Hi, One Body, One Life family.  Don't mind the photo - tried to pick a G rated photo to accompany my post today. Its a bit tacky I know sorry but you will get the point just read on.

OK, here is the coolest thing on the planet: Amongst the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, take a time out for you self and take a bath:
- Light your candles,
- Pour in your Epsom salt,
- and create your mood,
but this time, in addition, take a ball in the bath with you.
Yes, a ball.
It can be any ball from a soccer ball to a plastic ball from the supermarket.  The key is to deflate the ball half way so it's soft, pliable, and less buoyant.
First huge benefit of deflating it slightly is it makes a great pillow so you can get your chill on and relax.
For some of you this posts ends right here.  Enjoy Enjoy !

Now, with the ball right in that pocket behind your head slowly roll your neck to either side slowly and breathe out as you roll to each side.  This will feel great and it's so effective because your totally relaxed, quiet, focused on your breathe and connected to your body.

Now, from this simple stretch you can sit up a bit and roll out your mid to upper back by rolling the ball up and down using your body.
From here, sit up a little more and hit your lower back. Again, go from side to side.
It's endless really, just feel your way through this water therapy .

You can put the ball under your hamstring and slowly bend forward for the stretch of all stretches.
The ball may slip out here or there, so easy does it when in doubt.

With a little practice you'll be on your way to becoming your own massage therapist in no time.

I like to take a tennis ball in the bath, as well. I know, I know, I have an entire sporting good store in the bath with me.

Anyway,  I place the tennis ball  between my upper hamstring and my lower glut - for a lot of people this is where a sciatica is born - this is a common hot spot and it releases stress and chi energy, as well.

I just press into the tennis ball and hold. You can roll your hips side to side as well. It really works wonders for me.

If you are struggling with lower back pain, in many cases the cause (it's origin) is simply tight hamstrings.

I call this "sitters disease",  from sitting to long at your desk .

Your hamstrings contract, get tight, then it travels into the back, up to the neck, right into chronic head aches.

A simple commitment to long soak, ball roll and stretch could literally change your life or at least get you out of pain.  This is a simple concept, I know, but it's so effective .

In the bath you are relaxed and you can really listen to your body and get in there with out injury .

If you have a tight spot and have dug in to the area a bit, follow the bath therapy with light ice therapy.  Ice for ten minutes max to minimize any swelling. Inflammation is always an avenue to pain and the ice can really help keep it away . 

So, the next time you take a bath, have a ball !!!!!

All the best in health.

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Mind and Spirit
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The secret of fitness no one talks about:  EMPOWERING YOUR MIND AND SPIRIT. 
OK, listen close because this is so important!  Your body is already quite capable of attaining fitness.  Hardly anyone fails to achieve fitness due to physical problems.  The real problem, for most people, is not the body.  It’s the head: the mind and spirit.   If you can get your mind and spirit to embrace fitness, you will become fit.

Embracing fitness, though, means a lot more than just wanting it.  Everybody wants to be fit, but that’s not what makes it happen.  Fitness is not only about desire.  To attain fitness, you must:

Free yourself from fear.  Most people fail to fully embrace fitness simply because they’re afraid of the work, and they’re afraid they’ll fail.
Own your body and own your life. The day you realize that you alone control your level of fitness will be the day your fitness level starts to soar.
Honor where you’re at.  You don’t improve by disliking yourself.  You improve by accepting yourself.
Learn to focus.  Your mind is your body’s greatest asset, but only if you use it.  If you focus on your exercises, you’ll do them right, and reap the rewards.  If you just go through the motions, you’ll never change your body.  If you’re not doing it right, you’re not doing it.
Find time to work out.  Your workout must become your own daily oasis, free from stress, in which you build your relationship with yourself.  If it’s just another hour in the day to worry and space-out, you’ll never get fit.  Your workout time should be your sacred time.
Work out for yourself.  If you work out to fulfill the desires of others, you’ll eventually fail.  Fitness is relationship with self.
Cut no slack. Your workout time is no time to be weak.  If you cut yourself too much slack, you’ll never learn how to be strong.  You’ll just learn all the best ways to be weak.
Trust your intuition.  If you over-think fitness, you’ll fail.  Breathe, listen, and be who you really are.  Have faith in the wisdom of your “mindless mind.”
Forget perfectionism.  It’s just fear disguised as ambition.

