“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.”
- George Bernard Shaw
 
FAKE IT TILL YOU
MAKE IT!
Dr. Jack Barnathan
nystrength.com
nystrength@mac.com
 
I once listened to a famous motivational speaker share his interpretation of "concepting" the things you most want in the world.  This guru of great inspiration told his audience that they didn't wish hard enough for the things they wanted.  If only we could vividly picture in our minds EXACTLY what we want, then it would "appear!"

Magic.  Like the movies.
 
Not just "I want more money" - but an exact figure and by what date we wanted it.  Not just a new car but the model, year, leather trim and wheel rim.  He told us we couldn't just say "I want the girl / guy of my dreams to walk into my life" - but that we had to visualize exactly who our "soul mate" would be.  What color hair, eyes, their smile, their job, how much they earned (this guru had a funny way of bringing money into every aspect of his "spiritual" teachings...).
 
In short this Wizard of Wishing told us that our problem was that we didn't wish clearly enough for what we wanted to fall out of the sky into our laps.
 
As I sat there and thought about his approach I kept thinking "if the perfect person showed up for most of the people in this lecture - they wouldn't recognize the person in that room who THEIR soul mate was suppose to be!!  It's not that the perfect person / job, etc hasn't shown up. 

We haven't shown up for them to recognize!!!
 
It's not the "other magical person" that we should be visualizing - but instead we should be clearly seeing who WE HAD TO BECOME in order to draw that perfect person, job, whatever into our lives.
 
The perfect person is out there.  It's just that WE haven't shown up so they can recognize us as their "perfect partner".
 
We've got to wish a better person in the mirror, and then take the step to make it real.
 
"Fake it till you make it" is a phrase used in 12 step programs, which I really admire.  I learned about it when I was the director of a community Crisis / Drug Prevention Hotline (before becoming a doctor).  It's not about being full of fluff and just tricking other people into buying your snake oil.  That violates all the laws (and yes there are laws in the universe just like gravity and it will come back to kick you hard if you do).  What it is encouraging you to do is take the first, tentative steps toward your goal even though you know you still have a lot of learning to do.  Have an open mind and heart while walking boldly FORWARD.  And that's the key - walking forward.
 
You can sit and contemplate forever, but if you don't go to the gym or take that walk you'll never experience the benefits of vibrant strength & fitness.  It all starts with that first step...
 
Your goal doesn't just show up and wink at you announcing, "I'm here!!!"  You have to take the steps (and sometimes it requires us to look inside at what we need to improve.  To change.  Sometimes, to move beyond the childish pursuits that could be holding us in a bad place.
 
Another way of saying it is to "act as if..."  In the Bible there are so many examples of individuals being told to have the faith that a sea will part - or that you could move a mountain from one place to another or make a meal out of a few fish and loaves.

Another story in the bible says you should have the faith “like a mustard seed”.  Many people miss the point.  In the story the emphasis wasn’t on the “size” of a mustard seed (they are very tiny, inferring you only need “little” faith) but the actual translation is “as a mustard seed”.  Mustard seeds are very tough little seeds, which can survive drought and poor soil, but still take root and grow.  How difficult is it for us to “take root and grow”?
 
Another way of describing it is FAITH.  Faith in your dreams.  Faith in you.

Having enough faith…to have faith!
 
But remember it must be a faith that is on it's feet and moving.  Growing in the world.  Exploring.  Sometimes making mistakes (we all do) and having to begin again or differently.  But we're moving.  Growing.  Acting as if and "faking it till we're making it".
 
And then, without you even thinking about it.  That thing / person you were dreaming about, appears. 

In three seconds your life can change and you’ll never see anyone or anything the same again.
 
But remember, it was you who had to "show up" first.

I am Strength
 
Dr. Jack Barnathan

There are 200 golf courses in South Korea.

There are over 17,000 golf courses in the United States.

Despite the difficulty of playing a full game of golf in this tiny country, South Korean golfers won almost one-third of the events last year on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour!  How is this possible?

Lets address this amazing feat by repeating an old story.  A young tourist walking down 57th street in New York City was obviously lost.  He steps up to the first elder that appears to be a native New Yorker and asks, “how do you get to Carnegie Hall?”

“Practice” came the reply from the older gentlemen.  “Practice, practice, practice!”

It is because they do not have enough golf courses in Korea that people who want to play the game are force to use driving ranges and putting greens – over and over and over again.  Practice, practice, practice – until their foundation skills in the game are superior to others.

