Tuesday, September 14, 2010

A Few Good Podcasts

I definitely dig my Go List of songs when I'm working out but I like something different every now and then. Here are podcasts that I found engaging:


1). Instant Stress Relief, an interview with Aila Accad, RN, MSN

Accad contends that the main kind of stress is distress which occurs when you feel out of control. She believes that people respond to distress in the following manner:

Fight
Shut Down
Freeze

She also believes that the body is the last thing to break down when you're experiencing stress because, before that, relationships etc. have suffered.

Also notable is the fact that Accad lost 100 pounds three times -- saying that, among other things, her infantile pattern of eating was to blame.

Accad's number one stress buster: breathe. She also talks about strategies for dealing with our future-oriented mind that is prone to worry.

Also mentioned in this podcast is the documentary, Try It On Everything, about EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).


Link to podcast:


Total Time: 29:55

2). Healing Touch: Hands-On Energy Balancing for Wholeness

Nurses Kimberly Gray and Vicky Slater (holistic nurse of 2002) discuss the benefits of Healing Touch, an alternative healing method that deals with balancing the energy field through contact and non contact.

Points made in podcast:

People come in because their lives aren't working.

Hands in motion (energy work) is more powerful when you have someone else do it.

The heart puts out the strongest magnetic field in the body.
Link

Total Time: 55:41


3). Health Benefits of Massage Therapy

Kelly Stone and Raena Morgan talk with Juliet Trinka about massage. Trinka became interested in bodywork after taking up yoga. She also answers questions from listeners.

Trinka is particularly fascinated with Thai massage and says that it is very similar to yoga as far as benefits are concerned.


Link

Length: 41:54




4). Yoga: The Mind Body Connection


In this podcast Kelly Stone interviews Dawn Morgan the founder of The Spirit Room in Fargo, ND.

Discussed:

How the state of the mind often dictates the state of the body

How some people are more prone to have quieter minds than others...


Advice given by Morgan:

Don't malign others

Appreciate everyone even those who anger you because your response indicates that there's something that needs to be worked on

Don't expect applause

Belly dancing as holistic

Morgan also talks about a grant that she received enabling her to feature the artist Izudin Becic, a Bosnian refugee.

Of Izudin she says:

...When he came to this country, he found himself carving. And it meant so much to him. It was a healing art to him.
Link


Time: 36:37


5). The Health Miracles of Coconut Oil

Dr. Fife talks about coconut -- the meat, milk, heart and sap

He believes that coconut oil is superior to olive oil, is good for diabetics -- especially in helping with circulation, is just as good as breast milk, can be used for sunscreen and in treating fungus.
Link

Total Time: 44:56



6). Flight Attendant Confidential

David Lytle of Frommer's sits down to talk with Heather Poole who discusses the challenges of being a flight attendant including lower wages after 9/11 and pleasing a wide variety of people. She says that one person will say it's the best flight they've had and another will say it was the worst.

While Poole contends that flying can be like an episode of Survivor, she ultimately says:

Go with the flow.

Deal with it.

Get to know the people around you.

Link to Frommer's Episode 99

Length: 29:14


7). Eating Our Way Through Europe

Rick Steves takes listener questions and talks with Jaime Blair Gould about cheese and olive oil appreciation plus slow and seasonal eating.

Steves also mentions how Americans usually eat on the way to somewhere while eating out is a slow affair for most Europeans who will, in fact, be insulted if the restaurant staff in any way appears to be rushing them out the door.


One of Steves' top travel payoffs? Eating good food.

But don't believe the commercial when it says "Public radio -- the next best thing to an airplane ticket." Um, don't think so.

Steves has a good radio voice.
52:40, length of program

Link to Rick Steves' archives because I, oops, misplaced link to this one.


8). The Many Voices of Lauryn Hill (All Things Considered)


Speaking of good voices, this podcast is short but sweet, talks about Hill's possible comeback and likens Hill to LeBron James -- someone who entered the league with a lot of potential and delivered as a rookie. Hill answers the question of why she disappeared.

Link


Total Time: 09:00 minutes


9). It Was The Best of Sentences

The Grammar Girl a.k.a. Mignon Fogarty interviews June Casagrande who is the author of Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies and Mortal Syntax.

I like what Casagrande had to say about a Stieg Larsson book. She said that she found it poorly written but wildly fascinating and that when she is reading a book, she is, primarily, looking for a good story.

Mignon asked Casagrande what she thought about the English professor that got arrested at Starbucks because she wouldn't order something in the *appropriate* lingo.

Casagrande was like, first of all, why was she going to Starbucks for a multigrain bagel when there are so many great bagel establishments in New York City. She also talked about the power of asking questions when it comes to corporations and how many of them force you to speak their lingo...
Link

Length: 26:35



10). Rolfing

This Rolfing practitioner can't thank his massage therapist enough. He was referred to a Rolfing practitioner which lead to his eventually becoming one. He says that most people seek out a practitioner for permanent relief from pain.

