Tuesday, July 23, 2013

You are not Hamburger

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a client about the brain, gravity and the body.
We had just finished running the series at the gym, and were watching people work out around us.


We were watching this guy do handstands. Now, every day this guy does handstands in the workout room, but he does not engage his core once he is inverted, so he can only find a zone (I know it well) where his body lines up with gravity and he can balance there...all day if he wants, as long as he doesn't breath.

I was a gymnast way back when, so I know that spot..I used to find it myself...and then I would walk on my hands forward so I COULD breathe.... its very difficult to hold that balance zone with ANY movement in the torso so I moved to maintain. In competitive gymnastics, you need only sustain a handstand for about 4 seconds.

Yesterday, he was doing handstands on a push up bar. Those things look like two handles that you put onto the floor, so that instead of your hands being flat, you are elevated about two inches, holding onto these handles instead.

my student commented on how it was better alignment on the wrist, there for a better way to execute the handstand.
But in this position, his stability..ALL COMING from balancing on his hands is now gone...because he is gripping a bar, he has to stabilize from SOME WHERE ELSE..but he doesn't engage his core for the flat handed ones, so he wont do that now..so now he is putting CRAZY strain on his wrist's.

People, we are ruining our hands with computer devices, and probably our wrists with driving and life..do not put strain on your wrist..
THERE IS NO MUSCLE OR FAT TISSUE there. Just delicate capilaries, veins, tendons and nerve receptors. wrapped in skin.
 And because he was elevated off the floor, he was was a little more apprehensive. I could see it. He DID not feel safe on those bars like he did on the floor, so his fear increased his LACK of stability..

We have to think about how the brain ALLOWS the body to do its thing!! It is NOT the other way around...Gravity WORKS..to keep you on the ground..so just try to think that your brain works in a very simplistic way as well...to keep you alive..and if it senses danger, it DONT LIKEY.



YOU are NOT hamburger, so don't treat yourself like that.

Stop pounding on your body, treat it with respect, and know your muscles, tendons and joints need to function well into your 60's and 70's.

I want to walk til I drop dead at 106..so I need to take care of my body.

Be gentle with you, cuz you is the only "you" that you got!!










Monday, July 22, 2013

High School Re-unions

Why do we go? How did this American custom start? WHere is the attraction?

I will tell you.. its about who got fat and got thin. Its about who got rich and who got broke.. Its about who got sane and who got serene, and also who got batshit crazy off the rails.

Its also about seeing people that saw you at your worst and at your best. Its about all the patterns and sociality that are set at that time in our lives. Its about how we felt, just about to venture off into the world for a new exciting life. And the energy that forms when you connect with people who are like minded. There was serious connection in that room Saturday!!



In todays day and age we should do that more. Connect!

On a personal note, there were some of my favorite people in that room. People that helped shape me as a human being.

People in that room were my family as my own family were not. People in that room took care of me when I thought I had nothing.

And we took care of each other during that crazy winter when Jonestown, Milk and Moscone and then John Lennon happened. 

I was busy putting together this blog in my head, and I was going to share all the best remarks of the evening. But you would miss the context, and the subtlety, so I will keep those to myself.

I will, however, fully and publicly disclose that YES I had 5 cigerettes on the porch that night. I was enjoying myself , but I was a nervous wreck. I don't smoke ( although I used too), but I guess I do under duress. And Im a health professional.

To all I was a bad influence on, I do not apologize.. I was only doing what I do best. Enjoying myself, and every one is welcome  on the happy bus with me! Im a grown up now...

and it was ME, what did you expect?

I salute us all, the class of  *! ...we all looked amazing and happy that night. People  secure and happy with themselves. People who set out to do stuff, and DID!!

May the next party be just as glorious!


Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Rolling Stone

Ah yes, what a tragedy that a national  magazine about music, current events and marketed to twenty somethings would have one of the Boston Bombers on the cover.

Are you kidding? Is this all we can find to talk about?

If you didn't know, the magazine and newspaper industry are on their way out.
We get FREE NEWS streaming live to every device we carry or wear, therefor, very few of us NEED magazines or newspapers. The whole business is wheezing a death rattle, and if you didn't know that, then you need to read up!

In order to sell you a copy, they are going to do what it takes to get your attention. And the way most of us walk around in a complete device daze, the bigger the hype, the better!

How can we live in a society the condemns its own enterprise! We were purists once, and it was only Rock and Roll on the cover..fine. But Brittany Spears half naked on the cover SOLD a lot of copies. Remember that outcry? I do!!!

Any press is news. People will now buy it for the controversy.

But I say to all of us.. Its A MAGAZINE...not a school book. Its not depicting anything but common advertising skill, and the way we all stand in outrage of insensitivity to the victims, we have to look at OURSELVES first.
 It would not be marketing to our appetite of the gruesome and horrifying if we, as a populace, did not scarf that garbage up in the first place.

We slow down to look at car accidents and we relish building some one up to take them down.Paula Deen, case in point. We are not nice, or naive..so lets put the blame where it belongs.

I understand the need of honor and solemnity when it comes to tragedy on a public, mostly innocent scale. I walked to work on the morning of 9/11, and watched the two towers come down.

I knew some people in there. When Denis Leary put "Rescue Me" on the air a year later.. I was horrified.

Much to my chagrin, it was a thought provoking, well acted and directed show. But at first, it  was still too close.. ouch..SO I DIDNT watch till season two.

If the magazine offends you, don't buy it. You don't have to.... FREE PRESS...that is what it means.

We have got to get over ourselves.  We created this society.  We can change, but we have to look in, and not out.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Humility

one of my favorite words. Humility is knowing who you are and who you are NOT.

