Our Ultimate Path... and it's ok.

I have an announcement:  I am dying.  Yes.  Sad, but true.  But, I have good news:  It isn't because of Cancer, or liver failure, or due to some accident.  No, I am dying because that is what living entities do.  They live and they die.  I have been living for 33 years and my clock is ticking away as we speak.  Now... let us hope, myself especially, that the end of that clock is many years from now.  Because while I am dying, I don't plan to leave anytime soon.  I am dying, you are dying, everyone is dying... and that isn't a sad thing.  It is a part of living.  Please, watch this amazing video!



This amazing video looks at dying from a beautiful perspective.  We automatically think of dying as a bad thing.  And I don't blame our culture.  I have no interest in dying.  I like living.  I want to be here for my wife.  I want to be here for my beautiful daughters.  I enjoy listening to music, watching my favorite sports teams, laughing with friends, helping individuals get healthier and live a better life for the themselves.  I don't want any of these things to stop.

But what many of us do is fear what we cannot stop.  And that fear keeps us from really living.  Many times I get individuals who come into my office who are frustrated that their body isn't the same as it was 20 years ago.  Well of course it isn't the same.  No one's body is the same from 20 years ago.  Every time you injure the body you lose a percentage of physical integrity.  Your body is a machine.  You need to take care of it the best you can.  Give it the best fuel you can.  Take it out and exercise it.  Be happy!  Your body is the greatest instrument you have ever owned.

And... one day... your machine will be fully decommissioned.  And that is ok.  It was pre-destined the day you were conceived.  SO... until that fateful day... live life.  Be happy.  Strive to do great, and amazing things!  One more amazing video, a scene from Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium where one of my favorite actors, Dustin Hoffman, gives an absolutely beautiful scene with Natalie Portman.  The simplicity and beauty of Mr. Hoffman's character's words are inspiring.


Live Happy, Healthy, and Ready for Anything!

- Adam Hewitt

Do you really truly think about what you're being told?

Time to get healthy.

Ummm... where do you start?  Go to google, type the phrase "Let's get healthy" and it literally gives you 71,500,000 results.  No problem, just sift through the fads, gimmicks, and money making schemes and only focus on the real ways that work.

Good luck finding that.

So how do you wade through the greed, ignorance, and egos of the world trying to get you to buy their products?  First, you must wake up.  The vast in which you think about your health has been conditioned through media, word-of-mouth, and plain ignorance.  If you want to start seeing your health from a beneficial side, it is time you reflect on many popular beliefs that swarm our culture.  Time to question the relevance and lack of commonsense many are governed by.  Shall we take a look at a few???

-Let's start this smorgousborg with our good ole friend... milk.

When's the last time you saw a full grown cow, out in the pasture, politely ask Bessy if she'd tilt to the side so he could grab a quick drink?  When is the last time you saw a full grown ANYTHING drink milk in the wild?  And while I'm there... when was the last time you saw a full grown ANYTHING drink milk..... from another species???

In the animal kingdom, the animals get significantly higher amounts of calcium from the vegetation that they consume.  The carnivores, of course, eat the animals who in turn eat the vegetation.  Nice circle of life going on there.  Not once, though, do you see a full grown animal go and drink milk.  (If they only knew that they could use milk, flour, eggs, and so forth to bake a cake!  Oh how they're missing out!)

Studies are showing that not only is milk causing a plethora of health issues with the digestive system, but that the milk, hormones, and chemicals in the milk are acidic to the human body's pH, thus forcing the body to absorb minerals, like calcium from your bones, to help bring the pH levels back to a healthy alkaline state.  Did you get that?!?!  Drink milk, because they say it will help in preventing osteoporosis... but now independent researches are finding that it actually helps to speed up osteoporosis.  It's like an evil villian in a bad superhero movie.

Want calcium?  Put the milk down.  Toss the yogurt away.  Ditch the vitamins.  EAT YOUR VEGETABLES!!!

-For fun, since we're on the topic of diet, let's look at how we eat.

Name me an animal that eats multiple types of foods at one time.  And, just for fun, name me an animal that not only eats multiple foods at the same time, but each one of those multiple types of food is from different parts of the planet.  And while you search your brain for an answer, exclude any animal that is being fed either by human hands or the trash of human consumption.

Tough, isn't it?

We are the only species on this planet that mixes their meals with multiple types of food.  AND having the food come from all over the world, too!  I'd like to introduce you to Trophology, or "Food Combining".  It changed my world!

