Every decision you make keeps you on a path or takes you away from it. The question you want to ask yourselves is whether the path you are on leads to a future that you will be happy with. No one wants to experience the regret of approaching your older years with a body that is beginning to fall apart. You hear it all of the time though, people complaining about their bodies falling apart. Many will believe that this is just what happens when you age, but that kind of thinking comes from not being informed. Yes, we change as the years pass, but according to some of the latest research, you can still be riding your bike, power walking and rowing your canoe well into your seventies and eighties, and probably even longer!

AARP published an article in their January/February 2013 edition and written by Nissa Simon that dismantled much of the common beliefs about age and sex. Nissa Simon reported that older folks are having sex more than two and three times a month... "and 23% claimed to have sex at least once a week." Now this should not only surprise you, but put a smile on your face as well: a national survey that studied over 3,000 men and women 75-85 years of age said they were having sex more than three times a month! Many of you in your thirties aren't even having as much fun as these older adults are! But in order to remain in your prime, well after what many believe the prime age to be, you have to be involved in healthy activities now!

Yes, everyone is busy and tired trying to make ends meet, yet you are trying to make ends meet so that you can live well. Many of you are however, defeating your own purpose by working so hard that you're not taking care of yourself so you can enjoy life when you do grow older. In other words you are living to work instead of working to live. In a society where there is an abundance of stress you have to learn how to cope successfully or else you won't thrive even if you do live to a ripe old age. Unfortunately, even our children are feeling the impact of stress as they turn to bullying and peer pressure to release the built up frustrations in their own lives.

When you are under stress your bodies release chemicals that were designed to assist you in getting away from what stressed your ancestors- namely- predators or animals protecting their territory. Now that you aren't fleeing from these types of stimuli, the adrenalin that gets released into your blood stream to help you see clearer and run faster just remains in your bodies and can create dysfunction like high blood pressure, heart disease and other stress related ailments. Herbert Benson, Director of Behavioral Medicine at Harvard Medical says, "You need to use a relaxation technique that will break the train of everyday thought and decrease the activity of the sympathetic nervous system." According to Dr. Herbert Benson, some of the benefits of relaxation are:

• Relieve stress and mental tension

• Regular practice can strengthen the immune system

• Asthmatics experience a widening of restricted respiratory passages

• In some diabetics, relaxation can reduce the need for insulin

• In many patients with chronic, unbearable pain, relaxation brings relief

• New studies are showing that along with the "relaxation response" that lowers blood pressure, slows the heart and breath, come shifts in hormone levels that seem to produce beneficial effects on the immune system.

You need to relax every day- twice a day. It's really that simple and there is no way of getting around it. If your children are too noisy to allow you to implement this practice then ask them to join you. A daycare instructor found a fun way to trick her students into calming down by playing the "quiet game." She explained to them with a sense of excitement that every day they could play a game called the "quiet game" and that whoever could stay silent the longest would win! So, on the floor they all sat in the lotus position and participated in deep breathing, which was part of the game, and silence. What a wonderful relief for the teacher, but also these moments of silence are helping their little brains learn to focus and concentrate! So it's a win-win scenario and can be for you also.

The 7-7-7 Routine

By now you must be wondering what is this 7-7-7 routine? Well, while it doesn't replace the twenty minutes of cardio that the American College of Sports Medicine says you should perform three days per week, it does give you twenty plus minutes of relaxation that is just as essential to your well being. The 7-7-7 routine involves 7 minutes of yoga, 7 minutes of repeating a mantra, or positive affirmations and finally, 7 minutes of silence/quite time. It is preferable to perform this first off in the morning, and as a winding down routine before you go to sleep.

Yoga/Asanas

The 7 minutes of yoga involves stretches called Asanas that are held from 20 or more seconds and that include deep breathing. While you are in the pose you want to focus on your physical alignment, making sure your back is straight, your neck is elongated and that you are symetrical when you should be symetrical. When you have more time, you really want to hold the yoga pose until you feel a sense of release. It is subtle but once you begin to sense the release you will be become attuned to it because it feels so wonderful! The Asanas draw blood to your organs and muscles feeding your body and areas of your body where the capillaries may be restricted and rarely fed oxygen and life preserving nutrients. As you are practicing your 7 minutes of yoga, your mind is quieting down as your body is benefiting from the slow long held movements.

Chanting/Affirmations

The next 7 minutes is spent chanting mantras or affirmations. Chanting is said to help the life flow, if practiced in the morning, many say it sets the tone of the day by introducing a peaceful vibration into it. No matter what you may experience, chanting will quiet the mind. This quieting of the mind can offset some of the toxic chemicals that may be lingering in your body due to stress by releasing response induced anti-oxidation and anti-inflammatory changes. Chanting affirmations gives you the added benefit of deepening a thought or goal so that it lodges itself into your subconscious mind where the seeds of all your behaviors/habits/attitudes reside.

• Om Namah Shivaya- meaning, I bow down to the supreme reality, the Inner Self

• Ham-Sah- meaning , I am THAT

• I fully and completely love and accept myself

• I am that I am

• (Your particular affirmation)

Quite time

The last 7 minutes is spent simply noticing your breathing, which should be slow deep and full breaths. As you do your routine more and more, you will find that your mind is easy to quiet down for these last 7 minutes because each activity will be helping you to focus within yourself. If your mind wanders, it's okay. Just keep bringing it back to your breathing. Accept yourself, be gentle with your practice, it is about loving yourself after all.

Copyright Donya Ture'

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