Your health changes--for better or worse--one small invisible step at a time.

I love this time of year. One of my favorite activities is cutting firewood for the approaching winter. There's nothing more comfortable on a blustery winter day than a warm, cozy fire in the wood stove. As I was cutting wood the other day, it occurred to me that the process of transforming big logs into firewood mirrors our health. It happens one seemingly insignificant step at a time. This is true for a positive path or a negative one in your health.

Take a look at the photo below.


The first blow with the maul barely made a dent in the wood. It seemed insignificant. But it was a start...

After about 20 more blows, this happened:


Usually, a noticeable crack appears across the diameter of the log and then, after a couple more strikes, the log splits. That's what I expected and I had planned to take a picture of the first big crack. But that didn't happen this time. I was pounding away, making seemingly insignificantly dents and then all of a sudden, with one strike, I had a complete split. It seemed instantaneous. But, of course, there was a lot leading up to that instantaneous split.

And then, with just a few more swings, I had this:


Think of your health. What direction are your seemingly insignificant steps taking you...?

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor, lightworker, energy healer, writer, speaker
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

PS: This week's update on the Oby Phenomenon:



You can now purchase or order Oby's Wisdom! A Caveman's Simple Gude to Health and Well-being at your favorite local bookstore. Here in the Inland Northwest, Oby is on the shelves at these locations:
Spokane: Auntie's Bookstore, downtown
Coeur d'Alene: Hastings and Borders
Sandpoint: Inquire Within, Winter Ridge Natural Foods Market, Zero Point and Vanderford's Books & Office Products

You can also visit the official Oby's Wisdom website to purchase a copy. www.ObysWisdom.com

Read reviews (all of which are 5 star) and buy Oby's Wisdom on Amazon.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association's Amazon Book Store.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at BarnesAndNoble.com

In India and other locations in Asia, Oby's Wisdom is available at Infibeam.com and FriendsOfBooks.com
(Free shipping in India.)

If you would prefer to read the book digitally, you can find Oby's Wisdom in various digital formats at:

Barnes and Noble's Nook

Sony e-reader

Other digital formats at Smashwords.com

Oby's Wisdom is now available in Apple's iPad store.

Coming any day now(I hope) to Amazon's Kindle store.
(If you have a Kindle reader of have the Kindle program on your computer or samrt phone, you can buy the Kindle version of Oby's Wisdom at Smashwords.com

Nature (Including You) Rejuvenates

One hundred years ago this week, the great fire of 1910 roared through North Idaho, Western Montana and Eastern Washington, scorching over 5 million acres of lush forest. During one 36 hour period on August 20 - 21 a firestorm now known as The Big Blowup burned 3 million acres of National Forest. At least 85 people, mostly firefighters, died in the blaze and 8 billion board feet of timber were destroyed. Evidence of the fire is still visible today. But to see it, you have to look pretty close. Although the fire damage was total in many locations, the forest immediately began to come back to life. For many years now, the forests of the Inland Northwest have thrived.

The photo at the top is the forest today, north of Sandpoint, Idaho. That's the Pack River.

Below is a photo of a huge tree that was burned but survived the fire. Several years ago, it died and toppled over. Burn marks are still visible. And the "dead" tree has become a home for new life.



Below are a couple photos of stumps of old cedar trees near the Pack River that probably died in the fire. Note how new growth has taken root inside of the stumps.




The next photo is of a gigantic ponderosa pine on Canfield Mountain near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. It is known to local hikers and horseback riders as The Big Tree. I'm pretty sure that this tree is well over 100 years old. What you can't see in this picture is that the top of the tree looks dead. Bare wood. Below it, a long expanse of massive living, green branches. Although it seems evident that The Big Tree was severly damaged in the fire, it continues to thrive today.



The rejuvenating power of Nature -- of life -- is amazing.

That power is in you!

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor, lightworker, energy healer, writer, speaker
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

PS: This week's update on the Oby Phenomenon:



This week's highlight: Tune in this Friday, August 20, 10 AM Pacific time to hear me interiewed on The Hollis Chapman Show on Blog Talk Radio.



