How is our posture molded?  Habits that  persist over years shape our posture.  Our attitudes and emotions shape our posture.  For example, you may go through an unhappy period during your life (this could be for a very good reason) during which you are stressed and your breathing is shallow.  Along with your shallow breathing you slouch, turning inwards.  This changes the chemistry of your fascia or connective tissues.  If this persists for a length of time even though you become free of  the unhappy event(s) then this unhappiness becomes a part of your belief system and it is held in your slouching body “I am an unhappy person”.  Our posture reflects our past and how it has been molded by our attitudes, activities, surgeries, accidents and movements.

One way to begin working with your posture is through mindfulness.  Lay on the floor and notice (without trying to fix) all the parts of your body that are in contact with the floor  beginning with your heels.  The process of noticing allows your body to begin to change.  Next, continue with some sort of movement routine, yoga for example.  At the end return to notice your body laying on the floor.  If there has been a change with more of your body being in contact and with more symmetry then your movement efforts have been successful in creating change.

The more we can stop and notice what is going on in our bodies and our breathing the more we learn about our habits. The more we reconnect with the forgotten parts of us, the more we can become aware of our posture during emotional times and then we can come to learn what we need to do to create more openness, more space in our bodies.  Think openness, space, lightness, ease of movement and effort, awareness of breath.  Think of these things when you think of posture.

Copyright 2009  Brenda Rosenberg CYI, CST, APIA

This is a demontration of some very potent breathing and bodyweight exercises that are part of the KetYoga system.  Breathing is the most vital process of the body, but it is frequently overlooked in today’s training protocols.

Today, I worked for probably 6 hours on music with Bryan, writing lyrics for a new Christmas song.  I had a very difficult time stopping, even though I was starving and getting way too much inside my own head.  I felt upset to stop and take a break.  I didn’t want to tear myself away from the work, but Bryan insisted as he knew I needed to eat and get fresh air, do my yoga and exercise. 

When I get in this creative zone, nothing else exists except the creation.  It’s as if the world stops and the only thing that exists is the creation and me.  I realized today that I love being in this zone, but it is hard to acclimate back to “normal” life.  Once I stop, I retain what I am doing for hours and hours, and today, unfortunately, I suffered a major headache from it. 

Bryan took me to eat and then we went to the park and while we waited for tennis courts, I did my yoga.  It, of course, helped ground me and pull me out of my mind and into my body a little more.  I felt better for it,  experiencing a much more balanced feeling. 

So, I feel conflicted, I love this artistic experience of being in the zone, but at the same time I end up  feeling lousy if I don’t set the boundaries with myself and eat and get exercise.  If Bryan wouldn’t have been here, I would have done nothing else but the writing, but would have felt entirely miserable. 

It seems that I wrote about this sort of experience before, and so I guess I’m realizing that this is an issue that returns itself.  Somehow, I need to accept this part of my artistic experience…accept it and screw everything else. Well, I really am not sure, but I will meditate on it…

after I finish the song.

In October 2007, I saw an ENT for tinnitus. He scheduled me for a polypectomy  and  then performed three aggressive nasal and sinus surgeries and an undocumented nose job. The nose job has been confirmed by several plastic surgeons. He left my breathing and my face a shambles. For a year, I lived with the fear that I had atrophic rhinitis, a rotting condition of the sinuses caused, in the modern world, by aggressive sinus surgery: Atrophic Rhinitis Paper. A person with atrophic rhinitis eventually develops a stench in her nose so overpowering that she can be smelled blocks away.

The surgeon who did the damage documented on three post-operative visits that I did have atrophic rhinitis. The next ENT wasn’t sure. Eventually, the AR question settled into a collective opinion that I have some type of rhinitis which remains undefined.

For the first eight months, my breathing was so compromised and my nasal dryness so torturous that I could not imagine a future. My goal was to achieve a level of breathing and nasal balance that I could learn to endure. The specter of becoming a creature emanating a nauseating stench loomed. I held the image at bay. One thing at a time.

In spite of intense pain and fear, I desperately wanted cosmetic repair.  I came close to having a revision rhinoplasty less than one year after the surgeries. It fell through. Again, last summer, I saw an ENT plastic surgeon. “It’s too soon,” he said. “You’re still healing. If you have surgery, healing will stop.”

“Still healing?” I said.  “It’s been almost two years.”

“Your surgeries were very aggressive,” he said. “Normally, we say to wait one year. For you, three years.”

No way, I thought, am I going to live with this hideous nose for another year. I found another plastic surgeon who agreed to do the surgery. At the eleventh hour, the surgery fell through due to a low thyroid level. By the time the problem resolved, I had changed my mind. The surgeon and I had not agreed on aesthetics.

I believe the low thyroid level was a divine intervention. The surgery planned for me was too aggressive and not what I wanted, but more than that—I am still healing.

