Richard_D
04-01-2008, 03:16 PM
Hey again everybody, this will be the eleventh testimonial I've written about my experiences here with Jos-hua and this most unbelievably supportive group of pioneering individuals.
Last Thursday put the cap on my 100th day of HPS 7DW cleansing. As I have suggested elsewhere, in the big scheme of things it doesn't matter whether I've done 50 days or 100 days or 1000; the true question is whether I'm living the lifestyle or not. There is no finish line to cross with good health.
Even so, it's a fun and encouraging thing to track the little landmarks that go by. I enjoy it, and I know there are plenty of people out there, relatively new members here who still struggle with the logistics of cleansing, those who are still working to throw off tired old issues and obstacles, and many who still perceive good health as something that's yet to be found "out there, down the road," off in the future, who look at cleansing and see an overwhelming pile of changes to be made, habits to overcome, and on, and on.
And it occurs to me that it's potentially helpful to recap here where I've been over the course of the almost 5 years of cleansing I've done following Jos-hua's unique and infinitely valuable program. And while my own experience isn't even a drop in the ocean compared to the example Jos-hua sets here year in and year out, it at least shows that this cleansing lifestyle is something that an ordinary person can attain.
I can't say it's easy by any means, but it's much easier than you can know when you're just getting started, or thinking about taking the plunge. And once you've proven to yourself with your own experience how your actions affect your health for good or for ill, and that the power to do so rests solely in your hands, then it gets easier and easier to do the right thing as time and successive cleanses pass by.
So with that in mind, I thought the best way to recap the last 5 years would be to take a quote from each of the 10 testimonials I've written to date. For those of you who thought I wrote long testimonials already, I'm afraid in all likelihood I'm going to shatter all previous records. Feel free to skim and scan ;).
Here we go!
Richard_D, Age 30, 7DW Level 1, Testimonial, Not yet half done, but still well begun: (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=634)
After reintroducing food to my system, I had a few momentary struggles with the impulse to start smoking again, but by keeping the perspective that I wasn't wanting just the next cigarette, but all the ones that would surely come after, I find I haven't had a problem staying clean...
From the fasting all I really hope is not a short-term increase in health or spirits, but to wipe the slate a little cleaner and start correcting years' worth of unfortunate decisions. I don't feel powerfully rejuvenated or anything, but since I wasn't expecting or even hoping for that, I feel fine with feeling fine...
on't feel tired or anything. I still haven't got any extra energy, so to speak, but I get through my typically demanding days with plenty to spare. I wake up around 7 every day (major improvement for me) and although I feel pretty tired at first, I'm amazed to be actually getting out of bed...
Richard_D, Age 31, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Level 2, Testimonial - Too much to tell (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=1128)
--Improved eyesight. My eyeglass prescription is still appropriate for my vision, but I suffer a lot less eye fatigue and what I see appears sharper than before.
--Pulse has calmed considerably. I love this the most, b/c sudden fatal heart attacks have an affinity for my family and in recent years I've felt as though my heart was beating a little too hard for my comfort. I can exert myself and raise my pulse and still feel totally comfortable, for the first time in probably many years. Now I feel a lot better about starting a more rigorous exercise program; although I've never had an actual heart condition, I've always worried more than I admitted to myself.
--My head seems so clear. I have a much better time concentrating on what I'm doing and getting through it efficiently. I'm still a bit absent-minded, but light years ahead now of where I was before the fast.
--Absolutely loving food! I've eaten nothing but salads and fruit for 3 days and I feel like I've been feasting at the richest tables. I couldn't have believed it before.
Richard_D, Age 31, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Level 3 cleanse. Testimonial: Up and down, but more up than ever (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=2097)
Cleansing with HPS can open your awareness to a greater appreciation of the many aspects of health and conscious living. Much of what I've learned from my time with this group here is beyond my ability to relate, but I think I can safely say that we've all discovered inspiring truths, shared and private, that we could never have suspected before starting out. Make no mistake, fasting and cleansing is an awareness-raising activity, because doing it requires that you pay attention to things that you never noticed before. You may become aware of the difference between hunger and appetite, and how that distinction is evident in areas of life that you may not have noticed the connection before, as with relationships, one's attitude at work, meeting personal challenges, etc.
