Letting Go—Take A Look Ahead

I recently read an article by David Warren, a Canadian writer and journalist who spoke to the importance and value of feeling pain. In it, he quotes Joseph Ratzinger and his address on this same topic. Ratzinger said, “There is no human life without pain, and whoever is incapable of accepting pain excludes himself from that purification, which alone can make us mature.”
Come to Your Senses – Non sequitur

Recently my wife and I were staying in an Airbnb. The breakfast provided was a package of blueberry muffins and a carafe of orange juice. I could talk about how this was representative of a breakfast, but I have a better story.
Come to Your Senses – Thinking What Matters

“Bones and muscle,” that’s all I say when I am pushing the sled. This is what our sixty-five-year-old client said. She has recently added a day of training and we have added new intensity to her programs. She received a report that her bone density score had dropped since her last study. We also had been discussing her need to gain muscle for her health and longevity. She relates that pushing the sled is hard. Most would agree. Pulling the sled is okay, but pushing a weighted sled down a carpeted path can seem like the sled is pushing back or there is glue on the bottom of the sled. Most do not like it in their program.
Come to Your Senses – Fast Forward

“Force applied in any direction other than forward is not helping an athlete achieve their dream of Olympic gold.”
—Kate Douglass, Professional Swimmer, 15-time NCAA Champion, 5-time Olympic medalist.
I love this quote from Kate Douglass.
Imagine

The other day I was walking across the mezzanine at the institute and one of our clients yelled up to me, “Hey Dr. Skaggs, watch this!”
This wonderful, spirited woman artfully launched into a one-leg stance. She held her focus, laser-like in front of her, and her precision was excellent. She counted out loud to seventeen! She was very excited. She is 75. It was great to see the message from the previous Insight really landed with her.
Changes—Simple. Hard. Worthy.

My good friend and mentor, Professor Vladimir Janda said, “You are on one leg 85% of the time.” Vlad was a neurologist from Prague, Czech Republic, and a pioneer in rehabilitation science and practice. He said many clever and quotable statements; this one really transformed my thinking. There are buckets of studies on the importance of standing on one leg. Several recent studies have suggested that the ability to stand on one leg is linked to living longer and better.