He also discusses the difference between a Rolfing practitioner and a chiropractor.

Link to Episode 68

Length: 18:21


Have you listened to any memorable podcasts?

Sunday, September 12, 2010

If It's Magic

Instant viewing on Netflix has sucked me in but I never thought I'd watch so many episodes of LA Ink starring Kat Von D.

Part of the appeal is that I keep toying with the notion of getting a discreet tattoo. Perhaps, cherry blossoms with branches and names, a dove with an olive leaf or a bouquet of flowers, an idea that I got from the show.


So many people on the show get memorial tattoos. There was this one woman who got a sleeve of her friend who died of breast cancer. The friend was a fellow surfer fascinated by mermaids and dolphins and such. So, the tattoo is of her friend as a mermaid surrounded by all of things she loved.

There was a woman who got the symbol for the National Eating Disorders Association on her back so that she can remember where she's been and how for she's come.

On the flip side of an eating disorder is the father who got a tattoo of his daughter (with words My Angel and Ecle 3:4) who has Mitochondrial disease which I hadn't heard of. The father describes it as an inability to produce fuel from food that we eat.

A young lady comes in wanting a life preserver, the symbol for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, to honor her brother who committed suicide.



One guy got a It's called Vitiligo tattoo.


Yet another woman got a series of tattoos on her back of a bird tentatively leaving a bird cage, then another bird in the middle and, finally, a bird soaring. Recently divorced, she also had an eating disorder and wanted to document her flight so to speak.

There were a number of phoenix tattoos done, including one on a man who saved his friend from a fire but ended up being burned himself.

The comedian Margaret Cho comes in to get another peacock tattoo because it represents beauty for her. Cho said that it took her a long time to get to the point where she thought of herself as beautiful.


In Vol 2, Epi 2, Hannah Aitchison, an LA Ink artist said:

One of the best pieces of advice that I ever got is the idea of the responsibility when someone gives you their body and wants you to do something on them that they will die with, it's a tremendous amount of trust...
I was completely moved by the woman who got a Japanese crane on her rib cage to honor her friend Mary Crane who was going through a second bout of lymphoma. About her friendship, she said:

I don't know how much farther I can go but I will continue going as far as I can to validate how much I love that girl. Wherever we are in the world, I will always looks at this tattoo and think of good memories -- hugging her, her smile and just always think about friendship and how magical it is. (Vol. 2, Epi 5, Novelty Girls)

Friday, September 10, 2010

Unconditional Positive Regard

Recently finished Gang Leader for a Day recommended by Prevention RD. Sudhir Venkatesh, the gang leader for a day and then sociology student, goes to The Lake Park projects in Chicago complete with a clipboard and questionnaire. After being harassed, he's finally given permission to ask a question. The first one:
"How does it feel to be black and poor?" I read. Then I gave the multiple-choice answers: "Very bad, somewhat bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good." (14)
My coffee almost flew across the room as my cackle got caught up in the shuffle.

Venkatesh ends up spending several years with gang leader J.T., other gang members, residents, police officers and J.T.'s mother:

Ms. Mae gave me a big hug and told me to sit down for lunch. She had cooked some of my favorites -- okra, greens, mac and cheese -- and so I gladly obliged. J.T. quipped that I was eating his share of food. "You're becoming the little brother I never wanted," he said. (178)

Gang Leader was an intriguing read with universal truths:

The worst-paying jobs, meanwhile, often required the longest hours...(199)
I can't remember what I was talking with my friend Lori about when I said one should not clown in other countries. For some reason Lori Berenson, convicted of terrorist collaboration in Peru, sticks in my mind.

From that conversation, my friend recommended that I read Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan. The author's note said that it's an actual experience but it was written as a novel to protect the tribe that she went on a journey with. My spidey sense started tingling immediately and made me think of James Frey's book, A Million Little Pieces, which I was in the middle of reading when news broke that it was not autobiographical.

I read Mutant Message anyway. The author was lead into the Outback unwillingly and stripped of all that was dear to her and led on a fairly long walkabout with an Aboriginal tribe.

To sum it up: The Aboriginal tribe does no harm, wastes no natural resources, has respect for others and animals. They leave the world better than they found it. And the Mutant i.e. the author is to take their message of love and respect back into the world. I don't know whether or not I believed the story being told but there were certainly beneficial messages:

You either have faith or fear, not both. Things, they think, generate fear. The more things you have, the more you have to fear. Eventually you are living your life for things... (152)
I really like this concept because I'm sappy like that:

The Real People nation have for centuries had the practice at birth of speaking the same first phrase to all newborns. Each person hears the same exact first human words: "We love you and support you on the journey..." (153)

And, really, how cool with that be if every child had a life journey with unconditional positive regard?

