Don’t get scared.  I’m only trying to alert you to the passing of time. Soon, it will be summer and you’ll be saying, “what the***l happened?  Wasn’t it just Inauguration Day?”  Well yes it was, but if you are just plodding through the winter, soon it will be time to throw on a pair of shorts and you’ll either be pleased with your winter’s work or freaking out that shorts season is not too far from swimsuit season. Read More→

See if you can identify with this – those of you over forty.

You get into bed.  You’ve made it in time for you to get 8 hours of sleep, which you do, but when you get up, it seems that you’ve sprained your ankle in your sleep.

I’ve noticed that as I get older, my body is throwing me some weird curveballs. Every week it’s something else.  Something is poking me.  My joints which were fine the week before are stiffer than usual. My tooth hurts for a few hours.  My hands are suddenly dry as the desert.  It’s like my body is saying, “Hey, pay attention to ME!  Over here!” I’ve started calling it my tweak of the week.

I am lucky that I have had a life without much illness.  For all I put my body through when I was young and more foolish than I am now, my physical self is doing pretty well.  But, being over 40 has some new and different sensations.  I guess it’s just as well that I pay attention before things go totally south.

I am finding myself riveted by TV ads for achy backs, how to increase your energy, improving my sleep, making things easier.  Clearly everyone is experiencing the same sensations or there would be no market for these ads, but not too long ago, I was more riveted by ads for adventure vacations, improvements on pizza, DIY projects.  I’m just saying that I am noticing the shift. I lead a very physical life with all the classes I teach and doing my own training, so I am doing mu best at staying youthful, but man, I didn’t know how good I had it when my body was young.

Rather than get bummed out about it, I’m up for a laugh. Comment if you are a kindred spirit here.  What’s your tweak of the week?

I spent last evening with some great friends making our vision boards. Well…we were supposed to make our vision boards.  What actually ended up happening was we looked through magazines and catalogs and we chatted about what we wanted in our lives.  At the end of a couple of hours, we all had a pile of images to use for the vision boards and we all had a more clear idea of what we wanted and how specific we should be in depicting those wants.  It was a useful process to go through in terms of focusing and trusting our instincts.

For me, some things depicted in magazines would be nice to have or do, but aren’t really part of my personal make-up.  The idea of my vision board isn’t to completely change who I am, it is to define and visualize what I want for myself. I found myself asking good questions about the concepts depicted in the clippings.

Regarding relationships; Do I want a happy-looking one, a good-looking one, an adventurous one, a passionate one, a traditional-looking one, an extravagant one, etc… Each photo had different aspects of what I would want in my relationship of choice. I realized that there needed to be a relationship section on my board.  One picture of a happy, good-looking, well-dresses, married couple embracing in front of a waterfall in Australia says a lot, but leaves out a lot too.

So, to be honest, I got through clipping and realized that I didn’t want to make these particular images my real vision board.  My friends felt the same.  I decided that saving these pictures and continuing to look for other that fill in the other areas of my life would be a better – more focused and well thought out board.  Over the next couple of weeks, I will be on the look out for more images to use.

I will want to show my professional vision, my emotional state, my perfect physical condition, a sweet living situation, my desire to be a life long learner, something that represents my friends and family, not just the man I will eventually meet and marry.

The list goes on and on about what I want on my board.

Do you have a vision board? Do you have any words of advice about creating it?  Perhaps a success story of your experience? Let me know.

SuzieWellness

• An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
• If you want to know how to move properly, observe your cat.
• If your lips are dry, you are already dehydrated.
• If you have too much to do, you will be more efficient.
• Smiling is contagious.
• Wash your hands a lot.
• Fake it till you make it.
• Rather than reading self help books, read great literature to learn how to help yourself.

What have you heard?

as I said, to be continued…

Welcome to you.  This is SuzieWellness writing to you from Washington, DC. The Blog that you are reading is my way of sharing with you the things that I think are helpful in creating a Life of Wellness.

I generally consider a person’s wellness to be made up of seven different components; Physical, Intellectual, Spiritual, Social, Emotional, Occupational and Sensual Wellness.  I know there is overlap, but I think that these areas involve so much that it’s worthwhile dividing it up.  You could also argue that Financial wellness could get its own category or you may be able to think of some other large category is left out, but I’ll go with these for now.

I hope that with the state of the economy being as it is, that you will focus on keeping yourself well in as many areas as possible.  When there are big forces at work that you cannot control, it’s a good idea to handle the things that you can control.  No matter what your 401k is doing, you can keep your body moving, you can keep your thoughts positive, visit with friends, and more. Everything you do can feed into your Big Bank of Wellness. I am here to offer awareness, suggestions, inspiration, humor, critique, and comment.

You are officially invited to participate in this process. Make a deposit in the Big Bank of Wellness on this blog.  SuzieWellness is interested in what you have to say.  I am not the end of the line or the leading authority.  I have no direct line to wellness.  I am on a path like you are and one of the things I enjoy most in life is learning from other people. So read, write and return…