You know you've hit a button when people threaten in a passive aggressive manner of what you've wrote, it is my truth for myself and my life, how I see the world through my experiences and days on this Earth. It is what people have told me in passing, what they are frustrated with or tired of constantly doing the same thing over and over expecting different results each time they try.

To this I am done. It is a thought gone on the clouds of negativity to only harness the good in my life instead. My frustration for what is a billion dollar industry will be lost in the sky; why? Because those who wish to argue the subject and continue to make money off of it will continue to battle til the end about why they are right and there is no right or wrong only what is good for you, yourself and your body. My focus will be on what is good for my body and what is good in my life. This is why we live in a free world. It is my choices that define each day and the rest of my time on Earth.

What is good in my life? This breath I just took and then the next for it creates all the possibilities of what is in each moment. Whether I go outside for a walk or cook healthy food for myself this breath is what created it all. Nothing else. These breaths continue to allow me to laugh with my family at supper, watch the sunrise in the morning or simply be still each breath follows the next in an unconscious pattern. 

Our lives are lived and died in our head we can still be breathing and yet not alive at all because we are so trapped in the negativity that runs over and over in our minds that we can't even be thankful for what we have right here and now. At some point in time when a person is ready for change you start to realize that you are responsible for everything in life because our choices are what gets us from A to B. Even if bad situations, unthinkable situations occur in life we still can have a choice in what we will do with our reaction to it. Smother ourselves deeper in negative thoughts or understand that there is still always a choice to be our best in bad times not just a victim of what is happening to us.

Fear is the biggest fuel to all fires we fight to put out. Fear keeps us afraid of change in our lives even miserable but comfortable is better than the unknown happiness that may await us because we don't know what is out "there". 

Take a chance on "there" and spend five minutes with some positive thoughts, gently nudge those negative one's out as they arise, recognize and release them then focus on a new positive thought to replace it. This is so hard but is the beginning to life changes in our bodies and mind as one. No special diet required, no extreme fitness plan and no one selling you anything. We need to stop being sold and told and begin to love and change our own minds to nurture ourselves as though we would our best friend. Perhaps for one day talk out loud to your best friend the way you do to yourself and see how long this person hangs around...yet we talk day in and out to ourselves in such a harsh manner.

What is good? I am a kind, loving, caring, compassionate, passionate, driven, fun, active person who is always excited by the world around me. How would you describe your best friend? Then that is how you should describe yourself, the two should be similar.

Start a new day, a new choice towards a change you can create and maintain for this life!

I Live Life Now,

Lisa Stocking

CSEP-CPT

Pain is something that as humans we innately avoid due to well; the discomfort of it. Ironically it is not just physical pain I am talking about this includes mental pain as well. We are programmed in society to not feel pain and find anyway we can to cope with it whether it is prescribed pills, drugs, food, alcohol, shopping or any other addictive type behaviour that we soothe ourselves with.

We view pain as a bad thing, as something we have to stay away from but the problem is we will feel pain at some point in life whether through self inflicted or external influence we will feel it and it will be hard, very hard. The choice we have is whether we find tools to heal from it or we use masks to cover it. 

I look back over the years at some of the self induced situations I have put myself in that were hard, uncomfortable and painful through physical exertion. During those times I questioned my sanity and why I would do it but as with every difficult thing in life afterward I was grateful and proud that I pushed through the pain to the other side of accomplishment. Life can be easy but it can't always be easy and when you live on cruise control in the easy lane you will get in an accident eventually because life happens, situations out of your control happen and cruise can't counteract these instances that require quick thinking and perseverance.

Pain, I have felt pain deep pain, pain so painful you don't think you'll make another day living it, watching it and unfortunately you can't put a cast on it nor can you mask it. When those feeling come I let them flow whether running and crying at the same time or during mundane tasks such as washing dishesl if I feel it I let it out, to not is to deny who you are and what you are feeling at the time. I read a great saying the other day: How am I so lucky to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. 

True. So true. It's better to feel pain than never feel at all. Imagine living a life with no love, no feelings, no joy but you never felt so you never had to feel sad saying goodbye to anything because you didn't ever feel. Sounds pretty bleak to me. Truly, I think we are a messed up society with attachments to the wrong happiness but are you living a life where when you have to say bye to someone it is painful or will they pass without much thought? I have been so lucky to feel pain from saying goodbye to two amazing parents that made it so painful to say goodbye it's indescribable, but on the flip side the joy they brought into my life is amazing. Those lessons they gave me and showed me are living on in my own children now through me.

