By Robin Sharma

If you’ve been following my work for a while, you know that my core belief is that the old model of leadership is dead and now, anyone in any organization on any part of the planet can show leadership. I’ve seen taxi drivers who display rare-air leadership along with school teachers + breakfast servers + construction workers. Work is changing. And we all can provoke impact and influence if we Lead Without a Title. But here’s the point of this piece: not only do each of us have the potential to be leaders – we each have the potential to be creative. Massively.

Who sold us on the lie that only artists and poets and musicians are Creatives? When we were kids, we all expressed our Inner Rembrandt as effortlessly as we would breathe. We colored outside of the lines, ideated at the slightest chances and were essentially idea factories on two short legs. But then, as we aged, we stifled our creativity as the mortgages, deadlines and the stuff of life took over our days. Sad.

You and I do no favor to the world in withholding our creativity. So, in my sincere effort to help you work + play at your best, I invite you to consider The 8 Faces of the most creative people I’ve observed. These are the qualities that the brightest of the best have. And you can develop them too. Here we go:

The 8 Faces of Exceptionally Creative Leaders

The Madonna

The Face of Madonna will serve to remind you that nearly every great creative was a perfectionist. Yes, I know perfectionism may not be the most healthy attribute in the world. But facts are facts and when I study the superstars of creativity, the fact is almost every one of them stood for nothing less than ideal work.

A while ago I watched Madonna’s documentary “I’m Going to Tell You a Secret”, which deeply inspired me.

At every touch point, Madonna sweat the small stuff and demanded that every element of every performance was perfect.

Why work on a project if not to get it as close to perfect as possible?

The Picasso

The face of Picasso will reinforce the notion of devotion.

Great creatives don’t do what they do just for the applause and accolades. They do it because they love it.

Picasso used to leave beautiful dinners with his friends to return to his studio to advance his craft.

His art was his passion.

And like every fantastically creative person, he worked with utter devotion.

The Thoreau

The face of Henry David Thoreau will remind you of the need to create space for your creative talent to flow.

We live in a world where too many people have too little time away from the noise of ringing smart phones, constant email and the dumbing hum of the television.

One of my all-time favorite books is “Walden” by Thoreau. He wrote it over a period living by a pond, away from the world. Living in quiet solitude with nature as his daily companion.

We don’t get our best ideas at work. We get them on beaches or in bathtubs.

Create spaces for your inner artist to present itself.

The Hemingway

The face of Ernest Hemingway will reinforce the idea that hugely creative people are extremely disciplined.

It’s pure myth that the best artists achieved what they did without structure and organization.

Hemingway, the famed author, wrote at the same time every day – whether he felt inspired or de-inspired.

Yes, spark a steady flow of great ideas.

But great ideas that are not executed upon and converted into real results are a waste of time. The world is littered with geniuses who did zero with their big ideas.

The Branson

Richard Branson’s face will remind you to have fun.

Creativity often occurs in the heat of play.

Branson’s a billionaire. But he really seems to have fun at all he does.

Look – no, hunt – for ways to make whatever it is you do fun.

That will open up that part of your brain that drives your best ideas.

The Edison

The face of Edison will remind you that creative mastery is a numbers game.

Yes, we all know the cliche that Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before he got the light bulb right. But the story’s worth remembering.

Study any genius – in the arts or in business, and you’ll discover the same thing: they succeeded because they out failed everyone around them.

Come up with a thousand ideas and one’s bound to be brilliant.

The Starck

Philippe Starck is awesome. And part of his awesomeness stems from his love of minimalism.

Here’s where I’m going with this one: genius resides in simplicity.

The best inventions were the simplest inventions.

Further, de-clutter your workspace + your home + your mind.

Breathtakingly beautiful ideas can’t flow when your energy’s being taken up by the messes around you.

The Ford

Ok. Last one. The face of Henry Ford will remind you to trust yourself.

I’ve made my biggest mistakes when I’ve listened to the chattering voices around me vs. trusted my own instincts.

Self-belief is a powerful leadership quality.

Nearly everyone laughed at Ford’s concept for a car. His reply: “If I’d listened to the people around me, I would have built a faster horse carriage.”

Nice.

