During medical school, Todd Michael taught Tae Kwon Do at the YMCA. Here is a picture of his students.	At the Boulder glider field. Ready for another high altitude flight.

Todd Michael

Todd Michael has been described by nearly everyone that knows him as a Renaissance-man. An acomplished writer and story-teller with a Mensan intellect, he is also a multitrack recording musician, a physician board-certified or board-eligible in four specialties, a second-degree black-belt, and a degreed psychologist. He's also a dad with a great son and a counseler.

Dr. Michael is a gifted and dynamic speaker who is well-known for his ability to move audiences back and forth from tears to laughter. Audiences are riveted by his first-hand accounts of emergency and trauma events. His sense of humor is unusual and outrageous, and his observations of people and their actions penetrating.

Hi, Folks. For many years, I always started my biographical statements in the same way: I listed all of my most impressive professional credentials one after another in the usual fashion. Many years of premedical training, medical school and post-graduate training -- topped off with another 15 years of medical practice -- does that to a person. After a while, your identity is so wrapped up in your profession that you can no longer reliably separate the two. If youÍre not careful, you can lose yourself altogether and forget who you really are.

That nearly happened to me.

But things have changed. In May 2000, I stepped down as medical director of the level three trauma center where I had worked for the last five years and handed all of the responsibility and headaches, to one of my partners. Then, later in the year, I left the ER altogether and turned all of my attention to what really matters.

Now I spend my days writing, painting, recording music, and taking care of my family. In a way, I have broken through to a new level of freedom and live in a world in which my dreams and my reality have merged. I feel it is important for me to tell you this because it might, in some small way, help you reach the same world of freedom and pleasure. Everyone that makes it to this point in life should try to share their experience with others. Anything less would be irresponsible.

I will simply tell you what I like about my life, what is fun, what gives me great satisfaction, and what my dreams are. That, in my mind, represents progress.

What do I like? I like almost everything about my life. I live exactly where I have always wanted to live. I chose the same location to vacation: Boulder and the surrounding area. In 1995 I made the decision to do whatever it would take to move here permanently. It involved a good deal of sacrifice and certain degree of risk, but once we made the decision, something amazing happened: The universe kicked in and things miraculously worked out.

It was a huge lesson for me and has remained a paradigm for living ever since. If you want to be happy, you have to figure out exactly what you want and then make the leap. If you do this in good faith, the world will help you.

So, now I have a community I love, many good friends, greåt relationships, lots of interesting projects to work on and an incredible environment. This town was built from square one by people who love the environment, love nature, love the mountains, love clean water, and love fitness. It shows. Everywhere there are gorgeous bike paths and trails and streams - streams running through the middle of town that are so immaculately clear that large trout can be seen lazing in the deeper pools.

On a typical Saturday, we will jump on our mountain bikes and ride the four miles into town along scenic trails. I like to eat roasted sweetcorn at the Farmer's Market and lounge on the grass along Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall watching the nearly continuous carnival that unfolds there.

Fitness is extremely important to me. It's the top priority everyday. I believe that if I am in excellent shape, I will work better and harder, get along with our clients more effortlessly, and generally produce more. It works like a charm!

So, it is not at all uncommon for me to roller blade up to the edge of the massive Flatiron formation and back, a round trip of 12 miles or to run one of the countless trails that lace our beloved town.

When I am not working at Clinix Life Enhancement CenterI work at home dividing my time between writing, personal coaching, painting, photography and graphic arts, working in my recording studio, and taking care of all the business details involved in publishing and consulting. In past years, I would have apologized for going on so long about such mundane details, but I no longer feel any guilt when I tell others what it is like to live a wonderful life. As I said at the beginning: It's our duty to share the good things.

And that is precisely what I have tried to do in my books. I have tried to share some of the wonderful experiences, some of the valuable lessons this life has brought me. I hope you like the books and invite you to write and tell all of us at Essene Studios what you think about our products and to ask any questions you may have.

Many blessings to you, Todd Michael

Julian Michael, age nine.