 Please, watch this video... it might blow your mind.

Now, I swear by the lives of my precious girls, this lifestyle of eating works.  I do it and have seen the amazing results.  It makes sooooo much sense that it is almost impossible to ignore it.  The funny thing, the Western Medical world has only done ((( 1 ))) study on food combining and have stopped since.  Showing, in their study, no such claims of quality health came from it.  (ask anyone who has done this for a serious amount of time and they'll kindly disagree!)  Find a cheap way to keep the body healthy... and science wont back it up for the most part.  Can't make money in the medical world if people are healthy.  (so sad)

-How about a topic about the body.  I get this perspective a lot:  "My hamstrings are tight because I run."

Well... that makes sense.  Doesn't it?  But if that is a true statement, then quite simply your body is telling you to never run.  Tension in a muscle is a warning sign that your body is not in the position to be as physically active as you would normally want at that present time.  A warning that if you take the muscle and ask it to stretch or fire too quickly you could tear it.  So why would running or using your muscles, since a muscle's job is to create movement, be the reason you are tight?

What about the back?  Many believe their back is tight because they've been using it all day.  So does that mean we just lay down forever and not move?  If movement creates tension then, just like the perception of our tight hamstrings, our body is simply telling us to not move.  How many times have you assumed that your dominant arm is tight because you use it?  Many people do.  And the funny thing is that many don't even question the thought nowadays.  If you'd like to know why your hamstrings are tight and why your dominant arm is tight and why your back is tight, I'll be more then happy to show you during a shiatsu session.

But one thing I can promise you right now:  Muscle movement is NOT the culprit!


How about "good posture"?

"Oh, come on Adam, you can't attack "good posture"!  Everyone in the country knows having "good posture" is important."  Let's diagnose this proper posture while sitting.

This is how they want you to sit at your desk.  THIS is what our culture believes to be "good posture".  And it is!  This IS good posture.  Sitting like this allows joints and muscles to work without impinging nerves, "over stressing" muscles, etc..  There is only one problem with what our culture deems to be "good posture" and how it is good for us:  the focus of "good posture" to prevent back pain (for example) and all the other problems that most deem to be due to "bad posture" is a one dimensional perspective on the body.  To stay in this "good posture" you must limit your movements and constantly contract muscles throughout the body to hold this posture.  And while many believe that firing these muscles all the time helps to "stabilize" the core, guess how many people can do this for more then a few hours at a time without pain, stiffness, and prone to multiple other problems?  Zilch.  Nada.  Cero.  Zero!  Your body was never meant to sit for long periods of time.  It doesn't matter the posture you're in.  You're doing something you were never meant to.  And that always comes with consequences.  How long would you survive sitting for 10 hours a day when we didn't have all of our technology that allowed us to make a living doing very little movement?  

When you put your body through this type of movement... or lackethere of... you shut down the natural and healthy flow of circulation to the entire body.  It is in that circulation that you will find your relief from the vast majority of muscular problems that exist today.  Again, that is what we do in Shiatsu.

Quick thought... when you sit at a desk or in a car too long... how do you feel when you finally get up?  If you think the body enjoys not moving for long stretches of time... ask yourself how well that would work for the animals in the wild.  They wouldn't be living very long if they didn't move at all.  Understand though, that rest is not the same as sitting for long periods of time.  Though resting in one position will cause your body to be stiff.  Believe it or not, a healthy sleeper tosses and turns over 200 times a night.  This is how our body keeps the blood flowing while we sleep.  Your body wants to move!!!

And our society's paranoia with movement of the spine!

Everyone in our culture is afraid, it seems, to move the spine.  "Keep the spine stright up and down", is something many of my clients tell me they've been instructed to do.  Keep from bending over, it will cause your back to go out!  I've never seen that problem with dancers, performers, gymnasts, etc. as they are performing.  In fact, back problems only seem to kick in when someone ISN'T moving a whole lot and then ask the body to move suddenly.

The spine has 33 bones, and depending on how you want to define how these bones moves as joints, you're looking at roughly 30 joints.  What are joints meant to do?  MOVE!  So to ask the core of your body to be straight up and down (which in itself is silly because a healthy spine has four major natural curves) is flat out crazy.  The spine is meant to twist and move and shift and contour all day long!  Your body wants movement... plain and simple.  Trying to find the right way to sit at a desk is like trying to find the right way to eat glass.  Or trying to find the right way to cross the street blind folded.  Just because it can be done, doesn't mean you were meant to do it.

