Happy Monday To You!
I hope you are inspired to love, live fully and grow more today.
Today, I have a few fun items to share with you, including:
1. Swiss Ball Multidimensional Core Training vlog
2. Loving Yourself
3. SHOW-N-TELL with Paul
So lets get started!
Swiss Ball Multidimensional Core Training vlog
My vlog today is a nice, simple Swiss ball core conditioning exercise that I simply refer to as the Swiss Ball (SB) Multidimensional Core Exercise.
This exercise can be used for beginners and people who have experienced back injuries and are ready for basic core integration training.
As I share in the video, this exercise can be progressed to advanced levels suitable for any athlete.
The Swiss ball (also called a stability ball, balance ball, gym ball or physio ball) is a very powerful, diverse tool that can be used by pretty much everyone, regardless of his or her level of physical conditioning or athletic development.
If you would like to learn how to use it effectively, I have created a variety of resources to guide and support you in achieving your health and/or performance dreams.
Swiss Ball Exercises For Better Abs, Buns, and Backs is my entry level DVD-based program and is ideal for people who are recovering from an injury or in need of better general core and body function and integration.
Swiss Ball Exercise For Athletes is a step up in complexity and challenge, and is presented with progressively increasing levels of workout challenge.
It incorporates exercises that enhance general athletic ability and, therefore, is good for most any athlete’s basic conditioning schema.
Strong N Stable is my DVD series that shows you effective ways to integrate Swiss balls with free weights, cables and various gym equipment.
I even show you how to integrate Swiss balls with machine-based exercises so you can get the best of isolated strength development as offered specifically by machine training, along with balance, coordination, stabilizer function and integrated training.
Advanced Swiss Ball For Rehabilitation is a workshop environment where I show the many ways Swiss balls can be used for assessment and for making specific corrections in motor sequencing and enhanced motor recruitment of inhibited muscles or muscle groups.
This program is ideal for those with a good grasp of functional anatomy.
I hope you enjoy my vblog on multidimensional core training today.
Loving Yourself
We live in very interesting times indeed.
World culture, in general, is such that about 85 percent of people claim religious affiliation, yet we have the highest rates of suicide among children, teens and adults than ever before in human history.
We also have the highest levels of depression and anxiety disorders ever in history.
When you look for the common denominator among the challenges I’m referring to here, one could rightly say that it is low self-esteem.
When we have low self-esteem, we are far less likely to care for ourselves effectively, and far more likely to fall into the trap of hoping someone or something (often a pill) will make us feel better.
Generally, religion, particularly the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) has had a huge influence in people devaluing themselves. This can be seen in all the “kill the ego” type new age versions of these religions and spirituality.
In my experience, many with low self-esteem or challenges loving themselves often feel deeply insecure about stacking up to God’s commandments and dictates as presented to them in religious circles.
Many wonder if God will ever forgive them (and not burn them in hell) because of the money they stole from so-and-so as kids, or for the premarital sex they had as a teenager, or the affair they’re having now?
From the perspective of mythology, these issues are all indicators that “We’ve become people whose personal and collective myths are broken.”
Where is the amazement at the grandeur of the universe?
Where is the awe for life itself?
Why don’t the religious myths help people in various groups integrate effectively with their own families and other social groups and cultures?
Why have most religiously motivated or “instituted” myths taught us the importance of our relationship with, and caring for, the planet?
In fact, among the most common questions I get on radio shows, and from students and clients are, “Why is it so hard to love myself?” or “How can I learn to love myself?”
In fact, that was the very question asked when I was speaking to Sean Croxton on his Underground Wellness radio show several years ago.
When I answered that question on the radio, I had no idea that two very creative people would “do their magic with my words,” and create the following musical and video presentations:
Music Track: https://soundcloud.com/soulpioneer/how-to-love-yourself-feat-paul-chek
My words on how to love yourself aided by video imagery:
I would like to extend my most sincere “Thank You” to the two people who beautifully contributed to “my art with their art.” After all, working together to create beauty is what loving yourself is all about.
