I once heard that our body is a sculpture. Or something like that. I thought it was an Arnold Schwarzenegger quote but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. That man has said a many great things when it comes to body building and strength. Even about determination and success. Here are some of my favorites: Today’s focus is body sculpting. Even though I couldn’t find the quote I was thinking of.
This week, I have had to learn the workings of my current body. It is not the same as it was when I was in my 20’s. Let’s be honest, it is not the same as it was even a year ago. Your body changes with each life change. For example: puberty, 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, etc., having a baby, menopause, quitting drinking/smoking, diseases and ailments such as cancer, diabetes, migraines, or fibromyalgia. And so on. You get the point. I have four children. That is eight times right there that my body has gone through changes. I am turning 40 this year; I am a woman and like all women, my hormones go to the amusement park every month; I quit smoking; I suffer migraines; I was in a car accident that left me coping with vertigo issues. I have experienced numerous changes and learning opportunities. My point is, to sculpt your body you must know your body. You need to take into consideration all of those changes and how they affect your body. You have to take keep in mind calorie intake versus your caloric usage. You have to know your limitations and how far you can push those limits. Right now, I am on a new learning curve. My accident was a year ago at the end of this month. Just a few months ago I was able to look up at the sky again without falling over. It was time for me to slowly get back into my active routine. And slow it is. It has only been a couple of weeks that I have been … let’s say … WJ meaning movement somewhere between walking and jogging. Okay. It has been two weeks that I have been dedicated to my 6am WJ route three times a week. To someone who trains, this is a joke. But to me, this is a big deal. Running was not my favorite thing to do to begin with. After the first week I was hit with a lovely migraine. Got a new prescription and it was dealt with. But, as soon as that was dealt with and out of the way, my body decided that I was strong enough to cope with more and I had another vertigo episode. At first I thought nothing of it. Maybe I sat up too fast. But when the second one happened as I was checking out a ceiling tile, I knew, my vertigo had returned. I went on my WJ regardless. I mean, I don’t have an episode while I am moving, so why not. I just can’t look up at the sky. Or Look at my feet. Or turn my head quickly. Or … Damn, this sucks! Okay. But I really feel I have no choice. Really. I am glad I can’t look down to be honest because that sight, not so pretty anymore. I am okay to look forward. Because forward is where I am going. This is my body and I am the sculptor. Only I can sculpt it to be the way I want it. The inner workings of my body may throw me curve balls, but I just need to learn from them and readjust my sails. (c) Rachel Rennie
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About the Book - About the Author - Prizes!!!Welcome to another exciting publishing house spotlight tour from Novel Publicity. Join us as three new titles from Luminis Books--we're calling them the Luminis Triplex Tour—tour the blogosphere in a way that just can't be ignored. And, hey, we've got prizes! About the prizes: Who doesn't love prizes? You could win either of two $25 Amazon gift cards, an autographed copy of The Possiblity of Snow by Al Riske, or an autographed copy of its tour mates, Entrevoir by Chris Katsaropoulos or Along the Wayby Jacqueline Kolosov. Here's what you need to do...
