Hello and welcome!

There are many reasons why you may be on this page. I trust you will find more of what you are looking for as you go through the lectures.

This was the first tool I created for my clients in 2005, it was in the very cool Microsoft Producer format, which meant there was video with a slide show running next to it. Like so many things in this world I do not understand...Microsoft decided to make an incredible product obsolete around 2010, and so this died with it.

What you see here today is a resurrection. It is a big deal for me, because 14 years along and it is still all relevant. We do things differently, we say things differently, but in essence, somehow, the work still managed to capture what Be Activated is all about.

One of the things that has kept coming up for me as I uncover the work again (I probably have not looked at this stuff since it was filmed and edited), I knew exactly what was in it then, because I did it all. Well that is not quite true. A good friend of mine called Timothy Morty, helped me compile the work into Producer. Without him it would another one of my 95% completed projects.... It reminded me that along the way we are sent angels, supporters, who seem to come at just the right time and just the right moment, and offer you insight or an answer or a helping hand, and help you achieve more than you could have done without their help.

On my journey I have so many angels that I am indebted to. No one does it alone. This is not just a discussion of philosophy, but is also a physiological principle tied in with our survival.

So as you watch this, realise the principles relate even more to us today than they did in 2005. The pressure cooker we live in has been turned up and people are more and more desperate and frantic and stuck in states of survival.

What the message is, is that you have far more control of what is going on in your world, how you feel and what you focus on. Your outcomes are truly in your hands.

In the beninging...(I am from South Africa - this is worth googling)

There is never really a beginning, everything that has happened in your life, is influencing how you are experiencing this moment. No one can see the world as you do!

So to be successful in the world, understanding what everyone sees is second place. What we want to be good at is understanding what we see and feel and allowing that to be the reference point that guides us through our world and our learning.

About 6 months ago I was getting so far down the rabbit hole in learning what everyone else was doing, I was listening to about 3 to 5 podcasts everyday and listening to audiobooks in between that. Wow there are some seriously clever people out there!

But here was the problem...

The more I listened, the more confused I became about what Doug thought. Now if you know me at all, you are probably laughing as this will not seem true, Doug always seems to know, even when he doesn't....

So I now could not tell you about what I thought, only about what they thought, and I was diminished for it. It is really hard to bring your best self to the world when you feel this way. But when you go through this program, you will see the answers are there. Where my attention was, was not building and expanding me, rather I was overwhelming myself, creating smallness and doubt, so it was easy to play small, not bring all of myself to the world, or even a small task.

Back in 2005, the reason this first program was created, was for my clients, they wanted more. Not more of me, but more understanding of themselves, so they could take ownership of their process, whatever it was. Mange their stress better. Perform better in sports, the gym and in life. Mange and overcome their pain. Sleep better. Be more present in their day. And many more things that my clients were asking.

This CD Rom was I brought back to them.

This is what is looked like in the original format:

Even in Africa you still have to get the legal stuff out the way... so before you begin

There are probably two things to share at this point, the one is that yes, the photo is of me holding the sun, taken after a great surf up the West Coast by my friend Damien. At the time, since my back was to him, I thought he was messing around with me and had no idea of what would come out. It was taken on a real camera (not a single cell phone around in 1995) so the result was only evident to me about 3 weeks later. Wow times have changed!

The second part, will be explained later... yes - the Muscle Activation part.

Except to say that in Africa, it is better to ask forgiveness than permission.

How cool is that format. And how has the world changed. I walked up the mountain (alone), with a camera on a tripod. Set it up and filmed. Yes, I do look quite serious, I was nervous as hell. In fact my friend Stewart said I scared him I was so serious, as he did not know that guy.

This is the first self activation program - please notice the socks, which must imply that there were times I actually did wear shoes (kind of important because I have been sponsored by Reebok when I taught for the Reebok Alliance, and at this time by New Balance because I worked with a lot of their sponsored athletes - and they both make shoes...)

I even had some pretty awesome apparel in those days.

My clients had already had the experience of being activated, so this bonus section really just showed them what was happening in their session, because this work is kind of hard to explain sometimes.

At the end of the day, I was giving my clients the tools to take care of themselves. Without realising it, I was also giving them the tools to let them share their experience with others, so my clients began building my business for me.

Too often professionals hold on to their clients, so they have a stable client pool and many systems teach you how to do that. I believe if we do the exact opposite we will be successful. Help them so much that they don't need you! You will stand out above everyone else and your clients will bring you new clients, lots of them. And so you can keep adding value to more and more people.

Thats what I think anyway!

Creating this program has been great. It has allowed me to walk down memory lane, to listen to a pretty serious guy with some serious work to do. But more importantly has allowed me to revisit those who have helped me along the way.

Dudley, the Pilates trainer, who would not let me leave Moksha yoga studio after a talk, unless I promised to teach him. His words always hold power for me. 'How can I go back and teach my clients in good faith, now that I have seen and felt what you just did!'

So my first activation teaching was at Dudley's studio two weeks later. It was never my intention to teach, but he stood in my way and made me consider doing things differently. What we do in this work is not much different to what he did for me that day.

My friend Corrie, who was on the first workshop (I met him that day), asked about the relationship of the psoas and the glutes (yes, I know, they are gluts in the presentation). And his question triggered a cascade of aha's that changed the way I looked at the body forever.

I believe we don't have to know all the answers, what we do want to do is to learn to ask better questions. Teaching for me has been my greatest learning. You help me ask better questions.

For those who have done workshops with me you will know I am pretty harsh with Pilates. Kind of along the lines of the 2 core principles of Pilates and in direct violation of the principles of the body. Nice - I know.

But it is Pilates trainers who want the right answers for their clients. Most of them will not cling desperately to what they have been taught, but will move to something that made them feel and perform better.

And in case anyone is not sure, all of their principles are taught in physiotherapy, personal training and almost every other body healing and training system out there. So we are all wrong.

I did not yet have a language to explain what I was discovering, but while working with clients and sharing and teaching, the language grew and so did the philosophy.

If you choose to continue this journey, I will hopefully be able to share effectively what we think now.

Our only guiding principle is if we do the right thing for the body, it will respond immediately!