Smile

          Sometimes saying “All is well,” doesn’t quite cut it for me. Say what, you gasp? Wasn’t it just a couple of blog posts ago when this “all is well” mantra was my panacea for everything?

          Yeah, but that was then.  It’s not working so well today.

          I have more than one tool in my restorative bag, however, and what I'm looking at today is an excellent backup that may work very nicely. It came about when we were talking about this month's theme of humor at the Center (CSLSR). After the service, as I walked to the car, I realized my mouth and the fronts of my teeth were all dry and icky. I’d been smiling for over an hour as we heard jokes and talked and sang about the transformative power of humor.

          Humor and laughing are SO powerful,

The Power of You - Dr. Chris Michaels writes

      It is my pleasure to share an excerpt from Dr. Chris Michaels' exciting and inspiring new book The Power of You.  I picked this passage right out of the middle and there's a lot of juicy and insightful good stuff leading up to it, so check it out. ~ Antonia

          “Resentment is like a twelve-foot-high, electrified barbed-wire fence you put around yourself. You built it for good reasons. You’ve been hurt, abused or treated poorly, so you want to guard yourself. You’ve been a victim of some great injustice. There are many good reasons for you to be angry or to feel resentment. So to prevent your history from repeating itself, you build a fence. Next time, if anyone tries to hurt you they’ll get zapped, electrocuted and burned.

          There are a couple of problems with this strategy, however. First of all, because the fence is so high, no one can climb over it. You are trapped behind it. And in time, that becomes a very lonely place to be. Second, every good thing you dream of having in your life is on the other side of that fence...  The solution to your problems, the healing of your body is there, just on the other wide of the fence. But none of it can get to you.

          Here’s the ironic truth:  The resentments you hold in your mind for others do nothing to hurt them. They block the flow of good into your life. They keep good things from you and good people from entering your life. They prevent new opportunities from coming your way. Nothing good can get to you until you tear down the fence.”

Thank you, Dr. Michaels for your astute and reassuring words. Your book is filled with common sense wisdom.  ~ Antonia

You might also enjoy Chris Michaels' previous guest post Balance Your Relationships from last year.
Learn more about Chris and all that he does here. You can get your copy of The Power of You here.
You may reach out to me at antoniasseniormoments@hotmail.com or Antonia's Senior Moments on Facebook.

Smoking Again? Yikes!!

          I thought I gave up smoking years ago when, in addition to the obvious health risks, if you continued to smoke, you were a pariah, a social outcast. It turns out I may have started smoking again and didn't even know it.

Noooooooooooo!

          Both CBS News and the Journal of Physical Activity and Health  have recently likened sitting to be the new smoking. The Journal study found that for those 60 and older, every additional hour a day spent sitting or being sedentary has been linked to a doubling of the risk disability, regardless of the amount of moderate exercise a person gets. The description of disability in this study included limitations on everyday tasks like dressing, eating, bathing and walking across a room.

          Looks like in spite of moderate regular exercise like walking daily, if you sit a lot you are at higher risk for obesity, diabetes and, no surprise, heart disease. It makes sense that if you sit at a computer or in front of the TV, circulation slows and fewer muscles get used, both of which contribute to overall poor health.

          I know for myself, as a retiree and a writer, I spend lots of time just sitting. I do exercise regularly but now I'm hearing that that's not enough to counteract the ill effects of smoking ... I mean sitting.

What to do?