Chinese student/English Teacher, Richard_D, Age 33, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING. 7DW Level 4 cleanse, Testimonial - It Just Gets Better (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=2650)
...I can say I today am more patient, with other people as well as myself. I am more patient with life in general. I am far less demanding, and less likely to sulk or be bitter when those demands are not fulfilled. I am at least somewhat more considerate of other viewpoints, and I believe I am much less prone to cause hurt feelings or other offenses. The amount of anger and frustration I have seen lift away actually causes me momentary embarrassment when I stop to reflect on how I could be expected to handle things not so long ago...
When you're in charge, you can't be a victim. When you understand the causes and effects of health, when you feel what happens when you make a bad decision, it gets a lot harder to make bad decisions.
English teacher, Richard_D, Age 33, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, Master-Faster cleanse#1, Testimonial - Best yet to come (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=2917)
It's like getting that second chance that you spend so much of your life hearing from everyone around you that you'll never get. Things seem possible again that I'd written off--I'd written myself off in the same instant--as beyond my grasp long ago. I'm contemplating changes to my life that would have positively scared me years ago, not because they're anything so terrible or massive, just uncharacteristically bold. When your health returns, a great deal of courage comes trickling back with it. I had no glimmering until comparatively recently how much I've missed by clinging out of weakness to the customary and habitual.
Teacher/Student, Richard_D, Age 33, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, Master Faster #2, Testimonial--Just getting started! (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3111)
Suddenly it's as though just knowing I'm doing something good for myself is all I need to keep doing it, whereas it never was enough of a motivation before. I used to feel major guilt over that kind of thing, I used to call myself lazy, swear at myself for being stupid, etc., I even had trouble sleeping at night sometimes because I felt guilty for not getting anything useful done during the day. My energy was poor, I was always tired, never wanted to wake up--on days off from work I used to stay in bed because I couldn't think of a reason to get out! and then eventually I needed to smoke--and I could feel at all levels like my growth and development had come to a complete stop. I was 7000+ miles from home and ironically I couldn't even feel grateful for the rare opportunity to live among people in a foreign land.
Pretty drastic, huh? But it's true; if I didn't feel all these things all at once, or every day, what I've described comprised a good 90% of my waking life. There is simply no comparison to my life today. I am back in school. I clean my kitchen and house every day, and not only that, I do it happily. In 4 days I'm embarking on a 2-month journey to fulfill a longtime goal of mine, something that even a year ago was just a dream, nothing more. Apathy, a longtime companion of mine, is breaking up like an arctic ice shelf (not a good thing, ecologically speaking, but otherwise an apt metaphor) and things are finally getting in motion again.
Richard_D, Age 34, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, Master Faster #3, Testimonial - The group makes the difference (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3325)
(Note: This was written after a long hiatus in Indonesia getting my PADI Instructor's license)
...and here on the other side of the formal, I'm finding that despite my semi-expectation of having to do a couple of cleanses to compensate for all the not-so-good stuff I'd been doing earlier this year, well, I seem to be better than ever.
How does that work? How was I able to get back into gear after a couple of months back from a long hiatus like that? I assure you, it wasn't willpower, and while my experience I'm sure had some part in things, by far the most important factor was that, through the entire time I was away, I maintained regular, almost daily contact with the group here. It kept me inspired, and much closer to a mental state of readiness than I would have had if I'd simply slipped out and faded away during that time...
Richard_D, Age 34, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Master Faster #4, Testimonial -- Now it gets interesting (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3455)
I continue to miss out on the best life has to offer, but the difference today is that I know not only can I do something about making that situation better, but that I have been doing it, even when I felt at times that I was being lazy or worse at times...and I feel confident that I'll continue making the right choices more and more often, and opening up to higher levels of practice and experience.
Seeing this realization begin to play out in my daily life is a gift that I never dreamed existed 4 years ago when I began my cleansing adventure with Jos-hua and the HPS online community.
Richard_D, Age 35, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Master Faster #5, Testimonial -- Where would I be without HPS? (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3652)
...And without all that extra health--beyond physical health, this is multidimensional rejuvenation we're talking about--how could I have possibly attained the blessings that the last few years have brought to me, most obviously my new family? A mere handful of years ago I couldn't even sustain a relationship for more than a few months, and since then I've grown so much that I'm now not only married, but I actually have a new baby--that would have been impossible!
