame subsides out of necessity, out of a hunger so great it's debilitating.

There were some lines that inspired me:
We do things out of Love or Fear.
It's not what others think of you it's what you think of yourself.
Love as much as you can where you are.
When Neal is preparing to go for a job interview he gets scared and asks the woman who has helped him to clean up, "What if it doesn't work? And she replies, "What if it does work?" That's a question I'd like to start asking myself, What if it does work?
You can't have anything you want. This one stumped me for a second. You can't have anything you want because your focus is on the lack of having it. You have to stop wanting and start having.
And the brilliant question, What would love do?

I had a bit of a breakthrough while watching the movie that ultimately brought me to tears. In the close to ten years that my mother has been gone I've stopped living. I've been on a subconscious death trip slowly dying each year. It's that child that says I want my mommy when she is hurt or sad or scared when it's too dark. I've been slowly preparing myself to join her because I've felt alone. But I'm not alone when I'm where I belong, when I'm in my right place.

In my right place I shock myself by the loudness of my laugh, like at lunch with Lolo today. In my right place I can take serious criticism about my conduct and see it as helpful and a sign of that person's genuine love for me to tell me the truth like Ado has been doing lately. My happiness is in the process of writing whether I ever become published or not. I am alive when I look up at the clock and don't know where all that time has gone when it's been hours but it feels like it's been minutes. I feel alive when I flirt with a certain fellow who makes me laugh and catches my unnoticed innuendo then lets me know he's going to let that slide.

We can all change our lives. That's the main message I took from Conversations with God. I can change this life that feels like it's breaking down and falling to pieces. I wouldn't try to build a sturdy building from one with decrepit floors and walls. No, I'd tear that sucker down first. I can stop wanting a better life and have it instead.

Go support the movie on its opening weekend 10Nov06. We need to have more movies like this and the only way it's going to happen is by getting bum in seats on the opening weekends. We really do have the power to change what the choices we're given but we have to show up.

Until then, I'm going to go back and read the books again.

And possibly write a new prayer:
Today, I will do things out of Love
I will focus on what I think of me
I will love as much as I can from where I am
I will be the one I've been waiting for
When I'm scared of attempting I will ask myself, What if it DOES work?
Before I react to trying situations I will ask myself, What would love do now?
I will stop wanting a better life and start having one
by being in my right place


EY

10 October 2006

Morning Prayers 4

Beginning Today

Beginning today I will no longer worry about yesterday.
It is in the past and the past will never change.
Only I can change by choosing to do so.

Beginning today I will no longer worry about tomorrow.
Tomorrow will always be there, waiting for me to make the most of it.
But I cannot make the most of tomorrow without first
making the most of today.

Beginning today I will look in the mirror and I will see a person worthy of my respect and admiration.
This capable person looking back at me is someone I enjoy spending time with and someone I would like to get to know better.

Beginning today I will cherish each moment of my life.
I value this gift bestowed upon me in this world and I will unselfishly share this gift with others.
I will use this gift to enhance the lives of others.

Beginning today I will take a moment to step off the beaten path and to revel in the mysteries I encounter.
I will face challenges with courage and determination.
I will overcome what barriers there may be which hinder my quest for growth and self-improvement.

Beginning today I will take life one day at a time, one step at a time.
Discouragement will not be allowed to taint my positive self-image,
my desire to succeed or my capacity to love.

Beginning today I walk with renewed faith in human kindness.
Regardless of what has gone before, I believe there is hope
for a brighter and better future.

Beginning today I will open my mind and my heart.
I will welcome new experiences. I will meet new people.
I will not expect perfection from myself nor anyone else: perfection does not exist in an imperfect world.
But I will applaud the attempt to overcome human foibles.

Beginning today I am responsible for my own happiness and I will do things that make me happy . . .
admire the beautiful wonders of nature, listen to my favorite music,
pet a kitten or a puppy, soak in a bubble bath . . .
pleasure can be found in the most simple of gestures.

Beginning today I will learn something new; I will try something different; I will savor all the various flavors life has to offer.
I will change what I can and the rest I will let go.
I will strive to become the best me I can possibly be.

Beginning today. And every day.

AUTHOR PENNY WHITE

The Law Of Recognition

Tuesday 5:54pm 10Oct06
I spent the bulk of the morning in search of some message to make me feel better.
Been stressed out about my health. Feeling sorry for myself to be only 42 years old and feel like my body is falling apart.
My level of motivation has been pretty low when I know I can be far more enthusiastic about my life and my interests/passions. Been worrying about my finances because of all the cash I've been dropping for my natural health remedies. Thank God I have the new kitten otherwise who knows how deep into the dark place my mind would take me.

