A few of my favorite things

I wanted to share a few things that I have discovered (or in some cases rediscovered) that are great:

1) Thermos Large Stainless Steel Hydration Bottle

It is a large bottle but ice will stay ice overnight even in the heat of August as I walk around. AMAZING !

2) You can take out the insoles of your shoes/cycling shoes and wash them. Often.

3) Athlete's foot powder in your shoes can help keep your feet smooth (that hard skin is often yeast/fungus based)

4) Reading is such a great way to travel, explore and live a million lives w/very little money. This year's picks:

a)George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones" series. (I reread the whole thing this year because after 6 years the 5th book is finally out)

b) Cutting for Stone

c) Fall On Your Knees

5) Kat Von D tattoo concealer (it is light, does't run or show and can hide anything)

6) Benefit "Girl Meets Pearl". This stuff rubbed into your cheekbones makes your skin look perfect

7) Apifeni clothing for working out. So brilliant to put body shaping technology into workout wear. Compression helps recovery.

8) NibMor chocolate bars. They are sweetened with Agave

9) Vitamin Water Zero. The only easy to find drink sweetened with Stevia

summer love

I have been so remiss about blogging this summer. I got sucked into reading the George RR Martin series again after watching the HBO series and I was an addict all over again. I am not 5% away from finishing book 5 which took 6 years to come out. UGH.

I don't know where to begin in the praise of all my students ! This year has marked a huge growth in Liquid Strength® classes in NYC and the first time that there has been a class outside of NYC. Greenwich classes are as crowded and excited as all my NYC classes are.

I hope all of you are taking advantage of the delicious food that summer has to offer. I have been making myself Soft Shell Crabs. I never knew how EASY they are. I just lightly dust them with buckwheat flour and pan sear in olive oil. It takes 5 minutes and they are unbelievable. Cherries and watermelon have been my treat and daily splurge. YUM.

It will be really interesting when September comes around and everyone comes back to class how we are all going to fit in to the room....I have a feeling that it is time to add a few more classes.

Have a wonderful rest of summer everyone and I will see you in September !!!

The Best You

Standing in line at the grocery store, it is easy to get sucked into the sea of magazines that feed on tragedy, gossip and "who looks horrible in a bathing suit". These magazines stalk you when you get a haircut, see the dentist or have to wait in any room specially designed for just that purpose. The few times I am forced to get a manicure pedicure (I am not really a mani/pedi girl) for an event or job, I see women reading said "magazines" during the sacred half an hour they have managed to carve out of their busy lives that is supposed to be their "me time".

My viewpoint on "bottom feeding" is well documented here on my blog. (see "Global Spiritual Economy" post below). Nobody can feel good about themselves when they are knocking someone else down. Reading and supporting the selling of human misery is like passive bullying.

The next time the choice is there, pick up something to read that will teach you something. Working with people like I do on their "Self" and their "Self-worth", I see that all of us have talent and gifts to share with the world. Our biggest stumbling block is our "Selves". Many times as I try to help someone get to a great place physically, we discover that they are engaging in self abusive behavior. This can be in the form of feeding themselves badly, working themselves sick, a drinking or drug problem but more commonly, relentless self inflicted verbal abuse.

How can a person give and share with the world their "best self" if they can't find it ? Our lives are comprised of little decisions that we make every day. Your "Best You" is already there. Perfect , peaceful and patient. It is just waiting for you to stop chasing your tail and repeating the cycles of obsession and insecurity. Just let it go and decide that are going to be your own biggest fan and supporter.

Happiness attracts happiness. Joy radiates and spreads. Decide that you will be a a force of good in the world. Start by being a force of good in your own life and with the ultimate kindness towards your "self".

Story von Holzhausen

Story

The"fake it till you own it" trick

It is amazing how much of our lives and happiness is based on how we perceive. As I get older, I am less ticklish. I also am not afraid of needles or pain. Perhaps Liquid Strength has something to do with it, but I have learned to have a lot more "say" about how my body perceives stimuli. Even the emotional kind.