I have been on such a nonfiction streak and I'm ready for fiction. Any recommendations? Please, save me from another nonfiction book.

Some books that I've enjoyed:


Deception Point by Dan Brown
Gone Fishin' by Walter Mosley
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry


Has anyone checked out Bookseer? When you put in a book that you've read, it gives you, mostly, Amazon recommended books. When I put in Thomas Perry, it gave me all books by Thomas Perry which is cool -- if you're looking for another TP book...

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Good Life

  • Patti to me: Climbing doesn't look too promising this week. August 30th


  • Patti: Friday lunch is out for me...but Mike might be available.


  • Me to Patti: I'm not sweating the climbing thing; it's probably time to shake up the routine anyway...


  • Me: I said that I wasn't sweating not climbing but knowing that Upper Limits will be closed on Monday, LOL, I'm starting to sweat it. Sept. 3rd

  • I have fingernails and receding calluses -- a sure sign that I needed to get back in the climbing gym. It wasn't a great outing but it wasn't bad either.

    Route Tally for Sept. 8th:

    People's Choice, 5.7
    Scott's First, 5.8
    Steller's, 5.8
    Where's My Mind?, 5.8
    Where The Beer Flows Like Wine, 5.8
    Hermano?, 5.9 (Attempted four times but couldn't get over arĂȘte.)
    Pacman Revival, 5.9
    Photosynthesis, 5.9



    Side note: My barber asked me about my holiday weekend. Had to think a minute about what holiday then I recovered. I told her that I bicycled, walked, read etc.

    Oh, you gotta good life; I wanna do stuff like that...
    It was interesting to see her perspective on what constitutes a good life especially since I've been feeling stuck lately.


    Do you feel like you have a good life? Feel free to elaborate...

    Monday, September 6, 2010

    The Rough Guide To A Fit & Active Holiday Weekend

  • Friday
  • Take a break and don't ignore what massage therapist said about hip. End exercise streak at 64 days and get rest.


  • Saturday
  • Ride on Grant's Trail and brake for pedestrians.

  • Sunday

  • Go to The St. Louis Riverfront Trail.

    Take an extra shirt.

    Put on sunscreen.

    Don't forget sunglasses, MP3 Player and snack.

    Chill out...

    Don't freak out because your starting point was the Arch and, now, it's so small that you can barely see it.


    Look at Riverview memorial.


    Be reminded of one closer to home.


  • Monday

  • Hug the bed a little longer, forgo bicycling and get back in touch with the wonder that is Forest Park.

    Check out the tree losing bark.

    Stop and smell the chipmunk.

    Check out the algae.

    Revel in the joy of moving about...

    Ponder the I Love Women t-shirt worn by woman: Intimate love or love in the Alice-Walker-I-Don't-Fear-Women's Culture-Way?


    Were you fit and active this weekend? Did you hug the bed a little bit longer? Hope so...

    Saturday, September 4, 2010

    High Tea Anyone?

    I like this comic even though it didn't make me chuckle or laugh out loud. It worked for me on several levels. The toxic apple -- maybe it was not organic and, also, I used to like CSI: Las Vegas even though I knew someone had to die in order for the crime scene specialists to do their mock work. I would have a little tension at the beginning of the episode with the creepy music and darkness -- knowing that the first person who appeared on the screen was usually the one that was going to get it. And a lot of the persons getting it were women of course.

    CSI: Miami and CSI: New York came along and that proved to be too much crime scene investigating for me.

    Combine CSI with Law & Order, Law and Order: SUV (Special Victims Unit), Law & Order: Criminal Intent and the hospital shows and you just had one big gross out festival. How many people really need to be intubated? And do I really need to see someone having a needle stuck in their eye?

    There's one CSI (Las Vegas) episode, though, that sticks with me. Grissom needs to visit Lady Heather because, well, one of her ladies got killed. Lady H serves Grissom tea and tells him:
    You spend your life uncovering what goes on underneath the surface of civility and acceptable behavior so it's a relief for you to indulge in something like high tea; it seems, if only for a moment, the world is civilized...The most telling thing about anyone is what scares them. I know what you fear more than anything Grissom...
    Like Grissom, I need to believe that the world is civilized and it bothers me when people don't do little things like wait their turn. In the end, though, you can't let the little stuff get to you.

    I think Miquel Angel Ruiz had it right in The Four Agreements:

  • Be Impeccable With Your Word

  • Don't Take Anything Personally

  • Don't Make Assumptions

  • Always Do Your Best
  • I really try to keep the second agreement at the forefront of my mind. Doesn't always work but...

    Do you have any agreements that help you stay centered?