Author: Cheryl

More Fit Tips For a Healthy New Year

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Fit Tips.

Here we are, already in the second week of the New Year. Hopefully, you’re still on track with your resolution to get fit and healthy, exercise more, or eat healthier. However, it’s easy to lose our motivation once we return to our daily routine after the holidays. The pressure of work and family obligations, combined with the cold, dark days sometimes get in the way of our good intentions. You might even be tempted to give up. But before you get discouraged or throw in the towel, keep these tips in mind to help you stay on track. 1). Visualize success. Imagine yourself achieving your goals. Close your eyes and see yourself as the fit and healthy person you want to be. If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. The practice of visualization is a powerful tool to help you accomplish...

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Memories, and Ghosts of Christmas Past

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Childhood Memories.

Memories are the best part of Christmas celebrations. And making those memories are even better. For most of us, Christmas has come and gone. But not for me, it hasn’t. My decorations are still up, along with my tree. My tree is the only one that lights up the neighborhood at night, and my neighbors are probably wondering why I haven’t given it up yet. However, I cling to my decorations as much as I cling to my memories, and the ghosts of Christmas past. I was born into a family that was lucky enough to celebrate Christmas twice in two weeks. My mother’s parents were from Eastern Europe, and were Serbian Orthodox. That’s a tribe (so to speak) that celebrates Christmas on January 7th instead of December 25th. As a child, it was a little confusing, no matter how many times my mother explained...

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The Grinch That Couldn’t Steal Christmas

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Everyone knows the story about the Grinch that stole Christmas. But I have a story about the Grinch that couldn’t steal Christmas, even though he tried. He couldn’t steal it because the faith of a child was so much stronger than he bargained for. I was four years old, and I was sitting in church with my family. There were parts of the service that I really liked, even as a child. However, I never liked the sermon. Mostly because the priest had cold eyes, never smiled, and had a booming voice that he used to full capacity when he preached to us. And most of the time, the message wasn’t positive. There was a lot of talk about hell, purgatory, and the fate that awaited us terrible sinners. I guess he believed in the God of vengeance rather than the God of love. When you have...

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Who’s got the power? You’ve got the power….

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Uncategorized.

I love going to a variety of power meetings and marketing classes. It’s a great way to meet people and learn interesting new ideas at the same time. Often, these get-togethers are pretty predictable while others are full of surprises.  I had one of those surprises a few weeks ago at a marketing class for women. It was a great class, full of terrific information. Just when I thought we were going to wrap things up, the facilitator invited us to participate in a little bit of visualization. The practice of visualization is very effective, and something I often use in my Feldenkrais classes. After all, if you can imagine it, you can become it. Or, what we believe is what we become.   She had us close our eyes and think of a woman we admired and respected–a woman who was strong and...

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Quick Tips for Stress-Less Holidays

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Joyful Holidays.

I love the holidays. It’s a magical time of year. However, along with the excitement and eager anticipation comes a significant amount of stress and anxiety. After all, no matter how carefully we plan our holiday festivities, sometimes they don’t always work out quite like we planned. The warm, cozy evenings with friends and family, the carefree winter days spent playing with the kids in the snow, out of town family coming to visit, and the fun-filled weekends at the shopping mall sound wonderful in theory. And then reality hits.  Let’s face it–the holidays can be an awful lot of work. Also, high expectations can lead to deep disappointments, especially when we invest so much of ourselves and our time making this the perfect holiday season for everyone else. Even...

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Tips to Keep Fit for Healthy Holidays

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Fit Tips.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and it’s just a few days away. However, Thanksgiving can certainly wreak havoc on your attempts to stay fit and healthy. It’s also a preview of what’s to come. The over-indulgence (and self-indulgence) of the holidays is right around the corner. But don’t worry–it really is possible to enjoy the festivities of the season without completely sabotaging your health and fitness. Since Thanksgiving weekend kicks the holiday season into high gear, here are a few easy and and practical fit tips to help you stay on track.  Tips to keep moving. As we say in the Feldenkrais community, movement is life! Having said that, it is crucial that you keep moving. If you are the one who is responsible for preparing the entire Thanksgiving...

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Diary of Seven Days of Positivity: Part II

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Uncategorized.

My diary of seven days of positivity certainly started with a bang. It was so good that I didn’t think anything else could quite live up to that fabulous day. I was wrong, as I discovered over the next two days.   Dear Diary, Day Two: The second day started off with another beautiful golden Colorado morning. It was Saturday, and I had the day off. After years of working Saturdays, I decided that I need to take weekends off. What a treat! Since I had the entire morning free, I baked banana bread from scratch. After all, is there any other kind? As the heavenly fragrance filled the kitchen, I got dinner ready in the crockpot. I do love my kitchen and love do to cook, when I have the time. I also love going to pole class, and that was next on my agenda for my Saturday off. However, pole...

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Life is Good: A Practice of Positivity

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Life is good, and so are people. At least, most of them are, most of the time. But the past few weeks have been pretty brutal. As the election season went into overdrive, I was overwhelmed with the negativity associated with it. People just didn’t seem happy, and they weren’t being very nice to each other. As a matter of fact, some of them were downright nasty. The tsunami of negativity swirling around me threatened to sweep me away, never to be heard from again.    Everywhere I went, people were either trying to draw me into a political conversation, or making snide remarks about both candidates and what they stood for. My attempts to change the subject didn’t work. So, when someone pressed me for my “honest” and candid opinion, I gave it. I was rewarded with...

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Halloween, Feldenkrais, and the Magical Movement of the Skeleton

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Feldenkrais.

Halloween has to be one of my favorite holidays. I loved it as a kid, and I still love it to this day. There is something special about the decorations, the costumes, and the sheer spookiness of Halloween. And of course there’s the candy corn. At Halloween you can be anyone you want to be. You can even be yourself if you like. Another thing I love about Halloween are all of the skeletons hanging around, so to speak. As a physical therapist I’m used to looking at the skeleton in a variety of different ways. But I fell in love with the skeleton during my Feldenkrais training. Because there is something magical about the skeleton. Our skeleton is the very core of our being, and it is responsible for holding our structure together. It’s just like the foundation of a house or...

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Sixty Days Of Cheryl: Reasons to Celebrate

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Cheryl's View.

Turning sixty is not the end of the world. As a matter of fact, I believe it’s just the beginning, and certainly something to celebrate. And I ought to know, based on personal experience. Not that I’ve ever turned sixty before. But when I turned fifty, magic happened. Full disclosure–my thirties weren’t so great. My forties were a nightmare. I wasn’t sure I would even make it to fifty. But the closer I got to fifty, the more I began to look forward to it. If nothing else, at least it would signify the end of the decade from hell. I was so excited about turning fifty that my girlfriends threw me a party, complete with a red tiara. This was an idea borrowed from the Red Hat Society. You know, the group of women who mark their fiftieth birthday by wearing a red...

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