An Inspirational Quote
“Persistency in thinking health, in imagining or idealizing yourself as healthy, vigorous, and symmetrical, is the cornerstone of health and beauty.”
Prentice Mulford
One of the most important things you can do to heal your body is to establish a healthy rhythm.
When we do something over and over again, it ceases to be a stimulus. The reason that many people are chronically stressed is that they have never learned the concept of oscillation.
If I were a first-time lawyer, trying my initial case in court might be thrilling. The pump of adrenalin as I face the court might be stimulating. But if I continued to do that same thing over and over, especially for 12 hours a day, 5 to 6 to 7 days a week year in and year out without adequate recovery, then the result is like flat lining, a term developed in hospitals for cardiac arrest.
All living things have rhythms. Your heart rhythm can be measured through your EKG. Your brain rhythm can be measured in your EEG. In Chinese medicine, when we live our lives in harmony with these natural rhythms, our triple warmer acupuncture meridian stays balanced and we experience good digestion and metabolism and normal adrenal function.
One of the reasons that I have always loved yoga is that my practice restores balance to my nervous system. We make an effort and then we rest. We flow with challenge and then we rediscover our interior selves.
Even in traditional exercise, physiologists are finding that interval exercise is often more beneficial to the whole body than sustained activities at the same pace, especially when practiced over and over again, day after day.
Your mind needs variety. Your body needs different kinds of stimulus. Your soul needs new challenges.
The relentless demands of corporate life, the 24/7 news cycle, the glow of a computer screen for insomniacs, all these things degrade the value of our existence because they fail to maintain balance in our nervous system, the result of which is chronic exhaustion and burnout.
Here are a few ways you can include the concept of oscillation in your life:
Rest one day every week.
Set aside one workout every week for restorative activities, including yin yoga or restorative yoga, qi gong or a quiet walk in nature.
During your heavy workouts, push intensely for short bursts and then back off.
Keep an hour of your day completely unscheduled to give yourself a chance to reconnect with your true self.
Meditate.
Set up a four day rotation for your diet so you don’t eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Do something you have never done before. Take up a musical instrument, learn how to dance. If you are not having fun in life, what is the point any way?
Visit an Alexander practitioner and change the way you habitually sit, stand or walk. Lack of physical exercise and stuck postures show up in our bodies as chronic neck, hip or knee pain.
Get out of your rut at work. Try something you don’t even think you can do, just to realize that you are always safe at a soul level.
Have your adrenal function scientifically tested. If you have burned out adrenal glands, chances are you aren’t just physically tired, your soul needs something different also.
Our Guardian Angel Dog Honey Boy
One hundred percent of the money from our August yoga class went to support the Atlanta Pet Rescue, www.atlantapetrescue.org.
Last year, we also donated all August yoga moneys to the pet rescue and the class voted on whether or not to become the guardian angel for a dog or a cat. Alba Adrian cast the tie vote and we sponsored a pussycat that had been at the shelter for nearly a year.
Shortly after we became his guardian angel, Cranky Francie at last found a new home and has since become fat, fluffier and happy.
Our excellent luck has improved even more!
Alba suggested that since we picked a cat last year that this year we should become the guardian angel for a dog.
After looking over the long list of worthy nominees, we selected Honey Boy and he was adopted the very same day we picked him.