By: Anahad O’Connor

Seeing a chiropractor or engaging in light exercise relieves neck pain more effectively than relying on pain medication, new research shows.
The new study is one of the few head-to-head comparisons of various treatments for neck pain, a problem that affects three quarters of Americans at some point in their lives but has no proven, first-line treatment. While many people seek out spinal manipulation by chiropractors, the evidence supporting its usefulness has been limited at best.
But the new research, published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, found that chiropractic care or simple exercises done at home were better at reducing pain than taking medications like aspirin, ibuprofen or narcotics.
“These changes were diminished over time, but they were still present,” said Dr. Gert Bronfort, an author of the study and research professor at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Minnesota. “Even a year later, there were differences between the spinal manipulation and medication groups.”
Moderate and acute neck pain is one of the most frequent reasons for trips to primary care doctors, prompting millions of visits every year. For patients, it can be a difficult problem to navigate. In some cases the pain and stiffness crop up without explanation, and treatment options are varied. Physical therapy, pain medication and spinal manipulation are popular options, but Dr. Bronfort was inspired to carry out an analysis because so little research exists.
“There was a void in the scientific literature in terms of what the most helpful treatments are,” he said.
To find out, Dr. Bronfort and his colleagues recruited a large group of adults with neck pain that had no known specific cause. The subjects, 272 in all, were mostly recruited from a large HMO and through advertisements. The researchers then split them into three groups and followed them for about three months.
One group was assigned to visit a chiropractor for roughly 20-minute sessions throughout the course of the study, making an average of 15 visits. A second group was assigned to take common pain relievers like acetaminophen and — in some cases, at the discretion of a doctor — stronger drugs like narcotics and muscle relaxants. The third group met on two occasions with physical therapists who gave them instructions on simple, gentle exercises for the neck that they could do at home. They were encouraged to do 5 to 10 repetitions of each exercise up to eight times a day. (A demonstration of the exercises can be found at www.annals.org).
After 12 weeks, the people in the non-medication groups did significantly better than those taking the drugs. About 57 percent of those who met with chiropractors and 48 percent who did the exercises reported at least a 75 percent reduction in pain, compared to 33 percent of the people in the medication group.
A year later, when the researchers checked back in, 53 percent of the subjects who had received spinal manipulation still reported at least a 75 percent reduction in pain, similar to the exercise group. That compared to just a 38 percent pain reduction among those who had been taking medication.
Dr. Bronfort said it was a “big surprise” to see that the home exercises were about as effective as the chiropractic sessions. “We hadn’t expected that they would be that close,” he said. “But I guess that’s good news for patients.”
In addition to their limited pain relief, the medications had at least one other downside: people kept taking them. “The people in the medication group kept on using a higher amount of medication more frequently throughout the follow-up period, up to a year later,” Dr. Bronfort said. “If you’re taking medication over a long time, then we’re running into more systemic side effects like gastrointestinal problems.”
He also expressed concern that those on medications were not as empowered or active in their own care as those in the other groups. “We think it’s important that patients are enabled to deal with as much control over their own condition as possible,” he said. “This study shows that they can play a large role in their own care.”

