gus's blog

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Offered in Miami
The impact of chronic stress is one of the strongest factors in determining a person’s overall health and well-being. A growing body of scientific research suggests that Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs significantly benefit a wide range of participants, from those suffering with chronic pain and illness, to anxiety and depression. Among healthy or otherwise undiagnosed individuals who want to develop better coping strategies and improve their quality of life, MBSR participants report enhancements in variety of ways, including greater focus, joy, and balance.
Developed in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, MBSR teaches participants to recognize and address stressors by using a variety of meditation and yoga techniques. The program has received widespread international acclaim and is offered at leading integrative medical centers around the world. However, affordable MBSR courses offered to the community by qualified instructors have been limited in Miami.
Starting Saturday, Sept 7th-Nov 2 an 8-week MBSR program will be offered at University of Miami Medical Wellness Center by Gus Castellanos, MD. Dr. Castellanos, a retired neurologist and sleep specialist, trained in MBSR at University of Massachusetts. He has been a Mindfulness/MBSR practitioner since 1999 and teacher since 2009. His warmth and vast knowledge of neurology come together in a practical, effective, and comforting blend of self-healing techniques that “Dr. Gus” expertly imparts to his growing numbers of program graduates in South Florida.
“The course and the practices are simple. However, this can be the hardest work of your life! It’s all about paying attention to the present moment, non-judgmentally, and noticing when you are not. MBSR cultivates one’s internal resources for addressing life's stresses, as well as for healing in the truest sense of its meaning,” Dr. Castellanos said. The 8-week program fee is $260 per person and includes all course materials. Full or partial scholarship may be granted to applicants who submit a written statement of need.
For more information or to register, please call Patti Allen Carbonell at 786.234-0887.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Saturdays: Sept 7th – Nov 2, 2013, 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
University of Miami Medical Wellness Center, 1120 NW 14th Street, Miami 33136
$265 per person fee, includes all course materials

The importance of sleep in daily life is that it is considered a basic necessity of life, as important to our health and well-being as air, food and water.

There are only 2 ways to look at choice and choosing, either you are the chooser or you are not!

From "As A Man Thinketh" by James Allen1.

Through the Window

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.

The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside.

Life can become effortless.  This is a guarantee when the 4 Steps "Flipping technique," developed and coached at 18Mind's Mind Syntropy Program, is learned and practiced continuously.  There are many reasons this is so.

Why do we sleep? Nobody knows! There are many theories, ideas, traditions and explanations.

Medicine and Science describe the function of sleep, but not the reason why we sleep, as having to do with resting the body and muscles that we used through out the day. Or there are theories about memory consolidation, addressing psychological issues, establishing hormone balance. However, a simple, unique explanation or reason for sleep is not given.

I suppose the 1st concept of God was "given" to me by my family and the Catholic religion of my childhood. This was mostly "the Old White Guy, with the long, grey beard." It had lots of anthropomorphic features, good and bad! Then as I reached college, alcohol, marijuana, disco, and science, I had an epiphany, that there is a huge, infinite universe, up there. This occurred around the age of 18-19 when I was visiting the local planetarium to view the planets, stars, and other celestial bodies, on a weekly basis. The Universe became full of wonder, awe, and mystery. And so did God.

• Stop entropy by identifying with Consciousness
• Allow entropy so that renewal happens
• Die to be reborn, be born to die
• We live on the interface of Entropy/past/disorganization and Syntropy/ future/organization