“I feel good, I knew that I would!
I feel good, I knew that I would, now!
So good, so good, I got you! ~~James Brown
I remember dancing with my dad to this James Brown tune when I was just 6 or 7 years old. My dad had just got home from work, and that song was playing on his transistor radio. I was reading a book, but when that song started, he quickly put down his lunchbox, I put down my book, we kicked off shoes and sneakers, and shimmied, shaked, and slid around the room! Good times…
I abso-friggin-lutely love dancing!
I love the feeling of my body reacting to the beat of the music. I love the sensations: sweat dripping down my face and the curve of my back, my fingers snapping, hips and pelvis gyrating, feet stamping and twirling, the air vibrating to the bass against my skin. I love the feeling of other bodies around me: movin’ and groovin’ to the beat. I love the visceral feeling of not processing the experience mentally, just letting my body respond and lead and control what it wants to do.
I grew up during the years of disco. Back then, friends and I would pile into the car and head down to the discos at the Jersey shore. Disco was a space for all races, ages, and lifestyles to meet on the dance floor, loud and pulsing and charged with flamboyant, physical energy. I didn’t drink much or do drugs (in fact, I was the designated driver before there officially WERE ‘designated drivers’!). I didn’t need intoxicants—the beat was my drug. I could dance for hours, trancing out on the experience, and be even more invigorated and super-charged the next day.
It turns out there are good reasons for that. Because dance is exercise, it conveys the physical and emotional benefits of exercise.
Dance can improve cardiovascular health, balance and strength, helps boost your mood, can be a social activity, and is highly inclusive—no matter your age or physical make-up, if you can move, you can dance!
Movement and dance are also extremely expressive. When I dance I drop the issues and worries of the day, even if just for a few minutes, and ‘let loose.’ It reduces stress and just feels good.
Some 50+ years after those James Brown sessions with my dad, I’m still dancing. Sometimes, I go to the local San Antonio spot, The Bonham Exchange (I am panting for the day when it reopens—Amanda and Leilani—we’re there!), get my bottled water, scope out which room I want to start in, and start moving. And when I'm there, I'm sometimes just bobbing to the beat, and other times clearing a swathe across the dance floor. Sometimes, I am just in my house, alone, shaking my groove thang when an irresistible tune comes up on Spotify.
Mostly, I’m just feeling—the music, the beat, and my body.
“You can dance, You can jive, Having the time of your life
Ooh, see that girl, Watch that scene, Digging the dancing queen!” ~~ABBA
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“I’m happy, I’m strong, I’m cool and I’m ready for school.” ~Cocomelon
School has begun. I’m teaching a ‘hybrid’ course, which means that students elect whether they are taking the course remotely or in the classroom. I have modified my syllabus, lectures, and discussion topics to be adequately handled in this new era of teaching.
I have to say that my university was way ahead of the curve in installing hard and software that would allow students to be both safely distanced in class AND if they so chose, to be able to participate in class from miles away.
So I’ve just completed my first full week of classes, and I have to admit that it wasn’t bad. The new class upgrades worked so much better than I expected most of the time. Other times, it would glitch or I’d learn that certain things I wanted from it wasn’t possible in its current configuration. But still, not so bad…
I think that I will do an adequate job, and maybe even a good one(?) sharing my knowledge and love of music, history, and film.
While I know my topic inside-out, my confidence in being able to teach well in the era of COVID stems from two integral elements of my life that I will draw upon heavily as I teach this semester:
to be mindful throughout the experience and to rely upon my essential oils.
Before I begin each class, I take a moment before leaving my office to set a quick intention for that class.
Sometimes I apply a drop a Young Living blend like Peace and Calming or Stress Away on my pulse points, take a deep breath, and allow its constituents to spread through my body.
When I want to up my immune system as well, apply my Healthy MBS Recipe (for the recipe—see below).
With any of the blends, I can just feel my level of patience, adaptability and wellness increase. A smile slips onto my face and I know I can do whatever it takes!