You can now purchase or order Oby's Wisdom! A Caveman's Simple Gude to Health and Well-being at your favorite local bookstore. Here in the Inland Northwest, Oby is on the shelves at these locations:
Spokane: Auntie's Bookstore, downtown
Coeur d'Alene: Hastings and Borders
Sandpoint: Inquire Within, Winter Ridge Natural Foods Market, Zero Point and Vanderford's Books & Office Products


You can also visit the official Oby's Wisdom website to purchase a copy. www.ObysWisdom.com

Read reviews (all of which are 5 star) and buy Oby's Wisdom on Amazon.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association's Amazon Book Store.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at BarnesAndNoble.com

In India and other locations in Asia, Oby's Wisdom is available at Infibeam.com and FriendsOfBooks.com
(Free shipping in India.)

If you would prefer to read the book digitally, you can find Oby's Wisdom in various digital formats at:

Barnes and Noble's Nook

Sony e-reader

Other digital formats at Smashwords.com

Oby's Wisdom is now available in Apple's iPad store.

Coming any day now(I hope) to Amazon's Kindle store.
(If you have a Kindle reader of have the Kindle program on your computer or samrt phone, you can buy the Kindle version of Oby's Wisdom at Smashwords.com

"Life isn't about how to survive the storm....but how to dance in the rain." ~Judy Irving

A view from Sea Cliff State Park (near Encinitas) looking south toward La Jolla





I'm ba-a-a-ack! (Sort of.)

I didn't post a blog the last two weeks becaues I was vacationing in San Diego. You might say I was "dancing in the rain."

Enjoy this week's post - photos.


Yosemite Valley from the airplane.






Cricket and I at her daughter, Janelle's wedding






Wildflowers in San Diego






A desert mountain range south of Las Vegas






A picture of Cricket taking a picture from the airplane.




Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor, lightworker, energy healer, writer, speaker
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

PS: This week's update on the Oby Phenomenon:

This week's highlight: Oby is now available on another website in India!

You can now purchase or order Oby's Wisdom! A Caveman's Simple Gude to Health and Well-being at your favorite local bookstore. Here in the Inland Northwest, Oby is on the shelves at these locations:
Spokane: Auntie's Bookstore, downtown
Coeur d'Alene: Hastings and Borders
Sandpoint: Inquire Within, Winter Ridge Natural Foods Market, Zero Point and Vanderford's Books & Office Products


You can also visit the official Oby's Wisdom website to purchase a copy. www.ObysWisdom.com

Read reviews (all of which are 5 star) and buy Oby's Wisdom on Amazon.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association's Amazon Book Store.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at BarnesAndNoble.com

In India and other locations in Asia, Oby's Wisdom is available at Infibeam.com and FriendsOfBooks.com
(Free shipping in India.)

If you would prefer to read the book digitally, you can find Oby's Wisdom in various digital formats at:

Barnes and Noble's Nook

Sony e-reader

Other digital formats at Smashwords.com

Oby's Wisdom is now available in Apple's iPad store.

Coming within a couple of weeks (I'm told) to Kindle.

The way we treat the world is a reflection of how we treat ourselves.

In last week’s post, I discussed how fighting is the predominant approach to health and healthcare in today’s society. The example I used was a headline I recently read: “Use Yoga to Combat Stress.”

"Chemicals and Blades..."
Whenever we have a “problem” with our health what do we do? We attack the invader with chemicals. We have chemicals that are supposed to kill invaders and we have other chemicals that claim to promote health. Many of these chemicals are “natural.” If the chemicals don’t do a good enough job, we resort to blades. All too often, the chemicals and blades don’t work anyway. For many people, during the whole process, little to no thought is given to enhancing the vibrant inherent health that shines within all of us. Enhancing health, as our first course of action, always serves us the best. Sometimes chemicals and blades can be helpful, too, but should only be considered as an adjunct, with “facilitating life” as our foundational approach to health.

Is it any surprise, then, that that is how we treat the world around us? The way that most of our food is grown is by using blades to remove the surrounding Nature (including rain forests) and then planting vast monoculture tracts of one crop (which is far too often hybridized or genetically modified), and then using plenty of chemicals to kill “pests” and “weeds” and more chemicals to stimulate growth. The result: A poisoned water supply, a food supply that is making us sick rather than nourishing us, and a planet that—unless we make a big shift—will no longer be able to sustain us.