I was just in our room last night, the baby sometimes has trouble digesting and he gets upset, cries a lot, sometimes off and on for hours, loud, too...and here I was sitting there and doing my best to deal with it, calmly--inside as well as outside--and it struck me how I used to be somewhere in public and hear a baby crying like that, and I would think, it must be hell having to deal with that in your own house, it's bad enough being exposed to other peoples' kids in small doses; and that's really it, I think, what I was dealing with last night and many times up to now would have been my personal version of hell a few years ago. My, how things have changed.
Richard D, Age 35, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Master Faster #6, Testimonial - HPS Cleansing Teaches Appetite Control (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3805)
More important than the concept of simply shedding a few pounds, the HPS faster learns the nature of appetite itself--relearns in many cases, each time one enters a new post-cleansing period right after a week of fasting, one quickly re-realizes the vast difference between the body's natural hunger for nourishment and the pathological cravings instilled over a lifetime of habit and societal pressure. If it sounds a bit odd from the outside, it really is quite a breakthrough realization, and even one level of HPS cleansing brings that distinction crashing home for many here, and a lifetime's worth of different perspective.
Appetite control, finally, has far more implications than simple weight control. The distinction between natural appetite and artificial craving is crucial to every important area of life, I'm finding.
Richard D, Age 35, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Master Faster #7, Testimonial - My First 100 Days of Cleansing with HPS-Online: a Retrospective (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3880)
:p
Sorry, just a little April Fool's humor there, couldn't resist myself.
Well folks, there's a (lengthy) slice of the record there. I doubt I do anything like this again, so for those of you who've actually managed to read this far and may be considering poking your eyes out by now, please accept my apologies, and my sincere promise not to write anything this long in a single post ever again.
On a serious note, and one that I have brought up wholeheartedly and without reservation or restraint in each and every testimonial I've written to date, there is NO WAY ON EARTH I could be where I am today, enjoying the many many blessings of my life, without the sure and selfless loving guidance of Jos-hua, and the irreplaceable support of all the wonderful caring people who make up this very special group we have here at HPS. May we have many more years to enjoy together.
Rick
Last Thursday put the cap on my 100th day of HPS 7DW cleansing. As I have suggested elsewhere, in the big scheme of things it doesn't matter whether I've done 50 days or 100 days or 1000; the true question is whether I'm living the lifestyle or not. There is no finish line to cross with good health.
Even so, it's a fun and encouraging thing to track the little landmarks that go by. I enjoy it, and I know there are plenty of people out there, relatively new members here who still struggle with the logistics of cleansing, those who are still working to throw off tired old issues and obstacles, and many who still perceive good health as something that's yet to be found "out there, down the road," off in the future, who look at cleansing and see an overwhelming pile of changes to be made, habits to overcome, and on, and on.
And it occurs to me that it's potentially helpful to recap here where I've been over the course of the almost 5 years of cleansing I've done following Jos-hua's unique and infinitely valuable program. And while my own experience isn't even a drop in the ocean compared to the example Jos-hua sets here year in and year out, it at least shows that this cleansing lifestyle is something that an ordinary person can attain.
I can't say it's easy by any means, but it's much easier than you can know when you're just getting started, or thinking about taking the plunge. And once you've proven to yourself with your own experience how your actions affect your health for good or for ill, and that the power to do so rests solely in your hands, then it gets easier and easier to do the right thing as time and successive cleanses pass by.
So with that in mind, I thought the best way to recap the last 5 years would be to take a quote from each of the 10 testimonials I've written to date. For those of you who thought I wrote long testimonials already, I'm afraid in all likelihood I'm going to shatter all previous records. Feel free to skim and scan ;).
Here we go!
Richard_D, Age 30, 7DW Level 1, Testimonial, Not yet half done, but still well begun: (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=634)
After reintroducing food to my system, I had a few momentary struggles with the impulse to start smoking again, but by keeping the perspective that I wasn't wanting just the next cigarette, but all the ones that would surely come after, I find I haven't had a problem staying clean...