If you HAVE TO sit at a desk for your career, understand that as you sit, you pool the blood throughout your entire body.  Might as well be as relaxed as possible while you sit.  Why do you think people naturally slouch and don't realize it?  The body is saying, "oh, we're not moving... ok, let's rest."  If you have to be at a desk, get up and walk around as much as possible to help the blood circulate.  Read emails as you walk around the block for a few laps.  Shake your body out.  Get shiatsu to help de-constrict what you have constricted.  If you don't take care of your circulation... well, let's just say your body has plenty of fun things in store for you as a reward.

I don't have all of the answers to life and I never will.  And I don't want to sound like I don't believe anything the Western World of medicine or way of thinking is saying.  But what I have learned has taught me that the vast majority of our society has been conditioned to believe in specific ways of living and thinking and as such, because it has been shoved into your subconscious, you don't even question them.  But if you really start to think about what you inherently believe in, you just might realize how crazy some of it is!  

START QUESTIONING IT!!!  

The only way things change is if we, collectively, notice there is a problem and demand a change.  Nothing changes if nothing changes.  Our culture is dealing with epidemic problems involving back issues, muscle pain, headaches, cancer, sinus problems, digestive issues, and fertility inefficiencies... just to name a few.  But nonetheless you are being bombarded by the same 1 dimensional thinking that brought these symptoms to the forefront.

Simplify your life.  Simplify your diet.  Eliminate Sugar, caffeine, drugs, any type of chemical that isn't natural from its natural source.  Eat basic and smart (look up trophology for a graph on what goes with what when you eat).  Get enough sleep.  Decrease your stress... I repeat... DECREASE YOUR STRESS!  You can't live a healthy life if your stress never comes down.  And that's on you.  You have to make that choice.

Your body is your guinea pig.  Listen to it and listen longer then a few days.  Making changes in your life takes time for your body to clean, adjust, and repair the damages of your previous lifestyle.  There is no fountain of youth out there nor a real quick fix without side effects.  Make the changes in your life and let your body fix itself!  That is the true nature of what Shiatsu is all about.

Don't be afraid to question what you see, read, or hear.  Even what I say.  If it doesn't compute with your way of thinking, questioning it is ok.  Learn more about these things.  Don't just take people's word for it.  Don't just take my word for it.  You are the only one who can truly help your body to be healthy.  Take responsibility for it.

On a side note, I have been away from the blog for a while, but that is going to change significantly.  I now have the time needed to really keep the blog updated now that I am transitioning into a new and exciting time of my life.  More on that to come!  Until then... Live Happy, Healthy, and Ready for Anything!

-Adam

The Revolution has begun!

Ever since I started learning Sennin-So Shiatsu and my Shiatsu Master explaining the relevance and importance to having a alkaline pH (7.4 to be exact.), I've noticed that more and more publications, news syndicates, and even doctors are letting people know just how important it is to be alkaline.  Here is another article that I found that is a good read.

BAKING SODA... Guess what else it does?!?!?!

Live Happy, Healthy, and Ready for Anything!

Happy... what a powerful state of mind!

Pharrel's highly played and horribly addicting song, "Happy", makes it almost impossible to not dance, clap, bob, duck, dip, twist, jive, juke, or even give a little jiggle to it.  There is a reason it has sparked a national and international sensation.  Because being HAPPY is horribly beneficial to the human body.



During one of my training courses whilel learning Sennin-So Shiatsu from my Shiatsu Master, Michael Kazunori Shimizu, one of my colleagues asked him how he stayed so healthy and young looking at the sprite age of 72. (Also he's been practicing Shiatsu for over 50 years!)  He smiled, looked at my colleague, and simply stated: be happy.



If you were to ask the average person how they are feeling, most of the time they'll reply, "I'm ok." or "I'm fine."  When in reality, most people are on the opposite side of "I'm ok." or "I'm fine.".



I mean, can one blame them?  Turn on the news and it is 98% negative information.  War this, death that, murder this, accident that, fall of the economy, no jobs, hatred here, protests there, cheating by him, stealing by her, so on and so forth.  And occasionally they'll throw in the feel good story... to be followed by another tragedy.  We've surrounded ourselves with a world that only finds interest in drama, and as such the only drama that is apparently news worthy is that of a negative state that it almost infects our society.  Even worse, if you tried to report the news of something good happening, like say for instance a man wins the lottery, most instantly think to themselves, "I wish I'd win the lottery, but I'm not lucky." or even worse "he'll spend it all and be broke before he knows it.".  We can't even really be happy for strangers because we're so focused on ourselves it seems.



