Hi folks,
It's a welcome return (I hope!) for Finemore's Five for Friday! This week I have mostly been...
Exercising:
I have been chatting with a few clients about appropriate training exercises so here is a link to a good basic spinal stability routine by Stuart McGill Phd.
Contemplating:
Listening to Chris Ryan’s podcast in conversation with Stanley Krippner concerning consciousness. Chris mentions his personal metaphor for life and describes life as like a falling raindrop. The beginning of life is the birth of an individual raindrop from the mass of water in the cloud. The end of life is the impact of that raindrop but there is a mergence back to the body of water.
Listening :
Can’t stop playing this cover of a Gil Scott-Heron song this week from Esther Phillips Home is where the Hatred is. She also does a great cover of Bill Wither’s classic Use Me. Listen on Spotify here.
Eating:
Fresh English samphire. Very easy to cook. Tastes great and is good for you. Just throw it in boiling water for a couple of minutes or steam it or pop it in a closed pan with butter and pepper. In season now and great with fish or shellfish.
Quoting:
This week I have found myself mentioning this quote from the Dalai Lama, ‘Love is the absence of judgement.’ This simple wisdom applies to everything in your life that you appreciate but also importantly to your appreciation of yourself and the things that you do.
Thanks and have a great weekend,
Simon
Finemore's Five for Friday (13)
Hi everyone - next week I may not post a FFFF as I am adjusting at Glastonbury Festival all week (I’m back on Tue 27th)
anyway back to this week I have mostly been,
Reading:
‘Neither Wolf nor Dog’ by Kent Nerburn which is an interesting narrative about the author and his conversations with a Lakota elder. If you romanticise the history (like me) of what the invading europeans called America then you will love this book. For example I am thinking about this early exchange between the author and mentor,
“You’re not a good liar.”
“Have I lied?”
“Not in words. Only by silence.”
“By silence?”
“Yes. Silence is the lie of the good man, or the coward. It is seeing something you don’t like and not speaking.”
Playing with:
http://www.authentic-happiness.com/home/Discover-Your-Strengths
I’m re-reading one of my all time favourite non-fiction books, ‘The Happiness Hypothesis’ by Jonathan Haidt. This above link is a great resource to many different personality (what used to be called character) tests from your self-esteem to how strong is your moral foundation? Fun on a rainy day.
Contemplating:
The whole universe is change and life itself is but what you deem it. - Marcus Aurelius (Meditations, 4:3)
You are in always in a constant state of change. You are relatively healthier or sicker on a day by day, hour by hour, second by second basis. There is no such thing as stasis in living systems. Unhappiness and illness can come from us expecting or trying to impose stasis, consistency or routine upon a universal state of change. Embracing change is the real deal.
Cheating with:
Sometimes you just have to cheat. When you cheat just make sure it’s worth it: Cornish Carbonara (at least it has 3 healthy egg yolks, cream, garlic, sea salt and bacon)
Whisk 3 Organic egg yolks in a bowl with lots of parmesan cheese, black pepper and good teaspoon of Cornish Clotted Cream.
Fry 1 clove of Organic garlic and Cornish bacon (or pancetta cubes) in a pan until just going brown.
Cook your spaghetti with lots of Cornish Sea Salt in the water then drain.
Swirl the egg mix, bacon and garlic and pasta together and serve immediately with a pinch of black pepper in top.
Nice n easy.
Listening:
Getting funky with Pastor T.L. Garret and the Youth for Christ Choir and the album ‘Like a Ship (Without a Sail)’
(Note: I always put the Amazon link on my posts for reference but it would be great if you went down to Jam Records in town to buy anything you like…)
Cheers
Finemore's Five for Friday (11)
Hi folks,
Welcome to Volume 12 of Finemore's Five For Friday, my weekly missive to the masses. This week I have been mostly ...
Impressed by :
Tylko. A company who engineers formica covered plywood shelving/storage to fit any space and allows you to have a hand in the design of your shelving. It comes in a flat pack but you fit it together very easily with a clunk-click sliding system. Looks great is super easy to construct (no screws, no tools) and is hard wearing. Check it out www.tylko.com
Using:
Epsom salts in my hot bath. It is common to have a deficiency in magnesium and a great way to boost those magnesium levels is to take a hot bath with at least a mug full of Epsom salts. It can help with those cramps, post work-out or otherwise. If you are deficient in anything it makes sense to become sufficient if you can. I find the cheapest way to buy mine is in 25Kg boxes from Amazoncourtesy of epsomsalts.co.uk - but you can buy it smaller quantities from the same company.