In increments so tiny as to be almost indiscernible, my nasal health steadily improves. Some of the improvement is due to the Premarin I have  put in my nose. Some of it is due to use of the natural remedies listed in the pages under Healing. And some is due to the factors that constitute Breath.

In the dark days following the surgery, I grasped that my anatomy had been altered. Bone and cartilage, blood vessels, glands, nerves and mucosa, had been cut out of my nose. The most overwhelming feeling was of something missing. Not no nose as a fellow ENS sufferer has described it. For me, it was a feeling of partial amputation, like the removal of one and half lungs. Lying in my darkened bedroom, I envisioned God breathing life into the first human. This was how the nose was formed, I thought–out of dust. The nose was formed out of the act of breathing. The same way a muscle is formed out of an act of doing.

I stumbled through the snow, in those days, pressing my lips together and sucking air in through my partial nose. I sucked with all my might, in the effort to inflate my partial lungs. That is the way I experienced my lungs, too, and still do, though not as keenly. The loss of lung sensation is due to the nose-lung reflex discussed on The Empty Nose Syndrome Association website: Respiration Article.

Sitting in bed, I practiced the deep breathing exercises from Richard Hittleman’s Yoga: 28 Day Exercise Plan. I hung my head over the edge of the bed in an effort to draw blood into my nasal area. I sat with orange slices, inhaling their scent. I envisioned wee sprigs of mangled glands springing back to life, beating their chest, flexing their might.

When I was too tired to do anything else, I meditated on the act of creation. For me, the image was one of God blowing air into my nose, forming, once more, the organ of breath. But you don’t have to share my archetypes in order to meditate upon the healing of a body part. There are many excellent resources on the subject of meditation and visualization. Here is one: Guided Imagery.

You may never be the way you were before. But I am here to tell you, you can get better.

35

joy knows no bounds
in the predawn hours

the earth is held in the embrace
of an otherness that can only
be called ’sacred’

it’s like a held breath,
a halt in time’s march …

then, the peach-hued sunrise
is noisily called forth
by the feathered guardians
of the dawn,
and the breath flows out

into the glory of Gaia’s first day

source – the nth notes

Denic Kanygin talks about the proper body alignment and extension when performing the kettlebell jerk.

If you want to find out more, follow this link and go sign up today!

“He sleeps after having played his flute, a tender youth lying on tender flowers, whilst the moisture on his forehead mingles with the dew of the meadow; and Zephyros summons him by breathing on his hair, and he breathes in response to the wind, drawing the air from his lungs.”

He lay listening to the water drip in the woods. Bedrock, this. The cold and the silence. The ashes of the late world carried on the bleak and temporal winds to and fro in the void. Carried forth and scattered and carried forth again. Everything uncoupled from its shoring. Unsupported in the ashen air. Sustained by a breath, trembling and brief. If only my heart were stone.
~Cormac McCarthy, the road

Ladies, Gentlemen, Pimps, Chickens, Scallywags, Lookawhos, Gorgonites, Children, Preachers, Lovers, Fighters, Contortionist, whoever you are…LETS GO!  Now you know when you got stank breath…it usually happens when you wake up from a night’s sleep or nap, get done eating something nasty, or for you smokers out there…ALL THE TIME!  This is something that Darkness just can’t stand for.  When I’m just regular old Dark Kent and not everyone’s favorite Superhero Darkne$$, I have a day job.  In my job there are many conferences and meetings that I must attend.  Now I cool with networking and meeting people as much as the next person but….PLEASE CHECK YOUR BREATH GAME PRIOR TO SPEAKING TO SOMEONE!   You can’t walk up to someone with you breath smelling like old bus seats…you may get this reaction:

(Peep the 3:55 mark)

Daaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyummmmmm!  Talk about getting your spot blown the F up!  Now  not everyone one is ghetto as hell and will tell you to your face that your breath is stank.   Especially people who are meeting you for the first time.  Hot breath is a growing epidemic that must be stopped.  Ladies…the fastest way to go from a 616 to a 606 is to have some stank breath.  Now most guys will be polite and offer you a piece of gum as they take one.   SMOOTH.  But sometimes you may not have gum so you ask them for some in hopes that they take a piece for themselves.  Well your boy Darkne$$ tried that move the other day.   I usually have gum on me but I had just polished off a pack of the FIVE COBALT (learn about it) and had not had time to replenish.  Turns out said party with breath like a flagrant foul had some gum.  They then gave me a piece BUT DID NOT TAKE ONE FOR THEMSELVES!  WTF!  Passion strikes in all forms.  I mean it was like he was holding that gum for show or to make convo.  That’s like a drunk dude using a light pole to hold himself up instead of illumination (knowledge).  I felt like I was being hit in the face with a poppy diaper.

Needless to say I made the quickest exit possible and tried to prevent myself from vomiting.   Basically you need to step up your breath freshening game if you haven’t already.  That could be a major deal breaker in life and it’s so easy to prevent.  If you don’t know what breath remedy to choose…take a little lesson from my boys from THE WOOD:

Stay Fresh,

Darkne$$ aka Mr. Stanky Legg to My Dougie

The breath, body, and mind are three expressions of one being, interdependent and interrelated. The body is the most material vehicle of human experience, and most of us are more or less unconscious of our bodies, until we begin practicing Yoga. Mind, in Yoga, refers to consciousness in its various aspects, for instance feelings, thoughts, perceptions. The breath acts as a bridge between body and mind, an energetic corridor connecting the two poles of our being dynamically.

Physically, the breath nourishes and cleanses the body, and the act of breathing serves to exercise & strengthen muscles, e.g., the diaphragm, healthy maintenance of which is crucial to physical well-being. Energetically, the breath is an expression or vehicle of prana, or life-energy; that which enlivens the body and maintains its internal and inter-environmental harmony. The breath harmonizes our emotions and mental activity, and calms both, at the same time as it impacts every part and system of the physical body.

[Influenza]

[Herpes]

Las enfermedades y los microbios se convirtieron en peluches!

Y pueden comprarlos por el precio de $8 dlls aquí, o bien, ver la galeria completa.

Vía ThinkGeek

e.me

[Malaria]

[Neurona]

[Varicela]

[Esperma]

[Tos]

[Vacas Locas]

[Levadura de Cerveza]

[Ulcera]

[Mal Aliento]

Aquí pueden ver toda la colección

I meditated for the first time in months (a year?) tonight. It wasn’t long, maybe 10 minutes or so, but I did it. I got my cushion set up in a good place, a place where it won’t have to be moved to make room for Legos or a bouncy horse (this is key; this should be my spot that’s ready for me anytime). I sat down, stared at the nail heads in the wood floor, compared the grain from one plank to the next, thought about my book, thought about the excruciating process I’m going through backing up my data to an offsite locale and all the frustrated emails I’ve sent to their tech person, Zaki, etc., etc., etc. But, as I was instructed so long ago, I kept coming back to my breath. Again. And again. And again. It was about as far from perfect as a meditation session could get, but that’s okay. For today, the important thing is that I did it.

This is a wonderful and rare opportunity to study, in depth, a component of the LivingDance~LivingMusic TM approach to dance/movement therapy, pioneered by Danielle Fraenkel, Ph.D., BC-DMT, NCC, LCAT, LMHC, CGP. This opportunity is even more special for those of us in California as Dr. Fraenkel lives in Rochester, New York. Her dance/movement therapy studio, Kinections, just celebrated its 25th year anniversary. Congratulations!

I had the privilege of studying under her for a year and a half during my post-graduate internship and am delighted that she will be offering this workshop in my backyard.

One of the exciting aspects of her work is that she has developed a theoretical framework for dance/movement therapy that is grounded in the inherent healing of dance, itself. You can learn more about this theory, specifically as it pertains to the use of breath, at the workshop below.

LivingDance~LivingMusic™
Breath and Somato Respiratory Integration™
as
Sources of Expression, Self-Awareness,
and Self-Acceptance —Part I
December 5, 2009 — 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
December 6, 2009 — 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Danielle Fraenkel, Ph.D., BC-DMT, NCC, LCAT, LMHC, CGP
Jeffrey Mehr, MA, musician

Course Description:
Students will learn how LivingDance~LivingMusic™ uses The Twelve Stages of Somato Respiratory Integration to generate here and now dances that shed light on the individual’s relationships to self and others. By working with the interactions among breath, touch, and movement, students will see how a theory of dance/movement therapy can be grounded in dance and how neurobiology, music, and dance affect one another. Developed originally for adults with eating disorders, this approach has been used in a variety of settings from partial hospitalization for the mentally ill to normal neurotics seeking to self-actualize. Live music.

• Students who complete the requirements for Part I will receive 1.5 credits towards certification in dance/movement therapy or 22.5 hours of continuing education.
• Students who also complete the requirements for Part II of this course will be eligible for a total of 3 credits towards certification in dance/movement therapy, 45 hours of continuing education and 3 credits towards qualifying to be a facilitator of LivingDance~LivingMusic.

Instructor
Dr. Danielle Fraenkel, director of Kinections℠, creator of LivingDance™ and published author, leads LivingDance~LivingMusic groups locally, nationally, and internationally.

Musician
Jeffrey Mehr, M.A., writer, poet, and photographer, has played piano since he was four and practiced Taijiquan for more than thirty years. His LivingMusic stems from these two disciplines. The dancers power the playing.

Location

California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840 (Dance Department)

Questions: kinectionsinfo@kinections.com
In California: Lora Wilson Mau, R-DMT, writelora@hotmail.com

Your Investment
$325.00 Visa and MasterCard accepted. Click HERE for Credit Card form.
Checks or money orders are payable to Kinections. Mail to:
Kinections, at Imagine Square, 718 University Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607
____________________________________________________________________________
(Check one) I have enclosed a bank check____ money order____ , or credit card information____ for $325.00 for
LivingDance~LivingMusic: Breath and SomatoRespiratory™ Integration as Sources of Expression, Self-Awareness, and Self-Acceptance, December 5-6, 2009.
OR
I have FAXed _____credit card information indicating that I give you permission to charge_______ dollars to my credit card account for the above course of study.
Card Type_______________________________ Number _______________________________
Exp: Date:_______________

Signature__________________________________________Date_____________________

*”When we are grateful for the good we already have, we attract more good into our life. On the other hand, when we are ungrateful, we tend to shut ourselves off from the good we might otherwise experience.”* Margaret Stortz

*”When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”* Willie Nelson

Cynthia Ozick once said that, “we often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” I couldn’t agree with this statement more. As humans, we often get stuck in the mindset of always wanting what we don’t have. The grass is greener on the other side. Other people’s circumstances seem more desirable than our own, when in reality were our roles reversed we would likely still wish to have things that we do not. It’s a part of human nature- to want. But there is so much in this world to be thankful for if we just take a moment to appreciate all that we have already been given. Some days I am mystified at all that I have been immensely blessed with, while other days I take for granted all that do I have. Some days it is easier to focus on all that I don’t have or all that I long for instead of taking the time to sit back and concentrate on all that I already have and all the wonderful things in my life that I should be thankful for.

We all have heard (and likely participated in the fabulous elementary school productions of) the Thanksgiving story in which the cute lil’ Pilgrims with their big belt buckles and funny shoes got together with the Indians full of face paint and feathers coming out of their headbands and had a marvelous array of mouth-watering chow during a three day feast. The Pilgrims were thankful for finally being liberated from the religious persecution they were facing in England. After sailing aimlessly in search of a better life, the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. The Pilgrim’s first year was devastating; the conditions were harsh and many people died over the course of their first winter. However, some survived thanks to the compassionate and caring Indians who already inhabited the area. Not only did the Indians help the Pilgrims get on their feet, but they also shared their shelter, food, and clothing with them during the cruel wintry weather. In the spring, the first Pilgrim harvest was bountiful. The crops flourished and the Pilgrims began to feel hope for their future in America. The remaining Pilgrims invited the Indians, who had helped them survive the winter, to a three-day feast celebrating their survival and their thankfulness for the help and compassion that the Indians showed them. Over the next few hundred years the Thanksgiving tradition has changed and warped into the Macy’s parade, football watching, turkey-induced coma festivities that we know today. Even though there is speculation as to what exactly happened following the first Thanksgiving celebration and how it formed into the holiday we now commemorate, I think there is a lot that can be taken away from this day and the vast gratefulness shown by the Pilgrims and the selflessness the Indians bestowed upon them at Plymouth Rock.

Thanksgiving is not just a holiday that should be celebrated one day a year with more mashed potatoes or red wine than one family should legally consume and then be forgotten for the next three hundred sixty-four days. Being grateful is extremely under-rated and even more so under-utilized. Thankfulness should be something we show daily. Whether it be by saying a simple thank you to someone who opens a door for you, or giving a heart-felt hug to someone who has listened to your inner struggles, or even attempting to being gracious in all that you do because you have been blessed with things so seemingly simple as air in your lungs and love in your heart. It should be almost effortless to point out the things in our lives that we should be thankful for and rejoice for their presence in our lives but sometimes this task can be rather difficult. However, being appreciative of all that you are blessed with in life immediately increases your satisfaction in life thus making you a happier, more fulfilled person willing to offer more to others. It is so easy to take the daily things or people in our lives for granted. We rarely stop to think about what our life would be without them and therefore we are not always grateful for their presence in our lives. We simply expect them to always be there. I am constantly baffled at the thought of all that I have been blessed with without really deserving any of it. I haven’t done anything more than most people I know to deserve the joys I have in life and I certainly have done a lot less than some people who have fewer blessings. Oprah Winfrey suggests that people keep a grateful journal in order to consciously count their blessings. She recommends that every night a person should list five things that they are grateful for. She asserts that this will begin to change your perspective of your day and your life. Though I do not always agree with Oprah and all her hype, I think she hit the jackpot on this one. I believe by taking the time (even if it is only five minutes a day) to thank God for all you are blessed with that your life and outlook on it will be significantly better. You’ll begin to see the silver lining in your day instead of the gloom and doom that may be bogging you down. There will be a little more skip in your step and a little more rhythm in your song and life will be so much more joyous.

So, to jump on the Oprah Winfrey bandwagon (and this will likely be the ONLY time), here is just the beginning of my list of things that I am thankful for everyday (even though I probably don’t tell them or thank God for them enough):

1. For breath- Each day when I wake up, I realize that God has allowed me to live another day. Apart form the mechanics of a working body by providing breath in my lungs, a beating heart, and working organs- God has also offered me the gifts of love and compassion in my heart, knowledge and determination in my brain, and desire and hope in my soul. Without God, I don’t think these things and emotions would be nearly as meaningful to me as I go through my daily life. Taking the time to just exist and listen to the inhale and exhale of each breath amazes me as I think of how something so seemingly simple keeps my physical body functioning each day.

2. For a place to lay my head- I am so very lucky to have been given a place to call home. So many people go through their day not knowing where their next meal will come from or where they will go to sleep that night. I am so grateful that God has given me loving parents who have supported and provided for me in tangible ways my entire life. Sometimes I get emotional thinking about all that I do have in comparison to others and how truly blessed I am with being able to go home to “my room” and turn on “my television” and watch what I want to at the end of a long day. I can take a shower with hot, running water whenever I want, go to the refrigerator and find just about any type of food, and cuddle up to a warm fireplace on a cold winter day. I am never without the things I need to survive.

3. For my parents- I don’t know where I would be in this life without my parents. As a child, I sometimes wished I had a different set of parents (usually a friend’s who seemed more ideal and understanding when I was fighting with my own) but I am so very thankful for mine. They are loving, caring, and truly want what is best for their children. My dad has always been the breadwinner of our household and I don’t know what our family would have done without him over the years. Being the only man in a family of five, he has become a bit of a “girly-man”; from all the chick flicks to female body talk to emotional roller coasters where we beg for chocolate. He has picked up tampons from the grocery store and brought home cartons of milk and Oreos far more times than any man should ever have to. I look forward to Monday nights when my dad will come home and make fun of One Tree Hill or Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl but will still sit and watch them with me when I am sick or no one else is around and will secretly look forward to their return each Fall. I love seeing him work in the office of our home for hours on the weekends and never complain because he is so dedicated to his job and providing for our family. I cherish the time when I get to simply be in his presence and watch him do the things he loves most from fishing to leading our congregation as our church President. I am so proud of my father and the man he has become. And then there is my mother. I have never met a more loving and compassionate person than her. She has always given my sisters and I so much more than we deserve in life. She showers us with love and is our biggest support, always offering advice even though sometimes we don’t want or ask for it. She buys little gifts to cheer us up and provides all of our friends with snacks and a place to hang out or get away to any time, night or day. She is the first person who wants to hear about my day and make sure that my sisters and I are happy in life. Her happiness often stems from our happiness. Sometimes I hate this notion that my emotions can control how she feels, but that is just the way my mom is programmed. Over the years, so many of my sister’s and my friends have confided in my mom and value her opinion on things. She genuinely cares about those in her life and will do anything she can to better their lives. My mom is the backbone of our family and I don’t know where any of us would be without her selfless love and support.

4. For living in America- I often take for granted the fact that I am a free citizen. So many people in other parts of the world do not have even one ounce of the freedom that we as Americans do. I am able to express myself through writing in this blog post. I was able to attend whatever college I wanted and pursue any career that my heart was leading me towards. And I was able to change my mind and still succeed along the way. I am able practice my religion and chose whom to vote for in any election without fear of backlash or reprimand if I don’t agree with my neighbor. Anything I could possibly want or desire is at my fingertips and my every need is met almost immediately. If I’m cold all I need to do is go to the closet and grab a blanket and if I am sick there are 24-hour facilities that will take the steps necessary to speed my recovery. I don’t have to live in constant fear of terrorist attacks because there are so many men and women fighting for my freedom daily. I am so thankful for the soldiers who dedicate their lives to making me free and for being born an American citizen.

5. For having been in love- Though I am sometimes saddened and upset knowing that I was in love with someone who for the last few months of our relationship made me an option instead of a priority, I am so happy that I was able to experience it. Being so devoted and engrossed in another person is the best feeling in the world even if they one day change their mind and you are left to pick up the pieces of your broken heart. I wouldn’t trade the feeling of being in love for any other feeling in the world. Being in love with all of you and giving your heart selflessly to someone who has the power to destroy it is a scary thing. But when that love is reciprocated it truly is the most gratifying feeling in the entire world. Love has made me feel more alive than anything ever has. Having loved someone with every fiber of my being and being folded like an unlucky hand of poker makes me both scared and hopeful for the future. I don’t want to hurt the way I have in the past but I don’t want to miss out on real love in the future because I am scared of the possible pain. Love makes me want to get up in the morning, makes me long for the future, and makes me realize that one day I will meet my prince charming and realize why it never worked with anyone else before. I know how full my heart was and how intense my feelings were when I was in love with the wrong person that I anticipate how miraculous it will be when I find the right person. I am thankful for having been willing to give my heart to someone in the past and not knowing how it will end up (even though right now I am not willing to try it again, just yet—I know when the perfectly imperfect man walks into my life I will be more than ready). Real love is selfless and I can’t be upset that I gave all of myself to someone that later decided I wasn’t what they wanted in the world. This just means that one day, I will find true love and that love will surpass any love I have already experienced. And that day will be a day I will be so very thankful for.

6. For my faith- I don’t know where my life would be without my faith. From the time I was born God has been a solid foundation on which I stand. I am so blessed to have two parents who planted the seed of faith in my heart at such an early age. Having gone through some of the things I have in life, I don’t think I would have survived without the true knowledge in my heart that I have a purpose in life, that God has a plan for me, and that eternal life in Heaven awaits me. There have been times where I have given up on myself and didn’t value the person I was. There have also been times where God was not even a blip on my conscious radar. But He was always firmly cemented at the center of me, often without me even realizing. During those times when I knew I was about to do something I didn’t truly want, need, or should do, I’d often get a pit in my stomach that would cause me to question my participation. I now realize that those feelings were God tugging at my heartstrings and my  conscience showing me right from wrong. On days where I didn’t want to get out of bed and face another day, it was almost as if He were standing over me as a patient father saying, “Please, my child, get up. Things will get better. I promise. You just have to keep on living.” I don’t know the person I would be or if I’d even be alive if I didn’t have faith. God believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself and He has given me the answers and clarification I need to keep pushing forward as I walk this Earth. His everlasting love and plan for me have helped me become the person I am today and will shape the person I hope to become in the future.

7. For my sisters- There is no greater gift than that of family and my sisters are no exception. All of my childhood memories include my two beautiful siblings and I could not imagine (nor would I want to) my life without them. My baby sister, Lindsey is one of the most kind and impartial people I know. She is wise beyond her years and truly listens and observes others without judgment. She is going to make a great counselor and will help many people in her future career. I love seeing her grow and change with each passing year. She is beautiful beyond her own comprehension and is the one person in the entire world that I feel completely safe sharing anything and everything with. Some of my favorite memories with her took place this past summer when we’d talk (and sometimes cry) over our lunch breaks at my mom’s work as we shared what was within our hearts. My middle sister, Stephanie, is literally my saving grace. She is the reason I am still alive today. I don’t think she will ever realize all that she means to me. Steph is a true middle child. She has always strived to be the smartest and most successful child in our family (and I truly think she is). She is so unbelievably smart and has a knack for business. She is going to be that elite businesswoman with the cute pencil skirts strutting through her office halls shooting out witty comments as she passes by. She is a smart-ass and I love her for it, even if, at times, it causes us to fight. I really missed her this summer when she was away in Europe and having her gone made me realize just how important both of my sisters are to me. I am so lucky to not only have Stephanie and Lindsey as sisters but also as best friends. I know our relationships will only flourish as we age and I can hardly wait when the three of us end up living in the same retirement community playing board games, discussing childhood memories, and watching our old favorite television shows (probably BTVS and The Office)!

8. For having a purpose in life- Some people go their entire lives never finding anything that they are truly passionate about. They get up each day with a chip on their shoulder, return to jobs they loath, lead lives they hate, and are never genuinely happy. I feel so lucky at the age of twenty-three to have already found my true passions in life. I have always had three life goals that I have worked towards attaining most of my teenage years and every day of my adult life. I know I will be perfectly content with my life when these goals are met (and of course, other goals will take their place). I just recently added a fourth life goal, one I never would have imagined wanting to pursue, and I can’t wait until it comes to fruition. More to come on this topic in a later post… Stay tuned!

9. For friendship- I have been blessed with a wide variety of friends over my lifetime. One of my favorite quotes states, “God doesn’t give you the people you want, He gives you the people you NEED. To help you, to hurt you, to love you, to leave you, and to make you into the person you were meant to be.” I truly believe that all the friends I have made, lost, and kept over the years have helped shaped the person I am. I’ve had friends who I have loved and thought would be lifelong friends but for whatever reason are no longer in my life. I’ve been taken advantage of as a friend and I know I’ve taken advantage of friendships. I’ve been hurt, disappointed, broken, and angered in different friendships. But most of all, I’ve been uplifted by them. Every single friend I’ve had has given me a valuable gift that I will take with me throughout life. I believe the people who have come and gone in my life have paved the way for the friendships that will last a lifetime. Right now I have an amazing group of friends who are supportive, loving, and enhance my life in so many ways. It would take forever to list all of their wonderful traits, qualities, and my favorite memories with each one (and this post is already WAY too long but you know who you are). So, I’ll simply say thank you to them for their friendship. I love each and every one of you (SB, LK, KH, LD, BB, AM and all of my other wonderful friends)! You make my life complete and give me something to smile about and be gracious for each day!

10. For being unique- No two people in this world are exactly alike. Hallelujah! I am so thankful for being a unique individual instead of a carbon copy of someone who came before me. I love that my sisters, friends, parents, and I have so many different interests in the world. I value our differences and treasure our similarities. I think life would be really boring if everyone in my life enjoyed all of the same things as I do. Our uniqueness helps us connect with different people in different areas of our lives. I love how my love of writing has connected me with former high school friends (and a few people I never really knew in high school), one very special girl from college, and many people I didn’t know as well beforehand. I love how I can go see all the weird and unconventional movies with my friend Kyle and talk about them afterwards even if we don’t have the same outlooks and opinions on them. I love how I can talk to my best friend, Steph about a situation and she’ll be completely honest with me even if I would rather she lie and agree with me sometimes. And I love, how despite our differences I can see all the beauty in the uniqueness of the people around me. I have learned and will continue to learn so much about the world, others, and myself through the unique qualities that they bring to our relationships, my life, and the world.

With that, I think it is time to wrap up. I thank you all for taking the time to read this extremely long (and hopefully at least somewhat entertaining and interesting) blog post. It may be a bit cliché to focus on all the things to be grateful for in my life so close to the Thanksgiving holiday but I think it is appropriate to begin being more consciously gracious for the blessings I have in my life. I have always been a positive person who likes to search for the good in others but I want to do more of this- everyday. I want those in my life to know how much I appreciate them (their gifts, talents, and characteristics) because you never know when they may be taken from you. My hope is that in reading this post you are able to pick out the things you have to be so very thankful for. Whether you share your thankfulness with others or simply thank God for all He has blessed you with, give thanks for all you have in this world.  You only have one life to live and it should be a life full of love, happiness, and most importantly, thanksgiving.

*”Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.”* Albert Schweitzer

*”Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.”* W. T. Purkiser

by  Dr. Brent Lipke  DC

When an asthmatic “attack” happens the person struggles for every breath, literally gasping and wheezing for life.

Attacks are usually triggered by allergies or stress. “Puffers” containing strong steroids are usually given to decrease inflammation but can also cause severe side effects such as tremors, abnormal heart rhythm, and bronchitis.

For over 100 years, people suffering from asthma and bronchitis have sung the praises of chiropractic care.  Research has shown that chiropractic care; decreases medication used, decreases incidence of attacks and increases lung volume, by ensuring that the lungs receive uninterrupted nerve flow from the brain.

To learn more about how a safe, gentle and scientific, Chiropractic adjustment could TRANSFORM your health contact your chiropractor. 

If you are interested in a complimentary consultation, CALL  The Family Chiropractic Centre in Guelph, 519-837-1234. 

I’m Dr. Brent Lipke, educating you to help you educate others !

I first read about the sport of freediving two summers ago, in an August/September 2008 Hana Hou! magazine article, “On One Breath” by Michael Shapiro. Researching the sport with gusto, Shapiro himself trains to do a four-minute breath hold and a 100-foot dive. Insanity!

My interest was further piqued in “The Deepest Dive,” The New Yorker, August 24, 2009, which profiles two of the world’s top female freedivers, 37-year-old Sara Campbell (a Brit living in Egypt) and 47-year-old Natalia Molchanova (of Russia). In the article (which I’ve uploaded here), both were trying to become the first female to reach 100 meters in a constant weight dive (diver must ascend with the weight used to descend). In September, Molchanova achieved that distinction with a 101-meter dive.

I’m fascinated by this extreme sport. It requires a whole different mentality than any other strenuous sport, whether mountain climbing or boxing or hockey. Most sports are all about strength and stamina, speed and power. They require agile reflexes and an agile mind. They require elite-level physicality, of course—but the type we all recognize to some degree. We’ve all huffed and puffed, sucking air climbing uphill, or felt the ache of muscle fatigue, in pull-ups or push-ups.

But freediving is counterintuitive. You are trying to avoid working harder, breathing harder. You are essentially holding your breath to the point of near-death.

Letting go

The breath control essential to freediving made me think of pranayama, the breath component of hatha yoga. On one hand, you might say that free diving is only physical: that champion freedivers are just freaks of nature. On the other hand, read the Shapiro piece and see that four-minute static breath holds and 100-foot ocean dives are teachable to a surprising number of healthy (and intrepid) humans. It is more a matter of courage, tenacity, and “letting go” than of particular athletic skills or body type.

During his initial failed attempts to reach the four-minute mark, Shapiro realizes that “it’s going to take something more powerful than force of will; it’s going to take surrender.” After all, the body is screaming for air and you panic. But if you instead convince yourself to relax, the sensations subside. Shapiro eventually holds his breath for an impressive four minutes and 30 seconds, a time that seemed unfathomable just the day before he did it.

Freediving strikes me as more mental than physical, despite the punishing visceral challenge. Both Campbell and Molchanova use meditation or yoga techniques to control their consciousness underwater. You must will yourself to relax, to face the fundamental fear of suffocation and death, to do the exact opposite of what your body is begging you to do. It is a training for … for what? According to Kirk Krack and Mandy-Rae Cruikshank, the experts who train Shapiro, breaking your boundaries in freediving spurs you to break them in all of life. “You realize that you can do more than you ever dreamed possible,” says Cruikshank. “It changes you.”

Now, this sport is probably too extreme for most of us terrestrial creatures, who prefer not to toy with blackout and death. But it does say something about the necessity of “letting go” and acceptance, particularly regarding breathing, the most-essential physiological function for life.

Last breath

Since my kitty died of congestive heart failure—her lungs full of fluid, her breath fast and futile—I’ve been slightly obsessed with breathing. Not so much breathing in life (what pure luxury to fill one’s lungs to their fullest!), but breathing at the moment of death. I am haunted by the thought that Gingy was terrified or in pain during her last half hour, when we rushed her to the ER.

Do we all face a similar end? Would it soothe us if we could calm the breath? Accept the pain? Relax the body and mind?

Under your skin

Beauty that revels all others

Birthing love to love

Your kisses, are poetry’s fingerprints

Your breath, precious to me like a dying man’s

Under your skin

Your beauty is revealed to others

Giving your love to love

Your pulse, to me is my own

Your smile, my sought treasure

Jonathan Watson

Oc, in common Mayan usage, means dog. Its energy brings the qualities of courage, loyalty, warm-heartedness, spiritual strength, justice, and protection.

Tone 5 holds the purpose and intent for being centered in your core truth and the foundation of your core purpose.

White is the color of the North. Its element is air. Its vehicle of expression is the mind.

So, the message for today is:

Stay true to yourself today and be courageous! Imagine that we are all waking up having dreamed the same dream. In the dream we journeyed through the sun to a warm golden place where there is only love expressing. Breathe deep, bathed in this memory, for this is our spiritual home where we are all one in the same family. As you awaken, realize that you hold this gift within you. It radiates out through your smile.

At Sixty-nine

I find myself sniffing the air
hopeful the memory of an hour,
no longer mine, finds me once more.

I linger as I reach
to turn the ignition of my car
on or off.

This car, not the one back then
that bore us everywhere
before my future flight

Still, I sit. My hands caress
the thickness of this wheel,
the turns all made and you.

Music streams,
transporting two until they
become one breath, breathing
in the afterglow, mired
in aspiration only for
this moment.

Perhaps I long for forty-two
and time reversals without
consequences

Perhaps I am blessed
with passing memory tests,
maintaining a slow fade

at sixty-nine.

            Balance

            Balance

            Balance

       I’m getting gentle reminders of the need to

       regain balance in my life. 

       Grounding with deep breath in, and out, 

       Grounding with quiet meditation and stillness, 

       Stopping to listen to the wind rustle in the trees,

       to see and feel the change of season in the air, 

       To be a witness.

“Why are you so eager to build churches of wood and stone for God and yet are unwilling to make soul a temple of God?“

Today I was reading that Jesus went into the biggest temple in Jerusalem and turned it all into a big mess. Shouting at the merchants there, moving them away, destroying their stands and goods.

He was a rebel. The disciples were probably just standing in a safe distance and wondering what’s the hell did happen to Him.

And then He said that He would rebuild the whole temple in 3 days – that’s the sign of authority to do what He was doing.

Who is Jesus? Who was the man 2000 years ago, who completely changed the whole history of our Earth?

Behaving like a rebel one day, healing deaf and lame the other. Letting people shout Hosanna! one day, dying on the cross as the poorest thief the other.

And yet “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. Nobody can come to the Father, except through me.”

So who is Jesus? The only way to God? Then, man, He must be something far more than I think. Far more than I’ve believed so far.

Jesus might have been the Reason for God to create the world. Jesus as Life, as the only Truth. Jesus as what really Is.

Do we then have to go to the church as the only way to get in touch with God? Do we have to meet the person, the historical, physical Jesus, if we want to get to “the Father”?

Or, is Jesus, as Life, present in every single breath you breathe, is He present in the whole Universe we live in?

The dark places. we have all seen them, been in them. and we know. the dark gets pretty dark. and lonely. and yet…necessary. for without the dark, how can we appreciate the light ? the light we take oh! so for granted.

When we are in the dark, we forget that the dark is really the other side of light. the light of understanding. for in the dark, we really have an opportunity to understand something about ourselves, that we don’t see in the light.

perhaps it is the courage we have in the dark of fear. perhaps Love in the dark of loneliness. the spirit in the depths of doubt. the acceptance in the depths of uncertainty. something to hold on to, that arises from the depths of the dark and leads us to the light. it is always there, but more so in the dark. and this becomes visible. somehow the light of the dark illuminates our deepest being and brings the hidden into the open.

it is hard when you are in the dark places in life, to know that it is simply what it is. a necessity, and a fact of life. not as a way to grinding our teeth and getting through it, but as simple and elementary as the breath having an in and an out. and that knowledge comes in handy. last evening, in yoga, a wave of deep longing for my home, my childhood, all the things that I loved about my past came up. it wasn’t images, it was a deep ache for that which has passed. and somehow in the wake of the pain, a knowing spontaneously arose: ah. longing. this is what longing feels like. and staying with it that way allowed me to be with it. and see it end. and joy arise. for there is always both. the fact of life. the in and out of the breath.

the light and the dark. which is which becomes unclear as we start dancing with both. A quote I read recently: ‘life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. it is about learning to dance in the rain’.

with Love, S.