Health, house, home, hearth, happiness, hope, humor – and many more – positive words start with an “H”. Did you notice?
Why is that so?
The “H” is the exhaling sound: Hhhh … It means we can let go. We don’t have to hold our breath because something will hit us from behind. We don’t have to exert ourselves – we can let go. We are at home - at Hhhhome.
When I take a cold shower after a warm one, I exhale. That one doesn’t come naturally. Naturally, one would hold one’s breath while the cold hits. By first exhaling and then immersing in cold, I tell my body: It’s okay! Just relax! All will be fine!
I bet the Hhhhh sound was born when the first man (?woman) found the first cave to live in. He sat down on his pile of bear hides, looked around pleased and exhaled: Home – finally Hhhhome!
Observe how you are running through your day: With your breath held and in constant fear of a catastrophe hitting? Or in harmony – there! Another one! – with your surrounding? Read More
Blog: On Health. On Writing. On Life. On Everything.
Arching Your Back
May 12, 2011
One of my biggest health challenges is posture. My upper spine gives me trouble, which likely is going back to my childhood when I was bedridden for a long time, and never having been athletic and muscular anyway. Sometimes, that bent there is called widow's hump, or kyphosis.
Also, I don’t like the gym. So I do my five Alexa’s Alternatives, daily (or nearly daily). But I am sitting at the computer for long hours – like you, too, I guess.
Here is the newest exercise that I figured is useful for my posture – which makes half a dozen now. I am always on the look-out for things that can be done while doing something else. This one also helps to go to sleep, or to wake up - whatever is required. It is best done in bed, because I always worry about the potential for hurting, even with such an easy, straight forward exercise. So a padded surface is ideal.
You lie in bed, on your back. Now put some weight on your heels and on your head/neck/upper spine area. On breathing out, very gently push your back up into an arch (it feels like an arch - it looks more like a board, actually). Let go on breathing in. Repeat twenty-one times.
Make sure you don’t strain the neck. Stay as soft and mindful of the neck area as you can be. No force. You can’t will your body into better posture – just nudge it!
Do this in the morning and in the evening. It helps an upright position, straightens the neck area, and relaxes across the shoulders.
What it does: It strengthens the muscles in the back of the body - especially the neck - while most things that we are doing all day long are strengthening the front muscles (if we do anything for our muscles at all). This exercise balances front and back and will pull you upright. Within short time, you will experience the new freedom in your neck! Read More
Five-Minutes Meditation
December 18, 2010
This is the height of holiday stress. Here a fast stress reliever:
• Choose a quiet corner
• Turn egg timer on 5 minutes
• Sit with crossed legs on the floor on a cushion; or on a chair
• Keep your back straight - let the top of your head touch Heavens
• Hands: palms-up and open on your knees
• Closed eyes
• Breathe in and out slowly – always start with exhaling (counting regularly might help the beginner)
• Do not move at all except keeping your back straight
• Empty your brain from thoughts and outside disturbances
• Pay attention to your sensations: breathing, aches, itches, fears, etc.:
• Let them happen.
• Stop when the clock rings
• Go on with your day with renewed energy and purpose.
The Five-Minutes Meditation is useful when
• you are stressed out
• your emotions overwhelm you (anger, sadness, anxiety, jealousy, etc.)
• you are tempted to binge out on food (perfect to do before each meal in obesity, for instance)
• you suffer with sleeplessness - just do it before retiring to bed
• you are listless and bored and procrastinating
• you have high blood pressure
• you have pains - instead of taking pills
For really learning to meditate, there are good programs, groups, and courses available.
Do not attempt to increase the time above 5 minutes.
Citation
"Meditation is not about feeling a certain way. It's about feeling the way you feel. It's not about making the mind empty or still, although stillness does deepen in meditation and can be cultivated systematically. Above all, meditation is about letting the mind be as it is and knowing something about how it is in this moment. It's not about getting somewhere else, but allowing yourself to be where you already are. If you don't understand this, you will think you are constitutionally unable to meditate. But that's just more thinking and, in this case, incorrect thinking at that."
"But to stay at it for even five minutes requires intentionality. To make it part of your life requires some discipline. " (From: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are). Read More