Listening to :
The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses. Will always sound amazing. I first heard it when I was about 17 when Manchester and the Hacienda was changing pop culture. Sometimes an album will pop back into your life when you least expect it. For those of you too young to remember this album or have never listened to it, please do. Love Jon Squire’s guitar work.
Working :
My legs. Doing a series of box jumps. Jumping up a foot or so and landing on both feet then jumping down in semi squat position. Jumping down facing both forwards and backwards. Great work out for your quads, hams and gluts. You can try jumping up from 2 feet then standing on one leg and jumping down from that 1 leg but landing squarely on 2. Hard work. Try 10-20 in a session.
Watching :
The first episode of the Handmaid’s Tale from the novel by Margret Attwood on Channel 4 every Sunday. Pretty gripping and scary stuff. This dystopian vision written in 1985 is one of those novels that was recommended to me many times but I never read. It describes a future where fertility rates decline to desperate levels due to pollution and the president of the United States and most of congress are assassinated as a religious order takes control of society and women’s rights. Go figure.
Until next time,
Simon
Finemore's Five for Friday (10)
Hi folks,
Welcome to the latest edition of Finemore's Five For Friday. This week I have been mostly ...
Listening to:
‘is a woman’ by Lambchop. Finally been released on vinyl. Sounds great and brings back memories of one of the best concerts I have ever been to following the release of this album back in the day.
Watching:
Twin Peaks - The Return. On Sky Atlantic at the moment. If you loved the first 2 series then you will also love this new series some 25 years on even though the story escapes the town of Twin Peaks. David Lynch being his fantastic surreal self with most of the old cast. Love it. Not for the faint hearted or squeamish however.
Remembering:
A quote from philosopher Alain de Botton, “When people seem like they are mean, they’re almost never mean. They’re anxious.”
You cannot expect to understand what someone else is going through at any given moment. Communication and understanding is difficult whether in contact with others or understanding who we see in the mirror every day.
Eating:
A great sweet but nutritious and fibrous treat when watching Twin Peaks. Organic dates, stone removed, split down the middle and filled with clotted cream. Yum, it works, try it.
Drinking:
Mushroom Coffee. Some clever chaps in Finland have combined certain healthy varieties of mushroom with coffee to produce interesting and tasty warm beverages that seem to boost your mental performance (I find). The company is called Four Sigmatic and I like their products. Sounds a bit weird, not cheap but tastes good and feels good plus the mushrooms are considered superfoods (whatever that means).
Until next time,
Simon
Finemore's Five for Friday (8)
Hi folks,
Here's todays Finemore's Five For Friday for you. I hope you enjoy it and have a great weekend.
This week I have been mostly ...
Drinking
My version of 'Bulletproof' coffee. Very simply, the point of this recipe is to encourage your body to run on Ketones and not Glucose for energy (like clean burning wood as opposed to petrol).
Have this coffee in the morning and nothing else but water. The MCT oil will encourage the production of Ketones as fuel. First I use Bulletproof coffee beans, optional but there are less mould toxins which may be a factor in the crash or jitters that some people get from drinking coffee. So make your coffee as you normally would then add to a blender:
- 1 teaspoon of grass fed butter (organic or kerrygold)
- 1 tablespoon of MCT Oil (I use Bulletproof Brain Octane Oil - better for producing ketones)
- 1/4 teaspoon of Maca powder
- Cinnamon and/or a tiny pinch of Cornish Sea Salt to taste
(I also add some Bulletproof collagen powder - good for promoting cartilage repair)
Pour in your coffee and blend for 20 seconds
The result is a frothy, creamy coffee that will keep you going until lunch that helps you switch to fat burning.
Exercising
Dead Bugs on a long foam roller. Great for spinal stability and abdominal strength.
Lay on your back on top of the roller, your spine running the length of the roller so that you are balancing on the roller. Put your arms out as stabilisers.
Bring both legs up and bend at right angles as if you were in a chair (hips and knees flexed at 90 degrees).
Keeping your spine pressed against the roller bring 1 heel down to lightly touch the floor and back up with your leg in exactly the same position (only moving your hip joint), then repeat with the other leg.
Repeat 20-40 times. Feel the strength in your tummy.
Listening
Album IV by BadBadNotGood - collaborative jazzy album with great vocal tracks like ‘Time Moves Slow’ with the lead singer of Future Islands. Summer sounds.
Eating
Big Tony’s Pesto. Made by one of my friends who lives near me. Tony uses all the fresh wild garlic that is abundant at the moment in Cornwall. Adds basil, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil. Great for a cheat day (carb day) pasta with organic spinach and cherry tomatoes. Not hard to make, healthy and uses local wild ingredients. Yum.