It also makes us wonder how much energy do we apply in describing, visualizing and practicing endlessly that which we truly should be, as opposed to what we’re not?  How much of our day do we focus on what we don’t like and think about it over and over?

If you think all day “I’m overweight and I have to lose 10 pounds” you’ll get what you’re programming over and over again.  You’ll continue to be overweight.  And with that constant negativity we inevitably send ourselves into a bleak downward spiral.
 
The philosopher said “you are what you think about all day long” and today we have neuroscience to back that up.  Just this year Dr. Douglas Fields of the National Institutes of Health published a groundbreaking paper in the journal Neuron proving this once again.  His study demonstrates how repeated action wraps myelin around a nerve like insulation around an electric wire over and over with each repeated act.  Thus making the nerve’s conduction of its message more effective.  Practice, practice, practice and your myelin will get you to Carnegie Hall – center stage.

“It’s hard to fail, but it’s far worse never to have tried to succeed.”  Theodore Roosevelt

Just how long do we avoid the things we truly love because of fear?  Fear of failure or fear of not being good enough to deserve that which we imagine ourselves to be.

Can we say with total confidence, “I am strength”?   Can we proclaim that which will make our work not only successful, but a joy?

I attended a lecture by the famed author and minister Marianne Williamson.  During her talk she stated emphatically that once you go after that which you truly love with all your heart, soul and might, then and only then everything changes.  In her words:  “Go for God, and all the other garbage just falls away. “

But first we have to understand that:

Strength is nothing if it doesn’t set you Free.

If strength is of the ego it will keep you in chains.  It will be all about arrogance instead of eloquence.  Strength must be more than just your looks.  Or how others react to you and your “outside”.  How many of us have the courage to let our strength be developed for a purpose greater than ourselves.  More than the ego.

Muscles mean nothing if not used to uplift others.

You have a purpose on this planet whether you want to accept it now or realize it when you’ve used up your life (your opportunity) and it’s too late. 

The Fitness & Sports world, along with its associated multi-billion dollar industries are focused on “nutrition” more any single item.  It’s where they make all their money.  Magic, shiny pills to take away all the bad, burn fat, help you sleep, make you big and strong, run faster, jump higher and help build healthy bodies in 12 ways…

Yet consider the following fact:

By the end of this day 37,000 people, mainly children, will die of hunger
or the effects of malnutrition.

Gives a new meaning to the word “nutrition”, doesn’t it. 

What if we focused on using a part of our strength to feed the hungry?  To lift up others in need.  Imagine if the world had an image of Personal Trainers, Chiropractors, Physicians and Athletes as the people who led the way in using food to heal, rather than sooth the ego or fill our wallets.  Just imagine…

No one screams louder on their deathbed than those who are suddenly face to face with eternity and have come to the final realization of all the good they could have shared with their strength – but it’s now too late.  They focused instead upon their ego.  Or, held back because of their fears.  They kept themselves in prison and now have to experience the horror of regret. 

There is no benefit to anyone if you keep your gifts hidden and cover your light under a bushel.  Why are you hiding your abilities?  So others won’t feel threatened?  This helps no one.
 
We need to live without regret because we’re too busy building our physical, mental and spiritual strengths – and most important, sharing them enthusiastically with those we serve.

But, I am afraid…

If we let fear creep into our mind and form an endless loop, reinforcing with every repetition, then we are lost.  I am afraid.  I am weak…I am not smart enough… I am less than. 

And too often these ideas of failure were not our own!  It might have been placed there by a teacher, parent or peers who meant well, but permitted too many of THEIR fears to be forced upon you.

The good news is you need not carry them any longer.  You can thank those who may have tried to help but didn’t totally succeed (notice the positive way in which I worded the above?  There’s a critical reason for that).  We can now move on and reprogram ourselves to a new way of thinking.

You have two choices only.  Negativity or Possibility?  Choose wisely with every word you speak.  Yes, every word you speak.

Only 20 years ago scientists were quite firm in their certainty that the brain was “hard wired”.  This means that you’re born the way you are born and your brain is what it is going to be from birth.  No real possibility of change.  One part of the grey matter is for the bicep and another area is for wiggling your toes.  No variations were considered possible.

Not until 1984 when Neuroscientists at the Silver Springs laboratory realized that one of the apes they were studying had managed to overcome a paralyzed arm by “re-wiring” his brain.  Areas that were not in any way “wired” from birth for these roles helped our simian athlete regain ability. 

In short, the brain sensed the loss, and found a way to adapt.

