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This is one of my all-time favourite quotations. and it's by W. Shakespeare in Hamlet....
'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.'
...and we have the ability to change the way we think....if we choose. Worth thinking about.
I always find it helpful to remind myself to look up and out when I'm walking. It's so easy to look down at the pavement or our feet to make sure we don't trip or slip on something, but by looking down we're encouraging ourselves to stoop, lean forward off balance and generally shorten in stature. This will cause us to to tighten our muscles in order to prevent ourselves from falling, consequently general stiffness, lower back ache, stiff neck and tight calves will become the norm. By looking up and about when we're walking we will be able to more easily keep our balance and lengthen in stature if we choose rather than shorten.
Looking out is great too as we can see so much more of life around us. Next time you're out walking experiment with looking up at everything around you and also above eye level. There are so many interesting buildings to see. Also try looking right into the distance down the road or street beyond your normal viewing distance. This is also good for our eyes as we extend our focus beyond what's close so exercising our long distance vision. It's so easy when in towns and cities to just look 2-20 metres ahead, but we could possibly look a lot further....maybe half a mile or so! It can put a different perspective on life.
Standing in the kitchen this morning making my porridge, I became increasingly aware of a point in my heel that's about 4cm forward of the back of my heel. It's located just under the ankle. My attention was drawn to it as being pretty well where my body weight should be supported when standing.
If my body weight sways forward of this so it's over the balls of my feet, then I'm actually leaning forward and there will be extra tensions involved in keeping me upright. After all, the weight of our head should go down through our neck, the weight of our shoulders and torso goes down through our pelvis and this is carried by our legs. And our leg joins the foot at the back of the foot, so this is roughly where the weight goes as gravity always works in a vertical manner.
But it's easy to get into the habit of standing with the weight of our body forward over the balls of our feet. This may be OK if we're going to run, dance or jump, but if we're just standing around making porridge or waiting in the post office queue, then our weight should be over our ankles. Leaning forwards causes a lot of strain and may be a cause for neck tension, breathing problems, aching knees and back, stiff hips, tight calves and stress....to name only a few. This habit can come about for various reasons including anxiety, impatience, willing to impress others in meetings and just by picking the habit up from parents and others of influence.
It's good to notice where our weight is going so we can make sure we're not leaning when we don't need to. I like to catch myself out leaning so I can choose to do something about it, and by bringing my weight back a bit from my ankles, I have the opportunity to reduce tensions elsewhere. This will help with calmness, confidence and general wellbeing as well as just posture.
© Noël Kingsley
This is one of my favourite oak trees. I've photographed it on a number of occasions over the last few years and I love its twisted shape. It's still living, and the foliage above it in the picture belongs to this tree. It'll probably go on for another hundred years. I've no idea how old it is, but there is a saying....'It takes three hundred years for an oak to grow, three hundred years for it to mature, and a further three hundred years to die.
I went back to this tree in the heart of Sherwood Forest on 28 December last year and photographed it covered in snow. I'll post that one when I've had chance to develop and print it. I use traditional methods of printing as I enjoy the process and also feel I can get the subtle quality of image that I'm looking for best, with rich grey tones and a sense of nostalgia and romance. Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood's domain is one of my favourite places.
I just received this quote in an email from a friend....
"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing you will be successful."
-Albert Schweitzer
The oldest living species of tree apparently offers us the chance to maintain a good memory through to old age. Ginko Biloba facilitates oxygenation of the body's tissues, including the brain and can help avoid memory loss, Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia and indeed improve memory and alertness. However, it will be unsuitable for people with high blood pressure as it thins the blood. It will not have an immediate effect but over a period of months there should be some improvement. It's available as a supplement or homeopathically.
Foods that provide essential fatty acids which include Omega 3,6 and 9 are necessary for healthy brain function and these include oily fish such as mackerel and shellfish, flaxseed (linseed), soya oil, canola (rapeseed) oil, hemp oil, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, leafy vegetables, and walnuts. I'll eat more of these myself I think and also consider a supplement too. My family has a history of Alzheimer's disease so I'm going to take precautions for myself. These are also available as a supplement so will be of help along with a good multi-vitamin.
