Winter’s Momentum

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It’s the middle of February 2017. The exuberance of the New Year and everything it forebode for change is now a distant memory. In six short weeks, the new has worn off every shiny resolution, fading quietly away from our consciousness like so much snow drifting on the Midwestern plains. It is the bleak middle season…Winter.

It sneaks upon our good intentions like a thief, Winter does. It seemingly saps our resolve; remands our momentum; freezes our motivation. Winter abides in blinding, stinging glory; striving to reach us and teach us…how to grow in a dying season.

Spring, Summer, and Fall fill us with hope; Winter alone reminds us of the human condition. Mignon McLaughlin 

So I think it wise, if we notice Winter still in our midst, perhaps we could this once choose gratefulness. Perhaps then we might notice the imperceptible magic of Winter’s gift: for our resolution, when allowed to rest, we notice the increase of it, not its diminishment.  And the reduction of our momentum, merely a slowing of life’s pace, not a cessation of forwardness. And lastly, the freezing of our motivation for a time, may be wrought so as to temper mind and body in preparation for Winter’s thaw.

Now do we perceive? Winter’s Momentum is like a retrofit to resync body and spirit. Beautiful Winter! You are a companion for solitary contemplation; for creatitive  incubation and neogenesis of our soul. Let us plant ourselves deep under your covers of freezing rain and falling snow.

Dancing, Blessing, & Moving For Joy

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I was over 50 years old before I personally connected  with the happy benefits of moving my body to music…in public…in front of other people…with other people. I know that sounds odd in today’s modern, immodest age, but that is just the kind of person I grew into.

Yet as a personal trainer and recreational sportsperson, I am well versed in the feel-good endorphins illicted in the body when it is engaged in moderate physical activities. I just  never considered or experienced the value of participating in a group fitness class  based in music or dance. I assumed such benefits were reserved for those who had a background in dance, and I had no such experience with dance in a social or fitness setting. Thankfully, in the early days of my fitness education training, my mentor (who was also my employer) strongly encouraged me to consider providing a group music-based fitness class to his facility’s program offerings.

The soul is seen when it reaches out in love. Blessing is done by the soul.
Blessing is the projection of good into the life of another.
We must think it, and feel it, and will it.
We communicate it with our bodies.
Blessing is kind of like an ancient dance of the Hokey-Pokey;
Before you finish you have to ‘put your whole self in.’
Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You ~ John Ortberg

Now fast forward 8 years and I have had the privilege of leading as many as 7 group movement classes per week in addition to a roster full of personal training clients. Half of those group classes involve moving to music; and I like to think of these music-based classes as synchronized movement therapy. I still don’t think of myself as a dancer, but in the six years of leading these group music-based movement classes I have witnessed over and over again, the transformative and healthful benefits produced upon the lives of those who regularly attend these physical activity classes.

Changing your personal meaning of exercise and physical activity from a chore into a gift will transform your relationship with movement.
No Sweat ~ Michelle Segar

And be assured, the only requirement necessary to receive a health benefit from moving is to simply choose a mindset of being a blessing…to yourself. When you attend to your body’s need for movement with the intentional purpose of having fun (read: joy), you practically guarantee a blessing upon yourself, your soul. Additionally, such a mindset (job one = fun) quickly displaces feelings of competition or uncomfortable self-awareness you might otherwise experience in a group setting.

As the instructor of these music-movement classes, I have discovered I am not immune to this soul blessing phenomenon which takes place during and after the classes I lead.  It is a mystical effect, of which I cannot easily explain. But many times during a class period this blessing energy is not only visible on the radiant, gleaming faces of group participants, but I also sense the invisible yet nearly tangible presence of joy (love?) mixing and moving in our midst…the likes of which make me feel like a silly, awestruck five year old child.