After I admitted to my depressive feelings this morning I sat on a mat on the floor and did a meditation and the SA TA NA MA chant that apparently helps to lead you to neutral mind. Both helped to an extent but I still felt that I needed something. I called in late to work and I turned on my television in search of either Creflo Dollar or Joyce Myer, two Christians who I've caught a time or two that have given me some solace or hit on a topical subject that was timely for me. I passed out and had these dreams with all this religious stuff going in and out of my dreams, prayers and blessings and inner circle healing. I woke up to Dr. Mike Murdock (not someone I would normally watch) and found his chat was helpful:

The Law of Recognition
- Everything you want is already in your life merely awaiting your recognition of it. (my health, my writing career, whatever else I dream of or desire)
- Anything uncelebrated will exit your life. The more thankful you are the more good/ increase in your life.
-Recognition of the voice of the Holy Spirit. God never screams, God whispers. (listen to your inner voice, intuition, doubt)
- Recognition of your assignment. Everything created solves a problem. What you love to think about, what you love to talk about is your assignment. You're not assigned to everybody, you're assigned to somebody. Who's tears affect you. Who's success obsesses you?
- Your assignment is always to a place. You don't belong every where. There's a place where your gift will blossom. There is a place where you are celebrated. Somebody's future depends on your presence. Money is waiting for you in your place of assignment.
- You will only succeed when your assignment becomes an obsession.
- Your assignment will require seasons of preparation.
- Recognition of the mate God has approved for you. Think twice before marrying (involving yourself with) someone if they don't have a passion for pleasure, willingness to listen, desire to protect.

So as I look back on my notes I see that my good health is awaiting my recognition of it. My writing discipline is awaiting my recognition of it.
I am thankful for having my own place that I can relax in. I am thankful for all the resources I have at my fingertips. I am thankful for the friends that show me on a regular basis that my presence in their lives means something to them. I acknowledge a whole whack of other things I have to be grateful for.
I choose to listen to my inner voice that warns me against certain men that have entered my life and that asks me to be kinder to some of the others. My inner voice tells me to turn off the television and write instead. Pick up a certain book, meditate, chant, sleep it off, call in late.
I'm not sure who's tears affect me but I know who's success obsesses me... JK Rowling, Jennifer Lopez (her ability to conquer what she sets her sights on except maybe Love), Rick Mercer (Canadian comic, writer, producer who gets to travel across Canada because of his work).

In a nutshell, the whole experience got me to reframe my thoughts. Look at the positives that are always there and get me far enough out of my funk to get my ass up and face the day.

EY

02 October 2006

Because I walk

Monday 7:08pm 2Oct06

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1782314,00.html

Walk this way ...

It is one of the easiest and least stressful forms of exercise you can do. But is walking really enough to get you fit? Only if you do it right, says Peta Bee

Thursday May 25, 2006
The Guardian

Perhaps we are all getting gym-weary, tired of the complexities of Body Pump and Gyrotonics, because it seems that that most basic and natural of activities - walking - is enjoying a resurgence in popularity among those on a quest to get fit. Personal trainers can be spotted power-walking people around London's parks, fitness gurus are churning out books on the subject and even the medical profession gives its renewed backing to a daily walk. This month sees the launch of the National Step-O-Meter programme, a joint initiative by the British Heart Foundation and the Countryside Agency to get us all out walking. Through their GP, practice nurse or health visitor, all NHS patients who sign up to the scheme can borrow a pedometer free of charge.

There is little doubt that, for the previously sedentary, walking is a good idea. In her new book, The GI Walking Diet, the fitness expert Joanna Hall lists the health benefits of walking as everything from reducing the risk of gallstones and strokes to alleviating sleep problems and, of course, helping you to lose weight. Indeed, in recent months, leisurely walking (at 2 miles per hour) was found by researchers at the University of Colorado to be the best formula to help obese people shed pounds and, in a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, to prevent peripheral artery disease (which impairs blood flow in the legs and causes leg pain in one-fifth of elderly people). Last week, experts even suggested that walking ability was the most accurate predictor of illness and death in elderly people.
But beyond its body maintenance and disease-fighting effects, will clocking up the requisite daily steps take you to the next step, enabling you to lose weight and get super-fit? Or is it just a bit of a cop-out? Not if you do it properly, according to Hall: "Although taking 10,000 steps a day will improve your health, it may not have a significant effect on your weight loss or fitness unless it is performed in the right way." By that she means incorporating 10-minute bursts of fast walking into your daily plan. To lose weight requires even more effort - you would probably need to tot up at least 16,000 steps a day of walking before the pounds start dropping off, Hall says.