To radically change.  The brain boldly proclaimed it was more than a prisoner of its birth or injury.  It still had strength to apply creatively across the cortex.  It wasn’t satisfied with the label “I am disabled” and instead revealed it’s true potential.  The brain made the emphatic statement:

I AM STRENGTH

We have the potential to become whatever we wire our mind to be.  There is a difference between the “mind” and the “brain”.  And now that scientists are finally accepting (what Tibetan Buddhist Monks have realized for 1000 years) that your mind – your conscious thoughts when programmed into the Brain, can create new signals.  New thoughts and even new abilities.

This signal is not wishful thinking.  Or wishing, at all.  It comes through focused repetition.  The mind needs to know first that YOU know who you are.  What you are and where you want to go.  And the way to clearly communicate this to your mind is through focused repetition. 

And if you’re going to send a message to the brain over and over it helps if it is something that you’re thinking about all day because it is important.  Something your passionate about.  Something bigger than you.  It is a purpose or reason for being.  It is your mission. 

Repetition alone is just wishful thinking unless it’s backed by fierce emotion.  You have to love this thing you are thirsting for.  You have to place desire behind it like a drowning man craves air.

Can you say with total confidence and certainty who you are?  What you are? 
The great “I am”.

“And God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.  Here is what you must say to the people.  Tell them, ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.”
Exodus 3:14

The Lord in speaking these words knew exactly who he was, and tried to instill in a frightened, stuttering Moses the same “I AM” certainty so he could lead his people from bondage to liberty.  Isn’t that what every Fitness Trainer and Doctor lives to do?  To liberate.  To teach that Fitness = Freedom.

Meditation is one powerful form of focused repetition.  Teaching the brain through your conscious mind  (get the difference?) that new, power-filled thoughts can become new actions and reactions.  Strength instead of Fear.  Love instead of Hate.  Growth (of both the Spirit and the Soleus…) instead of decline.

In Tibet there are Monks know as “Lungum Runners” who meditate while running miles and miles through the Himalayas during snow storms, with no apparent stress.  They’re even energized by the experience!  We are equally amazed when a monk demonstrates, through meditation, that he can slow his heart rate down from a normal of 72 beats per minute to a slow, steady 40 beats per minute!

And yet when earlier today a member of our team, multi-sport champion Nicki Giguere, texted me a picture of herself on top of a mountain in Vermont that she just ran up, in snow shoes, during blizzard conditions, she had a big smile on her face and proclaimed in the message that it was the best way to spend a Sunday! 

When I ask Nicki what her resting pulse is she’ll smile and say it is also 40 beats per minute, just like the monks.  The only difference is with Nicki her pulse is 40 beats per minute every day!

The monk did it through focused, repeated input to the brain from his mind through meditation.  Nicki did it through focused, repeated input to the brain from her mind, but used her MUSCLES as the messenger through the consistent, intelligent, repeated input of training.  

Muscle Mastery can be a form of Moving Meditation. 
The Squat Rack can be your alter of strength.

Go to the gym – again and again.  Meet yourself on the mat at the Dojo.  Talk to your soul while running along the beach.  Read and study the muscles by choosing a new one every week and make it your own.   Over and over and over again.  That’s the key.

When the impatient student asked Master Tessu why he had to practice holding the sword 10,000 times before being permitted to move to the next step, the greatest sword master of all time replied

“More and more teachings exist right here.  The sword is unfathomable.”

And so are the squat rack, the open road, and the ocean swim. 

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.  To keep our faces
toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate
is strength undefeatable.”
Helen Keller

Most of the world’s great women’s tennis champions all come from the same small school in Russia just outside Moscow.  There is only one indoor court with a net that needs replacing and heat that is questionable at best.  But ask the 77-year-old Tennis Coach of all these women, Larisa Preobrazhenskaya how long she makes beginners work at the basics, including repetitive imaginary games before they would ever play against another student, she’ll tell you firmly at LEAST three years!  Their brains must be trained fully before taking the next step into the complexity of competition, or it will be in her words, a “disaster”. 

“Imitatsiya – imitatsiya” over and over again.  Once warmed up she has her students play imitatsiya - imaginary games, focusing their form and reinforcing in their developing neurons in the technique that will take them to the top.  Wrapping layer upon layer of myelin over those nerves until they fire with the precision of a champion.  And champions have come from this school for years.

Most “Tennis Academies” in our country would consider this financial suicide.  In America we want to be a black belt in 8 months and go to Wimbledon in 12.  Children (and adults who can’t go 5 minutes without checking their e-mail) are too distracted to find the inner way to perfection.  They dabble in distraction and master nothing. 