1. Reduce or eliminate refined carbohydrates. A refined carbohydrate has been stripped of most of its nutrients through a machined process that separates the bran and the germ from whole grain. The result is a much longer food shelf life. Think white rice, pastas, bagels, breads, cereals.Why does this matter? The refining process concentrates the carbohydrate so once it’s digested it rapidly converts into a truck load of sugar in your body. Your pancreas, in response to rapid rise in blood sugar, pumps out insulin so the sugar can be moved out of the blood into muscle cells where it’s stored as glycogen and if the muscle cells are full, which is most of the time, it gets stored as fat. The problem is that your body wasn’t built for a daily onslaught of carb conversion and eventually your cells become resistant to insulin. This is how you can develop diabetes. For more info on how carbs can mess up your fuel plan, read this.
2. Eliminate refined sugar. This is table sugar or the sugar you find in candy bars, soda drinks, and as a food additive. For an excellent review of the rationale behind this, read this piece in the NY Times by Gary Taubes. Bottom line, there is nothing redeeming about refined sugar. In fact, Robert Lustig, a specialist on pediatric hormone disorders and the leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, considers sugar a “toxin”. Enough said.
3. Eat meat / protein. This is probably the most difficult thing to add to your fuel plan. Most of our clients, upon interview, discover that they are way under fueling themselves with protein. Read this article and this one to get the basics on protein. You don’t have to eat meat at every meal although it’s easier but you do need protein with every meal. And just trust me on this. It’s WAY more than you think and likely currently ingest but it makes a HUGE difference in the way your body heals, recovers, and grows.
4. Eat fat. Okay, so this one makes just about everyone nervous. Fat? You’re kidding right? No, I’m not. The low fat diet promoted by the U.S. government in the 90′s has failed. We’re a fatter, sicker nation than ever. In fact, Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health had this to say: “Fat is not the problem. If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases.“ For years we’ve been taught, indoctrinated really, with the idea that saturated fat, the kind from animal meat sources, is bad for you and causes heart disease and a host of other problems. Well, that’s not really true. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2010 found no link between saturated-fat consumption and incidence of heart attacks.¹ The enemy in the lipid world is transfat - found primarily in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils – common components of processed, packaged foods. Science shows us that trans fats boost LDL cholesterol and the risk of heart disease and other chronic illnesses. Since margarine often contains processed oils and trans fats, butter made from organic cream is a healthier choice (I know, right? Butter! Wasn’t it Julia Childs who once said that butter makes everything taste better?). For the best sources of good fat, look to foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which studies show can help lower the risk of arthritis, heart disease, and some cancers. Complement your omega-3 intake with monounsaturated fats from extra-virgin olive oil, canola oil, and avocados. Oh, and eat meat too. The fats in meat (granted the best source is grass fed but depending on where you live, this may either be impossible to find or ridiculously expensive) are actually good for you. And, one more thing, fat blunts your appetite. It makes you feel full.²
5. Eat vegetables and fruit. Well, this is probably not new to you but it’s worth repeating. You can’t eat too many vegetables really. And several servings per day is optimal of a mixture of brightly colored veggies. And to make them tastier, don’t forget, butter is your friend now. And, olive oil. As for fruit, we’re not suggesting a monster bowl of it three times a day. Some people get nervous about the sugar in fruit. But the quantity of fruit in a Fusion Fuel Plan is really fairly small plus you get the benefits of  vitamins and fiber.
6. Limit starch carbohydrates (potatoes e. g.). What exactly is a starch carbohydrate? Well, practically anything made from flour (so think crackers, biscuits, cookies, cakes, pie crust, bread) and grains (wheat, rice, barley, oats – also made into bread, cereal and pasta), potatoes, corn, and beans. The reason is that starch carbohydrates (not all but most) are quickly digested and cause a sharp rise in blood sugar. This triggers your pancreas to release insulin to help move the sugar out of the blood. Now, if you’ve just exercised, hard, then you have some place to put that sugar – your muscles. But if not, then the sugar ends up being stored as fat.  The best starches to eat are whole beans ands and lentils. For grains, try quinoa, farro, or amaranth. The amount you eat varies by your genes and your activity level. If you’re a tri-athlete and train a couple of hours per day, you can probably handle more starch than someone who trains two days per week for thirty minutes. And your genetic profile also influences it but this is not very well understood not can you predict it. It’s a bit of experimentation to find your balance. As an example, I can’t eat much starch at all so I limit myself to once per week.
7. Drink water. And lots of it. Generally aim for your lean body weight in ounces per day.
8. Limit alcohol. Alcohol and a lean, fit body are a difficult combination to manage. The science behind it is that alcohol, although it does carry a caloric load, isn’t easily turned into fat. Instead, it stalls your body’s fat burning ability. In a study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, eight men were given two drinks of vodka and sugar-free lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained under 90 calories. Lipid oxidation (or your fat burning ability) was measured before and after consumption of the drink. For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation, dropped by a whopping 73%.³ Rather than getting stored as fat, your body converts alcohol into acetate in the liver. In this study, blood levels of acetate after drinking the vodka were 2.5 times higher than normal. And it appears this spike in acetate shuts down your fat burning furnace. Some alcohol has been shown to have positive health effects but if your just starting on your journey to a healthier body and, for that matter mind, drop this from your fuel plan at least for several weeks and then you can consider adding it back in to see what changes in might produce in you.

How To Build Your Own Fuel Plan or Where to Start

1. Start small. Pick one or two things to change. Many people have great success by dropping refined carbohydrates first and adding some additional fat in the form of olive oil or butter. The combination will help control blood sugar and your appetite.
2. Add water. Try keeping a 12 ounce bottle of water with you and see if you can drink 4 or 5 a day to start. Then, increase it according to your lean body weight.
3. Increase your protein. This is the hardest thing to do for most people especially for breakfast. For a simple but protein packed option, check this out.