Always remember this: Most of our aging is just decay, and decay is optional; it’s  under your control. Some of life’s changes are not under your control, but this one
is. Taking charge of your life, physically and emotionally, is the best possible antidote to standard aging.  And it all starts with exercise.
Younger Next Year ~ Chris Crowley & Henry S Lodge, M.D.

Wherever I go and with whomever I talk, I preach the blessing-benefits available for the taking when we discover a physical activity which brings playful joyfulness into our lives. There is not a one-size-fits-all list of sanctioned activities which constitutes ‘real exercise’. No, the most vital part of soul/body blessing is in bringing and moving one’s self purposefully to each and every activity which brings joyful feelings to one’s heart and puts beaming smiles on one’s face.

When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.
Jean Shinoda Bolen

Change…You Gotta Love It

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Nothing ever stays the same, ever. In nature, in life, in our bodies. Change is one of those immutable laws of the universe. It informs us with great constancy that all things are simply on a continuum: of birth and death; of growth and decay; of youth and age; of static and dynamic; of forward and backward. There is no place to shelter ourselves from change; it is the essence and life force of every atom and molecule found in the created world. To not love change, is to not love reality.

The problem with change for people though, is that we often do not perceive its arrival until its presence is most obvious and unwelcome. Like the proverbial elephant in the room, we often resist change wherever and whenever we encounter it. Like sleep walkers who are suddenly awakened from our slumber, change interjects clarity and reality into our once fantastical thinking. This may explain why weight gain of 5, 10, or more pounds on our bodies is so imperceptible to us at first, until it is not.  

Is it not also interesting how we try to manage and comprehend change by employing superlatives to describe its effects upon us (gain or loss, most or least, best or worst). But what if we were to consider change not in terms of either/or, but rather in terms of ONE. What if we were to relate to change in simplicity, realizing that its power transforms all things in the singularity of its ONE-ness, ad infinitum: one moment, one day, one inch, one pound after the other.  

Perhaps then we would become lovers of change. Perhaps then we would live our lives  with ONE purposeful step after another and another and another. And then perhaps we would love change, because we would know and believe and witness that each ONE step, each ONE action, each ONE belief accumulates; and this accumulation, whether we perceive it moving us along or not, soon works a change through us.

This is the law and nature and beauty of change. With our each and every thought or movement, change works on our behalf to move us along infinity’s continuum: closer to strength or weakness, closer to health or illness, closer to happiness or sadness, closer to failure or success.

Change…you gotta love it. The power of ONE. Embrace it, or not…  

Run Shared = Fun Shared

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One year ago today I posted on my blog about my second running of the Cinco de Mayo 10K/5K event in Tucson. I’m not sure why I looked at my post from last year, but after reading it I knew I wanted to write about today’s experience, my third entry of this race venue on this first day of May, 2016.

Much like 2015, the New Year 2016 found me busily occupied with family caretaking duties until late March with little time to run except 1 or 2 days a week. During the month of April I was able to return to some regular training, but I knew it would be at least another month before I could be race ready for the summer season. However, it was during this time of refreshed training when I realized that several of my personal training clients desired to improve their aerobic conditioning. Wouldn’t this be a good opportunity to challenge them to enter the Cinco de Mayo 5K event and join me in walking the course?

Well, in short order we had a team of 7 individuals willing to put their best two feet forward for a race in which they would only have 3 weeks to train. While this is not how I usually prepare my clients to train for a race event, the urgency of the looming 5K certainly provided us all with an extra dose of focus and purpose for our aerobic training in the days leading up to today.

Now imagine my delight, and theirs too, when we discovered that two of our team members placed in their age groups this morning! Had I run today’s race, I would likely have placed too, but what I discovered was something even more valuable than another personal age group achievement: A joy shared, is a joy doubled.

What I cherish most about today’s event as it relates to all the days which have passed in this crazy busy Spring of 2016, is the tiny role I had in helping these fun-ready ladies reach and exceed their goals on race day today. Cheers and high-fives to all of Team Oracle!

