Dedicate An Hour Of Your Day Today

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  yesterday, I dedicted my hour-long yoga practice to a friend who always is there for me with love, kindness and wisdom.  All my good intentions during that hour went to my dear friend; a small way to give something back to her.  Today, dedicate an hour to someone who has been kind to you, or send your thoughts to a person in your life who needs positive energy.  Organized religion would call it prayer....I call it paying it forward.

Breakthroughs Can Happen When You Believe In Yourself

I've worn out my patellar cartlidge in my left knee and the right one is complaining it's quitting soon - bummer to say the least.  So, while I wait for some 'goop' to be injected into my knees to buy me a few more years of jumping and kicking fun, I'm back to yoga and sometimes some good old boxing.  This is a self reinvention; the warrior is becoming a yogi again.   I've bought myself proper yoga clothing so I don't stick out in the class like Godzilla in my Muay Thai shorts.  I've been wearing a specially fit hinged brace for my left knee which enables me to walk, do yoga and box - basic activities we all take for granted that have been impossible or just plain painful.  Hence, the reservations of taking a chance to do different yoga poses (although I taught yoga to martial artists for years)....ah, fear and what torments it will play with your mind.  Today, I went into class and decided that my 'magic brace' was going to hold me steady as my physical therapist swears.  I had a mental and physical breakthrough.  For the first time in a few months, I jumped back into my chattaronga pushups, bent my left knee without pain and truly enjoyed the class....my mantra and devotion to today's practice was 'I CAN'...not the "I can't" I've allowed fear to shout to me previously.  I forgot how much yoga could be fun and challenging.  Breakthroughs and transformations...I think I'll explore this thought a bit more and get back to you on it....to be continued....

Heres Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  Believe in Yourself...breakthroughs CAN happen!

Back To Business

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  I'm back to the office after a much needed sejour in sunny Florida.  It's going to be a cold weekend here in New York and the flu is running amuck; bundle up, don't forget to wash your hands and although it's freezing outside, make sure you plan to do something fun this weekend!

Yo, Yo, Yoga

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  my patients ask me my thoughts on yoga; some of them are quite inflexible or nonathletic.  Here's my opinion:  find a yoga studio or gym that has a good reputation for its teachers and take classes on a regular basis.  You might not be able to bend over and touch your knees the first class you attend, but if you stick with it, after a month you'll be surprised when you can not only touch your toes, but palm the floor.  I have a patient who was a professional athlete; he's now in his early 80s and has been doing yoga for the past 20 years.  He is strong, flexible and at 6'6", he can palm the floor and then some!