Category: Music

Music

10/5/2020

There is a strong connection between all of us and music. Whether you believe in the power of God or not, you believe in the power of music, I have never met anybody who has said anything neutral or negative about the impact of music upon his or her life. If you do believe in God, then you know music came as a gift from our higher power. When we didn't have shiny instruments, as in the caveman days, we used our voices, rocks, sticks, shells, and whatever else we could. I believe music is innate. If we aren't exposed to it, we create it.

When I was a child I played outside in the summers until it became dark. Years later, my mother told me that on many days and nights she would know where I was playing, inside and outside of the house, by my voice. I sang throughout the day. I observed that when my children were little, and even now, as teens, when they wake up in the morning I hear them singing. My daughter sings along to the stereo as she does homework. My son sings in the shower every day. Even when we seek silence, there are tones we cannot avoid.

Today, in this climate of world unrest, I encourage you to seek refuge, healing, and peace through music, as our ancestors did, as we do, even without being always conscious of it. Music truly is in the fabric of our lives.

What are your thoughts on music? I want to know!
Blessings,
KJ Landis
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Stress vs Pleasure

9/16/2014

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Sometimes, despite the efforts we make in eating whole, real foods, we still cannot lose the unwanted extra fat. We exercise, sleep well, and work at moving a lot during the day.

Why can't we meet our goals?

The answer my friends, is stress. Stress plays an important role in our vitality and health, our longevity and attitude. How can we have a good attitude towards the world when we feel like sh#%t? How can we live a long time when our sugar levels in the blood spike due to our stress? How can we release body fat when the stress hormone cortisol is telling our brain and body to hang on to dear fat because we are in a real emergency?

I suggest that you take ten minutes and write down everything that causes you stress on one side of a paper. Draw a line down the middle.Then on the other side, list the things that give you pleasure. Remember, this is for your eyes only, so do not be shy. Little or small, the pleasures and stressors affect every other area of our lives. If the stress list is longer than the pleasure list, take action about how you can reverse that, one little bit at a time.

Let me give you an example: I feel stress when the house isn't in perfect order before I go to sleep. I know it's late. I know I just worked a late shift at the restaurant. When I get home, if I see dishes in the sink, shoes not in the closet, blankets left on the couch, mail out of the mail basket, etc....I CANNOT WIND DOWN! Then it will be impossible for me to sleep. So, I can take two roads to release the stress and get to sleep. I can stay up an extra hour and clean up, or I can throw everything away in the trash, and damn it all. If the family misses it, they should not have left the items laying around in the first place. I have employed both solutions to releasing that stress in the past, and it worked very well. Writing a note on the kitchen table for them to see how upset I was also serves my communicating purposes so that they may not be so sloppy and cluttered in the future.

What can you do to lessen your stress? What can you delegate to other family members to assist in the tranquility that you need to thrive? What can you give up? I gave up grocery shopping, except for my special raw dairy items. I order a lot of things by internet now. I made an agreement with my husband that we would stop arguing about whose turn it is to deep clean the entire house. We acquired a cleaning service every two weeks. Argument over.

Stress less, less cortisol. Then the things you are doing in diet and exercise can take full effect, and you will see the fat finally release from your body.

Now it is time to add more pleasure to your life. Little moments of laughter, joy, sunshine, singing in the car, whatever gives you joy, go and do it!

It is sad that when we get older, many of us lose our short and long term memories. We need to play games that stimulate the memories. We need to add pleasure to our lives so that if we do have memory loss, the memories we recall from time to time will bring us joy and happiness.

What things truly bring pleasure to your life? Write them down and vow to do them. Then make a bucket list. Look at these lists daily to remind you that no matter what age, we can still have goals.

You deserve the best that life has to offer . I know it and believe it. Please comment or post. Join my mailing list.

Blessings,
KJ Landis

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MUSIC FOR MOTIVATION

8/11/2014

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My first motivation for teaching Spinning classes was that the instructor had music that grated on my nerves. I love all kinds of music and wanted her to mix it up. The music played week after week was techno from the mid 80s. It drove me crazy. I didn't want to hurt her feelings by saying it was boring to me when she clearly liked it a lot! So, I made mixes for her to try. She never used them once.

So, I took the next step and signed up for teacher certification training. After an exciting weekend of learning the basics and adding in my own moves to get the best workup for myself, I made mixes on my iPod and applied to be a teacher at the gym I already belonged to. I was accepted and from that moment on, I knew my classes would offer something totally new and motivating for the participants. I mixed jazz, world music, rap, reggae, hip hop, soul, gospel, musicals, classical, etc.

After each class, the participants would ask me to make them the copies of my mixes because they wanted to use the music for their workouts outside of the cycling room. This was the biggest compliment I could have ever received.

What is your YES music? What music has you nodding your head in a positive way, that spurs you on towards your best version of yourself? I use music every day to help me get through what I want to do, what I'm doing, my feelings, and as a backdrop for my life. I could not imagine my life without it. It is the only thing I know outside of silence that expresses the inexpressible.

Blessings,
KJ Landis

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Music

Stress vs Pleasure

MUSIC FOR MOTIVATION

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