Charlie Badenhop

With A Little Help From Our Friends
Published at eSpiritCenter-Oriental Philosophies & Teachings on November 12, 2004
The quality of one's life to a large extent is determined by the quality of our relationships with others. When we feel we have no choice but to face the world alone, we suffer emotionally, physically, and spiritually, and no degree of outward success can replace or repair the lonely feeling in our heart. No matter how talented, wealthy, or trim and fit we might appear to be, without supportive relationships it is a difficult challenge for any one of us to maintain physical and emotional health. Children, pets, loved ones, mentors, colleagues, and teachers, can all help us fulfill our need for connection to other sentient, limbic beings.

Trust in the Moment, and Trust in Yourself
Published at eSpiritCenter-Oriental Philosophies & Teachings on October 4, 2004
Do you often get yourself upset and feeling less than fully confident, as part of your preparation for facing a daunting challenge? You can improve your performance if you let your somatic intelligence lead the way. "You move too much to be effective." Tamura sensei softly shouted at me. "You need to give your opponent a clearer target to strike at."

Integrating The Body's Four Brains: The Paradox of Reason and Emotion
Published at eSpiritCenter-General Spirituality on September 4, 2004
Many of us live our lives shuttling back and forth between our rational and emotional personalities. Our rational self tells us we need to lose weight and exercise more, while our emotional self has us eating potato chips and watching reruns on TV. We can understand a great deal about the push and pull of our emotions and our intellect by learning some basic facts about evolution. Science tells us that due to millions of years of evolution, each human being is now the proud owner of an intelligence made up of four brains.

Mushin - Peak Performance States in Aikido Philosophy
Published at eSpiritCenter-Oriental Philosophies & Teachings on August 19, 2004
In Aikido we learn how to enter into a peak performance state that in the Japanese arts is known as "mushin." In Seishindo work we often call "mushin" a state of "embodied presence." "Mushin" is similar to the term "flow state" as used by many people to describe the conditions for peak performance. For several years now I have been defining "embodied presence/mushin" in the following manner: "When the structure of your body is balanced, and your thinking mind is fully present but not engaged in any form of internal dialogue, you will tend to release any extraneous thoughts or actions and enter into the flow state of "mushin."

The Paradox of One And Many in Aikido Philosophy
Published at eSpiritCenter-Oriental Philosophies & Teachings on August 12, 2004
My Aikido teacher Koichi Tohei sensei used to say that in a healthy person the flow of their "ki" (the energy inherent throughout the Universe) is like the outpouring of an underground spring sitting at the bottom of a deep lake. The spring feeds water to the lake, much like we can feed the universe healing energy. The spring feeds the lake a constant flow of water without ever being diminished, and this outpouring of water is not impeded by the weight and pressure of the lake bearing down upon it. When ki flows it follows the path of least resistance. This is a path of great power. As human beings we are designed to feed energy to the universe, by following a path of least resistance.

Cultivating Ki Flow and Mindfulness, Manifesting Mind
Published at eSpiritCenter-Oriental Philosophies & Teachings on August 5, 2004
This article is the second in a three part series. In my first article in this series I talked about "Energy, Spirit and Mind" and introduced how these terms are used in Seishindo. In this article I am going to talk about how to cultivate "ki" the energy that is the source of all life. If this is the first article in this series you are reading, you might want to first read my last article, so you have a better understanding of how we think about "ki" in Seishindo. No one has absolute knowledge (except through faith) of where ki originates from and no one knows where our personal ki goes to after we die.

The Ki of Aikido-An Oriental Concept of ''Energy'', ''Self'' and ''Mind''
Published at eSpiritCenter-Oriental Philosophies & Teachings on July 28, 2004
This article is the first as a three part series. It will introduce you to the concepts of Energy, Self, and Mind, from an Oriental perspective. The second article in the series will talk about cultivating "ki" within one's self. The third article will discuss how an Aikido practitioner attempts to sense, understand, and blend with the "ki" of their partner, and point to how you can use such a mindset in your daily life.

Recipes for Stress
Published at eSpiritCenter-Alternative Health on July 22, 2004
It is within your power to reduce the stressful reactions that you have. A key to changing your reactions is being able to track the way in which you generate stress. Recently, a coaching colleague told me a story about his client "Jim" who gets into many arguments and confrontations with others. After each altercation Jim spends a good deal of time attempting to convince my coaching colleague as to how the other person's behavior was the catalyst for what took place. One of his favorite expressions is "I hate it when people jump to conclusions without first getting all of the facts." In return my colleague has spent a good deal of time trying to show Jim how his behavior and thinking play a key role in creating his many problems.

Self-Hypnosis
Published at eSpiritCenter-Hypnosis, NLP & Mind Power on July 15, 2004
Self hypnosis is a fascinating and complex subject. I believe that most people develop an interest in self hypnosis because they want to be able to live a life of greater fulfillment. People have a desire to accomplish certain goals that they currently seem incapable of achieving, and thus they have an inkling that there must be "a better way." It is important to remember:
THE SELF IS A RELATIONSHIP- BOTH INTRAPERSONAL AND INTERPERSONAL

Melting The Thinking Mind
Published at eSpiritCenter-Inspiration on July 8, 2004
Do you ever find that your level of self confidence tends to go up and down like the stock market? Or perhaps it even goes up and down along with the stock market! Here is a story about a Japanese businessman that might give you a new perspective. I recently heard from a friend, about a Japanese business man that has created a highly successful business with hundreds of stores throughout the country. At first I thought my friend was going to be telling me about the "how to" of business success, but instead the story took quite a different path than I was expecting. What follows is my version of an inspiring story.

The Language of the Somatic Self
Published at eSpiritCenter-Oriental Philosophies & Teachings on July 1, 2004
At every moment in time your subconscious mind speaks to you through your body, in a language that is as refined, systematic, and complete as your verbal language. This "somatic" language that your body communicates in forms the basis of the non-cognitive wisdom known as sixth sense, intuition, or "somatic intelligence." Becoming fluent in somatic language can help you to think less, yet know more. It is like having your own personal consultant, who you can ask for additional insight.

Perfection
Published at eSpiritCenter-General Spirituality on June 26, 2004
I want to talk about the importance of "not-knowing". Learning something new about our Self, and the world we live in, often requires that we first un-learn what we have learned in the past. We often get taught very powerful yet incorrect lessons as we go through life. For instance, a child incorrectly gets "taught" by a screaming adult, that he is careless, lazy, selfish, or just plain dumb. When the child naively believes what the screaming adult is "teaching" him, the likelihood that the child will learn new and life affirming things about himself in the future, will tend to be seriously impeded.