 

One Thing

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Only one thing is needful for a happy, healthy, life…and that is Love. Love for the Divine One, Love for ourselves and Love for others. At first glance this seems like a list of 3 needful things, but in reality, love administered to any one of these three, is love administered to all. How can that be? Because when love is transmitted, from one entity to another, it flows where it goes; it cannot be controlled or directed or restrained. When love flows, it flows like water; like wisps of wind, its course cannot be shunted, dammed, directed or diverted, because Love Exists…unbidden…it simply Is.

Your beliefs and thoughts are wired into your biology. They become your cells, tissues, and organs. There’s no supplement, no diet, no medicine, and no exercise regimen that can compare with the power of your thoughts and beliefs. That’s the very first place you need to look when anything goes wrong with your body.

A physician can help you monitor symptoms of imbalances and pay attention to signs that you need to do more to enhance your health, but it’s the Creator working within you that heals. Real health comes from Divine Love and infuses your body with vitality.  Christiane Northrup, M.D.

Love is viral! When Love flows from one life to another, it cannot be contained or quarantined. Love is no respecter of person or station. Love is not dependent on our ability to understand or comprehend it. Love IS…whether we perceive it or not, Love Remains as our only true Reality. Our awareness or lack of awareness does not affect Love’s potency or its ability to heal our injuries. Love Endures all things (yes even war, hate, and fear) and is able to wash away our grief, suffering, and disappointment. Love wraps and draws all creation close to her breast; we feel the wind and are reminded that Love’s breath is our breath, our essence, our Love. We only need to awaken from our nightmare, and realize that Love Is With Us; Love Is In Us; Love Is For Us. Love never fails or disappoints. Love always wins…

 

Don’t Ever Stop

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It’s what I’m always saying…show up for your life every day; don’t ever stop striving towards your calling…

 If we don’t exercise our bodies, then our muscles begin to constrict. And if we don’t exercise our minds, then our attitudes begin to constrict. Nothing constricts our life experiences like the constriction of our thoughts. It limits our possibilities, and it limits our joy. Marianne Williamson

What is your calling? Perhaps you think you have no special talent or passion or drive to do anything extra-ordinary. Such thinking does not release you from showing up. If you have breath and are vertical, then you have purpose. If you aren’t sure what your purpose is, then you may want to consider keeping a journal of all the things you do in a day or want to do in a day.

Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional and mental states. Carol Welch

Living your life on purpose, with purpose, simply requires a willingness to embrace each day with our eyes, ears, arms and heart wide open to the unfurling adventure of TODAY!

If you don’t ever stop singing, your voice stays in shape. It’s like the marathon runner. You’ve got to run, run, run to stay in shape. Sammy Hagar

Collective Fitness

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There is a well-known African proverb which states, “It takes a village to raise a child”, but I believe this proverb can be extended to a community’s health and fitness too. The longer I lead exercise classes with the people in my community, the more I have come to  believe in village dynamics; because it truly takes a village to raise a community’s collective health and well-being.

I’ve thought much about the ‘active community’ within the small, rural town in which I work and live; of those whom I instruct in Zumba and personal training and balance and strength groups, they have become my family. They are indiviually and collectively my  tribe. They are my happy place; my cherished people. When our regular times to move together are disrupted, my happiness quotient is diminished until we re-engage. And it seems this sentiment is felt by most all those who identify themselves with any given  active tribe.

It occurs to me, that being a part of an active tribe is an especially essential component to the well-being of the ‘over the hill’ gang. Mature bodies require a great deal of extrinsic motivation to stay physically active and engaged. But the truth of the matter is people of every age and stage need, depend, and crave an active ‘village’ to stay on track with health and fitness goals. And when one participates within their active village, the collective energy and enthusiasm provides a collective power to keep its members happily moving together, physically and socially.

