#FF Wonderful Weekend Review: Psychology, Health, Art, Music & Comics

Thought for the Day: Here's some interesting articles about #Alzheimer's research, #Couples & #Memory, A #Blind Artist accomplishing their dreams, #stress, & reducing the calorie count of rice along with some great #GIF's and some funny #comics & a #Multimedia, #Music, #Dance and water sculpture video. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did. Have a great weekend!  View my Flipboard Magazine.

Saturday's Songs for the Soul: Enra, " pleiades " Japanese Dance Troupe With Hypnotizing Light Show

Thought for the Day: This week on Facebook, one of my therapist Facebook friends, Mark Hundley, shared this amazing video of a Japanese Dance troupe that uses light in a hypnotizing way. I decided that I had to share it here today. I hope you enjoy it and share it with friends. It is one of the most fascinating choreographies I have ever seen! Have a great weekend!

Performamce & Choreography :Saya Watatani , Maki Yokoyama
Director : Nobuyuki Hanabusa
Animator : Seiya Ishii , Nobuyuki Hanabusa
Music : Nobuyuki Hanabusa

Saturday's Songs for the Soul: Greek Music & An Operating Room Flash Mob

Thought for the Day: Today I have two music videos for you. The 1st is a wonderful uplifting performance of Greek music. There is something both soulful and joyous about Greek music. It reminds me of a wonderful vacation I had in Greece many years ago. It is hard to listen to this piece without getting up to dance!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. The second (which I was unable to get to post fully here) is a flash dance in a place you would least expect, an operating room. The woman, Deb Cohan, who organized it was on her way to a double mastectomy & danced with the entire operating room staff. Since psychological research has shown that a positive attitude is clearly associated with positive prognosis, I assume Deb is recovering well from the operation. I hope she will be dancing again soon! Have a wonderful weekend. (Don't forget to tune in at 3 PM today to Blind Matters Radio to hear me speak on how to prevent bullying of the blind & others.)

Thanks to  +MikhaiL Liakhovskiy for sharing this wonderful performance on G+.


This link will redirect you to YouTube to view Deb's Operating Room flash mob you will have to click on the page it directs you to to see it on YouTube. Sorry, I couldn't do it the normal way!

Motivational Mondays: Taking a Short Break: Aging Gracefully Vs Kicking & Dancing

Thought for the Day: I had planned to write a post earlier, but have been busy seeing clients & preparing for meniscus knee surgery early tomorrow morning. I also missed posting Sunday's Comics yesterday. I am not sure if I will have the energy to write tomorrow or later in the week, although I am hoping to be able to continue writing my blog. I understand that the operation is minimally invasive & hope to be back to swimming & working very soon.

When I was a teenager & young adult, I always hoped to age more like my grandmother than my mother. They had two distinct styles. My grandmother, whom we called Moma, aged gracefully. Even her hair complied with her aging, she never dyed it & it stayed mainly black with touches of grey tints till she was well into her 70's. People often mistook my grandmother for my mother since she cared for me and my brothers while my mother worked full time. Moma loved to garden & took walks, but never did any strenuous exercise, unless you consider raising 4 grandchildren  exercise. As she grew older she walked slower. She had a heart condition which at the time was considered inoperable, but I never heard her complain or even speak about it.

My mother's approach to aging was almost diametrically opposite to her mother's approach. She was always in a hurry. Driving from place to place trying to fit a few extra hours into her day. She did not exercise & had asthma most of her life. She hated getting older, dyed her hair & did not want to slow down for anything or anybody. Because she was self conscious she almost always wore high heeled shoes. As she grew older she replaced the 3 inch heels for two & finally one inch ones. No one could convince her to slow down, She would would age kicking & screaming. She did try to exercise a bit after she retired, but her asthma made it difficult to take up the stationary bike in her condo complex.

I took a slightly different path from both my role models. I think I believed that exercise would be my ticket to aging gracefully with a fighting chance to stay active & healthy in the process. I have danced all my life. Until about 10 years ago I would dance 2 or three times a week. In the last few years swimming which has always been a sport I loved has become my regular exercise. I plan to continue to be active as long as possible.

I have been lucky, too & have been pretty healthy. Therefore, I was taken by surprise by a sprained ligament which seemed to heal followed by what turns out to be a torn meniscus. I realize that, I have some of my mother's fight in me & I do not want to let my knee slow me down (I'm also in too much pain to let it continue without a fight!). So today I will have what seems to be a pretty routine operation that almost everyone knows someone who has had it & is now walking freely again. So I will hopefully be back to aging gracefully, kicking & dancing & blogging about the psychology of life regularly soon.