Adding hills or challenging terrain will speed up calorie burning. Walking on softer surfaces, such as mud, sand or grass, automatically means you use more energy than you would walking on concrete or Tarmac; every time your foot hits the ground it creates a small depression so that the leg muscles must work harder to push upwards and forwards for the next step. Walking on cobblestones, or on as rocky ground as you can find, may have even more profound benefits. Last year, physiologists at the Oregon Research Institute found cobblestone-walking, an activity rooted in traditional Chinese medicine, leads to significant reductions in blood pressure and improvements in balance. It is thought that the uneven surfaces may stimulate acupressure points on the soles of the feet, thereby regulating blood pressure. Because it is challenging, it will also burn more calories.

For even faster weight loss results, though, you could always try Nordic walking (or urban trekking as it is known in the US), an activity that despite looking naff (the idea is to hike through the urban jungle with two ski poles), does have proven benefits. Professor John Pocari, an exercise physiologist at the University of Wisconsin, says using walking poles forces people to pick up their pace and work harder without realising it.

"Just the fact that you are using your arms through a greater range of motion than normal means you are increasing calorie expenditure," Pocari says. On average, a person who walks three miles in a workout will burn 100 calories per mile - add poles and they can burn an additional 20%, says Pocari. Participants in his studies were also found to increase their upper-body strength by 40% and, compared with running, he estimates walking with the poles or without reduces impact on vulnerable hips, ankles and knees by 26%.

There is growing evidence that by striding out more often you will improve your mental health too. At the University of Illinois, researchers compared the effects of a walking programme with a toning and stretching regimen in elderly subjects and found that walkers performed far better in tests of mental agility. Professor Arthur Kraemer, who led the study, said walking, like other forms of aerobic exercise, increases oxygen supplies and blood flow to the brain, helping it to stay more alert and work more efficiently. Even if a 20-minute power walk at lunchtime is all you manage, it could be comparable to a course of psychotherapy after six weeks, found psychologists at the University of Illinois.

Some even claim that walking is on a parallel with yoga in its ability to unite body and mind. Rebecca Gorrell, director of movement therapy at Canyon Ranch spa, the celebrity bolthole in Arizona, believes taking a power-walk is akin to meditation. She encourages those weary of publicity and life to walk away their worries on regular hikes in the surrounding countryside. "The idea is that you empty your mind of thoughts, to concentrate on the present, not what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow, when you walk," says Gorrell. "Don't think about how hard you are working, but shift your thoughts to your breathing. Inhale deeply through your nose and exhale through your mouth."

While it may reunite you with your inner self, the real beauty of walking is its simplicity and convenience. "Nobody is intimidated by the idea of it," says Lorna Malcolm, the Reebok master trainer. "Once you have got somebody out walking, you can start to push them to a new level by getting them to walk faster or further." And it is a habit that sticks. A survey by the Countryside Agency as part of its Walking for Health initiative found that half of those given a pedometer still used them two years later and 93% of subjects were walking greater distances as a result.

Morning Prayers 3

Monday 6:05pm 2Oct06

It's been a long long time since I posted a prayer. Since July actually! I keep meaning to and then I get sidetracked...

The Silent Prayer
From Tobias as channeled by Geoffrey Hoppe:

In my heart, I accept my perfect Being.
I accept that the joy that I have intended is already in my life.
I accept that love I have prayed for is already within me.
I accept that the peace I have asked for is already my reality.
I accept that the abundance I have sought already fills my life.

In my truth, I accept my perfect Being.
I take responsibility for my own creations,
And all things that are within my life.
I acknowledge the power of Spirit that is within me,
And know that all things are as they should be.

In my wisdom, I accept my perfect Being.
My lessons have been carefully chosen by my Self,
And now I walk through them in full experience.
My path takes me on a sacred journey with divine purpose.
My experiences become part of All That Is.

In my knowingness, I accept my perfect Being.
In this moment, I sit in my golden chair
And know that I Am an angel of light.
I look upon the golden tray - the gift of Spirit -
And know that all of my desires already have been fulfilled.

In love for my Self, I accept my perfect Being.
I cast no judgment or burdens upon my Self.
I accept that everything in my past was given in love.
I accept that everything in this moment comes from love.
I accept that everything in my future will result in greater love.

In my Being, I accept my perfection.
And so it is.

Found at Crimson Circle http://www.crimsoncouncil.com/silentprayer.htm

EY

Daily Practice for a Positive Attitude

Monday 5:54pm 2Oct06

I never watched Once and Again, the TV drama when it was on because I had the feeling that it was a tear jerker of a show and since I cry at the drop of a hat I didn't want to put myself through that. Somehow now that it's on the W network on Sunday mornings, I've been watching it. Of course I've spent many a Sunday morn balling my eyes out. I'm such a suck!

Yesterdays episode dealt with depression. The mother whose ex husband remarried has been depressed because her kids spend more time with the ex husband in their new blended family than they do with her. One of the scenes shows her at her psychiatrists office in session and he tells her to write up a daily list of:

3 things you are looking forward to
3 things you love
or
3 things you want.

I had to write that down and now I have to share it...

EY