But the groundwork is actually laid in advance of my actual class. While I create my syllabi or lectures, I diffuse one of several Young Living blends like Brain Power, Envision, or some of their incredibly powerful single oils. Embodying the regenerating, oxygenating, and immune-strengthening properties of their plants, they create an environment that helps me to focus, quickly access details from memory, and move easily from point to point.
I’ve been doing this for ages in other parts of my life—and duh—it finally occurred to me that such powerful techniques could improve my ability to reach my students.
Now, I’m ready for school!!!
What about you? Are YOU ready for what life has in store for you?
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Sometimes the alarm goes off, more often, I wake up 5-10 minutes before it’s set. I spring out of bed and quickly move through my morning toilette: mouthwash, brush teeth, throw on walking clothes, grab my ear buds, phone, and key.
Then I get the leash and hook it on Sno, my Akita, and MY DAY HAS BEGUN! It is now sometime between 6:45-7:30 am and I’ve headed out for my daily walk therapy.
Sno and I walk religiously unless the weather is pouring rain. We don’t walk that far—between 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 miles each morning, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world. The first part is along the 410 access road, but the rest is in the neighborhood between Los Patios and MacArthur High School.
My walks are transformative—easing me from my sleep beautifully into the day. It feels as if my thoughts have a whirlwind of fresh air sweeping through them! That air clears away the sleep-induced confusion of dreams and half-formed impressions, making room for the insights that my subconscious has produced.
I am surrounded by blue skies and the sun just peeking above the horizon. I feel blessed and alive and thoroughly awakened!
The benefits aren’t all just emotional, though. Walking is one of the best ways to get the juices flowing, improving circulation, raising the heart rate, and loosening up joints stiffened by the night in bed. But that’s not all, walking can reduce bone loss and strengthen leg and abdominal muscles.
It’s no wonder I feel like a NEW WOMAN when I get back to the house!
Something I just learned—but makes total sense—was that walking can have positive mental benefits, too! When I walk, apparently I am lowering my risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. And in addition, the studies have shown that people who walk even one mile gained improvements in their quality of sleep, reduced their risk of disability, and actual lived longer lives than their non-walking counterparts.
And finally, a study has proven—corroborated by MY own experience—that walking releases natural painkilling endorphins to the body – one of the many emotional benefits of exercise.
The study showed that the more steps people took during the day, the better their moods were and those moods were reflected in their overall personality.
This wonderful medicine helps me to remember why I am alive, to connect with nature and often my neighbors, and allows me to start afresh every morning.
People would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a sports program that can guarantee those results. I get all of that, and more EVERY MORNING for free!
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Do you sit for 4 or more hours a day? Afterwards, do you sometimes feel incredibly stiff or even suffer pain in your back, legs, and feet? Then this post is for you!
About 10 years ago, I suffered excruciating back and knee pain. I had orthotics in my shoes, used a Chinese massage ointment, and tried acupuncture. I was taking several OTC pain meds every day, and was seeing a chiropractor 2-3 times a week, but nothing lasted more than a couple of days.
It was only when I added yoga, and in particular, hip ‘openers,’ that everything fell into place for me! First, My Official Disclaimer: I am not dispensing medical advice nor am I claiming that my chronic condition was at all similar to anything you may be experiencing. Many conditions respond to the various treatments that I’d noted above. In fact, my body did respond initially, but the relief only lasted a day or two.
However, having said that, consider the following!
Prolonged sitting causes your hip flexors to get tight. Then, when you go to stand, they pull on your lumbar spine, which leads to a multitude of lower back problems.
For people in a sedentary society, daily hip flexor stretches are important to help counterbalance the prolonged hip flexion of sitting for hours. The best thing to do if you sit at a desk or behind a computer a lot is to incorporate daily hip flexor stretches (yoga enthusiasts call them “hip openers”) into your daily routine. But hip openers are not just to “fix” some sort of ergonomic problem; practicing them regularly can make you healthier, more graceful, and more productive!!!
