Book of the Month: Jin Shin Healing Touch

According to the author even though Jin Shin is ancient, we use it every day. It is the art of bringing life energy into harmony. Examples are:

  • Resting your head in your hands – harmonizes points on your head to help you to remember things.

  • Cross your arms – activating points in the crook of your elbows helps you stand in your power.

  • Sitting on your hands – strengthens your concentration.

  • Hand on shoulder-releases tension and stress.

The book demonstrates how to hold certain points to release blockages of energy in the body, so that health and vitality can flow harmoniously.

Podcast Of the Month: Ted Talk: The future will be shaped by Optimists

There are reasons why we should be optimistic. Every great and difficult thing that has been accomplished, every breakthrough, has required a very strong sense of optimism. It becomes important that we imagine a world that we want, we imagine solutions we want and believe that we can make them happen.

No problems, no progress. So even bad things that happen are basically possibilities that yield new solutions and better opportunities. With optimism, we can use it as a power to create the future that we want. LISTEN HERE

The Science of Storytelling

The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better (for writers).

In The Science of Storytelling, writer and acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies psychological research and neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing how storytellers—and also our brains—create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.

  • “There’s simply no way to understand the human world without stories.”

  • Story is what the brain does. It is a ‘story processor’.

  • “The brain creates a world for us to live in and populates it with allies and villains…and at the centre it places its star – wonderful precious me.”

Podcast of the Month - Insights at the Edge

Insights at the Edge - What is Wanting to Find Expression Through You?
James Hollis, an 81 year old Psychoanalyst recently developed a new series: A Life of Meaning: Exploring our Deepest Questions and Motivations

  • Meaning is not something outside of ourselves, it’s an internal experience.

  • Your psyche is forever moving on, and often we outgrow what was once meaningful.

  • We need to keep reinventing ourselves.

  • It’s all right to be scared, it’s not all right to live a scared life.

  • We can’t cut our history out of us; our task is to outgrow its influence.

Book of the Month - The Book of Hope, Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams

Jane Goodall is the world’s most famous living naturalist. She is 87 years old and still working tirelessly to encourage us to do what we all need to do to help build a better world. Some quotes from Jane that I love:

“Hope does not deny all the difficulty and all the danger that exists, but it is not stopped by them. There is a lot of darkness, but our actions create the light.”

“It is important to take action and realize that we can make a difference, and this will encourage others to take action…that is how we spread the light.”

Jane Goodall recently did an interview I really enjoyed with Piya Chattopadhyay from The Sunday Magazine. Listen HERE.

Film of the Month - A Celtic Pilgrimage with John O'Donohue

Instead of a book this month, I wanted to recommend a wonderful film that I watched recently, featuring John O'Donohue, Irish poet and philosopher. With A Celtic Pilgrimage, you have the opportunity to walk through the breathtaking landscape of western Ireland. The film weaves ancient wisdom with personal history and stunning imagery, and reveals the Ireland that gave rise to the spiritual wisdom of the Celts. You will feel wonderful after watching!

A Celtic Pilgrimage Film

“May you recognize in your life the presence, power, and light of your soul. May you realize that you are never alone, that your soul in its brightness and belonging connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe. May you have respect for your own individuality and difference. ” - John O'Donohue

You Get To Make It Up by Kathy Gottberg

I have benefited from and enjoyed reading Kathy Gottbergs’ blog SMART Living 365 that she has written for several years. Kathy has also written several books that are packed with helpful ideas and suggestions. For those who prefer an auditory book she has one of those too!
Kathy has a chapter in ‘You Get to Make It Up’ titled “What are you nexting? The Power of Positive Anticipation." "Nexting" is the act of planning things in the future to look forward to, in a positive way.’ She suggests we spend some time nexting the positive events we hope to experience in the coming months. How about spending some time nexting for 2022?

I hope you realize that every day is a fresh start for you. That every sunrise is a new chapter in your life waiting to be written. Juansen Dizon, Poet

How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body by David Hamilton

Countless scientific studies have proven the way we think affects our bodies. We use our mind all the time to make us feel good or to make us feel stressed. Therefore why not use our mind in addition to whatever medical advice or interventions we might be undergoing to help our body and mind. Dr. Hamilton explains techniques using imagery to stimulate the immune system, using the mind to speed up rehabilitation from stroke, and powerful visualization strategies to help facilitate recovery from injury and illness. ‘Cells dance to the tune of the mind.’

