Mexico

Wow, what a great experience I had this weekend in Puerto Penasco, Mexico. My wife Jeni and I went to Mexico with a group of doctors to provide inmates in the Puerto Penasco prison with much needed health care. Even though I had been to the city of Puerto Penasco before, I had never been in this capacity, so I had no idea what to expect. The experience was invaluable and I came away with several impressions. It is important to note that prisons in Mexico are very different than prisons in the US. In Mexico, people are presumed guilty until proven innocent, unless you are able to pay your way out of prison. Given this, I knew many of the people I was going to be treating would be innocent people who simply did not have the money to get out of prison. I was also surprised to learn that if a mother is in prison, it is not uncommon for her to have her children in the prison with her. I could not imagine the challenge of trying to raise children in prison.

As you can imagine, it was hard at first to maintain a healing intention as we entered the prison. We were all checked into the prison by a guard with a machine gun strapped over his shoulder. We were then escorted into the prison, again by armed guards. I kept myself centered by being present to my breath and keeping my focus on my heart center. I felt that because I would only get one opportunity to adjust each inmate, I needed to be completely present to get the most out of each adjustment. Once inside the infirmary, the guards began letting inmates in to receive care. I was working in a very small room but I was able to fit two tables next to each other so that I could see more people in the amount of time we had. Each inmate first got adjusted before proceeding to see a general practitioner for more specific health concerns. I was surprised to see the amount of tension that many of the inmates held in their body relative to their age. People in their twenties and thirties had as much tension in their body as I would normally observe in someone in their forties and fifties at my office in Tucson. This gave me an indication as to how stressful living conditions are not only in the prison, but in a third world country. Many of there daily concerns revolve around their very own survival, which is not something most of us in the US experience on a daily basis.

What truly touched me about this experience though, was the level of respect and gratitude that each of the prisoners showed everybody in our group. I found this deeply inspiring. If someone living in a prison in Mexico, whether they are guilty or not, and in some cases raising a family there, could be grateful for the ten minute adjustment that they received, I could certainly find more in my own life to be grateful for.

I am grateful for the opportunity to touch the lives of these people if even for a very brief moment in time. I know the power of an adjustment and I believe that one adjustment could change the direction of one or more of their lives. I have seen it happen. I am also grateful for the opportunity to adjust the children in the prison. We tend to live very privileged lives in the US compared to other countries and we often take it for granted. When I see children whose only experience of life thus far is that of the inside of a prison, I realize how grateful I am that my children have a home and are surrounded by people who love and nurture them.

After spending Saturday in the prison, Jeni and I spent Sunday morning on the beach before returning to Tucson. It was so serene early in the morning watching the waves crash upon the shore. It was a moment of cleansing. Spending time in nature can be very healing. Our lives are very stressful and our nervous system is never given the opportunity to fully recover. Because of this, physiologically, we live in a state of survival, our nervous system in always on alert and often overwhelmed. When we spend time in nature, whether that be hiking in the desert or walking on the beach, our nervous system becomes more balanced, shifting from this state of survival and into a state of healing and growth. I forget the power of this because I, like many others, do not fully take advantage of the beauty in the environment surrounding us. I am grateful for moments such as the one I spent on the beach for the healing that occurs and for the simple reminder to be more mindful of the beauty we have been given in this world.

Hello and Welcome

I would like to begin by saying how excited I am to be participating in this blog, “Finding Flow.” I hope that it provides everybody who participates with an opportunity for growth and leads us all down a path towards greater health, harmony, and vitality! I am equally excited about the launching of our new website, which provides a wealth of information that I hope everybody takes advantage of and benefits from.

I believe it is important at this point to introduce the concept of Flow. Flow is best described as a state of being. It is characterized as a state of increased awareness and connection to one’s self, to other people, and to the environment around us. It is a state that everybody has experienced at some point in his or her life. For an athlete, flow is often referred to as "being in the zone." But beyond that, it is a state that is experienced by artists absorbed by their work, musicians taken by their music, surgeons deeply focused on the task at hand, and computer programmers effortlessly creating new code. Effortless, absorbed, focused, oneness, wholeness, centered, grace, and many more, are all words that help describe this way of being. It has been described as the “optimal experience.”

So what is the significance of this state? Research has shown that this state not only creates greater mental and emotional wellbeing in the people who experience it, but our body responds physically as well. During times of Flow, one’s immune system increases reducing the risk of illness and disease such as colds, flu, infection, and even cancer. Further studies have shown direct correlation between the number of Flow experiences one has and how one rates his or her overall happiness and quality of life.

In his book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience," Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, describes Flow as a state that is reached when we are faced with a challenging situation and our skill set in the area being challenged is equally high or higher. This creates a moment in time when a person must be completely focused on the challenge before them. And it is during moments such as these that Csikszentmihalyi believes one is most likely to experience a state of Flow.

I, however, believe that this state can be achieved without having to be challenged to such a degree. The challenge makes it more likely because it forces us to be fully present to the moment. When we are fully present, our mind is sharply focused and it is not distracted by the world around us, making us more likely to experience Flow. I believe these experiences have more to do with alignment than challenge. When we are in complete alignment, our body, mind, heart, and soul vibrate at a similar frequency. And there comes a moment in time when these frequencies entrain to each other such that they are all resonating at the same frequency. At this point, we can say that we are experiencing wholeness because every aspect of our being is perfectly tuned with each other. This is when we experience Flow.

The key to aligning ourselves, and thus the key to experiencing Flow, lies within the breath and within the heart. It is in the heart that our purpose in life lies and it is the breath that provides a link between our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies. When we align the breath with the beating of our heart, the heart begins to emit a very strong, consistent frequency, to which the rest of our being aligns. In this way, we can use the breath to access the heart bringing more love, harmony, purpose, and Flow, into our lives!