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Sometimes the hardest part of getting a toned, graceful body is not the workout itself, but finding the time to actually do the workout.  Yes, it would be great to have an hour each day to work on trimming, toning, and endurance training.  If your schedule is already busy, the thought of a daily hour workout may seem both appealing as an escape and overwhelming to actually add it to your daily to-do list.

Oddly, though, if your daily schedule always seems to be a precarious juggling act, and you feel exhaustion from trying to complete all your daily tasks, then regular exercise is actually essential for you.  Why?  Because regular exercise strengthens muscles, increases lung and heart capacity, increases blood flow to vital organs (like your brain!), reduces stress by burning off cortisol (a stress hormone), and gives you better coordination.  All these combine to mean more strength, grace, confidence, and energy levels.

I once attended a meeting for a local women’s CPA group.  A leading area heart surgeon was the speaker.  When he asked if there were any questions, I raised my hand.  I asked him if there was any guideline for how much a woman should exercise in order to gain benefits.  He answered without hesitation that ANY amount of daily exercise would gain benefits – even 5 minutes a day.  He went on further to state that yes, the benefits increase as the daily minutes increase, but that he saw pleasing improvements in his patients when they went from sedentary to working out for 5 – 10 minutes a day.

So.  Now you know that even a short workout will give tangible benefits.  Why not start with 5 minutes a day? (Well, of course, you’ll check first with your doctor if you have any health concerns at all.)  Add minutes in a week or two, but just get started. Make up your own little workout, say marching in place for 3 minutes and stretching for another 2 minutes.  Or perhaps you could do 2 minutes of leg exercises, 2 minutes of ab exercises, and 1 minute of walking.

Once you’ve made a 5 minute workout a daily habit, gradually work your way to a 15 minute workout.  Prepare to be amazed with your increased self-confidence and muscle toning.

Here are some sources for ideas for creating your own workout and workouts that have already been created for you.

5 Minute Tone Body, Abs Workout, Fitness Training w/Tammy  – this video is 4:52 long and starts out with :50 of talking, so the workout is really only 4 minutes!  She also does the 5 Minute Tone Abs Workout 2,  which is 5:42 long but does not actually start the workout until about 1:00 in.

A model shares her 5 Minute Workout – Spankie – it’s entertaining as well as a bit tough.  Video is 7:51, but does not start until about 1:15, so it is a little more than 5 minutes.  Spankie Valentine also has a 10 Minute Total Body Workout – video is 13:15 and has a long ad at the beginning, which you can skip.  The workout starts at about 1:00, but watch the pre-exercise section at least once; Spankie is fun to watch and a little silly, too.  I concede, the perky pre-exercise parts could be a little annoying for those grouchy groggy morning workout sessions. 🙂

Joanna Hall has a 5 minute cardio workout.  The video is 5:48 and starts about :50, so is really a 5 minute workout. Oddly, the preceding commercials are all in Spanish, but the video itself is in English with a wonderful British(?) accent. It’s a nice five minutes – no mad jumping jacks, just constant stepping and moving that is almost dancing.

The trainer for the Victoria’s Secret models has a 10 Minute Fat-Blasting workout – I like that it displays the minutes and seconds left in the workout.  It’s not exactly a sexy workout, but it is certainly effective.   It has a few ballet moves, aerobics, soft jumping, and is a very dedicated workout – no frills or cool music.

When you are ready for a 15 minute workout, Real Simple has a list of Five 15-Minute Workouts   – a fitness-ball workout, a yoga workout, a jump-rope workout, a walking workout, and a strength workout.

There are also a lot of 15 minute workouts on YouTube.  Yoga Journal has a Beginner’s Yoga: 15-Minute Awakening Practice (it’s a little dry peaceful, but a very good yoga workout.

YogaVidyaEnglish has a cool yoga workout, it’s 20 minutes, but you could always just do 10 or 15 minutes of it.  Yoga for Complete Beginners – Yoga Class 20 Minutes.  The video is delicious in releasing stress and tension.  This video is mostly geared toward releasing tension and increasing flexibility.

