SuperBrain Yoga #superbrainyoga #duality #DivineMind #ScienceofMind #SpiritualLiving

Recently, I discovered a treatment that is new and interesting. It is called Super Brain Yoga, which is known to treat anything from the simplest restoration of lost memory capacity—to helping mentally ill and cognitively incapacitated patients to attain the mental capacity to move, act differently, and sustain new skills. If you research this on the Web, you will discover the many different kinds of patients it has helped. The theory is quite interesting. I’m convinced enough to try it myself, so I thought I would share.

This practice is based on the principles of subtle energy and ear acupuncture. Basically, SuperBrain Yoga allows energy from your lower chakras–or energy centers–to move up to the forehead and crown chakras. When this happens, this energy is transformed into subtle energy, which is utilized by the brain to enhance its proper functioning.

Some of the benefits of SuperBrain Yoga:

• It energizes and activates the brain by synchronizing Alpha brain waves;
• It reduces psychological stress and improves psychological stability;
• It results in greater intelligence and creativity; and
• It promotes proper functionality of the brain.

Best of all, SuperBrain Yoga is really easy to learn. You can do it in just three minutes a day.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

This form of yoga should be done in the morning, so that your concentration and stress relief will apply throughout the whole day. Follow these seven steps:

1. Remove all jewelry and stand up straight.
2. Place your tongue on the roof of your mouth right behind your teeth (as if you were about to say “La”). Leave it there throughout the exercise.
3. Take your left hand and cross your upper body to hold of your right earlobe with thumb and forefinger. Make sure that the thumb is in front.
4. Now take your right hand across your upper body to hold of your left earlobe. Again, make sure that the thumb is in front. At this point you’re pressing both earlobes simultaneously. Make sure your left arm is close to your chest and inside your right arm.
5. Inhale through your nose and slowly squat down toward the ground, being careful not to become imbalanced or hurt your knees. The requirement is to bend, not to overdo anything.
6. Hold your breath and do not exhale until you start making your way back up to a standing position.
7. Repeat this squatting action between 15 and 21 times. Remember to keep holding your earlobes and to keep your tongue touching the roof of your mouth throughout the entire exercise.

Tips and warnings: You may not notice a change immediately, but after a few weeks an improvement in concentration should become apparent. Once you realize the benefits of Super Brain Yoga, you will be recommending it to friends and family.

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Are you in need of Life or Spiritual Coaching? I've been a life coach and clinical hypnotherapist and minister of New Thought for 25 years. I do my sessions online, so you can even have your session in bed, so that you can go directly to sleep during the hypnosis session. You must have a laptop or a notebook to do these sessions, either on Skype or Facetime. You can give me a call at 954-253-6493. My fee is $95 for an hour.

You can find all of my Books by Category at http://www.bosebastian.com/new-page/ All of these books have been birthed from my own spiritual growth. I guarantee you'll enjoy how each will help you maintain a positive mind, body, and spirit. Also, if you click on the Amazon site, you'll see all of my 15 book— Cookbooks, Novels, Self-Help Books, a Yoga DVD! All great gifts from your friend—Bo Sebastian. Simply go to this link at www.Amazon.com or type in my name. Find great gifts for yourself, family members, and friends by supporting another friend in the process! Thank you.

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A Single Session w/Bo Sebastian

What would you feel like if everyday you loved yourself a little more…

What would you be if you loved and gave compassion unconditionally… to yourself first and then to others?

If you could imagine yourself so connected to God Source that everything you thought and every action you completed you trusted could heal yourself and, ultimately the world around you?

Create a Better Life with One Healing Session with Bo Sebastian

Call 954-253-6493 (All Sessions are done via PHONE, SKYPE or FACETIME.)

www.bosebastian.com

Bo works with people on SKYPE and FaceTime all over the world. He is taking new clients now. Call 954-253-6493 for information.

Take the time to look at Bo’s bookshelf of self-help books, novels, healing downloads, and yoga DVD. All of Bo’s books help people such as you, make SIGNIFICANT CHANGE with habits, find your SOULMATE, your PASSION, reach YOUR DREAMS, and dictate your own FUTURE.