As a fitness instructor, I benefit from these group dynamics just as much as those who attend my exercise classes. I notice that we all depend on and look forward to our group movement with great expectations; our times together revitalize and energize all who participate…in body, mind, and spirit.

Ailing bodies don’t keep us sick. Our attitudes and perspectives do.  Karen Casey

I should not be surprised by this phenomenon, but I am, and I want to write about this so as to encourage my readers to never neglect the importance and value of their ‘village’ people. It makes no matter, the size of your tribe, when two or more gather for purposeful movement, lives are impacted and well-being is extended into the community. We all need an active tribe of which we may call our own. Happy, healthy lives are not created in solitary, isolated pursuit, but rather in ‘tribal’ collectives of like minded individuals.

If you belong to an active community of exercising people whom you consider your ‘tribe’ then you no doubt have reaped the benefits of your collective. If you want to raise the well-being of your village, seek out those community members who need a ‘tribe’ to join. Pass the baton of well-being on to those within your community; it’s no harder than inviting a neighbor or friend to take a walk-about your village. Every step together builds your village strong and healthy!

Job Security

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This one minute (foreign) video needs no translation. It humorously illustrates what happens in our lives when we engage in good works on behalf of others. It is a story as old as time and yet it was the script across the final scene that struck a chord of truth for me: “Doing good requires energy.”

Indeed, doing good is hard work. It requires selflessness and abundant stores of patient endurance. Doing one good act a day is easy for most of us to accomplish. We seldom give a second thought to committing good little deeds in any given day. And some days are easier than others for us to DO GOOD. But string a bunch of good deeds together, one after the other…day after day…month after month…well…we could grow old from shear weariness.

But what are we to do if we find ourselves in a situation like the young man in the video? And surely we will, because in this world, we will never have in and of ourselves enough energy or strength to carry others safely across from one side to the other. Unless? Unless what? Unless we realize that our true source of energy is other worldly; it does not reside in or originate from our physical body.

What I mean is this: we are frail in our humanity; our bodies have reserves which must be refreshed and renewed every day. And if we’re not careful when we commit ourselves to doing good, we may run ourselves down to permanent exhaustion if we work as though we are the only one who can do the good work.

So this is the chord that struck me in the video: we cannot do all the good that needs to be done on our own, in our own energy, with our own strength. Because there is no end to the amount of good work which needs to be done, we must tap into a source of energy that cannot be diminished or diluted by our taking from it. I believe we all have access to this never depleted energy resource. But it is not to be engaged within the natural or physical realm but rather through the spiritual  realm, in the unseen reality of the working universe.

I believe that our Source for Energy comes from the Creator of all things. The One who made the universe; the One who made our bodies. It is through the portal of the Divine through which we access our source of limitless, never-ending energy for good works; from this Fount we are able to do ‘all things’…even the impossible task of finishing every good work set before us! The only requirement is that we ASK to be filled when we have emptied ourselves on behalf of others.

So this is the little lesson I learned anew after watching (and re-watching) this sweet, comical little ‘exercise’ video today. Indeed, Doing Good Requires Energy, and in today’s market, job security in good works is a certainty. Thankfully, we also have access to the energy reserves we need to complete our good work!

Your Personal Mission Statement 2016!

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Tomorrow we welcome the New Year’s arrival with open arms and expectant hearts…Greetings 2016! If you have been following the Personal Mission Statement (PMS) blogs since December 1st, then hopefully you have done your introspective research and writing and are now ready to finalize the first draft of your 2016 PMS.

Today’s blog will conclude this series but before it does, I will include some sample statements so you can see that no two statements are alike. The beauty of drafting your PMS is that it uniquely reflects what is of most import and value to you…it is very PERSONAL and will not look like anyone else’s PMS, unless, of course you want it to.

