Welcome

It is my passion to help others find health on all levels. As a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, and on staff as a supplement/health consultant in retail environments, I gained much knowledge about physical health. As an individual who has had to deal with my own health problems, as well as those of my wife, I have gained compassion for the difficulty one may have in finding the right kind of information and help navigating those problems. From a dedicated 40 year meditation practice I have gained wisdom and patience in helping others on their path to full wellness.

Over time, I hope to post enough content to guide and inspire those who are having small difficulties, the easy stuff. For the more “stubborn” obstacles to achieving your goals, please feel free to contact me privately here and let’s see what we can do together!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Elegant, Simple Full Body Exercise

This was posted on Dragon Door forums, one of my go-to spots for all things fitness. It is taken from the Russian Systema martial arts training system and seems quite gentle and scalable to your current fitness level and needs.  Of course you always need to be very mindful of your own limitations and not go beyond what is safe for you.

Systema basic solo work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB4Hm7i3xlA&feature=youtu.be

I think this is going to be part of my ongoing training for quite awhile!

Geoffrey Levens, L.Ac., Health Coach

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Keeping Healthy Eating Simple!

In the interest of making healthy eating as easy and simple and as possible, The T. Colin Campbell Foundation just posted the below as part of an email:

Rules for healthy eating are really very simple!  As Dr. Campbell says in The China Study:

“One of the most fortunate findings from the mountain of nutritional research I’ve encountered is that good food and good health is simple. The biology of the relationship of food and health is exceptionally complex, but the message is still simple. The recommendations coming from the published literature are so simple that I can state them in one sentence: eat a whole foods, plant-based diet, while minimizing the consumption of refined foods, added salt and added fats.”

And this link takes you to a more detailed but still simple chart you can follow

http://www.tcolincampbell.org/newsletter/may13.eatingguidelines.pdf

May you be healthy!

Geoffrey Levens, L.Ac., Health Coach

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Self Abuse by Comparison

Self Abuse by Comparison

Any and every human trait or characteristic you can think of is distributed in the population in some sort of bell shaped curve.  That means, that although a bit different from each other, most people cluster in the land of similar looks and skills and skill lacks that they inherent.  Inherited skill abilities can be increased by practice but everyone has their own level of “natural ability”.  And of course there are the purely physical characteristics that are just “what you have”.

The bell curve also shows that there are always a few people out on the edges (called the tails of the bell curve), with much more or much less of whatever is being considered.  Bigger and smaller noses, more or less ability to distinguish fine gradations in colors or musical notes…

I think that a large part of human misery comes from taking our own and others bell curve tail characteristics as being either “wrong” or “bad”, or somehow making either them or us somehow “more special” or “more deserving” than those in the middle.

See how many examples you can think of in your own life.  Look at both the ones you use to beat up yourself or someone else, and the ones that cause you to idolize someone else or to feed your own arrogance…

Geoffrey Levens, L.Ac., Health Coach

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

New fee structure for my services–Gift Economy

Recently I have been exposed to the writings of Charles Eisenstein.  Here is one example

2013: The Space Between Stories

I have been exposed to the idea of the gift economy in the past but somehow, this has been very inspiring lately.  You can read about it here, again from Mr Eisenstein.

Sacred Economics

In fact, I have been so inspired that I am moved to shift my entire way of doing business. Really, though I do need to pay rent and buy food (!) my main motivation for doing what I do is to share what I have learned over the years.  To that end I wish to make myself available to anyone at all who has the desire to benefit from that hard earned knowledge, regardless of their financial situation or ability to pay.  I put out a flyer locally where I live and post it here (with slight modification for wider distribution).  Pass it on!

KNOWLEGE – for your health

Over my 25+ years as an acupuncturist I have accumulated a large body of knowledge about what it takes to get and stay healthy.  For the past 3 years I have focused on coaching and teaching.  Below is a listing of general categories of things I know about.  If you have questions, issues or concerns I might be able to help with please contact me (see below).  I will gladly consult with you by email or over the telephone as needed to give you an infusion of what I know.  This is factual knowledge, nothing magic here, so the devil is in the details and the details are the fact that you must follow through and do things to make changes.  What that looks like, what you need to do will be for you to determine but hopefully I can give you tools, techniques, and direction, start you on your way…  Over the years my fee has varied depending on many factors.  Now, due to many and varied influences I am “giving it away.”  You cannot pay me for services.  100% no charge.  It is important to understand though that the reason I can help you is because someone in the past donated to make my services available to a then unknown person in the future who happens to be you!  So if you feel that you receive value from me, consider donating to help ensure that I can continue to be available to anyone and everyone.  The amount should be based on your own heart calculation of value received and your life situation i.e. what you can afford.  Please do pass on my contact information and the list below.