From the fasting all I really hope is not a short-term increase in health or spirits, but to wipe the slate a little cleaner and start correcting years' worth of unfortunate decisions. I don't feel powerfully rejuvenated or anything, but since I wasn't expecting or even hoping for that, I feel fine with feeling fine...
on't feel tired or anything. I still haven't got any extra energy, so to speak, but I get through my typically demanding days with plenty to spare. I wake up around 7 every day (major improvement for me) and although I feel pretty tired at first, I'm amazed to be actually getting out of bed...
Richard_D, Age 31, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Level 2, Testimonial - Too much to tell (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=1128)
--Improved eyesight. My eyeglass prescription is still appropriate for my vision, but I suffer a lot less eye fatigue and what I see appears sharper than before.
--Pulse has calmed considerably. I love this the most, b/c sudden fatal heart attacks have an affinity for my family and in recent years I've felt as though my heart was beating a little too hard for my comfort. I can exert myself and raise my pulse and still feel totally comfortable, for the first time in probably many years. Now I feel a lot better about starting a more rigorous exercise program; although I've never had an actual heart condition, I've always worried more than I admitted to myself.
--My head seems so clear. I have a much better time concentrating on what I'm doing and getting through it efficiently. I'm still a bit absent-minded, but light years ahead now of where I was before the fast.
--Absolutely loving food! I've eaten nothing but salads and fruit for 3 days and I feel like I've been feasting at the richest tables. I couldn't have believed it before.
Richard_D, Age 31, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Level 3 cleanse. Testimonial: Up and down, but more up than ever (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=2097)
Cleansing with HPS can open your awareness to a greater appreciation of the many aspects of health and conscious living. Much of what I've learned from my time with this group here is beyond my ability to relate, but I think I can safely say that we've all discovered inspiring truths, shared and private, that we could never have suspected before starting out. Make no mistake, fasting and cleansing is an awareness-raising activity, because doing it requires that you pay attention to things that you never noticed before. You may become aware of the difference between hunger and appetite, and how that distinction is evident in areas of life that you may not have noticed the connection before, as with relationships, one's attitude at work, meeting personal challenges, etc.
Chinese student/English Teacher, Richard_D, Age 33, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING. 7DW Level 4 cleanse, Testimonial - It Just Gets Better (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=2650)
...I can say I today am more patient, with other people as well as myself. I am more patient with life in general. I am far less demanding, and less likely to sulk or be bitter when those demands are not fulfilled. I am at least somewhat more considerate of other viewpoints, and I believe I am much less prone to cause hurt feelings or other offenses. The amount of anger and frustration I have seen lift away actually causes me momentary embarrassment when I stop to reflect on how I could be expected to handle things not so long ago...
When you're in charge, you can't be a victim. When you understand the causes and effects of health, when you feel what happens when you make a bad decision, it gets a lot harder to make bad decisions.
English teacher, Richard_D, Age 33, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, Master-Faster cleanse#1, Testimonial - Best yet to come (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=2917)
It's like getting that second chance that you spend so much of your life hearing from everyone around you that you'll never get. Things seem possible again that I'd written off--I'd written myself off in the same instant--as beyond my grasp long ago. I'm contemplating changes to my life that would have positively scared me years ago, not because they're anything so terrible or massive, just uncharacteristically bold. When your health returns, a great deal of courage comes trickling back with it. I had no glimmering until comparatively recently how much I've missed by clinging out of weakness to the customary and habitual.
Teacher/Student, Richard_D, Age 33, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, Master Faster #2, Testimonial--Just getting started! (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3111)
Suddenly it's as though just knowing I'm doing something good for myself is all I need to keep doing it, whereas it never was enough of a motivation before. I used to feel major guilt over that kind of thing, I used to call myself lazy, swear at myself for being stupid, etc., I even had trouble sleeping at night sometimes because I felt guilty for not getting anything useful done during the day. My energy was poor, I was always tired, never wanted to wake up--on days off from work I used to stay in bed because I couldn't think of a reason to get out! and then eventually I needed to smoke--and I could feel at all levels like my growth and development had come to a complete stop. I was 7000+ miles from home and ironically I couldn't even feel grateful for the rare opportunity to live among people in a foreign land.
