A few favorites

Just a few of our favorite pictures from 2015.

Christmas 2015

On gratitude, from beginning to end

"There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.” – Ralph Blum

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks… 
I Thessalonians 5:16-18

For the past seven years I’ve been sending out this monthly wellness email and it has been life giving for me.

Lately though, with over a year of house remodel and other significant life events, my energy is at a lower point, and I’ve not been as excited to write the regular email. It’s only my reserves that have dwindled, certainly not my love and care for you all who read this. I am hugely grateful for you.

This month’s missive is a last (at least for awhile, maybe for good?) of the wellness emails.

Because I need so desperately to return again and again to a central discipline, I close with some reminders around gratitude: a few easy suggestions for practicing gratitude, just one study among many, and some quotes.

Before going on I want to emphasis how sincerely my heart wishes you all deep wellness in spirit, soul, and body.

May all goodness and lovingkindness be yours.

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” 
— Thornton Wilder

A few easy gratitude practices

1) Ask yourself daily: For what moment today am I most grateful? Maybe recall three things, and write them down.

Some other examen questions -- [From Sleeping with Bread by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, and Matthew Linn]

- When did I give and receive the most / least love today?
- When did I feel most alive / life draining out of me today?
- When was I happiest / saddest today?
- What was today’s high / low point?

2) Make it a practice to tell a spouse, partner, or friend something you appreciate about them every day.

3) Look in the mirror, and think about something you have done well recently or something you like about yourself.

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” 
— Albert Einstein

A research study, that reveals more aliveness even in the midst of unpleasant

In a study conducted at Eastern Washington University, participants were randomly assigned to one of three writing groups that would recall and report on an unpleasant open memory—a loss, a betrayal, victimization, or some other personally upsetting experience:

*the first group wrote for 20 minutes on issues that were irrelevant to their open memory,

*the second wrote about their experience pertaining to their open memory,

*the third group wrote about on the positive aspects of a difficult experience—they were instructed to discover what about it might now make them feel grateful.

Results showed that they demonstrated more closure and less unpleasant emotional impact.

“You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. 
And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law:

the more you have and are grateful for,

the more will be given you.”

— Sarah Ban Breathnach

Grateful Sigh

..soil, sky and sea sigh

gratitude from low and high

we, us, you and I...

~romeo naces

“Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted–a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” — Rabbi Harold Kushner

A Morning Offering

“All that is eternal in me

Welcomes the wonder of this day

The field of brightness it creates

Offering time for each thing

To arise and illuminate

May my mind come alive today

To the invisible geography

That invites me to new frontiers…”

 - John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Love is good

We just had an amazing wedding weekend celebrating the union of our daughter Rebekah and her now husband Zachary. It was a celebration of love. It was most welcome for all of us to be reminded: love is good for us!

Most of the research connecting love and health centers on marriage, but experts extrapolate that many of the perks extend to other close relationships. This article outlines research-backed ways that love (feeling connected to other people, respected and valued by other people, and a sense of belonging) and health are linked.

Here’s a few of the benefits:

- Fewer doctor visits, shorter hospital stays (20, 21, 22)

- Faster healing (2005 study at Ohio State University)

- Less depression (23, 24, 25, 26) and substance abuse (8, 9, 10, 11)

- Lower blood pressure, lower stress hormones, increased pain tolerance (research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

- Happier life


As a tribute to the couple and to the love that unites us all, a dear friend (thank you, Jan!) suggested I pass along the words of some of the meaningful readings shared on the special wedding day this past weekend.

May you enjoy these words. And may your relationships be satisfying, connecting, and full of love!

Happy August; please be well.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the  work for which all other work is merely preparation. Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person—it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him to vast distance…

Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distance exists, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of seeing each other as a whole before an immense sky.”

      

Mary Oliver, excerpts of "To Begin With, the Sweet Grass," from Evidence: Poems

1.

Will the hungry ox stand in the field and not eat of the sweet grass?

Will the owl bite off its own wings?

Will the lark forget to lift its body in the air or forget to sing?

Will the rivers run upstream?