Is it any surprise that when there are disagreements between people, we resort to chemicals and blades (and bullets and bombs…) to “solve” the problem. Even when we don’t actually engage in armed combat, a fight mentality exists…
Fighting injustice…
Fighting for your rights…

I was once at an event where we listened to a great presentation on Human Rights. During the discussion afterwards, one of the audience members, himself a highly respected human rights activist, declared, “We must fight hate!”

Hmmmm…

I’ll leave you with this question to ponder:

Is it even possible to win a fight…?

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor, lightworker, energy healer, writer, speaker
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

PS: Read this week's update on the Oby Phenomenon:

I had a wonderful interview on Friday with The Psyche Whisperer, A.J. Mahari. Listen to the interview here:

Listen to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/">internet radio with ajmahari on Blog Talk Radio

You can now purchase or order Oby's Wisdom! A Caveman's Simple Gude to Health and Well-being at your favorite local bookstore. Here in the Inland Northwest, Oby is on the shelves at these locations:
Spokane: Auntie's Bookstore, downtown
Coeur d'Alene: Hastings and Borders
Sandpoint: Inquire Within, Winter Ridge Natural Foods Market, Zero Point and Vanderford's Books & Office Products


You can also visit the official Oby's Wisdom website to purchase a copy. www.ObysWisdom.com

Read reviews (all of which are 5 star) and buy Oby's Wisdom on Amazon.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association's Amazon Book Store.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at BarnesAndNoble.com

In India and other locations in Asia, Oby's Wisdom is available at Infibeam.com
(Free shipping in India.)

If you would prefer to read the book digitally, you can find Oby's Wisdom in various digital formats at:

Barnes and Noble's Nook

Sony e-reader

Other digital formats at Smashwords.com

Oby's Wisdom is now available in Apple's iPad store.

Coming eventually to Kindle.

Health and well-being are harmony, not combat.

Recently I saw a headline on a health related website that read, “Use Yoga to Combat Stress.”

Yoga…? Combat…!? Hmmm…

I have been practicing yoga regularly for over 25 years and it has never felt like combat to me. And all of the yoga teachers I have ever known have been pretty different from the hand-to-hand combat instructors I knew when I was in the Marines.

Does yoga help relieve stress? Yes! Is stress relief the reason I practice yoga? Nope! I practice yoga because of what it does for me and not to fight anything within me. Yoga turns on life; it deepens my state of internal harmony.

“Fighting” is an all-too-prevalent theme in our healthcare world. How often have you heard or read phrases like:
Cancer fighting…
Stress busting…
Germ killing…
Fat burning…
Stopping (whatever) in its tracks…

Fight! Fight! Fight! Everyone loves a good fight. Deciding to fight something can give us the illusion of action, strength and power but, in reality, fighting DISempowers us because it anchors us into a low rate of vibration. When we’re fighting we don’t grow…

A more empowering perspective is to always remember that we are all beautiful, perfect, inherently healthy beings, buzzing with vibrant life. Intervention (a better perspective than “fighting”) can be useful sometimes, but it serves us best when applied within the context of harmony, healing, growth, expansion and turning on life.

More thoughts on harmony vs. combat – beyond health – next week…

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor, lightworker, energy healer, writer, speaker
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

PS: Read this week's update on the Oby Phenomenon:



You can now purchase or order Oby's Wisdom! A Caveman's Simple Gude to Health and Well-being at your favorite local bookstore. Here in the Inland Northwest, Oby is on the shelves at these locations:
Spokane: Auntie's Bookstore, downtown
Coeur d'Alene: Hastings and Borders
Sandpoint: Inquire Within, Winter Ridge Natural Foods Market, Zero Point and Vanderford's Books & Office Products


You can also visit the official Oby's Wisdom website to purchase a copy. www.ObysWisdom.com

Read reviews (all of which are 5 star) and buy Oby's Wisdom on Amazon.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association's Amazon Book Store.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at BarnesAndNoble.com

In India and other locations in Asia, Oby's Wisdom is available at Infibeam.com
(Free shipping in India.)

If you would prefer to read the book digitally, you can find Oby's Wisdom in various digital formats at:

Barnes and Noble's Nook

Sony e-reader

Other digital formats at Smashwords.com

Oby's Wisdom is now available in Apple's iPad store.

