The HIV/Aids pandemic has been well documented for the past thirty years. In those early years, before the advent of anti-retroviral therapy, the Press was full of stories of the wholesale carnage of HIV. Then came the treatment breakthrough with anti-retrovirals which elicited an important change in earlier focus. HIV had now become a chronic manageable disease, rather than an uncontrollable killer!
More recently, the world shows signs of an extreme fatigue around the HIV issue. People are bored with reports of a burgeoning population of Aids orphans and of millions of new infections despite the huge campaign towards condomisation.
The credit crunch since late 2007 has also caused a reappraisal of HIV issues. Diminished cash flows have made donors look carefully at the effectiveness of their giving. Some programs face cutbacks as limited finance forces a potentially dangerous, yet necessary adjustment in tough economic circumstances.
At the World Aids Conference in Vienna earlier this year, Bill Gates spoke of the need to find "new weapons" in the fight against Aids. The effects of the credit crunch are causing a massive re-evaluation of how the problem is addressed.
We should be mindful that the current exhaustion around the Aids issue does not result in an increasing apathy or reduced determination to beat the scourge of Aids. Problems that are ignored tend to fester before making their presence felt in even more uncomfortable ways.
In July 2010, I underwent a two-week HIVEX treatment in Durban for an HIV infection that was diagnosed in 2005. Having survived full-blown Aids twice in my early journey with HIV, I have witnessed a strong rebound in my health, despite having voluntarily suspended all anti-retroviral medication nearly six months ago.
HIVEX underwent a significant Phase I and Phase II clinical trial at the Nelson R Mandela Medical School at the University of KwaZulu Natal. This is one of the top Aids research facilities in the world. The trial proved the efficacy of the treatment as well as its safety. The Radiation Commission has recommended approval of the HIVEX treatment by the South African Health Ministry.
HIVEX might well be one of the "new weapons" referred by Bill Gates at the Vienna Aids Conference. It is non-invasive, appropriate to malnourished patients, relatively cheap and does not require sophisticated personnel for its operation. HIVEX permanently disables the HI virus, allowing those treated to recover without the need for ongoing costly medical interventions.
With over 30% of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics currently testing HIV+ in South Africa, the need to keep up the pressure to bring effective treatment and to significantly reduce the increase of new infections remains paramount. My own recent experience with HIVEX suggests we might just be on the threshold of another important breakthrough in this serious health challenge.
http://hivex-treatment.org
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
FROM VICTIM TO VICTOR
Right in the middle of seeming impossibility lies choice and potential! Our minds which can become temporarily crippled by fear, shut down to possibility and we resolve to become victims of circumstance, rather than co-creators of the infinite, which is our birthright.
Human nature avoids challenge because it takes us away from the comfortable and the familiar and forces us to expand against our own wishes. We associate challenge with misfortune rather than blessing it as sacred opportunity to become MORE! We dig deep ruts by travelling the same worn paths ad nauseam, lulled into complacency by the ease of the groove. Then comes the tempest of change, most often in the guise of loss, to transport us away from our comfort into a space where we are forced to grow.
Meaningful growth is rarely sought, but is most frequently foist upon us. It comes unexpectedly, although the signals for change are always present. This transformative process is clever preparation for the significant unknown. Only with the maturity of hindsight, can we finally accept the benefit of earlier challenge and begin to understand the gift of adversity.
To be stuck in our pain is a refusal to grow. It becomes a debilitating loop of despair where we hope to be rescued rather than taking responsibility for our own progression. To grow we need to surrender, but that acquiescence is not a passive giving up, but rather the letting go to become something MORE.
In the discomfort of change we need to discern flow, that space where things happen mysteriously, rather than choosing to be sidelined by a fear-induced inaction. It is that flow which carries us to where we are meant to be. It requires an unquestioning faith in the process of life, an innate belief that all that is happening is right.
To be MORE, we need to allow ourselves to venture beyond existing personal frontiers into unchartered territory. That is never easy but it is the fulfilment of the purpose of life, which is about growth. When challenge strikes, it needs to be the signal that we are evolving (maybe against our wishes). Change might be difficult, but it always comes to address aspects of ourselves that need attention. We might not be aware of those blindspots, but Life never misses a trick.
