“Food is Medicine that we take three times a day”
– Dr Mehmet Oz
Category Archives: Health
September is National Yoga Month
September is National Yoga Month. Yoga is a 5000 year-old practice from the East that has become a major phenomenon in Western Countries. About 16 million adults in the U.S. practice Yoga, spending more than $5.7 Billion on classes, annually.
There are many different styles of yoga being taught and practiced today. Although all of the styles are based on the same poses, each has a specific emphasis. See our previous post “I said Yoga, not Yoda silly” for an overview of the various styles of Yoga.
If you are a regular practitioner, use this opportunity to try a new style. If you are interested in practicing yoga yet feel overwhelmed you should note three quarters of practitioners in the U.S. have been practicing for just 5 years or less. The average cost of a class is $12-$18 and most yoga centers offer free classes for beginners. Take this opportunity to join the 16 million Americans positively impacting their lives with this 5000 year-old tradition.
Learning to Fly
“I’m a Zen Buddhist if I would describe myself. I don’t think
about what I do. I do it. That’s Buddhism. I jump off the cliff and
build my wings on the way down.” -Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s approach is one based on faith, based on you gut, based on what you don’t know you don’t know. This is not something they teach us growing up, in formal education or in continued education courses for our career. Whether it be your personal life or your professional career, there comes a point when what you know will only get you so far and you have to trust that along they way you will learn anything else you need to know.
One way to look at it is that life is a journey and often you have to take risks and learn as you go – you just hope when you jump, you have learned enough to keep you airborne long enough to learn how to fly before you hit the ground.
In your current life . . .
Where are you at with different areas of your life – are you safe on land or standing on the edge of the cliff or on your way down or even flying?
For the future . . .
What in your life has brought your to a cliff? (this “cliff” maybe a relationship with a friend, family member or significant other or the path for your professional career or learning a new skill set or trade or taking on a new hobby?) What would it take for you to jump?
Get Busy Living
There is a great quote in the movie Shawshank Redemption that says “Get busy living or get busy dying.” Those six words form a very powerful statement that may be a little confrontational to some people when they hear it. Those six words are not about death or mortality, rather they stand for a call to action to each of us!
This call to action is for each of us to be in action in the game if life.
Each one of us posses special skills and talents that we can use in this game called life. Those talents can be in our business/ industry, our friendships or personal relationships. These talents tend to be in the form of a natural skill set, a unique creative ability or a physical attribute. These talents can show up in everyday life as us being good with children or the ability to speak in front of crowds, the natural ability to cook or even the agility to perform challenging physical feats.
Regardless of the talent, many believe we have an obligation to get in the game of life and use these talents. This is based on the belief that if everyone is putting their best effort forward, ultimately the group/ community or society will achieve maximum results.
Within this obligation is the assumption that each of us will use our talents to attempt to win each time we step on the court and ultimately benefit ourselves and the others. It is also assumed that it is ok to sit on the bench at times and even watch from the stands, however when the time come, each of us need to be ready to get into the game and excel based on these skills we have been given.
What skills do you have? Come on we all have skills, maybe we haw never taken the time to recognize those skills.
When do you know it is time to get in the game and utilize those skills? Maybe the ability to recognize this will cone with practice?
How do you use your talents to win? What is a win for you in your life?
Experiences VS. Possessions
This month the New York Times did some interesting research in regards to the science of money, spending, and happiness. While we have all heard about people who are better off with less, the research went on to show how spending on experience instead of pissessions leads to longer happiness:
(Researchers) have found that our types of purchases, their size and frequency, and even the timing of the spending all affect long-term happiness. One major finding is that spending money for an experience — concert tickets, French lessons, sushi-rolling classes, a hotel room in Monaco — produces longer-lasting satisfaction than spending money on plain old stuff.
“It’s better to go on a vacation than buy a new couch’ is basically the idea,” says Professor Dunn, summing up research by two fellow psychologists, Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich.
… Thomas DeLeire, an associate professor of public affairs, population, health and economics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, recently published research examining nine major categories of consumption. He discovered that the only category to be positively related to happiness was leisure: vacations, entertainment, sports and equipment like golf clubs and fishing poles.
When was the last time a device or mode of transportation make you as happy as your last vacation? And would you rather show your friends a picture of your newest piece of furniture or the sunset on the last road trip you took?
So next time you are hot on the trail of your next purchase, stop and ask yourself what will really make you happy.
onedegreecloser 