Behold, I say–behold

the reliability and the finery and the teachings of this gritty earth gift.

2.

Eat bread and understand comfort.

Drink water, and understand delight.

Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds

who are drinking the sweetness, who are thrillingly gluttonous.

For one thing leads to another.

Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.

Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.

And someone’s face, whom you love, will be as a star

both intimate and ultimate,

and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.

And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved, whisper:

oh, let me, for a while longer, enter the two

beautiful bodies of your lungs.

3.

The witchery of living

is my whole conversation

with you my darlings.

All I can tell you is what I know.

Look, and look again.

This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.

It’s more than bones.

It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.

It’s more than the beating of the single heart.

It’s praising.

It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving.

You have a life—just imagine that!

You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another.

5.

We do one thing or another; we stay the same or we change.

Congratulations if you have changed.

6.

Let me ask you this.

Do you also think that beauty exists for some fabulous reason?

And if you have not been enchanted by this adventure—your life—

what would do for you? 

7.

What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself.

Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to.

That was many years ago.

Since then I have gone out from my confinements, though with difficulty

I mean the ones that are thought to rule my heart.

I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.

They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment somehow or another).

And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.

I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.

I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,

I have become younger.

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?

Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world

John O’Donohue, excerpts of “A Blessing for Marriage” from To Bless the Space Between Us

As spring unfolds the dream of the earth, / 

May you bring each other’s hearts to birth.

As surprised as the silence that music opens, / 

May your words for each other be touched with reverence.

As warmly as the air draws in the light, / 

May you welcome each other’s every gift.

As twilight harvests all the day’s color, / 

May love bring you home to each other.

Absolutely necessary

I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing. ~Marsha Doble

What moves you to move more?

Being not especially fond of it, to boost motivation I need reminders of the incredibly good reasons to exercise. I know that being and staying active is absolutely necessary to good health; when exercising lessens, un-health and disease increases. Still it’s difficult for me to push myself to move more.

[Seems that it’s not easy for some others too: the average American gets 5000 steps a day which is half of the recommendation; a survey by the Physical Activity Council found that 28% of Americans say they are totally inactive. ]

If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health. 
- Hippocrates

In case a list of benefits of physical activity urges you also to move more, I’m sharing a few findings (some new to me) highlighted in this webmd.com overview.

*Changes fat cells for the better: in size, efficiency, and genetic structure.

Yeah, sure, fat cells shrink with caloric expenditures. But did you know, as this diabetes journal article says, that it also causes the cells to develop more energy-producing parts called mitochondria? With exercise nearly 4,000 genes in fat tissue change, stimulating metabolism.That means that fat tissue is burning more calories, even at rest.

*Improves vascular function.

Exercise, which causes blood to flow more swiftly and under greater pressure, realigns the endothelium cells that line blood vessels.

- “Michael D Brown, PhD, a professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has discovered that when the body is inactive, the cells in the endothelium get sluggish and don’t sit in the vessel wall properly… After 12 hours post a single bout of exercise, cells have repositioned themselves to be in line with the flow of blood. This helps blood vessels work better, keeping them open and elastic, rather than stiff, narrow, and clogged. (Study of sedentary African Americans, publishedhere.)

*Preserves grey matter.

Older adults who have and active lifestyle have more gray matter in areas of the brain responsible for self-control, memory, and decision making. (MRI findings of 20 years of data, written about here)

*Cuts risk of diabetes.

In the Diabetes Prevention Program study, the exercise-more-eat-better group cut their risk of developing diabetes by about twice as much compared to the group taking medication (metformin, which helps the body respond better to the hormone insulin), compared to third group taking placebo pills. This Lancet article reports that diabetes incidence in the 10 years since original study was reduced by 34% (24–42) in the lifestyle group and 18% (7–28) in the metformin group compared with placebo.

*Beats out medications for some ailments.

It works as well or better than pills for depression. In other conditions, like Alzheimer’s and arthritis, it’s been shown to delay disability.

“It is exercise alone that supports the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

Thankfully it’s been good weather where I live so it’s pleasant to be walking outside (about the only exercise I like). And I truly am grateful for a body that CAN move!

