Tai chi's gentle, low impact movements burn more calories than surfing and nearly as many as downhill skiing! Millions of people who practice it worldwide are living a more active life than those who don't. Their friends and neighbors are seeing this and joining their classes in record numbers, especially among seniors!
Touch Research Institutes and University of Miami School of Medicine research determined some effects: increased heart rate; increased relaxation, decreased anxiety and increased speed and accuracy noted on math computations! Decrease in arthritis pain, balance control, flexibility, cardiovascular fitness, and reduced risk of falls may also be benefits. No longer just a Chinese phenomenon, it is spreading around the world. 24 postures in the short form (42 in the Olympics) and you can begin in the privacy of your own home! Mark Hoffman’s website: http://www.taichiforseniorsvideo.com/ has a free sample demonstration video, and, it is also available on Amazon.
National Library of Medicine, the largest medical library in the world awarded a grant to American Tai Chi and Qigong Association for a website: "The Tai Chi & Consumer Health Information Center" (http://www.americantaichi.net) which provides scientific, reliable, and comprehensive information about health benefits of Tai Chi - for arthritis, fall prevention, pain reduction, mental health, cardiovascular diseases, fitness, and general well-being. Recognized by the U.S. NIH as an important method of Alternative Health Care; 75% of traditional medical schools in the USA now have training in natural, complimentary medicine.
Be safer, have less pain… Tai Chi!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Balancing Our Lives
Falls resulting in broken bones are a very real threat for us as we age. One of the reasons for falling is loss of balance. If we are less active, we bend and twist less. This rigidity makes it difficult for us to catch ourselves as we fall. Tai Chi and Yoga are great ways to recover our flexibility and balance!
Several years ago, when I was finding it painful to get out of a chair and walk across the room, I found a yoga video in my collection. The title: “Yoga for Weight Loss” (with Suzanne Deason, VHS available on Amazon for pennies) was catchy, but somewhat misleading. The premise: a person at peace is a person able to make good eating and exercise choices. THE best yoga video I have found! Four women demonstrate yoga poses for the beginner, intermediate and more flexible. Beautifully set in the red rock country of Sedona, Arizona, with soothing, peaceful music. Warm up begins on the ground and progresses through standing, strength and flexibility poses, then back to the ground for core work and ending in a relaxation pose.
I ALWAYS walk away feeling supple, relaxed, refreshed, and wondering, “Why don’t I do this more often?” I think you will, too! Make time in your schedule to give yourself this treat, AND reduce the odds that you’ll be injured in a fall. More about Tai Chi in the next blog… stay tuned!
Several years ago, when I was finding it painful to get out of a chair and walk across the room, I found a yoga video in my collection. The title: “Yoga for Weight Loss” (with Suzanne Deason, VHS available on Amazon for pennies) was catchy, but somewhat misleading. The premise: a person at peace is a person able to make good eating and exercise choices. THE best yoga video I have found! Four women demonstrate yoga poses for the beginner, intermediate and more flexible. Beautifully set in the red rock country of Sedona, Arizona, with soothing, peaceful music. Warm up begins on the ground and progresses through standing, strength and flexibility poses, then back to the ground for core work and ending in a relaxation pose.
I ALWAYS walk away feeling supple, relaxed, refreshed, and wondering, “Why don’t I do this more often?” I think you will, too! Make time in your schedule to give yourself this treat, AND reduce the odds that you’ll be injured in a fall. More about Tai Chi in the next blog… stay tuned!
Growing Older, and Stronger, too!
Strength training is good for the bones, according to the Mayo Clinic staff: “If you have osteoporosis, you might mistakenly think exercise will lead to fracture. In fact, though, using your muscles helps protect your bones.” If you are avoiding strength training, you are missing an excellent opportunity to increase your overall quality of life, too!
