Habit of the Week - "Scarlett" arms

I was watching one of the marvel comic Avenger films and there was Scarlett Johanssen in her black leather costume.  I noticed that at all times her upper arms were behind her body, no matter what she was doing.  Check out the movies for yourself sometime.
So switch on those "Scarlett" arms.  It looks great.  It helps line up the posture.  This week's habit, a postural cue, put your elbows behind your body and have Scarlett arms.

Habit of the Week H.O.W. Pass (up) the Salt

The sodium chloride a person takes in accumulates for their whole life, hardening the arteries. We need flexible arteries to withstand the beating of the heart.

In the 21st Century, the trap is most processed food contains salt, in most cases, lots of salt - sometimes we don't even notice it.  There is a significant amount of salt in, for instance, cornflakes.  My favourite example is the fact that there is more salt in the bread than in the vegemite you spread on it - and yet we hardly taste the salt in the bread.

So our habit of the week is check on the amount of salt in the packets, tins or processed food you buy from the supermarket.  By the way, it may be called sodium.   Hey better yet - make your own food.

Note that we do need particular minerals, calcium, iron magnesium, manganese etc.

Drink lots of water
Some people believe that lack of salt causes muscle cramp.  Rosemary Stanton says in "Eating for Peak Performance" that being dehydrated may cause cramps.

Habit of the Week H.O.W. Mind your Calcium Levels

Whenever a nerve meets a muscle and the "spark" fires to contract that muscle, a calcium ion is involved. So that is every muscle, every blink of an eye, every breath, digestion, as well as the big muscles that you use in your exercise.

So if you don't get your daily requirement of calcium, it has to come from somewhere.....
Can you guess?  It comes from your bones.  Your bones are the reservoir of calcium.

There is calcium in dairy foods, we need about four serves a day, and much less in sesame seeds and some fish bones.  If you have issues with dairy you need to have a chat with your dietitian or pharmacist or doctor, because that calcium requirement is every single day. without fail or it comes from your bones.

Exercise, resistance exercise stimulates the uptake of calcium into the bones.  Check out Osteoporosis Qld web site.  http://www.osteoporosis.org.au....  Here is the link - osteoporosis link

What to do when you are scared

I am undertaking some self defence training - The Golden Canes program.  Here is a gem from the program, not just a habit of the week, but a habit for anytime.
When we are scared, really scared, almost automatically take a breath in, and then hold our breath. Instead, put the tongue on the roof of the mouth, and exhale.  The exhale has a calming effect and thus gives us some control back and switches our brain back into thinking and creative mode. So we can make a plan to get out of danger.  The tongue on the roof of the mouth completes a loop of our inner energy, some would say, our chi, and in the event of an impact or a fall we don't bite our tongue.

This is an easy and instant response to fear.  I have started practising already.

Habit of the Week - Practise your Inner Smile

When we use our inner smile, we regard the world differently.  The inner smile helps us to see the funny side of a situation.  An example, a traffic jam,   When your stuck in traffic it could be easy to feel like a victim, or to be "angry at the gods".  However, when we practise our inner smile, our brain finds a more creative response.  Maybe we can make the best of it -  take a look around at the scenery, or bop along to the music, or practise that poem.  Or maybe we regard the situation from the outside:- say, with irony and laugh at the fact that all of us are "in the same boat" or wonder what brought us all here are the same time. There is lots more scope for ideas when we work on the inner smile.

Practising the inner smile, does not mean smiling like a fool all day long.  We can smile on the inside.

For me working on the inner smile stops me descending into anxiety and worry, which shuts down creativity.  That has to be a step towards good health.

Habit of the week is practise your inner smile.  Let me know how it goes for you.