I hope for you too to find a few enjoyable ways to move more in this month. I wish you wellness in all your moments.

“At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. 

Later, of course, it pays off handsomely…” 

Hebrews 12:11a The Message

The Rewards of Exercise

I go walking each day at first light,

for fitness and health it's just right.

But on the path that I take

I find coffee and cake

at the shop where I pause for a bite.

© Susan Henderson

Anxiety: there's an app for that

“Anxiety's like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you very far.” 

― Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home

Today is the last day of classes for the students at the college where I work. Up next is finals, and for many that induces some anxiety.

This nytimes well blog article states, “Anxiety has now surpassed depression as the most common mental health diagnosis among college students…Nearly one in six college students has been diagnosed with or treated for anxiety within the last 12 months, according to the annual national survey by the American College Health Association.”

Interestingly, the article also mentions a new app for treating anxiety, called TAO (Therapist Assisted Online). (Because I assist faculty in getting funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), it pleases me that the technology/product is based on work supported by NSF#1448967!)

TAO provides an array of tools for online psychotherapy including educational materials, homework on mobile devices, video conferencing with a therapist, and weekly monitoring of progress. If you wonder what they offer in this app, the TAO website has a demo of Session 1: Program overview here. The online treatment program is from 7-10 weeks.


“Preliminary evidence from a year-long pilot study at the University of Florida suggests that TAO can deliver treatment outcomes that compare to or even exceed traditional face-to-face counseling.”


It’s not just tests that bring on anxiety, or just college students that struggle with it. Most of us, including me and some of my loved ones, wrestle with some worry or anxiety at least occasionally.

“Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strengths.” ― Charles H. Spurgeon

A few suggestions to manage and minimize your anxiety --


15 steps you can take every day
Take a deep breath.
Get active.
Sleep well.
Challenge an anxious thought.
Say an encouraging statement.
Stay connected to others.
Avoid caffeine.
Avoid mind-altering substances.
Do something you enjoy.
Take a break.
Problem-solve.
Pick up a book.
Engage in calming practices.
Contact a therapist.
Accept your anxiety.

May you find relief from anxiety in this early summer. May you be calm, joyful, at ease. May you be well.

Don't worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking God with a thankful heart. And God's peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7

"If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath."

- Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation

Walk Slowly (Danna Faulds)

It only takes a reminder to breathe,

a moment to be still, and just like that,

something in me settles, softens, makes

space for imperfection. The harsh voice

of judgment drops to a whisper and I

remember again that life isn't a relay

race; that we will all cross the finish

line; that waking up to life is what we

were born for. As many times as I

forget, catch myself charging forward

without even knowing where I'm going,

that many times I can make the choice

to stop, to breathe, and be, and walk

slowly into the mystery.

Posing for presence

Let your body tell you you’re powerful and deserving, 

and you become more present, enthusiastic, and authentically yourself.”

– Amy Cuddy

I recently watched this TED talk – 2nd in a list of 20 most popular TED talks – where social psychologist and Harvard Business School prof Amy Cuddy describes research that point to these assertions:

* non-verbals (aka body language) govern how we feel about ourselves,
* our bodies shape/change our minds,
* behavior can change our outcomes, and
* tiny tweaks can make a big difference.

“Be happy NOW. This moment is all you’ve got.” 

― Elizabeth Grace Saunders

The research

Cuddy referred to this 2010 research report published in Psychological Science, with Dana R. Carny and Andy J. Yap, that compared participants who spent two minutes in a room alone dong high-power poses (expansive with open limbs, such as feet on the desk with fingers lace behind the head) with participants that did low-power poses (contracted with closed limbs, such as arms crossed across body; see article for pictures).

Some results

high-power poses caused an increase in testosterone by about 20% compared with low-power poses
high-power poses caused a decrease in cortisol by about 25% compared with low-power poses
high-power posers were more likely than low-power posers to focus on rewards
high-power posers reported feeling significantly more “powerful” and “in charge”

Fascinating as all this is, along with other research demonstrating that body movement affects our emotions and actions (if interested, see the * at end of this message), what most interests me is the connection of power with being present.