I recently watched a tennis match where one of Preobrazhenskaya’s graduates, now a top ten female tennis champion, warmed up by herself for a few minutes playing that same imaginary game she was taught by her teacher long ago. Imitatsiya.  Repetition, repetition, repetition…

That’s the secret.  It’s the way to firmly establish who you are.  The “I AM” factor.  If you start on a path of Mastery (any path) the dedication combined with a deep, burning desire will lead you to your goal.  There will be twists and turns along the path, but be certain that if you are true, then the people, resources, jobs, clients, and friends you need will all appear.  Serendipity will be pushing you like angels from behind.

“What you can do, or dream you can, begin it: Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.  Begin it now.”
Goethe

See, feel, taste, read about and talk endlessly about the thing that you adore, and you shall make it real.  You will make it yours.  Just wishing isn’t the secret.  It’s in letting this “magnificent obsession” of yours take you over that makes all the difference.  Some of my students tease me by saying that I always see muscles wherever I go. 

They’re right.  And there is always something new for me to learn.

You can change your entire life by altering your thoughts and actions.  Act with passion and you’ll get what you program.  Over and over.

“Inward calm cannot be maintained unless physical strength is constantly and intelligently replenished.”   
The Buddha

Decide to make a statement as to who you would be.  Whether athlete, student or just better person.  And be THAT, over and over again.

When you touch the mountaintop of your dreams you will naturally choose to share it with others.  And here you’ll be rewarded with an incredible joy.  A teacher of mine who studied with Buddhist monks said they called it “rapture”.  The intoxicating high that comes from doing what you know right down to your nerve cells is good and right and empowering. 

And then you can honestly proclaim:

I am strength.




Join us for a lecture on Inner Strength and beginning meditation with Question / Answer Session at Dr. Jack’s Studio on
Long Island, New York.

FEE: 
One Can of Food (or more)
which will be donated to a local Church
to feed the hungry

Talk on Inner Strength
Meditation
Discussion

Thursday, May 3rd
4:45 – 6:00
Seating limited to 15 people
to reserve your place
631-777-7800

Folic acid (vitamin B-9) supplementation may substantially improve
cognitive (mental) function for older adults, according to an Article
in the Lancet.

Cognitive function declines with age, especially regarding speed and
memory information processing.  Such changes in cognitive function have
been linked to risk of dementia in old age. Previous studies have
suggested that low folate and raised homocysteine concentrations in the
blood are important risk factors associated with poor cognitive
performance.

Leafy vegetables such as spinach and turnip greens, dried beans and
peas, fortified cereal products, sunflower seeds and certain other
fruits and vegetables are rich sources of folate, as is liver. Some
breakfast cereals (ready-to-eat and others) are fortified with 25% to
100% of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for folic acid.

In the Folic Acid and Carotid Intima-media Thickness (FACIT) trial,
Jane Durga (Wageningen University and Wageningen Centre for Food
Sciences, Netherlands) and colleagues randomly assigned 818
participants 800 micrograms daily oral folic acid supplementation or
placebo for 3 years. They found that cognitive functions such as memory
and information processing speed improved in adults given folic acid
compared with placebo.

The authors conclude: "We have shown that 3-year folic acid
supplementation improves performance on tests that measure information
processing speed and memory, domains that are known to decline with
age.  Trials similar to our own should be repeated in other populations
to provide greater insight into the clinical relevance of folic acid
supplementation, such as in populations with mild cognitive impairment
and dementia."

Squat for Peace.

Dr. Jack Barnathan

“It everyone squatted they would be so happy and fulfilled. 

There would be no terrorists.  No war.  Why do something evil when you’d be so…joyful.  You’re at the squat rack!  You’re celebrating your strength and growing ability!  And if you’re building your strength in order to do good works, you’ll be fulfilled.  Why would anyone choose to cause harm or hurt when they could squat instead?! 

The world should…Squat for peace!”

I was teaching an ISSA class when during a break the discussion turned to the mind set of success and the above just come out of my mouth.  To me this explains the endless question of who wins and loses and the meaning that has to go behind the muscle if success is to be true.  If there is to be any lasting achievement.

My proclamation of faith was first greeted with laughter, but then one by one my students offered an agreement that I had stated (without fully realizing it) a profound truth. 