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 

2. I wish I didn't work so hard.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Death has become the elephant in the room, I'm not sure if you have looked around but it is the ONLY thing as humans we have in common we will all leave Earth and there's only one way to go. Watching a movie the other day called Touching The Void I was moved not by the tenacity of the climber to reach camp with a broken leg but more by his deep desire to be near someone, anyone he could, because he did not want to die alone. His fear of dying alone spurred him to do unthinkable feats to find an area with human life before his final hour. Think about this; would you rather die being right and alone or would you rather die surrounded by people who love and support you because you have done the same for them throughout life?

In our society we value money and possessions above all yet we do little to cultivate our dreams and love in life (some do) if we don't dream and love what do we have? Honestly, ask yourself what you want, where do you want to go? Buying a new truck is great and those compliments you get for it or the rush of buying last a few months but I'm pretty sure on your deathbed it will be the furthest from your mind, what you may remember at that moment is those times you spent with family or experiences you had throughout your life instead. Don't get caught in the trap of stuff verses living. Being trapped in your stuff is suffocating whereas living life is freeing! 

Working harder to make more money is the scapegoat we think we are obligated to have more and do more, the problem is the more you work, the more you spend and the cycle continues on and on. Really step back and evaluate what you need or think you need. What are you grateful for today? When I wake up tired, groggy and not wanting to get out of bed I look outside and see the sunrise and realize the world is alright just where it's at in that moment. More doesn't always equal better. More equals less quality of life sometimes.

I have had some amazing experiences already in my lifetime and I can't wait for more seeing, doing and living with my family it is something I treasure more than all the riches in the world combined.

Will you have regrets? Or will you have lived a life you made and chose?

What dreams are living or planning? Are you sharing love in your life; starting with yourself? Without love for ourselves we cannot share love with anyone else, you can only share a glass of water with someone when your well is full first!

I Live Life Now,

Lisa Stocking

CSEP-CPT

Have you ever wondered what life boils down to? 5 pages that's it, for some even less.

That was the length of my mom's eulogy, it was written in a leather recliner seated near her bed in her last days on Earth. It felt so much more authentic and truly her as I wrote it by her bed. Her own words closed out the speech during her memorial:

"I have had a good life, I've treasured every moment, minute, hour, day and week that I have been able to spend with my family. Becoming closer with my grandchildren and family has been a gift." 

Cancer can never steal this away from us, this I know but sometimes it doesn't make it any easier.

One of the assignments I often give my challenge participants is to write their own eulogy; perhaps a bit morbid for some on the flip side how do you want to be rememebered after you leave this world? Have you even thought of it? 

Tears come a little easier lately as the reality of life sets in and this is expected, everyone deals with their grief differently. For my daughter she keeps close to her anything that was my mom's; her blanket, house coat or picture. My son just plain misses her when times are tough at school or life. Myself? I have had the deep realization that this is not it...these boxes, bubbles and ideals that we have stuffed ourselves so neatly into are not what I envision for myself anymore. There is such a deep desire for more which ironically will require less.

Trust me I firmly believe you are happy anywhere in life and honestly if I could really just move the current location of life to a non-polar region it would improve greatly! Since that isn't an option I may seek out other options but in the end if those options don't work out I still plan to travel and make some major changes. Now, don't kid yourself that if you clear out your life it will be better. A life of peace stems from being able to be okay with wherever you are and maybe that's why it seems so right to look for somewhere else now because I am happy where I am and not necessarily running from anything but being drawn to something entirely different.

I ponder what my 5 pages may be life, no I know what my 5 pages will be like and maybe there will be more because they can't fit it all in. Interestingly enough most people are shocked to find out I am an Animal Health Tech, I have worked as an oilfield labourer, a apiary assistant (aka bee keeper), a special needs assistant, a federal meat inspector, a llama, alpaca and horse farm manager and that is just really the tip of the iceberg. I have hiked, biked, climbed, loved, lived, ran, crawled, laughed, cried and seen amazing things already in life and I am so excited for the future to come!

When I walk around and see other people I always wonder what their story is and when I see elderly people I imagine what they have seen, lived and experienced in their lifetime. That person in the gym who looks like they are just starting? Imagine they've already lost 50 lbs. That person who looks poor and homeless? Perhaps they were "wealthy" at one time and the happiness wasn't there which lead to a downhill demise...you just don't know. Never assume.