Pretty drastic, huh? But it's true; if I didn't feel all these things all at once, or every day, what I've described comprised a good 90% of my waking life. There is simply no comparison to my life today. I am back in school. I clean my kitchen and house every day, and not only that, I do it happily. In 4 days I'm embarking on a 2-month journey to fulfill a longtime goal of mine, something that even a year ago was just a dream, nothing more. Apathy, a longtime companion of mine, is breaking up like an arctic ice shelf (not a good thing, ecologically speaking, but otherwise an apt metaphor) and things are finally getting in motion again.
Richard_D, Age 34, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, Master Faster #3, Testimonial - The group makes the difference (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3325)
(Note: This was written after a long hiatus in Indonesia getting my PADI Instructor's license)
...and here on the other side of the formal, I'm finding that despite my semi-expectation of having to do a couple of cleanses to compensate for all the not-so-good stuff I'd been doing earlier this year, well, I seem to be better than ever.
How does that work? How was I able to get back into gear after a couple of months back from a long hiatus like that? I assure you, it wasn't willpower, and while my experience I'm sure had some part in things, by far the most important factor was that, through the entire time I was away, I maintained regular, almost daily contact with the group here. It kept me inspired, and much closer to a mental state of readiness than I would have had if I'd simply slipped out and faded away during that time...
Richard_D, Age 34, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Master Faster #4, Testimonial -- Now it gets interesting (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3455)
I continue to miss out on the best life has to offer, but the difference today is that I know not only can I do something about making that situation better, but that I have been doing it, even when I felt at times that I was being lazy or worse at times...and I feel confident that I'll continue making the right choices more and more often, and opening up to higher levels of practice and experience.
Seeing this realization begin to play out in my daily life is a gift that I never dreamed existed 4 years ago when I began my cleansing adventure with Jos-hua and the HPS online community.
Richard_D, Age 35, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Master Faster #5, Testimonial -- Where would I be without HPS? (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3652)
...And without all that extra health--beyond physical health, this is multidimensional rejuvenation we're talking about--how could I have possibly attained the blessings that the last few years have brought to me, most obviously my new family? A mere handful of years ago I couldn't even sustain a relationship for more than a few months, and since then I've grown so much that I'm now not only married, but I actually have a new baby--that would have been impossible!
I was just in our room last night, the baby sometimes has trouble digesting and he gets upset, cries a lot, sometimes off and on for hours, loud, too...and here I was sitting there and doing my best to deal with it, calmly--inside as well as outside--and it struck me how I used to be somewhere in public and hear a baby crying like that, and I would think, it must be hell having to deal with that in your own house, it's bad enough being exposed to other peoples' kids in small doses; and that's really it, I think, what I was dealing with last night and many times up to now would have been my personal version of hell a few years ago. My, how things have changed.
Richard D, Age 35, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Master Faster #6, Testimonial - HPS Cleansing Teaches Appetite Control (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3805)
More important than the concept of simply shedding a few pounds, the HPS faster learns the nature of appetite itself--relearns in many cases, each time one enters a new post-cleansing period right after a week of fasting, one quickly re-realizes the vast difference between the body's natural hunger for nourishment and the pathological cravings instilled over a lifetime of habit and societal pressure. If it sounds a bit odd from the outside, it really is quite a breakthrough realization, and even one level of HPS cleansing brings that distinction crashing home for many here, and a lifetime's worth of different perspective.
Appetite control, finally, has far more implications than simple weight control. The distinction between natural appetite and artificial craving is crucial to every important area of life, I'm finding.
Richard D, Age 35, HPS ADVANCED CLEANSING, 7DW Master Faster #7, Testimonial - My First 100 Days of Cleansing with HPS-Online: a Retrospective (http://hpscleansing.com/group/showthread.php?t=3880)
:p
Sorry, just a little April Fool's humor there, couldn't resist myself.
Well folks, there's a (lengthy) slice of the record there. I doubt I do anything like this again, so for those of you who've actually managed to read this far and may be considering poking your eyes out by now, please accept my apologies, and my sincere promise not to write anything this long in a single post ever again.
On a serious note, and one that I have brought up wholeheartedly and without reservation or restraint in each and every testimonial I've written to date, there is NO WAY ON EARTH I could be where I am today, enjoying the many many blessings of my life, without the sure and selfless loving guidance of Jos-hua, and the irreplaceable support of all the wonderful caring people who make up this very special group we have here at HPS. May we have many more years to enjoy together.
Rick