All posts tagged cardio

The need for balance in ones spiritual training

There are two types of meditative training that are required in order to help one to gain a stronger more accurate connection with God/reality. One really needs a balance of the two. Using a breathing technique which enables the body to take in more air/oxygen than one would need in a normal state of consciousness for whatever activity one is doing creates a meditative state.
One can do a really high energy aerobic exercise with the focus on breathing more than required so that an intense meditative/spiritual state becomes part of the exercise. An aerobic exercise with an upper body emphasis works best, in which one breaths extra rapidly, and does neck/head movements that massage the neck enabling the brain to get extra blood flow so that one can push harder than one normally can do. My barbarian dumbbell swing exercise in which I swing the 20 lb dumbbell with two hands from between my legs to over and behind my head does a good job at that. I do bend my arms a little using my arms a lot to lift the dumbbell. I find one can put oneself into an extremely intense and difficult spiritual/physical doing this. I breath in and out 6 to 8 times with each swing and do this for 8 minutes very intensely.I move my head down when lifting the dumbbell (over head) and move my head down when bringing the dumbbell down, massaging my neck and bringing more blood to the brain! I also open and close my mouth intensely while breathing without closing on the teeth which helps to release tension in that area of the head and the head in general.I use to do it longer with less intensity, but as I got more fit, the intensity went up and the duration went down. Quieting the mind during a good portion of this exercise will help one to better increase its intensity while being careful to read your body so you do not do anything to hurt/injure yourself. The more intense you exercise the more careful one needs to be!! One can search for the right exercise for you that fits the same requirements as the dumbbell swing exercise does for me. Studies are showing that really intense cardiovascular exercise of more intensity and shorter duration can be very effective provided one is fit enough to do them. So one has to start with less intensity, more duration and a lighter dumbbell, and gradually increase the the intensity as you get more fit, while shortening the duration and finding the best dumbbell weight for your needs. This high energy exercise will build up your individual spiritual energy strength. In my astrology system the individually focused connections to the top of the birth chart get stronger when you do this type of exercise.
One needs a balance between a really high energy meditative exercise like the one mentioned above along with a slow meditative exercise that slows down ones energy so as to develop more sensitivity and awareness of the universal spiritual energy that exists beyond ones individual self. I developed the meditative walk for that reason. One walks with the legs spread a little farther apart than normal with short steps while breathing in with one step and out with the next. You look upward to a degree while massaging your neck by raising your shoulders higher than one would do in a normal walk. As mentioned in above paragraph the massaging of the neck by ones shoulders brings more blood flow to the head helping one to push oneself harder than one could normally do. One can increase the intensity of this exercise by shortening ones steps even more and by breathing in and out with each step, but this is a really advanced technique when done well and one must work up to it. It can takes years to get really good at this. When doing this exercise one should try to quiet the mind a good portion of the time, since one can focus harder and reach a stronger spiritual state when doing this. One can also focus on the side to side motion and how carefully one moves ones feet when doing this exercise. In my astrology system the universally(beyond ones individual self) connections to the bottom of the birth chart are strengthened by this exercise.
The physical/spiritual health gotten from doing both exercises is needed in order to create the degree of spiritual/physical oneness that is required in order to gain a stronger connection to reality/God so one will be better able to contribute positively spiritually and physically to this physical world one now exists in. One does best to have this balance between handling high and low energy states. Being overly hyper active or overly complacent or quiet/subdued and sensitive will limits ones effectiveness and ability to be in control of oneself spiritually. Being out of control or ineffective spiritually can lead to a lot of serious problems in ones life. This world has a lot of problems rooted in the spiritual that are the result of people being out of control or ineffective spiritually. Being effective spiritually involves handling ones emotions and desires well, so that one can better control and direct ones actions and communications toward positive results in this world.
In order to handle really intense and challenging exercise one has to have spiritual beliefs that enable one to handle the very difficult(can feel quite torturous) spiritual/physical states these exercises create. One needs to develop the ability to put all of ones spiritual focus into the present and not have escapist type spiritual beliefs sabotaging this effort. I have blogs on spiritual beliefs I designed to help one deal with the challenging type spiritual exercises and the spiritual state and the heavy dose of reality they connect one with. The truth often is painful, and ones ability to be able to handle more of the challenging/painful side of life helps one to better connect with more of what is true spiritually, and also to those who are dealing with the serious problems of the world that only can be properly dealt with by have a closer connect to reality and the often painful truths that come with it!! Having a good diet with nutritional supplements also helps one to handle a really challenging spiritual/physical training program!
Here is a very useful link:  https://astrogoodwin.wordpress.com/2016/10/04/meditative-walking-developing-a-stronger-spiritual-connection-with-the-physical/
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by astrogoodwin on December 30, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in meditation, Spiritual
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Posted by astrogoodwin on December 30, 2015

https://astrogoodwin.com/2015/12/30/the-need-for-balance-in-ones-spiritual-training/