Well I say it is time to break this path and it is time to break it now!



"But Adam, what's the point?  So what, we're negative, it isn't like that is causing my back pain or neck pain."



Oh, but it is!!! 



You see, when you become negative your body goes through all kinds of fun physiological events.  One of those events is that your body begins to produce adrenaline, which changes the pH of your body almost immediately.  It also causes your abdominal core to lock up just as fast.  When the abdominal muscles constrict, your brain immediately fires the muscles corresponding in your back, the same muscles that our society associates with back pain.  And not just negative thinking, stress in general is one of the main variables to the detrimental conditions our bodies go through.



It's easy to say that 99% of all of my clients that travel quite frequently, work horrendous hours, have massive expectations at work, or have a work load that is constantly grinding them down are susceptible to some of the tightest abdominal cores around.  And as a result... suffer from chronic ailments like chronic back pain, migraines, digestive issues, and so on.



But the other day, I met someone who fits in the ultra rare 1%. (1st person in 6 years who fits this %)  She was a popular hair styling company executive.  She said that her job is extremely challenging, extremely tough as her performance can dictate many jobs for other people and the income of a ton of money.  So there is a lot on her shoulders.  Oh... did I mention she travels all over the country on a weekly basis!!!  Ouch!  Before I worked on her I anticipated that the muscles down the sides of her spine would be tight and sensitive as would the obliques on the side of her abdominal wall.  While she was face down I checked these areas, like I always do, but to my surprise... they were as relaxed as one could ever ask for.  They didn't fire back at me showing sensitivity (pain or ticklish).  I stood there for a second and then checked again.  Yup... they were relaxed.



"Hmmm." I said.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Well, after what you told me you do for a living and your horribly hectic work schedule, I anticipated a completely different reaction in the muscles in your back.  They aren't responding anything close to what I expected."

"Is that bad or good?" she questioned.

"Well, generally good.  I've never seen this.  What makes this treatment so fun to perform is the consistency we see in how the body reacts.  I'm interested to see how tight your abdominal muscles are later." I said as I went to work on her legs and feet.



When I turned her over and went to check the tonicity of the muscles in her abdomen I was left again in shock.  This young lady had never recieved this Shiatsu, nor had it been recent that she received any other form of treatment.  She's never consumed baking soda or any other alkalizing agent.  She didn't do yoga religiously and didn't know how to properly breathe into her core to help stimulate the stagnant blood which is almost literally always there.  All of these things being factual and still... no sensitivity and no tension!



To say I was speechless was an understatement.  I stood there, trying to wrap my mind around what I was seeing and feeling.  The funny thing was that she was actually nervous coming in for the treatment because the client who referred her mentioned how sensitive the treatment can be, though really effective.  But alas, very little sensitivity throughout the whole body, especially where I anticipated the worst.



"How is this possible?" I asked myself.  And then like a brick to the face, it hit me.



"You really really really love your job, don't you?" I asked her.



She then began telling me how much she really did.  She mentioned how everyone she works for gets energized when she is around them, something she is told on a regular basis.  She mentioned how while it is challenging, she is excited to work every day, excited to meet challenges head on, excited to travel and meet more people, and excited to be amazing at what she does.



This wasn't a sales pitch.  This was true, honest, unequivocal emotion about something she truly loved to do.  It was quite apparent.  I told her that she is more lucky then she can understand.  Her mindset, her passion, the way she approaches her life and job is something that will not only keep her healthy, but will help her age beautifully and be absolutely successful to the highest degree in everything she takes on.



YOU have a choice in life.  You can't change what everyone around you thinks nor should you try to.  YOU are in charge of YOU!  Being happy, TRULY happy, is not an easy thing to do in our society.  It takes real awareness of the world around you and your present state of being.  It takes real tolerance, forgiveness, and patience.  You cannot live in denial.  You can't hide from it or pretend it will just go away.  If you want to be healthier in mind, body, and spirit, you need to find a way to start appreciating things you take for granted.



For example:

When trying to walk across a sidewalk of a busy street but seeing that multiple cars aren't stopping to let you go by safely, don't waste your energy getting angry or frustrated at them.  Whether they are chosing to ignore you or don't actually see you, it doesn't matter.  They pass you and you'll never know them if you see them again.  Put them out of your mind and out of your memory.  BUT, the one person who does stop for you is someone you can acknowledge.  You can show, even if for a moment, that you truly appreciate them for stopping.  A simple thumbs up and a smile can make that person's day and shows that you truly appreciate them stopping.  It'll also make you feel better.



