Dear Members:
I am honored to be invited to join you at the monthly Monday gathering. As I looked around the table memories of the past 3 years swam in my mind and every face of yours made me feel proud; together, you and I made the group grow, prosper, and help each other.
Another thought surfaced at the same time and I would like to share here with you what I was thinking. Most of you, specially those who joined WOW at the earlier time, speak the language pretty well. The purpose we want to excel at the language when reaching this point is to enrich our life and inspire others when opportunity presents itself.
Library is a good place and source of acquiring knowledge and learn about information. Here, I encourage every one of you to visit your library and find topic(s) or subject(s) you are interested at learning or acquiring. To me, life itself is a process of learning and a series of presentations. To learn is to stay young and active and every waking hour is your stage to present yourself.
Read, learn, and be yourself.
MW
Monday, March 28, 2016
An Article from the Psychology Today about exercise and health
Regular Exercise—Along
With Standing—Is the Key to Longevity
Regular exercise reduces your risk of heart
disease in a "dose-response manner."
Posted Jan 18, 2016
Source: DittyAboutSummer/Shutterstock
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in
the United States. Last year, 611,105 American men and women died from
cardiovascular diseases. The annual financial price tag of coronary heart
disease in the U.S. is $108.9 billion. Obviously, the emotional and
psychological toll of cardiovascular disease cannot be measured in dollars and
cents.
In recent decades, a wide range of studies have
found that regular physical activity dramatically reduces a person's risk of
dying from cardiovascular disease. Unfortunately, only about half of U.S.
adults meet the federally recommended guidelines of 150 minutes per week of
moderate intensity exercise, or 75 minutes per week of vigorous,
high-intensity exercise. If you are someone who doesn't meet these guidelines,
hopefully this blog post will inspire you to exercise more, sit
less, and help you stay alive longer.
Regular Exercise Is Critical for Heart Health and
Longevity
Source: Dirima/Shutterstock
A new report(link is external) by
the American College of Cardiology Sports and
Exercise Cardiology Council (ECC) analyzed recent research and concluded
that physical activity is an effective method of preventing heart disease.
The January 2016 analysis was published in the The Journal of the American College of Cardiology(link is external).
According to the council, small amounts of
physical activity—including standing—are associated with a lower risk of
cardiovascular disease. The ECC also found that larger doses
of exercise can lead to an even greater reduction in risk of death
from cardiovascular disease in a dose-dependent manner, up to a certain
point.
For this report, the
researchers analyzed the volume and intensity of aerobic exercise
required for favorable cardiovascular health. They also addressed the question
of whether or not there is an amount of endurance aerobic exercise that might
backfire and actually increase someone's risk of cardiovascular disease.
The council concluded that moderate and
vigorous intensity exercise in amounts lower than the 2008 Physical Activity
Guideline recommendations can lower mortality risk in the
broad population. In a press release, JACC Editor-in-Chief Valentin Fuster(link is external), M.D., Ph.D., said,
"The evidence with regard to exercise
continues to unfold and educate the cardiovascular clinical community. The
greatest benefit is to simply exercise, regardless of the intensity, while the
danger is twofold: to not exercise at all or to exercise intensely, without due
preparation."
When It Comes to Exercise, More Is Not
Necessarily Better
Source: Rangizz/Shutterstock
The researchers found that increasing
your amount of moderate intensity exercise reduces the risk of dying from
cardiovascular disease. However, the cardiovascular mortality benefits
from vigorous intensity exercise level off at a certain point.
The council concluded, “There is no evidence for
an upper limit to exercise-induced health benefits and all amounts of both
moderate and vigorous intensity exercise result in a reduction of both
all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality compared to physical
inactivity.”
Based on my personal experience as a former
ultra-endurance athlete, I can attest to the fact that more isn’t always better
when it comes to endurance training or competitions. Although I managed to
break a Guinness World Record(link is external) by running 153.76
miles non-stop on a treadmill when I was 38, I retired after that event because
it almost killed me. Exercising for 30-60 minutes, most days of the week,
is great for your psychological and physical well-being, running non-stop
for 24 hours is not.