Religious Freedom and my right to make a living in the area of my expertise

My focus is very much in the spiritual area in everything I do.  I am “differently abled” in a way that make me able to be very creative in the spiritual area.  My astrology system, along with my dumbbell swing(similar to Barbarian swings), my meditative walking,  and other meditative exercises/techniques I have developed and use are all spiritual in their focus.  To me I see no difference between the word “spiritual” and the word “religious”.   They both focus in the same area!   Often people who use astrology or psychic ability have to claim it to be for entertainment purposes only in order to protect themselves legally.  It is true that often entertainment can have quite a positive spiritual impact.  But, the type of spiritual advice I give (with the aid of my astrology system at times)can be very serious and effective at times provided the person is open to my spiritual approach which is very much focused on helping individuals improve on their spiritual  ideas/programming so as to be best able to handle the intense challenges/problems they face and this world faces.  All my spiritual/religious beliefs/ideas I have accepted or have developed are of the type designed to maximizes an individual’s ability to better handle reality at its most intense.  I believe the spiritual/religious beliefs that work the best in helping us perform in our current very challenging reality we exist in will be the ones closest to the truth.

My spiritual focus is very much oriented toward improving the spiritual/physical conditions that exist in this world, so I have a very strong focus on  causes that work toward that goal.  So that is why I am part of the “Starfish Foundation” and put a lot of my spiritual and other energy into it.  People of other religions who are open to further improving on their spiritual beliefs will get along well with me.  Those who feel no need to always be working on trying to improve spiritually through improving on their practices/training and beliefs will be incompatible with me.  I need to work with people who sincerely are always looking for ways to improve on how they function and how effective they can contribute in the area they are capable in.  My focus on spiritual development is important since spiritual change must first start in the individual before positive change can be made spiritually collectively in this world.  The spiritual “status quo” is the enemy of positive spiritual change and to being able to improve on our way of handling the serious problems in the world that are rooted in the spiritual and very much impacted by the spiritual/emotional maturity/development of the individual people that compose our collective society.

I feel I represent someone who really tests how much the belief in Religious Freedom is really valued in the United States of America, and in other countries that claim a similar belief.  I have the right to make a living in the area I am good at even though I am so unique compared to most other people when it comes to my capabilities.  We need to start working harder in this country in using more of the human resources we have available.  Uniquely/”differently abled” individuals should be prized not discouraged or put in positions where they have no constructive ways to develop and contribute to this world.  We live in a society that often likes to overly “blame the victim” for its own inadequacies.  Often the people in leadership blame those that are not that capable of helping themselves rather than showing true leadership and working to change the conditions that they are able to, that are holding people back from living in a more responsible an.d productive way.  We can transform this world into a better place to exist in spiritually, and we can make a lot better use of our human resources.  We need to change the spiritual state of this world, so that we have a spiritual environment here that create a higher percentage of spiritually/emotionally healthy individuals and less spiritually/emotionally unhealthy criminal types.

Here is a link to the “Starfish Foundation” of which I am a member that is just getting started in its quest to make a positive difference in this world:

https://www.facebook.com/shiningstarrenterprise/timeline

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by astrogoodwin on November 3, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in Spiritual
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Posted by astrogoodwin on November 3, 2015

https://astrogoodwin.com/2015/11/03/religious-freedom-and-my-right-to-make-a-living-in-the-area-of-my-expertise/

Stretches, dumbbell warmup & 6 minutes non-stop 2-hand overhead behind back dumbbells swings

After my fall the night before Easter(APR 1 ,2018) in which I dislocated my right shoulder I could no longer do this dumbbell swing exercise, but developed a new exercise to replace it!  Here is a video of it which I am now(6/9/18) doing for 3 nonstop minutes:

