I have been pondering what to do next in this weekly email on Health and Fitness. There are some big issue coming up in the next few weeks. But before I kick out on these I have a thought. What would it be for a man to have a health and fitness mission.

A mission of service not to the world but your physical form. It makes sense to me. With this could then come a shadow mission.

If I model this it would look like this for me. (I use the term Being rather than Body as it is too restrictive for me.)

My Health and Fitness Mission:

I create a Being that is strong, dynamic and elastic with lots of regeneration by the conscious use of weight training, running and stretching with a diet that truly serves only my health and looking after my vitality. I take total responsibility for all this. I will die on my terms.

My health and Fitness Shadow Mission:

I create a Being that is weak, lethargic and restricted with lots of degeneration by the unconscious use of laziness, lack of exercise and movement with a diet that serves only my weaknesses and I abusing my vitality. I blame others and the world for all this. I will die from neglect and excess.

I immagine that most of you can feel the tension between the mission and shadow mission. There are a number of authors that speak of the Body as Shadow. Carl Jung and Wilhelm Reich among them, it is a powerful place to work and to find self accountability and integrity.

What might these missions look like in your life?

Next Week – Middle age spread…how to make it optional!

Check it out, this is real!

Click here to Audio Interview >>

On Wednesday the First of September I have arranged the use of Cinema 4 at Sylvia Park, along with the La Premier lounge , at no cost.

We have also sorted the rights to show the fantastic New Zealand Documentary “This Way of Life”. Great movie, some of you may have already seen it but there won’t be many more (if any) chances to see it on the big screen. If you haven’t seen it before, you’re in for a treat.

Before the movie from 7pm we have the use of the La Premier lounge as mentioned, where we are offering all ticket holders complimentary wine, beer and finger food. At 8pm we will invite our guests to move to the cinema, where there will be a brief introduction to the Mankind Project and what we stand for. The movie will commence directly after this.

We don’t have many events to get together and show our collective face to the ‘public’, so this event doubles as a gathering in a relaxed environment (ie no bucketing planned). I would encourage all men to bring along friends, wives, significant others etc. This is a nice ’soft’ introduction to MKP for those in your lives. (And there is a training coming up in October.)

There is another way! The skills of relationship are learnable. In the ManKind Project, we often talk about these skills as growing our connection to feeling, waking up, or building emotional intelligence. You can learn to stop being enslaved by your anger or fear, learn to share openly without shame the deepest parts of yourself, learn to express love and joy in a way that fosters powerful relationships, learn to feel safe and whole around men and women. Emotional literacy is widely recognized today as the most important factor in creating a successful and deeply satisfying life. You can continue to think your way through life, pushing away the unpleasant feelings that are cycling through your mind and body, but you will miss most of the experiences that make life worth living.

That’s not what you want. You want to live fully.

The New Warrior Training Adventure could be for you.

The ManKind Project supports men. We help each other. Through our trainings, our social networks and our ongoing men’s groups we engage one another at a deep emotional level, sharing the highs and the lows. Having a broad support structure leads to healthier coping mechanisms and better physical and emotional health, life-long. You will be able to create and maintain relationships with men that are not just socially satisfying, but that will help you move forward in meaningful ways in your life.

Your family will benefit, your work will benefit, your friendships will benefit. Many men experience a level of aliveness that they have never known before. We challenge each other to keep growing. We support each other in all our life’s experiences. Competitive energy no longer isolates us from each other, but becomes a spice in our relationships, helping each of us to become the men we want to be.

MKP NZ is registered as a charitable trust in New Zealand.  This was achieved through much effort, persistence and patience by men on  Centre Council – the governance identity who guide MKP in New Zealand.

This certification allows men who pay fees for participating or staffing in the NWTA weekend, for the follow-on Primary Intergration Training and/or any other donations to offset these against income in tax returns. Please discuss the details with your accountant.

The onus is on each man to notify the Chief Financial Officer of donations made.  A record will be kept of all such notified donations.  Also, details of each man’s financial year end (determining when an annual donations receipt will be generated) as well as the name and address on the receipt should be made to the Chief Financial Officer (m@planetwine.co.nz).

