Health & Wellness

Reflecting on My Facebook Free Lent

Some people give up sweets for Lent. Others give up swearing. I've done both. This year, the glaring vice I could see during my pre-Lent musings was my "Facebook Login & Refresh My Notifications" Addiction. It didn't matter whether I turned off most notifications in my Facebook settings. Nor did it matter that I uninstalled the app on my mobile devices. I used to log in - a lot. It certainly didn't help matters that I have personal and business contacts on Facebook and belong to international Facebook groups (TL: The group never sleeps). So I gave up Facebook for Lent — cold turkey — on Ash Wednesday.

Music and Movement Class Ideas

Last week, I ran group classes with my students to explore rhythm and timing through music and movement. It required a bit more planning than usual (and a lot of energy), but based on student feedback, it was well worth it to run these music and movement classes.

On Muscle Memory and Sword Techniques

In January, I celebrated the one-year anniversary of my return to martial arts training. It has been quite the journey, relearning Iaido sword techniques along with Hyoho Niten Ichi Ryu waza. The past year has been an adventure in rediscovery and debugging. It has also been one of adventure as I began studying two additional martial arts: Jodo and Kage Ryu.

Exploring Passive Stretching for Dogs

Exploring Passive Stretching for Dogs

As Maestro has canine arthritis and Inter-vertebral Disc Disease, passive stretching is necessary so as to not aggravate his achy joints. The main thing about any passive range of motion technique is to support the joint as you are stretching a muscle group.

On Freedom Overdose and Overwork

After reading through How to Beat the Self-Employment Blues, I was able to put labels to what I've been doing: freedom overdose and overwork. My workdays and weeks have been stretched out, simply because I could. Just like the author of the article said, “Wow, I can go to Starbucks anytime I want”. I can log into Facebook anytime I want, because I can (well, except when I'm teaching).