5 Minute Mind Body Exercises

So, going back to yesterday's post, we are all too busy to take care of our mind body connection, right?  Wrong!  After all, it doesn't take hours or full days.  You can do so much in just a few minutes.  In fact, if you gave yourself 5 minutes, you could do a lot!

Are you with me?  Can you take 5 minutes out of the 1440 minutes you have in a day?

Here's some things you can do in those 5 minutes that will help your own mind body connection.  No, they aren't a replacement for more involved stuff, but these little 5 minute exercises will at least help.  Once you start to see the difference, then you can move on to the big stuff.

Mind Body Exercises in 5 Minutes

Exercise #1 - Breathing

Where ever you are at, (even if standing in a long line or sitting at your desk), take a few minutes to just focus on your breathing.  You're not trying to breathe a certain way or do deep breathing.  You are just noticing your breath - the rise and fall, the deepness or shallowness and the speed and duration.  You're just observing and being at one with your breath.  You can leave your eyes open and focus on something peaceful or you can quietly shut your eyes.

Exercise #2 - Walking Outdoors

Take a few minutes throughout your day and just walk outside.  Walk out and feel the sun on your face and your body.  Notice the warmth and see how that makes you feel.  How does the sun feel upon your body?  Is it warm?  Is it uncomfortable?  What happens if you find a shady spot and go from the sun to the shade?  How does that make you feel?  Notice what it does to your mood, your emotions, and your stress in that moment.

Exercise #3 -Easy Stretches

Have you ever watched a cat get up from a nap and they do a few little stretches?  It really is that easy.  You don't have to get on the floor and do yoga posses or stretches that you would do before a workout.  I'm talking, light gentle stretches to the ceiling or a gentle twist turning with your back.  Make sure you don't overstep the bounds here and stretch to hard that you injure yourself and by all means, only do some of these things if you're not restricted by your doctor.  It could be a shrug of your shoulders up into tension and then let them drop down.  It could be a stretch of your legs from your office chair.  It could even be an easy walk to the restroom and back or outside for exercise #2.  Whatever the form may be, connect with it and try to feel it.  It isn't a race or marathon.  It isn't a strenuous workout.  It is something that is simple and connected.

Exercise #4 - Being With Your Body

What if you just sat there and thought of how your arm felt if you let it hang down to the floor?  Maybe you could just notice how you felt with your arms folded and then unfolded.  You might stop and think of how your neck and head rest comfortably on your spine as if it were a flag waving in the breeze and balanced steadily on a flag pole.  Find some way to just notice a body part and see how it feels.  See how you could move it to make it feel different.  Sometimes taking a body part into tension and then backing it off in to comfort can dramatically change how we feel.  It is the true mind body connection.

Exercise #5 - The Big Sigh

Have you ever had one of those days when you are just dealing with so much and at some moment, you let out a big sigh. Why not take a deep breath and then as you let it out, you just let the big sigh come out.  Let it come out forcefully in the beginning if you need to, but then do it again where you let it come out as gently as you can.  Most likely you will see how this lets go of so much tension and stuff that you are carrying.  Notice the tension as well as the feel of relaxing because the difference of those two things is where the mind body connection is located.
 

So...... Pick One!

Pick one of these and try it.  If it doesn't work, pick another.  If that doesn't work, change it up and make it work for you.  We're all different creatures and what works for one person, may not work for someone else.

The important thing that matters is that you choose to do things that will help your mind and body, not claim you have no time.  We all have 1440 minutes in a day and it depends on us what we choose to do with those minutes.  We can use them for our own good or we can waste them and they pay with our lives later.

Get rid of the tension and stress in your body!  Enjoy these exercises.

Feel free to leave a comment and let me know which one worked for you.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Falling Down Before You Learn To Walk

I'm writing this to help draw attention to a certain point.  While it is a moment of reminding myself of something, I want to share this.  I share things that impact my life in hopes it touches the life of others.

If anyone has ever watched a baby learning to walk, they fall down a lot.  In many ways, this is how it goes in our life as well each day.

If we stopped every time we felt like we fell down, we would get no where.  Just like a baby that is falling down before they learn to walk, so are we.

I remember hearing that walking was controlled falling.  I like that statement because it shows just how much we have to learn and that we have to get up, brush ourselves off, and continue on in life.

Often our path isn't easy and the journey through life can be full of challenges.  If we want to get to where we know we need to go, than we need to keep walking.

