Exercise & Meditation

Now  that I am getting my diet under control (it's still a work in progress but coming along nicely) it's time to turn my attention to exercise. After all, it's no secret that diet on its own can only do so much and the same can be said for exercise.

So, before Christmas, I asked my physiotherapist for a new set of stretching exercises and suggested that, being the music lover that I am, perhaps it would help me get motivated  if we set the exercises to music of a suitable tempo.  I had already done some experimenting with this idea and decided that a waltz beat would work best, something with a tempo of around forty beats/minute or thereabouts.  Since I had recently purchased Diana Krall's latest release, 'Glad Rag Doll', I looked there first and found a couple of waltzes, 'Prairie Lullaby' and 'Wide River to Cross'  that seemed to work.  Also found a couple of Holly Cole tunes later on and added them to the list.

This past Thursday, my PT gave me the list of exercises and I started doing them along with the music on Friday.  Have done them every day and am finding the experience quite enjoyable and satisfying. Will be looking for some more waltz tempo songs for the future in case I get tired of these ones.

I simply do a stretch for two three counts which means holding it for between 2 and 3 seconds, rest for the same amount of time, and repeat two more times before moving on to either the other side or a new stretch.

Following the exercises, I thought it would be a good idea to meditate which I have done on all four days.  Even though I have been meditating off and on for close to 20 years, I decided to use an app on my iphone to get me going.  The first part is loving kindness or 'meta' meditation followed by mindfulness of breath meditation, the entire session lasting 20 minutes.  Once I get into a routine I will probably switch to a less structured technique but for now this s working well. It really feels good to be meditating on a regular basis again.

I must confess that, even though I am aware of the benefits of exercise, I have been negligent in doing any since I was diagnosed 9 years ago.  The reason, laziness is the best I can do.  But when it has taken my neck three months to heal from a simple sprain I realized just how poor my muscle tone was and it was this realization as much as anything which prompted me to ask my PT for a new set of exercises.

New diet for daily exercise for the body and meditation for the soul, things can only get better, right?  Wish me luck.