Lower Back Blues
Filed Under Fitmom Wellness | Leave a Comment
Having kids can create an array of back problems that often start in pregnancy. Pregnancy posture shortens the hamstrings, causing stress on the lower back extensors. Middle and upper back pain can occur from enlarged breasts during pregnancy and poor breastfeeding posture postpartum. Women who don’t exercise regularly through the childbearing years often lose muscle mass and muscular balance leading to poor posture.
Make sure you do a balance of core strength and flexibility exercises, as well as middle and upper back work for long-lasting posture and to address lower back pain. Exercises like reverse flies, crunches, side-lying crunches and bent-legged lower back lifts are all essential exercises.
For full exercise descriptions and workout suggestions, go to www.newmom101.com and check out www.fitnewmom101.com.
Cheers,
Andrea Page
Transformational Lawyer
Filed Under Holistic Law | Leave a Comment
I like to think of myself as a “transformational lawyer”, one who teaches his clients to transform their legal problems into opportunities for personal growth and positive change. I do that by inviting them to take 100% responsibility for their lives (to use a Jack Canfield expression).
I ask my clients to choose to believe that the legal situation that they find themselves in is the result of choices they have made in the past, and that when they made those choices they were doing the best they possibly could, given the resources available to them at the time. I also ask my clients to believe that everyone else who has been involved in their lives and in their legal problems has also done the best they possibly could, given the resources available to them.
Now, they are all free to make new choices that may better serve all of them to achieve their respective goals, and to offer others in their lives resources that may have not been available to them before. This way the parties to a legal problem can achieve their goals in a way that is compatible with the other parties’ achieving their goals.
From this perspective, it has been my experience that conflict can be resolved in a synergistic fashion and peace can often be made effortlessly, contributing to the welfare of all involved. Everyone benefits. I call what I do a coach approach to the practice of law, but I don’t think that the name is so important.
Today I call myself both a “peacemaking attorney” and a “transformational lawyer”. Crafting synergistic solutions to legal problems sounds to me like a great way to make peace. What do you think?
Philip J. Daunt, Esq.
Peacemaking Attorney
Filed Under Holistic Law | Leave a Comment
“What is a peacemaking attorney?” When asked that question, I am drawn to my own personal experience as an attorney. When I started practicing law some 27 years ago, I thought of myself as a modern-day gunslinger or “hired gun.” As a hired gun, I was using the law either to force someone to do what my client wanted that person to do, or I was protecting my client from being forced to do something someone else wanted them to do that they did not want to do.
As I matured in my practice, I began to see lawyers as “conflict managers” (as opposed to mere hired guns). Transactional lawyers managed potential conflict by drafting agreements in a way that anticipated future conflict and allocated risk among the parties to the agreement; litigators managed actual current conflict as they argued with each other over their respective clients’ rights and responsibilities, and they asked judges, juries and/or arbitrators to resolve the identified conflicts among their respective clients.
I have since come to think of lawyers as having the potential, at least, to be “conflict healers”, helping their clients to resolve conflict in a manner that is for the good of all without focusing on winners and losers and the need to dominate and avoid domination in order to prevail.
Philip J. Daunt, Esq.
A Lawyer’s Fiduciary Duty
Filed Under Holistic Law | Leave a Comment
A coach approach to the practice of law works, consistently delivering solutions to clients’ legal problems in less time, with less stress and with superior bottom-line results to those achieved by more traditional methods of legal practice.
The question then arises: is it the lawyer’s fiduciary duty to the client to attempt to apply a coach approach to the client’s legal problems before resorting to the more stressful, combative, antagonistic, blame-based and costly methods that are typically used in a more traditional legal practice? Is it a lawyer’s ethical obligation to the client to expose the client to what some might describe as “Stealth Spirituality” or “Pragmatic Enlightenment” if doing so can result in the client receiving a superior bottom-line result from the lawyer?
Coach Approach Lawyers believe that the answer to these questions is a resounding “Yes.”
Philip J. Daunt, Esq.
Lawyer or Coach? Both!
Filed Under Holistic Law | Leave a Comment
During my legal career, I have made a number of observations regarding the predominant legal system that is in use in the United States today. Regardless of the legal setting, it has been my experience that, typically, the participants, (principals and advocates alike), approach the legal process from the perspective that they need to dominate the other parties in order to avoid being dominated themselves. They believe that someone needs to be blamed for a legal situation and that someone had better be someone else. They believe that acknowledging responsibility for a legal situation will result in their “losing” to the other side. Having defined “losing” as anything but dominating and “prevailing” over the other party, they believe that losing means that they have failed, and, therefore, they are “failures,” unworthy of self-respect or self-esteem unless they dominate the other side. The cost of adopting these assumptions, in terms of time, money, stress, relationships and psychological, emotional and physical health, can be enormous.