My recommendation: invest in a set of dumbbells. The gym is great, but easily avoided, and often just too much hassle. If the dumbbells are sitting on the floor in your den you’ll use them more often! “The Fat Burning Workout: From Fat to Fit in 24 Days,” by Joyce Vedral is THE book, just turn the pages and do the next exercise. Depending on how fit you are, start with 3, 5, and 8 pound dumbbells. Joyce will teach you how to design “supersets.” She makes it very simple and easy to understand, and, you can buy this book on Amazon for pennies! http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Burning-Workout-Fat-Firm-Days/dp/0446391948/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296145371&sr=8-2-catcorr
Making exercise an integral part of your life is essential… parking further away from the stores, is just one way. There is no one kind of exercise that fits for everyone. What kind of activities do you enjoy most? If you choose an exercise you enjoy, you're more likely to keep it up for the long haul. Let’s get excited about our quality of life, again, and “Get PUMPED up!”
My recommendation: invest in a set of dumbbells. The gym is great, but easily avoided, and often just too much hassle. If the dumbbells are sitting on the floor in your den you’ll use them more often! “The Fat Burning Workout: From Fat to Fit in 24 Days,” by Joyce Vedral is THE book, just turn the pages and do the next exercise. Depending on how fit you are, start with 3, 5, and 8 pound dumbbells. Joyce will teach you how to design “supersets.” She makes it very simple and easy to understand, and, you can buy this book on Amazon for pennies! http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Burning-Workout-Fat-Firm-Days/dp/0446391948/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296145371&sr=8-2-catcorr
Making exercise an integral part of your life is essential… parking further away from the stores, is just one way. There is no one kind of exercise that fits for everyone. What kind of activities do you enjoy most? If you choose an exercise you enjoy, you're more likely to keep it up for the long haul. Let’s get excited about our quality of life, again, and “Get PUMPED up!”
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
100 Day Commitment or The Benefits of Moving Our Bodies!
Much research has been conducted and it is now a widely-accepted idea that the more “active” we stay, the happier and healthier our golden years will be. This past summer, a friend informed me that she was committing to 100 days of 30 minutes of exercise daily. I thought that sounded like something I could do and leapt onboard. Somewhere around day 45 I realized that this is a habit that, no only can I live with, but no longer feel I can live without! Why did I deprive myself of all the wonderful feelings, physical and emotional, that result from taking care of my body!? As American operatic soprano Beverly Sills once said, "There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."
I walk for my 30 minutes, first thing in the morning if possible. Some days are more difficult than others. On those days the bliss may not come until the halfway –turn-around-and-go-home–point. Most days I feel much better before I even leave my driveway!
As John Wooden said, "Nothing will work unless you do." I knew back in the fall when the days were turning crisp that the winter walks would be more challenging. I invested in an inexpensive down jacket, lined pants and a really good cap (I look funny, but who cares!). Unless it is pouring rain or sleet or snow… I’m like the mail… I’m walking. I have found many blessings from my newly-acquired habit.
Aside from the endorphins that lift my mood for the entire day, and my gratitude for my health, my Creator usually deposits some sweet blessing along my way. One day it was getting to see the peacocks who live down the road, on another it was several deer leaping across my path, and then there was the morning a red-headed woodpecker chased two magpies out of his territory, noisily across the sky. I am indeed blessed to live in the country where my entire walk looks like a beautiful landscape painting: old growth oaks, rolling hills, and the classic blue mountains in the distance.
If you battle depression, aches and pains, apathy or loneliness, may I give you my prescription? Walk 30 minutes a day and let me know if it doesn’t “rock your world.” Success speaker and Author Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul) is credited as saying, "Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it."
I walk for my 30 minutes, first thing in the morning if possible. Some days are more difficult than others. On those days the bliss may not come until the halfway –turn-around-and-go-home–point. Most days I feel much better before I even leave my driveway!
As John Wooden said, "Nothing will work unless you do." I knew back in the fall when the days were turning crisp that the winter walks would be more challenging. I invested in an inexpensive down jacket, lined pants and a really good cap (I look funny, but who cares!). Unless it is pouring rain or sleet or snow… I’m like the mail… I’m walking. I have found many blessings from my newly-acquired habit.