My personal experience of the
potential backlash of too much intense exercise was corroborated by a
recent New York Times article, “His Strength Sapped, Top Marathoner
Ryan Hall Decides to Stop(link is external).” The author of this
article, Lindsay Crouse, wrote:
“Hall, 33, who was one of the last remaining
hopes for an American front-runner in this summer’s Olympic marathon, is
succumbing to chronically lowtestosterone levels
and fatigue so extreme, he says, that he can barely log 12 easy miles a week.
“Up to this point, I always believed my best
races were still ahead of me,” said Hall, who has faced a series of physical
setbacks since the 2012 London Olympics. “I’ve explored every issue to get back
to the level I’ve been at, and my body is not responding. I realized that it
was time to stop striving, to finally be satisfied and decide, ‘Mission
accomplished.’”
That said, the researchers still say that
high volumes of aerobic exercise aren't nearly as bad for cardiovascular
outcomes as no exercise at all. According to the council, "the possibility
that too much exercise training could be harmful is worthy of investigation,
but research results show that even for the very active, lifelong endurance
athletes, the benefits of exercise training outweigh the risks."
In a press release, Michael Scott Emery(link is external),
M.D., co-chair of the ACC Sports and Exercise Cardiology Council,
said, "The public media has embraced the idea that exercise may harm
the heart and disseminated this message, thereby diverting attention away from
the benefits of exercise as a potent intervention for the primary and secondary
prevention of heart disease."
Standing Improves Your Heart Health
Source: Dirima/Shutterstock
One of the most interesting findings of the new
report is that standing can also help reduce your risk of
cardiovascular disease. How many hours a day would you estimate that you
spend sitting? If you spend the majority of your day sitting, you are not
alone.
Sedentary behavior and a chronic lack of
physical activity—also known as "sedentarism"—have become a national
epidemic. The statistics on sedentarism are alarming. The average American sits
for 11 hours a day. Sedentary lifestyles are related to $24 billion in direct
medical spending. 20% of all deaths for people over age 35 are linked
to physical inactivity and sedentarism.
"Sitting is the new smoking,"
according to Dr. James Levine(link is external),
of the Mayo Clinic-Arizona State University Obesity Solutions
Initiative. Levine is the author of, Get Up! Why Your Chair Is Killing
You and What You Can Do About It(link is external), and the inventor of
the treadmill desk. Levine believes that excessive sitting is a more
serious public health problem than cigarette smoking. Luckily, the detriments
of sedentarism can easily be remedied by standing up and becoming more active.
Conclusion: Sitting Less and Exercising
More Reduces Heart Disease Risk
Source: Andrey Burmakin/Shutterstock
I’ve dedicated my life to trying to find ways to
motivate people from all walks of life to be more physically active. If you are
currently sedentary or inactive, hopefully these findings will inspire you to
be more active. My father died prematurely of a heart attack. Like the
majority of Americans, my dad didn’t make exercise a priority and was sedentary
during the final years of his life. I believe that too much sitting and not
enough exercise was the leading cause of his death.
I'm a 50-year-old parent of
an 8-year-old daughter. My prime driving force and source ofmotivation to exercise
regularly, and to sit less, is my daughter. I don't want to die young
and leave her fatherless . . . like my father inadvertently
abandoned me and my sisters. Regardless of whether or not you're a parent,
staying alive for your family and loved ones can be a strong source
of motivation to sit less and exercise more for anybody.
From a healthcare provider standpoint, Emery
concluded, "The available evidence should prompt clinicians to recommend
strongly low and moderate exercise training for the majority of our patients.
Equally important are initiatives to promote population health at large through
physical activity across the lifespan, as it modulates behavior from childhood into
adult life."
