Spring time in the Rockies!
Ah! Spring time in the Rockies! Lovely!
It’s rained, snowed, and the sun has shined! We went for a walk and enjoyed the pasque flowers at Lily Lake.
Pasque flowers Lily Lake
These are from a photo my cousin Mary Jo took when she and my Uncle Gran, my Mom and I went up Wednesday.
Not as sunny today so not as pretty and open.
Still beautiful though!
What is beautiful in your life today?
Besides enjoying the pasque flowers I lead my first yoga class today.
I used a lot of the breathing techniques from my E-Book.
I incorporated yoga moves that I have learned from attending classes with Lizzy Adams and Diane Seig’s Thirty Days to Grace program.
It was fun to lead the class and it was fun to share my practice.
Namaste!
Please share your story of the day with me and share this pretty photo of pasque flowers with friends and family.
It’s one of our first signs of spring in the Rockies – much different that the budding trees in what we call the “valley” of Longmont, Boulder, Fort Collins and Denver!
Please comment below and share what’s been beautiful in your life today.
Pasque flowers today at Lily Lake despite being overcast - still pretty!
Such fragile life!
Happy Easter!
Found a pasque flower today! Beautiful. Hope you had a wonderful Easter.
Today in church Pastor Donna Patterson talked about the stone that was moved away from the tomb. She asked who would help us move the stones of our lives. The stones of anger, addiction, grief, …..
Who will help you remove the stones in your life?
Please share your thoughts. Post them below. Thanks, K
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There Is A God
Songwriters Chris Du Bois and Ashley Gorley have written a lovely song titled, There is a God. Below are the lyrics. Enjoy!
Try and put your arms around the 100 year old tree.
Climb up on a horse and let him run full speed.
Take a look out at the world from 30,000 feet on your next flight.
Watch a flock of birds against the morning sun.
Close your eyes and listen to the river run.
Catch a firefly in your hand, or a raindrop on your tongue,
That’s right. There is a God. There is a God. There is a God.
How much proof do you need?
Plant a seed and see what comes out of the ground.
Find the heartbeat on your baby’s ultrasound;
In a few year hear him laughing, and don’t it sound like a song?
Stop and think about what you don’t understand;
Things like life and love and how the world began.
Hear the doctor say he can’t explain it, but the cancer is gone?
There is a God. There is a God. There is a God.
How much proof do you need?
Science says it’s all just cirumstance;
Like this whole world’s just an accident.
But if you want to shoot that theory down, look around.
Just look around.
There is a God. There is a God. There is a God.
How much proof do you need?
Oh, there is a God. There is a God. There is a God.
How much proof do you need?
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Happy New Year! 5 important questions to think about and answer…..
Ask yourself these 5 VIP Questions
1. What are you most thankful for today?
2. Who will you spend your time with in 2012?
3. What books will you read?
4. What difference will you make in the world?
5. What is your personal why?
Take 2 hours and turn off your phone, TV and anything else that might distract you and answer the questions listed above! When you are on path & purpose you will become unstoppable! Success is a way of life!
Tom Porter wrote these on his facebook post this am. I thought they were worth sharing and worth doing. Hope you will take the time to answer the fice questions and share your comments below and share the questions with people who are important to you.
Happy New Year! K
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“Christmas Gifts for Jesus” by Mary McCall
Here’s something to think about this Christmas season!
Christmas Gifts for Jesus
Bring Me your Pride and your Arrogance.
Bring Me your Resistance and your Resentments.
Bring Me your Frustrations and your Failures.
Bring Me your Guilt and your Condemnations.
Bring Me your Self-pity and your Selfishness.
Bring Me your Prejudices and your Pretences.
Leave all these gifts on the altar of My Sacrifice.
Allow Me to sweep the residue of Hate and Mistrust from your heart.
Allow Me to rip the webs of Deceit and Self-deception from your mind.
Allow Me to scour the Rebellion and Rottenness from your soul.
Allow Me to clean and restore your spirit.
