YOUR LIFE A-Z: MOVEMENT

ENJOY THE PLAYFULNESS OF MOVEMENT

MOVEMENT

MOVEMENT is absolutely essential to your wellbeing.  Whether it is touching your toes ten times or walking around the block ten times, it is important to MOVE.  Physical MOVEMENT also increases your resistance to depression, increases your immune system, and keeps you younger and agile as you MOVE through the stages of your life.  It is impossible to maintain a sour attitude if you MOVE your body and focus on letting breathe and life within.  MOVEMENT requires that you focus your attention to your body and often in our Western culture we forget we have a body.  There is a mind-body disconnect that can be healed via MOVEMENT and focus.  Focus on your body and MOVE it slowly and purposely.  Stretch your body with MOVEMENTS that require you to focus on “further” than before.  Stretch upward and MOVE downward.  MOVE to the right and then to the left.  MOVE for your enjoyment and health.  Swimming is also a great way to MOVE your body with little effort.  If you will MOVE for 10 minutes a day you will gain more energy.  If you change your position and MOVE to the back of the room you will gain a different perspective.  If you re-arrange your furniture by MOVING it around it will elevate your mood and give you a sense of newness.  If you MOVE a plant to different location you will smile at the change of attitude in a room.  MOVEMENT is key to changing your mood in a matter of minutes.  MOVE your body or MOVE your environment around and notice the internal change. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z SIMPLIFY

KEEP IT SIMPLE

SIMPLIFY

SIMPLIFY! SIMPLIFY! SIMPLIFY.  It will be a lot easier to be Neat if you SIMPLIFY your life.  SIMPLIFY the thing in your life that is currently driving you crazy.  What is it?  We all have something that we keep grinding away at and never feel as if any progress is made.  Here is a short check-list to get you thinking:  budget, household chores; relationships (partner, child, family member, friend); spiritual life; hobby; cooking; and the list goes on and on.  Choose one thing to SIMPLIFY today.  For example, SIMPLIFY your schedule.  Take a look at what you try to cram into one day and organize it.  Prioritize what has to be done and then add what you would also like to get done today. Balance the list with some positive actions so that SIMPLIFY does not become a task–master.  Manage your time to make the things happen that must happen.  Where are you wasting time or adding just one more thing that is creating stress or chaos?  Eliminate it.  That unnecessary drive through Starbucks is going to cost you at least ten minutes if not longer depending on the line.  Skip it and stay focused so you free up some time rather than cram twelve hours of things to do into eight.  Slow down and take some things off of what you think of as “must–have, must-do” list.  That will SIMPLIFY your day.  Ask yourself how much of what is on this list do you dread.  Eliminate one of them and reframe the others into positives.  Doing this will help you enjoy the day more. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z:QUALITY

BREATHE DEEPLY

QUALITY

QUALITY seems to be subjective opinions based on personal likes and dislikes as well as some educational understanding of that object you are judging as good or bad QUALITY.  Art and architecture fall into the eye of a trained and educated eye, but if you don't like Picasso then QUALITY won't matter.  Robert M. Pirsig, author of Zen the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, drives himself and sometime me, the reader, to the brink of insanity trying to define QUALITY.  It seems simple to me.  We seem to recognize QUALITY and often produce QUALITY.  Allowing ourselves to take Pride in our work will empower us to continue to produce QUALITY.  If we are not invested in what we are doing we usually do not produce QUALITY.  If we care about what we are doing then we invest more energy and Pride in it, thus QUALITY.  As Pirsig points out, it is really impossible to have "more" QUALITY.  QUALITY either is or is not.  What is QUALITY in your life?  What do you do really well that you take Pride in?  Where are there places of QUALITY in your home?  What images come to your mind when you hear the word QUALITY?  Clearly, QUALITY is sought after by everyone, even a redneck seeks a QUALITY beer.  That QUALITY may not necessarily be judged by taste, but might be judged by inexpensive and cold.  See QUALITY is truly subjective!  

YOUR LIFE A-Z:ZEN

SUFFER LESS- CONNECT WITH YOUR SELVES

ZEN

ZEN is one of the meditative arts and spiritual practices that began in China during the 6th century and moved south to Vietnam, northeast to Korea, and east to Japan.  ZEN de-emphasizes doctrine and emphasizes the meditative state of enlightenment, where all is well inside of your regardless of what chaos is going on outside of you.  ZEN is a state of being that is calm, aligned, confident, and centered even though your spouse may have just walked out or your car got totaled by an unfortunate accident. ZEN is important because it keeps our bodies in rhythm, our blood pressure normal, our heart rate perfect, and our fear levels within appropriate range.  The ZEN master that you might be familiar with is Thich Nhat Hanh.  This 87-year-old ZEN monk says, “Meditation practice can help us suffer less.”  The ZEN state is achieved through mindfulness, which is achieved through sitting.  When sitting in ZEN practice the goal is to stay focused on breath, now, being and noticing. If there is pain in your position breath into it, let it move out. If there is a negative thought, notice it and let it move on out to the horizon and drop off of the face of the earth.  There are many ways to practice and you can find your own way only if you set aside the time to sit and be.  You can read any of many books to help you, or you can look up a ZEN center on the web and go check out this important practice of inner peace.