Reference:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201601/regular-exercise-along-standing-is-the-key-longevity
March Read/2
Title: The Art of Intuition: Cultivating Your Inner Wisdom
Author: Burnham, Sophy
Call Number: 133.8 B966A 2011
Subject(s): Intuition: Psychic Ability
Number of Pages: 269
ISBN: 9781585428496
Book Description from amazon:
“Are you intuitive? Bestselling
author Sophy Burnham contends that we all have hunches and sudden insights, and
that we need only awaken to our innate abilities in order to develop our inner
wisdom.
In this
fascinating book, Burnham tells the stories of individuals who have "seen
without seeing," illustrating the wondrous workings of what she calls our
"intuitive hearts." Exploring a wide range of subjects-from loved
ones' abilities to communicate telepathically to the mystery of the artist's
inspired creativity; from animal communication to psychic powers; from
scientifi c studies of premonition to the skeptics who deny the very existence
of such phenomena-this is a stunning contribution from a leading spiritual
thinker on a topic vital to us all.
With exercises and step-by-step instructions, this inspiring
book guides readers in developing their intuitive powers and learning to trust
their gained insights. According to Burnham, intuition is always right, and
when you receive messages from Spirit-be it in the form of a subtle impression
or a thunderous bolt from the blue-you must always, always act on them.”
My
Read:
What I
liked the most from this book came from page 30 and it’s written by William
James:
“Our
lives are like islands in the sea or like trees in the forest. The maple and
the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves, and…[the islands] hear
each other’s foghorns. But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness
underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean’s bottom:
Just so there is a continuum of cosmic consciousness..into which our several
minds plunge as into a mother-sea or reservoir.”
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Islands and Forest-quoted from William James
In this essay, published in the American Magazine in October, 1909, James wrote: “Out of my experience, such as it is (and it is limited enough) one fixed conclusion dogmatically emerges, and that is this, that we with our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves. . . .But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean’s bottom. Just so there is a continuum of cosmic consciousness, against which our individuality builds but accidental fences, and into which our several minds plunge as into a mother-sea or reservoir.”-by William James
I found the above quote worth of pondering and thinking it over or better to be reflecting if one is on meditation mode. What helped me to think is like this:
old souls vs new souls,
God's creation therefore all comes from one person, what others went through I might have had it before or will have in the future. All is equal in a sense.
It helps one to be more humble and empathetic.
Reference:
http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/james/psychical/7_8.cfm
I found the above quote worth of pondering and thinking it over or better to be reflecting if one is on meditation mode. What helped me to think is like this:
old souls vs new souls,
God's creation therefore all comes from one person, what others went through I might have had it before or will have in the future. All is equal in a sense.
It helps one to be more humble and empathetic.
Reference:
http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/exhibits/james/psychical/7_8.cfm
March Read/John 2
The stories are heavenly ladened with science, with his imagination extrapolating from facts, one to another not unlike looking from the rear sight to the front sight of a rifle, aiming at a plausible idea in the future. So too a spiritual component as a thread tying it all together as some of the aliens had already evolved from human-like beings. From there they evolved with a much higher intellect into what we could perhaps call super humans. With extraordinary intellect they then transferred their brain power to machines, then perhaps organic machines, to energy itself. What they left behind (remember the monolith in 2001?) kept track of the advancement of earth's people.
So 3001 taking place an entire millennium later has Frank Poole, the Executive Officer astronaut who was with Dave Bowman on the USSS DISCOVERY in 2001, awakening from an almost 1000 year cryogenic sleep. Part of the fun for the reader - and with some surprises to the lead character - was discovering what mankind had done technologically via Sir Arthur's imagination. (Yes, Clarke, originally from England and educated at King's College, London, was knighted in 1998.) Also intriguing are the changes he saw as social, intellectual, spiritual - heck,
the many changes his fertile imagination conjured in this field of dreams. Hummm. Make that not field but space.