Overcome chronic or degenerative disease

 Prevent chronic or degenerative disease

 Overcome or prevent most non- communicable diseases

Overcome or prevent most of the diseases of aging

Spiritual development, Self-development, stress management

Find and activate your own inner motivation to make necessary lifestyle changes.

(Fear of future problems can get you started but will not keep you going for the long haul)

1) I have been an acupuncturist for over 25 years and a health coach for about 3 years.  I have also studied diet and nutrition fairly extensively over the past 5 or 6 years and done much personal experimentation with how/what I eat and how that affects my body.

2) Reading extensively in diet and nutrition research I have found it necessary to learn how to separate the good from the not so good from the downright irresponsible.  I am what would be called a secondary researcher, making somewhat of a hobby of reading the research of others and coming to my own conclusions as to what it all means.

3) I have been a devoted practitioner of meditation for over 45 years including a number of long retreats dedicated to very intensive practice.  I have made many mistakes, taken a lot of wrong turns down dead-ends, and worked my way back out to what seems to be a more or less steadily progressive path.

Contact me through this site–Here

Services, local goods or cash gratefully accepted, not expected.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Do you want to live forever? Well do ya?

Sorry, not possible and if you really think about it, probably not such a great idea anyway.  But you can live a long and healthy life, considerably longer than expected!!!  I admit I am pretty lazy about coming up with things to write and post.  But forget that for the moment. The links below will take you to some very interesting and convincing info as to how you can be supremely healthy, prevent most diseases, and even eliminate many existing chronic diseases and conditions.. Read on…

Why Do Vegetarians Live Longer?
by Kathy Freston

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/plant-based-diet_b_1981838.html

And here is the Dr. Greger video she references, well worth watching!

Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death

http://nutritionfacts.org/video/uprooting-the-leading-causes-of-death/

Geoffrey Levens, L.Ac., Health Coach

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Ancient Ayurvedic Proverb

When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use.
When diet is correct, medicine is of no need.

Geoffrey Levens, L.Ac., Health Coach

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Here’s an eye opener…

It really mostly comes down to “lifestyle” choices…

Geoffrey Levens, L.Ac., Health Coach

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

We knew this!  But nice to have some up to the minute confirmation…  Clink the link to read article in Canadian newspaper

High-salt diets linked to calcium loss

Doctors have long puzzled over the link between high-salt diets and increased incidence of problems like osteoporosis and kidney stones.

Now, Canadian researchers may have uncovered the reason.

Using animals and cells in a lab, researchers have discovered that a molecule in the body that controls the movement of sodium also appears to be responsible for the movement of calcium.

For your good health, best to ditch the salt shaker but especially, the processed, manufactured foods.  Almost all are high in salt, very high!  Shoot for under 1000 mg/day of sodium from all sources.  If you eat only real food, it is almost impossible to not get enough sodium so no worries there.  Your taste buds will likely have a temper tantrum for a few days to a couple weeks.  But once the adjust, you will find all sorts of subtle flavors you had forgotten existed (if you have even ever experienced them).

Fringe benefit, salt is an appetite stimulant and adding it tends to make people overeat.

Geoffrey Levens, L.Ac., Health Coach

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Cool Free Offer – Trial Dr. Fuhrman audio book – “Eat To Live”

On Amazon from Audible.com  30 day free trial of NY Times best seller, “Eat To Live” by Dr. Joel Fuhrman.  Great  way to check it out!

Free trial audio version of “Eat to Live”

Go for it!!!

Geoffrey Levens, L.Ac., Health Coach

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Don’t just sit there, do nothing!

‎”You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day – unless you are too busy; then you should sit for an hour.”

~Old Zen adage

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments