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© by Alan Davidson- All Rights reserved
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Katy was tired, her body exhausted and her mind scrambling to keep up. Refugees from Hurricane Katrina teemed through her doors like hordes at the gates. The Gulf Coast reeled from the one-two punch of the killer storm and the flooding of New Orleans. The whole country jolted as rescue efforts spiraled into mayhem and chaos. The botched response from the ill-prepared and devastated city governments and the achingly slow federal response shocked hearts across America.
Katy, the Director of The Montrose Clinic, was stretched thin in the best of times. Her clinic served Houston’s swelling poor, uninsured, and gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender (GLBT) communities. Now, New Orleans’s gay, lesbian and HIV community swarmed to the clinic and Katy was in hyper-drive.
Far under the radar screen of the relief efforts going on across town at the Astrodome, suddenly, new patients at the Montrose Clinic, with no medical records, no homes and no funding, needed care, and more importantly, expensive medications. The clinic’s dedicated doctors and staff worked over the Labor Day holiday to welcome patients.
Katy scrambled to find the money for their meds. Two weeks of this kind of pressure had taken its toll on. She came through the door needing a spa get-a-way to unkink her body, soothe her anxious nerves, and calm her ricocheting mind. She was already looking forward to next month’s birthday gift to herself-a spa vacation to rest and relax.
These are extraordinary times. We are called upon to stoke the brightest light of our selves and to shine brilliantly into the world, especially into the darkest crooks and crannies of our human condition. We are called to vision the very best that humanity has to offer and live fully into that vision.
But the task of lifting the world from darkness can feel daunting. The evening news is a steady stream of war, tragedy, horror, and violence. The specter of every “ism”
known to society: sexism, racism, classism, poverty, hate, and greed can zap the energy, along with all the good intentions, from many a spiritual activist.
Yet we are born for such times. We are called to fortify our truest selves, to marshal our physical, emotional, mental, moral and spiritual IQs and to direct them for all that is right and good in this world.
In the scope of all the work needing to be done, it’s easy to exhaust ourselves in the process; to run on fumes; or worse, flat out of gas. This is where practicing the simple “Power of the Well Intentioned Pause” comes in handy.
Energy may be constant but it oscillates. The energy keys in our bodies are the same.
• Physically we have times of effort and times of rest and
sleep.
• Emotionally we balance our sense of individuality and
our need to connect with the people around us.
• We can be mentally muddled and confused or focused and
clear.
• We can pursue lives and ideals we don’t truly want for
ourselves or we can live our deepest values in the world.
• Spiritually we can remain dormant or we can sparkle and
thrive.
There is a fine line between efficiency and burnout. The fulcrum that makes the difference is respecting your body’s need for pause and rest. This simple directive sounds, well too simple. But in these times of over stimulation, hyperactivity and multi-tasking, our bodies consume tremendous amounts of energy that we simply must restore.
If we are to continue to thrive we must learn to balance performance with pause.
A prime example comes from the laboratory of pro sports players. For thirty years sports psychologists Jim Loeher and Tony Schwartz have helped professional athletes define what it takes to succeed at the most competitive levels under the highest pressures.
He discovered the key difference when he focused on what the players did between the points, not during the points.
Rituals of rest and recovery dramatically boost balance & performance
The topped ranked players, each and everyone, had a personal ritual for calming their breath and heart rate, sharply focusing their attention, and preparing for the next point. These rituals might last only ninety seconds between points, but practiced often where highly effective.
“A well intentioned pause” is an extension of Loeher’s discovery with tennis players. A strategic pause becomes a practice for everyday life. It is simply remembering, on a regular and consistent basis throughout the day to completely unplug from the all-consuming tasks at hand:
a chaotic workday fraught with calls, meetings, and deadlines; demanding children, navigating the stresses of family and relationships; driving in traffic; balancing the demands of personal life and community service, or fighting for social justice.
It is our focused intention that sets this kind of pause apart. The power of our intention is source of tremendous energy in, and of itself. When I turn my intention to rest, restore and refuel my energy; when I turn my intention to calm and soothe my feelings and mind, life naturally responds. Possible pauses can be just about anything that unplug us from the consuming thoughts of our day and refuel our energies. Anything you consciously do to disconnect from the intensity of your day and nourish your energy will make a big difference.
They include:
• a few minutes of breathing or meditation,
• a brief set of stretches, sit-ups, or push-ups
• going to the gym,
• a dance, yoga, or aerobics class,
• reading a juicy novel,
• a phone call to an inspiring friend or a loving family
member,
• a walk outdoors in nice weather is mighty helpful,
• a nap,
• savoring a healthy meal.
A well intentioned pause can last ninety seconds, ten minutes, one hour, a day, or a week. Don’t underestimate the power of a deliberate ninety-second pause. Remember the tennis pro’s in Loeher’s study. Between points, they each had a ritual that rested their energy, calmed their breath and heart-rate, and then focused their attention to the next point.
It was this consistent rest and recovery, brief as it was, that separated the top-ranked players from the rest of the pack. The key is to train your mind and body to relax and restore energy in concentrated pauses. Our bodies respond quickly when these ritual pauses become a well trained habit.
The ten to twenty minute pause is a good place to start for beginners. This is ample time to unplug from the demands consuming your attention, soothe frazzled nerves, and to refuel spent energy. Ten minutes of focused breathing is excellent. Train the people around you to respect your pauses. A ten minute pause interrupted by a phone call and an officemate poking their head through the door is barely a pause at all. You’d have to be as skilled as a tennis-pro to get much benefit from such a pause.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Katy was tired, her body exhausted and her mind scrambling to keep up. Refugees from Hurricane Katrina teemed through her doors like hordes at the gates. The Gulf Coast reeled from the one-two punch of the killer storm and the flooding of New Orleans. The whole country jolted as rescue efforts spiraled into mayhem and chaos. The botched response from the ill-prepared and devastated city governments and the achingly slow federal response shocked hearts across America.
Katy, the Director of The Montrose Clinic, was stretched thin in the best of times. Her clinic served Houston’s swelling poor, uninsured, and gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender (GLBT) communities. Now, New Orleans’s gay, lesbian and HIV community swarmed to the clinic and Katy was in hyper-drive.
Far under the radar screen of the relief efforts going on across town at the Astrodome, suddenly, new patients at the Montrose Clinic, with no medical records, no homes and no funding, needed care, and more importantly, expensive medications. The clinic’s dedicated doctors and staff worked over the Labor Day holiday to welcome patients.
Katy scrambled to find the money for their meds. Two weeks of this kind of pressure had taken its toll on. She came through the door needing a spa get-a-way to unkink her body, soothe her anxious nerves, and calm her ricocheting mind. She was already looking forward to next month’s birthday gift to herself-a spa vacation to rest and relax.
These are extraordinary times. We are called upon to stoke the brightest light of our selves and to shine brilliantly into the world, especially into the darkest crooks and crannies of our human condition. We are called to vision the very best that humanity has to offer and live fully into that vision.
But the task of lifting the world from darkness can feel daunting. The evening news is a steady stream of war, tragedy, horror, and violence. The specter of every “ism”
known to society: sexism, racism, classism, poverty, hate, and greed can zap the energy, along with all the good intentions, from many a spiritual activist.
Yet we are born for such times. We are called to fortify our truest selves, to marshal our physical, emotional, mental, moral and spiritual IQs and to direct them for all that is right and good in this world.
In the scope of all the work needing to be done, it’s easy to exhaust ourselves in the process; to run on fumes; or worse, flat out of gas. This is where practicing the simple “Power of the Well Intentioned Pause” comes in handy.
The very nature of energy is to expand and contract. It’s one of the few constants in the universe. The stars and their moons rise and set, waves of water crest and fall, electricity pulses, hearts contract and then pulse, lungs rise and fall, orgasms come and go.
Energy may be constant but it oscillates. The energy keys in our bodies are the same.
• Physically we have times of effort and times of rest and
sleep.
• Emotionally we balance our sense of individuality and
our need to connect with the people around us.
• We can be mentally muddled and confused or focused and
clear.
• We can pursue lives and ideals we don’t truly want for
ourselves or we can live our deepest values in the world.
• Spiritually we can remain dormant or we can sparkle and
thrive.
There is a fine line between efficiency and burnout. The fulcrum that makes the difference is respecting your body’s need for pause and rest. This simple directive sounds, well too simple. But in these times of over stimulation, hyperactivity and multi tasking, our bodies consume tremendous amounts of energy that we simply must restore.
If we are to continue to thrive we must learn to balance performance with pause.
A prime example comes from the laboratory of pro sports players. For thirty years sports psychologists Jim Loeher and Tony Schwartz have helped professional athletes define what it takes to succeed at the most competitive levels under the highest pressures.
He discovered the key difference when he focused on what the players did between the points, not during the points.
The topped ranked players, each and everyone, had a personal ritual for calming their breath and heart rate, sharply focusing their attention, and preparing for the next point. These rituals might last only ninety seconds between points, but practiced often where highly effective.
“A well intentioned pause” is an extension of Loeher’s discovery with tennis players. A strategic pause becomes a practice for everyday life. It is simply remembering, on a regular and consistent basis throughout the day to completely unplug from the all-consuming tasks at hand:
a chaotic workday fraught with calls, meetings, and deadlines; demanding children, navigating the stresses of family and relationships; driving in traffic; balancing the demands of personal life and community service, or fighting for social justice.
It is our focused intention that sets this kind of pause apart. The power of our intention is source of tremendous energy in, and of itself. When I turn my intention to rest, restore and refuel my energy; when I turn my intention to calm and soothe my feelings and mind, life naturally responds. Possible pauses can be just about anything that unplug us from the consuming thoughts of our day and refuel our energies. Anything you consciously do to disconnect from the intensity of your day and nourish your energy will make a big difference.
They include:
• a few minutes of breathing or meditation,
• a brief set of stretches, sit-ups, or push-ups
• going to the gym,
• a dance, yoga, or aerobics class,
• reading a juicy novel,
• a phone call to an inspiring friend or a loving family
member,
• a walk outdoors in nice weather is mighty helpful,
• a nap,
• savoring a healthy meal.
A well intentioned pause can last ninety seconds, ten minutes, one hour, a day, or a week.
The power of a well intentioned pause
Don’t underestimate the power of a deliberate ninety-second pause. Remember the tennis pro’s in Loeher’s study. Between points, they each had a ritual that rested their energy, calmed their breath and heart-rate, and then focused their attention to the next point.
It was this consistent rest and recovery, brief as it was, that separated the top-ranked players from the rest of the pack. The key is to train your mind and body to relax and restore energy in concentrated pauses. Our bodies respond quickly when these ritual pauses become a well trained habit.
The ten to twenty minute pause is a good place to start for beginners. This is ample time to unplug from the demands consuming your attention, soothe frazzled nerves, and to refuel spent energy. Ten minutes of focused breathing is excellent. Train the people around you to respect your pauses. A ten minute pause interrupted by a phone call and an officemate poking their head through the door is barely a pause at all. You’d have to be as skilled as a tennis-pro to get much benefit from such a pause.
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Alan Davidson is the author of the Free report “Peaking Your Five Vital IQs–Physical, Emotional, Mental, Moral, and Spiritual–to Launch Your Health, Success, and Happiness” available at http://www.throughyourbody.com.
Alan’s also the author of Body Brilliance: Mastering Your Five Vital Intelligences, the #1 Health and Wellness book and Winner of Two 2007 Book-of-the-Year Awards.
=> http://www.ThroughYourBody.com
DEFINATELY 12 wonderful thoughts to live “with” & live by…
Spirit Aware
1. An increased tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.
2. Frequent attacks of smiling.
3. Feelings of being connected with others and nature.
4. Frequent overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
5. A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fears based on past experience.
6. An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.
7. A loss of ability to worry.
8. A loss in interest in conflict.
9. A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.
10. A loss of interest in judging others.
11. A loss of interest in judging self.
12. Gaining the ability to love without expecting anything.
Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” This is his answer.
"We are stardust."~ Neil deGrasse Tyson
“Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson
“We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson
It’s not that people don’t know about this, it’s about the beautiful way in which Dr Neil Degrasse expressed it, and the way in which this beautiful video brings out an emotional response. Even though I knew this fact, I never thought about it in this light.
by Dr. Henry S. Lodge
New research reveals surprising facts about our changing bodies.
You Can Stop ‘‘Normal’’ Aging.
From your body’s point of view, “normal” aging isn’t normal at all. It’s a choice you make by the way you live your life. The other choice is to tell your cells to grow—to build a strong, vibrant body and mind.
stuck in the corporate world of stress, long hours and doughnuts.
Let’s have a look at standard American aging. Barbara D. had a baby when she was 34, gave up exercise and gained 50 pounds. Exhausted and depressed, Barbara thought youth, energy and optimism were all in her rearview mirror. Jon M., 55, had fallen even farther down the slippery slope. He was stuck in the corporate world of stress, long hours and doughnuts. At 255 pounds, he had knees that hurt and a back that ached. He developed high blood pressure and eventually diabetes. Life was looking grim.
Jon and Barbara weren’t getting old; they had let their bodies decay. Most aging is just the dry rot we program into our cells by sedentary living, junk food and stress. Yes, we do have to get old, and ultimately we do have to die. But our bodies are designed to age slowly and remarkably well. Most of what we see and fear is decay, and decay is only one choice. Growth is the other.