MKP NZ is in a relatively healthy financial position as at May 2010.  This is mainly due to a very substantial and generous donation to MKP NZ earlier this year.

The most recent NWTA held in Auckland resulted in a financial surplus. Any such surplus is used to fund scholarships for men with limited financial resources and to the direct cost items of conducting our programmes. The on-going costs of running MKP NZ are minimal as men donate their time and many other items at no charge.

We expect that we will continue to generate small surpluses in each year. These will allow us to reinvest in the growth of the MKP NZ community.

Maybe it’s the leaping flames or the burnt orange of the heating rocks that draws a man to the lodge. Whatever it is, present is the undeniable sense of sacredness. The ageless AHA! of being a part of something bigger, ever more expansive yet interwoven tightly at gut level. Working with natural elements has that appeal.

Many more men are opening to the wealth available to them by being around the work and moving meditation that is the lodge. The simple art of setting the fire, giving clear thought to building the surrounds and taking a breath to feel into the magic of the unfolding stillness. An experience far from the busyness of our everyday routines. How great it is to be free from all that stuff and distraction albeit fleetingly.

The attraction of the lodge for me is grounded in the intent to serve humanity through working respectfully with wairua, songs from long ago and prayer. Deep in the hot darkness of the shelter of the lodge. Humbly sat atop the very earth on which we all walk equally. Men like you and I from different directions, beliefs and values crouched low as one on common ground.

It’s taken ManKind Project just 25 years to impact the lives of 40’000 men across the globe. That’s the number of men who have participated in our flagship mens weekend called the New Warrior Training Adventure since MKP first started in the USA all that time ago before spreading around the world.

Most weekends of the year will see a New Warrior Training Adventure happening somewhere internationally. New Zealand, Australia, Canada, German speaking Europe, French speaking Europe, South Africa, Hawaii, United Kingdom and of course throughout the USA all proudly running trainings in a range of different and diverse cities, communities and multicultural settings.

On reaching a quarter of a century of MKP growth, change at an organisational level is on the cards as 2010 sets itself up as a transition year. Shifting emhasis from a mainly USA based operation into becoming a truly international network involving all the other countries around the globe who are now charged with sharing the responsibility of moving our mens education forward into the future. This transition is marked as the single most important structural change since ManKind Project started indicating a fresh phase of interdependance and single country sovereignty.

How will we know when all our efforts this year to evolve ourselves will count for something? With B.H.A.G.’s, BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS that’s how.

As an international mens organization we are putting a stake in the ground to reach over one million men in need. Create a strong brand presence in every city and community where we are invited. Train leaders of integrity that other organizations look up to and want. Uphold the elders in our MKP communities for the wisdom and experience they share with the honour and respect they deserve. Take the success of the MKP Integration Group structure into communities where it is wanted and needed.

BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS and ACHIEVABLE. Join ManKind Project New Zealand in making our country safer for children, boys and younger men, women and families. Help us to grow the next 25 years even bigger and better than the last.

The April 2010 New Warrior Training Adventure saw the biggest collection of able bodied go-getters the New Zealand MKP community has ever attracted to staff. At this training I shared lots of laughter with the other staff. I also take the opportunity while staffing to have a deep look at myself. Staffing enables me reassess where I am, and where I want to be moving forward in my life.

I’m a convert that’s why I’m standing up and taking charge of getting a even bigger staff crew together for the next training on 23-24 July.

I could go on for ages about the awesome team spirit we create together to offer the guys going through the weekend the best educational experience we can. Or the great tips from the leader team and other guys on staff which are still paying me dividends in my work life. There’s the fact that my partner misses me when I go away but because I come back full of appreciation and love and in no small way more authentic and real than before I left; that’s all really good for us as a couple. The gains are incredible.

I’m looking for 30+ of you blokes to stump up and sign up online. Tell your partner and kids you’re going to come back better than before and see what they say!

Go Here Tip: Online Staff Application

Enter through Warrior Cicle using your login password. Click on Staff Applications. Fill out the the online form and hit send. Done and dusted.