Lori Massad-Koska has a 20 Minute Yoga Workout for Beginners. The video is 20:13, but the exercises don’t start until about :30.  It is nicely instructional and has peaceful music and a calm flow.

SparkPeople has a 15 Minute Ab-Hip-Lower Back Workout.  The video is 14:22 and the exercise starts about :20, so the workout is really only 14:00.

WomensHealthMag has a 15 minute workout – The Skinny Jeans Workout.  (Why is is that mentioning skinny jeans and bikinis gets our attention?)

PBS has a Quick Fit 15-Minute Exercise Program

Sol Walkling has a wonderful Pilates workout – 15 Min Beach Body Pilates Workout in Manly Australia.  It is 16:18 and starts at about :25.  She says the workout will give you a “cinched-in waist” look.  Sounds good to me!  Excellent pilates workout, and I find the Australian accent intriguing.

This should give you a good list of starting exercise programs.  Did I mention that all of these are free? No excuses now!

Here’s to a healthy, toned, graceful body,

Patti

I have a bit of an addiction to books.  There, I’ve said it.  I love books and I love reading them.  Yes, I have a Kindle, and yes, I use it and enjoy it, but most of my collection of books still remain, cherished and sacred, on my shelves.  I still surf Amazon, Half.com, thrift shops, and garage sales for books that I want to read, and more often than not, I end up adding a book or two, (or three, but please don’t tell my husband) to my collection.

Imagine the pain, then, of watching a rather boring video turn into a horror film when the instructor pulls out a knife and proceeds to instruct you on how to slice off the cover and carve out the pages of  a “slightly used” book so that the spine could become part of a craft project.

This is not fiction. Lauren Conrad recently released a little video showcasing a way to destroy five to ten perfectly valuable books in order to make a storage box that looks like a stack of books. Viola! A way to impress people and make them think that you are, indeed, a collector of books and that you in fact have books on your shelves.   Hopefully, your guests will not try to pick up to books to uhm … actually read or leaf through them.   I wonder what the title of the video is … The Art of Destroying Good Books?

And what is the definition of “slightly used” when referring to a book?  Someone read one of the pages?  Received it as a gift and opened the cover?  I don’t know, but I don’t think an innocent book deserves to be demolished because of it.

In Lauren’s case, the books she chose to destroy were from the beloved Lemony Snicket book series.

Author Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) had this to say when interviewed by the Huffington Post regarding the mindless destruction of his books:  “It has always been my belief that people who spend too much time with my work end up as lost souls, drained of reason, who lead lives of raving emptiness and occasional lunatic violence. What a relief it is to see this documented.”

Gotta love him.

In peace and good humor,

Patti

Here are two related Huffington post articles What Not to Do With Books and  Lauren Conrad Faces Huge Backlash for Destroying Books in Craft Project Video

Today I want to share something that has inspired me.  Maybe it will have a good effect on you, too.

Sometimes just a small change in perspective can create a dramatic change in results.   I’ve read a post from the Marc and Angel Hack Life blog that left me feeling a little dazed in thought.

It’s a list of questions.  Some of the questions leave you wanting to answer but instead wordless and contemplating.  Some feel almost startling, as though the question has been hanging in the air for a long time, yet you just now whacked your head on it.

Read the questions more than once.  Your answers may change.  Take an hour with your husband (or wife) and take turns reading them to each other.  Listen deeply to their answers.

Here are a few of the questions:

(these are all quoted from the blog post “50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind” – marcandangel.com)

#4 When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?

#24 Which is worse, when a good friend moves away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives right near you?

#26 Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones?

#37 If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job?

Marc tells you right up front that there are no right or wrong answers, but that does not stop you from feeling deep inside that some of the questions really do have an answer that is right for you.