I do highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to discover new ways of looking at the future; one may not agree with Clarke's particular point of view, but it can help stretch one's mind in surprising directions, from ultra tall structures that reach to space to Dave Bowman's change to Star Child and ultimate location. But I do not recommend reading the series out of sequence. If the future reader also saw the movie 2001 - and perhaps 2010 - I also do not recommend skipping the first two books and jumping into the latter two. (Only 2001 and 2010 have been movies, with the former book and movie basically written simultaneously.) Please, read them each and in proper order. Oh, I forgot to mention just in case one was wondering, "Dave's not here."
Monday, March 7, 2016
March Read/John
Author: Cornwell, Patricia
John's Read:
Another crime thriller written by Ms. Patricia Cornwell is the novel PREDATOR. Published in 2005 by the Penguin Group, it is 453 pages long and again relates crime solving by Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a forensic expert, and the detective Pete Marino, another PhD forensics expert named Benton Wesley, and her wealthy niece, Lucy.
In 1990 Ms. Cornwell unleashed upon the entertainment industry the power of the CSI. Many interesting iterations have followed since with books, TV shows, and movies. In PREDATOR she has taken the reader in the same direction, but down a different path: she has a story that gets more into the minds of the perpetrators, as well of course, the minds of those looking for them.
Going from medical to psychological, from the empirical crime scenes to the theoretical tossing about of possible solutions to the crimes, and from the technological machinery of medicine to the theoretical hunches of the hunters, this story, thus covering many aspects surrounding crimes and criminals, delves into that which makes a killer a compulsive one. Giving the gory details of the crimes gives grizzly gist to these pages.
As another page turner, the author has again hit the mark. With the horrible events that repulse, descriptive dialog that makes the skin crawl, and fascinating characters that pull one into the story, the novel mystifies, scares, and awes. Readers just might feel the pains of the victims. Oddly this, as human nature shows, is entertainment. Here's wishing you sweet dreams.
March Read
Author: Port, Michael
Call Number: 658.452 P839S 2015
Subjects: Business Presentations; Business Communication; Employment Interviewing; interpersonal Communication
Number of Pages: 237
ISBN: 9780544555181
Book Description from amazon:
An inspiring program full of essential advice for spotlight lovers and wallflowers alike that will teach readers how to bring any crowd to its feet
Every day there are moments when you must persuade, inform, and motivate others effectively. Each of those moments requires you, in some way, to play a role, to heighten the impact of your words, and to manage your emotions and nerves. Every interaction is a performance, whether you’re speaking up in a meeting, pitching a client, or walking into a job interview.
In Steal the Show, New York Times best-selling author Michael Port draws on his experience as an actor and as a highly successful corporate speaker and trainer to teach readers how to make the most of every presentation and interaction. He demonstrates how the methods of successful actors can help you connect with, inspire, and persuade any audience. His key strategies for commanding an audience’s attention include developing a clear focus for every performance, making sure you engage with your listeners, and finding the best role for yourself in order to convey your message with maximum impact.
Michael Port is one of the most in-demand corporate speakers working today. His presentations are always powerful, engaging, and inspirational. And yes, audiences always give him a standing ovation.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
February/John 3
Ms. Cornwell, in her lead character of Dr. Kay Scarpetta, has created a forensic force. To stand against the evil that criminals do, she put together a team of exceptional crime fighters with the doctor and Captain Pete Marino, the latter being the Doc's counterpoint. In this story the team's main antagonist is a cruel serial killer named Temple Brooks Gault who kills and tortures with impunity through most of it. The story follows the blood and gore trail in red and gooey detail.
With technical elements in the various people's personalities, the development of the crimes, the layout of the crime scenes, and how the crimes were solved, the story has a magnetism to it that pulls the reader into it. One's interest is such that the page turning in automatic, that is, the reader (myself) was not aware it was happening. (Good books are like that.) If one likes crime dramas - thrillers in this particular instance - then this is highly recommended for them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)