Some time ago, I reached the conclusion that there had to be a better way. Initially I was led to seek training as a mediator. I then discovered that mediation alone didn’t adequately shift the legal paradigms of the participants. Often the mediators, themselves, hadn’t been trained to abandon the domination model for a partnership model. Without coaching, the participants couldn’t see the advantages to be derived from giving up the need to dominate the other party in order to avoid being dominated by the other party. As a result, they were not open to explore synergistic solutions to their legal problems.
This led me to focus on forming a greater mentorship role with my clients, teaching them the skill sets that they need to have in order to see the possibility of forging solutions to their legal problems – solutions that work for the higher good of all of the participants. This helps them see that they are better served by such solutions than by the solutions made available by the old domination model.
Out of this developed a “Coach Approach to the Practice of Law”. The results can be phenomenal! By taking responsibility and giving up blame, clients can find their true power. They are able to craft solutions to their legal problems that would not have been available under the old paradigm, and they can do so at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the stress that would have been generated by the old system.
It has been my experience that the Coach Approach to the Practice of Law consistently delivers solutions to clients’ legal problems in less time, with less stress and with superior bottom-line results to those achieved by more traditional methods of legal practice.
Philip J. Daunt, Esq.
Winter Workout
Filed Under Fitmom Wellness | Leave a Comment
As your kids get older and they require more time for their own activities, there may be less time to fit in your own workouts. So, if you’re in a snow belt and you need to fit in fitness, go tobogganing with your kids and use the hill to train. Instead of standing around freezing your butt off, slide down with the kids and try these snowy uphill workouts:
HILL
• Giant step hill climb
• Single leg step up
• Side step climb
• Run
AT THE BOTTOM BASICS
• Backwards sled walk and pull; walk backwards with a simultaneous row pull
• Forwards sled pull; step inside the rope used for pulling and run pulling the sled behind you
• Forward sled walking lunge; same idea as above, incorporating lunges
Although this workout may miss some body parts and is mostly lower body and cardio focused, if properly incorporated into your week’s activities, it may be just what the trainer orders!
Cheers,
Andrea
Thermography, Mammography or Ultrasound? Part 4
Filed Under Breast Health | Leave a Comment
What you should know about THERMOGRAPHY:
• Functional testing, able to detect physiological changes, cannot pinpoint the exact location of suspicious area
• No radiation, non-invasive, no risk, can be used as often as necessary to observe the effectiveness of treatment over time
• Uses infrared detectors to detect heat and increased vascularity that may be related to angiogenesis
• Can detect physiological changes many years prior to any other method of screening
• Very sensitive to fast-growing, aggressive tumors
• Hormonal activity in the breast will affect thermographic imaging but not to the point of abnormality
• All breast shapes, conditions and areas are within the scope of imaging
• Earliest warning system with breast tissue and physiological changes that usually precede tumor formation years prior to its occurrence
• Average specificity 90% (10% false positive)
• Average sensitivity 90% (10% of cancers missed); most of these are slow-growing tumors with low metabolic rate in the area with a high rate of survival
Of course everyone has heard by now that early detection prolongs life expectancy; this is a given. However, if cancer has been detected early, it would mean that you already have cancer. Prevention should take precedence over detection. Prevention means not getting cancer in the first place.
If we are going to reverse the present trend of the epidemic proportion of breast cancer, we need to come up with a more proactive approach, which needs to become the norm for patient assessment. Cancer starts with one abnormal cell, and it takes nearly eight years for that one abnormal cell to replicate to one billion cells. One billion cells produce a detectable lump that is one centimeter in size. This is the size of a lump that can be seen on a mammogram. This is not an early finding.
Every woman should know her risk for breast cancer. With proper risk assessment that includes different testing modalities, the patient is able to determine her risk factors and develop an action plan on how to improve the breast tissue or even reverse the existing trend. The current screening strategy is not enough to protect women from breast cancer. Medical infrared imaging should be added to every woman’s regular breast health care.
Dr. Alex Mostovoy
Fear of Childbirth
Filed Under Mom Talk | Leave a Comment
As a mom who has had one medicated birth followed by two natural births, I have always been amazed how fear is a leading factor in a woman’s ability to manage the birth experience.