If you truly love yourself, you have love to share and when love meets love, more love is born.
SHOW-N-TELL With Paul
LION
A five-year-old boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. Surviving many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia, he sets out to find his family.
Starring: Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, Nicole Kidman
Run time: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Angie and I watched this movie last night and it was AWESOME!
It is beautifully filmed and acted, and based on a true story. The story will tap deeply into your soul, and you are sure to feel a lot of emotion flowing through you.
Because this movie contains scenes and events that are likely to touch some part of each of you who have experienced the joys and challenges of being part of a family, and living in the world, it is likely to have a special message for each viewer.
I HIGHLY recommend this movie and it is something the whole family can enjoy together. Just bring lots of tissues to wipe wet eyes, noses and, well, faces and chests if your feminine is active in you.
Roadrunner Heaven
My cleaning lady brings her daughter to help her clean my office from time to time.
Last time she was here, she kept seeing roadrunners outside the windows of the house as she was cleaning.
This triggered her to ask me questions about the roadrunner because she has a Native American boyfriend and the roadrunner is a symbol of his tribe.
I spoke to her about the roadrunner for a while, and suggested that she look search “shamanic interpretation of the roadrunner” on Google because the roadrunner is appearing in her life.
I explained that this is one of the many ways Nature or the collective unconscious of man and earth communicate with each of us (if we are paying attention).
She was very intrigued with the whole concept, and left excited to go exploring.
Only a minute or so after she and her mother drove away, she texted me the photo above of the roadrunner standing atop one of my rock stacks along our driveway here.
She was so surprised that she’d seen another one so quickly after having lived in San Diego her whole life and rarely ever seeing roadrunners.
For those of you who are interested in seeing what Mother Nature is potentially sharing with you as messages, you may find Ted Andrews’ books, Animal Speak and Animal Wise, to be very helpful.
Angie’s Sister Liz and her niece Ursula visit
Angie’s sister, Elizabeth, and her five-year-old daughter, Ursula, came to visit us for a week.
Angie took them out to Lego Land, and other fun places for the kids to play and be entertained.
Here you can see them on an outing, and my studly little guy getting a nice California tan too!
Mana has now mastered the art of “the button push” as well as “the door open/close” concept, which can make life very interesting at times!
He has managed to do things with the TV remote control that could only be solved with Penny’s level of technical expertise.
Not to mention that he loves taking things out of cupboards and putting them into boxes and drawers and, essentially, turning daily life into his version of a perpetual Easter egg hunt.
Angie’s first baby is Maggie, and she gets a little fussy if Mana gets too much attention, so Angie gives her some babying and she loves that.
She loves to swing next to Mana at the park too, which always amazes the kids who see her in the swing swinging away.
Rockstacking Heaven
I did some stonework with a client who was here for some focused healing work recently, but hadn’t been working with my stones for quite a while.
A while back, I felt compelled to build a labyrinth where I could do walking meditations.
I loved the experience and how it made me feel so much, I couldn’t bring myself to change it into something new. But I know that “change is a constant” that we all need to learn to embrace, so I began creating something new.
The stack I’d co-created with my client didn’t withstand the test of birds and other creatures that like to climb stacks, and, then, there is the wind.
I thought I’d go out and put something up for a nice workout. The stack you see above is what I created.
It took me about 45 minutes to build it, and it was no task for old men, I assure you!
I had to tap into my youthful exuberance. That top stone weighs about 60 pounds, and I had to stack big stones on top of each other to get enough height that I could get the cap stone up.
Even then, it was a very delicate ballerina dance with a heavy stone that had to be very carefully balanced, while trying “not to meet my maker.”
This was a very good, fun and active meditation, as is my time alone in nature.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog today.
I look forward to sharing more with you next week.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