One thing I really don't want on my 5 pages is: she always kept waiting for the right time to do......

NO. NO I won't. 

Everyone keeps writing witty posters on their facebook pages claiming how precious life is, how we have to live for the now yet they are trapped, trapped deep within a life they can't see past or break out of due to fear. And trust me fear is easy to let run your life but maybe if you think about your own 5 pages it will change for you.

Read this blog of a travelling family that is travelling no more but how their lives have transformed: Six In The World I've sobbed my way through some of it as it touches close to home but I can't imagine the feelings they are going through in their own experience.

I think the saddest part of most people's 5 pages is that we stop dreaming and start accepting what has been handed to us as how we should live which can create a lot of mental suffering for many and for others we just live so numbly we have no idea we could have been happier or just plain happy.

It still makes me laugh when I smile at a stranger on the street and they are caught off guard because they didn't expect a smile; this is what we have come down to as a society. Avert the eyes, don't look, don't interact, don't smile and god forbid if you laugh in public with strangers. RELAX people it's just humans with other humans! We are meant to be happy, smile, laugh and love.

Tomorrow when you wake up be thankful you have another day to add to your 5 pages in life and create the life you are looking for instead of just floating and reacting to everything coming at you with regret and anger.

I Live Life Now,

Lisa Stocking

CSEP-CPT

I think the last time I cried in physical pain was??? I'm not sure and this is the honest truth I can't remember the last time I cried in physical pain. Yes, my pain tolerance is high; I have hurt myself many ways and many times over the years but crying wasn't the answer. Usually I get really, really quiet which is when you know it's bad. Or swear. Myth busters confirmed that you can handle more pain when you swear....sometimes I swear a lot when in pain but it makes it tolerable.

Last weekend was it. Pain that blinded me enough to actually cry all the way down the hill snowboarding. My bruised hip from last weekend wasn't quite healed when I landed harder on it this weekend. Enough for me to seek out an x-ray on it when I got home because it wasn't getting better. I thought possibly it was cracked because the pain was deeper and lasted longer, thankfully it wasn't! On the flip side the doctor looks at me and says: "What's worse is the amount of degeneration already started in your left hip joint." Awesome! 

Before all of the non-runners jump on the bandwagon of going....you run, you gave yourself arthritis not so quick. My family has a lot of arthritis in it and you can't out run genetics as much as you want to but you can give it as good a chance as you can. As well lower volumes of running have been proven to assist with arthritis but let's just say my decision naturally to taper back the distances I was running after last year was a choice I made listening to my own intuition and it turns out for the best. 

The thought did cross my mind to sit on the couch for a while after hurting so bad after last weekend and I'll be honest I had a poopy attitude for a bit about life while in pain and being frustrated not getting good at snowboarding faster (did I mention I like to catch on quick). But, then I remind myself like with anything my fourth time out I can't fly down the hill with all the pros although I keep thinking I should be able to. Quick results are not possible in life with ANYTHING! I am quite happy with my progress over the past month boarding and my husband learns even quicker which makes it fun in the end because we can enjoy the sport together. Even frustrated the smell of the mountains and alpine makes for an intoxicating aroma that clears the mind out. The scenery was even better!

My best run of the day preluded the crash but wow...if I could post a picture of the bruise for you it wouldn't be pretty. My one whole butt cheek was swollen out two inches more than my other one! But, as with anything we do forget quite quickly the pain and go back for more and I'm pretty sure I can fit in one more time boarding during my yoga retreat in Jasper on the last weekend they are open? Maybe! 

The temptation to quit is there but I am just too stubborn to want to quit and leave it as an unfinished chapter in life. Perhaps that's when most of us give in is right when we are on the edge of achieving something bigger than ourselves. The famous story of the miner that stopped digging two feet short of the largest gold haul in history comes to mind...why did he quit so close? Because he couldn't focus past the frustration and failure he thought he was experiencing. Luckily, I have felt this before and pushed ahead that last little bit and that feeling you can't buy anywhere of accomplishment! The last 6 miles of a marathon are the worst but guess what? They are the most important ones to finish because without them you only ran 20 miles not 26.2! 