You can find examples like this in your daily life on a regular basis.  Hey, just for fun, go out and start committing acts of random kindness.  Go to Starbucks and pull up to the drive-through.  When you go to purchase your order tell the attendant that you'd like to pay for the person behind you.  Or take someone's shopping cart back to the stall when they've unloaded their groceries in their car, especially if they have a child or two making it difficult for them.



Walk around your block and take witness that you just did that.  Your feet helped you walk.  Even if you've had surgeries on your feet, or knees, or hips, if they're still there thank them.  I have to do this all the time after having a blood clot damaged left leg.  It could be worse.  The leg could be gone or I could be dead.  But no... it's still there, holding on.  And if you don't have feet, then how about something to do with your hands, or your eyes, or your ears.  Anything that allows you to experience amazing things that we take for granted.



It really is true.  You never know what you've got until it's gone.  Don't realize this the hard way.  Many of us have to.  Love your family.  Love your friends.  One day they'll be gone.  Don't underestimate how important they can be for you.



Laugh at stand up comedy, even if the joke is crude.  Laugh at home made pranks on youtube.  When you trip over your own feet and everyone around you chuckles, just look at them and smile, saying "whoops, I just got these feet in the mail... still trying to get used to them."  Laugh at yourself, because we're all quite laughable.



Your job might be difficult.  It might be tiring.  It might be annoying.  It might be tedious, monotonous, disappointing, frustrating......... but you have a job.  There are people all over wishing they had a job, willing to do anything even if it was tedious or frustrating.  And if you don't like your job... find a new one.  You have that right.  Find something that makes you happy.  Why do that???........  Why not???



YOU are the only one who can make these changes.  So life has kicked you around, taken things from you, hurt you, taken advantage of your short comings.  Ok... join the club.  I've never met anyone who was and always will be able to dodge the sadness and difficulties that life has to throw at us.  No one is immune or impervious to the dredges of life.  Stop letting it dictate the rest of your path.



BE HAPPY!  It does SO MUCH MORE then brighten the world around you.  And if that was all it did... sounds like a pretty good reason to me.



Be Happy, Healthy, and Ready for Anything!

Nice to meet you.

So I was reading through my posts and other inserts and I felt that a nice, in-depth write up on myself was way overdue.  I get emails from many who don't know me or have received a treatment from me so I think it is only fair to give you an insight on me and my life.

My name is Adam Hewitt.  I grew up in Tacoma until 5th grade, at which point my parents felt moving to the country was a safer place for us to grow up.  So we moved to Napavine, Washington smack dab in the middle of Lewis County.  If you've never heard of Napavine, don't worry, you're not alone.  After a tough middle school life (soccer players weren't welcomed with open arms and as such I was teased throughout my 7th and 8th grade years) I moved schools to WF West (Chehalis) for High School, which was an incredibly good choice.

While going to WF West, I excelled in a few different types of classes.  My favorites were art classes, including drawing for the school paper, and playing in the different types of band classes including Jazz, Symphonic, and Marching Band as a trumpet player.  I have many amazing memories from these classes. 

This is me actually drawing something for the school paper.

I would love to say that Health Class was a favorite of mine, but I'm not going to lie, I usually was asleep in the back of class during it.  Had no interest in it whatsoever.  Boy, how crazy the world can turn out.

After High School, I didn't really have any idea what I wanted to do.  I thought maybe I could get into art, music, dance, acting, playing soccer in college, or even photography.  Though when it came down to it I was afraid to make a specific choice for the fear of making the wrong one.  So, instead I became a Casino Dealer at the Lucky Eagle Casino.

Wow... what a wake up call to reality.  I felt, leaving High School, that when people graduated High School they were now filled with wisdom and commonsense.  What I learned while working at the casino was that adults are simply just older kids.  I got to see a tough side of the real world while working there.

My beautiful wife, Julia

Though thankfully I was working there, because after having a crush on a beautiful waitress in the restaurant for 4 years I finally got the courage to introduce myself to her.  It just so happens that this major crush ended up agreeing to marry a crazy guy like myself.  And this beautiful woman is of course my wife, Julia.