And then, I ask for one more gift…
Will you give Me… your whole heart…
Wrapped in obedience…
Tied in ribbons of passionate and unconditional love?
And now, will you walk with Me as I carry your presents to our Father?
by Mary McCall
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“Go forth to enjoy the life you’ve been given!”
Last Sunday Pastor Donna Patterson at the Estes Park United Methodist Church said, ”Go forth to enjoy the life you’ve been given!”
It made me stop and think how I would be spending my time before the holidays. So I started making plans to spend time with my family. Who would have Christmas eve dinner? Who would have Christmas dinner? When would we have our swim party and what games would we play? Which holiday movies would we want to go to? My list is all about getting together with family.
How are you going forth on your days to enjoy your life? Are you looking forward to the holidays or dreading them? Are the holidays fun or stressful?
Many of us get more stressed around the holidays- with our without having our families involved in our plans. So my goal is to take it easy! Here are some tips for surviving and hopefully enjoying the holidays.
Know that stress and over indulging are the key reasons for the rise in heart attacks during November and December (Cochrane). So reduce each.
Assess your source of stress before the holidays to help forestall the stress.
Exercising and taking breaks from the holiday hustle and bustle can help control stress. Physical activity helps you feel energetic. Get out there and take walks, do fun activities centered around the holidays. Walking after meals is a great way to get in some easy and relaxing exercise and walk off a few calories from turkey and dressing!
Reach out! The holidays are a great time to reconnect with family and friends, especially if you are spending them alone.
Call friends or family before you start feeling lonely. Don’t wait for them to call you.
Work to repair any strain or distance in your relationships.
To Do List:
Listen to your heart.
Worship God.
Exercise.
Pray.
Give thanks.Rest.
Love one another.
Be Gentle with yourself!
Remember to Breathe! Breathe to help yourself stay calm in the midst of holiday chaos and have some fun.
Happy Holidays! K
Apply Your Oxygen Mask First, continued
Apply Your Oxygen Mask First
by
Dr. Kay RN
“In the case of an emergency apply your oxygen mask first, then assist children or other passengers.”
Do you apply this principle to your life?
Last year I realized this principle if applied to my daily living would be a healthful way to live my life.
I continue my journey, to help myself and then reach out to help others. If I have enough oxygen then I can help others increase their oxygen level.
Below are some additional breathing techniques I use. They are easy ways to reduce stress, increase relaxation, and help increase the oxygen level in my blood.
Three part Breathing:
Dividing my upper body into three segments is one exercise I like to use. First, I breathe into my lower abdomen up to my navel (belly button). Then I pause for a second or two. Then I breath up to my breast bone (Xiphoid Process) and pause for a second or two. Finally I fill my lungs totally to my scapula and hold it again for a second or two. When I feel like I’m about to explode (not really – but I feel like my lungs are as full as they can be) then I exhale very slowly first out of the upper 1/3 of my chest, then to 2/3 of my chest then to the very bottom of my abdomen – expelling every bit of breath I have in my body. Then I repeat this – again for seven times.
Did you know that most people breathe very superficially and use only the upper 1/3 of their lungs? We are actually meant to breathe from our diaphragm. I love to do this as my fifth exercise to insure that I am breathing deeply and correctly. Lying down on my yoga mat I put one hand on my belly and one hand on my chest. When I take a deep breath in my goal is to make the hand on my belly move up and as I exhale my hand moves down on my belly. The hand on my chest doesn’t move at all unless I am only filling my chest. I use this in a seated or standing posture whenever I am nervous or anxious or feeling impatient and want to get myself calm. It can be done very inconspicuously. Or at least I think it can!
Four Square Breathing:
Breathe in to the count of four. Hold for the count of four. Exhale through your mouth to the count of four. Hold to the count of four. Inhale through your nose to the count of four. Hold for the count of four. Exhale to the count of four, hold to the count of four. Continue this for seven cycles.