How??? Here are some of my favorite benefits of hip openers
- Releasing Stress: Hip openers stretch and strengthen muscles that are directly connected to our stress response. I didn’t realize that the muscle that attaches the lumbar spine to the femur bone is actually triggered when we feel stress. So, while I rarely need to literally “fight” or “flight,” when my body experiences stress, this muscle is still triggered. I found this muscle can carry a great deal of residual tension and benefits greatly from being stretched with hip openers.
- Alignment: This was one of my main issues! My tight hips caused strain on my lower back by pulling on the spine, on my knees, and even my feet. When my hips are open, there is more range of movement, better circulation, and much more support for the muscles of my back and my spine!
- Expand Creativity: This was an unexpected benefit! Energetically, the hips are associated with the sacral chakra, or the creative center. And the hips hold and support the reproductive organs–the organs of creation. It was only after I’d been doing hip openers for a bit that I noticed that focus on this area helped me to unlock and support this creative center. My body was moving freely, and so were my creative juices! I will blog more on this in the future—this has been the source of so much exploration and fun over the past few years!
Of course, there are tons more benefits. These are just the results that I started to experience almost immediately upon beginning hip openers. Of course, as they say, your mileage may vary!
Unfortunately, now that I no longer suffer pain when I miss doing hip openers, I am not as consistent as I’d like. However, when I can manage to do them several days in a row, my morning seems brighter, my mood is elevated, and I feel great!
My results are my best argument.
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I am a pretty ‘woo-woo’ person. I love my tarot and crystals, I meditate regularly, and I can trance out playing my drum for hours. All of these practices have helped me to learn much about myself.
Up until recently, however, I ‘never had time’ to really delve into my ‘woo.’ I had to squeeze it in between grading, prepping for classes, feeding and walking the dog, keeping the few plants I own from dying, juggling time with friends and family, trying to get in some reading, music and crafting.
Whew! I got exhausted just typing that all out. It was a lot, and being a ‘responsible’ person, I often prioritized on my obligations to my groups, religious organizations, and friends over my own needs and desires. I mean, I can’t let them down, can I?
Enter COVID. Initially, life was a hot mess of trying to get myself, my course materials, and my brain online. However, once I figured out what had to be done, I got it done, and didn’t worry about dropping balls. Come on—it was a pandemic, so what if I didn’t get a memo done?
And let’s face it, there was very little else to do. Restaurants, gyms, and parks were closed, I couldn’t see friends, all of my clubs and groups had severely curtailed their schedules, and what little was left was on Zoom.
All of a sudden I had … time…
It was such a strange feeling. I had never had time to do what I wanted! I had barely had time to do meet my obligations!!
Usually during spring or summer vacations, when I had a much-needed break from classes, meetings, and grading, I usually traveled or scheduled a number of visits to catch up with friends. I was just as busy as during the school year, just with other stuff. It was all fun, but it was still a jam-packed schedule, only crammed with fun things.
But 2020 was radically different. I had … time…
And I used it to reacquaint myself with my ‘woo’!
I drummed and chanted. I sat on my back patio and just gazed at the birds and squirrels and lizards and clouds. I sat on my patio with my tarot cards until it was too dark to see. I started doing some personal development using astrological tools to provide guidance.
I refocused on eating mindfully. I spent time in the kitchen cooking in an intentional way and I rejoiced in the sacred act of blessing my body with delicious food.
I had always made time to walk a couple of miles every morning with my dog, Sno. That didn’t change, but my attitude did. Instead of just powering up the road, getting in my steps in the quickest way possible, I started to go through the neighborhood more, smiling and saying good morning to all my neighbors. I waved at every car I passed and was so surprised to see how many people waved back!
School begins in a couple of weeks. The fall semester is always my most difficult, with two writing intensive classes. I’m also trying a hybrid model of teaching, with both in-class and online components, for the first time. It’s scary and making it work will take a lot of time.
However, it will not take the half day every week (either Saturday or Sunday), that I am dedicating to my ‘woo.’ I am putting this out to the world in this venue. I am stating it plainly so that I can be called out if I don’t do it.
I commit to holding onto a little piece of the peace I have lived the past few months!
What about you?
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