If we could embrace half of my philosophies here and really apply them, then you are on your way. Just try to embrace these principles and commit to them.

All the Best in Health!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Mind and Spirit
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Put these two words together and that is a strong state of being and a place I feel most of us strive to be.
I am an AOL coach and many of us coaches were asked to describe "Peak Vitality".
Some answers came from the physical realm, others from the spiritual.
I am a blend of both, of course....
but I want to share Eckhart Tolle's answer with you because it deals in moments, not a total constant state of being.
Eckhart Tolle, author of the new Oprah Winfrey recommended best seller, A New Earth, is one of the people who gave an answer.  He described Peak Vitality as:   

"If you are not spending all of your waking life in discontent, worry, anxiety, depression, despair, or consumed by other negative states; if you are able to enjoy simple things like listening to the sound of the rain or the wind; if you can see the beauty of the clouds moving across the sky or be alone at times without feeling lonely...it means that a space has opened up, no matter how briefly...when this happens, there is a sense of well-being of alive peace, even though it might be subtle."

This is such a beautiful way of describing a place most of us feel is un attainable in our lives .

Hey, we can all grab moments no matter how hard life seems @ times.

He speaks of peace through these subtle moments and that is what it is all about.

On the physical plane, I find those moments when I am exercising outside or surfing. It's nature that puts us back into proper perspective and I feel brings out our true personality.

A good exercise in Peak Vitality is to simply take a walk alone and in silence.  Clear your mind, open your heart, and just breath. Slowly take deeper breaths and longer breaths and you will feel such a release.

If you get emotional, even allow yourself the safety to cry, well done.

You need to take more walks :)

Times are hard right now for a lot of us, I know, so take it slow,  come from your heart, and breathe in simplicity and gentleness.

We will get there, moment by moment.

All the best in Health.

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Mind and Spirit
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I started this post yesterday and promised to explain the approach today.  I don’t want to get too “Guru Greg” on you, but here’s a list of how to handle this challenge.

During your warm-up period is a perfect time to check in with yourself.  This means, how is your body feeling?  Any injuries?  How’s your energy? What’s today’s workout going to be?  Now be aware of the the current track playing in your head?  During your check-in time is the opportunity to change the channel and drop any negative old tracks.  You do this by getting in touch with your breath as it relates to your warm-up.

For example, if you’re walking on the treadmill or starting a hike, sync your breath with your stride.  Try to drop your thoughts and focus on simply breathing and moving. Following the breath as it enters and leaves your body.  This moment is also a great time to plant an intention for your workout, to set the tone as well as the track for your session.  Finally, be clear by the time you finish your warm-up on exactly what the plan is for your exercise and execution for that day, be specific.

Now that you’re connected mentally and physically, you are warmed up on both levels.  Take this refreshed mental position or positive perspective into your session in the gym, your hike in the woods or mountains, your bike ride along the coast, or your business meeting in the afternoon.

As you’re in the process of your session, here’s some stuff to remember:

- Hold your positive perspective.  The more focused, connected with and aware of your body you are, the more specific you get.  The more in touch with your body you are, the more efficient your workout becomes and the more results you get or success you achieve.

- Remember to stay on track in your head as well as in your body.  If a stressful thought enters, usher it out the back door; it doesn’t serve you right now, “ bye bye see ya later “.  Return to the positive perspective, being present with yourself.  You want to feel your workout, not think it.  When the mind is clear your body responds.

- Following your session, save a few minutes for a cool-down, and let it be the perfect opportunity to check back in:  How did you do today?  What did your “track” sound like?  Was it cluttered or clear?  Did you follow your intention for your workout?  Did the old track force itself back into your head?  If so, what did you do with it? 

- Also check in regarding your exercise output.  Were you in your body?  Did you push yourself to the levels you intended?  This is a good time to simply observe without judgment and decide what you might do differently next time. This is the work right here, these are  the moments that separates a good body from a great body and basic health to radiant well being .

Now, set another intention – a super intention: 
For the rest of the day, try to stay in that positive perspective, to keep your track as relaxed as it can be.

Remember, this technique is a practice – that means it’s a process.  Be patient and kind with your mind and its tracks.

