Tag Archives: health

Puttering as Good for You as Jogging

messy counter top indicative of putterer

If you exercise before work and think that punches your health card for the day, better think again. Sure, a brisk walk or a spin on the elliptical certainly revs up your metabolism, but if you sit down for everything after that, you could negate the good you did for your body.

CEO Day Martin at her StandSteady desk

I learned that from Day Martin, CEO and founder of StandSteady.com. Day was a full-time data analyst a few years ago when she hurt her back in a car accident. Her condition gradually improved to the point that the only place her back hurt was when she was at work. “The Internet recommended I try a standing desk, but when I went to buy one, I was shocked at the price: $700 to $4,000!”

So, out of necessity, she designed an inexpensive, lightweight, little desk that sits on top of a regular desk.

I’ll say much more about Day in my next post, but suffice it to say now that she clued me into a little secret about standing while you work: it may help you live longer. The reason? Continue reading →

January 15, 2015
active, back pain, cubicle, desk, health, knowledge workers, metabolism, sitting, standing, standing desk, walking

1 comment

Meet the First Middle School Community Organizers

To fix a community problem, it may be better to bypass the adults and leave it to the kids. After all, they revived “the most depressing park in America” in what has been considered one of the roughest towns: Camden, New Jersey.

I was lucky to learn about this story at my college reunion when I sat down for breakfast next to classmate William “Jud” Weiksnar, now a Franciscan friar and former pastor of Camden’s St. Anthony of Padua.

Father Jud meets with a student leader

Jud told me he was curious to see if middle-school students could learn civic engagement, so he offered it as an after-school activity. Community organizing, he says, “goes at the root of the problem” and is all about “finding your own voice and speaking for yourself.”

I had to smile at his group’s name: the Student Leaders’ Von Nieda Park Task Force, or SLVNPTF. With an acronym like that, they had to be serious.

The first meeting of interested sixth-, seventh-, and eight-graders was less than three years ago. They chose a target: their dark, rundown, crime-ridden neighborhood playground. They then set out to “make the calls, write the letters and meet the people” who had the power to fix it up.

The students have been stunningly successful. The park now boasts Continue reading →

November 12, 2014
active communities, Camden New Jersey, childhood, children, cities, civic engagement, community organizers, environment, health, middle school, neighborhood activism, parenting, parks

1 comment

My Painful Meeting with Mindfulness

Sometimes, fate needs to knock you right over to get you to pay attention. That’s what it took for me to be mindful.

It was a winter Saturday morning and I was ready to tackle a long list of home projects, when I took a last peek at my email. A town meeting popped up and suddenly I had to be there. I figured I could also get some exercise if I rode my bike.

The week had been sunny and I was confident the snow that had been covering the trail had melted. I grabbed my foldable, filled the tires and quickly assembled the frame. The latch for the handlebars didn’t look quite right, but it felt secure so I was off and rolling.

Finding the meeting less than scintillating, I grew antsy and was soon rushing back toward home.

By then, the trail was more crowded. Up ahead were a duo of walkers and a small patch of ice. But as I tried to pass between them, my handlebars buckled and I crashed to the pavement.

Stunned and embarrassed, pain searing through my back, I was glad for the help of the pedestrians I had tried to avoid. As one gave me a hand up, the other secured the handlebars—carefully this time. Offering a shaky thanks, I winced my way home with only a cracked rib and a bruised ego.

It took a trip to San Francisco to find out why the accident happened.

I was there for Wisdom 2.0, a conference jammed with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and executives from the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. But they weren’t going to talk tech. This gathering was meant to connect people “in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work, and useful to the world.” Since I’ve written a book on that subject, I was curious to know what “ways” they were talking about. Continue reading →

October 24, 2014
Arianna Huffington, bicycle transportation, bicycles, bike, health, Huffington Post, manifesto, mindful, mindfulness, nature, technology, wisdom, Wisdom 2.0

1 comment

Train Your Brain to be Happy

Athletes do endless drills to qualify for the Olympics. It takes practice to perfect any skill, whether calligraphy or coding. Now, it may be possible to train your brain for an ongoing sense of well-being.

“There is a lot of evidence that the technologies of the 20^th and 21^st centuries may have made us more productive and able to do more stuff, but we are not happier,” claims Ofer Leidner, developer of Happify.com. But his creation uses technology “as a means of creating happiness and human to human interaction.” Games and activities on Happify are grounded in science proving that repeating certain behaviors can reroute pathways in the brain to make happiness a habit. The goal of using his platform, says Leidner, is to obtain “a set of skills to use and apply.”

Continue reading →

February 11, 2014
active lifestyle, environment, health, manifesto, nature, psychology, social media, technology, wisdom

6 comments

Tag Archives: health

Puttering as Good for You as Jogging

Meet the First Middle School Community Organizers

My Painful Meeting with Mindfulness

ARCHIVES

Recent posts

FREE DURABLE TIPS CARD

ARCHIVES

Recent posts

JOIN US

FREE DURABLE TIPS CARD