Enough said.  Take a look at the post and see what it does for you:

50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind

In peace,

Patti

The sweet days of summer may have you searching for a hairstyle that is relaxed, easy to style, yet beautiful.  When the sun is hot and the air is humid, it feels good to have a carefree, attractive alternative to a plain, elastic-band ponytail.

I found a rather versatile, yet simple summer hairstyle that is perfect for keeping your hair managed and alluring.  The hairstyle here is from the blog GlittersGold.  It is a fishtail braid with an added twist, thus the name Twisted Fishtail Braid.  I like that Emily gives detailed instructions on how to create the style; that’s very helpful for someone like me who appreciates all the step-by-step help I can get.

If you look at the steps (see link below), you could even stop at step #3 and leave it with the rather elegant, flowing ponytail without progressing to the fishtail braid.

Also, while this twisted fishtail braid is shown for long hair, it can also be adapted to shorter hair.  If you have shoulder length hair and it doesn’t quite work to have the braid off to the side, it is still lovely to keep the ponytail (and therefore the braid) at the back of your head.

Here’s the front view.

To see detailed step-by-step instructions and illustrations, here is the GlittersGold link …  Twisted Fishtail Braid.  (Thanks, Emily, for sharing your images with us!)

After you finish your hair, may I suggest that you pour yourself an icy glass of raspberry tea, take your shoes off,  sit outside, and just feel beautiful for awhile.

“Summer breeze makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind.”  ~ lyrics, Seals & Crofts

Enjoy,

Patti

Have you been asking or praying for help, ideas, or for an answer, yet despite your fervent and frequent requests, no answer or help appears?

Maybe you are not listening.

Recently,  I read a passage in the book Miracle Power for Infinite Riches, by Joseph Murphy.  He tells of the morning routine of one very successful businessman.  In his routine, this businessman has a 15 minute silent period every morning.  During this time, he affirms that he is being guided and will receive the right words, decisions, and blessings.  He further states “the quickest way in all the world to get an answer to a problem is to turn over your request to that center of quietness, knowing the answer will emerge.  Many times the answer comes within an hour, although the answer may come a few days later, or perhaps a week later, but it always comes when he is preoccupied with something else.”

After I read this passage, I realized that the best way to listen for answers, or at least to create the formulation for answers to come later,  is to set aside a time each day for silence.   If 15 minutes seems like too much, how about 5 minutes? or 3?   Just get started – going into silence feels so refreshing that once you have mastered silent listening with just a few minutes, you may find that you deliberately make time for more.

Deepak Chopra, an endocrinologist who  became a spiritual leader and founder of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing, indicated that he finds time for yoga and meditation every day. This apparently has helped him find answers and direction because not only does he run The Chopra Center, but he has also authored 65 books.  In a recent issue of O, Oprah Winfrey’s magazine, he gave a brief guidance for quieting your mind – How to Quiet Your Mind During Meditation.    This may help if you are having difficulty getting to silence.

It’s hard to hear or recognize an answer  to your problem if your mind is filled with static, or if you just keep repeating your question like an overtired toddler.  If you are struggling with a problem, define the problem as simply as you can, ask for an answer, and then silently listen and watch for the solution.

In peace,

Patti

“Many answers to what you seek don’t lie “out there”. If you look inwards, you’ll find the answer has been in you all along.”  – Celestine Chua, The Personal Excellence Blog

“In the morning, O Lord,  you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.”- Psalm 5:3 NIV

“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”
-Lao Tzu

“Expect your every need to be met. Expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level.”
– Eileen Caddy

“Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the believer. So believe the answer will come. It will.”
-Norman Vincent Peale

Sometimes a simple, small change can have a big impact on an outcome.  Recently, I found that in the tug of war between my to-do list and my getting to places on time, the to-do list was winning.  I was continually trying to squeeze in one last task before I left for an appointment.  Inevitably, I would have to scramble in order to barely arrive on time, or even a moment late.  That was creating a lot of stress.