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Mind and Spirit , Motivation , Working Out
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“Track in your head” while working out brings to mind music, immediately.  But the track in your head plays an important role in keeping your training evolving and progressing. 
So many of us think about our lives and responsibilities or relationships or basically anything else we can find, in order to distract ourselves from what we’re doing while training.  Workout time however should be sacred time, your own time.  Don’t try to solve the problems of the world or your own during your session. 
Leave them at the door.  This is your time to focus on YOU.

It’s incredible:  If we’d all take a moment to listen to the track currently running  in our heads, we’d discover it consistently plays
the same track, at a high volume, in repeat mode. 
Believe it or not, your session can be a great time for you to clear your track, and put your inner dialog to work by physicalizing your mental energy.
You’d be amazed at how much energy, if redirected from your mind, will benefit your body.

So how do you do this?   

Check back tomorrow and I will walk you through the process of clearing your head.

All the best in health.

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Mind and Spirit , Motivation , Working Out
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Oxygen: The Breath of Life
Breathing is often an underappreciated component of health and fitness.  It literally provides the spark of life to every cell in the body.  When breathing is too shallow, it starves the cells of energy.  This type of inadequate breathing subverts the functions of the major organs, hammers energy, slows down the thinking processes, and even wrinkles the skin.  It keeps toxins stuck exactly where they are.  Therefore, one of the most important things you can do is to become aware of your breathing.

Exercises for Cleansing Your Body with Your Breath
Focus on breathing from your belly, instead of just the top of your chest.  Stop yourself from inhaling quick, tense little gulps of air that don’t “feed the fire” of your energy.  Consciously use your breath to control your stress.  Do it practically every time you start to stress-out.

Best of all, start using some yoga breathing techniques.  Yoga revolves around breathing.  Start with the simplest steps:

1.  Observe your breath.  Breathe in and out evenly, through your nose.  In yoga, this is called “puraka” breathing.
2.  Notice where your breath is.  Determine if it comes too often from your chest, instead of your belly.
3.  Feel your breath physically, by placing your hand on your belly.
4.  Visualize your breath.  Mentally observe it as it fills your core and feeds your body.

Here are two more breath exercises for you to do.

KUMBHAKA BREATHING
Relax your chest and belly, and take a good, deep breath, as you count slowly to four.  Hold it for a moment.  Then exhale slowly, until your lungs feel totally empty.  Hold the exhale for a moment.  Then take another deep breath, and hold it.  Stick out your tongue, close your eyes and let your breath out forcefully, as you make a powerful sound, such as “Agghhhh!”  Feel the tension leave your body.  Repeat the process at least one more time.

UJJAYI BREATHING
This yoga breathing technique, pronounced ooh-jah-yee, is also called The Breath of Fire.  When you focus your mind as you do it, it brings you to a deeper sense of your selfhood.  It’s also a great way to warm your body, bring blood to your internal organs, and expel toxins through the breath.

To do it, simply breathe in and out through your nose, focusing on pushing and pulling the air with the back of your throat.  As you do this, you will create a resonant sound, almost like snoring, as your breath rolls up and down your throat.

If you do some ujjayi breathing early in the morning, it’s a great time to set your intentions for the day.  What do you want to happen?  Create your vision of the day ahead.  Make it happen.

You should start your new emphasis on cleansing your body, mind, and spirit through breath.

All the Best in Health!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Mind and Spirit
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What a great quality resilience is!  We are so lucky as humans to have such an inborn quality, and so much of it at that!  It sometimes takes an event bigger then us to let us see, experience, or even test human resilience.
On the physical level, we pound our bodies and they bounce back everyday.  Breaking down and rebuilding is so common that we call it exercise!  We workout, break our muscles down so they get stronger and more resilient; which is a sign of health today.  We do the same with our emotions and call it emotional health or emotional wellbeing.
I used to live on the island of Kauai, and we would have some terrible hurricanes.  So bad, I thought the island would be ruined forever.  But every time the island grew back; stronger, greener, and lusher.  The economy grows back as well; stronger, greener, and lusher.
If you think about it, resilience is a quality that runs through many themes in our daily lives.  I personally feel I have been in a test of resilience for two years now.  A lot of my peers and people close to me feel the same way.  Life is work @ the moment; hard work- good and bad.
It's seems the world today, on a grand scale, is learning and exercising its own resiliency.  Deepak Chopra takes this quality to even greater more spiritual areas.  He feels perfect health is a quality we all seek; yet deadlines, meetings, and palm pilots create an unhealthy pace.  A different form of resilience.  An imbalance. That even though we may adapt and grow stronger, this new strength in imbalance breeds new sleep patterns or digestion functions. Even breeds new relationships and career paths.
How do we fix this? How do we find that balance again?  I have the answer right here, right now!  Are you ready???
We all need a One Body, One Life worldwide timeout!  Seriously, think about it.  We all need to heal, sooth, and reconnect so that the chaos can be an experience in the past and not the present, as Deepak would say.