Staying Sharp by Henry Emmons

The authors 9 keys for 'Staying Sharp' are:
Movement, Rest, Nourishment, Curiosity, Flexibility, Optimism, Empathy, Connection, Authenticity
I love the opening paragraph:
“Living a long life, a full and joyful life, requires making friends with the passing of time. It also requires a willingness to see that there is always more to discover and more to experience along the way. There is always more to learn.”

Cured by Dr. Jeffrey Rediger

Dr. Jeffrey Rediger, has spent the last fifteen years studying spontaneous healing. It is an interesting read at what he discovers over the years and realizes there isn’t once commonality. Instead, he found that often what we truly need are not medications or even talk therapy (though that can be helpful), “but to throw off the chains of whatever is oppressing us so that we can make a life where we can be the best, highest, and most authentic version of ourselves.” And to create a life of respect and dignity, where our true unique potential can be realized.

The Body by Bill Bryson

The Body by Bill Bryson is very informative as it leads you through all the parts of your body and is full of fascinating facts. For example, how many times a day do you think you blink? You blink fourteen thousand times a day! Which means your eyes are shut for twenty-three minutes of every waking day! And yet you don’t even have to think about it. Ever wondered how much information our brains hold? It is estimated two hundred exabytes of information, which roughly equals “the entire digital content of today’s world.” Our bodies are truly miraculous!!

Clearer, Closer, Better by Emily Balcetis

I've really enjoyed this book by Emily Balcetis. One part that I found particularly interesting is about public speaking. Many people are nervous talking in front of a group, and researchers have found that the way the speaker scans a crowd can be partly responsible for this. When the speaker looks at the group they may think the group is not enjoying their talk, thus adding to their nervousness. As part of our biological wiring as humans to keep us safe, as we scan faces our eyes naturally land on frowning faces faster than happy ones.

Therefore, make it a point of looking for pleasant faces to focus on when speaking in a group, and your nerves will evaporate. Interestingly this technique is taught to people doing Ted talks, as well as to kids who experience social anxiety. When they learn to look for smiles rather than frowns, they reap the benefits well into their adult years!

Keep Sharp, by Sanjay Gupta, MD

Dr. Gupta cites a new study in 2018 published in the journal of GENETICS, that found that genes accounted for well under 7% of people’s life span – which means 90% of our health and longevity is in our own hands. The key message: Focus on your lifestyle!

Dr. Gupta uses one word to emphasis the single most important thing a person can do to enhance their brain’s function and resiliency to disease and that is exercise. Move more and keep a regular physical fitness routine that you enjoy.

**Exercise is the only behavioral activity scientifically proven to trigger biological effects that can help the brain. You can start today! Even if you’ve never maintained a consistent workout in the past, it can have quick and significant effects on your brain’s health and your whole body.

The Happiness Lab (Podcast)

As many of us really enjoy listening to podcasts, I thought I would include one this month instead of a traditional book!

I am really enjoying listening to ’The Happiness Lab’ with Yale professor Dr. Laurie Santos. This podcast explains the latest scientific research on happiness and shares interesting stories which might surprise your beliefs about happiness!

Limitless, by Jim Kwik

This month I’m reading Limitless by Jim Kwik. Jim talks about how your memory is trainable and if we respond to the occasional lapse of memory by reprimanding ourselves as “I have a bad memory” or “I’m not smart enough to remember this,” then we negatively affect our ability to learn and grow. Jim says “There is no such thing as a good memory or a bad memory; there is only a trained memory and an untrained memory. This is a good reminder how just like a muscle, if we do not train our memory and rely too much on google, we weaken our memory.

Breath, by James Nestor

This month I’m reading Breath by James Nestor.

Some key points from the book:

·      James feels the missing pillar in health is the importance of how we breathe. 

·      The deeper and more softly we breathe in, and the longer we exhale, the more slowly the heart beats and the calmer we become.

·      He writes about how in our evolution our brains have grown bigger at the cost of shrinking the front of our faces, affecting our sinuses, mouths and airways detrimentally. Including causing crowded crooked teeth. 

·      James stresses the importance of chewing harder foods for adults to keep from bone loss in our faces, and that the more time infants spend chewing and sucking, the more developed their faces and airways become, and the better they will breathe later in life.

·      He noted that some of the researchers he spoke with were showing that many modern maladies-asthma, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and more – could either be reduced or reversed simply by changing the way we inhale and exhale.

The book convinced me to start chewing hard gum which I haven’t done for years and I couldn’t believe how quickly my jaw got tired!

It’s an interesting read, and a great conversation starter. Highly recommended!