Sample Meal Plan

Just to give you some ideas, I’ve given examples here for 140 lbs, 180 lbs, and over 180 lbs of lean body weight. But the basic formula is protein + carbohydrate (mostly vegetables) + fat + fruit. The actual amount you eat will vary based on your body size / weight and activity level (my wife says living with me is like living with a teenager – I eat a lot).

Meal	140 lbs	180 lbs	> 180 lbs
Breakfast	2 eggs or 3 ounces lean meat or 4 ounces cottage cheese1/2 cup oatmeal or 1/2 cup beans 1/2 banana or 1/2 apple or 1/2 pear	3 eggs or 4 ounces lean meat or 1/2 cup cottage cheese3/4 cup oatmeal or 3/4 cup beans banana or apple or pear	3 eggs or 5 ounces lean meat or 8 ounces cottage cheese1 cup oatmeal or 1 cup beans banana or apple or pear
Snack	1/3 cup blueberries or 3/4 cup strawberries	1/2 cup blueberries or 1 cup strawberries	2/3 cup blueberries or 1 1/4 cup strawberries
Lunch	2 eggs or 3 ounces lean meatVegetables as much as you want 1/2 cup beans or 1 whole grain tortilla 1/2 banana or 1/2 apple or 1/2 pear	3 eggs or 4 ounces lean meatVegetables as much as you want 3/4 cup beans or whole grain tortilla banana or apple or pear	3 eggs or 5 ounces lean meatVegetables as much as you want 1 cup beans whole grain tortilla banana or apple or pear
Snack	1/2 apple plus a half scoop of protein powder in 8 ounces of whole milk	1 apple plus a half scoop of protein powder in 8 ounces of whole milk	1 apple plus a half scoop of protein powder in 8 ounces of whole milk
Dinner	3 ounces lean meatVegetables as much as you want 1/2 cup beans or 1 whole grain tortilla 1/2 banana or 1/2 apple or 1/2 pear	3 eggs or 4 ounces lean meatVegetables as much as you want 3/4 cup beans or whole grain tortilla banana or apple or pear	3 eggs or 5 ounces lean meatVegetables as much as you want 1 cup beans whole grain tortilla banana or apple or pear

Now that you have a general idea, let me blow it up by suggesting that you do two things:

1. Keep portion sizes about the size of your palm.
2. Eat until you’re full and no more (which means if you finish a meal and are still hungry, ok, eat some more).

Personally, I don’t weigh, measure, or count anything I eat or drink anymore. I did at one time, mostly as an experiment, and to give me a sense of how much food and calories I was really ingesting. But as you shift your fuel plan, you will find a balance that works for you without having to measure or weigh your food.

Other Tips

• You’ll have an easier time and greater success if you keep your meal options limited. In other words, eat a lot of the same things. In our household, we have 8-10 main menus and most of those line up close to what is above. For lunch, I mostly eat salad with a lean meat, some cheese, a few nuts, and lots of olive oil.
• Limit how often you eat out at a restaurant. I know that this can be difficult especially if you love food. But the portion sizes are usually huge and you don’t know what is in the food exactly.
• Splurge one day per week. Eat what you want. Don’t worry about it. The longer you’re on a fuel plan like this, the less you’ll feel the urge to eat an entire pizza followed by a quart of double fudge ice cream and a six pack of Budweiser. For me, splurge day is usually Saturday and my wife loves pasta (and is seemingly unaffected by it too) so we might get a pizza or have some other dish she really likes or I just eat whatever I feel like eating.
• Some other sources that I’ve found helpful (although I don’t agree with everything they promote or write) are Mark’s Daily Apple, Archevore, Robb Wolf, The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferris, and Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.

In the chaotic discourse of everyday life in modern society, people are always searching for ways to reduce their stress. Few of these people realize that one of the most powerful means of accomplishing stress reduction is literally right inside of them. This tool is the process of correct breathing, and has had positive health benefits for billions of people throughout history.

The majority of us breathe unconsciously, taking in shallow breathes from the nose and expelling air back out the same way. This process does not allow oxygen to flow through our entire chest and stomach. Full oxygen flow is imperative to heartbeat regulation, stress reduction, and elimination of the wastes in our system. Everyday troubles and problems such as insomnia, anxiety, and fatigue can disappear miraculously simply because of a change in breathing habits.

