Ricky's Riffs:

Random Thoughts on Travel, Education, Health, and the World in General


Toward a New Definition of Health

August 24th, 2009

Over the last several decades, we have seen the proliferation of many types of therapies, from Chiropractic to Acupuncture to Rolfing to Sports Medicine. Presumably, with this great expansion, we have had the opportunity to become healthier than we have ever been before. All we need to do is avail ourselves of these modalities and we will be well. So it would seem.
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Evolutionary Healing

July 14th, 2009

We ride on elevated rails and freeways, pass through subterranean tubes, moving quickly from apartment to office, home entertainment center to computer work station, from couch to seat. We sit before glowing screens, transporting data and occasionally rise to get some water, or perhaps a cigarette, relieving ourselves of the sedentary strain of our working lives. We notice the ache in our shoulders, the stiffness in our necks, that we have gained a few pounds, and feel one of our “normal” headaches coming on. “Must get back to the gym,” we tell ourselves. “It’s been a few weeks.”
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Are Categories Real

September 26th, 2008

Somewhere in our development, a sense of self, of me and mine, arises. Perhaps our curious attachment to this identity is simply a survival mechanism, helping us to separate from the world beyond our senses, enabling us to navigate effectively. Read the rest of this entry »


Connection and Connectivity

September 26th, 2008

Email, text messages, skype, blackberries, Facebook, and MySpace. Never in the history of humankind have we had the level of technological connection that we experience today. Read the rest of this entry »


The Nature of Health and Healing

September 20th, 2008

We live on many levels—the physical, emotional, chemical, and spiritual—each one vibrating at its own frequency, bodies of energetic resonance or dissonance. The source of these energies is the vast cosmic field through which we move, our bodies assimilating and then cycling back these universal forces, accepting and transmitting, smoothly and calmly, or resisting, blocking the inexorable flow that keeps us vital.Read the rest of this entry »