The Daily G.I.F.T. from The GratiDude

Dance. Then jump back, kiss yourself. You won’t regret it.

www.grateful4.org

Moving this to the TOP, as this is the Foundation.

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The G.I.F.T. Today

Grateful: for the calm feeling of trusting great processes

Intention-shift gears fluidly and slowly, with intention

First-outside workout

Things-organize office and production studio, order catering for green room next month 🙂

Morning Meditation from The GratiDude

This video caught me because I spoke with someone yesterday who is about my age and repeatedly in the conversation when they were updating me at how they were doing they attributed their current state and some of the ailments they’re experiencing simply to the aging process.  

The first reference, even the second one I let slide, but by the third reference, it was just sounding like a bunch of shitty excuses for not taking care of themselves at which point the gratitude had to step in with a little bit of a Truth bomb and asked the question “ are you the creator of everything in your life or are you a victim?”

And they started laughing and then admitted that they needed to lose weight and that carrying an extra 37 or 45 pounds might have a little bit to do with some of the back ailments that they’re experiencing.

Really?

And that’s just on the physical side.

On the emotional and mental side, it is when you stay connected to breath during your life experience consistently and realize that you don’t know shit and that you want to keep learning until you die that’s when you find the key to what Ponce de Leon was looking for, the fountain of life.

I’m realizing more and more that it comes back to connecting to breath before you can move on to really doing any type of thoughtful analysis on which thoughts you would like to keep and which thoughts you were going to let go that simply don’t serve you.

This process of developing awareness through staying connected to your breath and not leaping forward into future thought or regressing backwards into past thought is the fundamental cornerstone to any healthy mindfulness and wellness practice.

From there, you can access the information from your higher self as to what’s calling out to you and what things would truly bring you joy during your short time here on earth.

Another lesson here is that this man dances as if nobody is watching because even if they were who gives a shit?  I remind all of you regularly that there’s a very short list of people whose opinions should matter to us and generally speaking those opinions you can count on one hand even if you’re missing a thumb. You only need four fingers.

So, unless one of those four people is telling you that you shouldn’t dance for some reason, and you feel like dancing you need to grab your walker and get up and dance.

Dancing can have many benefits for staying young, including: 

• Brain health: Dancing can help prevent age-related brain decline. A 2017 study found that people who learned choreographed dance routines weekly showed significant improvements in age-related brain structure degeneration. Another study found that dance can help develop new neural connections in areas of the brain involved in long-term memory, spatial recognition, and executive function. 

• Stress reduction: Dancing can help reduce stress and increase serotonin levels, the feel-good hormone. 

• Exercise: Dancing is a great way to exercise your body. 

• Mental stimulation: Being challenged with new dance moves each week can make a big difference. 

• Lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s: Increasing the number of cells in the hippocampus through dancing can potentially lower the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s in old age.

The other piece that deserves exploration here is the experience of the violin player.  The very act of this man getting up and dancing with such unexpected enthusiasm and passion created an emotional reaction and a memory for this young man playing the violin that he’ll never forget.