I am more than aware these days that we may not be getting the same levels of nutrients from our foods as our ancestors may have, as a result of modern farming techniques, so maybe a supplement would be beneficial.. But remembering to drink 1.5-2 litres of water a day is a wonderfully simple and cheap and essential way of making sure that we're well oxygenated and properly hydrated. Breathing too.... Let's not forget to keep breathing, particularly when we're under stress. Simple precautions and care taken now are likely to help us maintain our health for the future.
I noticed that Francis Ford Coppola's operatic adaptation of Mario Puzo's dynastic Mafia Saga is going to be shown again on Channel Five UK television again tomorrow evening. The Godfather is such a great film that defined gangster movies for decades to come.
I read with interest that along with heavyweights James Caan, Robert Duvall and Oscar-winning Marlon Brando, it gave Al Pacino his career-,making role. Apparently this role was declined by Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Robert Redford. But how glad I am that Pacino got the part. He's not a big guy, indeed his stature is diminutive with his slouch, rounded shoulders and stoop. It is precisely because he isn't all muscle like others that makes his performance as an up and coming gang leader all the more sinister. For me, this is particularly noticable in the sequels. How body language plays its part.
A friend just sent me this great Mutts Cartoom from January 8th....
I just came across a quote I'd written down inside the front of a little book. My friend Ronald Harris who's a well known Hypnotherapist in Scotland told me this popular phrase in psychology.... 'The expected sensation tends to be realised.' And in his own words, 'If you believe something will happen, you will bring about the circumstances to make it happen.' It's such a great saying. I need to remind myself of that more often.
Watching TV can be a great way of relaxing after a long day, and a great waste of time. I'm trying my damnedest not to watch any more Celebrity Big Brother having fallen lazily into the trap on a couple of occasions, as it's so despairingly awful yet addictive. But after a long 12 hour day, television is the easiest veggie way of unwinding. However it has its dangers. Constantly focusing on the screen can have dramatically harmful effects on our eyesight.
As Dr. M.S. Agarwal says in his Complete Book of Eye Care, 'the three common faults of vision are: not using peripheral vision, staring (a non-focused, unblinking condition)and not moving the eyes sufficiently in their sockets. All these conditions are there while watching TV. Therefore TV and Video viewing should be restricted to 40 to 50 minutes especially for children. The viewing should be done at a correct distance (at least 10 feet) and in the correct posture (sitting upright). If these habits are formed in childhood, they can help prevent many problems in the future.'
Keeping our eyes moving is a strange concept as we probably don't ever think about such things. Indeed, if we wear glasses, then the frame of the spectacles create a perimeter border beyond which we rarely venture. They keep ourselves looking straight ahead and our peripheral vision suffers.
Continue reading "Eyesight and TV"
At one time we may have gone to finishing schools to learn amongst other things, how to balance a book as well as a glass of water on our heads. But even with such acrobatic methods we are still susceptible to slouching and stiffening just as much as usual if not even more in our endeavours to stop it spilling. There is nothing natural about such a stance and we can get into an awful mess. So much for that!
What we really want is the poise of a young child who naturally stands at her full height and is free and expansive, all at the same time. That quality is not being displayed here. Droopy and collapsed shoulders are the habits we want to get out of. Lessons in the Alexander Technique help to promote quite a different quality and one that is closer to how nature intended us to be, free and expansive and not a book in sight.
We are all very different from one another, unique in every way as our genes now tell us. I meet people in my practice for Alexander Technique sessions and again I will find that although we've got problems of posture that can be considered similar to others, we are completely individuals with our own unique patterns of muscle tensions and habits. Apparently snowflakes are completely unique too.....
From the earliest memories of our childhood, many of us can remember hearing the phrase "no two snowflakes are alike". This discovery was made in the small rural town of Jericho, Vermont by Wilson A. Bentley (1865-1931) affectionately called The Snowflake Man. He became the fist person to photograph a snowflake in 1882 and went on to photograph over 5,000 in his lifetime, all with their own unique structure. 