We get to choose how we experience our lives, our selves and the people around us. "Truth is the daughter of time" is my favorite quote. It allows me to sit back and let myself and those around me "figure it out". Justice, honesty and good will reveal themselves with time. False fronts will slip away and show their cracks.

In my work, I get to have intense personal connections with such a wide range of people. Even the physical boundaries of our society are not relevant in what I do. I can't count how many times in a day I reach out and put my hands on my students/clients bodies and move them into position. The places I normally touch would be beyond inappropriate in any other setting.

Perception forms our "truth". That truth will be different when viewed through someone else's eyes. Insecurity, fear and confidence in most adults are based in their perceptions of themselves, their bodies and their belief system of how they themselves are perceived. Some of the most beautiful people I know, are deeply insecure. The attention and pressure that they feel can be daunting. Many of my more famous clients suffer the most from this pressure. What I have noticed is that they have a kind of "persona" that they slip on when viewed by the "public". This persona is part protection, part costume and only partially based on reality.

The ability to project the image they wish the world to see is a gift. It allows them to "be" that image in many ways. I call this the"fake it till you own it" trick. Our posture, our aura and our "presence" all send a message to the world. More importantly, they send a message to us. The more we feel that we are something special and "worthy", the more we become just that.

Vanity and ego are the exact opposite of true confidence. They are "needy". A person who believes in their worth, does not need the attention of everyone around them. The irony is that such a person will get just that.

My son asked me while back, "Mommy, what is it to be cool?". That gave me pause. I had to think about it a while. Sometimes it seems (through our teenage perception) that "cool" can mean aloof, apathetic or even mean. What I told him is this "being cool is when you don't need anyone else to think you are cool, because YOU think you are".

We all have so much to give. There are opportunities for kindness and generosity throughout our day. The better we feel about ourselves and the less time and energy we waste on insecurity, the more we have to give to the world. Just like training our bodies, we can train our minds. We can begin to change the dialogue in our brains from "I am so fat/old/ugly/stupid" to "I perfectly embody myself". "I have so much to give the world". "There is so much power within me". We can all "Fake it till we own it". There is a grain of truth in nearly every statement. Nurturing the grains of truth that we want to believe and to be, is the most important job we have. We all have the power to change ourselves, our lives and the world. All we need to do is begin.

Story von Holzhausen

Rediscovery

Most of us like our routines. We get into our "grooves" and like it there. The day begins with our morning ritual and stretches out from one to the next in the patterns of our days. It is human nature to crave routine. From the time we are babies, it helps us function.

The downside to these routines is that they make our comfort zone very rigid. We begin to cease having to think or adjust ourselves to new stimuli. There was a study this year that showed that simply changing our route to work every day can help us keep our brains healthy. Some routines I find myself trying to get into. A routine of flossing I have done but can't seem to motivate myself to master one for my skin.

This year I have made a conscious effort to form some routines (like organization and household chores) while losing the routines that are not useful to my daily life. There is a real challenge to keep our passion and our "edge" with things that are so common to us that we cease to see them. Most of us have a job we have done for many years. We are likely good at or in this economy, we wouldn't have it anymore. When we began this job, we likely had a passion for breathing new life into it and doing it better than anyone ever did. I find with age, many people are threatened by new ideas or anything that may question how we do things. That is the very attitude that will limit us and "age" us. The moment we think we know it all, is the moment we cease to get better.

I have been teaching indoor cycling for 17 years. This year I have rediscovered it. Not an easy feat but a wonderful thing to have happen. Liquid Strength is a constantly evolving entity. That is why it is so special. The road will never end in a destination but continue on a journey leading us to a better place both physically and mentally/emotionally. Let's try to take that growth into our lives and rediscover how fun and challenging our lives are.

