运动
Movement should be joyful and full of vitality and learning, and I don’t like seeing exercise as scheduled drudgery.
That’s not to say that discipline is lacking. With running or martial arts or any other form of sports, you learn an important lesson: there’re no short cuts or fast track to true mastery. You must sweat through thousands of repetitions and drills to get your reflexes in shape and to build up stamina. Be conscious of each experience and learn how to improve, and you will build up the mental toughness required to improve your skills.
Proper breathing
I think it’s one of the foundations of health. We breathe some 22,000 times a day. Steady and mindful breathing helps to re-establish the mind-body link; it is the easiest form of meditation and helps with stress-response.
Here’s a calming technique I like that I got from a beach book, French Women Don’t Get Fat: Count to six while breathing in, and when you exhale, count to nine. Clear your mind and concentrate on the breathing. This helps if you have trouble getting relaxed enough to sleep.
I find reading poetry aloud very calming too. The ebb and flow of the phrases, their stretching and tightening, follow naturally the contours of the good writer’s thought. You find yourself breathing rhythmically, with the breathing and the reading seeming indistinguishable.
They’s invigorating, they’s good for posture, and you can do
some of the exercises in less than 10 minutes. I tended to concentrate on
running and swimming, but since taking lessons I’ve seen the great benefits
of stretching and toning:
- Enhanced ability to learn and perform skilled movements
- Reduced muscular tension and soreness
- Increased suppleness due to stimulation of the production of chemicals which
lubricate connective tissue
- Reduced risk of injury to joints, muscles, and tendons
The good thing about learning new ways to move is that you get better body awareness. I know I am beginning to look less tortoise-like!