Coming eventually to Kindle.

Now is a good time to declare independence from belief systems that no longer serve you.

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

I devoted my blogging time this past week to putting together a list of books, DVDs and websites for someone I know who is on a healing journey and is open to a new perspective. What a perfect thing to share today!

I've also included some of my favorite photos for you to enjoy.

Books:

Oby’s Wisdom! (of course.)

Peace, Love and Healing
by Bernie Siegel, MD

Love, Medicine and Miracles
by Bernie Siegel, MD

The Biology of Belief
by Bruce Lipton, Ph.D.

Messages from Water
by Masaru Emoto

Re-inventing Medicine
by Larry Dossey, M.D.

The Twelve Stages of Healing
by Donald M. Epstien

It’s Not About he Bike. My Journey Back to Life
by Lance Armstrong



DVDs:

What If? The Movie
http://www.WhatIfTheMovie.tv

The Living Matrix
http://TheLivingMatrixMovie.com

Numen: The Nature of Plants
http://www.NumenFilm.com

(There are lots of great video clips and interviews on the movie websites above.)



Other websites:

www.BernieSiegelMD.com
Bernie Siegel’s official website. Bernie is one of the pioneers and preeminent authors and speakers in the holistic health world. He has had a more profound impact on me than any other author.

www.BruceLipton.com
Bruce Lipton, Ph.D.’s website. Bruce is one of today's most respected and sought after authors and teachers on the subject of the power of human consciuosness. He is truly cutting edge! I have personally met Bruce. He was a visiting professor when I was a student at Palmer. What an amazing mind!

Enjoy!

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor, lightworker, energy healer, writer, speaker
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

PS: Here is the latest update on the Oby Phenomenon:



You can now purchase or order Oby's Wisdom! A Caveman's Simple Gude to Health and Well-being at your favorite local bookstore. Here in the Inland Northwest, Oby is on the shelves at these locations:
Spokane: Auntie's Bookstore, downtown
Coeur d'Alene: Hastings and Borders
Sandpoint: Inquire Within, Winter Ridge Natural Foods Market, Zero Point and Vanderford's Books & Office Products




You can also visit the official Oby's Wisdom website to purchase a copy. www.ObysWisdom.com

Buy Oby's Wisdom on Amazon.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at BarnesAndNoble.com

In India and other locations in Asia, Oby's Wisdom is available at Infibeam.com
(Free shipping in India.)

If you would prefer to read the book digitally, you can find Oby's Wisdom in various digital formats at:

Barnes and Noble's Nook

Sony e-reader

Other digital formats at Smashwords.com

Oby's Wisdom is now available in Apple's iPad store.

Coming eventually to Kindle.

Health and healthcare are two very different things.

This is a photo I took of some beautiful Lupine flowers in bloom in the woods north of Sandpoint, Idaho. No human planted it, fertilized it, used any sort of chemicals on it or “cared” for it in any way.

The Lupine are thriving as designed. They are beautiful and perfect!

What would happen to the flower and the surrounding ecosystem if we started subjecting it to chemicals and blades…?

Other examples:





You are beautiful and perfect!

Until next time,
Dr. Mark William Cochran
Chiropractor, lightworker, energy healer, writer, speaker
Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

PS: Here is the latest update on the Oby Phenomenon:



You can now purchase or order Oby's Wisdom! A Caveman's Simple Gude to Health and Well-being at your favorite local bookstore. Here in the Inland Northwest, Oby is on the shelves at these locations:
Spokane: Auntie's Bookstore, downtown
Coeur d'Alene: Hastings and Borders
Sandpoint: Inquire Within, Winter Ridge Natural Foods Market, Zero Point and Vanderford's Books & Office Products




You can also visit the official Oby's Wisdom website to purchase a copy. www.ObysWisdom.com

Buy Oby's Wisdom on Amazon.

Buy Oby's Wisdom at BarnesAndNoble.com

In India and other locations in Asia, Oby's Wisdom is available at Infibeam.com
(Free shipping in India.)

If you would prefer to read the book digitally, you can find Oby's Wisdom in various digital formats at:

Barnes and Noble's Nook

Sony e-reader

Other digital formats at Smashwords.com

Oby's Wisdom is now available in Apple's iPad store.

Coming eventually to Kindle.