My Virtual Blog Tour starts on Monday, Oct 3! Monday I begin an 8-stop virtual book blog tour. I’ll be “visiting” 8 book review blogs from all over the United States and Canada! Below is a list of the blogs I’ll be visiting. The bloggers will post reviews, interviews and excerpts of the book. Please check out the tour by clicking on the links below. You can also join us on my Facebook page for the blog stop of the day. Monday 10/3/2016 Urban Book Review  Tuesday 10/4/2016 Beck Valley Books Wednesday 10/5/2016 3 Partners in Shopping Thursday 10/6/2016 Book Reviews and Giveaways Friday 10/7/2016 Jbarrett5 Book Reviews Monday 10/10/2016 JaM Book Blog Tuesday 10/11/2016 Library of Clean Reads Wednesday 10/12/2016 Buy The Book Marketing Follow along as I “travel”...

Everyone knows that I’m crazy about dance. Any kind of dance, regardless of the style you practice or may be interested in is the motherlode for health and fitness. It doesn’t matter if you are a classical dancer or a closet dancer, nothing beats the benefits of dance. I absolutely love the grueling regimen and relentless discipline of a professional level ballet class. However, it always raises eyebrows when I tell people that I take ballet class at least four or five times a week. I get the slow up and down appraisal and the unspoken question hangs in the air–“Really….at your age??” Yep, really. At my age. And why not? I started my ballet “career” at the ripe old age of twenty, when most dancers are packing up their pointe shoes and retiring...

I love Feldenkrais, and I love being a Feldenkrais practitioner. I also love artichokes, although I never even knew they existed until I was a young adult. I certainly had my doubts about artichokes, because they were so different from anything I had ever experienced up until that point in my life.  Then I met a guy who was absolutely crazy about artichokes. Not only did he order them as an appetizer every time we went out to dinner, he insisted on preparing them for me whenever we made dinner together. I could easily have done without them, because they just seemed like a lot of trouble for very little reward. However, I was fascinated by his excitement and almost childlike enthusiasm as he boiled the artichokes, made the sauces for dipping, and then meticulously peeled back the tough...

Putting your best foot forward. Too often we forget that our feet are an important part of our fitness, health and well-being. At least, we forget until we develop foot pain and deformities. Foot pain can lead to serious health problems, including abnormal gait, decreased balance, and pain in our knees, hips, and back. However, with the proper attention including exercises and stretches, you can keep your feet strong, healthy, flexible and pain free. Good health starts from the bottom up, so remember to make foot care a vital part of your daily routine. Here are a few tips to help you get started. Treat your feet. 1). Stimulate the bottom of your feet. Sit on the edge of a chair with your bare feet against the carpet, lightly and briskly rub them back and forth against the carpet for 10-15...

It’s already the end of January. February is just one short week away, and for many of us, the weather outside is frightful. The cold, dark days combined with the wicked winter weather can wreak havoc on our plans to get fit and stay fit. Besides, swim suit season doesn’t seem quite as threatening when we’re buried under a snow bank, so it might be more tempting to kick back with a cup of hot cocoa rather than leaving the house to go to the gym or fitness class.   However, you don’t even have to leave the house to stay on track with an exercise program. After all, swim suit season will be here before you know it. So, before you slip into a hot cocoa coma, here are a few simple fit tips that you can easily do at home to help keep you fit and healthy.    1). Get on...

Isn’t it amazing how a simple pair of shoes can mean so much to some people, while others take them for granted? A pair of shoes can change your life, and can even give you back your human dignity.  I was in a store a few days ago where a large screen TV was on one of those silly game shows. A woman from the audience was presented with a prize of $5,000 worth of shoes. I stood there wondering who could possibly want (or wear) so many different pairs of shoes. I marveled at the sheer extravagance of it all, when suddenly a distant memory popped into my head. It was 30 years ago, and I was working at an Intensive Care Unit as a respiratory therapist. One of my patients was an elderly gentleman who had been on a ventilator for weeks. He really touched my heart, because even though he...

Last week my husband and I were channel surfing and came across “The Wizard of Oz.” We didn’t even have to consult each other; in silent agreement, my husband clicked on the channel. Even though I still worry about Toto running around the forest off-leash, and my husband gets a little creeped out from the flying monkeys (a throw back from childhood), we never get tired of watching this classic film. I settled back and prepared to be mindlessly entertained by Dorothy and her entourage as they started down the yellow brick road, off to see the wizard. However, my brain had other plans for me that evening. Of course, the lesson in this great story is that each of the characters already have what they are looking for; they just didn’t realize it. But that evening my mind...

Happy Thanksgiving! I am wishing all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday full of peace, love, friends and family!

After my interesting experience giving a medical practitioner a Functional Integration lesson, it was my turn to be on the receiving end. When I got to his office he took me into a treatment room and asked me what was wrong with my neck. “Nothing,” I replied. “Huh,” he said, “I see a lot of asymmetries in your cervical spine. You also have really bad posture with a forward head and rounded shoulders, and you slouch, which really surprises me. I would have thought that as a dancer and a Feldenkrais® practitioner you would know better.” He gave me a penetrating look while he said this. Good grief! To say that his statements were jarring to my nervous system was the understatement of the century. A familiar but long abandoned pattern of negative self-talk...

I recently met an alternative medical practitioner who was surprised and delighted to discover that a Feldenkrais practitioner worked in the same office building that he did. He went out of his way to introduce himself and welcome me to the building. I thought it was funny considering I have been there for over nine years, but some things do take time.