Have a look for yourself.....they're so beautiful.
I printed this photograph of St Nicholas Church, Nether Winchenden, Buckinghamshire again at the weekend. As it happens, I'd lost my notes on this photograph and couldn't remember the location or name of the medieval church. But by reading the inscription on the 17h century grave stone...Dorothy Tyringham and Thomas Tyringham, I was able to do a Google search and managed to identify it. How great is that!
The photograph was taken on my small Leica M6 and tripod mounted for stability and exposed for 8 seconds at f11. I use a Pyro based developer called Dixactol and this gives a wonderfully rich range of grey tones.
I've just woken from my siesta and it never ceases to amaze me how wonderful it is to feel refreshed and well slept in the middle of the day. I guess some people experience this each day if they get up at noon, but I'm up at 5.30am.
It's about fifteen years since I started having a siesta and I've never looked back. I probably had siestas before then, but they were unintended as I fell asleep at my desk. When I acknowledged that there was no escape and my low point of the day happened just after lunch, I succumbed to the elderly and wimpish activity of actually purposefully putting my head down. Now I plan it into my daily schedule. It's just that I feel so much better, more alert and able to give my best in the afternoon if I do so and I owe it to all my clients who come after lunch. I've even been known to cut short a lunch meeting in order to get my siesta in before the afternoon clients start arriving.
But I've found recently, by increasing my water intake to around 2-3 litres a day, I am less likely to need a siesta to the same degree than before but having said that I'll still not miss out. Water is so energising and food can be so dehydrating it's important to drink lots. But taking a siesta not only recharges the batteries, it helps reduce the chance of heart disease. It's just a good thing to do.
Texting is such a big part of our daily lives, it's important that it doesn't become a pain in the neck, literally. So while we're keen to get the text written as quickly as possible, we should also give a little thought as to how we're doing it in order to avoid unnecessary strain. Screens are so small that we need to get close to it to see what we're doing, but rather than stooping downwards in a way that will cause us problems, we'll manage better if we can bring it up towards us, so helping to avoid the harmful slouch or stoop.
Pick up your mobile and as you do, free your neck by allowing your nose to drop a millimetre or so; think your neck loose. Allow your shoulders to be relaxed and wide. Raise your phone higher so that you can see what you’re doing rather than dropping your head and shoulders downwards in a stoop.
Be aware of how you are holding it. Are you gripping or tightening unnecessarily? Relax your grip; the phone won’t jump away! Press your keys gently whilst keeping your neck free of tension. Avoid frowning and straining to see. Bring it up closer to you if need be. Be aware of being upright and loose….and enjoy the process of sending your message.
This is an edited extract from my book Perfect Poise, Perfect Life by Hodder & Stoughton.
As Jamie says on his Really Useful Fitness Blog Water is essential for good health and helps to maximise the fat burning process. We need around two litres of water a day and in summer we should drink more. Water gets your metabolism up and running, so a glass on waking is a good thing, and so is a glass before bed to help our system cope with the day's meals.
It's my experience that a good glass of water will clear the head, wake me up, make me happy, renew my energy levels if I'm flagging and calm me down! I also find that by drinking two litres a day helps me keep freer, more supple and springy in my joints, so it's good for posture.
Adequate water also helps to keep us feeling and looking young as it hydrates the skin as much as any other part of our body. It helps to flush out toxins, reduce the risk of heart disease, regulate our body temperature, keep the bowels working regularly and help avoid kidney stones. If I'm hungry, I'll opt for a glass of water before food just to ensure I'm not confusing the needs of my body as the need for water can be sensed as hunger. So this approach can help with weight loss. Not bad for what comes out of a tap!
Although we're not direct descendants of gorillas, it's interesting to see how we have evolved as a species from our ape-like ancestors. How much more upright and differently proportioned we have become given the needs of modern day living.
Our arms particularly have changed as we no longer need to use them for balance, so over millions of years of evolution they have reduced in size and weight in relation to our overall size so they are lighter and easier to carry around. Now we stand on two feet rather than four and we can use our hands to do many dexterous things of which Kong can only dream.