“Ultimately, Cuddy's research suggests that when people feel personally powerful, they become more present: better connected with their own thoughts and feelings, which helps them to better connect with the thoughts and feelings of others. Presence -- characterized by enthusiasm, confidence, engagement, and the ability to connect with and even captivate an audience -- boosts people's performance in a wide range of domains.”  -quote from Cuddy’s Faculty Profile page


So maybe we give this a try? (Likely I will be doing my power pose in a private location!) Maybe pose (picture wonder woman, or wonder man J) to be more fully present to our best self, our truest self?

One last phrase as a take-away: not long ago I heard Fr. Greg Boyle talk on an OnBeing podcast and he mentioned a phrase that I also want to live into -- Now. Here. This.

May we enjoy the now, the here, the this.

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” 

― Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation

May we enjoy breath, and enjoy the beauty of people and of nature. May the spring unfolding be a metaphor for our own unfolding. May we be powerful and present this month and each month.

“The divine is in the present and you must be present to experience it. When you vacate the present and recede into your mind, allowing worries or work to remove you from the moment, you leave the plain upon which the divine dwells. ― L.M. Browning, Seasons of Contemplation: A Book of Midnight Meditations

"Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen…” – Acts 10:33

* Words from the 2010 research report on body effecting emotions, thoughts, and behavior --

“In research on embodied cognition, some evidence suggests that bodily movements, such as facial displays, can affect emotional states. For example, unobtrusive contraction of the “smile muscle” (i.e., the zygomaticus major) increases enjoyment (Strack, Martin, Stepper, 1988), the head tilting upward induces pride (Stepper & Strack, 1993), and hunched postures (as opposed to upright postures) elicit more depressed feelings (Riskind & Gotay, 1982). Approach-oriented behaviors, such as touching, pulling, or nodding “yes,” increase preference for objects, people, and persuasive messages (e.g., Briñol & Petty, 2003; Chen & Bargh, 1999; Wegner, Lane, & Dimitri, 1994), and fist clenching increases men’s self-ratings on power-related traits (Schubert & Koole, 2009).”

Want awe?

“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.” 
- Albert Einstein

Spring is one of my favorite seasons. I am mystified by the spring bulb leaves poking up resulting in delightful blossoms, by the budding and unfolding of leaves on bushes and trees, by the greening of grass, by the quick growth of the perennial hollyhock deep green leaves and catmint clumps bordering the south side of my house.

In short, I am in awe of the miracle of new growth and new beginnings.

“Anything can happen, and anything does.” 

― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Turns out that awe is an especially good-for-you emotion.


**Awe contributes to BETTER HEALTH: less chronic inflammation in the body means less achiness, less susceptibility to disease, less acceleration of aging.

The study. In the research study published in January 2015 in the journal Emotion, and reported on in this Well Column, researchers - from the University of California, Berkeley, and other institutions - tested 94 college freshmen first, and then another 119 for a more specific look at discrete positive emotions.

The 94 students filled out questionaires on various positive and negative emotions during the past month. They supplied saliva samples that the researchers analyzed for interleukin-6 (IL-6), a cytokine (chemical-signaling molecule) known to promote inflammation throughout the body. Inflammation is tied to poor health, so the researchers hypothesized that low levels of IL-6 might signal good health.

The 119 students completed questionaires about their normal disposition and the extent to which they had recently felt seven specific emotions: awe, amusement, compassion, contentment, joy, love, and pride. They also provided saliva samples that were analyzed for IL-6.

What the study found. In the first (94 students) study those who experienced more positive emotions generally had lower levels of IL-6 than classmates whose moods were more sour.

In the second (119 students) study, happy moods were collectively still associated with low IL-6 levels, with the strongest correlation to awe. In the researchers’ words, “We also explored the relationship between discrete positive emotions and IL-6 levels, finding that awe, measured in two different ways, was the strongest predictor of lower levels of proinflammatory cytokines.”