Tentatively I will strap on the board again and keep at it because those moments where everything starts to feel right are worth all the pain up to this point. Let's just say when my *ss heals I will be ready for more, this week I think I'll sit gingerly and move carefully until the body is ready...and for those of you who came to boot camp last week I did have the Booty Pop's on but they didn't work! Can you imagine if I didn't have them on! And possibly for future reference I may just wear my hockey pants and look like a crazy canuck going downhill....crazy like a fox not wanting to be in pain again!

Life is hard, wear a helmet is a great saying; now if I could invent one for my butt while snowboarding it would make life a little more bearable! 

I Live Life Now,

Lisa Stocking

CSEP-CPT

I am scared; very scared...all that I want is at my fingertips yet I hold back? Why? Scary thoughts of nightmares and those voices in my head that say "You won't make it, you can't do it." Imagine every fiber of your being being pulled in one direction and reality hitting me upside the head in another. If this was really just a 50 km race or something easy I wouldn't just bear down and do it, no questions asked. Sometimes "crazy" events or races are easier to focus on and train for than reality and where life is at right now.

What if I make this choice and it doesn't work out? What if what if what if what if what if......ahhhhhhhhh! I think I'm going crazy maybe I am crazy? No doubt.

There comes a point in time in life where we question everything we have, do and are. Perhaps this is that point? Unfortunately the wake up calls have been so vivid lately that I can't ignore them anymore. If you have 5, 10, 15 years left to live what would you choose right now? That is how I see the world at this time. We are at funeral number four in our family over the last six months some older, some younger and some too young this is a reality and a choice to wake up and choose better for ourselves, to stand up for ourselves and live the life we want to live, not recklessly but purposefully and peacefully.

Perhaps this sign said it best at the Comox airport and was a sign to move forward and leave the fear of change behind with it.

What do you fear? I always find it interesting when I ask people to write down their fears and they say they have none...really? We are a fear based society, everything we do is based on fear and controlled by fear. Everything! The problem is that fear is not the answer but we are programmed to believe it is. Fear however can only last so long to control our habits we must approach life filled with love instead and it is SO SO SO HARD to do but SO WORTH IT! 

Think about the difference when you approach a situation based out of love instead of fear? You offer to help a friend out of love and kindness not because you are worried she will be mad at you if you don't, the approach is so different and garners different feelings and outcomes from it.

The same goes with exercise and nutrition, each time consider you are loving your body with each choice you make instead of punishing it by depriving it of "yummy" food and making it hate exercise cause you "have" to do it. Yes, we all have to exercise for long term success and health but guess what it is a privelege! I am so thankful for each time my body carries me somewhere whether it is down the road on a run or getting out of bed in the morning.

We need to embrace the attitude that 10 minutes is better than 0 minutes and that our therapy, pills, fix and answers are all just at the end of our legs...go for a 10 minute walk every day has been proven to have HUGE health benefits far deeper than just physical looks. Mood, anxiety, stress are all improved dramatically with just a walk outside or inside if you live in -40C in Alberta, the point being that we do not always need all the pills and solutions we keep asking for to be fixed up. We are the answer!

So, at the end of this blog how do I feel? I need to go for a walk, now! To clear my head and figure out my future because in the end our minds are what get us into the most trouble and suffering...now if only I could figure out how to have my walks here everyday:

That will be my focus for now....

I Live Life Now,

Lisa Stocking

CSEP-CPT

March is here just like it is every year, similar to Monday everyone is shocked and disheartened that it shows up...guess what it comes every week right after Sunday! 

Jim Rohn says it best as he can predict the future: Spring is after winter, summer after spring, fall follows summer and then you got it: winter again! It is always the same, you cannot change the seasons nor the days of the week anymore than you can change your eyes from blue to green but you can adjust how you react to their steady ebb and flows.

Energy is low this time of year in the north where we don't get a lot of Vitamin D from the sun but you can combat this with nutrition and ensuring you keep up on your workouts to boost mood levels. Start researching online for races in the spring to help push you into a training program.

Post pictures of a goal on your fridge that you wish to accomplish so you have a reminder of why you are hitting the treadmill again when you would rather sit on the couch. Look for hiking trails to take your family on near or far away from home. Add up your distance over the next month to see if you can finish a marathon in a month (42km) total distance or how many marathons you can finish. Perhaps you are walking/running from your house to a long distance friends home, calculate the distance and plan to finish it in X amount of days sustaining about 2-5 km a day to get there! Now it doesn't seem as though your workouts are for nothing, they have a purpose focus and plan!

