Book of the Month- June 2023 : The Practice Of Natural Movement: Reclaim Power, Health, and Freedom

Practice of Natural Movement: Reclaim Power, Health, and Freedom by Erwan Le Cor - Picture 1 of 1

Try to imagine an out-of-shape tiger stepping on an exercise machine to get a workout. It doesn’t make any sense, does it? Wild animals simply move the way nature intended, and they become powerful, healthy, and free in the process. So why should it be any different for us? We have become “zoo-humans,” separated from nature and living movement-impoverished, unnatural lifestyles. As a result, we are suffering physically, mentally, and spiritually. Exercise has become artificial and boring–a chore, if not a punishment. We are training parts of our bodies, not the whole, and we have lost our drive for movement. What we need is not a better understanding of exercise physiology or more variety in fitness programs and modalities. What we need is simplicity, meaning, purpose, inspiration, and enjoyment. We need to get back to natural movement. In The Practice of Natural Movement, Le Corre demonstrates our innate and versatile ability to perform practical and adaptable movements. With countless techniques and movement variations, as well as strategies for practicing anytime and anywhere, he will inspire you to build a naturally strong and flexible body and to form yourself anew into a mindful, skillful, and physically capable human being.

( Recommended by Andrew Ellem)

Thought of the Week – 17th April 2023

In China a revolutionary step was taken two thousand years ago. Under the new system the doctor had to be paid by the patient as long as the patient remained healthy. If the patient fell sick, then the doctor was not to be paid. That seems very strange. We pay the doctor when we are sick, and he makes us healthy again. But this is dangerous, because you are making the doctor dependent on your sickness. Sickness becomes his interest: the more people fall sick, the more he can earn. His interest becomes not health but sickness……

Ayurveda is future, but budget allocation is stuck in past
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The Seven Habits that Lead to Happiness in Old Age 

Using data from the Harvard study, two researchers showed in 2001 that we can control seven big investment decisions pretty directly: smoking, drinking, body weight, exercise, emotional resilience, education, and relationships. Here’s what you can do about each of them today to make sure your accounts are as full as possible when you reach your later years:

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Emotions: The Hidden Risk Factor for Heart Disease

Dr. Stephen Sinatra

Emotions The Hidden Risk Factor for Heart Disease

Early in my career, as part of my effort to understand how our emotions affect heart health, I trained as a psychotherapist. I discovered then that our heart is indeed much more than a pump.

We all know the sayings, “you touched my heart,” “you stole my heart,” and “my heart is broken.” The heart is the only organ in the body that carries such emotionally charged meaning. But more importantly, these sayings are not simply images; they can describe real, physical, medical events in the heart. The “heavy heart” that comes with sadness, for example, can actually lead to chest pain.

Our emotions and our stresses are far bigger risk factors for heart disease than we acknowledge them to be. When stressed, the body floods itself with the hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Over time, an overdose of these hormones can lead to symptoms such as heart palpitations, ulcers, stroke, or heart attack. So, although we may tell ourselves that we are not as upset as we think we are, our emotions show themselves in other ways.

Simply put, the body never lies. Do not neglect the emotional risk factors for heart disease. How can you reduce such stressors? Here are 15 ways to keep emotions from putting your heart at risk.

  1. Explore Your Anger. Anger is the Achilles’ heel of the cardiovascular system—a trigger for serious problems, including a heart attack. Your blood vessels constrict and your blood pressure rises. The electrical currents to your heart become unstable. And if you have arterial plaque, anger is like throwing a match into a can of gasoline. The plaque can rupture, and the resulting clots can kill you. 

    One of the best ways to keep anger from becoming a risk factor for heart disease is to release it. Find a place of solitude and scream, yell, or cry. Talk to a friend or visit a skilled psychotherapist to work on your anger. Or, try twisting towels, hitting tennis balls, or punching pillows. It also helps to ask yourself why you feel angry. Recognize that you cannot be effective when you are possessed by anger. If you understand why you’re coming to such an emotional point, you’ll be better able to identify and avoid those triggers……….
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