Chosen to show his new hypnotherapeutic techniques on The Learning Channel (TLC) and also given the opportunity to teach at the world conference for Learning, and received the award of excellence for Helping Overcome Obesity in Nashville, Bo Sebastian is the writer and director of Finding Authentic You and Uncommon Gay Spiritual Warrior. Go directly to Amazon/Amazon Kindle to buy any of his wonderfully inspired books: ]

Swami-Gee! Yoga Without Spirituality #swamiji

I went to a yoga retreat recently. The teacher was known as Swamiji. I thought that this was his name, until I went to another retreat and the teacher—a different man—was also called Swamiji. I asked the pertinent question I should have asked the first time: What does Swamiji mean? The answer was basic.

If the title “-ji” is placed at the end of a person’s name, it is a sign of respect or admiration. It may also be used in a familiar way to show genuine, respectful affection. A common example is to call one’s spiritual guide “Swamiji.” So, many Swamiji’s are present all over the world, helping us understand the Indian, Hindi traditions more affluently in the U.S. and around the world.

As a yoga instructor for over 25 years and the author of my own yoga video, “Boga Fitness,” you would think I would understand some of the more pertinent tenants of the Hindi and Ayurvedic tradition of yoga. But, for me and most people in the Western world, we would rather know just some of the tradition, not have to chant every time we practice, and only take the part of the culture that fits our own spiritual paradigm. Only now, am I investigating the more intricate facets of the Hindi belief system, more out of curiosity, than a deficit or hole in my own spiritual life.

I would recommend that you do this with all cultures. Spirituality, not religion, is an intimate walk into another’s culture, not just belief practice. To really understand Swamiji’s all over the world, we would have to walk a mile in their shoes in the caste system of India, which I’m not willing to do anytime soon. I went to ONE almost completely Indian retreat, and if I had to eat one more bowl of raw oats and drink one more bowl of Dal soup, I was going to have painful digestive problems for a week. Some parts of the tradition simply don’t fit my way of life or comfort zone. That is perfectly okay.

Most yogis from India are completely vegetarian. Perhaps, this isn’t a good fit for you in your complicated and fast-paced life. Others sit for hours in the lotus position. For me, my back has sustained an injury since a bus wreck at eight years old. No matter how hard I tried to learn to sit in this position, I was completely challenged—more so than sitting quietly. Gently, I allowed myself the reality that sitting would have to be more comfortable for me with a back support, or I would never be able to meditate for long periods of time.

So, taking the best parts of any religion and adding them to your practice is a great way to allow your spirituality to be an amalgam of great theory and practice from all traditions. I find this part of searching for what truly benefits me as a sentient being to be the best part of my own spiritual life.

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This book is an amalgam of spiritual practices with 365 Discoveries to be read daily to help move you past your blocks to a peaceful, joyful, and prosperous future.

[Take the time to look at Bo’s bookshelf of self-help books, novels, healing downloads, and yoga DVD. All of Bo’s books helps people such as you, make SIGNIFICANT CHANGE with habits, find your SOULMATE, your PASSION, reach YOUR DREAMS, and dictate your own FUTURE. Bo works with people on SKYPE and FaceTime all over the world. He is taking new clients now. Call 954-253-6493 for information or email him at bosebastian5@gmail.com.

Chosen to show his new hypnotherapeutic techniques on The Learning Channel (TLC) and also given the opportunity to teach at the world conference for Learning, and received the award of excellence for Helping Overcome Obesity in Nashville, Bo Sebastian is the writer and director of Finding Authentic You and Uncommon Gay Spiritual Warrior. Go directly to Amazon/Amazon Kindle: ]

Stretching to the Edge of Your Personal Growth #change #effectivechange

Stretching to the Edge of Your Personal Growth #change #effectivechange

At 87, Michelangelo was asked if he had any more personal goals or desires. He answered in Latin: “I am still learning.” Michelangelo was someone who desired to live the next moment, the next day, the next year. When any of us stop learning, we spiritually, emotionally, and then physically die. When a plant stops growing for some reason in nature, if not for just a season to rest, then the plant or tree is usually about to die. This metaphor hold true for our human existence.

