New Year's Resolutions - To Make or Not to Make

This is usually when folks start looking - I mean, really looking - at resolutions for the New Year.

I think this is a great activity for list makers, who should excel at this sort of thing. It is also a triumph of hope over experience, for how many of those resolutions made every year are actually kept? In that vein, it is a testimonial to the resiliency of the human spirit, that spirit that never gives up...never, ever, ever gives up.

If there is a gene for resolution making, I am lacking it. So far, I have not made New Year's Resolutions. I remember one year when I began a physical self-improvement program which included strict control of what I ate and didn't eat...right before Thanksgiving! My friends and family asked why I would choose to embark upon such a thing at that time of year: why not wait until after the holidays, in January, when everyone else is doing it. It seemed simple to me...why wait to do something I needed to do for my health and emotional well-being when I could start that minute?

There is value in taking stock of where one is on their path and, if that is the purpose NYRs serve, then let the stock-taking begin! There has to be a plan in place in order to tweak and refine it. Resolutions may serve as a mini-plan for life in the coming year.

So, in the stock-taking department, this is what I suggest...

...be clear on the five most important things in your life right now.
One should have an idea of what is of value, what one's purpose is, what gives existence meaning. If those things are
clear, goal-setting becomes a breeze and goal-setting leads to creating a road map...drawing out the route which takes us
to our destination.

It is okay to have side trips along the way. Being too focused, having tunnel vision, often keeps us from
the serendipitous experiences which create the wonderful tapestry of our lives or serve as a course correction.

...know the five most traumatic events of your life.
Healing is essential in order to live one's authentic life. Splinters, left under the skin, have a way of festering into sores,
eventually working their way to the surface to be extracted. Buried emotions are no different. The power our "shadow"
selves have over us comes from our refusal to look at them. Once we shine a light upon what we fear the most, we have
the opportunity to neutralize or eliminate what has plagued and paralyzed us. If we can't 'speak' it, how can we deal with it?

"Feeling Buried Alive Never Die..." by Karol K. Truman
"Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side..." by Robert Johnson
...just two of the books that can start the process

...understand the power of one's thoughts and words.
Every time I have said "I can't...", I have been right.
Never is one of the biggest words in the English language.

We acknowledge the power our minds have to create havoc, unhappiness, disease, and resentment. Why is it so
difficult to accept the reality that our thoughts create, peace, joy, wellness and gratitude?

Thinking a thing is one thing. Believing that thing is everything. We don't have to believe everything we think. The
art comes in knowing which thought to discard and which one to allow to empower us. This is a daily practice just
like Chi Gong, Yoga, meditation, exercise and making lifestyle choices that optimize our ability to life fully. All of those
things help us with the thinking/believing thing.

...be fearless in expressing love.
Love yourself first. If you don't love yourself, how can you expect anyone else to do so? If you love yourself, you are enough.
Your journey is then enhanced by the participation of others in it, but not dependent upon their doing so. Paul Chek said
something very powerful on a PPS call: 'Creating a state of happiness that depends upon the actions of others is a recipe for
unhappiness.'

Be enough for yourself. Be the kind of person you would want to spend the rest of your life with. Radiate this and
it will be what is drawn to you. Be a magnet for love. Love unconditionally. Love deeply. Don't wait to love.

"The Mastery of Love" by Don Miguel Ruiz
"I Need Your Love - Is That True?" by Byron Katie with Michael Katz

And, should you choose to be alone, you will be fine with that, too, because you are enough!

...be serious about life, but don't take yourself too seriously!
Life is full of delicious ironies, as I like to call those "life is what happens while you're busy making other plans" events.
Enjoy the irony! Laughter is powerful, a healing experience, great for the abs and better than a face lift. And you know
the mind cannot hold two disparate thoughts at the same time...it is impossible to be both miserable and elated. So
go with the flow, revel in the humor, enjoy the absurdity, delight in your human-ness.

...know that it takes as long as it takes.
"Rome wasn't built in a day." Cliche, but true. Undoing what has taken us a lifetime to create, if that is our goal, is not
an overnight accomplishment. We may not get it right the first time. So what? The Universe will continue to give us the
opportunity to become what we were sent here to become...to do what we were sent here to do...to find the path with our
name on it.

Accept that The Universe has a plan, that we have an important part to play - even if it is a small one - and that we
will be able to fulfill our destiny.

We arrive where we are supposed to be at exactly the time we are supposed to be there.

So, my New Year's Resolutions?

Sit back. Relax. Enjoy the ride, bumpy or smooth.
Smile, smile, smile.
Study and learn so that I will be ready when the opportunity presents itself.
Enjoy the quirky...things and people.
Know it is my responsibility to protect myself from disempowering energies.
Be grateful...for my genetics, for my teachers and mentors, for my growth, for the things yet to come, that I do not have
a crystal ball. As John McMullen always says, or words to this affect, 'Let me continue to be surprised.'

Life is either too long or too short, depending on how you are living it! Life fully...
...Happy New Year.

Myofascial Stretching Class with Guy Voyer, D.O.

Los Angeles, December 4th, 5th, and 6th...
...over 600 muscles in our bodies...
priceless!

Okay, so we didn't stretch all 600, but it felt pretty darn close.

Fasciae is connective tissue. It is like the bag that contains the muscle. The muscle takes the shape of the bag. Fasciae is a mixture of carbs and protein, collagen (a fibrous scleroprotein in bone, cartilage, tendon and other connective tissue) and water. If the fascia is compromised due to dehydration, injury, poor training, the fascia is restricted and cannot move fluidly. When this happens, the fascia gets stuck and anything that the fascia encapsulates - muscle, viscera, joints - has compromised movement. This could mean that the rotator cuff muscles become tight and "freeze" up, that the liver is not elastic enough to detox the body without stress, or that the colon cannot move feces up hill and out of the body.

The goal of Myofascial Stretching is freedom...freedom at the level of articulation. Between all the muscles and ligaments there are sacks of bursa or sponges. The more hydrated the bursa, the fuller the sponge. Myofascial Stretching keeps the bursa plumped up.

Myofascial Stretching is working with a controlled movement. It is not ballistic. One needs to have the muscle on the brain. One of the first rules of this kind of work is stretching in the correct posture for the joint above and the joint below the fascia being worked. One stretches the muscles, the joints, and the fasciae.

The time for stretching each muscle in the body is different. Who can remember the time needed for each of those 600 or so muscles? The quality of muscle is different from person to person, each muscle has different fibers - fast, slow-twitch, horizontal, vertical, mono or polyarticular. When any Myofascial stretch is held for 30 seconds, the muscle loses its defenses
and quality stretching occurs. The stretch is done three times for 30 seconds each time with 15 seconds of relaxation in between.

It is impossible to have MOTILITY ( intrinsic movement of the viscera) without MOBILITY. Movement is alive. The anatomy never changes. What does change is how you train, for what purpose. Myofascial Stretching allows one to stretch a muscular chain within a fascial chain.

My thanks to Guy Voyer, D.O., and the Institute of Applied Somatherapy. The breadth and depth of knowledge presented through this forum is life altering!