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Foot Exercises

5/28/2018

Our foot health is important to our entire body and health because we use feet every day and in every way. From morning until night, whether we are at leisure, work, or exercising, we engage our feet. As we get older the fat pads on the bottom of our feet get thinner no matter what our size. This makes it really important to wear proper shoes and socks, as well as add padding or insoles to the cushioning part of shoes.

For healthy feet we can do simple stretches. I encourage my clients to hold a bar or banister and pop up on their tippy toes like a ballerina. Stay there as long as one can and then release. Splay the toes out as wide as one can when doing this exercise so we have a solid base. I suggest 3 sets of 10 to start. This stretch works the plantar fascia on the bottom of the foot.

When seated, I stretch my feet by laying down and putting my feet in the air. I point and flex slowly, about 10 times and hold the point and flex as long as I can. This works the arch and top of the foot.

Ankle rotations clockwise and counterclockwise help with the flexibility and stretch the Achilles’ tendon at the heel area.

I hope this helps your journey toward yourself.
Sincerely,
KJ Landis
-Author and Creator of the Superior Self series
-CPT, CFT

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Taking Chances

5/21/2018

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I met my husband TORINO as his server (called a waitress in the 80’s) in a restaurant in LA almost 30 years ago (1989). He was the friend of the chef and visiting LA from SF, where he lived. He was visiting Chef Ike and I had to close up the restaurant. Evening 1, the meal was complimentary from the chef. Evening 2 the meal was complimentary from the chef. The 3rd evening the chef finally introduced us. I was definitely watching this young man, but was too shy to say anything because he was so beautiful.

When my good friend Chef Ike introduced us, Torino said, “I don’t want to know you as an average human being would want to know you.” Well that was either an honest first line or a line from a movie I hadn’t seen (LA living had shown me some “one liners” in the late 1980s.). So I decided to test him. I invited Torino dancing the next night at a reggae club after work, late, around 11:30pm. I told him I had to be kind and dance with everybody who worked there because I was new in LA and they were my new family. He was fine with that.

Well, when we finally danced our first dance together, it was love for me. It felt easy and right. He stayed with me 24/7 for two weeks and then he left for Tokyo on a modeling contract. We wrote letters the old fashioned way for 6 months. Then he called once or twice on a land line. Torino wired money into my bank account and sent me a post card saying, “Take a jump over the fence. I’ll be waiting on the other side for you.” I took the chance, bought a plane ticket with the money he sent to me, leaped over the Pacific Ocean and danced into his arms on April Fool’s Day!

We have been together since meeting in 1989 and have been married since 1993. We have traveled the world together modeling in 44 countries as a couple. I gave up modeling in 2000, when I was pregnant with my first boy, Golden. Then 3 years later came a girl, Sage.

My circle of life would’ve been so different if I hadn’t taken a chance after knowing someone only 2 weeks and then moved across the world to be with them a short 6 months later. I credit our purposeful intention of getting to know each other to handwritten letters and lack of electronics allowing us to truly think before we wrote something down. It is a wonderful and tried and true way to communicate from the heart and really engage another human being.

I hope this helps you in your relationships with others.
Blessings,
KJ Landis
-Author and Creator of the Superior Self series

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Mindfulness Tools to Embrace

5/17/2018

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What do we do when the adrenaline rushes from a near accident, sudden and unexpected news, or the anxiousness of our never ending busy errands in modern life? Recently, I was asked to share mindfulness tools everyone should know (and embrace).

What I do is breathe and count slowly. The first tool for me to get out of my toolkit is slowing down when anxious or overwhelmed and just count super slowly in my head from one to ten and back to one and then repeat about four times. This slows down the breathing with conscious focus and will help one figure out what has to be done instead of worrying about what has to be done. Just 60 seconds of mindful counting with eyes closed is a vacation from the rest of one’s busy life. Then we can plan an action instead of just reacting blindly.

This was especially helpful to me on Mother’s Day, when I received a condolence call about my mother before I was even told by anyone that she had died. Of course the first words out of my mouth were, “What? Shit! Shit! Shit!” Then I got off the phone, and in the kitchen with my Mother’s Day celebration going on all around me, I slowed down the moment by imagining a finger in the sand slowly writing the digits. This helped the adrenaline to flow and the shock to move through me. I was able to then take action and call my family in Pittsburgh and see how I could help with the arrangements. (I live in San Francisco.)

Losing my mother on Mother’s Day still feels surreal, but I can practice my mindfulness counting and handle the daily to-do list of mothering, working, writing, and coaching that needs to be done whether Mama Hilda has passed away or not.

What do you do to stop the insanity in your life? I want to hear from you!
Blessings,
KJ Landis
-Author and Creator of the Superior Self series
Visit me at www.superiorselfwithkjlandis.com

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Unexpected Mentors

5/14/2018

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Sometimes mentors fall into your lap unexpectedly. There's a famous saying that when the student is ready the master appears. That's exactly what happened to me.

About 3 years ago my dear friend's son, only 15 years old, jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. 22 days later, my brother died unexpectedly. Then 3 months after that, my father passed away. Two months later, my daughter had a close friend, age 10, pass away from brain cancer. Just 18 months ago my favorite uncle passed away under circumspect conditions. I coped through bereavement group and my writing, always writing. It is my refuge, my safe space.