Just like retirement we can't wake up at age 60 and go "Oh, okay I guess I plan to retire in 5 years...now what?" It's not going to work. For most it is a steady accumulation in the bank throughout life that gets you to the point of retirement and enjoying what you have saved. Fitness is entirely the same, you can work each day at it and create/maintain a little more muscle, health and longevity as you age to enjoy those retirement savings you worked so hard for and even more importantly is to not wait to enjoy life at a certain age but to be fastidious in creating memories throughout your life before your body fails you.

The interest earned from memories created throughout your life span will sustain you through your darkest hours and if you keep waiting for the right moment then it will never happen because there will never be a perfect moment that moment is now.

Heeding my own advice this month in March for years I have been promising a cousin to go visit her on Vancouver Island, my mom and I kept talking about it waiting for the right "time", well that didn't work out so I now go with my kids to see whales, sea lions and the beauty of the island and the company of a cousin I wish I would have gotten to know better as a child. I am so very excited about it!

Keep marching forward in life even when you want to just lay down and not move, forward is our only hope. Create your path for the year ahead because just as we are at the end of winter, spring will be here with it's glory and then summer to enjoy but if you don't plan for it then it too will pass by quickly and soon you will be facing winter once again...and no one like being left out in the cold.

Looking forward helps us focus on the present and reminds us why we are doing what we're doing right now! So bust those running shoes out and get ready for summer now!

I Live Life Now,

Lisa Stocking

CSEP-CPT

I love oxymorons and no this isn't meaning I am smarter than everyone else...I'm amused reading people's comments about how dumb others are when they haven't given a thought for a moment that someone somewhere is speaking the same about them. Really, we are who we are and we know what we know that is it. We should endeavour to understand more in life and perhaps continue to learn as we grow and with it grow as we learn.

Off topic for a moment but back on now. After reading an article in the latest issue of Outside magazine I couldn't help but feel really disturbed by it and the power our food has over our bodies...not just bodies our LIVES!

For many there isn't a reprieve in sight, it's either so focused on eating a lot of it or for others controlling so carefully down to the last calorie how much they put in. Now don't get me wrong I am not a footloose and fancy free eater that just eats whatever I want and doesn't gain weight. No, I plan what I eat, cook my own food, pack my own food but if you ask me how many calories I ate in the day I could figure it out roughly but I am not a calorie counter. My body tells me when I didn't eat enough the day before and I wake up ravenous, or when I eat too much and go to bed without my usual bedtime snack, the cues in my body don't lie because I am in tune to my body and what it is saying.

After reading the article I had this deep sadness about food and our lives. We continue to obsess about food, diets and eating and yet are so bored and frustrated with life. Food is some people's only excitement and yet they are bored to tears in life? How is this possible? Since when did food become a palpable friend that provides entertainment for us? 

The scary part is that food is an easy scapegoat for any emotion whether it be happy, sad, mad, glad, angry, mellow, excited, sorrow you name it we have a food attached to it and a reason for eating it. Now after reading the article it is easy to see that this excess consumption of calories leads to an excess of stored internal body fat and not just the stuff you can see on the outside but it is intertwined into your organs, muscle and viscera so tightly that it creates its own hormone system that then shuts off our natural defenses against overeating. 

You can't understand that you are full because your brain isn't reading the signal anymore and scarier yet you then eat more which then creates more hormone producing fat...creating a cycle that is nearly unbreakable unless you die of a heart attack, diabetes or break the cycle yourself with nutrition and exercise which is akin to an addict not going to rehab to get better. This cycle is very hard to break, BUT possible.

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Small steps, small changes or for some that I have trained they do it all at once but that is very rare when it works most have to evolve over time. Add workouts in, change one part of eating or quit smoking whatever it may be but one positive change can cascade to the next.

We are humans and at the top of the food chain for a reason, we have logical thinking and can problem solve. But we doubt our abilities within ourselves to do this and believe that voice in our heads that says you'll never succeed. Wrong YOU CAN SUCCEED!

Success is not only losing the weight, it is keeping it off and seeing who we truly are meant to be: happy. Life is meant to be lived by moving in it, not watching. The scary part for many is realizing they don't have to watch and let fear win anymore, another cycle to break. 

Sadly, we live in a world where people find food exciting and that may be their only excitement right now but the world is waiting for you to join life! It will not appear and you will have to seek out life just like your favorite food during a craving...imagine creating goals and a world that you are happy in similar to that first bite of your favorite chocolate bar; accomplishing dreams and goals can feel the same way!