After 4 1/2 years of dealing at the casino I felt that it wasn't the path I was destined for.  So after talking with my sister who had just graduated from Massage School, I felt that that path might have been what was waiting for me, mostly because I was always the guy with the good hands for back and shoulder rubs.  What I didn't expect was that I was going to fall in love with learning how to help the body heal.  And this is when I realized that this is the job I was destined for.

I went to Massage School at Ashmead, which is unfortunately not a company anymore since it has since been bought out.  But while at Ashmead I fell in love with massage, the body, and learning how to help it.  Massage school was very successful for me as it seemed to have come naturally.  I was chosen by my colleagues to speak at our graduation (about 100 people graduating) and that was a pure joy.

Right out of school I got into the massage business as an independent contractor in a cute spa seemingly in the middle of no where in Centralia, Washington.  I was there for 6 months but it wasn't really working out and an opportunity to work for a local Chiropractor presented itself.  I worked there for 1 1/2 years but that also wasn't the right place for me.  I was then approached by the woman I rented my space from when I first was an independent contractor and was asked if I wanted to take over ownership of the spa since she was having a hard time running it.  This was an intriguing opportunity, though I definitely was nervous with how I'd be able to do it.  I learned a lot in the world of business while running my own spa.  We had some tough goings with some people outside of the business who wanted to take over and a nasty flood in the area decimated many of my clients houses and businesses and we had to shut our doors.  But the experience gleaned from that was invaluable and will help me in the near future unquestionably.

Right after my spa closed down I went to work for the Great Wolf Lodge as the lead massage therapist.  I was with a group of fun spa employees who opened the lodge, though we had a difficult job finding a capable spa director who would last for any length of time.  Our first director came and went because she just didn't mold well with most of the employees.  Our second director was great... until she got caught stealing.  It just so happened that this was an opening for me to become the third spa director.  I definitely had my work cutout for me.  Most of the staff was onboard and we worked well together.  Unfortunately... I said "most".  There were definitely a few that caused some issues but nothing I couldn't handle.

Rayven Alexis Hewitt

While I was knee deep in fixing a spa that was neglected from the previous director, I was also busy getting ready to become....... a FATHER!  On August 13th, 2008, my beautiful daughter, Rayven Alexis Hewitt was born.

While I knew becoming a father was going to be a journey all by itself, little did I know that I was going to experience something surprisingly more life changing.  The day after Rayven was born I started feeling an ache in my left thigh that over 2 weeks became worse and worse.  After the pain began, other bad symptoms followed.  Ultimately, after a trip to the Urgent Care facility, which led to nothing except a prescription for pain meds and anti-anxiety medication, I found myself in the Emergency Room with a life threatening DVT blood clot and a Pulmonary Embolism (clot in the lung).  Little did I know that I had a genetic blood clotting disorder and my entire life would forever be changed from this moment on.

I had to take some significant time away from work to heal up from the clot, at least to the point where I could stand again.  When I finally was able to go back to work they had found a new Spa Director, this wasn't a surprise to me.  I went back to my lead massage therapist position and it wasn't too much longer that I was working when I met a young lady who changed my life for the better.  She was a client who was visiting the lodge from the Seattle area.  Unfortunately, I can't remember her name but I'll never forget her nonetheless.  Truthfully, if it wasn't for her saying "you need to get up to Seattle" I might not be alive today.  After she felt I shouldn't be down in Lewis County I took that to heart and looked up the Pro Sports Club... saw they were hiring, put in a resume, was called for an interview and an audition, and next thing I know I was offered a full time job.  I commuted for a few months to make sure it was a place that I could support my family and found very quickly that it was just that.

Early on as an employee with Pro Sports Club, I heard that an amazing Japanese man was going to train up to 4 massage therapists in his family's rare form of shiatsu.  I've always loved oriental medicine so I applied.  I was one of the few lucky enough to be chosen and my career was reborn.

Mike Kazunori Shimizu worked on me on a early morning March day and blew my mind away.  I was still recovering from my blood clot and was scared to get worked on.  He told me not to worry, but after having a few doctors almost kill me it was hard for me to trust anyone fully.  That was until he started working on me.  I had never felt such a change with such simplicity in his technique.  I devoted my life to this technique from that very moment.

Over the last 4+ years while practicing the art of Sennin-So Shiatsu, plenty of stories, events, and adventures have come my way.  One amazing story was the birth of my second daughter, Jasmine Isabella Hewitt.  Unlike her sister who was calm, quiet, collected when she was born, Jasmine came yelling and fiesty from the very first moment oxygen hit her lungs.  To this day Jasmine has a fire inside her that makes me very nervous for all of the unexpecting young men who'll try and seek her out for a date on Saturday night.  She feels she can do everything her sister does... and I mean everything!

