Rami's Blog

Like the Yin-Yang, Eastern Martial Arts and Western medicine are two halves of a whole. My mission is to preserve the ancient mind-body tools and pass them on to you.

 

The Attitude of the Body is the Attitude of the Mind

As humans, we are deeply connected to body language. Slumped shoulders, a stiff posture, wide eyes, these signs communicate things to us about the emotions of the people who carry them. For a long time, it was believed that this connection between your mind and your body only went one way: the way you felt changed the way your body looked.

But recent research into nerve and muscle feedback has provided evidence for a two-way connection: your body language can change how you feel. So far, the research has focused on making people smile more, or frown less, and then having them report their mood throughout the experiment. As you could probably guess, doing either one makes people feel happier and emotionally lighter.

But if you ask me, you can already extend this kind of body-to-mind therapy to your mind-body routines, and for more than just smiling. Think about how you want to feel, and then picture what body language goes along with that. It's like being an actor.

If you want to feel strong and confident before a workout, stand up straight and puff out your chest. If you want to calm down, lay down and let your shoulders relax. If you want to feel good about your new weight loss routine, smile! Maybe you could even hold a chopstick between your teeth like they did in the experiment to create an artificial smile.

Most importantly for your wellness, be mindful and pay attention to the emotions that your body language is communicating. Not just to others, but to yourself as well. Subconsciously, your mind will pick up on your shoulders slumping, or your back hunching, or your feet dragging. Flip those signs of sadness around into body language of happiness and confidence, and your mind will catch on sooner or later. 

Happy Stretching!

The Long and Short of Weight Loss Motivation

People are notoriously bad at keeping their eye on the longterm goal. When it comes to motivation, if we don't get results soon, we feel like giving up.

Sometimes, we get good results soon, and then they taper off. And when the going gets tough, our desire for results isn't met, and our ability to commit tapers off as well.

While health and fitness are about perseverance, there are ways of thinking about your goals that make them easier to reach.

If your ultimate goal is weight loss, you can't feel closer to that goal every day. Our bodies simply cannot burn pounds of fat that quickly, so if you are measuring your daily achievements with a scale, you are going to be disappointed.

However, with a little mindfulness, we can measure how we feel after we workout. We can pay attention to how our body feels, and how our energy level is, and how well we sleep. Those things all happen within hours of our workout. If those feelings are your goal, and you pay attention to your progress toward them, then you will feel rewarded every day that your exercise.

Focus on the immediate rewards that come with working out. If you value those results more and more, you will be motivated enough each day to stick to your routine. And when you stick to your routine, you lose weight. It just takes a while.

Happy stretching!

Mind-over-Matter Weight Loss: Walk Like A Warrior

This will be the first installment in our new Weight Loss Workout Series! We will be releasing the exercises every Tuesday, and at the end of the first half (the Yang half) we will release a detailed routine. The Yang half of the workout is focused on burning calories and building strength. The Yin half will be focused on stretching and relaxation. When combined, these two halves of a workout form my Mind-over-Matter approach to weight loss. I believe that weight loss is equal parts exercise and will power. This workout series is aimed at helping you develop both your body, and your mind.

The first exercise is called Walk Like a Warrior. It's a great warm-up that will saturate your muscles with blood and oxygen so that you can perform the rest of the exercises more effectively.

Mind-Body Workout #7: Workout with the Kids

The kids are home from school, and you can't keep them at summer camp forever. That means, sooner or later, the family needs to find some activities to do together to release all that extra energy. So today, we're giving you a mind-body workout for the whole family (or just the kids) that is designed to be fun and keep everyone moving and involved.

Good Luck!

Routine #7

Mind-Body Workout #7: Workout with the Kids

Move like an octopus
This movement is good for a few reasons. First, the kids will have fun pretending their arms are little octopi, and the more they get into it, the better it will be for them. Second, I suggest you do this in the water, like at the beach or a pool. The water resistance keeps you from straining your muscles and moving too fast, and it makes the octopus game even more fun!

Legs like a windmill
This exercise is pretty intense, which is probably why the kids will love it. Just make sure they stand far enough apart so they don't accidentally kick each other. The parents may have trouble keeping up, but that's okay, let the kids get that energy out while the parents grab a cold drink.

Moving Meditation
This meditation (kind of like patty-cake) requires that the kids focus on their fine motor movements. It doesn't leave a lot of room for talking or watching TV or texting. Most young children are too active and excited to appreciate meditation that is quiet and motionless. Instead, give them this little clapping pattern to repeat, and watch as they slowly calm down. 

Funny Noises
Lastly, after the kids have sat down for the moving meditation, go ahead and do a vocal meditation. Have the kids focus on the sensations in the top of their head, their throat, and their chest as they change pitch and find their own sounds. This is an opportunity for kids to be a little loud without being disruptive. Have them take a big breath in before each round of noise making, and don't hold the notes too long: kids have smaller lungs than adults do, so they will run out of air more quickly.

Happy Stretching!