Today was different. I awoke this morning to my first sunrise picture. Driving my daughter to school in the Santa Ynez Valley, there was a distinct cloud layer, like a soft fluffy white blanket hovering over the pastures and vineyards, with the mountains rising above overlooking the contrast of light and dark.

This was a reminder for me of the duality that we experience in living amid such a dynamically changing world.

On my return home, I tuned SiriusXM to PRX Public Radio Exchange for the first time. There I discovered The Lemon Tree, an informative, enlightening and provocative program about a Palestinian boy and Jewish girl giving their perspectives of what he lost and what she gained in 1948 and 1966.

This is the first and only radio program I have ever listened to for a solid hour. It is an enormously well done and award-winning piece of dramatic journalism, made for listening.

The emotional tones underlying the spoken word touched my heart.

Interestingly, just before this program aired, there was a short program about The Mantra Trailer. A young woman was traveling the United States, inviting strangers to record the mantra of their choosing in her mantra trailer as a way to counteract the thousands of programming messages we are exposed to daily from TV.

These two programs are complements for each other. One is about tragic drama, heart-rending loss and a compassionate heart; the other is about what we say to ourselves and others about the mystery of living amid such duality.

There is a third leg to this stool that wobbles perilously without it. The third leg offers a path through this dramatic Game of Life (and Heart).

The third leg is about how we have the opportunity to re-program ourselves for a better future. This is a journey I have personally explored for more than three decades.

There are three pieces to this puzzle that are a perennial mystery

» Movement

» Breath

» Brain/mind

These three components are blended synergistically into a moving mantra of programming for a better future.

The first piece is to move rhythmically, such as a brisk walk, jog or repetitive exercise on a stationary bike or elliptical machine.

The second piece is to breathe deeply in rhythm with the movement, thereby maximizing the oxygen uptake of your brain and muscle tissue.

The third piece is to silently repeat your intention for a better future, in rhythm with your breath, in rhythm with your movement.

If clarifying your intention for a better future is too challenging, narrow this down to one of the following: an important need, want, goal, wish, hope, affirmation, mantra or even prayer.

Pick one of those categories for yourself, and possibly those you care about, and put it into words in the form of a positive statement about what you want for a better future.

This is not pop psychology. This is, instead, a powerful method I have used, after much personal struggle and suffering, to find the woman I love and have been married to for almost 30 years.

I have used it with partners to build three different service companies on two continents that were recognized as being No. 1 in this space. I have used it to help heal myself, wife and daughter of double pneumonia while immersed in a highly toxic environment in Shanghai, China.

This method is drawn from ancient traditions and contemporary understanding of how the brain/mind works. It should be treated with respect and used judiciously. If what you input brings up garbage from the past, fine-tune your input program to counteract and dissolve that negativity with a more positive intention or goal.

Undertaking this journey toward a better future begins with the private formulation of your most strategic and heartfelt intention, and the repetition of that in rhythm with your movement, in rhythm with your breath.

Once you test this method and understand how to use it, your life will never again be the same. Guaranteed.

In this manner, we each begin the creation of our own personalized better future, step by step, one by one.

Hmmmm, the Power of One for a Better Future. Is that cool, or what? 🙂

— Irv Beiman is a Santa Ynez Valley resident. The opinions expressed are his own.