Proper breathing can become an unconscious process through a relatively minimal degree of practice. With a little dedication to the process of breathing correctly, you can breathe fully even in your sleep, which will create a noticeable difference in your rest and the following day ahead of you. I recommended that you practice breathing correctly for just twenty minutes a day, and then gradually ramp your training upward over the course of the next two weeks. As the positive effects of breathing become more apparent in your everyday life, you will be encouraged to continue the training upon your own volition.

We will use two simple steps to utilize correct breathing. Inhale deeply through your nose, letting the air first expand in your stomach, which should push it outward. As the air fills your stomach, consciously feel the air move upward into your chest. As a general guideline, your stomach should rise further than your chest when inhaling. If you are in the active process of attempting to relax or reduce immediate anxiety, I recommend holding the inhaling breath for one to three seconds.

Lower your shoulders as your inhaling breath completes, and begin a slow exhale of air through your mouth. The chest should deflate first, followed by the stomach moving back inward until the full breathe is completed. Your exhaling breath should always last longer than your initial inhale, as this will allow for the full expulsion of wastes from your system. As your stomach deflates and moves back inward, you should find your body automatically set up for your next inhalation.

For beginners, it can sometimes help to imagine the process of inhaling and exhaling as the filling and releasing of a balloon. Simply picture your stomach as the balloon, filling with air upon your inhalation, and releasing that air slowly as you exhale. Doing this technique slowly is particularly useful for reducing immediate stress. Even if you do not put this process into your every day life, utilizing it when you are fatigued or challenged in some way can turn a difficult moment into a positive experience.

Masters of all followings, from spirituality to ancient religions, have practiced this technique in their everyday lives to come closer to peace and understanding of the world around them. In your hands, this method of breathing can be nearly anything you want it to be. Breathing is an underestimated but absolutely essential part of our lives, and it influences everything we do. Try it in your next challenging situation, or just when you want to relax for a few moments after a long day. It will not take you long at all to notice the incredible power of proper breathing.

Written by DK on March 20, 2011

“Biological brains are first and foremost the control systems for biological bodies.  Biological bodies move and act in rich real-world surroundings.”

- Clark, A (1998)

Most of us lack a little of both balance and flexibility since we sit a lot during the day and rarely challenge ourselves in these two areas. Yet, science has shown that how we use our bodies has a great influence on the health of our brains.

And one of the most important stimulus of brain health is balance.

The connections in the brain which seem to weaken with aging and effect movement are in the cerebellum. One of the main functions of the cerebellum is to help you balance. When you must stand on one leg, bend and pick up an object, it is the cerebellum that coordinates the muscles. The more you sit and the less you challenge your balance, the less the cerebellum does. The synaptic connections gradually fade away like old paint.

What can you do to strengthen the connections in the cerebellum? Practice activities that require balance.

You can start with something as simple as balancing on one leg. Stand on one leg with your eyes open. Bend the non-weightbearing knee to 90 degrees. You should be able to balance on one leg for at least 30 seconds if you are between 20 and 59 years of age. From age 60-69, your time should be 22 seconds and beyond age 69, 14 seconds. Balancing forces the cerebellum to do its job and maintain vital connections as the years go by (to read more about how to improve brain function with aging, read Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot by Richard Restak).

I blend Yoga poses into some of the Balance & Flexibility Elements mostly because certain types of poses will initiate a very positive hormonal effect on your brain and body.

They make you feel more powerful.

Really.

Researchers examined the effect of different kinds of postures on people’s hormone levels, testosterone and cortisol, as well as their subjective sense of power and risk taking. They took samples of these hormone levels before and after exposure to certain positions or poses.

One group was given poses that created more expansion of the body: open arms, legs, chest. The other group was issued just the opposite: more constrictive positions where the arms were folded, legs crossed.

The result was that the group that held the more expansive postures had significantly elevated testosterone and lowered coritsol levels which are both very positive for your long term health. And, the group that held the more restrictive postures had just the opposite result.

And, in addition, the more expansive positions also correlated with more positive feelings of being powerful and willing to take risk.

Where to start? Two poses that I often use in Fusion are the Warrior I and Tree Pose:

Worrior I                                                                              Tree Pose – from Yoga Online

Start with assuming the poses and taking five, slow, deep breaths. For the Tree Pose, if you cannot place your foot above your knee, place it where you can and work your way up. Same for your arms. The arms over head position is a more difficult position to hold because it will shift the center of gravity. Try placing your hands together in front of your chest.