So my post today is on resilience, however resilience simply in a form of strength is not enough.  But with emotional healing and consciences, it becomes a form of transcended wellness, clear strength, and personal growth.  This is also my exercise philosophy!
As this relates with all the fires and crazy events this year, it's OK to close your eyes, sit back, and breathe in the grief, the sorrow, and the loss.  Take that time feel it, be moved by it, humbled by it, understand it, accept it, even be blessed by it.  Then send a kiss to the universe and in the same breath feel the love that grows from it.
I try to really do this, really connect and understand.  Then share it with my son, talk about it with my wife, my neighbor, my mom.  Thus, resilience comes from a place of healing, clarity, and shared experience.  Not denial or that dinosaur expression, "tough love”.

This is it everyone. This is the good stuff, this is human evolvement.  This is the power of resilience.  My heart swells with compassion for everyone who has had to experience and exercise their own form of resilience this year.
All the Best in Health!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Mind and Spirit
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Dr. Robert Abattiello suggested I see an acupuncturist to help move excess heat out of my body and to facilitate the cleanse process deeper.  So, I went to H. Alyse Snyder, L.Ac., Board Certified and Licensed Acupuncturist/Herbalist in Santa Monica. 
She was amazing! 
I actually felt the heat rise through the needle points on my stomach and irritate the area from releasing heat.  Alyse felt it was a very successful session.  Check her out @ www.omniintegrative.com 

During the cleanse, I have tried to eat as much as I can, but still have lost 9 pounds so far in a week...which is not what I wanted, but goes hand in hand with the cleanse, really.  I think the weight loss came from deep inside, though, because my muscle mass looks the same and my stomach has been rumbly since day one.  I almost feel clean inside/out if that makes sense - like my insides have been scrapped out - but, from this place I feel re-calibrated, as my friend Ed put it from his experience. 

Anyway, looking forward to Sunday and the end!  I am not your cleansing guru for sure, but I have to say I'm feeling pretty proud of myself for sticking to it.  Also, the support of other cleansers has been so nice this time around!

More to come!  All the Best in Health!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Cleanse , Mind and Spirit
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Hey everyone!  As you know, I like to use exercise as a great tool to combat stress and get out of the head and into the body.  I also always appreciate the written word and admire authors who can make you physically feel their work and even heal us.
One of the best is my friend, Deepak Chopra.
His work is truly transforming and I periodically will highlight Deepak for our community here at OBOL.
Today, I want to highlight and another inspiring author: Eckhart Tolle .
In 1999, he came out with “The Power of Now”.  If you have yet to read this great book, I highly recommend it.  It's one of those books that immediately changes your perspective and grounds you in peace.
I picked the book up last night before bed, because I was feeling a little financial anxiety.  I just thought I would glance through it like I always do.  Literally, the first page of the book zapped my anxiety away...gone!  Just remarkable stuff, and that's just page one.
Here it is, check it out:

"The Greatest Obstacle To Enlightenment" by Eckhart Tolle
A beggar had been sitting by the side of a road for over thirty years. One day a stranger walked by.
"Spare some change?" mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his old baseball cap.
"I have nothing to give you," said the stranger. Then he asked: "What's that you are sitting on?"
"Nothing," replied the beggar. "Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember." "Ever looked inside?" asked the stranger.
"No," said the beggar. "What's the point? There's nothing in there."
"Have a look inside," insisted the stranger.
The beggar managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.
I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside.  Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself.
"But I am not a beggar," I can hear you say.
Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth.  They are looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.

Thanks, Eckhart, for the reminder!

Full entry | posted by Gregory Joujon-Roche in Mind and Spirit
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