I Am Relaxed Breathing:
Breathe in through your nose slowly while thinking I am… and then exhale through pursed lips while thinking Relaxed. Breathing slowly repeat this cycle of breaths and thoughts for seven cycles.
By the time I have done these three exercises I am totally relaxed and my lungs have gotten a good workout for the morning.
Fortunately, I don’t have any lung disease or lung illness so these are easy exercises for me to do. Since I’m a registered nurse however, I know plenty of people that these would be true exercises. Talk with your health care provider about these exercises before you implement them if you have any history of lung disease.
Pursed-lip breathing is a common exercise for people with lung disease. Nurses and respiratory therapists often teach people to perform this exercise. Start by taking a deep breath through your nose. Then breath out while pursing your lips – as if breathing out through a straw. Breath in through your nose to the count of four and breath out through your pursed-lips to the count of six or eight. By emptying your lungs you can take a deeper breath on your next inhalation. This helps you feel less short of breath.
Bending forward while you breath also makes it easier to breathe.
I use these exercises not only to increase my lung volume but to decrease my stress level and/or to help me get to sleep at night. I hope you will join me in this exercise routine on a daily basis and see how it works for you.
If you are interested in other breathing techniques please visit my store to purchase the E-Book that includes numerous additional exercises, breathing quotes and vides demonstrating the techniques.
Breathe my dear, Breathe!
The holidays are approaching. Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Will you be shopping or spending time with family and/or friends? We’re off to Missouri to be with family. Traveling with our 90 year old Mother and 11 year old great-nephew will be a challenge and a treat. As the commercial says, “….priceless.”
What I”ll need to remember most is to breathe. Stay calm. Be flexible. Act with kindness. Have patience. My yoga instructor reminds us during class to “Breathe, my dear, Breathe!”
If you are feeling out of sorts with the holidays approaching, family visiting, shopping to do, losing sleep worrying about how things will go…remember to breathe my dear, breathe!
Need help, or know someone who needs help during the holidays? Then check out my E-Book with videos to demonstrate how to use a wide variety of breathing techniques to help you stay calm, relax, get to sleep and enjoy the holidays!
Knowing several different breathing techniques (that can even be used in a crowd) has helped me and I think it will help you too! Let me know how the techniques work for you. If you have others that you’d like to share please comment below and I’ll include them when I expand the book.
Thanks and take good care of yourself, especially during the holidays. And remember to breathe my dear, breathe! I’m very thankful for everyone in my life. Happy Thanksgiving! K
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Great American Smokeout!
Great American Smokeout
The American Cancer Society is marking the 36th Great American Smokeout on November 17 by encouraging smokers to use the date to make a plan to quit, or to plan in advance and quit smoking that day. By doing so, smokers will be taking an important step towards a healthier life – one that can lead to reducing cancer risk. Quitting smoking is not easy, but it can be done. To have the best chance of quitting successfully, you need to know what you’re up against, what your options are, and where to go for help.Check out www.cancer.org for further information.
In Colorado smokers can get free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) by calling the Colorado Quitline at 1-800-QUIT NOW (784-8669) or you can go online at www.coquitline.org.
Setting a quit date is one of the key recommendations. Removing all ashtrays, matches, lighters, cigarettes and other tobacco products from your home. Having a support network, be it a coach at the Quitline or a Friend, spouse or colleague, it helps.
Not ready to quit for more than the day? Then please follow the One Step program and step outside your home and your car to smoke. This one step will protect your family, friends, coworkers from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
Nonsmokers- let’s be supportive and show we care! Go easy on any smokers who are working on quitting. To show you understand what they are going through – give up something yourself.
November 17 please join us in the Great American Smokeout. Share this blog. Quit for the day. Please comment below and let me know how it went!
Missed November 17th- do it whatever do you read this blog. As the American Cancer Society says, “Help us celebrate more birthdays!”
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Exercise in the Morning! It does a body good!
Exercise
Top Ten Reasons to Exercise in the Morning
by Greg Landry, M.S.