I don’t like the stress of hurrying to get somewhere on time.  I’d rather be calm and composed, able to take my time on the trip to my appointment, maybe enjoy the scenery or listen to music or a program.  However, the new approaches I was trying were not working.  Most trips to an appointment were still pretty harried.

One day, without realizing the significance, I made a small change that made all the difference.  About 45 minutes before I needed to leave, I paused my work on my task, got completely ready to go and then came back and continued work on my task until it was time to go.  Being able to put my work away and simply get up, gather my purse (which I had already laid out), and walk out the door changed the whole atmosphere and timing.  Apparently I had been trying to fool myself about how long it took me to get ready to go somewhere and had developed the habit of waiting too long to stop my task and get ready to go.  By getting ready early, the amount of time I took to get ready was already set. With that one change, everything else was pretty much under control.

The significance is that I didn’t quite realize that I really only needed to fix one piece of the issue.  In my mind, it seemed like I needed a complete life re-do, a system to better manage my to-do list, …. and hey, maybe even intense psychotherapy to help me analyze and deal with all the Freudian reasons for starting to barely make my appointments on time.

It just took accidentally changing one relatively small step.  Getting ready to go early made everything else shift into a more manageable place.

This concept has broader uses for us.  What other areas of your life seem chaotic, overwhelming, baffling?  Experiment with making one shift at a time … maybe you just need to shift one unexpected thing and you will find everything else clicking into a more manageable place.

Funny how much can be learned by accident, isn’t it?

With love and peace,

Patti

Related article at SimpleLifeCorp.com You’re Late! How to Arrive on Time

One common thought in the pursuit of happiness is the thought that once we get something, we’ll be happy. How many times have you had that mindset? … Once I get my college degree, I’ll be happy … When I have my own house, I’ll be happy … I would be so happy if I had that red dress … If I had a nicer car, I’d be happy… If I had a better job, I’d be happy … I would really be happy if I had a slimmer body …

But happiness with the acquisition of things is a complex and fleeting reward. Most of the happiness seems to be in the dizzying rush of endorphins that comes with having something new. As the newness wears off, so do the endorphins, and we are left with our no-longer-new possession and the puzzled thought that maybe nothing has changed.

What if we tried the opposite?  What if we looked at what we might let go of or give up in the pursuit of happiness?  Things like giving up the need to place blame, or giving up the need to control.  Could you let go  of your limiting beliefs?  How about giving up your fears?  Could your really let go of all of your excuses?

PurposeFairy has compiled a list of 15 Things You Should Give Up In Order to be Happy.  The last one on the list seems to be pretty powerful:  Give up living your life to other’s expectations. It also could be a hard one to give up.  Expectations are built into us over time and can be so deeply embedded that we don’t even realize that we are  following someone else’s expectation.  We become so identified with the expectations that stripping them away and instead deciding for ourselves what we really want can leave us feeling vulnerable and directionless.  It may have been so long since we practiced making independent choices,  we may not even know what we want. Yet the deep joy of living a life of deliberate choice is well worth the price of any initial confusion and the discovery process can be rewarding in itself.

Who would have thought that giving up would be one of the steps on your path to happiness?

http://www.purposefairy.com/3308/15-things-you-should-give-up-in-order-to-be-happy/

Here is a sign that awakened a part of me … although I did not realize it until the sign gave me the perspective, in many ways I have been waiting for the perfect time and available money when I could sort of wave a magic wand and make my entire home beautiful, artistic, and wonderfully decorated.  Meantime, I’ve been tolerating pieces of furniture and entire rooms that I don’t really feel comfortable with.  In my mind, these areas are in a waiting pattern, to be changed “someday.”

This gives a pretty clear example of the difference between passively visualizing and visualizing with the intent to start today to love, appreciate, and begin to change.  What a huge difference it makes to live fully with whatever resources and circumstances are available right now!