Learn more about The Possibility of Snow's tour mates HERE. http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share- code/YzE3YzI0YTkzYTJkODQ0ODQxZDUwNTUwMTQ3OTkxOj E1Ng==/?I grew up always wanting the fairytale life. The whole rags to riches story. The small town girl who moves away to the city to become some highly accomplished and respected woman. To live happily ever after. There were three things my dad did every night religiously when it was just the two of us. He would roll cigarettes, play cribbage and drink coffee. My dad is a very giving man and so, although it was just the two of us, there were always people staying with us. He had an open door policy to anyone who needed a little help, a stepping stone, while they got back on their feet. And, the coffee was always on for those who just needed to chat. At the time, my dad’s best friend, Jim, was our guest. Jim smoked cigars, drank hot chocolate and played crib with my dad every night. During the day, the two of them worked at the mines, just like most of the men in town did. I remember one night I had agreed to play crib with them before bed. It was a small town after all and there really was not anything better to be found for entertainment. I poured dad a coffee and Jim a hot chocolate. It didn’t take long for them to leave me in their dust. They teased me about being “skunked” yet again. The two of them were pretty good at their trash talk let me tell ya. But I took it with grace. Jim took a sip of his hot chocolate and then started to…chew. Dad raised one of his bushy eyebrows and peered at him. “Rach,” Jim said, “not only do you suck at crib, but we need to teach you how to stir.” “I did stir,” I said without looking up from my cards. I had to focus. I had a good hand, but if I didn’t play my cards right, Jim would win the game before I had a chance to count out and pass that dreaded line. “Jim,” my dad said, “What are you chewing on?” I looked up then. “Chocolate,” Jim said as he spit the chunk into the palm of his hand. “What type of hot chocolate is that?” my dad asked him. We all leaned in a little closer to inspect this partially chewed chunk of hot chocolate when Jim dropped it on the table and yelled. “I don’t think it’s chocolate,” I whispered. “The hell it’s not,” Jim yelled at me, “You brat. Why would you put that in my cup?” “Me?” I sat up straight, hand on my chest, insulted that he blamed me. Dad continued to stare at the ‘chocolate’ now on the table. He poked it to roll it over. “Hell,” dad bellowed with laughter, “that’s a mighty big fly Jim.” “No shit,” Jim was angry, “and your daughter put it in my cup.” “Why would she do that?” The amusement in my dad’s voice obvious. “Because,” Jim thought for a moment, “because she’s losing.” I laughed then. I couldn’t help it. “Well, I hadn’t planned on losing when I made you that cup.” Jim was furious. Dad patted Jim on the back, “My daughter is pretty talented old man, but I don’t think she snuck that fly into your cup.” That was the first time I saw a man pout and smile at the same time. Jim sat that way quietly until it was his turn. At the end of his turn he stared at me hard. “You,” he pointed his finger, “are skunked.” “At least I didn’t chew on a fly,” I said under my breath. Before I knew what was happening, Jim had jumped up from his seat and lunged at me. Thankfully my dad was in the way and I ran around the table. Me shrieking, dad laughing, and Jim grunting. I made it to my room safely and they taunted me to come out and play. But, I was happy to be the skunk for the night. I didn’t plant that fly in Jim’s cup. Karma did! (c) Rachel Rennie 2015 As always, thank you for reading and your support. You could hardly call it a run. Heck, you could hardly call it a jog. But there were a few moments when my body told me it was time to pick up the pace a little. My first “run” in two years. Yup, TWO years. I hadn’t realized how long it had been until I posted a comment to one of Mr. Crow’s posts. He wrote about how making a plan makes it easier to succeed. I read that post the day of my “run”. The day after I made my plan. The night before I got out my gear so that when I woke in the morning, I could just get ready and go, bleary eyed and all.
I had my music on quietly, because I was on day two of a migraine, and I listened to the thunder still rattling away in the distance. A few lightning bolts scared me, because I was on a trail in a field, but my instincts told me they were too far away to cause me harm, and I kept going. I took a few pictures on my trek that morning. The temperature was just right, it had been much too hot for a few days, the sun was just the right brightness, and the rain was rejuvenating! I couldn’t have been happier. The air even smelled good. No pollution like in the city. But, I have a LONG way to go. In 2013 I was running (jogging) a ten minute mile and this run was a fifteen minute mile. This run, my first in my new town, my first in two years, was a 1.5 mile run. And, overall, I felt pretty good. And, that was just one of the many trails right out my door. I have 25 kilometers of trails to explore! Now, excuse me while I go out for another trek! To pick up new migraine medicine! A shout out and a big thank you to a few people who inspired me to take this first step: My husband for telling me that I can do it, Jeremy Crow for his daily health tips and all around general encouragement and to Matthew Jones for posting on his blog, pictures of the sights on his run.