Senior author of the study and faculty director of the greater Good Science Center at Berkeley, Dacher Keltner, says that in general, a primary attribute of an awe-inspiring event is that it “will pass the goose-bumps test.”

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” - W.B. Yeats

**Awe calls forth COOPERATION AND KINDNESS.

This article by Dacher Keltner mentions research findings that awe even leads people to cooperate, share resources, and sacrifice for others; it calls forth a less narcissistic self, enabling greater kindness toward others.

Want AWE?

Do you, like me, want to be intentional about fostering a feeling of awe more often? Awe-eliciting stimuli expands the observer’s usual frame of reference; awe is a perception of greatness outside of oneself, an awareness of vastness. It is a pausing, and an opening of your mind to the things not understood.

Following are a few ideas to cultivate awe:

• Enjoy the beauty of nature: watch the sunset in its array of colors, notice the spring unfolding in all its glory, listen to thunder with wonder, look at the night sky with its marvel of lights
• Go to an art museum and appreciate the skill of the artist
• Listen to and let yourself be moved by music
• Notice the epiphanies that come: good ideas, new discoveries, little surprises
• Experience the sacred during prayer or meditation
• Be compassionate and receive compassion: notice kind actions
• Take note of anyone standing up to injustice
• Appreciate accomplishments of others and your own: isn’t it a miracle that we are born, that we grow and heal, that we can do, that we can think, that we can remember?

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.” –Psalm 139:14

On the sidewalk quotes in our town I came across one that said, “Don’t be afraid to let your mind w_nder.” I couldn’t tell immediately if it was an “a” or an “o” after the “w.” Upon studying it, I determined the word was “wander” but I walked away wishing it said, “let your mind wonder.”

Wonder, synonymous with awe, is a grand idea.

Let your mind wonder. Be in awe.

Yes, that’s my wish and blessing for this month. May you wonder. May you be in awe. May you be well.

“All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.” 

― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

“The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.” 

― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Look and See
This morning, at waterside, a sparrow flew
to a water rock and landed, by error, on the back
of an eider duck; lightly it fluttered off, amused.
The duck, too, was not provoked, but, you might say, was
laughing.

This afternoon a gull sailing over
our house was casually scratching
its stomach of white feathers with one
pink foot as it flew.

Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift to us, if we
only look, and see.

- Mary Oliver, Why I Wake Early

“The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed, and I will declare your greatness.”

– Psalm 145: 6

A few good germs

“But germs are the most common snowflake starters and lie at the heart of 85 percent of all flakes.
So next time you gaze at a lovely snowstorm, inform your favorite germophobe or hypochondriac that living bacteria sit shivering in most of those untold billions of flakes.”

– Bob Berman

I have never much minded washing dishes by hand (plus time in the water helps clean the dirt so often accumulating under my fingernails), so the following study – about dish washing and allergies and germs – is an easy one for me to glob onto.

A new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, suggests that parents who wash their dishes by hand, rather than in a dishwashing machine, may unwittingly lower the likelihood that their children will develop allergies.

The researchers followed 1,029 children aged 7 to 8 years old, and their parents, living in two areas of Sweden.

This nytimes wellness blog summarizes: “They investigated behaviors…Then they examined whether the children had allergic conditions including asthma, eczema, and hay fever. Ultimately, the researchers found that children raised in households where dishes were always washed by hand had half the rate of allergies. They also discovered that this relationship was amplified if the children also ate fermented foods or if the families bought food directly from local farms.”

This is only an association, not causation. But the speculation – of Bill Hesselmar, an assistant professor at the University of Gothenburg and lead author of the study – is that some behaviors expose children to innocuous bacteria, which can help strengthen their immune systems. In their words, from the Pediatrics Article Abstract, “We speculate that a less-efficient dishwashing method may induce tolerance via increased microbial exposure.”

A take away

Exposure to some microorganisms can be good for us, and is not to be avoided at all costs. In fact, “germs” of the good variety or in the best combination (ecosystems with many species are generally more resistant than systems with few species), are even a part of a therapy to counteract some bacteria gone bad; such as when a single species of bacteria becomes too prominent and causes inflammation in the gut as can happen after taking an antibiotic. This bizarre-but-fascinating therapy replenishes the gut microbiome through Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT), or in more common vernacular, through “poop transplants.”