After two years of misery, Barbara started exercising and is now in the best shape of her life. She just finished a sprint triathlon and, at 37, feels like she is 20. Jon started eating better and exercising too—slowly at first, but he stuck with it. He has since lost 50 pounds, the pain in his knees and back has disappeared, and his diabetes is gone. Today, Jon is 60 and living his life in the body of a healthy 30-year-old. He will die one day, but he is likely to live like a young man until he gets there.
The hard reality of our biology is that we are built to move. Exercise is the master signaling system that tells our cells to grow instead of fade. When we exercise, that process of growth spreads throughout every cell in our bodies, making us functionally younger. Not a little bit younger—a lot younger. True biological aging is a surprisingly slow and graceful process. You can live out your life in a powerful, healthy body if you are willing to put in the work.
Let’s take a step back to see how exercise works at the cellular level. Your body is made up of trillions of cells that live mostly for a few weeks or months, die and are replaced by new cells in an endless cycle. For example, your taste buds live only a few hours, white blood cells live 10 days, and your muscle cells live about three months. Even your bones dissolve and are replaced, over and over again. A few key stem cells in each organ and your brain cells are the only ones that stick around for the duration. All of your other cells are in a constant state of renewal.
You replace about 1% of your cells every day. That means 1% of your body is brand-new today, and you will get another 1% tomorrow. Think of it as getting a whole new body every three months. It’s not entirely accurate, but it’s pretty close. Viewed that way, you are walking around in a body that is brand-new since Christmas—new lungs, new liver, new muscles, new skin. Look down at your legs and realize that you are going to have new ones by the Fourth of July. Whether that body is functionally younger or older is a choice you make by how you live.
You choose whether those new cells come in stronger or weaker. You choose whether they grow or decay each day from then on. Your cells don’t care which choice you make. They just follow the directions you send. Exercise, and your cells get stronger; sit down, and they decay.
This whole system evolved over billions of years out in nature, where all animals face two great cellular challenges: The first is to grow strong, fast and fit in the spring, when food abounds and there are calories to fuel hungry muscles, bones and brains. The second is to decay as fast as possible in the winter, when calories disappear and surviving starvation is the key to life. You would think that food is the controlling signal for this, but it’s not. Motion controls your system.
Though we’ve moved indoors and left that life behind, our cells still think we’re living out on the savannah, struggling to stay alive each day. There are no microwaves or supermarkets in nature. If you want to eat, you have to hunt or forage every single day. That movement is a signal that it’s time to grow. So, when you exercise, your muscles release specific substances that travel throughout your bloodstream, telling your cells to grow. Sedentary muscles, on the other hand, let out a steady trickle of chemicals that whisper to every cell to decay, day after day after day.
Men like Jon, who go from sedentary to fit, cut their risk of dying from a heart attack by 75% over five years. Women cut their risk by 80%—and heart attacks are the largest single killer of women. Both men and women can double their leg strength with three months of exercise, and most of us can double it again in another three months. This is true whether you’re in your 30s or your 90s. It’s not a miracle or a mystery. It’s your biology, and you’re in charge.
The other master signal to our cells—equal and, in some respects, even more important than exercise—is emotion. One of the most fascinating revelations of the last decade is that emotions change our cells through the same molecular pathways as exercise. Anger, stress and loneliness are signals for “starvation” and chronic danger. They “melt” our bodies as surely as sedentary living. Optimism, love and community trigger the process of growth, building our bodies, hearts and minds.
Men who have a heart attack and come home to a family are four times less likely to die of a second heart attack. Women battling heart disease or cancer do better in direct proportion to the number of close friends and relatives they have. Babies in the ICU who are touched more often are more likely to survive. Everywhere you look, you see the role of emotion in our biology. Like exercise, it’s a choice.
It’s hard to exercise every day. And with our busy lives, it’s even harder to find the time and energy to maintain relationships and build communities. But it’s worth it when you consider the alternative. Go for a walk or a run, and think about it. Deep in our cells, down at the level of molecular genetics, we are wired to exercise and to care. We’re beginning to wake up to that as a nation, but you might not want to wait. You might want to join Barbara, Jon and millions of others and change your life. Start today. Your cells are listening.
~~~~
Dr. Henry S. Lodge is on the faculty of Columbia Medical School and is co-author of “Younger Next Year” (Workman).
Faces of the Goddess
music- “Golden Bowls” by Karma Moffet
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