Lastly, I would like to suggest you consider your PMS document as a statement in flux. The PMS you write for 2016 is written on parchment, not stone. It will serve you best when you allow it to be a living record, and its detail or simplicity is completely up to you. Over time, you may revise and update your PMS to reflect the natural ebb and flow of your life’s ever changing experiences. You are the author of this life-embracing, purpose-focused statement! For once, it’s safe to say that your PMS really is all  about you how you plan on living your ‘one wild and precious life’!

Sample 1 PMS: My mission is to act as an instrument of positive change in my family, my work and my community. I will utilize all of the talents that God has given me and will participate in all aspects of my life with energy, purpose and gratitude. I will utilize my talents in strategy and administration to ensure that my home is loving and calm, my workplace is productive and positive and my community is responsive and growing. Through this focus I will give more than I take and will provide a positive role model for my children, family and community.

Sample 2 PMS: My mission is to be a thankful, appreciative person. I will use my words with utmost care and, I will love others in sincerity and authenticity…in word, in deed, and in the feelings of my heart. I will live my life with child like wonder and humility. I will be always a learner; always a creator and delighter of beautiful things. I will live my life in love; not in fear; I will live in the realm of ‘all things are possible’ because of the One who has given Life to me.

Sample 3 PMS: My mission in life is to have my own family. I need to remember that what I do now in my life will affect them. Because of this, I try my best to do the right things that will benefit my future. I would someday like to have a large farm with horses where I can help handicapped children. I’d like to work with animals, maybe be a veterinarian. Mostly, I want to have time for my family. So today, I will study hard and stay away from things which may hinder or sidetrack my dream from happening.

Personal Mission Statement…Know Your Purpose

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You have been given a most important assignment. If you are reading this post, you are breathing; and if you are breathing, then you have something very important to do. And just in case no one ever told you this, there is no one else ~ alive and breathing ~ who can perform this assignment for you. Because there is no one else, nor will there ever be, anyone else created just like you. You are uniquely qualified to do this one thing: Live YOUR Life…on Purpose…with Purpose…and with great PASSION!

DEFINITION:PASSION, a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything; the object of such a fondness or desire.

Does the above statement about living a passionate life frighten you or inspire you? Perhaps it can and should do both…because we have been given a great trust, to live our lives. And our passion, your passion, is the guiding light which will aide you in putting on the final touches to your Personal Mission Statement (PMS).

With this third step towards preparing your PMS, you will have one more opportunity to mine the treasure trove of your life for clues. As you consider what drives your life, consider where you live your life (in your body, in your spirit, in your personality, in your relationships) and consider what is most meaningful to you? You will now need to identify (write down) those goals, ideals, and/or aptitudes which resemble what you want to achieve or accomplish with the life you have been given.

These things which you identify as important help you chart the road map for your journey toward meaning and purpose. This step in the process of crafting your PMS may at first seem overwhelming and daunting, but I would like to propose it need not be so. Our purpose, the answer to our life’s meaning, is very simple…and I believe the answer is the same for each one of us.

Realize that this is my opinion, my belief, but this is what drives my life: our purpose (mission) is to do that which we were created to do: to Live in Love. We were created from Love, by Love, for Love. When we live in love,  we operate in a realm of abundance. Our energies (physical and emotional) know no bounds; we are connected to life force and life source when we live and move in Love.

Simple…isn’t it? And yet, we make it so hard. The world awaits…your world awaits…for you to color it; to form it; to beautify the corner you live in…this is your area of influence…this is your canvas to adorn. This step in crafting your PMS may require you to dig a little deeper into the soil of your one and only life, but it is no more difficult than writing down your loves. After this step, you will be ready to draft your PMS using the notes and lists you have made from your previous introspections and investigations.

In my next and last post about your PMS, I will share some sample mission statements with you. It is my hope that this series and this topic will  inspire you to craft your PMS, and your life, with your very own, one-of-a-kind perspective and Life Force. You will never inhabit this time or place in history again; I hope, and the world hopes, you will make the most of your one wild and precious life!