Julia, Rayven, and baby Jasmine

The world has brought me tough times and great times, just like everyone else.  I am a relatively simple man.  I am a Mariners, Seahawks, and Sounders fan.  I love soccer and can't wait to have my knee repaired (ACL is literally gone) so I can play my favorite sport again.  I love music and sing like crazy in my car.  Inspirational stories, pictures, and movies make me tear up.  My favorite drink is Bailey's on the rocks.

There are more fun stories involved and if you'd like to hear more, just come on down and see me.  I hope you have been entertained, if only for a little while.

Stay Happy, Healthy, and Ready for Anything.

My family

So it doesn't matter???

A new client I had yesterday mentioned that they have been told by medical practitioners that it actually doesn't matter what you eat and drink, for your body cleans everything and all the waste simply just leaves the body.  Thankfully not every medical practitioner is this ignorant.  Eating and drinking the wrong "fuel" will change many things in your body.  We all react in different ways to different foods and drinks, thus making it difficult to understand things if we look at them in a "black and white" perspective.  The world is gray... VERY gray.


I've talked about how important the circulatory system is.  I cannot stress the importance of this system.  EVERYTHING feeds off of it.  So with that said, I ask you to pick which circulatory system you'd like to have in regards to the pictures below.

This stream is to simulate a flow that is unhealthy... obviously.  Slow, congested, littered with junk.

This stream is to simulate a flow that is clean, free flowing, and healthy.

-Which stream would you like to drink out of?

-Which stream would you like to bathe out of?

-Which stream would you expect to deliver healthy fish and nourish local plants and wildlife?

-If this was a direct comparison between you and your circulatory system, which would you rather have?

If you do not believe that what you eat and drink, as well as the impact of your lifestyle in regards to stress, causes any negative effects to your body, then you probably wouldn't mind swimming and drinking out of the first stream.  After all, according to my clients health care practitioner, we clean everything that we consume, so what's the harm???

I don't know about you, but just looking at the first stream makes me nauseous.  The idea that our body is a parallel to that just makes me sad.  We all have the ability to fix that.  But in order to do so you need to take responsibility of your body.  You need to take responsibility of your life.  Stop looking to others to create a drug that will fix it all and still allow you to live an unhealthy lifestyle.  THAT IS NOT LIVING IN REALITY!

Come back to the real world... we've missed you.

Stay Happy, Healthy, and Ready for Anything!

Our "Complicated" Health Path

We all started with a simple act between two people, hopefully in love, that turned into a 40 week adventure for our mothers.  We started in a form that was so small, so theoretically invisible, it's amazing what we became after those 40 weeks.  Then the day comes where we're born and brought into the brighter world.  What an amazing adventure just to get to that point.  Think about it... what our body went through just to get to the point of being born.  Now think about what our body does daily to keep us alive.  It really is amazing.  And just like in the first 40 weeks of your existence, most goes on without our knowledge.

Too often I am confronted with questions on "who's right" and "who's wrong" in regards to which treatments work and which are more gimmicks.  If you were to type in the phrase "Health Path" at Google's search engine you'd receive 764,000,000 websites you could look into.  Wow.  "Who's right" indeed.

After practicing Sennin-So Shiatsu for over 4 years now and learning more and more about myself and the human body, I have come to a simple conclusion:  We make it all too difficult.

We are all different.  Genetics and life styles play a vital role in our individual "Health Path".  But nonetheless, one thing we do on a daily basis is take a complicated machine like the body... and make it even more complicated.  Take this, don't take that, eliminate this, pump you with that, workout like this, but not like that, on and on and on.  It makes it impossible to fully understand what is needed to be healthy.

So through shiatsu and my training, I've tried to simplify it the best way I can.  What I have learned to be optimally healthy for my body is to:

1-Limit stress
2-Limit sugar
3-Limit dairy
4-Limit gluten
5-Eat more vegetables
6-Stay active in exercise but not overactive
7-Keep blood flowing
8-Keep the body's pH balanced and alkaline

That is about it.  The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th can theoretically be clumped together with a healthy diet style.  The 6th and 7th can relatively be worked in together, though "keeping blood flowing" in all honesty needs manual help and those, like myself, are the best way to help that.  The last has been shown to be possible with the consumption of the baking soda, like suggested by my Shiatsu Master.


