The Gears of Life – Our Journey Around the Sun

A universal truth cannot be easily disputed, as everyone can agree on some level with the facts in question. Other universal truths are that water in its liquid state is wet, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and that humans are mortals and eventually die in our physical form. The truth is that we come into this world on the physical level with nothing, and we leave with nothing. The earth’s yearly journey around the sun is another such universal truth.

It is easy to see how the time of the day affects us. If you pay attention to it you will see the pattern. During a 24-hour period, our body, energy and emotions change. Knowing this pattern makes daily life much easier. This pattern is known as the Horary Cycle or Circadian Rhythm.

Some of these relationships might seem somewhat obvious as children have a sprouting or growing personality learning and showing their identity and ego from 0-8 years of age.

A person from 8-33 is seen as flowering or showing their creativity, intelligence, attractiveness and excessive behavior.

The 33-58 is the fruition years where one starts to blossom as an adult using their knowledge and experience to further their career, family and material assets.

58-83 brings the harvest of what was nurtured or squandered from the previous years becomes more apparent. Health issues arrive if prior neglect is not addressed.

The last season of transformation from 83-108 is a reflection on what was accomplished mentally, physically and spiritually throughout the prior phases. The realization of self and that the material possessions are only temporary up until this point.

These truths will still be debated given an audience and someone willing to debate these facts. Often times people will make claims to their “truth” or someone else’s “truth,” where my understanding is that their can only be one truth for a particular topic, but maybe an unlimited number of ways someone can experience the truth, as in their unique reality. We all experience the climatic seasons somewhat differently, but nature without a doubt makes the distinction between summer and winter, daytime and nighttime, everything is impermanent and changing. Either we choose to live in harmony with the patterns of nature, or we become subject to the consequences of attempting to live in opposition to nature.

I write often about topics that affect our health and well-being. Additionally, I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

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Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

Energy Vampire or Energy Sun -Which Are You?

We have probably all meet people who when walking into a room, drain the energy of all in their company. Or conversely, the person who comes in and brings up everyone energy and puts a smile on everyone’s’ face. Yin and yang in all things!

Perform a bit of self-reflection. When you walk into a room, do you bring in your positive energy and personality that can lift others up?

Or do you do the exact opposite by bringing everyone down with your negativity and pessimism?

None of us are perfect, but should be doing our best to bring more optimism, compassion and empathy into the world? So many people claim to want to change and/or save the world, when they can’t even change themselves for the better. Make your own bed. Check your own backyard. Clean your own house, before you pontificate about others should or shouldn’t do. This is how we can make the world a better place. Start in your own home, looking in your own mirror.

Be well, become healthy, be wise.

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

Luxury Taxing of Medical Procedures

Tax US citizens for medical procedures due to relative lifestyle choices? This type of reasoning could also be used then to penalize and tax people who eat fast or junk food by saying that they have an option to eat healthier or otherwise. Or perhaps we begin to tax parents for providing orthodontic services which are often not covered by insurance due to the cosmetic nature of the procedures. Where does this type of rationing end? I do not think it is the responsibility of the government to be the morality or vanity police, but support and create legislation that does not have the potential to divide people, due to their choosing procedures that may be considered to some and not others as essential or not to the individual.

There are many studies and reports of wasted tax income that goes to frivolous expenditures like those reported by Forbes such as taxpayers funded story time at laundromats ($248,200); sex education for prostitutes in Ethiopia ($2.1 million) and Ivy League, Inc. (the eight Ivy universities) received $9.8 billion in federal grants despite having a collective endowment of $140 billion, up $20 billion since 2016.

Forbes goes on to report that of the US governmental agencies receiving the highest amount of funding for 2017-2019 was the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) having received $1.5 trillion in grants – which was approximately seven of every ten dollars. Twenty-one other governmental agencies were awarded $1 billion or more in grants. Obviously, these are very big dollar numbers and not knowing exactly how the monies were spent can open a debate of if the funds were actually used wisely for the American people. So, where I don’t think, the government should move to impose a “cosmetic tax” I do think the government should be held more accountable for the vast amounts of money that is possibly being spent on frivolous projects that do not help the American people as whole.

There are many good points on many sides of this issue. As long there is open dialogue by whomever ultimately make these decisions to pass legislation, there is some hope for fair and reasonable measures to be installed. I am all in for helping those who need assistance and cannot work or pay for their basic needs; not so much for those who choose to not work for their needs and wants. Our government has the resources to provide for those in need, but I feel the root problem is in the poor administration and/or management of the already existing resources.