Change looks like a good yoga workout. When you begin, you center with breathing exercises, and find a connection from your mind to your body. In other words, you become the observer and parent of the body, so that you don’t make actions that will hurt your fragile physical self.

Then we begin to make relaxing movement. This action is slow and meticulous. We begin with the spine, which connects the entire body. We end by rolling the head, which uses the neck and has hundreds of muscle attachments on each side of the occipital bones behind the head and at the top of the neck. This head movement is one of the best indicators of how stressed and tight the body has become. Often, I’ll get to a part of the movement that feels stuck or hurt. I stop at the point, breathe into the pain, and let oxygen flow to the muscles, before I begin to move into the pain.

From there, we move into the Asana, which is connecting or holding positions to strengthen and feel the entire body. The Asana or movement portion of the practice is not the most important part of yoga, the meditation is. The Asana is, by nature, the part of the practice where we identify our God Body, which is the conduit or the house for our spirit. As we have entered into a place of divine connection from mind to body, we learn to use our minds to control the fragile and ephemeral body. If we are aware and awake, we learn the most tenuous part of the practice, which is coming to the edge of pain, and waiting for the body to relax into a pose, to move deeper and more intricately into the ephemeral body.

All of this is a divine metaphor for change. In life, we always stand at the precipice of pain, trying to decide whether or not we want to face it—head on, dive in, or our best choice, to wait for spirit and your highest self to accept the problem, then gentle begin to make change. If we don’t face the issue and back away, then we never have the opportunity to learn our divine lessons. If we dive into the pain, our existence gets hurt and submerges into the deep, almost drowning from too much mental and physical stress. But, if we stand at the precipice of pain, waiting, we move slowly into the pain to get past it.

We are on the earth to create beauty. This is impossible if your mind is stuck in the past or feeling pain. Face it first. Stand at the edge of it and wait for God and your highest self to make a plan. Grieve if you must! But gently wade into the waters of change and begin to slowly move through it until you liberate yourself and your world from the obstacles that hold you from your divine destiny.

* Bo Sebastian is a Hypnotherapist and Life & Health Coach, available for private sessions to QUIT SMOKING, Lose Weight, New Lap-Band Hypnosis for Weight Loss, CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE! at 615-400-2334 or http://bosebastian.com/Home_Page.php Please feel free to comment and/or sign up to receive your blog sent to you directly or stream with an RSS Feed. Please spread the word by liking the page or sharing this with your friends. 

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TOOLS FOR CHANGE:

Go to Storefront to purchase any of the following: www.shop.bosebastian.com

Introduction to Meditation

Smoke Cessation mp3

Weight Loss mp3

Hypnotic Lap Band surgery Mp3

Insomnia mp3

Eternal Om mp3

Meditation Music mp3

Guide to Meditation mp3

Healing the Body mp3

And my “Lessons from the Heart” book ready for your download purchase.

Go to Home Page: www.BoSebastian.com

Refusing to Age

Refusing to Age

I read an article recently that talked of all the ways the body ages and atrophies to cause a hunched back in old age. Two of the main causes of that restriction are in the hip flexors and iliopsoas muscles.

If you feel one inch to the left of your right hip bone, then about two inches down toward your feet from there, and press inward, fairly hard, you will feel the iliopsoas and some of the hip flexor muscles. This pocket of muscles begins to restrict early on in the aging process. Most people, who do not stretch or do yoga, experience back problems as a result of this connective muscle from the leg to the spine. If it is not stretched, the lower back suffers considerably over time.

I recommend doing a Google search for iliopsoas exercises to find some stretches that will be suited for you. If you can make it to a yoga class, ask the teacher to show a few iliopsoas-specific exercises.