Saturday's Songs for the Soul: Mr Rogers Remixed With A Healthy Dose of Laughter

*Photo from FlickrCC.com

Thought for Today: I tend to be serious, but this video was just too funny not to share. In a previous post  (Smile It's Free Therapy) I described the benefits of smiling & laughter. Psychologists have found that laughter & a sense of humor lengthen our lives, so here's a dose of laughter for your weekend. I never knew Mr. Rogers could break dance or liked rap music, but pbsdigitalstudios
(Remixed by Symphony of Science's John D. Boswell (@MusicalScience) for PBS DS) got him to move in this hysterical remix. I hope you like it & that it brings a smile or two. Share it with a friend & help them live longer, too!

*Photo from FlickrCC.com
'Mr Rogers And Aamir Khan' http://www.flickr.com/photos/85113745@N00/7340434684

Saturday's Songs for the Soul: Dance Contestant's Bold Audition: Do You Think He Can Dance?

             

Thought for the Day: Usually I post songs on Saturday (Clouds, Run DMC, Motherhood & Empowerment) that I find therapeutic. Last week I happened to see the TV program, So You Think You Can Dance on Fox Network. On the program the story behind Hip Hop Dancer, Ernest "E-Knock" Phillips, came on & caught my attention. When he performed his short audition piece, I was struck by the raw emotion he conveyed & the therapeutic value of his work. It brought tears to the eyes of one of the judges. Unfortunately, he was sent to a choreography lesson & was not chosen for the next round. What do you think of the judges decision? Did they make a mistake? Do you think he can dance? 

Have a wonderful weekend. I hope you will come back tomorrow for Sunday's Comic Strips. Barbara

Photo from FlickrCC.com
'Solntsevo - industrial place'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14801649@N08/1518404869

#FF: Professor Rap, Jane Fonda, Table Talk & Juggling Parenthood

Thought for the Day: I love the internet. It exposes me to new things every day. This week was no exception. My #FF Friday's Fabulous Finds this week include: two videos about a Professor, I happen to know personally, from Tufts Medical School who uses Rap to teach students about stem cell research, a world wide Valentine's Day Dance with Jane Fonda leading the way to stop violence against women, questions to facilitate communication with your children & an article with questions a five year old might ask their working mother about juggling work & motherhood.

1) My first Fabulous Find was a video, http://bcove.me/ip2g48yb, from The Boston Globe about Jonathan Garlick, A Tufts University professor who uses Rap music to teach students about stem cell research. I've met Jonathan socially several times while in Boston & never suspected his hidden talents. The 60 year old professor has earned a reputation with his students as the Stem Cell Rapper. I have included not only the Boston Globe article, but an earlier YouTube video (above) that went viral. He is an educator who is literally breaking down a difficult subject & communicating his message about the importance of stem cell research to young people in a way that they will remember.

2) My second Fabulous Find for the week  brings together multiple areas of interest for me. I have been a fan of Jane Fonda for many years. Her acting skills, outspoken ability to speak her mind even when her beliefs are unpopular, candid sharing of her personal problems & support for feminine causes are some of my reasons for respecting her. I have heard her speak twice & spoke with her briefly each time. The first time, I learned about her early painful years in Connecticut. I had not known that Ms. Fonda spent years in therapy trying to make sense of her mother's suicide when Jane was just a toddler. I also heard how years after Jane had taken on the cause of helping women victimized by rape, that she learned that her mother had been raped. So I was hooked when I saw that Jane Fonda was sponsoring this massive event: V Day Until the Violence Stops, http://janefonda.com/one-billion-rising/#.URK3X2P3hF0.facebook. But my excitement did not stop there. The event involves another of my passions, dancing, to help promote the cause. They call it One Billion Rising / Strike /  Dance / Rise! Events are happening around the world & anyone (including men who care about their mothers, daughters & wives) can join in the world wide flashmob experience. Take a look, find an event over Valentine's week near where you live & join the movement!  -->

3) I discovered my third find on Google+. This blog post by +Stefanie Mullen suggests 10 questions a week for Table Talk with your children: http://www.ooph.com/table-talk/table-talk-family-dinner-questions-week-37/#. This week's post is number 37, but you can check previous weeks. On the blog you will find great ideas for conversation starters with your kids like: 8. If I had to dance or sing in front of your friends, which would be less embarrassing for you? or 10. If I gave you one rule free day, which rule would you most be excited to be free of? It's never too early to start speaking with your kids about all kinds of topics so that they will feel comfortable speaking with you as they enter the tough teen years.

4) I picked the fourth article because of the unique perspective the author (who was doing a guest post) Leoarna, known as Not different but Interesting on Babyhuddle took of trying to ask questions her 4 going on 5 year old might pose if she interviewed her mother about the juggling act of being a working mother. The questions & answers may resonate with the working parents among you http://blog.babyhuddle.com/2013/02/things-my-daughter-would-ask-me-if-she-could/ .

Hope you enjoy these finds as much as I did & that you will share these with your friends. Have a wonderful weekend!