I work with hundreds of women yearly, and incorporated into each “Fitmom 2 Be” fitness class is education on preparing for labor and delivery. Most responses are fear-based in nature, and I have found that most women consider preparing for childbirth an exercise in learning about all the drugs available to them. I try not to be extreme in my position on childbirth and most often use my own story as a learning tool.
The fact is that my first time around, I had thought about a drug-free delivery. But nothing I learned in my hospital-based childbirth education classes (12 hours in total, which is considered long) prepared me for labor. I arrived at the hospital completely unprepared and terrified. I was more than happy to hand my body over to the medical experts and participate in my birth experience as little as possible. A phrase I often hear when people talk of women who want to choose natural childbirth is, “Why be a hero?” That comment really gets under my skin. Is it implying that you are less than a hero if you do use drugs?
Here’s my opinion: as North American women, we are privileged to have access to emergency interventions, but often they are used in non-emergency cases. Such interventions can speed up the process and make things easier, but there are still side effects and risks associated with some interventions. The fact is that most women are so vulnerable and disempowered during childbirth that they are rarely making informed choices and are usually quite scared. Here are some questions I suggest women ask themselves to prepare for labor and delivery:
• What are your internalized messages about childbirth? Are they mostly positive or negative? Most women when asked are really blown away by the fact that most images they have of childbirth are media-driven images of women screaming out of control in stirrups.
• How many births has your birth partner or husband attended?
• Do you think partners can be prepared to be effective birth partners in less than six weeks (the usual length of childbirth education classes offered at hospitals)? Or would it be useful to have someone there who is trained in specific labor and delivery support techniques, like a doula or even a friend who has children?
• Are you aware of the birth practices at the hospital where you plan to give birth?
• Have you thought of confronting your fears surrounding childbirth and committing yourself to feeling very comfortable and fully educated?
If you are interested in planning for childbirth, I strongly recommend the book The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer. Unlike many books that tell you what to expect when you’re expecting by pouring over outcomes, The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth focuses on “intervention prevention” by empowering women with knowledge regarding the natural changes and processes their bodies undergo during childbirth. It’s knowledge we are all meant to have and should have in order to be fully prepared for childbirth. Check out our labor and birth coach e-book at www.newmom101.com
Happy Birthing!
Andrea
How to Get Enough
Filed Under Law of Attraction | Leave a Comment
I was touched by a friend’s recent description of life in the Philippines, where you can make $10-$30 per week, at the most… where she scrambled to help her family survive… where owning a lot of “stuff” is really not what people do. We would call that Thirld World, or subsistence. Yet the way she describes it with the laughter, the family, the love, the faith that all is well, the knowing that she would be taken care of, and the intimate time spent on weekends with people she loved - it left me with a sense of joy and appreciation for her life there. She laughs and smiles all the time. It was I who perceived lack. She reminded me that for her, there was only abundance.
This is the most powerful way to define “enough”: the declaration that exactly what you have is exactly what you want. Then anything else you obtain (materially, financially, relationship or spiritually) is something to be celebrated. That’s a powerful way to live.
Jennifer Hough
Wrapping Up the Holidays
Filed Under Entrepreneurs with a Conscience | Leave a Comment
With all the hustle and bustle at the malls this time of year, it’s hard to remember everything on your to do list when there’s so much to do and so many distractions. Giftwrap seems to be one of those things that come in last on my list, and something I always tend to forget, leaving me scrambling at the last minute.
I’m not one for going all out on wrapping the gifts I give, but I do tend to get creative, especially if I don’t want to fight the crowds for a few bows and some ribbon. Here are some last minute gift wrap ideas that not only recycle and reuse, but are innovative and add your own personal touch.
• Don’t have any tissue paper? Cut the handles and the logo off the front of any plastic bag.
• Don’t have gift boxes? Use cereal boxes or cardboard packaging, turn them inside out (so the graphics are on the inside) and re-glue. Decorate the outside as you wish, or wrap with paper.
• Don’t have ribbon? Cut up some thin strips of colored paper, curl, and tape together as you wish.
• Don’t have tags? Use colored paper that complements the wrapping, and fold it into a mini card. Design your own and print them out on card paper. Or sew some together with some extra fabric so you can reuse them year after year.
These may seem as simple as simple can be, but the bottom line is that anything can be recycled and reused. Experiment and see what you can do this holiday season to make your gift-giving extra special.
~Amanda~
« go back — keep looking »