I remember as a young child I would always look at the children of aging adults. I wondered if the child would someday look like his/her parent. A couple of times I stopped dating someone because of the scary reality that my partner would be bald, decrepit, and riddled with disease. Ah, youth! I would never be so rash today.

Of course, the reality of someone having all the same diseases as a parent is slim, but without changing your life’s course toward health, you may likely be on the same path as your parents, even though you had tried not to follow in their footsteps.

My dad was very arthritic and had terrible stomach problems from as early as 35 years old. I intended to do yoga and keep from having problems with my back. I intended to be a vegetarian and health fanatic so that I wouldn’t end up with his stomach problem. However, I ended up with both of his problems—sometimes, I think worse than he had them. Go figure.

One thing I absolutely know for sure, though, is that, though I have the same physical ailments, my quality of life is much better than my father’s. He ached and moaned about his back and leg pain and stomach constantly. I believe I have 90% of this aging under control because I have been diligent in taking care of myself, probably to the detriment of other areas of my life. But, my mantra has always been, you can have all the money in the world and not be at peace or in good health to enjoy it. If I had a choice of one or the other, I’d choose peace and health every time. 

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Go to Week 3 of the “Year to CLEAR Challenge” at www.Bosebastian.com

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Below is information that I will be sharing for about a month, as not every person on my list reads the blog every day. If you have already read it, just skip over it. Thanks for understanding.

A Year to CLEAR Challenge:

(Please Know: You Can Join Us At Any Point in the Year Challenge.)

The masses search outward for things that qualify them as a person, but I always go inward for that which quantifies me for greatness. At twenty-five I preached on street corners in NYC as an in-the-closet Pentecostal minister. One day I heard a still small voice say, ‘God cannot be contained in a book or a law or even in a religion. Dig deeper, reach further to find me, and you will find your authentic Self.’”

A Year to CLEAR Challenge!

The acronym CLEAR stands for (Compassionate, Loving, Enthusiastic, And Relationship-Ready). The goal of this project is to engulf readers in a weekly study that will transform them by removing blocks, promote self-growth, and give them wings to fly freely into daily life. Each week, by going to BoSebastian.com and choosing the Year to CLEAR Challenge tab, a new challenge or thought to provoke conversation, growth, and group functionality.

My vision is to make Finding Authentic You the book to have in your Kindle or on your computer. The book is a comprehensive look at growth—spiritually, mentally, and physically.

As a yoga teacher and student of the Ayurvedic tradition, I bring to the table understanding of physical challenges, the ability to overcome mental problems with Life & Health Coaching, as well as hypnotherapy, and expertise in meditation and spirituality as a minister.

The combination of all three in one book with an interactive connection to like-minded readers, for one year, is what makes this Year to CLEAR Challenge a must-do for every spiritual seeker.

The One-Year Approach to Change

No one believes he or she can change overnight. But success in change comes from the metaphors of nature. Seasonally, life changes all around us in nature. Finding Authentic You offers a gradual change perspective, looking at the triune aspects of change as in yoga: Body, Mind and Spirit.

Accessing the ability to change and finding yourself actually pursuing change must be a daily search, which I call getting to the “observer mind.”

In this frontal cortex of the brain we find the anatomy of change and the power to counter every negative trigger of the human process. The workings of Hypnosis, NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) are all positive actions to help the mind and body flow to a positive space for change.

Every aspect of FINDING AUTHENTIC YOU fulfills this constant need for diffusing the negative past and dreaming of a fulfilling future.

Step 1: Recognize That Change is Inevitable

Step 2: Release from Resistance to Change

Step 3: Understanding Change and Allow Spirit to Define It

Step 4: A History Lesson—About You

Step 5: Look at Your Past with Compassion

Step 6: Making a Strong Commitment to Change

Step 7: Dream Your Fabulous Future

Go to www.bosebastian.com for Week One Challenge:

TOOLS FOR CHANGE:

Go to Storefront to buy any of the following or make a donation to Finding Authentic You: www.shop.bosebastian.com

·       Introduction to Meditation

·       Smoke Cessation mp3

·       Weight Loss mp3

·       Hypnotic Lap Band surgery Mp3

·       Insomnia mp3

·       Eternal Om mp3

·       Meditation Music mp3

·       Guide to Meditation mp3

·       Healing the Body mp3

·       And my “Lessons from the Heart” book ready for your download purchase.

