"I forgot my pants!"
Posted on September 18, 2016
It was February 1973. The new boss and I were walking in the Coors Container Company aluminum can manufacturing plant. As this good Army soldier had been instructed when walking with a superior, I was walking one step to the left and one step to the rear. Above the noise in the can plant, the boss adamantly motioned with his left hand and arm and beckoned, “Come-up here and walk beside me; and next week start a program to manage your stress!” This relaxation journey, intended to quiet the busy, perfectionist mind, remains a work-in-progress! The purpose of this blog is to share a recent “ah-ha” moment about this golfer’s pursuit of tools to manage the distraction and interference of the “inner roommate” on and off the golf course. Read More
GOLF: Game Refection Menu
Posted on August 21, 2016
Golf is a life and sport treasure chest! As one who has been fascinated by the game’s riches, it has been rewarding to occasionally take a “bird’s eye view” of the sport’s offerings and make a current reality assessment of the game’s opportunities and challenges: What more can I learn about the game? What will genuinely contribute to more enjoyment of the game? What will facilitate preparation for peak performance? What can enable being trained to self-coach? To “jump start” an assessment, a Game Reflection Menu follows.
INTENT: To learn; to enjoy; to perform to the best of evolved, human ability; and to self-coach. Read More
HOW TO BUY A GOLF COURSE A Case Study
Posted on August 16, 2016
The foundation for Sunland Springs Golf Club: A Case Study (2016) began in northwestern Ohio as a kid playing golf with Mom and Dad. On December 1, 1948, when I was eight years old, Dad wrote a $100 check for Share #148 in Orchard Hills Country Club, Bryan, Ohio. The folks would be proud to know that the sport has remained a fixture in the author’s life for some 69 years and counting. Couple this genetic and learned love of golf with a dislike for Ohio, New York and Colorado snow, ice and cold and a life-long dream of living in a warm climate in a golf course community, looking south to Florida and Arizona looked like a slice of Heaven. After a couple of false starts—Westbrook Village, Peoria, Arizona and Sunland Village East, Mesa, Arizona—in January 2009 it was an easy decision to make when an opportunity arose to attend the Golf Academy of America-Phoenix with my son, Doug. He was changing careers and making a fresh start in the golf industry. For the author it sounded like great fun to go back to school, study golf management and teaching and play weekly competitive golf. In April 2011 we graduated. Doug uncovered a nice niche at Desert Mountain with its six Jack Nicklaus Courses and recent home for the PGA Champions Tour Charles Schwab Cup Championship. As my golf playing and practicing journey continued, in winter 2013 it was exciting to return to the Golf Academy of America-Phoenix to complete the Read More
DECISION TIME!
Posted on August 2, 2016
As Americans, we each will have important “leadership” decisions to make this November: Who are the best qualified persons is to lead this great Nation? As we reflect, muster and share thoughts and ideas, the worldview offers significant challenges for our leaders. Unfortunately, amidst the chaos and confusion of aroused emotions, passions and prejudices, it may be difficult to relax, focus and develop a personal perspective concerning the conscious evolution of this great Nation. Read More
LONG, GOLF-MEDITATION BRIDGE
Posted on March 5, 2016
What is the relationship between golf and meditation? The year was 2002; and the quest was underway to experience a connection between body and mind. The initial two-year trek was study and practice of sitting meditation at Naropa University. At the time, having played golf for some 55 years, the contemplative experience at Naropa planted the seed of a lingering question: Could there be a relationship between meditation and golf?
In 2010, when opportunity arose to attend Golf Academy of America, it felt good to take Naropa mindfulness and awareness training and practice to weekly tournament golf and study of golf management and golf instruction. However, with graduation from the Golf Academy in 2011, a connection between golf and meditation remained a mystery. Going through mindfulness and awareness motions on the practice tee and golf course were nothing but an overdose of concealed conditioning and an experience of conceptual free-will. Fortunately, persistence prevailed. In 2013 during Advanced Teaching at the Golf Academy, the lingering golf-meditation seed began to sprout and the mystery began to reveal itself. Read More
What has been said about GOLFER'S PALETTE?