Aside from the endorphins that lift my mood for the entire day, and my gratitude for my health, my Creator usually deposits some sweet blessing along my way. One day it was getting to see the peacocks who live down the road, on another it was several deer leaping across my path, and then there was the morning a red-headed woodpecker chased two magpies out of his territory, noisily across the sky. I am indeed blessed to live in the country where my entire walk looks like a beautiful landscape painting: old growth oaks, rolling hills, and the classic blue mountains in the distance.
If you battle depression, aches and pains, apathy or loneliness, may I give you my prescription? Walk 30 minutes a day and let me know if it doesn’t “rock your world.” Success speaker and Author Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul) is credited as saying, "Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it."
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
A New Day
My temporary job helping teens be employed through the summer is ending today. I feel all the possibilities are unfolding before me. There are so many paths I'm interesting in pursuing. I know not which to take. It feels like a walk down a path not totally untravelled, that someone many years ago pointed out, is less travelled. I'm grateful to have loving folks to walk the path with me, friends to hold my hand, so I know I'm not alone. My cup runneth over.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The Truth
4/1/2010
A few days ago, I noticed that I would wake up relaxed and rested, but the efforts of getting up and getting Jesse off to school left me exhausted and tense. I felt the same way after social interactions with others, no matter where they were, on the job, at Church, in the marketplace. I placed my consciousness on this and pondered why this would be. It came to me that I exert a great deal deal of energy trying to be a certain way: chatty, upbeat, positive, encouraging, micromanaging the details of my son’s preparation for school; putting on a certain face to meet the public, even my very best friends and family. I soon saw that I was not being honest. I was lying in every moment and it was draining my life’s energy from me. I resolved in that moment to be more honest, and not because it was the “right thing to do,” but because it made me happy, peaceful and relaxed. This resolution has allowed miraculous changes to happen for me. I enjoy my interactions with everyone much more. I feel closer and more connected to people. I feel less afraid. I am able to respond to people in an honest open way instead of trying to figure out what and how I’m supposed to be.
Now I have more energy to give to others, to be concerned about the needs of others. I am happy and I want to share that, I want others to be happy, too. It is no longer a burden to carry about my façade, so now I may try to lift the burdens of others.
The Truth is becoming much more evident as I navigate the terrain of my day. Other people’s responses to me, the ones I used to use as road markers for how well I was doing, completely putting my self opinion in the hands of others, became information about them. If they are angry, accusing, critical or angry, I can see that that has nothing to do with me. Now, this is not something that I had never heard before, but I’d always just hoped it was true and never truly believed it was. What a wonderful way to go through life! Now when I observe someone who is angry, I know they are just afraid, afraid they won’t have enough, be enough, get enough done. I have enough to offer some of what I have. How cool is that? “And you shall know the truth and the Truth shall make you free.” John 8.32
A few days ago, I noticed that I would wake up relaxed and rested, but the efforts of getting up and getting Jesse off to school left me exhausted and tense. I felt the same way after social interactions with others, no matter where they were, on the job, at Church, in the marketplace. I placed my consciousness on this and pondered why this would be. It came to me that I exert a great deal deal of energy trying to be a certain way: chatty, upbeat, positive, encouraging, micromanaging the details of my son’s preparation for school; putting on a certain face to meet the public, even my very best friends and family. I soon saw that I was not being honest. I was lying in every moment and it was draining my life’s energy from me. I resolved in that moment to be more honest, and not because it was the “right thing to do,” but because it made me happy, peaceful and relaxed. This resolution has allowed miraculous changes to happen for me. I enjoy my interactions with everyone much more. I feel closer and more connected to people. I feel less afraid. I am able to respond to people in an honest open way instead of trying to figure out what and how I’m supposed to be.
Now I have more energy to give to others, to be concerned about the needs of others. I am happy and I want to share that, I want others to be happy, too. It is no longer a burden to carry about my façade, so now I may try to lift the burdens of others.
The Truth is becoming much more evident as I navigate the terrain of my day. Other people’s responses to me, the ones I used to use as road markers for how well I was doing, completely putting my self opinion in the hands of others, became information about them. If they are angry, accusing, critical or angry, I can see that that has nothing to do with me. Now, this is not something that I had never heard before, but I’d always just hoped it was true and never truly believed it was. What a wonderful way to go through life! Now when I observe someone who is angry, I know they are just afraid, afraid they won’t have enough, be enough, get enough done. I have enough to offer some of what I have. How cool is that? “And you shall know the truth and the Truth shall make you free.” John 8.32
Monday, March 22, 2010
If he knocks on the door, answer it.
