Adults Swimming

 SWIMMING,THE KEY TO HAPPINESS

                                                                                                  By Tarny Davies,  June 2014

Want to feel more content, less grumpy and finally get a good night's sleep? A report from femaleforst.co.uk/swimming found that taking a regular dip at your local pool can make you feel happier as well as healthier, with participants reporting an increase of 85% in positivity during a major new four week study.

The results have also shown that the low impact sport is a tonic for everyday life, increasing levels of sleep quality ( 40% ) and energy levels  ( 51% ) and fitness levels ( 15% ) during the

course of the study.

Just a few laps a week can have an almost immediate effect, with those donning their swimsuits seeing an increase of 20% in their overall levels of well-being after just one week.These levels were maintained for the duration of the study, peaking again at 29% in the final week, found by the British Gas SwimBritain.

ADULT SWIM:

1. The only real fountain of youth is the water.

2. Dealing with a suffocating liquid, as in good breath control while swimming, is real swimming. If you are going  across the pool and out of breath, you probably are just holding your breath. In order to exercise well in the water you need to learn how to breath correctly.

3. The last exercise anyone can do is swim. The water is gentle on the joints and keeps lung capacity healthy.We are living longer and land sports become increasingly difficult on the body.It increases our immune systems as we get older, when immune systems decline without exercise.

La Petite Baleen does adult lessons. The warm water and caring teachers can get you up and swimming no matter how frightened you are , or,  if you had a bad experience in water. 

Be a happy splasher and learn how enjoyable and healthy swimming lessons can make you. Talk to Swimformation!

Book Review by Irene

Two amazing books crossed my path regarding topics near and dear to my heart: meaningful quality of life...and everything I can learn and KNOW about children.

Dr Stephanie Brown ,  whom I was lucky to meet recently, just published a book called, " SPEED ...Facing Our Addiction to Fast and Faster--and Overcoming Our Fear of Slowing Down. The next day on Good Morning America, Emma Jenner was interviewed for her new book, " Keep Calm and Parent on ". 

I immediately connected the dots between the two books because they both had some   common themes including :  we are not living in the moment, thus we are missing living at all, and, we have left common sense far behind.

Dr Brown noticed that Silicon Valley had delivered a gift of electronics that promised to allow us to save time. Indeed it can. But what happened to us and spread quickly to the rest of the world was, I can do more...and more..and, the price became addiction to more, the future, and even  more, leaving families disconnected, divided and abandoned. The fear of not enough, staying ahead of 'whatever' , drove people to miss life right now. Our definition of success was materialistic

and we did not realize that not only were we becoming addicted to this impossible race, we could not  understand a deeper happiness. More and more addictions pop up to bandaid our emptiness.

Pausing, slowing down, changing disconnection with small steps ( often called the 'Kaisen Effect') is a healthy, effective way to finding our real selves and real lives again.

Dr Peter Grazzeley, a neuroscientist from UCSF, talks about the " Myth of Multi-tasking "  and underscores how our brains can only do one thing at a time, with high performance. In an older blog I talk about his DVD. 

In the Jenner book, this international nanny from England, shares  common sense ways of helping parents and children come to respect the best ways to give children fair and appropriate boundaries, limited choices and approaches to common problems so that children grow up understanding real coping skills come from within.  These kinds of children are grounded, do not develop high anxiety that does occur when parents abdicate their decision-making roles.

Something I learned from Dr Grazzely is: the pre-frontal cortex, the discernment and decision making area of the brain does not fully develop until 25-26 yrs of age. If a parent allows  a child to have  her/his way out of something, that gives a small child too much power. They do not have the tools to make important decisions regarding their safety or health. Anxiety prevails, and in fact, continues to be a growing mental health concern today.

Skillful parenting takes time and effort but as the child matures, family time is high quality. Because of our fast and faster paced lives, we look for short-cuts to " get things done", but at a steep price. Jenner proves that work up- front provides meaningful family life and , ultimately happier and healthier children. ( see my blog on sugar! ).

In the last couple of months I have  seen a trend of conscious slowing down. Let's hope we see this trend grow stronger.In the meantime, press the PAUSE button , breathe deeply and engage with your loved ones.

Irene