Yes, squat for peace.  Squat with meaning behind the muscle.  Squat as if the whole world would be lifted closer to Heaven with each rep.  Squat as if it were both a solemn vow and celebration at the same moment.  Squat to be stronger and give meaning to that strength.

Perhaps that’s the first problem athletes have to realize when they are looking to achieve “peak performance”.  It starts with the “why” of your workout.  Why are you trying to become swifter?  Stronger?  Better

And most important - what are you going to do with that strength once you’ve developed it?  Are you going to look at your reflection in every shiny surface you pass?  Or will you understand another truth I’ve tried to share for years.  That strength means NOTHING unless you use it to lift up others.  Muscle means NOTHING unless it is shared.

Squat for strength indeed – yours and others.  Squat for Peace.

An old training partner of mine was one of the strongest individuals I ever met, with one major flaw.  Just as he was about to go for his personal best – a weight to be lifted that he never could approach before but had worked his way up to, he would just blow it all with one statement. 

He’d walk up to the squat rack and say “and now lets put our ANGER into it”. 

And he’d fail.  Every time.  Despite doing everything else right, he missed the most important point.  Strength doesn’t come when it is forced and is never at it’s best when invited to the squat rack with anger.  Passion yes – but negativity, never.  There’s no “peace” in that.

The meaning behind the muscle is everything.

In my Muscle Mastery workshops http://www.centerforstrength.com/id73.html I discuss this meaning over and over while teaching my students a deeper understanding of the science of strength and achievement.  One story sums it all up.

I was watching my friend Dara Torres swimming with the US Olympic team during a practice before the games.  The way she would cut through the water made me believe that she had uncovered the secret of Moses at the Red Sea.  It just appeared to part before her.  She was slicing through the pool with each stroke of her arms and legs with no apparent difficulty. 

Afterward I asked her if she mentally looked at the water as something she had to “push” through (like squatting with anger) and she immediately shook her head “no”.  I then asked if she had “visualized” the water getting out of her way – pushing it apart.  Again, “no”.  Finally she stopped me and said “JB – it’s not something you have to force.  When you are swimming right…the water helps you.  It pushes me from behind with each stroke”.

Consider that.  An attitude that you can win if you do your job right and not try to force it.  “Live right and angels will gently push you from behind” as the holy books proclaim.  Maybe it’s the same when you “swim right”.  Or “squat right”.  No anger or negativity, but rather a belief in your strength supporting you.  Lifting you up and pushing you from behind.

The 9 Olympic medals (5 Gold) and dozen or so U.S., Olympic and world records that Dara has shattered seem to back her up her belief.  And I’m not going to dispute it. 

And Dara is now embarking on yet another comeback for the 2008 Olympics when she will be 41.

She started this comeback while pregnant with her daughter.  31/2 months after Tessa was born Dara competed in a major competition, and set yet another world record.  This at the age of 39!  Most swimmers peak in their mid twenties!

Swimming isn’t squatting but I’ve squatted with Dara and she fully understands what I’m speaking of.  Her training has meaning.  She is making a comeback to show Mom’s that you can have a family and still achieve your other goals.

The angels are certainly pushing her from behind.  She “squats for peace”.

On New Years Eve 1999 everyone was looking for a special way to welcome the new Millennium.  I was invited by a client to have dinner at a restaurant in Times Square to watch the ball drop.  But I had another idea.

I called my training partners and asked what they thought about us being the first people to Squat in the New Millennium!  At midnight when everyone else was counting down “10, 9, 8, 7, 6…” in Times Square or watching the ball drop at home, I was in my basement squatting and counting reps “1, 2, 3, 4...” into the new Millennium.  Yes, I do love to squat that much.

Lets make this New Year one in which whatever sport or training technique we choose, we do it with heart.  With meaning.  If one of your training partners misses a workout that day the rest of you should decide one rep will be “dedicated” to your missing comrade so at least their squatting with you in spirit.  If you add that kind of value to your “reps” each will be special – and not to be easily missed!

And yes, if you choose you can lunge for peace.  Bench press for peace.  Swim, bike, play ball and even run for peace.  For me it’s the squat rack.  The important thing is for each of us to find strength in a place that makes your heart sing. And it’s vital that you do it for something more than your ego.  Do it to build a strength that will uplift others and bring the world closer to the angels (as a religious leader once described to me his definition of prayer).  Make your squats a “living prayer” or affirmation of strength and joy.

And then life will gently start to “push you from behind”.  Just do your work with love. 

And don’t be surprised when those angels give you a little push.

Copyright 2006 Dr. Jack Barnathan – All Rights Reserved