If he wakes you up at 3:30 a.m., get up and get a pen and paper.
He's been trying to wake me up for years, same time, same place. Most of the time I roll over and go back to sleep. Occasionally, like today, I get up and get the paper/pen. Today he told me much. Does He talk to me? Thoughts come. If they are kind and loving I'll give Him credit. Today I felt the Light, I felt like I knelt in it. I felt like I wanted to live in it forever. Anyone who has ever felt the Love knows what I mean. I looked for it for years and when I finally found it, I asked, "What took so long?" His reply: "You were looking for me where I couldn't be." I've since learned He can't live in unclean places. Someone told me a story the other day, "Pretend someone is making your favorite chocolate cake. They are going to put a little poop in your cake, not much, just a bit, you probably won't even taste it. How much poop do you want in your chocolate cake?" Well, I don't know about you, but I don't want any. Yet, most of us, including me, tolerate different degrees of uncleanness in our lives, even believe we must have it, contention, worry, pornography on any level. Fear permeates all we do and we wonder why. Today I knelt in the light and know that I never want to live in the darkness again. In the light there is safety and wisdom and direction.
Yesterday someone handed me a 3 X 5 card with this on it:
"The character of Jesus is resplendently and constantly shown in all the accounts we have of Him. In fact, it is precisely because of the matchless luminosity of his character that Jesus truly qualifies as the light of the World. It is by means of his light that we should view everything else. When our view is so illuminated we can truly see 'things as they really are.' (Jacob 4:13) Little wonder that the more we understand and experience God's and Jesus' love for us, the more we want to please them, to be more like them and to be [one] with them." (Neal Maxwell, Increase our Faith)
It helped me on my way, I hope it helps you on yours. I hear that pilots spend more time off course than on and still reach their destination. I've spent much more time off than on, have you? Our destination is love and He is the source. If you've not experienced it yet, I hope and pray you do. You pray you do and you will. His promises will not fail.
He's been trying to wake me up for years, same time, same place. Most of the time I roll over and go back to sleep. Occasionally, like today, I get up and get the paper/pen. Today he told me much. Does He talk to me? Thoughts come. If they are kind and loving I'll give Him credit. Today I felt the Light, I felt like I knelt in it. I felt like I wanted to live in it forever. Anyone who has ever felt the Love knows what I mean. I looked for it for years and when I finally found it, I asked, "What took so long?" His reply: "You were looking for me where I couldn't be." I've since learned He can't live in unclean places. Someone told me a story the other day, "Pretend someone is making your favorite chocolate cake. They are going to put a little poop in your cake, not much, just a bit, you probably won't even taste it. How much poop do you want in your chocolate cake?" Well, I don't know about you, but I don't want any. Yet, most of us, including me, tolerate different degrees of uncleanness in our lives, even believe we must have it, contention, worry, pornography on any level. Fear permeates all we do and we wonder why. Today I knelt in the light and know that I never want to live in the darkness again. In the light there is safety and wisdom and direction.
Yesterday someone handed me a 3 X 5 card with this on it:
"The character of Jesus is resplendently and constantly shown in all the accounts we have of Him. In fact, it is precisely because of the matchless luminosity of his character that Jesus truly qualifies as the light of the World. It is by means of his light that we should view everything else. When our view is so illuminated we can truly see 'things as they really are.' (Jacob 4:13) Little wonder that the more we understand and experience God's and Jesus' love for us, the more we want to please them, to be more like them and to be [one] with them." (Neal Maxwell, Increase our Faith)
It helped me on my way, I hope it helps you on yours. I hear that pilots spend more time off course than on and still reach their destination. I've spent much more time off than on, have you? Our destination is love and He is the source. If you've not experienced it yet, I hope and pray you do. You pray you do and you will. His promises will not fail.
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