(This sign is displayed in the dealer booth for Ohh La La Furniture at The Original Treasure Mart in Kokomo, IN. ) 

Think about it:  Are you waiting for your dream? What would happen if you start today, with whatever is at hand, to begin taking action to realize your distant dreams?

In peace,

Patti

PS  Here are the sign words, in case the image is not clear:

If you wait until you have enough money to decorate and make your home your own, it will never happen.  If you wait until you can afford to buy everything new you are missing the point.  It is the old, the new, the made, the hand-me-down, the collected, the worn (but loved) things in your home that make it your own.  ~ Stacy Risenmay

Are you yearning for a new career, or just to move up in your current field, but find yourself intimidated or downright frozen by the thought of taking a required class or passing a qualifying exam?

You may be avoiding the classes that will help you make a desired career change because you have trouble remembering and retaining things that you have learned. If so, then B. Price Kerfoot, an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, has a new method of learning that you may want to try.

The method is called spaced repetition. The theory behind it is that our memory of a piece of information, the first time we encounter it, tends to be fleeting and unpredictable. However, over a period of time, as we re-encounter the information, our memory of the information grows stronger and more reliable.

The secret of the method is to have spacing between the contacts with the information and to keep the information concise. Dr. Kerfoot developed a system of delivering weekly emails to his students with brief sentences of review material mixed with new material for the students to review. The students in his studies scored significantly higher on tests than students who did not receive the weekly emails.

In fact, Dr. Kerfoot found that cramming for an exam the night before was of little use since not much of the information was retained.

How can you try this method? If there is something you need to learn, then review the material and create a series of brief reviews and synopsis. Once a week, study the reviews and the bits of new material. Repeat until you have covered all the material while at the same time reviewing the material you have already learned. Dr. Kerfoot found that putting the review material in the form of questions or quizzes was very effective.

Of course this method is not just for classes and exams. Try it with anything you’d like to learn … names, constellations, stock trading, …. even dance steps. Oh la la! Now that’s better.

Here is a link to the related article The New Way Doctors Learn at time.com.

I’ve just posted the Simple Life Tip of the Day – Learning to Clear the Clutter.  I’ll give you a bit of a synopsis.

Over the last year or so of earnestly clearing clutter from my home, I’ve learned a few things.  The most recent came as a revelation of what should have been obvious to me all along:  clearing clutter is a skill, not an inborn talent or trait.  It’s something everyone can learn, if they really want to.  The skills of clearing clutter are not what I expected, though.  I expected to learn how to neatly stack things on shelves, and how to get organized, as well as how to get rid of clearly useless things. Yes I am learning these expected things, but I have learned much deeper, and much more powerful skills.  I’ll briefly share them here – you can read more explanation in the full article.

Some of the skills I learned while learning to clear clutter:

1. To make decisions rather than ignoring something

2. To accept responsibility

3.  Not to accept someone else’s responsibility

4.  To know myself and my own likes and dislikes

5.  The courage to change

6.  The willingness to make mistakes

7.  The willingness to admit that I had made mistakes in the past

8.  Creating and reinforcing the habit of repetition and daily routines

There are more things that I have learned.  I’m not even sure if I’m aware of all of them right now.  When you begin to change your life, you may be surprised at the number and kinds of things, both small and large, that you start to face and to realize that if you deal with these things, you will begin clearing your path of obstacles that you did not even realize were there.

How do you learn these things and how do you develop these new skills?  By getting started.  Pick a spot to clear the clutter, observe whatever seems apparent to observe, and then just keep going.  You will find patterns that you did not even know you were repeating and you will find that some of your own habits are what actually reinforce the patterns that keep your home and life cluttered.

Be willing to change.  Be willing to learn new skills.  Skills are just a habit that is repeated, improved, and learned.

You may also be interested in some of the Simple Life articles on clearing clutter.  The Clutter Control Center is a good place to start.

In peace and love,

Patti

PS. The photo is from the home of my beautiful, late sister-in-law. She remodeled and beautifully decorated her home and has been an inspiration for me.