 

WARNING:  All the intense meditative/physical exercises I do require a body that is conditioned and able to do them safely.  They require a period of adjustment as one needs to gradually get use to them as to their frequency, intensity, and duration.  Although my spiritual focus requires I try to inspire people to do what it takes to improve their physical and spiritual well being,  I am not a medical/health-care professional.   Important: Before starting any new diet and exercise program please check with your doctor and clear any exercise and/or diet changes with them before beginning.  Do this exercise at your own risk and do them carefully.  Better to start out slow and gradually get use to them.   The intense type training I am able to do came as a result of decades of intense physical-spiritual training.   The most intense type spiritual-physical exercises are for people who have an extreme spiritual focus in their lives that enable them to handle the years of training required,  along with spiritual sensitivity and body awareness needed to prevent them from hurting themselves.

I eat something to fuel my dumbbell swing exercise routine, and then about 2-4 hours later drink some water  and started exercising.   I first do  careful stretching movements holding them very briefly covering all muscles for about 4 minutes, then some light weightlifting(warmed up using 20 lb dumbbell and arms for about 2 minutes doing all types of movements a few times in standing position), then do 6 minutes of nonstop dumbbell swings,  and 4 minutes more of stretching.  I do as many 2-handed overhead modified(bending elbows when lifting dumbbell overhead, deep squat, and extended to behind head) 20 lb dumbbell swings as I can do in a total of 6 minutes of nonstop cardio! I do these with my eyes closed at times while breathing in and out 24 to 27 times  with each dumbbell swing.  I use to breath in out a lot less in the past, but kept increasing the breathing as I was able to, since it increased the spiritual/physical difficulty of doing them.  The extra breathing makes the exercise more meditative!    I do try to tune into what ever emotions I can pick up or feel while doing this exercise or tune out any distractions I hear from my surroundings..    I try to put myself in the most intense and difficult physical/spiritual state while being really careful not to overdo it and hurt myself.

I have carefully worked up to this dumbbell swing routine for a period of five years as of October 2017..  I was in pretty good shape before I got started.  So it took me quite a while to condition myself to where I am at right now.   So,it takes quite a bit of time to get really good at this exercise!  Beginners can actually start without a dumbbell and gradually get the body use to handling dumbbells while starting with lights ones and working up to heavier ones!  They can adjust their technique to what is comfortable for them. This upper body cardio/meditative exercise with its head and neck movements I feel helps the circulation to the brain improve and thus allows one to push ones limits as to what states the body and mind can handle both physically and spiritually!

I have a blog post on the history of the dumbbell swing:    https://astrogoodwin.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/history-of-my-overhead-2-handed-modified20-lb-dumbbell-swing-exercise/

The swing as I do it works real well for me! That is why my body can handle it  4 days a week. I am really strongly in tune with my body due to all the meditative training I put it through.  Beginners  can actually start without a dumbbell and gradually get the body use to handling a heavier dumbbell. They can adjust their technique to what is comfortable for them. This upper body cardio exercise with its head and neck movements I feel helps the circulation to the brain improve and allows one to really push ones limits as to what difficult states the body and mind can handle both physically and spiritually.  One can gradually increase the breathing rate as times go on and you are able to with reasonable effort.  The breathing does increase the spiritual component to this exercise and increase its difficulty.  I did last up to 30 minutes nonstop in the past doing it when I was breathing a lot less times in and out per swing.

 

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by astrogoodwin on June 17, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in exercise, Spiritual
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Posted by astrogoodwin on June 17, 2015

https://astrogoodwin.com/2015/06/17/crunches-stretches-13-minutes-non-stop-2-hand-overhead-behind-back-dumbbells-swings-and-1-mile-meditative-runshort-walk/

Developing good spiritual judgment/character

It is important we all are(especially children) are trained to have good spiritual judgment.  Often it is not easy to figure out or intuitively sense the difference between healthy/positive/constructive behavior and unhealthy/negative/destructive behavior.  Practical spiritual beliefs/programming, along with the healthy type of spiritual/physical training these beliefs should inspire one to do, should help one to become better able to sense how to progress in a direction that will be good for your well being.  One needs to develop a good spiritual rudder to help steer oneself in a positive/healthy spiritual direction in all of ones behaviors.  The more one is tuned into oneself spiritually, the more one will be able to tune into others, so one can interact  with them in a healthy way spiritually.  Hard/serious physical/spiritual training can help one to better tune into the very hard/serious problems that exist in this world, the people most affected by these problems, and the spiritual causes of these problems.  Cardiovascular/heart exercise, meditative exercise, and a strict healthy diet(with nutritional supplements if needed)can help one to become able to more tune into the serious side of life, so that one can better figure out how to create serious positive consequences in ones life/world and avoid serious negative consequences in ones life/world.