Human nature avoids challenge because it takes us away from the comfortable and the familiar and forces us to expand against our own wishes. We associate challenge with misfortune rather than blessing it as sacred opportunity to become MORE! We dig deep ruts by travelling the same worn paths ad nauseam, lulled into complacency by the ease of the groove. Then comes the tempest of change, most often in the guise of loss, to transport us away from our comfort into a space where we are forced to grow.
Meaningful growth is rarely sought, but is most frequently foist upon us. It comes unexpectedly, although the signals for change are always present. This transformative process is clever preparation for the significant unknown. Only with the maturity of hindsight, can we finally accept the benefit of earlier challenge and begin to understand the gift of adversity.
To be stuck in our pain is a refusal to grow. It becomes a debilitating loop of despair where we hope to be rescued rather than taking responsibility for our own progression. To grow we need to surrender, but that acquiescence is not a passive giving up, but rather the letting go to become something MORE.
In the discomfort of change we need to discern flow, that space where things happen mysteriously, rather than choosing to be sidelined by a fear-induced inaction. It is that flow which carries us to where we are meant to be. It requires an unquestioning faith in the process of life, an innate belief that all that is happening is right.
To be MORE, we need to allow ourselves to venture beyond existing personal frontiers into unchartered territory. That is never easy but it is the fulfilment of the purpose of life, which is about growth. When challenge strikes, it needs to be the signal that we are evolving (maybe against our wishes). Change might be difficult, but it always comes to address aspects of ourselves that need attention. We might not be aware of those blindspots, but Life never misses a trick.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
GERMINATING
We get cracked open by adversity in order to grow. That pain is the alchemy of personal transformation.
"POSITIVELY" DIFFERENT
An HIV diagnosis should not be a preparation for death, but rather an invitation to live more appropriately. HIV is a wake-up call, an opportunity to be MORE!
Friday, November 12, 2010
BEING THE MASTER OF OUR OWN DESTINY
How much time and energy do you expend jealously looking at what others have as well as fruitlessly trying to discern what they might be thinking or saying about you?
Don't dissipate your own life's focus by such pointless behaviour! Our egos need to be mastered. Hold your power wisely in order to be MORE!
Don't dissipate your own life's focus by such pointless behaviour! Our egos need to be mastered. Hold your power wisely in order to be MORE!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
BOXED
Judgement limits our potential to learn from others.
When we judge we put people in boxes, including ourselves.
When we judge we put people in boxes, including ourselves.
Monday, November 8, 2010
REFUSING TO GROW
Our greatest struggle occurs because we stubbornly hold onto what we are, rather than letting go to become the fullness of our being.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
THE DANGER OF DENIAL (WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO HIV/AIDS)
Problems don't just go away!
Problems come for a very special reason. They are an opportunity to learn and grow, to do things differently in the future. Adversity is our teacher and allows us the chance to become so much MORE.
I spent the first four months of my journey with HIV in a self-imposed exile. Having just been given the fateful diagnosis that was to radically transform my life in the most profound way, I chose to be silent. In that silence, I secretly hoped that the diagnosis was an error, or if such luck was not to bless me, that the problem would somehow go away. This was extreme denial in action!
Having worked with HIV+ people for many years as well as having seen how HIV manifests in families and the broader community, I have come to understand the risk that denialism brings to this health issue. The Aids denialism that was the key feature of the Mbeki Government in South Africa brought catastrophic consequences. By actively trying to push the problem away, it allowed HIV to proliferate exponentially with dire consequences for many of those infected and affected. This has severely fractured South African society and has left millions of Aids orphans.
As part of a programme to roll-out the HIVEX treatment (http://www.hivex-treatment.org), I meet people daily who finally present for treatment when their health has been so severely compromised by living in denial of their illness. Those in Stage 5 of HIV who have entered irreversable organ failure because of having ignored their health problem for too long, have no further option other than to face an approaching and unnecessarily premature death.