About a year ago my bereavement group counselor mentioned a solo performance about grief from a playwright coming to San Francisco. She encouraged all of us to check it out. Ann Randolph was the performer and writer. So I went by myself on a Sunday afternoon. None of my kids or husband wanted to go to a play about grief.

What ensued was a hilarious roller coaster ride of emotions during the performance! It wasn't a sad experience at all. It was multi faceted and brilliant, not unlike life. At the end of the play, Ann had us all write for 5 minutes our entire life in sentences as if someone was going to say YAY and BOO after each sentence. Our life was a series of YAYS and BOOS. She was sparking something in me. I knew if she ever had writing classes in the Bay Area I would just have to go.

As luck would have it, last spring her fancy resort classes far away were canceled because the bridge to the area where she was going to be in residence was broken. Usually her intensive 5-8 day workshops are too expensive for me. Usually she is very far away from San Francisco. She is here! She is in my budget! So I signed up and am in her 8 week write your life workshop

During the past 2 years I took 3 other writing workshops with her. They were 2 day weekend workshops.

What I thought was going to be a fiction workshop for my daughter, who requested I learn how to write preteen angst mixed with cooking, turned into something else altogether.

Ann Randolph, my mentor, has a way of changing my life, to pull out of me something I never wrote about or shared before. She freed my stories of being a victim of sexual abuse, which I suffered from age 7-12. She allowed me to write about it, talk about it, and read what I wrote aloud in a fiction and non fiction manner with truth and authenticity in a room full of people. The experience was juxtaposed with the sharing of the outpouring of never ending love from my large Jewish family, especially my mother.

The roller coaster ride continues. I am immensely grateful that my writing mentor showed up in my life randomly, a casual mention by my bereavement counselor. She has become a light in my life.

Thank you for allowing my to share my story. Do you want to share your story with me?
Blessings,
KJ Landis
Author and Creator of the Superior Self series
Visit me at www.superiorselfwithkjlandis.com

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Exercise and Addiction Recovery

5/7/2018

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How Exercise Could Be the Key to Accelerating Your Addiction Recovery

Those currently going through addiction recovery know that it isn’t a cakewalk. Quitting isn’t easy, and when addiction has controlled your life, it can seem almost impossible to pick up the pieces and get back on the right track. It’s for this reason that so many turn to addiction treatments to help point them in the right direction, but even then, recovery can feel like it’s moving at a crawl.

If you’re ready to give your recovery a boost, then maybe it’s time to get on your feet and run. You’re probably already well aware of the benefits of daily exercise, but what you might not know is the kind of impact that exercise can have on your addiction recovery. Here is a breakdown of how a little sweat can help accelerate your journey to recovery.

The Science Behind Sweating Out Addiction

While everyone’s road to recovery is unique, there are a lot of similar beats that recovering addicts face when giving up drugs and alcohol. Many in recovery share symptoms of withdrawal, which typically include intense cravings, restlessness, and higher levels of stress and anxiety. These symptoms are often big hurdles, and each one poses a risk for relapsing into old, self-destructive habits. By committing to your physical fitness, you can alleviate many symptoms of withdrawal. Exercise affects more than just your physical health and is known to reduce stress, anxiety, and even depression.

Exercise can even be a formidable substitute to the high you can crave when abstaining from drugs and alcohol. When you put your body to work for an extended period of time, your muscles will feel weak, your legs sore. As you approach physical exhaustion, your mind will actually release a stream of endorphins through your body, giving you what many refer to as a runner’s high. This incredible feeling you get when pushing your body to the limit is a healthy replacement for the kind of high you receive from dangerous, addictive substances and can also encourage you to keep working on your physical fitness.

What Exercises are the Best for Recovery?

Now that you know a little bit about how exercise can facilitate your addiction recovery, you’re probably wondering which exercises produce the best results. The answer is not always the same for everyone, and it depends a lot on your current health and physical ability. If you’re just starting out, then perhaps light aerobic activities such as walking or jogging may be ideal for you. If you already have an athletic background, you might step up your game or include intense strength training.

The best exercise is the kind that motivates and challenges you. If you like being outdoors, try running or cycling. If you’re competitive you can join an amateur sports league. When you find a form of exercise that you want to come back to, you know you’ve found a way to supplement your recovery.

How to Get into a Healthy Routine

Once you find the exercise that’s right for you, you’ll need to find a way to make it a regular part of your life. The best way to do this is by creating a fitness routine for yourself. It’s already a good idea to have an organized schedule for you daily activities. By setting aside to exercise three to four days out of a week, you can start creating a healthy routine for yourself.

After following your routine for several weeks, you won’t think twice about devoting an hour of your day to exercise. Soon it will become a habit for you, one that is healthy for your body and mind. A few months later, you’ll start noticing positive results, and you’ll realize that with the changes in your body, you too have changed from the person you once were. This is how exercise has the power to change your life and accelerate you down the road to addiction recovery.

Photo Credit: Pixabay.com
Written by Constance Ray

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Foot Exercises

Taking Chances

Mindfulness Tools to Embrace

Unexpected Mentors

Exercise and Addiction Recovery

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