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PATTERNS OF RELATIONSHIPS with MATRIWORKS™
A Weekend Workshop on Living a Life of Deep Relatedness and Contentment with Mukara Meredith, MSW.

The Patterns of Relationship workshop offered by MATRIXWORKS™ is for all types of relationships - couples, mother-daughter, father-son, siblings, families, business and even community groups who wish to discover new levels of creativity, collaboration and connection. Explore the Living Systems principles of Matrixworks™ as they apply to your close relationships. Discover new levels of creativity, collaboration and connection. Workshop will be held in Boulder, Colorado from Friday, March 23 through Sunday, March 25.

MATRIXWORKS™ is a revolutionary process that utilizes principles of New Science, Whole Systems Thinking, Spirituality and Contemporary Psychology to understand and support the growth and development of healthy functioning groups.

Explore the 3 essential stages relationships go through to become a living system, experience the multi-levels of interconnectedness and how to successfully cultivate them, embody the fulfilling capacities of high functioning relationships. Using Hakomi and MATRIXWORKS™ to cultivate and strengthen the resources available to these types of systems, this dynamic workshop will renew, restore and revitalize your ability to create relationship as sanctuary for each other, your family and community. Register in advance. Suggested donation $350.00 to $550.00 (does not including housing and food). Some financial assistance is available.

Mukara Meredith, MSW, certified Hakomi Therapist and Trainer with 30 yrs experience working with Groups, Teams and Organizations such as Mattel, Procter and Gamble, Hershey, GE, GAP, Old Navy and Banana Republic. A practicing Buddhist, she is devoted to the practical application of World Wisdom Traditions in everyday life.

Visit our website: http://www.matrixworkslivingsystems.com/

“Simply put, this MATRIXWORKS™ training has changed my life and how I do my work. Colleagues ask me what I have been doing.”
—Liz Stuart, Teacher for Guild for Structural Integration

“MATRIXWORKS™ is the best training I have ever taken! It uniquely and pointedly strengthens the basic goodness of each participant, so that leadership skills rest in trustworthy relational ground. From this place of trust, amazing work seems normal and natural.”
—K.P., Clinical Supervisor, Boulder, Co. March 2010

For more information, contact: 303-819-5289

Milk has been promoted for ages to be a great supplier of calcium, necessary for bone growth and strength. The truth is, there are better food sources than milk but it is readily available, inexpensive and still a good product.

What you rarely hear people talking about is drinking milk for muscle growth and recovery after a workout. There is a movement out there that promotes low fat chocolate milk for a post workout drink and it's great for certain sports and athletes! It has the correct carb-protein ratio, tastes good and has many vital substances to aid recovery. For serious gains however, you will need more than chocolate milk. You would need high quantities in order to fulfill your body's need for growth (we are talking about weight lifting, high resistance training etc.). 

Milk has its supporters and opponents, often both radical in their ideas. If you have seen 'Pumping Iron', the documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger, then you probably noticed his reply to the question whether he drinks milk. If you didn't, this is what he said: 'Milk is for cows.'

And indeed it is. It is unnatural for an adult being to drink the milk of another species. However, that does not mean it is bad for you and no matter what, it is still a natural product and much better for you than any chemically produced supplements. If you have an intolerance or an allergy, you obviously do not want to start drinking high quantities of any milk whatsoever. It is also shown that different ethnic groups have a different tolerance towards milk.

Personally, I have always loved milk. I grew up with it and drank tons of milk growing up and I have never experienced any intolerance, which makes it easy for me.
Throughout the last few years, as I started doing more resistance training, I have realized the advantages of drinking milk for my recovery and progress. A few advantages:

- it is cheap, much cheaper than most other sources of protein
- it is readily available everywhere
- it provides high quality protein, both whey and casein so your body gets protein instantly with fast acting whey and progressively with the longer release time of casein
- the calcium in milk does not only give you strong bones but also helps relaxing your muscles. Too little calcium combined with intense activities may give your cramped muscles
- drinking a lot of milk has proven to cut fat (calcium also plays a role in fat mobilization, as well in reducing stress, lowering blood pressure etc.)

Arguments against milk:

- it has growth hormones, cancer causing steroids etc. in it because the farmers want their cows bigger and more productive

Yes, the growth hormone rBGH is used for higher milk production. This hormone however only works when injected. If ingested, our digestion tracts destroys these hormones. This does not justify the fact that the cows are being injected with it but it does not affect you when drinking milk. You can also buy milk from sources that guarantee not to use any hormones in their live stock (Whole Foods for example who sells antibiotic and hormone free milk).

- it makes me gain weight

Milk has been proven to lower cholesterol levels. Actually whole milk lowers levels more than skim milk! Milk also lowers the chances of getting a heart attack or stroke.


I mostly drink non fat milk since my calorie intake is pretty high and I gain easily. For a better ratio though, try 2% milk or even whole milk if you have a hard time gaining.

The quantity of milk you should drink varies. I go through about 2 gallons/week and have great gains with my training and diet combination. Other supporters of milk go through 1 or 2 gallons per day! It will completely depend on your diet, calorie intake, amount of protein, body type etc. But at least give milk a chance! 

Sander Vanacker is the owner of Define Defense Martial Arts in Boulder, Colorado.  Sander has been practicing sports his entire life. These consist of mostly martial arts (since 1993) but also semi-professional cycling in Belgium, triathlons, weight lifting and overall fitness training.

• Contrary to popular belief, lactic acid is not what builds up in skeletal muscles - lactate is.  Biochemist used to believe that the body produces lactic acid which immediately turns into lactate after losing a proton.  Now it has been proven that this was incorrect.

• Cortisol levels go down.  Cortisol levels elevate in periods of stress.  Since training is a form of stress on the body, cortisol gets released.  This unfortunately can be catabolic in long term.  When you do not rest enough in between training sessions, your body will go into a state of overtraining and cortisol levels will remain high while insulin levels will remain low.  Since insulin is a great hormone to build tissues, this may lead to performance and/or muscle loss.  Sleeping is a great way to lower the cortisol levels.

• Increased levels of Human Growth Hormone.  When sleeping, your natural levels of HGH get elevated.  This mainly occurs in the later and deeper phases of sleep so when you cut your sleep short, you are missing out on a significant opportunity to recover.   HGH supports muscle recovery, promotes lipolysis (decomposing fat), stimulates the immune system etc.  No doubt this will aid your recovery and performance.

• Higher testosterone levels.  The more and better you sleep, the higher your testosterone levels will be when waking up.  This gives you mental and physical energy and promotes bone and muscle mass since it is an anabolic steroid.  The body produces testosterone itself in men and women.  The levels differ but women have testosterone in their system and men have estrogen in their body.