Mental muscle

Not too long ago, I saw the movie Sicko --a Michael Moore documentary about the American health care system. In it, he highlights the state of things with American health insurance companies and how they do business. He also went to Canada, the UK and France to observe their universal health care systems. He interviewed many people about their experiences with health insurance in the US...many of them were in need of care but were being denied care by their insurance companies for all manner of ridiculous reasons (for example, people who helped with the rescue efforts at ground zero on 9/11 are being denied care for their various respiratory ailments that resulted from that day basically because they acted in a volunteer capacity, rather than as part of their 'job').

Towards the end of the film, he took a number of these people to Guantanamo Bay because that is the one piece of American soil where universal, government-sponsored health care is provided (to the 'enemies of freedom' at a level of quality that obviously exceeds that available to the average American). Unsurprisingly, they were not permitted entry to the prison facility. Instead, they all went to Havana and visited a pharmacy (one woman...whose bronchial inhalers--similar to those used by asthmatics--normally cost her $120 each...she needs to use several of them per year...she paid a little over 3 pesos or 5 cents for two of them...she cried when they told her what it would cost her...) and they all went to a hospital. There, they registered as patients and subsequently received treatment at little to no cost. It was striking to imagine how they must have felt as they were being cared for so diligently and humanely by doctors from Cuba, the country Americans have been told for years and years is evil and backward with their Communist ways.

The film pinned down the origin of private health insurance to a conversation in the Oval Office between Richard Nixon and one of his advisors. The advisor told Nixon that the HMOs (health maintenance organizations) turned a profit by minimizing the care/treatments they paid for. Former health insurance claims investigators were interviewed...they told of how it was their job to find ways to deny claims (and thus, care) to people, thus reducing the expense to the insurance company. They showed footage of a Senate hearing (or something like that) where a doctor told the US senate all about how she had been paid to deny care to people during her time as medical director of an insurance company. She was clearly embarrassed and ashamed. The shocked faces of the Senators spoke volumes.

During the film, I was in shock. I cried. Americans living in France talked with Michael Moore over dinner about how they are encouraged to have a healthy work-life balance...how the health care system encourages them to rest and recover and get well when they are ill...how they encourage preventative care...A Canadian man spoke of how important it is for us to look out for each other...

When the movie was over, I felt...I want to use the word outrage...but I don't feel angry...I feel hurt. I feel a sort of heartache over the state of it all. I am aware that I am living in America, with people...people like you'd find anywhere else...some of them give life to the 'American' stereotypes of ignorance and arrogance...while many others leave me forgetting that I'm in 'America' at all...and yet...

...in the film, Michael Moore interviewed a very posh sounding former British MP who said that the two keys to controlling people are to keep them frightened and demoralized...an American woman living in France said that in France, the government is afraid of the people, because the people are not afraid to stand up and protest and revolt if necessary...but in America, the people are afraid of the government...and so, things do not change.

I have had this post brewing inside me since before Election Day. It has been a remarkable experience to watch Barack Obama. A part of me says 'well, he's still a politician'...and then there's a 'but'...I have never before listened to a politician speak and felt inspired; hopeful.

As Election Day drew closer and closer, I began to see what was coming: there was so much more pro-Obama media coverage and pro-Obama sentiment being expressed than there was anti-McCain (or even pro-McCain, for that matter). The people were focusing their energy on what they wanted, rather than what they didn't want. It began to seem almost inevitable that Obama would win. I dared to hope. I wished that I could vote. I wanted desperately to be able to join the chorus of voices that were taking the chance...actually making a move off the couch to stand up and declare 'This is what I choose!'

And then it happened: on Election Day, thousands upon thousands of people decided to stand up and announce their choice to the Universe. The American people got together and said 'Yes we can!' We can change things. We are not doomed. Things may look grim, but we can make them better.

Now, I do believe that relying on Barack Obama to change everything in everyone's individual lives is more than a bit naive. Within each of our lives, the key to making a difference lies within ourselves. It is up to us as individuals what kind of life we will lead...it is insanity to continue doing the same things but expect different results. In that way, change is up to the individual. That being said, I was so proud of this country that day. I was filled with joy to see US stand up and say 'This choice speaks to the Universe of Who We, as a people, Want to Be'.

Of late, I feel I have been understanding what Gandhi meant when he said 'You must be the change you wish to see in the world'. I feel that for all the help I want to give to others, for all the difference I want to make in the lives of other people, the first person I should take on as my 'client' is me. Teacher, heal thyself. And so, here I sit, still reeling from the experience of watching that movie, and I feel I am at a moment of choice: I can feel some amount of self-righteous anger over the sad state of the world/country/health care industry in the US or I can take action and begin making a change. This old choice doesn't serve us (by 'old choice', I mean that of using private health insurance), it's time to make a new one. It's time for a revolution...but how to start one? I feel like the answer is a personal revolution. It's time to BE the change.

...again the question before me: How to do that?

I'm aware that when I am in this feeling-place, I feel motivated, I feel like I am Being Who I Really Am...and thus, sending out that creative energy. But when I am not in this same sort of 'feeling-place', I tend not to feel motivated and capable and powerful. So how to return to this feeling place? I believe it's a question of creating a new mental habit; a new thought pattern. And so I say, let today be the first day of a new habit...and here's to practicing my new habit more tomorrow, and the next day, and the next...

Ok. Those are my thoughts for now.

namaste.

Magic happens

I believe in magic...
...but I've grown up being told to be realistic.

I believe in magic...
...but I've grown up being told to get my head out of the clouds.

I've been told I'm too much of a dreamer...
but there's something inside me that keeps gnawing at me...calling on me to act...

It's a feeling...a deep, abiding belief that I've got something bigger and greater within me; that I AM bigger and greater than I was told I can be.

I believe that magic happens.
I believe anything is possible.
...and I know that it's unrealistic.
I know I'm a dreamer.
I know that I've got my head in the clouds.

I also have my feet on the ground.

The chatter in my head--fed by all the noise that's out there--tells me this is all childish and silly and that what I've really got to do is grow up, get serious and get a real job.

And yet, in those quiet moments, when the chatter subsides, that feeling surges within me. Inside I know. I know that magic happens and I know that I AM powerful beyond measure.

And in those quiet moments, when I know it is the voice of my soul speaking to me, I know that I can continue to dream...

...and so I choose to dream out loud. At high volume.

Is it in you?

Gatorade asks in their commercials, 'Is it in you?'
Of course it is. It's in each and every one of us.
What is 'it'?
It is that which makes us human.
It is that magical something that lies behind the greatest of human accomplishments, the most spectacular of achievements and the most incredible of feats.
It is the fuel of dreams.
And it's inside each and every one of us.
No exceptions.

It is passion.
What is it that you feel passionate about? How often do you feel passionate about something?

It is belief in possibility.
It is the belief that magic happens.
Do you believe you can or are you more likely to think you can't?

It is completely unrealistic.
It is there, waiting inside of us, waiting to be accessed; waiting to be awakened.

It's early in the New Year. There's a tremendous energy surrounding everything...it's a time when we're all considering the possibility of yes, rather than no...we're considering that maybe it's possible, rather than too hard. It's a time when so many of us are feeling 'it'.

And then, that feeling fades. Why? Why not find a video like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLN2k0b3g70 and watch it. Remember that feeling and then move from there.

That's right: move.
Get up.
Do something.
Take action.
Even if your first step is getting up, getting a pen and paper, and then writing down what you're feeling. What would you like to do?
Now get up and take a step in that direction.

All the power you need is there inside you.