With that being said, there are many types of cosmetic or elective procedures/surgeries that are not necessarily covered by insurance companies. Some of these procedures could be deemed as a positive factor whether physically or mentally to the patient. Or perhaps detrimental to the patient in not just physical appearance but in accompanying mental issues, such as depression, low self-esteem, bullying and probably others. Who gets to decide if these are necessary procedures or luxury items to be taxed? I see the following cosmetic examples as being questionable:

Craniofacial Surgery – examples would be birth defects, cleft palates, auricular issues, etc.
Reconstructive Surgery After Disease or Injury – examples like animal bites, injury from trauma, scarring from disease
Correction of a Deviated Septum – example such as sinus issues, breathing problems, injury or trauma, snoring which affects sleep quality
Breast Reduction – can cause back, neck and shoulder issues
Breast Reconstruction – cancers, but also traumatic injury, abuse
Eyelid Procedures – issues can affect sight, ability to drive, work, etc.

There is the discussion if straight teeth are considered cosmetic or otherwise? Also, wisdom teeth removal. Both of these issues can be lived with, but there is much information that the straightness of the teeth can affect eating habits resulting in better or worth chewing of certain foods, which can lead someone to choose some foods that are easier to chew but less nutritional over ones that are healthier but require more mastication. A healthy smile also improves self-esteem which lowers stress and relative stress hormones.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279590/

https://www.northtexasplasticsurgery.com/blog/6-examples-of-when-plastic-surgery-is-medically-necessary

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/09/30/wheres-the-pork-us-taxpayers-funded-a-lot-of-wasteful-spending-2017-2019/?sh=79aae41d3dc0

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https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

Performance Enhancing Drug Usage

I have found that when athletes use PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) there is the possibility of side-effects from using such drugs. Although some of these drugs or supplements are deemed as safe for human consumption by the FDA, there are still concerns of overuse, abuse, allergic reactions, and other issues that might affect one individual differently than another. The user needs to accept the responsibility to read product labels and conduct their own research to best determine what ingredients are used and if they are safe for the individual user and not the general public as a whole.

https://trinitonian.com/2018/04/25/athletics-dept-to-begin-testing-for-athlete-drug-use/

When examined as a societal issue, I think that it sends the wrong message that it is fine to bypass the hard work, time and effort that is often sacrificed in order to achieve a particular goal relative to better physical performance for whatever sport one is pursuing. With the competition that is inherent within most organized sports, PEDs are bound to cause issues of jealousy and envy as some athletes will develop animosity towards others that are seen as cheating or acquiring an “edge” over other competitors.

This discussion can again lead back into last week’s talk about people looking for and relying upon pharmaceuticals to cure all our illnesses and diseases. However, in this case it would be drugs to not only fix our health problems, but to maybe fix issues of low self-esteem, ego, and other psychological imbalances due to the highly competitive nature of organized sports.

I don’t really see much of a difference between illegal and legal PEDs, when it appears as if many of the supplements that go unregulated as well as those approved by the FDA for prescription use only, are widely available to anyone looking to purchase and use these products at their own risk. Perhaps the whole industry and the FDA are in need of closer scrutiny as to conflicts of interest when it comes to regulating products that have become such a large health issue in sports on all levels.

References:

https://www.healthline.com/health/legal-steroids#alternatives

Edlin, G., & Golanty, E. (2019). Health & Wellness (13th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning

https://taylorhooton.org/how-easy-it-is-to-get-steroids/

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

Food Label Ambiguity

Labeling on foods can often be misleading, vague, or complicated for the uninformed. I feel that this is a way that food companies can be dishonest by perhaps changing the serving size to be half the portion, making it seem that the fat content is half as much. Food labeling can be like a shell game where if you don’t pay attention to the wording and amounts, it is easy to believe whatever the food companies wish one to believe in order to purchase their products.

It appears to me that the US government (FDA) that regulates the food companies, have more rights than the consumers buying their products. Unless one becomes well versed in the product labeling, which most people are not in my opinion, it is very easy to think that we are purchasing and ultimately consuming healthy food products where in reality we are not.

I am in favor of total transparency on food labeling, as to what the nutritional values are, what actual ingredients are included naturally and what is chemically added in the process of preparing for resale. Then let the consumer decide for themselves if they want to purchase a product that is loaded with whatever additives or preservatives. There is a reason why the shelf life for some processed foods is literally years. Why would I think otherwise that these same chemicals would not end up “preserving” something within my body that should not be preserved?

I have a relative who is a food chemist. Years back he shared with me that one of the most common food colorings, called carmine is a natural red dye also labeled as cochineal extract, E120 or natural red 4, that comes from the female cochineal bug. Even if crushed bugs are not toxic, I think consumers should be able to find this fact more easily than having to research every ingredient for alternative names.

I read food labels constantly when I shop. I choose to monitor how much sodium and other additives are in foods that I purchase and prepare. Anything frozen, processed, prepared in advance or in a can are often the worst for us as they are at least loaded with salt as a natural preservative and often other chemicals to add shelf life. I have dabbled in the organic food labels also. These can be misleading also as there are various classifications for what can be considered as organic. One really has to take the self-responsibility to pursue the due diligence if one wants to better manage what they consume.

References:

https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-science/carmine.htm

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means?page=1