Are you intrigued? Follow this link for a great 3-minute video that is both informative and funny (with a “don’t try this at home” thrown in, and an ending quip of “From your C diff to recoup, choose someone else’s poop”) or see this article (thanks, Charlotte, for passing it along).

"I’m a dirt person. I trust the dirt." – Eartha Kitt

Back to a little dirt. Connecting to the natural, including many of the microorganisms in our world, can be a grand choice (see Dee’s Dirt blog posts “Eat dirt” and “About germs).

Maybe – when we finally have a thaw in these northern climes – we can pick up some dirt and appreciate the microorganisms residing there?

May you find opportunity this month to wash a few dishes by hand and be exposed to a few good germs.

I am wishing, along with you, for spring and thaw and no allergies and all sorts of good health.

 “…you started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt.”

– Genesis 3:19b – The Message paraphrase

 “The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”  ― Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture

A VISION

If we will have the wisdom to survive,
To stand like slow growing trees on a ruined place,
Renewing, enriching it,
If we will make our seasons welcome here,
Asking not too much of earth or heaven,
Then a long time after we are dead
The lives our lives prepare will live here,
Their houses strongly placed upon the valley sides,
Fields and gardens rich in the windows.
The river will run clear as we never know it,
And over it the birdsong like a canopy.
On the levels of the hills will be green meadows,
Stock bells in noon shade
On the steeps where greed and ignorance cut down the old forest,
An old forest will stand, its rich leaf-fall drifting on its roots.
The veins of forgotten springs will have opened.
Families will be singing in the fields.
In their voices they will hear a music risen out of the ground.
They will take nothing out of the ground they will not return,
Whatever the grief at parting,
Memory, native to this valley, will spread over it like a grove,
And memory will grow into legend,
Legend into song, song into sacrament.
The abundance of this place, the songs of its people and its birds,
Will be health and wisdom and indwelling light.
This is no paradisal dream. Its hardship is its possibility.

Wendell Berry

Self-compassion

If you aren't good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you'll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren't even giving to yourself."  Barbara De Angelis

I worked awhile on a wellness message for this month on self-compassion and parenting.

When mostly done I accidentally deleted it! (I was stupidly - wait, I need rather, in kindness to self, to say "unfortunately" - constructing the message in an email instead of a Word doc.)

So, in compassion to myself, rather than recreate it all (it takes many many minutes to attempt to digest some of the research), I am sending you a greatly abbreviated version of the original message.

In brief, my gentle nudge for this month is to take a look at --

- a 4-minute youtube video: listen to a great summary of mindfulness and hear some encouragement to not judge what you judge.
Jon Kabat-Zinn Defines Mindfulness

 - this research - which includes discussion of these five dimensions (selected based on a review of the mindfulness and parenting literature) that can make a difference in your parenting:
a) emotional awareness of self and child;
b) self-regulation in the parenting relationship;
c) non-judgmental acceptance of self and child;
d) listening with full attention, and
e) compassion for self and child.

As the years go by, I am more and more convinced that - for each of us - it all starts with me. If I can be kind and compassionate to myself then I can extend it to the other: my kids, friends, colleagues, spouse, stranger.
With Valentine's Day coming up, maybe, along with extending love and kindness to another, you might also do the same for yourself?

May you experience much lovingkindness and compassion this month, and may it contribute greatly to your wellness.

"If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well."
 - James 2:8

Self-Compassion

Walking down the alley,
Glimpsing of the passerby; the
Stranger that looks like
Me.

No, it is me.

Passed by thousands
Times before,

Un-noticed,
Un-spoken to,
Un-loved.

Ignored for another.
*
But this time I notice,
I greet myself,
I invite me
To a cup of tea,
A stroll upon the
Redolent shore of life - together,
Holding hands,
Hugging,
Loving
The one inside my skin.
   - Ibrahim Ibn Salma

Starting again: exercise

You are never too old to set another goal
or to dream a new dream.
- C. S. Lewis

The older I get the less I tend to make new year's resolutions. Still, upon entry into another year, I appreciate the opportunity to start again.