Once you can hold the pose for five, slow, deep breaths, alternate from one pose to the next. Your goal is two minutes (the time in the study that showed an increase in hormonal levels).

This post comes Mike Scott, PT.  Some tips on taking care of your back. I did some editing on his original post, there were some photos on the blog that I could not transfer over.  Also I changed the word a** to butt in order to keep it clean!

Back Pain:  The following are the current thoughts (at least in my camp) on preserving your low back or reducing the chances of your low back pain getting worse. I call the post “What not to do” but there are definitely some things that you want to do in here as well. Low back pain is the leading reason besides the common cold, and I think head aches, why people miss work. It’s also just a pain in the butt. It comes, it goes, it’s bad one day, it’s okay the next. There are tons of reasons for low back pain. That is why this post is just a list of recommendations of what you can do, and shouldn’t do, regardless of your activity level, if you want to keep a healthy back. Most of this info is taken from Stuart McGill’s book Low Back Disorders (if you are having back pain I HIGHLY suggest you man up and purchase this book. That pointless back brace you bought probably cost like 4x’s as much).

Dont’s: Try to touch your toes in the morning – While we sleep our discs fill with water while they are unweighted leaving our spines expanded in the AM. This expansion leaves our spines vulnerable during flexion movements because they make the vertebrae more susceptible to shear forces. Simply put, if you try to touch your toes in the morning you increase the likelihood of a herniated disc significantly! Wait 2-3 hours so your spines can stabilize (lose their water) and then feel free to move as you wish (keeping in mind to avoid end range flexion and extension).

Lumbar rotation – The lumbar spine is designed to rotate 13 degrees. 13 degrees! This is like the short (hour) hand on a clock going from 12:00 to 12:30! It’s nothing. Clearly the lumbar spine is not designed to rotate. So forget about your Russian Twist exercises, or lumbar rotations (which I am guilty of prescribing in my first 3 months as a PT, but did a little reading and decided to forget about them). Crunches, Roman chair, or superman exercises: Just don’t ever do these… period. I appreciate the business if you do! I don’t even want to show you video of them and put the ideas in your head. Wear a back brace: So I’m not a huge fan of braces of any sort as a solution, ie motion control shoes and ankle braces, because they actually let your muscles send a message to the brain saying “Don’t worry brain, there’s someone down here helping me. I’m good to take some time off.” Over time, as these muscles atrophy, you actually get weaker! You go to pick up your kid who just scored the winning soccer goal in his U-12 travelling game and BAM! you topple to the ground in astounding back pain because your vertebrae are sitting in a pile like a demolished building now that L2-S1 have literally exploded in your back. All because of a back brace. Your body has the best braces you can imagine; they’re called muscles.  Walk like there’s a stick up your butt: Just because you’re hurt, doesn’t mean you have to walk like it! McGill actually suggests walking fast, and notes that slow walking actually exacerbates pain. Also, that stooped over position is just making your paraspinals lengthen, in turn weakening them. This goes for the interspinous ligaments as well.

Do’s: Sit with frequently changing posture – That’s right, change postures frequently to prevent constant loads on certain aspects of the spine. The postures that you chose should still be “good” postures with the lumbar spine supported.

Don’t sit more than 50 minutes at a time Maintain your level of fitness: Obviously if your back is in serious pain you should take some time off, go see your PT, and decrease your pain first, but then you need to stay active, or somewhat active. Walk (discussed above) and keep your extremity muscles strong. Okay, maybe deep squats and heavy deadlifts are out of the picture for a little while. but there is plenty you can still do. Keep your core strong too.

Do core strengthening: With all the rules in mind from above, it is extremely important to stay strong in your core. All the rules above apply, but this means that you can do plenty of standing (chops and lifts), half-kneeling (same), and supine (curls ups, bridges on the ball) exercises to improve your core stability and hopefully improve the motor control of your musculoskeletal system.   I read some study a couple months ago that regardless of the reason, back surgery is usually only 50% or less successful at reducing pre-surgical pain levels. I think that it is worth pursuing non-surgical options with those stats. Learn to breathe: This may be the most important! If you are always holding your breathe, you are essentially wearing a back brace (see above) on the inside. Your lungs are doing all the work while the muscles are checked out. While doing exercises (except HEAVY Olympic lifts), for any body part, if you cannot take a deep breathe during your reps, it is too hard. I hope that these recommendations come in handy the next time you are in pain, but also remember that if you take them into consideration, there is plenty of research to show that you may be reducing your risk of this debilitating condition.