Go to Home Page: www.BoSebastian.com

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Bo Sebastian is a Hypnotherapist and Life & Health Coach, available for private sessions to QUIT SMOKING, Lose Weight, New Lap-Band Hypnosis for Weight Loss, CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE! at 615-400-2334 or www.bosebastian.com. Please feel free to comment and/or sign up to receive your blog sent to you directly or stream with an RSS Feed.

I am trying to spread the word about my blog and I need your help. Please let your friends know it exists, if it gives you hope and blesses you each day.  I would be greatly pleased for you to share anything that you read by clicking the share button in Facebook.com/bo.sebastian, or add it to your Twitter at BoSebastian; or LinkedIN at Bosebastian5@gmail.com; or find this blog home at www.FindingAuthenticYou.com. Any of my books can be found on Amazon or Barnes and Nobel, just by typing my name in the search header. Also, be looking for “Finding Authentic You, 7 Steps to Effective Change” with a Year to CLEAR (C-larity, L-ove, E-nthusiasm A-nd R-elationship-Ready) on my Website in the Webstore. Thanks!

You Are Still Good

You Are Still Good

What made you think you weren’t still good? Did you happen to take a look at your expiration date this morning and think: hmmm, that once-tender meat is looking a little fatty and old? Or did you notice that your joints weren’t working the same way that they used to? Perhaps, tomorrow the warranty is up on your knees.

We absolutely only have a certain amount of time on this earth. No one knows how long that is. From the moment we come out of the birth canal, we begin to age. Did you ever notice how nice a baby’s breath smells? Compare that to your own in the morning. Something is dead in there. But what?

Everything that we think in our minds is expressing itself in our bodies. Are you thinking sick thoughts?

I’m not one of those fanatics who believes that all sickness comes from the thoughts we think. But I’m willing to stretch out beyond my comfort zone and say that what we think certainly impacts our bodies.

If you think that you are too old to exercise, then you haven’t tried chair yoga or bouncing on a fitness ball. If you are sedentary and can’t get up off your chair, there are compression exercises you can do with your hands and legs. Okay, if you can’t move your arms and legs, exercise your mind.

In theory, yoga is more of a meditative practice than an asana (movement) practice by virtue of its purpose. Yoga was meant to make you acutely aware of your body and breath, so that you could let the physical go during meditation. The yogis believed that God is the breath. Breath is what animates and moves the physical body. When you die, the first thing that happens is you stop breathing. So, it stands to good reason that something vastly holy and auspicious happens when we discover the meaning of the breath.

In most meditative practices, the objective is to simply watch the breath and not control it at all. In this process we become one with it or observers of it. Either way we alter the mental state enough to enter into a new paradigm of thought—nirvana, some call it.

If I can reach nirvana as a 53 years old, then I am just as useful and powerful as I was when I could do ten pirouettes and split jumps. Trust me, power jazz ain’t happening anymore. My body has its limitations. But my mind certainly doesn’t. I’m willing to believe that today, my very essence is more vital than it was when I was in my twenties. I believe this because every day, as my body diminishes in power, I become stronger spiritually.

Perhaps, that’s exactly the way the Creator intended. This way, we will have learned and experienced the world when we are young. Then realize that the world has little to offer compared to a spiritual connection rich with peace and unlimited joy. In fact, when this spiritual realization occurs, our physical lives become richer. Not only do we understand and know the difference between good and bad, but we have the knowledge to choose what’s best for us experientially.

I have never wanted to go back in time and relive my past. I still believe that, even though my body gets closer to its expiration date, I still have a lot of good and wonderful days ahead. You can believe that too.