Posted on February 2, 2016
Inspired by a search for the connection between the body and the mind, Dr. John Edwin DeVore enables readers to become aware of the conditions needed for peak performance by offering a unique perspective of body-mind mastery skills, integrating contemplative skills with technical skills in a sport with a rich technical culture of club and body mechanics. [Jennifer Uebelhack, Bohlsen Group]
All I can say is “Wow.” I have been told since I started playing golf that there was always a mental side of the game that should be learned…I never heard anyone mention things like emotions, mind and ego…pages 51-60 were of special interest to me because a lot of it sounded very familiar to me. I have been told by family and friends, for many years, that I had an inflated ego. It has cost me loss of family and many good friends. Having read this wonderful book will make the years I have left even more fulfilling. I can read it over and over and each time understand a little better…meditation, yoga, and the inner roommate are things that I would never relate to golf. Thank you. [Ray Isaacs]
John, in my up-teen years of trying to play golf, including several golf schools, multiple well-meaning PGA pros, and more books, videos, and tipsters, I found your book to be my Holy Grail. [Larry Waters]
WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT Sitting in the Flames?
Posted on January 26, 2016
For forty years Dr. John Edwin DeVore carried the weight of war before finally removing the burden and looking closely at what it signified. Sitting in the Flames is a fascinating and thought provoking study of human character that was blinded by corporate greed, by the passion to consume, by the myth of armed conflict, and by cultural conditioning that fosters what one believes, as opposed to how one behaves. Dr. DeVore has written a critically important and timely perspective of war, and he offers a very compelling and priceless message.
In Sitting in the Flames, we live the horrors of war; however, Dr. DeVore’s disclosure is not random war stories that sell the idea of patriotism by exposing heroic actions. We see a man return home and mature into a wisdom and intellect that lead him to healing and a sense of peace and freedom that now guides his life. Dr. DeVore sees war as more than youth dying for a cause: it is a responsibility that an entire nation must bear, a responsibility for our actions, and a responsibility for those who do the battle. It is not enough to deal with the specifics of war in the pages of a history book. We must understand why we create wars and how we can avoid them. In a country that beats the drums of war with regularity, these are lessons that need to be learned. [BookSurge (CreateSpace), Amazon.com Company]
In his autobiography, Sitting in the Flames, Dr. John Edwin DeVore, describes his experience while serving in the Vietnam War, as well as his search for inner calmness after the war ended…By detailing his path of escape from emotional suffering, Dr. DeVore hopes to be an inspiration for others to take one step at a time and uncover peace of mind, purpose, and connections created on a foundation of compassion and love. [Jennifer Uebelhack, Bohlsen Group]
WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT Sitting in the Flames?
Posted on January 21, 2016
As reviewed by New York Times best-selling author Ellen Tanner Marsh…
Much has been written about the Vietnam War. We’re all familiar with the brutal carnage, the heroics of soldiers under pressure and the endlessly heartbreaking entries in our history books. Is there a way to extract some good from the tragic war, and if so, how can we put a human face on it?
Author Dr. John Edwin DeVore has written a grippingly personal story of his experiences in Vietnam, an astonishing revelation of how those experiences led him on a spiritual search that transformed his life for the better. Like many veterans, DeVore was forever changed by his time in Vietnam. Overwhelmed with dark memories for 40 years, he struggled to find and create something from the pain. His intense, spiritual journey is the basis of Sitting in the Flames: Uncovering Fearlessness to Help Others, a shining and ambitious addition to the genre.
In clear, heartfelt prose, DeVore describes a brave and unflinching confrontation with his past, made necessary in order for him to have a more meaningful future. War, he realized, isn’t just one man’s experience—it’s the sum total experience of an entire country. To stop wars, he argues, we must understand them and why we seem to need them.
Beautifully told, DeVore’s book is an important and unforgettable addition to the literature of Vietnam-important in helping to erase the still troubled conscience of America and unforgettable for its moving confirmation of the belief that human beings can emerge from the most shattering experiences with their spirit still intact. Above all, this is a finely rendered and heartfelt account of one man’s inner journey to peace.
STATINS BEGONE
Posted on January 4, 2016
For several years, the plethora of literature about the damaging effects of statins on the human cellular system has generated a lingering desire to abandon what today is 30 plus years taking prescribed statin drugs…Mevacor, Zocor, Crestor and Lipitor…for control of inherited high cholesterol. Just yesterday, it felt really good to deliver a “statins be-gone” game plan to a personal physician. For the first time in 30 years I am looking forward to feeling what normal really feels like! Read More
EVOLUTION…Creative Visualization
Posted on December 4, 2015
Having committed the past few months to becoming more aware, understanding, practicing and playing golf using the art and science of creative visualization, intuition is offering that imaging is quite simply another body-mind mastery skill that we need to learn, practice, experience and commit to trust when making shots on the golf course. Working with creative visualization reminds of a memorable experience while in Gangtok, Sikkim India in during the Fall of 2003. Read More