It is so easy to get hurt when training ones body really hard in order to become really healthy physically and spiritually.   There is a fine line between safely pushing oneself extremely hard, and pushing oneself too hard and harming/injuring oneself.  Practice can help one to better develop the body awareness and intuition to become good at sensing this spiritual fine line.  But, one needs to have the practical spiritual beliefs that enable one to handle really the intense physical/spiritual states that hard/difficult physical/spiritual training involves.  Physical/spiritual training includes meditative movement exercises like the meditative walking&running that I have developed on a very intense level, and cardiovascular exercise like the dumbbell swing exercise I do.  It takes a long period of time to become good at these types of physical/spiritual exercises, and to adjust ones diet so that it supports ones ability to do these well.  One will find that a lean/leaner body will help one to better tune in spiritually when doing intense physical/spiritual training.  I find that the leaner my body becomes, the more important it is that I exercise even more intensely, so that my body will be able to be fit enough to handle being really lean.  Everyone does not have to become really lean, but they need to figure out what weight works best for giving them the spiritual/physical health they require to be able to perform their mission/purpose here in this life.

I feel people(like me) who specialize in the spiritual require the extra spiritual strength and awareness that a really lean well trained(cardiovascularly&meditatively) body without much extra muscle can provide.   People who use calorie restricted diets for life extension often have very low body weight, but are very healthy because of the very nutritious diet they are on.  In the past spiritual people have often used an austere lifestyle and diet to help their spiritual development, but they did not have the scientific knowledge we have today to help them do this in the healthiest way.  We have the knowledge today, that was not available in the past to be able to be able to make a lot more progress spiritually.  But, since we now live in an age in which overly permissive lifestyles(along with supportive overly tolerant/permissive spiritual beliefs) tend to be popular, it can be hard to not be controlled by a spiritual mindset, that is antagonistic to anything that is really difficult/challenging spiritually .

I have a lot of  blog posts on this site covering in more detail the type of training and beliefs that should work really well to improve ones spiritual/physical well being!

5/6/2016:  I have changed my training routine and have put on extra weight since printing this blog post.  I got a lot of good spiritual insights and improved my training when on this extremely austere(calorie restricted) diet I was on at that time.  I am now getting stronger in my training as a result of the weight gain which involves a combination of muscle and fat.  My strict diet has not changed except that I am not restricting calories as much.  I now eat small meals when ever my body gets hungry(8 meals every 3 hours around the clock).  I an training extremely hard and depending on the difficulty of my physical/spiritual training to keep me extremely healthy physically and spiritually.

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by astrogoodwin on June 5, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in diet, Spiritual
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Posted by astrogoodwin on June 5, 2015

https://astrogoodwin.com/2015/06/05/developing-good-spiritual-judgmentcharacter/

My purpose and the purpose of the intense meditative and cardiovascular exercise I do.

I do really intense meditative and cardiovascular(heart&circulation)exercises that I designed to be as difficult physically and spiritually as possible.  I have been doing these exercises(meditative walking, running, and 13 minutes non-stop 2 handed 20lb non-stop (modified) dumbbell swing cardio exercise for a long time(from 2&1/2 years  with the dumbbell swings, to decades of running and meditative walking).   It takes a long time to get improve techniques and to get really good at it!  The desire for instant gratification really works against any successful spiritual/physical training program. I do stretching and warm up exercises before my more intense early morning exercise routines that involve running and again afterwards when it come to my extremely intense dumbbell swing routine.  I do stretch my back a number of times during my meditative walking/running routines.  I have to be on a really strict diet with supplements to help my body to handle this extremely demanding exercise routine.   I can not cover this all in detail here.  Here is a link to one of my word press blog post you may need to copy and past it into your browser:  https://astrogoodwin.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/my-type-of-meditation…

