So much of how we think and what we think we know is based upon our culture, how we fit in and perceive the world immediately surrounding us.
EACH OF US IS DNA but we are also programmed from the time we are born, by well-meaning but sometimes misguided family members, parents who perhaps think they are protecting us or we are learning and programming ourselves simply by watching what they do.
SLOWLY ENDING - Breakdown and age do in fact happen, but the process is significantly slower than I believe most people think. For example, how long does your typical well made car last? And I mean both mechanically and aesthetically. How long should paint last on a vehicle in Texas, for example? The car above is a 1995 Turbo MR2. I bought it new and the photo is recent. The paint is original and the interior looks perhaps a few months old. We are like this car. 80% of our health comes from our diet. Take another 20% and label that the environmental factors such as smog, smoking, stressful conditions, polluted water.
MOST OF US ARE MADE WELL - what we need to do is capitalize on as many ways to help our bodies detox, de-stress and heal, as we can and on a daily and weekly basis. This should include fresh made green drinks, limiting sugars and processed foods and eating as much organic raw food as possible rather than cooking everything to death. The cooking process destroys the naturally occurring enzymes that help your body process the food. Living fast doesn't help our body last. Slow things down and listen to what you need. You are the director and take full ownership of your overall health. Nobody else is going to do it for you and, nobody else can do it better, really, if you are in tune with yourself.
LIVING THE LIFE! - The best way to live a resilient energetic life is to put some work into that. Take up yoga, even one day a week. What I discovered through yoga for myself is all the little ways I am imbalanced. For example, my left-hand holds the pot and my right washes. How do you take your pants on and off, what fingers are involved? Which is your stronger and weaker side? When you learn these things, bring your awareness to them, that is when healing and transformation can begin. To help with that, I have put together some tools with links for you, along with a bit of information about them.
DO YOGA - First I recommend going to a class if you can because instructors can adjust you and you get the energy from the room. You also meet like-minded people, it's all fabulousness! But you will want to also do some yoga work at home too. For this, I adore this set Yoga For Beginners and Beyond. Not only can you customize a workout, but you can choose some very healing slow yoga and target areas you need to strengthen and stretch. Other than poses and postures, the first and most important tool is your mat. I am a big girl, and there is a lot of weight pressing down on my feet and hands during various poses so I highly recommend the Manduka Pro Yoga Mat. And it comes with the eQua Yoga Towel. Even if you are the weight of a feather, this mat will last you a lifetime and provide the joint cushioning required to do the fancy stuff like flying into plank. IF you go to a class, which I also highly recommend, you will want a bag to keep your mat in. I am not a polyester fan (petroleum industry and not natural fiber) so I recommend the Joyne Large Yoga Bag that is cotton canvas or the Bean Products Yoga Bag which is hemp. Both are roomy nice bags that will hold other personal items along with your mat. I personally have a manduka bag, but it was back when they were cotton canvas. These two bags are as nice and come in some groovy colours too.
FEET FIRST - I want to talk about Yamuna Foot Wakers and YogaToes. And, I'll be honest, I love things, props, that I can use while just cold chilling in front of the TV or reading perhaps. It takes you from trying to be patient through the process of using the tool for x many minutes to really enjoying an extended session with the tool as you occupy your mind. So the foot wakers come in spiky and rounded. I have the gold spiky ones. As we age, our feet, which take a beating for us every day, can have issues with shortened tendons. Sometimes we lose the spaces between our toes and the ability to stretch our toes out. Yoga toes help with aligning our toes so there is space created between them, as well as a gentle therapeutic stretch. Always, of course, wear comfortable shoes! You want to protect the health of your feet because if they aren't happy, neither are you.
Foam Rolling for physical therapy! This is two rollers in one, a great value. Smooth to just relax and stretch and the textured roller provides deep tissue massage. If, like me, you sit all dern day long at a computer, then you probably have shoulder and neck work and lower back work...how did I do? Am I right? :) If you are a lumberjack, that's ok, (for the Python fans) you and everybody else in all lines of work, can benefit from this. Use it daily. I typically do it prior to bed. Nothing screams old more than aches, pains and not being able to move around quickly with ease. You will see results.
Using the Dharma Wheel - Sukhamat Yoga Wheel - This little gem is an intense stretch and comes with a booklet of great poses you can use this tool with to help you go deeper into the pose and body healing and stretching.
For the ladies, Intimate Rose, Kegel Exercisers. Yoga class also teaches bandhas (Check out The Master Key for both men and women) that help tighten up muscles down there, but this is a great tool for after pregnancy, labor recovery, bladder control and the overall tone of the pelvic floor. When my mother reached her 70's, she could not make it from the bedroom to the bathroom, one room away, without going all over the place. This is important.
LOVE YOU! - The most important thing you can do to live the longest most resilient life is to love who you are. There is nobody exactly like you on the planet. Whatever work you do, you bring you to it, which is a quality that cannot be exactly duplicated. I had to unlearn a lot of bad programming. I was always told there were people better at x than me. While this may be true, none of us should ever toss in the towel on our ability to learn and grow and bring ourselves to the task at hand. What if Prince said Michael Jackson is the best so why bother? Who do you think is better? Both men were exceptional musicians and artists who brought their own personal stamp into everything they created. So whether it is Project Management behind a desk most of the day or on center stage, what always matters is you and how you can do it. Embrace this life because what comes next is a mystery!
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