Once I moved beyond living in denial of my HIV, I realised that this challenge had maybe come as my greatest teacher ever. I have lived with an array of significant adversities and each and every one has been specially transformative. Adversity has blessed my life! HIV is not about dying, but it comes to teach us to live differently.
HIV promotes denialism because being generally sexually transmitted, it takes us right into the heart of shame and personal darkness. We would rather ignore many of these aspects of our lives, but HIV forces us to confront our sexuality, our dangerous unbridled egos and our prevalent lack of self-love.
It is our ego that tries valiantly to prevent us from being real. We then deny what we consider to be unacceptable to others because we find it difficult to be authentic, despite the fact that authenticity is the seat of absolute personal power. HIV comes to liberate us from the shackles of an ego that does not properly serve, to enable us to be MORE.
Most people keep repeating the same mistakes because they never fully acknowledge what they most desperately need to learn. These same folk then blame others or Life itself for their uninterrupted litany of misfortune. Life sends problems like HIV to encourage us to change. It is our stubborn refusal to learn and grow that traps us in such pain. This is the very essence of living in denial.
Working with the HIVEX project, I have come to notice how women more readily accept their HIV than men. Many men would rather go silently to their death than having to burst the constraints of of an ego that prevents their personal growth. It is sad to witness such folly. Likewise, male dominated cultures tend to promote denialism around HIV/Aids. This leads to a silent festering within those societies where HIV quietly develops a stranglehold which ultimately is almost impossible to deal with.
Problems go once we have learnt everything that is necessary to enable us to transcend the adversity. HIV/Aids is no different.
By denying the existence of HIV either personally, societally or nationally, we are creating a timebomb of horrific proportions. Best we face our challenges early, despite the discomfort they elicit, to enable strategies to move beyond the affliction.
The bigger the problem or issue, the bigger the opportunity to grow and become MORE. The choice remains ours!
Problems come for a very special reason. They are an opportunity to learn and grow, to do things differently in the future. Adversity is our teacher and allows us the chance to become so much MORE.
I spent the first four months of my journey with HIV in a self-imposed exile. Having just been given the fateful diagnosis that was to radically transform my life in the most profound way, I chose to be silent. In that silence, I secretly hoped that the diagnosis was an error, or if such luck was not to bless me, that the problem would somehow go away. This was extreme denial in action!
Having worked with HIV+ people for many years as well as having seen how HIV manifests in families and the broader community, I have come to understand the risk that denialism brings to this health issue. The Aids denialism that was the key feature of the Mbeki Government in South Africa brought catastrophic consequences. By actively trying to push the problem away, it allowed HIV to proliferate exponentially with dire consequences for many of those infected and affected. This has severely fractured South African society and has left millions of Aids orphans.
As part of a programme to roll-out the HIVEX treatment (http://www.hivex-treatment.org), I meet people daily who finally present for treatment when their health has been so severely compromised by living in denial of their illness. Those in Stage 5 of HIV who have entered irreversable organ failure because of having ignored their health problem for too long, have no further option other than to face an approaching and unnecessarily premature death.
Once I moved beyond living in denial of my HIV, I realised that this challenge had maybe come as my greatest teacher ever. I have lived with an array of significant adversities and each and every one has been specially transformative. Adversity has blessed my life! HIV is not about dying, but it comes to teach us to live differently.
HIV promotes denialism because being generally sexually transmitted, it takes us right into the heart of shame and personal darkness. We would rather ignore many of these aspects of our lives, but HIV forces us to confront our sexuality, our dangerous unbridled egos and our prevalent lack of self-love.
It is our ego that tries valiantly to prevent us from being real. We then deny what we consider to be unacceptable to others because we find it difficult to be authentic, despite the fact that authenticity is the seat of absolute personal power. HIV comes to liberate us from the shackles of an ego that does not properly serve, to enable us to be MORE.
Most people keep repeating the same mistakes because they never fully acknowledge what they most desperately need to learn. These same folk then blame others or Life itself for their uninterrupted litany of misfortune. Life sends problems like HIV to encourage us to change. It is our stubborn refusal to learn and grow that traps us in such pain. This is the very essence of living in denial.