Healthy choices are always an area where I need to start again - the basic "eat less, exercise more" thing just isn't something I fall into easily. Rather, I  need to make intentions to choose to move more and munch less.

“Exercise is wonderful," said Louis. "I could sit and watch it all day.”
― Larry Niven, Ringworld

This month's 1st Wednesday email offers gentle encouragement toward starting again in the area of exercise. Below you'll read a few studies that might dispel a myth or two and that just might give us a slight advantage in our exercise regimes.

Brief is good
This article on 2014 fitness trends relays that in a study from May, scientists found that three brief sessions per day of interval-style exercise — consisting of one minute of brisk walking followed by another minute of strolling, repeated six times — allowed people at risk of diabetes to control their blood sugar better than a continuous 30-minute walk. Importantly, these short “exercise snacks,” as the scientists called the condensed sessions, were more popular with the study’s participants than the single, longer walk, the scientists reported.

Warm is good
According to a surprising new study, exercising in chilly temperatures could undermine dieting willpower (as reported in this NYTimes wellness blog).
Researchers at the U of Aberdeen in Scotland and the U of Birmingham in England decided to see what happened to appetite when people exercised upright in alternately chilly and pleasant/neutral room temperatures.
   *study participants: 16 of overweight, sedentary men and women (small study).
   * baselines: resting metabolic rate, maximum endurance capacity, and blood levels of certain hormones related to appetite (ghrelin, PYY) were determined for each participant.
   * method: each participant walked on a treadmill at a moderate pace (at ~60 percent of each person’s maximum aerobic capacity) for 45 minutes.
During one workout the temperature of the room was 68 degrees; for the second workout, the room was cooled to 46 degrees (humidity was 40% for both).
After 45 minutes the volunteers were directed to help themselves at a large food buffet, unaware that their food selections and portions would be monitored.
   *findings: after walking in the cold (46 degrees), the volunteer study participants
 -  consumed significantly more calories and, in particular, more carbohydrates than when they had strolled in the more temperate room.
 - mostly showed higher blood levels of a hormone called ghrelin that is known to spark hunger. There was little change in ghrelin levels after the warmer exercise.

 - felt more ravenous and loaded their plates with more food than when they had been warm during their workout.  - expended significantly fewer calories during the exercise session in the cold than when walking while warm.
   * conclusions: warm temperatures demand more from the body, because it must dissipate any buildup of internal heat. Blood flows away from the stomach and limbs and toward the skin surface so that the excess heat can be released.
When exercising in cooler conditions, said Daniel Crabtree, a research fellow at the U of Aberdeen who led the study, “you don’t have to pump blood to the surface to dissipate heat.” The blood instead circulates normally, picking up and distributing biochemical signals from the stomach and elsewhere that apparently prompt the release of ghrelin, augmenting appetite and undercutting your best intentions to forgo that food treat after exercise.

Before bed is good

According to research published in Sleep Medicine, 52 young healthy adults who exercised vigorously (high-intensity cardio) before bedtime fell asleep faster and woke up fewer times during the night than those who did more mellow activities.

“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.” -Hippocrates

Just plain good
Also from this article on 2014 fitness trends: "other studies this year underscored how wide-ranging the benefits of exercise really are.
In various experiments, physical activity was found to
- lessen and even reverse the effects of aging on human skin;
- protect against age-related vision loss; improve creativity;
- lower people’s risk of developing heart disease even if they had multiple risk factors for the condition;
- increase the numbers of good bacteria in athletes’ guts;
- raise exercisers’ pain tolerance;
- alter, in desirable ways, how our DNA works; and
- keeps us young, according to a large-scale study published in October."

May you find motivation to move this month, and be well in body, mind, and heart.

 

“To resist the frigidity of old age, one must combine the body, the mind, and the heart. And to keep these in parallel vigor one must exercise, study, and love.”  ― Charles-Victor De Bonstettin