Standing today ordering my salad with grilled chicken the thought crossed my mind of ordering something sweet, delectable and wonderful but I walked away; not something I always do if I want something once in a while I will eat it I am not a food nun. My enjoyment of food is becoming less in the sense of it is food, fuel and as much as I love food to taste good I am beginning to understand from reading more and more books that our lives are in constant judgement and each time we judge something as good or bad we create an attachment to it. With this attachment comes suffering and I am starting to see clearer each day that suffering is something I have watched enough of in the past year...why create more now?

This past weekend was wonderful consisting of snowshoeing, snowboarding and hockey all things I never considered doing five years ago. Life is good and exciting!

I Live Life Now,

Lisa Stocking

CSEP-CPT

WHEN YOU BUY PUMPKIN IN THE CAN, BUY THE LARGER SIZE ONE AND MAKE BOTH OF THESE ON THE SAME DAY!!

PUMPKIN PROTEIN MUFFINS

1 cup oatmeal or almond flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

3 egg whites

1/3 cup agave or honey

1 cup of pure pumpkin canned

½ cup fat free greek yogurt or cottage cheese blended

2 scoops vanilla whey protein

Mix dry ingredients, mix wet together. Gently fold wet ingredients into the dry until just mixed. Pour into a sprayed 8 x 8 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until done. Cut into 8 pieces!

This can also be made into 12-16 muffins (15-20 minute bake time) or else a 9 X 5 loaf pan (45 minutes cook time). Do not over cook or they dry out!

Varations: Add dark choc chips, pecans etc.

Fill muffin tin 1/3 full place a cube of cream cheese and then 1/3 more batter for a filled muffin!

Approx (16 muffins) 125 calories, 7 g fat, 6 g protein, 10 g carbohydrates and 2 g fiber.

PUMPKIN “PIE"

2 cups canned pumpkin

3 egg whites

12 oz evaporated non-fat milk

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp cloves (or use 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice instead of cloves, ginger & cinnamon)

1/2 - 2/3 cup splenda, honey or agave

1 scoop protein powder vanilla 

Preheat oven to 425F.

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a large bowl and pour into a greased ceramic pie plate or casserole dish.

Bake 15 minutes.

Then turn down the temperature down to 350F and bake for 40-50 minutes more until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean!

SO SO YUMMY!!

I have been reading on and off lately a few books basically a page at a time because I start to fall asleep too quickly when I get into bed but slow and steady wins the race. Being back into the groove of work has been wonderful and exhausting all at once but I relish it.

What I deal with day in and day out is the improvement of "body" basically there isn't too many people I see who don't want a better butt or flat abs it is the first comment after the carefully coached "better health" answer which no one really believes or even understands what it even means to have better health. We keep trying to beautify this house of ours which in essence is ours only for a very temporary period of time basically from birth until death. There is so much negative comments towards the body all the time, focus on how to make it better, why one body part is sagging or how to fix what seem so "wrong" all the time with the body we are given. 

Yet, there is little to no thought given on how to improve or beautify the mind our true house forever, even if our bodies fail us completely all we have left is inner peace. Even the house you live in now currently is not really yours, you may have paid for it do you own it or does it own you? There's always this worry and that anxiety about what to do in it or with it next, new furniture, fix this or improve that. There isn't much difference between our bodies and our houses they are actually very similar in the context that they are only ours for this time on Earth, when we perish we leave them all behind with their pretty facades and if you haven't taken care of the "real" home you will be very lost and lonely.

When was the last time you tried to cultivate mindfulness in your life? Or when did you try to just be still in the chaos of life and listen to the mind? If we have no real home we will be a lost traveller on the road.

Bringing awareness into your life and why you continue to create such suffering in life is as simple as letting go, just throw it all away mentally. All your attachment to things you think are so important because the truth is even if you don't let go it is leaving you anyways. Every new grey hair that pops up is a sign of aging, each wrinkle is a sure sign that the body is failing just as it has been meant to from the time it was born. The minute we are born we begin to die. 

Can you stop your organs from aging slowly? No more than you can stop the next breath that rises and falls into your chest. We do have an expiry date the question is what do you plan to do with it? Live in a rushed frenzy of fix this, hate that and punish this? Or will you accept and love where you are at in this life right now, this moment, this age, this point in time?