Our skull has increased in size at the front allowing for our growing brain and higher intelligence. The vestibular mechanism in our inner ear that helps us balance has even rotated around 90 degrees to cope with being on just two feet.
Our facial muscles have also changed along with our language of expression, so smiling where we bear our teeth is not just a sign of aggression, but of friendship...a new thing that King Kong has not yet got the hang of.
But it's interesting to see the gorilla's ability to use cortical opposition, as he gently curls his fingers opposite his thumb so they can can clasp, enabling him to pick up and hold Naomi Watts with ease. This is an activity that we uniquely share with apes and gorillas and had a large part to play in our ability to use primitive tools, helping us survive where other species became extinct. And today it lets us hold mugs of tea, beer and shopping bags. How different yet similar we still are....
With so many things we want to do in this brand New Year, there's a danger that overload causes a jam in our systems and nothing gets done at all. Nikki has decided to cut her new habits down to one a month instead of five a month. Exercise is her focus and rather than pushing for an hour a day, she's moderating it to 40 minutes. And a good idea too I think! This lady is on a mission, and I'm with her 100 percent.
One thing at a time lets us focus on what we're doing, and although multi-tasking is the vogue, I think we'll probably get better results if we can apply our mind properly to the task. If we mindlessly go at exercises by just repetition, we'll end up doing them in the habitual way which may well cause problems or injuries, depending on our postural habits. We can avoid creating problems for ourselves when we are running if we give some consideration to how we do it. Lessons in the Alexander Technique can help enormously with avoiding injury and help us enjoy our sport to the full. One of my colleagues Malcolm Balk specialises in applying this technique to running and has Running tall workshops. 
If we choose to think about the way we're doing it, then maybe we can help ourselves even further. How about if we choose to make less effort as we pull those oars or run the treadmill? What happens if we think loose and free as we run? Maybe we'll use less effort and burn fat instead of turning it into muscle as the more effort we make, the muscles will develop in strength to cope. As we run we can think not only being free but also of lengthening in stature. This will help us be more dynamic and run more efficiently. Little and often is also a good way of proceeding. So instead of blasting away in one long slog then leaving it for a few days or a week, maybe smaller doses of more regularly will increase our abilities, stamina and improve our performance.
I walked along here in Dovedale, Derbyshire with the sun blasting through the trees on New Year's Day. It was fantastic. But walking on ice is a precarious occupation, particularly when we've only got two legs to stand on. And although the tendency can be to stoop down to watch our feet, it's best if we can remain tall, upright and loose. Stiffening and bracing only upsets our balance. But it's great to get the clear, fresh air about us!
It's that time of year when we may decide to start, stop, renew, change, do more, do less of something or other in our lives with the view to improvement. I've certainly got a few things I want to change. But we needn't wait until the 1st January to do this although the date acts as a useful stimulus.
Whatever we are intending to do though, involves us making choices. To not make these choices would probably result in us carrying on in the same old habitual manner as we have done all last year. Habits come easy, but changing them takes thought and the commitment to follow through on our choice.
One of the most profound choices we could make would be to improve our posture as this can have a dramatic effect on virtually every part of our lives. Our posture can affect how people relate to us, how we feel about ourselves, our external appearance, body language, our co-ordination and how well we perform in sport and how well we can speak in public. It affects how we carry our children, how we sit at the desk and how stressed we feel.
When it comes down to it from a posture point of view, we are probably better placed to help ourselves than any expert we may pay to fix us. Physiologically we have all the necessary functions in place. Our brain is wired to every muscle by the amazing communications network of our nervous system. So if we make a choice to release our neck tension or relax our shoulders, we will have an effect. It may take a few moments and some repeated thought, but we can communicate throughout our body in this way to make positive changes. So too, if we think of our head to go upwards and our back to lengthen, then we're tapping into our inbuilt instinct for natural poise, and we'll regain some of what we had as a young child. It's as simple as that, or not as the case may be, because we may be dealing with long established habits. But how great it feels to be free of them!
When it comes down to it, it's all about choices and we're in the best place to make those choices for ourselves. Happy New Year.
