Thin Slices of Joy
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Lovely that your sons are happy and successful. That is a great slice of joy Mrs M.
Foot pain sounds so annoying. All pain is annoying actually! I've had quite a restful week and have been doing my back/leg exercises really often. It has helped m a lot. X
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Divine - Great news about your son! So glad your cup runneth over, but keeping to the figurative cup has no clean up.
Nerve flossing - Divine and Faith, I hope they help your foot pain. It's only been a few days, but the peroneal nerve stretches are helping me already. I have much more flexibility. I do variations of the stretches a few times a day. The one that I like starts on your back with feet on floor and knees bent. Pull one knee towards you. Bend lifted foot inward. Straighten leg until you just start to feel resistance (don't overdo). Then circle your foot 10 times, direction doesn't matter. Repeat on other side.
My sciatica has improved enough that I've lowered my Lyrica dosage a bit. Yay!
ScotBird - My goal is to drop my pain meds altogether, but I have to wean myself off.
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I feel like I need my PT to show me the flossing. I can't really see what's happening. I think it looks really promising.
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Definitely! I saw an article that nerve flossing is the new foam rolling. I've been combining them by doing some nerve flossing while my calf is on a roller.
I see my kinesiologist in 2 weeks. I'll ask her what I can do for my neck, shoulders, and upper back.
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Glad there are no polar bears near me!
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LOL! Love the polar bear photo Serenity.
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Polar bears look cute, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere close like that guy!
Now, this little guy would be OK.
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May the 4th be with you!
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Couldn't sleep last night. I'm hooked on the nerve flossing and looked up how to do it for other areas. My sciatica is barely noticeable. I used to be able to bend down and touch the floor. When my sciatica was at its worst, I could barely touch my knees. Now I'm a few inches away from touching the floor. Woohoo!
I have nerve issues in the back of my arm (radial nerve), my armpit (axillary nerve), outer 2 fingers (ulnar nerve). There are so many videos out there, and I like the ones by these guys below.
Here's a simple one for the axillary nerve.
Details are in this video. The first 2 minutes are explanatory, and then there are a few techniques described. These exercises should not hurt. I've been doing the sciatic nerve flossing about 5-10 times in a set maybe 2-3 times a day.
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Oh my gosh, Serenity. That shoulder flossing seems to be effective. I just did a minute of it and could tell it helped the tension in my shoulders which is where I am most tense. So very simple to do. Interesting that the second technique is based off of Tai Chi. I took a Tai Chi course for about six weeks, but the instructor was faking it big time. I looked at other Tai Chi exercises online, and hers were nothing like it. There is a botanical garden about 40 minutes from me that is offering Tai Chi thru the summer, and I plan to go at least once. It will be taught by some master in the arts from the Pittsburgh area, not a local fitness instructor in a tiny village where I went before. Can't wait to see the difference.
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Divine - So glad it's helping! I have a lot of tension in the back of my neck. I'm trying different flossing techniques, and it seems to be loosening. Tai Chi in a garden setting sounds perfect. My Qi Gong/Tai Chi instructor has trained in the village where Tai Chi started. He does say there are many fakes. I hope you get a good instructor this time.
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This is great! Well, if you love Star Wars and the Beatles.
'Sgt. Pepper's' Becomes A 'Star Wars' Parody In Comical New Album
Genius.
Courtesy of Palette-Swap NinjaA Bay Area covers band has pulled off the kind of comical mashup that Internet was made for.
The duo known as Palette-Swap Ninja found a way to tell the story of Star Wars with the music of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
They're calling it Princess Leia's Stolen Death Star Plans. Imagine the opening title cut to the album with these words, "It was many years ago today, in a galaxy so far away," and you'll get the idea.
In announcing the project on their website, singer Dan Amrich and keyboardist Jude Kelley say they've done lots of parodies before, but nothing this ambitious. "This whole project comes from a place of deep love and respect, so we had to take the time to do it justice. The final album needed to be high quality, accurate, and entertaining on repeat listenings. Once we settled on merging A New Hope with Sgt. Pepper's, we completely committed ourselves to turning these two sacred cows into the ultimate double cheeseburger."
The parody mashup comes as Sgt. Pepper's celebrates its 50th anniversary and Star Wars celebrates its 40th. The Beatles' album was released June 1, 1967, while Star Wars premiered on May 25, 1977.
Watch the entire visual album below. (http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2017/05/03/52...)
[Some of the links]
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Serenity, I must research this nerve flossing. I'm having terrible pain in my "sits" bone area,, it hurts when I sit! Only on the right side. Have been to PT, and my hamstrings, esp. posterior hamstring is tight,, plus IT band, piriformis, and psoas. Right hip/butt is not happy. But it doesn't seem to be a nerve,, it seems to be muscle/tendon issue. Could nerve flossing help that?
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Serenity~ The nerve flossing is really encouraging. How often do you do it?
I have an ulnar nerve issue as well. It's very, very painful at times.