Yes, sometimes we might not be sure of where we are headed or how we are getting there, but the point is, if you don't keep trying, you won't get there.  It isn't about sitting down forever, but learning how to get up and continue the journey.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 1/6/16 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Walking Forth With Courage

In my life, there are many things taking place.  I'm taking steps to create the life I want, not the life I thought I had to live.  It isn't always easy and sometimes the growing pains are immense.  However, I am now in the process of walking forth with courage.

So many times we say we want our life to change.  We want things to be different.  We want to get past the despair that we have.  Yet, we do very little to do that.  We hunker down from the mere suggestion or thought of fears looming over us.

You can consult every person out in the world or you can ask everyone you know what you should do.  You can wait for them to answer and then continue to keep asking the questions.  However, until you take action, you will still be in discovery phase.

Walking forth with courage is the way you'll discover your life and all that it holds.  Taking action will get your feet moving and your fingers tapping.  It doesn't start though, until you take action.

Clutter In Our Life, Part 9

Clutter #9 - Exercise Is For Another Day
Part 9 of 10

Many of us sit at a computer all day long and often all night long. If not, we are perched behind a TV for hours on end at night. There is very little time for us to go out for a walk, engage all muscle groups of our body or really get that heart pumping.

We often feel too tired at the end of the day or the responsibilities of life take us under before we can even begin to think about exercise. However, what if we took the family for a 15 minute walk. This way we could spend time with them, exercise and just push the reset button for the day.

What if we set a goal of exercise for the family that would work in the schedule of our week. Any exercise is better than no exercise. What if we shut the TV down and found a way to get that blood pumping? Just think of how that might change our life.

Often exercise is invigorating to the body and when it is done, it gives you more energy and stamina for your day. It helps you sleep and helps many systems of the body function in a more healthy way.

Much of it though has to do with how important we view exercise to our day and week. Again, if we just try to see how busy we can keep our self, than we are only continuing to withdraw from a negative balance in our body each and ever day.

Come back tomorrow for part 10 of this series, Clutter In Our Life. Below are the various parts to this series that you can read as well.

Clutter In Our Life Series
- Introduction
Part 1: Spending our hours watching TV news
Part 2: Keeping Ourselves Constantly Busy
Part 3: Numbing Ourselves
Part 4: Following Blindly
Part 5: Food Choices
Part 6: Health care, Doctors, and Medicine
Part 7: Hydrating Our Bodies
Part 8: Thinking We Have The Answers
Part 9: Exercise Is For Another Day
Part 10: We Fail To Evolve
- The 30 Day Challenge


Blog Post & Images (c) 3/20/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

The Shoes Of Another

No one understands what it is like to walk in the shoes of another fellow traveler until we have actually walked in their shoes. Even through the compassion we may have for others, we will not fully understand. Each of us are unique and each of us walk different paths. We should keep this in mind the next time we feel that we know what is best for the other person. For we may be missing something that is so obvious to them but so insignificant to ourselves.

When Life Fell Apart

Eighteen years ago this week, my life ceased to exist as I knew it. You could say the lights went out in Georgia so to speak. Everything I had known up until this point had morphed into ways that I did not recognize. It was like I was viewing my life as a spectator from the outside.

It all started with so many changes in my life through various jobs, relationships, friends and events which seemed to be all part of my normal day, were nothing short of epic adventures. No Hollywood movie producer could have created a more robust picture than my life had portrayed on the big screen.

Just a few days before this, I knew that things were not going in the right direction for me but I had no way to find reverse. It was as if a steam train was racing full steam ahead to a cliff as the engineer knew the brakes did not work. I knew deep down and even stated it to a work colleague that "I was about ready to lose it in life". I did not have enough self confidence to understand that I could change the upcoming course of events and I was too weary and tired of fighting. All the strength and energy I knew, had been consumed in life. There was nothing more for me to give and nothing more for me to draw upon.

At first, it started out as a sore neck muscle which the Chiropractor was helping me to get relief from. However, it was not long after a treatment would be over that the stress and reality of life would weigh in heavy on me again and the pain and stiffness and soreness would come back with a vengeance. There was no escaping it. There was no running from it anymore. I tried to out run it but I could not run fast enough.

As the days and the weeks progressed, my body fell into surrender to something that seemed to completely overpower and overtake me. It robbed me of all my control. From soreness and stiffness into the paralysis beginning in my legs, then being accompanied by seizures, extreme exhaustion, fits of crying, confusion, feeling delirious, shaking, and just an overall desire of wanting this life to end through suicide. Trip after trip to the doctor's office with emergency ambulance rides to the hospital, I was met with confusion by the doctors and test after test revealed nothing concrete. Each trip, the doctor would send me back home to fend for myself while my family and friends tried to figure out how to take care of me. And while I was an alert, open eyed human being, there was very little I could do. My control over my life was gone. It was as if I was a passenger and a puppet master was pulling the strings.