I do not really enjoy the exercises themselves since they are really hard to do.  But, I do enjoy the results I feel I am getting from them.  It is hard to bring different spiritual ideas to a world in which certain spiritual ideologies and mind-sets dominate.  I am still struggling to find not only a way to continue to survive in this world, but a way to contribute as best I can in the spiritual area where my abilities are really concentrated in.  My motivation is very much into helping to transform the spiritual shape this Earth is in.  Individuals tend to reflect the spiritual state of the social circles they are connected with.  I am one of the very few spiritually independent type spirits and tend to be very cut off from others spiritually.  I find people tend to fear anything unfamiliar to them spiritually which will affect how they intuitively respond to me.  I have to get so strong spiritually that I can overcome this resistance to me and to the type of spiritual energy/ideas I represent.  I have to know the dynamics of what I am dealing with, so that I can train in a way to overcome the dynamics that are impeding my progress in reaching other people on the level I require in order to be effective in this world.

This world will be facing some very challenging times in the future due to its resistance to progress/advancement in the spiritual area.  A lot of people are not in very good physical/spiritual(emotional) shape on this planet which really limits our collective ability to handle the extremely serious problems that come with the highly technologically advanced age we have just entered.  Our financial and political systems need to be improved if we are to better deal more effectively with these serious problems we have here on this Earth.  All is rooted in the spiritual, so we must first advance in the spiritual area in order to make further needed progress in other areas.

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by astrogoodwin on April 21, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in exercise, meditation, Spiritual
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Posted by astrogoodwin on April 21, 2015

https://astrogoodwin.com/2015/04/21/my-purpose-and-the-purpose-of-the-intense-meditative-and-cardiovascular-exercise-i-do/

Running/cardiovascular exercise, injuries and interpreting pain

Very hard to figure out how much one can safely get away in regard to a body part that is hurt to some degree and letting you know this through pain. General muscle soreness feels different than a very targeted pain in a specific body part. It is important to figure out what the problem might be, before accessing whether one can still exercise. I would monitor what ever pain I was feeling very carefully when warming up or exercising on a less intense level in order to evaluate exactly what I can safely get away with without aggravating the problem. One has to depend on a certain intuitive sense. Often an injury is not that serious and leaves one with enough strength to exercise on a less intense level or in a different way that avoids using the injured part as much.

I once got an impact injury to my knee when running a 1/2 marathon trail race, but finished the race before the knee really started hurting. I had built up a lot of weekly mileage that I did not want to lose, and thought that since my body had finished the race after the impact injury okay, that I should be able to run on that injury somehow. So, I would take quite a while to warm up while my knee was in a lot of pain, but once warmed up the pain would be a lot less so I would run carefully continuing with similar amount of weekly mileage. I would ice down my knee afterwards. It took about a month to heal. I had run with knee injuries before while healing them, but never one that had that much pain involved.

I am now dealing with pain in my lower back, but am managing to control this while continuing my exercise routine, but must constantly stretch my back, since I believe it is muscle tightness that causes the area to become more inflamed. This strategy seems to be working. I feel one can often intuitively sense how much tension an injured/hurt body part can handle, and how to limit ones exercise in order to protect it.

Often, I feel when one overdoes ones exercise the body chemistry will be affected(may become more acidic)and in turn can inflame a vulnerable body part making it more subject to being injured/hurt. I feel one needs to gain the ability to read your body cues so one can adjust ones intensity so as to better avoid harming oneself physically in some way. I find extra breathing often helps and often focusing more on ones upper body movements often helps one protect ones legs. It is such a fine line between pushing ones limits and going beyond ones limits and harming oneself. One just has to focus an awful lot on what is happening with ones body when one exercises. Focusing too much on other things while exercising can lessen ones ability to pick up the subtle signals the body is sending you. The more you focus on what signals the body is sending you the better you become at interpreting them.

I must state that can be very risky to not have certain(non-minor) injuries check out by medical professionals to determine their cause and what treatment would be advisable in order to help fix and properly rehabilitate them..

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by astrogoodwin on March 25, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in exercise, Spiritual
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Posted by astrogoodwin on March 25, 2015

https://astrogoodwin.com/2015/03/25/exercise-dealing-with-injuries-and-interpreting-pain/

  • Thomas Goodwin "astrogoodwin"