Strength

I’ve been thinking a lot about strength and power and what it means to have those. I spend most of my time feeling powerless, as in my ability to act feels diminished. Particularly when I contemplate the broader society. This is where I could write about how there’s strength in numbers and all of us working together have greater power than when we’re alone, but you’ve already heard all that. Instead, what interests me more is thinking about the types of strength and power we possess.

Anyone who has ever attempted to shed a few extra pounds has heard that diet and exercise is the key to weight loss success. It’s a popular saying because eating right and getting active is a perfect, proven formula for getting rid of unnecessary, unwanted weight.

Using Uva Ursi for Magnificent Kidneys and the Release of Fear

The kidneys are often under-rated organs. They are the great detoxifiers of the body and help the body to release all that could not be used by the cells, which were then disposed of through the body's extensive lymph system. Every cell takes in nutrients from the bloodstream, which comprises around twenty percent of the area touching the cells, and then every cell releases unwanted wastes into the lymph – comprising 80% of the rest of the area around the cells.

Flexibility is perhaps one of the most neglected areas of one's fitness regime. For many people, stretching is nothing more than a warm-up; and for fewer still, it mayalso be a cool-down. Consequently, this is the part many tend to exclude when they are pressed for time and need to squeeze in a quick workout.

Swimming can be a fun summer activity and a great way to exercise. Here are a few of the benefits you can get from making swimming a regular part of your weekly routine.

There’s no thrill like the buzz you got when you first learned to bike. Pedalling away madly, with the wind rushing through your hair – that rush of riding a bike for the first time is incomparable. However, riding a bike is always fun. The thrill settles down, but the exercise and the fresh air are always a guarantee. And biking or cycling, whatever you may call it, is good for physical, physiological and mental health -- for a healthy mind makes for a healthy body and vice versa.

The physical benefits of pedaling

This move defies the age, gender, social, and financial barriers of most exercises we know. It is a very accepting and inclusive type of movement; you need no equipment, fancy instructions or special skills to do it.

It’s merciful when you break the rules and it gives you a chance to express yourself. It’s ok, and it is recommended to do what your body tells you to do as the sound transports you to unexpected places.

It’s almost like a cliché at this point:  you quit drinking (or drugs or gambling or any addiction) and take up yoga. Yoga becomes your new addiction, your lifesaver, your replacement. Instead of reaching for a drink when you’re sad, stressed, or angry, you reach for your yoga mat. Instead of losing yourself under the waves of alcohol, you lose yourself to movement and breath. Both are a kind of escape, a reprieve from over-thinking. But while drinking enables the drinker to escape from her feelings, yoga enables the drinker to really feel his feelings.

I have a confession to make: I want everything to be easy. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in this. I think we all want a life of ease and comfort, but I had a conversation recently that irrevocably shifted my perspective.

We are strong and we can do this, let’s be different.

Why is it so hard to drop the bad habits or addictions we know are bad for us? Why do we hold on to the material things instead of infinite feelings and emotions from loved ones?