Over the December holidays, my husband went on a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Not my idea of fun, but he came back rejuvenated and energetic.

He said the experience was so transformational that he has committed to meditating for two hours daily, one hour in the morning and one in the evening, until the end of March. He’s running an experiment to determine whether and how meditation actually improves the quality of his life.

I’ll admit I’m a skeptic.

But now, scientists say that meditators like my husband may be benefiting from changes in their brains. The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. The findings will appear in the Jan. 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

M.R.I. brain scans taken before and after the participants’ meditation regimen found increased gray matter in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory. The images also showed a reduction of gray matter in the amygdala, a region connected to anxiety and stress. A control group that did not practice meditation showed no such changes.

But how exactly did these study volunteers, all seeking stress reduction in their lives but new to the practice, meditate? So many people talk about meditating these days. Within four miles of our Bay Area home, there are at least six centers that offer some type of meditation class, and I often hear phrases like, “So how was your sit today?”

Britta Hölzel, a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and the study’s lead author, said the participants practiced mindfulness meditation, a form of meditation that was introduced in the United States in the late 1970s. It traces its roots to the same ancient Buddhist techniques that my husband follows.

“The main idea is to use different objects to focus one’s attention, and it could be a focus on sensations of breathing, or emotions or thoughts, or observing any type of body sensations,” she said. “But it’s about bringing the mind back to the here and now, as opposed to letting the mind drift.”

Generally the meditators are seated upright on a chair or the floor and in silence, although sometimes there might be a guide leading a session, Dr. Hölzel said.

Of course, it’s important to remember that the human brain is complicated. Understanding what the increased density of gray matter really means is still, well, a gray area.

“The field is very, very young, and we don’t really know enough about it yet,” Dr. Hölzel said. “I would say these are still quite preliminary findings. We see that there is something there, but we have to replicate these findings and find out what they really mean.”

It has been hard to pinpoint the benefits of meditation, but a 2009 study suggests that meditation may reduce blood pressure in patients with coronary heart disease. And a 2007 study found that meditators have longer attention spans.

Previous studies have also shown that there are structural differences between the brains of meditators and those who don’t meditate, although this new study is the first to document changes in gray matter over time through meditation.

Ultimately, Dr. Hölzel said she and her colleagues would like to demonstrate how meditation results in definitive improvements in people’s lives.

“A lot of studies find that it increases well-being, improves quality of life, but it’s always hard to determine how you can objectively test that,” she said. “Relatively little is known about the brain and the psychological mechanisms about how this is being done.”

In a 2008 study published in the journal PloS One, researchers found that when meditators heard the sounds of people suffering, they had stronger activation levels in their temporal parietal junctures, a part of the brain tied to empathy, than people who did not meditate.

“They may be more willing to help when someone suffers, and act more compassionately,” Dr. Hölzel said.

Further study is needed, but that bodes well for me.

For now, I’m more than happy to support my husband’s little experiment, despite the fact that he now rises at 5 a.m. and is exhausted by 10 at night.

An empathetic husband who takes out the trash and puts gas in the car because he knows I don’t like to — I’ll take that.

Taken from the NY TIMES

20 TIPS FOR A STUNNINGLY GREAT LIFE

December 29th, 2010

By Robin Sharma, author of the #1 international bestseller “The Leader Who Had No Title” (Simon & Schuster).

1. Exercise daily.

2. Get serious about gratitude.

3. Expect the best and prepare for the worst.

4. Keep a journal.

5. Know the 5 highest priorities of your life.

6. Say no to distractions.

7. Drink a lot of water.

8. Find more heroes.

9. Be a hero to someone.

10. Smile at strangers.

11. Be the most ethical person you know.

12. Don’t settle for anything less than excellence.

13. Savor life’s simplest pleasures.

14. Spend time at art galleries.

15. Walk in the woods.

16. Write thank you letters to those who’ve helped you.

17. Forgive those who’ve wronged you.

18. Create unforgettable moments with those you love.

19. Have a vision for your life.

20. Don’t give up.

Find more tips at http://www.robinsharma.com/blog/