If I had to pick a single factor that I thought was most important in a successful exercise or weight loss program, it would be to exercise first thing in the morning – every morning! Some mornings, you may just be able to fit in a 10 minute walk, but it’s important to try to do something every morning.
So why mornings?…
1. Over 90% of people who exercise *consistently*, exercise in the morning. If you want to exercise consistently, odds are in your favor if you exercise first thing in the morning.
2. When you exercise early in the morning, it “jump starts” your metabolism and keeps it elevated for hours, sometimes up to 24 hours! That means you’re burning more calories all day long just because you exercised in the morning!
3. When you exercise in the morning you’ll be *energized* for the day! Personally, I feel dramatically different on days when I have and haven’t exercised in the morning.
4. Many people find that morning exercise “regulates” their appetite for the day – that they aren’t as hungry and that they make better food choices. Several people have told me that it puts them in a “healthy mindset.”
5. If you exercise at about the same time every morning, and ideally wake-up at about the same time on a regular basis, your body’s endocrine system and circadian rhythms adjust to that. Physiologically, some wonderful things begin to happen; A couple of hours *before* you awaken, your body begins to prepare for waking and exercise because it “knows” it’s about to happen. Why? Because it “knows” you do the same thing just about everyday. You benefit from that in several ways..
a) It’s MUCH easier to wake-up. When you wake-up at different times everyday, it confuses your body and thus it’s never really “prepared” to awaken.
b) Your metabolism and all the hormones involved in activity and exercise begin to elevate while you’re sleeping. Thus, you feel more alert, energized, and ready to exercise when you do wake-up.
c) Hormones prepare your body for exercise by regulating blood pressure, heart rate, blood flow to muscles, etc.
6. For many people, that appointed time every morning becomes something they look forward to. It’s time they’ve set aside to do something good for themselves – to take care of their body, mind, and soul. Many find that it’s a great time to think clearly, pray, plan their day, or just relax mentally.
7. Research has demonstrated that exercise increases mental acuity. On average it lasts four to ten hours after exercise! No sense in wasting that brain power while you’re sleeping. 
8. Exercise first thing in the morning is really the only way to assure that something else won’t crowd exercise out of your schedule. When your days get hectic, exercise usually takes a back seat!
9. If finding time to exercise is difficult, anyone can get up 30 to 60 minutes earlier to exercise (if it’s a priority in your life). If necessary, you can go to sleep a little earlier. Also, research has demonstrated that people who exercise on a regular basis have a higher quality of sleep and thus require less sleep!
10. You’ll feel GREAT! DO IT!
Author and exercise physiologist, Greg Landry, offers free weight loss and fitness success stories and targeted, highly affective weight loss programs for women, men, type 2 diabetics, and people with slow metabolisms and hypothyroidism. http://www.Landry.com copyright 2004 by Greg Landry, M.S.
Response:
I do my yoga routine almost every morning and I agree with the above information by Greg Landry. It does start you in the right mind set and I do miss it on the mornings that I can’t fit it in. In the two years that I have been practicing yoga I have missed a few times like due to early morning flights at 6 am – then I did some of my moves on the plane! I’ve missed it a few other times when urgent phone calls broke into my morning routine. Recently when my Mom’s blood pressure was too high and I was staying at her home or driving over during the night to check on her I missed some of days of my yoga practice. I knew that was really when I needed it the most but gave into sleep instead of yoga. Some mornings I do have to limit myself to 5-10 minutes knowing that I can finish in the evening. I notice that I am eager to get home and do my yoga after work if I missed it in the morning. I do feel more energized and more focused when I practice what I preach! It’s nice to do something for yourself first thing in the morning. Then you’re ready to face the world and help others.
I hope you’ll give some type of exercise a try everyday. Even if it’s as simple as taking the stairs, parking your car further from your building and walking a little further each day. Wearing a pedometer to see how many steps you are taking- 2000 a day is equivalent to 1/2 an hour of exercise. Especially with the holidays about to arrive it’s time to think of ways to exercise. Let me know what you’re doing and how it’s going!
Take care, K
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