Body Brilliance

Life is in Balance

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:36:11 +0000

Life is a perfectly balanced mix of pleasure and pain. You can not have one side of the coin without the other. Somehow our minds tend to seek the pleasure and wish to avoid the pain. When we can accept that pleasure and pain exist in association with one another, then the pain part is far easier to tolerate. Remembering that they are two sides of the same coin, and therefore go hand in hand makes it easier not to attach to pleasure.

This time of the year is a time for merry making and festivity, for family time and celebration, as well as for Summer holidays. Enjoy all that this offers and smile when it hurts. Thank the pain for making the pleasure possible. Pain can come in the form of irritating family members, badly behaved children, disappointing results, goodbyes and much more. Watch and see how perfectly in balance it all is.

So I wish you and your family peace this holiday season. I wish you presence and acceptance too. Thank you for all your support in 2011 and I look forward to sharing more learning, wellness, healing and stillness with you in the famed year of 2012.

Enhance your Health

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:14:41 +0000

My daughter and I are busy planning her birthday party. She has it all wrapped up in her 9 year old mind. “We will swim, then dance and then go down the foofy slide and finish the evening off with some more dancing,” was her plan. I really understood from her how much fun being physical is. For her and her friends it is not goal orientated and a chore. It’s just pleasure.

So what happens between childhood and adulthood that robs us of our capacity to just love being energetic? I think physicality loses its charm because we don’t make having fun the goal. In deciding what to do as an exercise form, many of us set on doing something that bores us half to death. We decide that gym will get us good results and it is easy to access, so that’s what we do. My suggestion to you is ask yourself what is fun for you, and do that. So if you love to dance, then dance as exercise and if you love water then swim for exercise. Children have no need to lose weight or get fitter and so they just do what feels best for them. They are able to just get into their bodies and enjoy the sensations of moving, swimming and running. They do this just because it feels great for them. When it stops being pleasurable, they stop. They are oblivious to sweat, or looking good, they just let go and enjoy. Once they get to their teens then of course all this changes, but until then, exercise is not an intellectual thing at all. Most children let go self consciousness and their bodies take over.

Why not see what happens if you find what feels fun for you and do that for the next week or two?
Maybe you can reclaim your childhood physicality and enhance your health without even trying to. If you are keen on getting fit, follow my training program here and leave your comments.

Don’t forget to like BodyBrilliance on Facebook we are giving you a daily suggestion for better health. These are useful tips that are easy for you to implement in your life. Give them a try and give us your feedback on Facebook as to how they help you

Gifts Around Us

admin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:13:39 +0000

I just came back from an awesome weekend in the Drakensberg. I was so aware of how critical it is to spend time in nature. Living in Joh’burg, we need it more than most. Take your shoes off, and walk bare feet on the grass. Sit in your garden and listen to the birds sing or watch an insect for a while. Find what soothes your senses and gives you the chance to enjoy the magnificence of nature.
As I was walking in the mountains I realized the pleasure available in just enjoying the little flowers that came up through the grass and appreciating the spectacular colors of these tiny flowers. I have come home with the pictures engrained in my mind. I can draw on the memory anytime and continue to enjoy them even here in the city!
Take time to notice the little gifts available all around us. Try not to rush so fast you miss them!

Get Started!

admin — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:08:23 +0000

Over the next few weeks I am going to help you get running! It is one of my delights in life and I want to share it with you!

Try running, just put-on your takkies and go. Let your legs loose and your hair stream in the wind. Hold your stomach firm and your back straight and breathe in your belly. It feels good!

Don’t try to go too far at first, just go until it isn’t fun anymore then walk home. Go again the next day, even if you have to face your own resistance to get going.

Make it fun and concentrate on how good it feels in your body. Notice how you feel afterwards and later that day. This is for freedom, for play, for the sheer joy of being alive and the gratitude for having a body that works.

As from next week, I will be posting a weekly program for you to follow!

Enjoy! And give me your feedback.

One of my Favourite Prayers!

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:54:08 +0000

“God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me.”an excerpt from “The Serenity Prayer” by Reinhold Neibuhr

Peace of Mind!

admin — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 11:47:19 +0000

We have just had a weekend of family, family and family. We have a very close knit family and all make having family time a priority. When we are together it is fun, full of laughter and lots of children doing their children things. I have come to see that everything in life is always in balance and nothing can ever be all happiness and perfection. For it to be in balance, there has to be challenge to balance the fun.

Now that I have that sorted in my mind, when something goes pear shaped, it is not distressing. I relax and say a quiet thank you that this was all it took to make all the other specialness possible. It passes and the love and laughter continues. My mantra is all about holding my peace of mind and my state of inner quietness whatever life throws at me, and I find that this is so much easier to hold when I let challenges and difficulties flow through me. I do this by making them right instead of wrong.