That leaves number 1 left unaddressed.  This is probably the most difficult, to be honest.  There are SO MANY variables that cause us to be stressed.  Your adrenals are pumping adrenaline daily, hourly, sometimes by the minute, to handle our environment and the bombardment we're being hit with.  Most of us have no idea how to balance that either.  If someone makes you angry, doing whatever, that act will effect us for most if not all of the entire day, sometimes longer.  We, culturally, do not have any idea how to drop these stressful situations.  We don't know how to simplify our lives to make them healthier.  Until we can stop the craziness and simply just be simple, we'll be dealing with these symptoms forever.

One of my associates asked my Shiatsu Master how he stayed so healthy.  I was eager to hear his reply.  And I smiled once delivered.  "Be happy." he simply stated.  Nothing else.  "Be happy."  Seems way to easy.  Maybe it is... and that's our problem.  "There's no way it's that easy!"

You see there are millions and millions of things our body is doing without our intervention on a daily basis, so isn't it possible that in order to live efficiently all you need to do is ALLOW IT TO DO IT EFFECTIVELY?  Your body needs a specific environment, which in all honesty is easy to obtain.  It needs:

-Efficient sleep
-Fun, physical activities
-Healthy food
-Healthy fluids
-Good oxygen intake
-A balanced pH

The problem is is when we start throwing junk in replace of healthy food, junk in replace of healthy fluid, and figure that it isn't "that bad', it then creates an acidic pH throughout parts of the body.  When the body is too acidic, oxygen isn't delivered efficiently throughout the body.  This then makes life not as much fun and very stressful (Pain will do that)... which also effects your sleep.  It all comes full circle, always.  Every organ in your body works off each other.

Try and keep it simple.  Do you need to purchase hundreds and thousands of dollars in vitamins and supplements???  Last time I checked, most of these vitamins are in our vegetables, the foods we SHOULD be consuming.  Animals in the wild don't suffer from the same crap we do.  My foster brothers from Sudan, Africa didn't start having crazy health issues until they came to America... and they were living in extreme poverty while eating little.

I have a book, "The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity", written by Daniel P. Reid, and in this book (first of all it is an amazing book and I have a link at the bottom on how to obtain one.) he talks about a study that showed school children from a school in Michigan that were tested for their nutritional level with their daily meals compared to a homeless street beggar on the streets of India.  The astonishing results were that each child was technically considered malnourished, even compared to the beggar who so happened to have significant better nourishment.  I don't know about you, but that blows my mind.

Keep it simple.  Did nature intend for you to eat it?  That is the most basic and simple question to ask oneself.  Is a full grown human consuming dairy (another animal's milk) natural?  Yes???  If so... when's the last time you saw a full grown cow drinking milk out in the pasture from another cow???  "Excuse me Bessy, if you wouldn't mind leaning to one side... I'm a bit parched."  Silly as it might sound, I'm being very serious.  The only species meant to consume cow's milk... is a cow!  But they stop doing so when they have the ability to eat their own food.  This is the same across the board with all mammals.  But for some reason, we believe as a society that drinking milk is ok.  Why?...... Because you're told it's ok.  Good marketing strategy.  Drink milk or you'll suffer from brittle bones, osteoporosis, etc..  You "need the calcium".  What they don't tell you is that there is significantly more calcium in green vegetables then cow's milk... significantly more!  I personally haven't seen any cows suffering from osteoporosis... have you?

Your path is your own, never forget that.  I can't help you if you don't want me to, and that is not a frustrated statement, it is simply the truth.  If you're not willing to be helped, you wont be, by anyone... even yourself.  Nothing changes if nothing changes.  The majority of our symptoms are derived from lifestyle choices and how the body is adapting, or lack there of, to them.  There are many programs, stories, and information out there that talk about how people have eliminated, not lessen but eliminated, chronic symptoms and saved their lives from numerous diagnosed conditions by changing their life and their diet.  Most of these come from basic changes that bring their life back to simplicity.

It isn't rocket science.  If you put junk in your body expect junk as an output.  Our body doesn't just absorb freely whatever you put in it without some specific consequence.  "To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction." -Sir Isaac Newton.

Simplify your life.  Take care of that amazing machine that is your body... because throughout the majority of your entire life it has been taking care of you.  As far as we know you don't get another one.

Stay Happy, Healthy, and Ready for Anything.