Thanks for the positivity..
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glennie - The sciatic nerve flossing helped my tight hamstring. For tightness in your pelvis/hips/glutes, try the supine groin stretch (http://www.egoscue.com/WebMenus/ECiseHTML/31.html). It's more of a pose that you hold for minutes. I don't have the tower shown on the page. I used a stool and my couch. I check for "doneness" by momentarily contracting my quads in the extended leg. If I feel the contraction near my knee, then I stay in the same position. After 10-15 minutes, the contraction should be felt at the top of the thigh. Do both sides. There should be no pain.
GG - Nerve flossing can be done daily a few times a day. It's better to underdo to avoid irritating nerves. We want them relaxed. It shouldn't hurt at all. In the morning I have a smaller range of motion than at the end of the day. This one has techniques for the ulnar nerve.
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Jedi otter!
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Superpup!
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I will try this. It's noninvasive and inexpensive. I've never been a good sleeper.
'Pink noise' boosts deep sleep, memory for older adults
As we age, our quality of sleep declines. Researchers believe that this may contribute to later-life memory loss. New research, however, suggests that there may be a simple solution to this problem: "pink noise."
Pink noise is defined as gentle, soothing sound whereby each octave possesses equal energy. In essence, pink noise is the background noise that we hear in everyday environments.
Researchers from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, found that when they synced pink noise to the brain waves of older adults as they slept, the sound not only enhanced their quality of deep sleep, but it also improved their memory.
Senior author Dr. Phyllis Zee, professor of neurology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern, and colleagues recently published their findings in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of sleep for memory consolidation - that is, the brain's ability to convert short-term memories into long-term memories.
Slow-wave sleep (SWS) - more commonly referred to as deep sleep - is part of the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep cycle that is considered important for memory consolidation. As we get older, however, the quality of SWS can decrease.
Studies have shown that disruptions to NREM sleep in older age can have negative consequences for memory.
According to Dr. Zee and team, previous research in young adults has uncovered a link between acoustic stimulation of slow-wave brain activity during sleep and improved memory. However, they note that studies using acoustic stimulation in older adults are lacking.
Acoustic stimulation boosts SWS, memory in later life
To address this gap in research, Dr. Zee and colleagues enrolled 13 older adults, aged between 60 and 84 years, to their study.
All adults were subject to one night of sham stimulation and one night of acoustic stimulation, which were around 1 week apart. The acoustic stimulation incorporated pink noise that was synced to their brain waves as they slept.
For each session, the adults completed two memory recall tests - one before they went to sleep at night, and one after they woke up the following morning.
While memory recall improved under both conditions, the researchers found that the average improvement following acoustic stimulation was three times greater than with the sham stimulation.
The greater improvement in memory as a result of acoustic stimulation correlated with a greater increase in the quality of SWS, which the team says emphasizes how important deep sleep is for memory consolidation, even in later life.
Overall, the researchers believe that their findings indicate that acoustic stimulation may be an effective way to boost sleep quality and memory in older age.
However, the team concludes that further studies involving a larger number of participants are needed before acoustic stimulation can be recommended for older adults.
"We want to move this to long-term, at-home studies," notes first author Nelly Papalambros, of the Department of Neurology at the Feinberg School of Medicine.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317152.ph...
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CBS Sunday Morning did a segment on Chagall. The exhibit is still in Montreal and will be in LA in July.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-music-influenced-t...
How music influenced the art of Marc Chagall
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Serenity - Also saw the Chagall segment on CBS Sunday Morning. Did you see the exhibit?
Chicago Art Museum has an outstanding Chagall stained glass installation.
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Yes, I saw the exhibit here in Montreal. It was amazing.There was a room for stained glass pieces, but not the ones I remember seeing in Chicago. I had not seen his costume and set designs before. The link below has more details.
https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/exhibitions/on-view/chag...
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On our way to Chagall MTL asap.
Did you find the Pink Noise somewhere, Serenity?
I loved the Star Wars/Beatles so much. I laughed and laughed till I drove my partner crazy..
Thanks for the flossing. Will try to find time for it tomorrow..
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The exhibit leaves in June, so hurry!
I found an app called Noise Gen. I'll try it tonight.
I loved the Star Wars/Beatles, too. My family had the same reaction!
Please try the flossing. Some of them don't take much time or effort. It may not be real, but my toe numbness seems to be less. It's still there, but it takes more effort to notice.
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Temperature has dropped. Tea and blanket supplemented by Chet Baker.
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Cooold in the North Country. Back to Hygge.
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Got more tea!
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These are yummy!
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Have not seen these here yet!
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We've bought them at an Italian market here. I love the cappuccino ones, but it's been years since my last one.
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My poor pup. I was doing this exercise with my back parallel to the floor. As I circled my arm around, my pup started trying to grab the end of my sleeve. I was going too fast, and she slipped on the hardwood. She seemed embarrassed, but spirits improved when she got a treat.
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