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Bo Sebastian is a Hypnotherapist and Life & Health Coach, available for private sessions to QUIT SMOKING, Lose Weight, New Lap-Band Hypnosis for Weight Loss, CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE! at 615-400-2334 or www.bosebastian.com. FOR COMMENTS: Go to the Bo Sebastian link under the title and there is a place there to create a comment. Thanks.

I am trying to spread the word about my blog and I need your help. Please let your friends know it exists, if it gives you hope and blesses you each day. If you are looking to enter the RSS or Atom Feed, you have to go to the home page of the blog to get there. Also, I write this Blog as a part of Finding Authentic You Ministries. If you would like to send an offering or a tithe, your donation would greatly be appreciated: 5001 Maywood Drive, Nashville, TN 37211. And I would be greatly pleased for you to share anything that you read by clicking the share button in Facebook.com/bo.sebastian, or add it to your Twitter at BoSebastian; or LinkedIN at Bosebastian5@gmail.com; or find this blog home at www.FindingAuthenticYou.com. Any of my books can be found on Amazon or Barnes and Nobel, just by typing my name in the search header.

Your Restrictive Circuitry

Your Restrictive Circuitry

I have knee-jerk reactions to life that don’t correspond with the way I believe. For instance, I know that there is Unlimited Source of Good for me always. But when my roof was blown off by the fierce wind, I had a $5000 car bill, my plumbing went out, I had to replace two appliances, and had to pay $1500 worth of taxes I didn’t know I owed, all in the same month, my level of belief diminished. I didn’t want it to decrease, but fear surfaced as my mental circuitry couldn’t handle the idea that my bank account and God’s bank account were one.

The premise that we are humans living in a human body with the circuitry of a human is important for one reason only: So, that we can understand the limitations of our own physical self as we become empowered spiritually. If you can begin to understand that you are an individuated spirit simply “housed” in a human body, instead of the latter mentality, you can begin to gain strength and power over your own human circuitry.

The goal of every spiritual being should be to train the mind to understand and embrace the triune being: Body, Mind and Spirit.

We can scientifically and psychologically coordinate the individual states of mind with the different parts of the brain that govern the three varieties of thought: a.) the body’s voice is the fight or flight mode of thinking; generally, we consider this mode to be the reptilian brain or lowest on the totem pole of spiritual-mind practice; b.) the deductive part of the mind, sometimes considered to be the amygdala part of the brain is where we rationalize and take what is already known for fact and parse out the future and, also, play with past; and c.) lastly, the part of the brain which is, in my estimation, our spiritual conduit—the frontal cortex of the brain—is where we imagine, create, and see pictures in our mind; it is where we are directly connected to God Source.

For each individual to understand her/himself, you must get in touch with each of these aspects of the mind. Yoga, which basically means the yoking of the mind, body and spirit, is the perfect breeding ground for experientially finding those three attributes of yourself that connect you as one to complete your total authentic being.

If all you are is spiritual, and you have no grounding to your body and to the earth, essentially, you really are not living out the human experience as God intended. Reach deeper to discover the entirety of life to find that you are powerful yet vulnerable, smart yet silly, wired to health even though you may experience some pain and incapacitation at times.

When we live in the present moment, in the now, we discover this full range of life—just as it is—perfectly presenting itself in the exact moment we need it, experiencing it, and learning from it. To the spiritually open mind, this belief brings you a tremendous amount of joy and peace.

I feel as if I am a living example of finding a balance in the body, mind, and spirit. I have traveled down many paths to find a place of serenity and peace in my own mind. This could be likened to traveling the world to find the Holy Grail, when it was inside all the time.

Our powers and our strengths are in recognizing the limitations of our human circuitry. This actually empowers the spirit to be stronger, wiser, and become more of a conduit for God, as we realize that without the connection to spirit we embrace only a miniscule amount of the power we could have as an individual human cut off from the whole.

Find your peace in take your individual “piece” of the human puzzle and place it in the only empty space that you fit into in this universe. There—and only there—will you find your authentic self.