Appreciating
The concept or wholeness, that we are already whole and that we have everything we need. Practising ‘enoughness’.
Being grateful for ‘what is’ and not focusing constantly on ‘what isn’t’ (thanks to Stew Bittman DC for these concepts).
Until next time,
Simon
Finemore's Five for Friday (6)
Hi everyone,
Here's some music, poetry and musings for you to ruminate on over the weekend. I hope you enjoy them.
This week I have been mostly...
Listening to:
The new album by Sean Rowe called New Lore. Great voice and a good beard. Emotional stuff. Song to listen too : Gas Station Rose.
Appreciating:
I have a new appreciation of how love is giving; a letting go as opposed to a holding on and reminded me of one of my favourite poems by William Blake :
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise.
Pondering:
In modern physics light is a recurrent theme, Consciousness is often spoken in terms of ‘light,’ indeed if we work hard enough we may become enlightened. In Chiropractic we often talk in terms of “switching the lights on”.
“With all your science - can you tell how it is, and whence it is, that light comes into the soul?” - Henry David Thoreau.
Attempting:
To not be afraid to make mistakes as quickly and efficiently as possible in learning something new. Make glorious, fantastic mistakes. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn and become more proficient. As Michael Jordan said, he was only as good as he became because he had made more mistakes than anyone else with a basketball.
Recommending:
My Finnish relatives were over for Easter so it’s about time I ranted about the benefits of Sauna once again. There are many anecdotal accounts of professional athletes banging on about the benefits of regular sauna time. Sauna or hot baths help to increase Growth Hormone levels and endurance levels as well as reduce DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). Also Sauna has been shown to produce a bump in prolactin which plays a role in wound healing. If you don’t have access to a good traditional sauna then have a hot bath until your heart rate rises and generally you feel like you want to get out. Do it regularly.
In 2017 a drive to increase HEALTH awareness in the young: a Discount for Students and Children
In 2017 LivingRoom is on a mission to increase awareness of health potential to the young. Health potential as opposed to disease potential. We are often told what we should NOT be doing but we are rarely informed about what we CAN do to improve our health potential, to be as good as we could be.
A few minor tweaks to our lifestyle choices can make a massive impact on our general health and wellbeing in the long term. If only someone could tell us what tweaks to make and how to make them.
For example globally in 2012 (YN Harari):
620,000 people died from human violence (war and crime)
800,000 died from committing suicide
but 1,500,000 died from diabetes which is a largely avoidable complication of modern lifestyle choices
At LivingRoom we want to increase health awareness sooner rather than later. We want to help more Children and Students. We are offering a discount of 50% on the initial consultation fee (one of the most important things is to know what your challenges are and the best course of action to improve). We will also give a 20% discount on any further visits to all Children and Students.
All you have to do to be healthy and happy is to make the right consistent small steps to relieve the stress on your system to allow to heal and improve naturally.
‘There is but one cause of disease. The body’s inability to comprehend itself and or it’s environment.’ Fred Barge DC.
Consistent small steps...
Dem Bones, Dem Bones
A lot of bones moving through space and time...
Q: So what positions and moves all those bones in synchrony?
A: Your muscle system.
Q: So what makes your muscles move your joints?
A: Your nerves.
Every muscle in your body is connected to a nerve that feeds back information to your brain about tone and stretch and position. This is how your brain builds up a picture of what is happening to you in space and time. The quality and clarity of this feed back determines the quality and clarity of feed back to the muscles, like a loop or a circuit. The better the feedback the better the movement patterns, efficiency and performance of your muscles, your joints and your body.
Your network of nerves connects to every square centimetre of your body. Every sq. cm. of YOU is connected to a nerve that feeds up to a trunk of nerves that enter the spine in between each vertebra and then the enter the spinal cord and on up to the brain.
That is why Chiropractors focus on how the spine works because we want the connection between you, your nerves and your brain to be as clear as possible. A spine that doesn't work as well as it should can confuse the nerve communication up to the brain and back down again.
The clearer the nerve communication throughout YOU the better you work, the better you heal, the closer you are to your full potential and the less injuries and ware and tear you will accumulate over time.
We are made of many things that are made of many cells but every cell, every organ is connected to the one under your hat (your brain).
“it is difficult to get a man to understand something, if his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
“We can continue to focus on what is the outside of us but we must prioritise what is the inside of us - healing and wellbeing does not come from the outside in but the inside out.”
“HEALTH is: ‘a state of optimum physical, mental and social wellbeing and not necessarily the absence of disease or infirmities.’”