I know I am a strong woman of character, but Im also a big mush. I know I present an image that can be too aggressive for some in this town (LA), but I've decided to own that persona....play it cool when needed, but try to just be loud obnoxious witty me.

For many years, I was someone else. Anyone else. The color of the wall paper meant the color I would emote..and I could change patterns right before your eyes. I believe that my acting ability was honed from birth.. merely a projection of me......I was ALWAYS acting. And hopefully in the manner you wanted.

We need to like who we are; to present that to ourselves, and the world.

Your true character will bring you happiness. Hiding or blending in takes too much energy. Step away from the crowd, turn up the volume and WAKE UP.

Don't be like everyone else. Be different.
The sooner you are truthful with yourself, the better you will feel about everything.




Sunday, July 14, 2013

a terrible morning

to be sure. I was thinking of trying to post a more positive topic, but to ignore what is going on around us is denial at its worst. Its not just FLORIDA! The world is in pain.

We have terrible opinions of each other and ourselves. We walk around in fear, and the fear is becoming justified.
There are too many guns, too much hate and not enough empathy. Our diversity as a country should bring us together, but still so many believe that VERY diversity should go away.

 In the world, of course, we use it as an excuse to kill pregnant women and children.
The hardest part to swallow is that in life, there is much of this.

We all feel bad when we see the horrible stuff reported by the news, but what about all the shit we don't see? DO we know what is going on in Egypt? Syria? Africa?
The world is suffering, and in order to stop inflicting more, we must change ourselves!

I have to dial down my anger. I have a real problem with BULLIES as I was bullied as a child. I believe that my reaction to the verdict is warranted (I want to find Zimmerman in a dark alley, and I want to beat him to death in front of HIS MOTHER slowly), but how I respond is up to me. How I choose to see this and feel this are up to me.
I can post a humorous pic on FB about 'Dexter' possibly going after Zimmerman, but now I feel bad about that. I think humor is the best defense, but I put out the wrong message.

Revenge is fruitless. The world has been hacking and cutting bits of itself off due to what was done ....Germany went nuts because of social discourse in the 19th century, so when Hitler showed up, they WANTED what he was selling. German FREEDOM.

Is that not that what we all want?


"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
    Dr. Martin Luther King 1963

I was born that year.  50 years ago . I am holding onto this, and not my previous thought.
I will try to look for the light today.

7/14/13


Saturday, July 13, 2013

how to blog with a brain like mine

So I blogged for the first time... Yesterday.
 How did I do?
 I thought I took a harsh tone on opening day, but at least the message was clear.
 I certainly hope that I upset no one with my condemnation of SODA. Just my opinion based on years of study (by myself and others) but I know I cant go after Big soda just yet.

I can wait. You all can drink that stuff for awhile yet.

I cant promise these are all going to be pearls. I do this in order to get my voice out there, as it is the new TV, right?

I myself, am incredibly OUT of the whole internet thing. I should really take a class or something. I have  little knowledge of the actual functioning of my own computer, let alone the whole giant universe of cyberspace. I was lucky enough to find myself usually dating a techie or two to help me maneuver thru whatever I was trying to accomplish. My ex husband was a computer savant.

Yesterday as I joyfully posted my announcement on FB to follow me, I had NO IDEA of how to tell people  how to do that!! Its all paint by numbers to me, and my frustration as I bang on my keyboard sometimes comes without warning.

Patience at my own level of not understanding is the last place on the block that I wander, but its where I need to go. Trying to learn anything new is difficult later in life. I have to accept that my brain likes to KNOW IT ALL and as soon as it get confused, it shuts down like a child. I have to work at that.

 If your brain feels threatened at all, you have to talk it into things. You have to allow it to find its own way sometimes.
DO NOT yell at yourself or be demanding. The messages we send to ourselves are important because they tell us how to live, yes? There is no need to be a tyrant on yourself.
Try to be gentle in your brain. Take it easier on yourself. Smile on the inside.

 Everyday, Im as good as I am. Period.

Today I am grateful for that.
7/13/13



Friday, July 12, 2013

Diet Soda

Yesterday I posted on FB that some one has finally done the dirty work of calling out soda.
Not just soda (which is so incredibly bad for ALL PARTS OF YOU,) but diet soda.

I was a fat child and adolescent and ADULT. I was raised on that stuff. Pepsi Light, and Tab and fresca were ALWAYS available. It was the ONE THING I was allowed to consume with impunity.
My mother would line the fridge door with a million flavors of Shasta diet Soda. Diet Tiki Punch and diet root beer, diet orange and grape and strawberry..seriously I remember at least 13 different flavors. SO I drank that stuff. ALOT

We know now that the sweeteners they PUT in there to make it taste good are #1 bad for your entire digestive track, starting with your TEETH, and ending at your liver. #2 they do nothing to decrease hunger because the gas creates a bloat in your tummy (which will make you eat more LATER!!)
#3 they bloat you so on a physical level, so they don't help there either. #4 If you drink more than 2 cans of that crap a day, if you live on it, like many dieter's BELIEVE they can and should, it will create havoc inside of you, and it doesn't  help you be healthy!!!

 Being Healthy is all that matters. Drink Water. Ask any medical professional today, and I bet  they will agree.

We are in love with SODA here in AMERICA. It seemed so harmless, and safe once.
I see parents giving it to their kids and I wince. Sorry, gotta be honest. My children were allowed one a day. Until they all quit!!

I was lucky enough to convince them all (my once family of a husband and two boys)  to drink seltzer and juice. A personal victory on my part.

Be mindful of what you put in your body, because it matters.

Because you matter. 7/12/13