Living Fully and Weight Loss

Someone recently told me about a web site with a name quite similar to my Living Fully Challenge, 12 Months to a Fully-Lived Life, so I had to go check it out. The web site, www.livingfully.com, seems to be primarily about weight loss. However, it's got lots of great resources for weight loss if you are interested and if you feel that losing weight will help you live your life more fully. Of course, health and wellness and fitness are indeed part of the Living Fully program, and I, for one, could use to lose a few pounds and get in better shape myself.

I have to admit that perimenopause hasn't been good to me in the weight department, and my work load has kept me from exercising regularly. I used to cycle at least 4-6 times per week, but I'm lucky to go once a week these days. I do try to walk at least once or twice a week, but that's really not much, and sometimes I forgo the walks for work as well. Lately, I haven't cycled because my wrists have been bothering me. I was afraid it was carpal tunnel syndrome setting in, but my doc says its "overuse." So, I need to take breaks and at least walk. Cycling might not be the best thing for my wrists. And in the process of exercising a bit more, I might drop a few pounds -- and live my life a bit more fully to boot!

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy the LivingFully.com principles. They are right up the same alley as those I talk about in the Living Fully Challenge, so I thought I'd share them with you. I couldn't copy them here, but you can access them by going to http://www.livingfully.com/10_Living_Fully_Principal.pdf.

Also, I've been listening to some great shows on Conversations with Ms. Claus (www.thefamilyyak.com). I know she has me on her pod cast once a month now, but she's got some pretty awesome guest these days besides me -- and they don't all talk about Christmas either. (You know I don't...well, I do talk about Christmas and Chanukah and Easter and Passover and Valentine's Day and the High Holy Days...and all the holidays!) These guest talk about relationships, the Law of Attraction, laughter, and so many other things. And they always offer great tips for living our lives more fully and more positively. So, if you haven't subscribed to Conversations with Ms. Claus yet, I suggest you do so now and start downloading her pod casts to your Ipod and listening while you drive or exercise (!) or work. Plus, you won't want to miss some of the guest she'll be interviewing in the coming months. I can't tell you who they are, but they've written some super books and you'll definitely recognize their names.

I know this blog was a bit like a commercial. Sorry, but I really hope you will enjoy the information and find it useful.

Freedom to Live Your Life Fully this Passover

I was just reading a blog by Rachel Barenblat (http://www.velveteenrabbi.com/) that made me think about living fully this Passover. She comments on a recent posting by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi called Toward Freeing the Seder, in which he takes the fifteen steps of the basic seder structure and offers creative suggestions for making each of them one's own. For anyone who has ever sat through a boring seder, the home service conducted on this Jewish holiday, you know that creative suggestions often are much needed. Reb Zalman is a genius when it comes to this sort of thing -- and in general. So, take a look at his post. It's well worth your time. I printed it out for my own use, and you can be sure that elements of it will show up during my seder.

Among other things, Rachel chose to highlight the section Reb Zalman wrote about the Four Questions, and I just loved the idea of doing this section differently. In fact, Reb Zalman's suggestions made me start thinking about how well these questions play into my Living Fully Challenge. Here' s what he says about the Four Questions:

Use your pencil and paper to jot down your four questions. What are
they?

Or your four questions about Judaism.

In other words, if I want to get some answers to my questions this
night, what are my real questions, the ones I want answered?

Mah nishtanah halyla hazeh? Why is the night different? And
what about life? Why is life different from what I expected? Jot
down four "Differents," four "It isn't as I had thought it would be"-s.

Rachel commented: "Imagine using those four questions in your seder, questions that arise out of who you are this year, in this moment, as this festival unfolds! How would that change your experience?"

I think I'll ask participants at my seder to answer, "How am I different this year." And, given that the topic of discussion in general revolves around freedom, "If I were free, how would I choose to be different?" By that I mean, if nothing were holding you back -- finances, ego, doubt, family, boss, time, etc. -- how would you change? I'm not necessarily talking about external situations now, because those issues would be gone. If nothing were in the way of you being the best you possible, who would you be?

Of course, the question that logically follows is: Can I be that person now despite what I perceive to be holding me back? Can I be free to live my life fully right now?

Now, whether you are Jewish or not, you can ask yourself these questions. You don't have to participate in a Passover seder, nor do you have to wait for Passover or a seder to ask these questions. In fact, ask away right now if you want!

To read all of Rachel's blog, go to http://www.velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/. She's also got a Passover haggadah of her own. Check it out. Plus, she's a great poet.

Singing the Blues

Remember that old song, "Can't live, when living is without you. Can't live, can't live any more!" I don't know who sang it, but today the words are running through my mind with a slight variation on the words. "Can't live, when living is focused on you."

Yeah, that's right. I admit it. I've been so damn focused on where my husband "is" right now with his spiritual path (or lack thereof) and his attitude towards life and his beliefs about God and about life, that I've not been living my life at all. In fact, I've been miserable. And I've been making him miserable. And I've been making our relationship miserable.

I'm a total believer in the fact that what we focus on expands. I know that when I am thinking about red convertibles, I definitely see more red convertibles on the road. Even if I'm not "creating" them, I'm more aware of them. In my own perception, I perceive more of them. It's now different in my relationship experience and in my life experience. The more I focus on what I don't like about how my husband is living his life and about how he is thinking and what he is believing, the more aware I become of all of this. And the more upset I become about it. And the more I see of it, and the more miserable I become. And that surely does not lead to me living my life fully at all.

So, while I was walking with a friend today, she basically told me to let my husband have his own spiritual path. She said he might not look like he's on one right now, but his questioning and his disbelief might really just be one stop on his spiritual path. She reminded me that consciousness and spirituality are all about questioning and reevaluating and coming to new understandings of our beliefs. So, if he is angry and feeling like a victim, if he want to shout at God or not believe in God, if he wants to not believe in anything right now, maybe that is just part of his spiritual path. Maybe, like Jacob, he is wrestling with God right now, or needs to. And, she said, I should be compassionate and loving until he finds his way or comes to a new understanding.

Okay. Got it. I've been one complaining, unhappy, judgemental, impatient wife (there's another word I could use, but I won't.) -- and not too spiritual either. And I've been spending all my time focused on him rather than on me, focused on what I perceive as not working, not right, not what I want rather than on what is working, what is right what is working.

Time to focus on what enlivens me, on what brings life into our relationship, on what helps me live fully. Maybe in the process, it will help him do the same. In either case, I'll stop singing the blues.