Story von Holzhausen

beautiful

I love that word. Beautiful. The weather right now is just that and what a difference in our lives it makes. The funny thing about beauty is that you really can't define it. It means something different to everyone. Beauty can be a superficial thing or the deepest and most profound of praise. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is as beauty does. There are endless cliches I could quote but I will spare you.

When it comes to people, I have learned that beauty (the superficial kind) can give you an advantage or a handicap. It seems that we all find people who are confident the most attractive. In many cases, just thinking you are "gorgeous' is enough to convince everyone around you of that fact.

It is amazing how much power we can give to the elusive quest for beauty. We cannot even see ourselves unless we choose to look in a mirror but yet our day can be ruined if we don't like what we "see". We could just "opt out" of the whole thing and just not look. The reality is that it would make very little difference, I mean, we can FEEL it if our bodies are uncomfortable or (in my case anyway) our noses are too big to fit in a glass when we drink but otherwise, as long as everything is working properly, why should care ? You sure as heck don't see any other animals worrying about such a silly thing. Yet for many people, a big part of their self worth comes from how they are perceived by others. Many times by strangers.

What if everyone chose to believe themselves to be "beautiful"? What if we were sure that everyone who saw us thought we were a perfect 10 ? How would our lives change? The reality is that they wouldn't very much. We would either love our jobs or not, be lonely or not and be happy or not. All that really matters is what YOU think of yourself. Yours is the only opinion you hear about all day long.

In my younger years, it mattered so much to me that everyone "like" me. I find as I get older, it really isn't about me. As long as I do the best I can to be good and do good, the lens with which the world will view me, isn't mine. Each person's lens will be clouded by past experiences, their own fears and insecurities and personal taste. It is really "none of my business" what anyone thinks of me. The important people in our lives are of course are a different matter but anyone walking down the street, if they notice us at all (and as we get older we very happily realize that everyone is far too busy with their own baggage to notice US), it is none of our business.

A very clear way to find happiness is to live our lives so that we like the person we are. The less we need validation from others, and the less time and energy we waste seeking it, the more we have to give. I find that training hard and gaining strength both physically and mentally, I earn my own respect. I can see from watching all of you, that you earn yours too. The most beautiful people I know are those who seem to have peace within themselves. They have such a strong base in their sense of "self" that they are not egocentric or boastful (these are hallmarks of insecurity). They are truly interested in learning / growing and excited for the success, talent and joy of others.

Every one of is responsible for the health and strength of our bodies. We are also responsible for the maintenance of our souls and minds. The more we feed ourselves and the stronger we get, the more we have to offer the world.

Where is spring ?

The weather is a reminder of just how much we don't control our world. As much as we think we do, the reality is that much of our lives hinge on fate/god/karma whatever it is you believe in. That can be a scary thought or a beautiful one. I am reading an amazing book called "Cutting For Stone" right now. It is set in Ethiopia but the characters are Indian. The god Shiva is the god of destruction. As Americans, we have a hard time understanding how a god that causes destruction could ever be good. If you think about it, the end of anything is the beginning of something else. When our lives change, we learn. With every turn of the road , we take in different scenery and are forced to take stock of our surroundings and even our own footfall. (If you have never seen the movie "Outsourced", it is a great film and shows with great humor exactly what I mean)

Looking back at my own life, I am grateful for the hardest times. The most difficult roads led me (even if the journey was agony at the time) to exactly the place I was supposed to be. That being said, I am grateful that I did not see the hard times coming. Not knowing exactly what will happen is a gift. It allows up to hope and dream. Perhaps the important thing is that we walk on our road with conviction and do our best to leave the people that we pass better for having crossed our paths.

Striving to better ourselves, whatever that means to you, is a journey too. You will have legs on your journey that don't feel "successful" to you. I truly believe that they are exactly the experience that you were meant to have. The secret is allowing yourself to "own" your limits and failures and learn from them. I like to think about the tough times in my life like muscle soreness. When I heal from it, I am going to be that much stronger.

Story von Holzhausen