It is your job from the time you are born to look after your body by respecting it, caring for it, washing it, keeping it strong and most of all looking after the mind it carries. This isn't a call to let everything go in the sense of abusing our bodies with food, alcohol or drugs that is advancing the death of our bodies and our job is to let nature take it's natural course which in western society has become so skewed we don't even know what natural aging looks like anymore because we keep inventing ways to "beat" it. Sorry, but even if your skin isn't wrinkled and you look like you're thirty when you're seventy you are still: aging. The inside of your body doesn't lie.

Sadly, the mind is what hasn't aged at all and is still in it's infancy and will remain there leaving you confused and lost for a very long time like a toddler in a crowd of adults wandering. It seems more and more it is okay to be miserable and suffer as long as you look fabulous while you do it and to the outside world seem like you have it all. By all I mean nothing.

Silence may be the best answer sometimes but we have been silent and believing lies for so long that we just keep quiet about how unhappy some people really are; ask any mental health counsellor if they can keep up with the workload? Funny, you'd think a happy society wouldn't need those...oh right we're all so perfectly "happy".

We keep working on the crumbling statue instead of fixing the base it stands on in life...will it change? I doubt it, for some it will and for others they will never know or understand the difference. I just hope when my body is done on this Earth I have been diligent enough to beautify my mind and I leave peacefully.

Just read a great quote this morning:

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction...

Albert Einstein

Start today, beautify the real house and take care of your body naturally as it was meant to live...

I Live Life Now,

Lisa Stocking

CSEP-CPT

One step at a time has lead me to where I am today, sometimes it seems like one giant leap but in all truth it hasn't. It is going to be six years soon since bootcamp started in July 2007, six years!! Wow!

How one evolves through the process is the most interesting to me, people come, people go, some people stay for six years which amazes me as well. What I have learnt from watching many hours of class is well beyond form and function although I can tell quite quickly now when your one shoulder isn't working properly before you tell me or when your one foot keeps turning out because your hip is sore.

Articulating thoughts now through writing has been a saviour and just to give you a sense of the gratitude I felt for the welcome back to teaching classes this week I was well....speechless. Just about to tears but held it together. There is such an amazing community of people who are interested in fitness and health it is quite shocking to think that a small town has higher numbers in classes than large cities! You created this, you keep it going by supporting, sweating and encouraging others to come with you.

I love the camaraderie you gain by working out together and then I become the bad guy at work when you complain about how sore you are instead of worrying about other issues...I truly appreciate that you think of me each time you sit on the toilet (kinda creepy) but I get what you mean! Stairs become an evil torture test LOVE IT! Life becomes purpose-filled just by seeing if you will make it through class each week or if you get there, I understand it is hard to get there sometimes but I also understand how good you feel when you leave.

Bootcamp has been an outlet for me to share my passion of fitness with many people and at the same time watch them evolve physically and mentally. Mentally you have the strength to know you can make it through class (it's really not that bad it is based on YOUR BEST not carrying each other until you pass out) and when you conquer another class you can go home to your family ready for anything that life throws at you. 

Our life is a journey that has to be lived one step at a time, one minute at a time, one day at a time. Standing at the bottom of any mountain I have always wondered how I would get from here to there but the problem is with most things in life we forget that the only way to get there is to DO IT and TAKE THE FIRST STEP! Each step that follows may seem monotonous but with monotony comes success because each time you step forward the summit of that mountain is getting closer to view. The funny part about mountain climbing similar to success in life is sometimes when you are nearest the summit you can't actually see how close you are, it just feels like there is forever left to go. It is your choice to quit and leave behind what you were so close to conquering!

Don't quit!  

I think this was one of the coolest plays of words I have ever seen, even when you are thinking don't quit you can still visualize  "do it" as a positive approach instead.

Goal setting is still something I am figuring out for this year, sometimes my problem is narrowing down what I really want to do because there is just so much waiting out there to be experienced. Sadly in the western world we are so bored, tired, depressed and miserable that we miss out on some really great things right in from of us all you had to do was "do it"! Take that one step forward.

A few highlights this year will be hiking the West Coast Trail (postponed from last year), running in the mountains in at least one race, hiking with my family in the mountains, The Color Me Rad Run and whatever else I find to do when I start researching. Yes, sometimes I spend an hour or two at night finding out what is out there....it won't bite you in the butt and find you. You need to invest that time into your own life and living to research, discover and plan out your year!

One step in life at a time makes the journey possible. Step forward today into the future!

I Live Life Now,

Lisa Stocking

CSEP-CPT