It works for me. Try it and let me know what you find.

Take a Moment to Pause!

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 08:22:20 +0000

Take a moment to pause in your pursuit of happiness to just be happy!I just love this, because it is so possible to be so busy searching that we don’t notice we already have what we are looking for.

Remember to be grateful, add to your gratitude journal every single day!

The mind is programmed to give us bad news and we have to use our conscious awareness to override this and find all the good things. This is cognitive behavioral therapy… So easy and so effective. Consciously take a moment to notice all the good stuff. Every day!

Body Brilliance Course: http://www.bodybrilliance.co.za/weight-loss-and-mental-wellness-workshops

My True Story on the other Side

admin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:58:39 +0000

I thought I would share with you a testimony from one of our clients,

MY TRUE STORY ON THE OTHER SIDE

Exactly a year ago I had a back operation after a diagnosis of L4-L5 Slip disc of the spinal vertebrae. It started in March 2010 when I had severe pain on the left lower limb which became so unbearable that I was unable to walk and had to use the wheelchair.
Like any other diagnosis of a dreadfull illness, my first reaction was that of denial. After the operation the pain stopped and I had to attend physiotherapy sessions to be trained to be able to walk again. My surgeon referred me to Body Brilliance physiotherapist, Sue Fuller-Good who was supposed to help me with my recovery phase. Little did I know that my journey to full recovery has just begun!

When I started the programme my body weight was 110kg, my Body Mass Index was about 95kg. As part of my recovery I had to loose weight and be trained on awareness of how to take care of my spine. I realized that things that we take for granted such as posture, sitting positions, cervical support and exercise plays an important role in the wellbeing of the spine. The strength and stability of the spine comes from muscles surrounding the spine especially the abdominal muscles. Spinal degeneration is part of the ageing process but poor posture and lack of physical fitness and lack of information on taking care of the spine can lead to faster vertebral degeneration, resulting in conditions such as slip disc.

I was put through physical exercise and dietary control programme which helped me to regain my strength and ability to walk without putting pressure on my back. The dietary programme helped me to loose weight. Three months into my recovery programme I started to walk for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening.I gradually increased the distance as I felt better and much stronger. Seven months into my recovery I unbelievably started running! It was a miraculous recovery indeed. Sue arranged a personal trainer (Michael) for me for additional exercises to improve my general fitness.

After nine months in this physio programme my fitness level had never been so good in my entire adult life. My body is so mean and my muscles toned with my body weight down to an average of 97kg! At 42 years of age I feel like I am 25 years old.

I am now fully recovered and have made exercising part of my lifestyle and always mindful of what I eat and at any given opportunity I drink water.
I am a Medical Doctor but my experiences on the other side as a patient has been a life changing experience which Iwill cherish for the rest of my life.
I thank God for His mercy and for sending my surgeon Dr Lewer-Allen and my physiotherapist Sue Fuller-Good along my path during my period of illness and suffering.

Michael and Lila thank you very much for your kindness.
I thank my wife and my children for their patience, strength and love during that difficult period.

Kind Regards
Dr Honours Mukhari(MBCHB-Medunsa)

Challenge is Compost!

admin — Tue, 24 May 2011 12:53:04 +0000

It is so easy to get into the mode of wondering why things have to be hard. We often say things like: “I just don’t need this in my life!” or “it’s enough!” What does this attitude help? Does it ever change things when we argue with them? Does it ever stop raining because we think it should?

What would happen if you remembered this little mantra: “Challenge is compost” and said even a half hearted, grimacing “thank you” for the compost? I find the moment I change my attitude like this, that my body becomes lighter and my frown disappears (even without Botox) and I feel I can face what’s coming my way.

Remember we are funny people and love to prove ourselves right. When we are holding an idea that life is all wrong right now, we will search inadvertently for evidence to prove this to be true. This certainly doesn’t bring upliftment! When we feel light we can see possibilities and create opportunities. When we are dense and deflated our creativity is inhibited and our vision is limited.

Enjoy the challenges life throws your way this week!

Get Help for your Headache!

admin — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 09:04:41 +0000

Headaches are a huge affliction for many people and they are truly debilitating. Life is simply not much fun when you are in pain all the time. For many people the fact that they suffer from headaches means that they live on tablets which leave them feeling off colour and which also put their kidneys and liver under constant strain.

Poor posture can compress the structures at the base of the neck and unless you effectively change your posture, you will continue to squash these pain sensitive structures and create pain for yourself. So book now for a posture assessment and/or purchase a DVD showing you some visualisation techniques which effectively and permanently change your posture.