Working with the HIVEX project, I have come to notice how women more readily accept their HIV than men. Many men would rather go silently to their death than having to burst the constraints of of an ego that prevents their personal growth. It is sad to witness such folly. Likewise, male dominated cultures tend to promote denialism around HIV/Aids. This leads to a silent festering within those societies where HIV quietly develops a stranglehold which ultimately is almost impossible to deal with.
Problems go once we have learnt everything that is necessary to enable us to transcend the adversity. HIV/Aids is no different.
By denying the existence of HIV either personally, societally or nationally, we are creating a timebomb of horrific proportions. Best we face our challenges early, despite the discomfort they elicit, to enable strategies to move beyond the affliction.
The bigger the problem or issue, the bigger the opportunity to grow and become MORE. The choice remains ours!
Friday, November 5, 2010
UNDERSTANDING REAL SUCCESS
So much success is driven for the hollow approval of others! We try to achieve for our parents and constantly conform to the shallow demands of a material world. Our egos steadfastly push us to be what others expect of us. Always concerned what others might think or say about us, we dance to the tune of the world rather than listening to the rhythm of our own soul.
We measure success in monetary terms without ever contemplating how that money was made. Are wealthy drug lords successful or have they just learnt how to pray on the tragic flaws of others?
We come into the world with nothing and go out with nothing. Our only baggage into eternity is the soul which we most frequently ignore, because we are in hot pursuit of creating short-term comfort rather than significance.
The need for recognition creates an unhealthy spirit of competition where we keep looking over our own shoulders to see what others have, to benchmark our own success. This creates envy and jealousy and is a sure way to actively dissipate our valuable power. If we only lived authentically and focused our gratitude onto what we already have, we would discover real personal power.
Success should never be measured in any terms other than the ability to constantly become MORE. The quest to be MORE is steeped in a healthy understanding of self-love. It drives us to extend ourselves to grow beyond comfortable personal frontiers and reminds us to take charge of our powerful minds. When we shift our intention to being rather than having, we enter a substantial paradigm where we unearth the treasure of our selves and find happiness at the very core of our beings.
Success is about transcending ourselves and using every adversity as a building block to grow and become MORE. Living with such meaningful purpose substantially prepares the soul for onward flight. This is surely the essence of living out a vision for life where we discover that success is temporal and requires the dedicated and dynamic quest to always be MORE.
(Visit: http://www.indigo-man.com. Click "Indigo-Links" and then click "MORE or LESS")
We measure success in monetary terms without ever contemplating how that money was made. Are wealthy drug lords successful or have they just learnt how to pray on the tragic flaws of others?
We come into the world with nothing and go out with nothing. Our only baggage into eternity is the soul which we most frequently ignore, because we are in hot pursuit of creating short-term comfort rather than significance.
The need for recognition creates an unhealthy spirit of competition where we keep looking over our own shoulders to see what others have, to benchmark our own success. This creates envy and jealousy and is a sure way to actively dissipate our valuable power. If we only lived authentically and focused our gratitude onto what we already have, we would discover real personal power.
Success should never be measured in any terms other than the ability to constantly become MORE. The quest to be MORE is steeped in a healthy understanding of self-love. It drives us to extend ourselves to grow beyond comfortable personal frontiers and reminds us to take charge of our powerful minds. When we shift our intention to being rather than having, we enter a substantial paradigm where we unearth the treasure of our selves and find happiness at the very core of our beings.
Success is about transcending ourselves and using every adversity as a building block to grow and become MORE. Living with such meaningful purpose substantially prepares the soul for onward flight. This is surely the essence of living out a vision for life where we discover that success is temporal and requires the dedicated and dynamic quest to always be MORE.
(Visit: http://www.indigo-man.com. Click "Indigo-Links" and then click "MORE or LESS")
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
MANIFESTING YOUR NIGHTMARE!
Keep focusing on what you think you lack and that is what you will manifest!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