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Bo Sebastian is a Hypnotherapist and Life & Health Coach, available for private sessions to QUIT SMOKING, Lose Weight, New Lap-Band Hypnosis for Weight Loss, CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE! at 615-400-2334 or www.bosebastian.com.

I am trying to spread the word about my blog and I need your help. Please let your friends know it exists, if it gives you hope and blesses you each day. If you are looking to enter the RSS or Atom Feed, you have to go to the home page of the blog to get there. Also, I write this Blog as a part of Finding Authentic You Ministries. If you would like to send an offering or a tithe, your donation would greatly be appreciated: 5001 Maywood Drive, Nashville, TN 37211. And I would be greatly pleased for you to share anything that you read by clicking the share button in Facebook.com/bo.sebastian, or add it to your Twitter at BoSebastian; or LinkedIN at Bosebastian5@gmail.com; or find this blog home at www.FindingAuthenticYou.com. Any of my books can be found on Amazon or Barnes and Nobel, just by typing my name in the search header.

Grandma Goes Bowling

Grandma Goes Bowling

Tonight, my mother decided that, as a fun thing to do, we would go bowling with four middle-aged adults, two young children, and one friend who wasn’t playing.

My mother was an avid bowler as a young woman. She averaged 160 for a long time in her league playing years. I don’t believe she has played in many years. Her expectation, though, even though she is almost 81 years old, was that she would play exactly like she did when she was young. She got up for her turn, took her ball in her right hand, firmly clutching it with her left. She walked slowly to the foul line, and jams the ball backward, then lunges forward to throw the ball.

Her expectation was that the ball would go to the center. To her dismay, it went into the gutter. Not once, not twice, but eight times! She had a zero for four frames. The disappointment on her face made me see, perhaps for the first time, how much my mother didn’t realize how old she was or her limitations. Every day she wakes up expecting her body to act as if she were forty and treats it that way, as well.

I believe that imagining that you are younger than your age isn’t a bad thing, but let’s face it; as our bodies age, they require our attention in a new way. Each day we have to listen to our muscles, our organs, and reach toward our capacity without pushing too hard.

In yoga you learn to listen to your body in a different way than most people are used to. When you stretch deep into your muscles, you must use your mind to control your breath. As you do this, slowing the breath to four to five counts in and four to five counts out, causes your blood pressure to lower and your heart rate to slow. When this happens, your body doesn’t expect that you will hurt it. Your body learns to trust that you will not break it. So, the practice of stretching ends up being a time when the body learns to trust the mind.

If you think your body is 40 and you are actually 60, your body is not going to trust how you treat it. As that happens, muscles tighten, blood flows slows, and your oxygen levels decrease in an unhealthy way.

My lesson for the day is that you listen to your body and respect the age you are by taking care of your muscles and listening to the limitations that aging brings to the body. Perhaps, by doing a practice such as yoga, you can regain some of your strength and also your mobility.

The objective, though, is for your own body to trust you enough so that it doesn’t strain or tighten when you utilize your strength. When your body remains pliable, your limitations get greater.  

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Bo Sebastian is a Hypnotherapist and Life & Health Coach, available for private sessions to QUIT SMOKING, Lose Weight, New Lap-Band Hypnosis for Weight Loss, CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE! at 615-400-2334 or www.bosebastian.com.

I am trying to spread the word about my blog and I need your help. Please let your friends know it exists, if it gives you hope and blesses you each day. If you are looking to enter the RSS or Atom Feed, you have to go to the home page of the blog to get there. Also, I write this Blog as a part of Finding Authentic You Ministries. If you would like to send an offering or a tithe, your donation would greatly be appreciated: 5001 Maywood Drive, Nashville, TN 37211. And I would be greatly pleased for you to share anything that you read by clicking the share button in Facebook.com/bo.sebastian, or add it to your Twitter at BoSebastian; or LinkedIN at Bosebastian5@gmail.com; or find this blog home at www.FindingAuthenticYou.com. Any of my books can be found on Amazon or Barnes and Nobel, just by typing my name in the search header.