About the Book - About the Author - Prizes!!!Welcome to another exciting publishing house spotlight tour from Novel Publicity. Join us as three new titles from Luminis Books--we're calling them the Luminis Triplex Tour—tour the blogosphere in a way that just can't be ignored. And, hey, we've got prizes! About the prizes: Who doesn't love prizes? You could win either of two $25 Amazon gift cards, an autographed copy of Along the Wayby Vallie Lynn Watson, or an autographed copy of its tour mates, The Possibility of Snowby Al Riske, or Entrevoir by Chris Katsaropoulos. Here's what you need to do...
Learn more about Along the Way's tour mates HERE. http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share- code/YzE3YzI0YTkzYTJkODQ0ODQxZDUwNTUwMTQ3OTkxOj E1Ng==/?Staying Safe or Surrendering: A Dilemma of Creativity and Spirituality by Rahima Warren Many years ago, I had an awe-inspiring glimpse of the Flow of Divine Creativity. It appeared to me as a cosmic Fountain of Creativity, endlessly flowing upward with an outrageous infinitude of vivid, colorful images: trees, cartoons, volcanoes, tulips, cars, babies, tigers, paintings, skyscrapers, movies, soldiers, roses, stars, drums—everything tumbling upward forever! I saw that what we human creators do is tap into this infinite Fountain, and channel one little stream into manifestation, whether we are a musician or a parent, an architect or a writer, an artist or an engineer. Certainly this is my experience of writing my visionary trilogy, The Star-Seer’s Prophecy. A certain dream character had been haunting me for years. One day, I wrote a short story in my journal about this character, hoping the little story would make him stop bothering me. Ha! I’d tapped into that Fountain and now the Flow was sweeping me away! I could have fought it and tried to get back to my life and my career as a psychotherapist. However, my spiritual path is a path of surrender. Our ego-minds are all about keeping control and staying safe, so any ego-effort to understand or get close to the Divine is doomed to failure. Only by surrendering that ego-control can we open ourselves to the Divine, and to our creativity (which are aspects of the same Flow.) The Divine (however you name it) is not concerned with our staying safe and small, but with our blooming into our full, beautiful, creative selves. If I had ignored this flood of creative inspiration that I had tapped into, I would have stayed in my safe rut, and never discovered the wonders of allowing my creativity full rein (or in my case, reign!), or faced the “growth opportunity” of offering my book to the world. Instead, I surrendered to the passionate outpouring of this character’s story, whose name turned out to be Kyr. With no idea where his story was going, no outline, no plan, I just wrote whatever came through, no matter how dark or brilliant. Kyr’s path is also one of surrender. At first, he has no choice but submit, since he has been born and raised as a slave of the Soul-Drinker, an evil sorcerer-king with vast powers that no one can combat. Then he is rescued and faces a choice: cling to his deathly loyalty to his master, or to take the unknown hard path toward life, love and the Light. Kyr’s journey toward the Light is a journey of surrender. At each step of the way, he has to surrender his old view of who he is and what he deserves, and open more and more to his true nature. I suspect that may be true for all of us, but it is rarely easy. The ego-mind wants to stay with what it knows, no matter how awful, and to stay small, with the illusion that this makes us safe. In Dark Innocence: Book One of my trilogy, there is a scene where Kyr surrenders his pain and remorse to the Goddess. After all these years of rewriting, editing, publishing and now doing my best to let the world know about Kyr’s dark, intense, yet healing and inspiring story, that scene still touches my heart. Contemplation Questions Have you experienced that dilemma between safety and surrender? Does surrender play a role in your spirituality and/or creativity? Have you been “haunted” by an inner character in your dreams or imagination? How have you dealt with him/her? Have you tried letting them tell you their story? I’d love to hear your answers! Please leave a comment, if you are so inspired. About Dark Innocence: In an ancient world of blood sorcery and healing magic, the Soul-Drinker, a vicious necromancer-king, is draining the life from the souls of the people and of the earth itself. Worse yet, he has banished the land's rightful Goddess, and disrupted the Sacred Balance, sending the mortal and divine realms whirling toward destruction. |