More tests and hospitalization came next with the doctors still quite uncertain what was going on. No one had answers and all anyone around me had was plenty of questions. During one of the final muscle stimulation tests, my body determined it had enough of everything and when I woke up, there were doctors and nurses around me along with so much equipment as I saw the doctor above me getting ready to bring the paddles on to my body to bring me back. It was then that I knew I had come to the end of my road. It was the edge of the cliff.

So I remember laying in my hospital at the age of 25, thinking what has become of my life. I could no longer feel a needle being touched on my feet. My name was a very difficult thing for me to remember. Speaking a few words took forever and felt like it took more energy than climbing the world's tallest mountain. Movement was a gift if it was possible but then only something that would take forever to accomplish. Memory was gone to some far off place. And so, I was left alone with myself and my few limited thoughts. Is this the way I'm going to live out my remaining days if I have any more left? Am I going to lie in a bed as a vegetable, not being able to do much for myself or barely being able to speak a few words. Was this all I wanted for life? Was it all I could expect?

I remember making a decision to myself where I reached down deep that I did not want to be this way and I was not about to accept that which had caught up with me. This was not the way I wanted to function in life. It was not how I wanted life to be. In my mind, I made the decision that I had to fight with all the strength I could find and then some. This would not be easy but I was not going to accept the current condition I was in.

Through some miraculous insights by a neurologist, she spoke the words that began to show me a new path forward. Those words were in the form of a question "have you been through a lot in your life?". This questions was followed up by "would you like to talk to someone?". Those two questions were the beginning of my road home and led me to a psychologist who helped me chart the path ahead and it was at that moment, that I once again took my first step in physical therapy.

It was not an easy road ahead learning to walk again or just how to sit up and use my arms, my fingers, my voice and functioning in a normal way that most humans do every day. From getting myself around by a wheel chair in and out of doors and entrances to trying to walk up an incline and retain my balance, it was an epic fight that I fought. Just finding the strength to do this before exhaustion set in was like winning a gold medal to me.

Through time, therapy and healing, my body began to come back. Of course, new challenges would present themselves but knowing that if I kept myself going and remembering how I brought myself back, I knew I could do this. For learning how to take that first step again has given me so much courage and determination in life. It has provided the fuel and the energy to continue walking down the road of healing that I have had to do in my life.

None of this has been easy and there have been many days when I just wanted to give up. Some days, it has been hard to muster up the courage and the strength to take those difficult steps. It would have been far easier to just say I've had enough and stop. However, I knew that if I did this, it would mean my death. I had already been down the road of no return and I know that if I do not continue my journey that there may not be another second chance in life.

I find it amusing that churches teach about us going to hell when we die but I know from the cold hard reality that hell exists here in the present moment. It is not something you have to wait to experience when you are no longer alive. I've been to hell and back and now that my life is moving forward, I no longer fear all that for it is so familiar to me as if it is my hated and beloved twin.

Fortunately several years ago, I met some wonderful individuals who are now part of my life. Through their love and acceptance, they have helped me realize that while I've seen the dark side of life, there is a good side. There has been one individual that has helped me heal in ways that I was not even aware of. I had no idea how to continue my journey and I was growing weary but this one individual has helped me walk many miles down the path. This person showed me that all I did need was located right within myself and knowing this has given me so much freedom, so much strength and healing beyond my wildest imagination. I have been a witness in my life to having the right individuals come along at the right moments. Without them, this journey would have been more than I could have endured.

Life still presents its challenges to me each and every day. I'm faced with struggles of the past and how they impact my current day but I'm also given new opportunities to grow. Some days, the challenges seem more difficult than I care to embrace but I am constantly reminded of just how hard it was to take that physical step some 18 years ago and knowing I had the strength to do that, I know I have the strength to do it now.

The name the medical establishment gives to the condition I had is called a Conversion Disorder or according to Freud, "hysterical paralysis". You can google this condition and read more about it. To this day, I've never met anyone who has been through this in the way I have. It is rare to go through it in the manner that I did. Many people experience parts and pieces of this every day in their life only to a different degree. Many people who have experienced a Conversion Disorder from what I have read, don't always come back and recover. It is difficult. If you or someone you know has been through this, I'd love to have contact with them. I know there are others.

Just a note about the picture in this post - this picture was taken during the time I became paralyzed. This was in the early days before I had been hospitalized. Even though I'm trying to smile, I was struggling every moment just to make it.