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Health is Wealth website will be going through a renovation to better serve the public. We will be featuring products, services, tips, and advice on those things that contribute to a healthy lifestyle for all.
As we continue to evolve the notion of a healthy and fit lifestyle via Health is WealthTM road cycling team, we partner with companies and individuals that support or otherwise contribute to improving health and fitness while supporting our Value Proposition of Sustainability with Meaning Purpose & Intention.
Health is WealthTM continues to work with companies that offer products and services that provide nutritional value, exercise options, and other nuggets that add value to one's lifestyle.
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Cycles Gladiator symbolizes a celebration of the freedom and happiness that pervaded Europe in the late 19th century—an era known as the Belle Epoque. This era marked many notable inventions and improvements to daily life, not the least of which was the modern bicycle or Le Bicycle Velocipede;
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- La Trattoria Bohemia Czech & Italian Cuisine
La Trattoria Bohemia offers big Czech and Italian flavors in a quaint and cozy atmosphere in Sacramento's Midtown district;
The Tahoe Cross Country Ski Education Asociation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation established to promote and develop the sport of cross country skiing through educational activities. Find out about our many programs designed to get children and adults involved in this fun healthy sport.
- DeCamilla Capital Management at 916 / 979 . 0870
Steve at DCM is your personal financial manager, allowing you more time to manage your physical fitness;
;Arbonne International provides quality, organic, pure, natural products for skin and nutrition. Arbonne's HealthyLIVING--a four week detox & cleanse program takes you to the next level of your respective efforts;
Ron Kehoe of Twenty-Twenty Eyes is expert at crafting eye glass solutions that are customized to your way of life;
Exercise Is Medicine, "Calls on physicians to assess and review every patient's physical activity program at every visit."Everyone has the opportunity to take charge of their health. It is easier than one thinks. It begins with being Aware of all that one does, stands for and intends.
Think Good Thoughts. Thoughts Become Things.
Our efforts as Health is WealthTM is dedicated to furthering the message of Health as valued dynamic in life for all to attain, respective of the individual and their talents.
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Look forward to seeing you all out there!
CORPORALITA
Corporalita comes from one of the many aspects of Leonardo da Vinci. In the chapter, "Corporalita: The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise", of his book, "How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day," Michael Gelb describes da Vinci's practices and attitudes about wellness and physical fitness. He invites us to explore and apply many principles.
Self-Care
"DaVinci believed that we should accept personal responsibility for our health and well-being".
Self-care requires two basic beliefs. If you don't believe them yet, pretend until you do. The first belief is that it doesn't matter what other people might be thinking about us — that's their problem. When pleasing other people becomes more important than our own health, we'll always be out of sync with our self-care goals.
The second and possibly most challenging, is the belief that we deserve to be healthy and well. Until we do, we'll always find ways to sabotage our efforts.
Adopting these beliefs can feel very foreign after years of being controlled by people-pleasing tendencies and by feelings of low self-worth.
A great place to start is recognizing when you're reacting to those old beliefs. Make an effort to shift things, in the moment, and try on more healing beliefs and healthier habits.
In Gelb's self-assessment, he asks us whether we're "aware of the ways in which my physical state affects my attitudes", and, consequently, whether we're "aware of the ways in which my attitudes affect my physical state" (page 196), bringing us to da Vinci's next principle.
“DaVinci believed that we should accept personal responsibility for our health and well-being.”
Mind/body connection. da Vinci obviously believed strongly in the mind-body connection. We know from the Law of Attraction that, "what you focus on, grows". A positive attitude and beliefs (including the two I mention above), healthy and supportive relationships and a sense of personal empowerment can all do wonders for your physical health.
Be aware of the language that you use for health issues. Are you fighting an illness (conjures images of combat, anger, struggle, winning versus losing) or are you encouraging health (conjures images of nourishment, blooming, healing, radiating, glowing)?
If you're tempted to focus on something that hurts (maybe your neck is sore after a long day on the computer), you can focus instead on being grateful that the rest of your body is healthy and well enough to carry you around through the day.
When you're sick, talk and act as if you're getting healthier by the moment. Because you are! Focusing on what you're growing into (health) and not what you're growing out of (illness) keeps you more positive and keeps things moving in the right direction.
Mindful Eating — "Don't eat, dine."
da Vinci's approach to physical health was simple and full of common sense — balanced physical activity that included aerobic, strength and flexibility exercises, emotional wellness, balance and moderation.
He also touted mindful eating (making dining a pleasurable and sensual experience, one to enjoy and savour), and suggested the best time to stop eating is JUST BEFORE you feel full. That's a lot easier to do if you're paying attention while you're eating!
Think back to the last time you ate a meal among purposefully chosen surroundings — soothing music or positive conversation to listen to, delectable aromas to smell hours before your meal, pleasant colours and textures surrounding your eating area and delicious, fresh, wholesome and natural foods to taste and savour.
Quite different from how many of us eat — on the run or standing up, listening to chatter or the depressing television news, and surrounded by stacks of unopened mail, business folders, laundry or whatever else happens to have landed in our dining space.
Body awareness. We spend much of our time in our brains, rarely tuning into what's carting them around and keeping them safe. Breathing exercises and other mind-body practices are simple pathways to body awareness. Tuning in to your breath can be grounding in moments of stress and anxiety, or as a way of enjoying positive moments on an even deeper level.
The Body Remembers. When we perform actions repeatedly, the body remembers them. I notice this when my fingers dance over the keys when I type the URL to my website, or when I get through playing a song on the guitar while I was so focused on my client I didn't even realize I'd changed chords. I see this also in my elderly music therapy clients; I once a spent a joyful few minutes observing a woman knit effortlessly, when just a few minutes earlier she was sitting motionless, staring blankly and not responding to my greeting. Her hands just knew what to do when the knitting needles were placed there. Her body remembered.
Ambidexterity. da Vinci also stressed the importance of developing ambidexterity — the ability to perform tasks equally well using both hands. As a piano student, my two hands had to do a lot of similar things — the left hand didn't get a break just because I'm right handed!
And I believe that as a result of those early piano experiences (I've played from the age of 5), I do have limited ambidexterity. I notice that when I perform some tasks (kitchen jobs, throwing and catching a baseball, bowling, etc.), it's sometimes difficult to determine which hand is stronger. And sometimes it's the opposite of the one it's "supposed" to be.
The drum kit was another instrument that I studied that allowed me to explore ambidexterity. It was always much easier to do if I just "forgot" that my right hand was supposed to be stronger, and just relaxed and let the music and rhythm come through me.
Flexibility.
Speaking of relaxing — flexibility training, such as stretching and some types of yoga, can be a wonderful mind-body workout. Tuning into the muscles and body parts that you're strengthening and stretching is a wonderful way to also tune in to the body.
There's strength inherent in flexibility. A strength that is pliable and resilient in it's very nature; not at all rigid.
And I think this flexibility, this resilience, is at the very heart of a life of self-care, health and wellness. It's being strong enough to say, "No" when "No" is what needs to be said. It's being strong enough to stop and change your behaviour when you see you're stuck in an old unhealthy way of living. It's being resilient enough to start again after a slip, and it's being flexible enough to let go of controlling diets and strict regimens.
da Vinci taught us that to take care of our bodies, we can adopt a series of common-sense practices. I invite you to join me in a life of simple self-care, just carrying on and making one healthy choice after another. •
© Linda Dessau, 2006
