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Form Follows Function & Function Follows Form

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As a teenager, I couldn’t decide if I found design or the human body more interesting. I voraciously read all the architecture books I could get my hands on, and also found movement and the human body endlessly interesting. When a high school project asked me to explore college programs in an area of interest, I sent away for information on programs in ergonomics (do you remember sending away for program information?) Along the way, I became enamored with the architect Louis Sullivan’s maxim that form follows function . I particularly loved this approach to industrial design, perhaps as a reaction to the overbuilt, suburban world of my childhood. Regardless of the motives that were behind my appreciation of a minimalist design aesthetic, I found it ironic that in my career as a Kinesiologist, this maxim flipped to be function follows form . Due to the natural variations in bony structures, some people can squat more readily than other people. In the body, the form of a structure predi
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Carbs Do a Body Good

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Carbs get a bad rap. Carbs are a fundamental fuel for human bodies, and can be great for your gut. The gut is the hub of human health, and nourishing the gut is my primary consideration in making food decisions. The benefits for the gut are among the many reasons I eat a carbohydrate-rich diet. Now, don’t get me wrong. Some carbs are not very beneficial, and may lead to various metabolic disorders, along with contributing to the epidemic of obesity. However, not all carbs are created equal, and far too many people throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater when it comes to carbs. Hooray for fiber! Yesterday's high carbohydrate breakfast: whole grain bread, oats and healthy fats in the form of ground flax and chia seeds. All foods have a glycemic index, which indicates how quickly blood sugar levels rise upon consumption of the food. Some carbs spike blood sugar quite quickly – often called the simple carbohydrates. And other carbs cause a more gradual rise in blood sugar – of
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Apples and Oranges

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  I’m a big fan of addressing root causes. While it can be tempting to focus on reducing symptoms, in 30+ years of working with bodies and minds, I’ve found that addressing causes is a much better use of time than addressing symptoms. Symptoms, however, are generally what motivate people to seek support for their wellbeing, and it’s sometimes a hard sell to shift focus from salving symptoms to addressing causes.      I find that focusing on symptoms is a particularly common approach to working with the mind. Whether one is plagued by anxiety-provoking thoughts, negative self-talk or rehashing past events, it’s normal to want those thoughts to go away. Meditation, however, is not generally about the immediate reduction of symptoms – rather, meditation is about addressing the root causes of suffering. There’s a term for this in multiple meditation traditions - pulling out the weed and its roots . In lieu of plucking off a leaf of negative self-talk here and a leaf of anxiety there, medit
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Start a job? Or start a business?

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As an undergraduate, I liked the idea of studying Physics far more than I enjoyed the study of Physics. The seemingly mystical aspects of Physics drew me into its study, though the reality of undergraduate Physics coursework involved solving complex equations using increasingly sophisticated mathematical techniques. While I did not pursue further study in Physics, I fondly remember the many study sessions with members of my cohort. In one study session, JH predicted that I’d find a career where wearing nothing but my underwear would be acceptable. We all laughed, as I was known for an almost unflinching commitment to wearing shorts and T-shirts independent of social and climactic conditions. The other members of our study group went on to respectable careers as professors, engineers and software developers... and shortly after this conversation, I embarked upon a 30+ year career teaching Yoga. JH’s prediction proved to be quite insightful. While others marched to the beat of a differen
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Dietary Update

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  Last Summer Collette and I adhered to a diet that was rigorously high-fiber and unprocessed. The results were rewarding – among them clearer skin, clearer mind and a steady energy that lasted well into the evening. For better or worse, however, we felt that the rigors of this eating regimen would be unsustainable once the academic year commenced. Early in September we consciously returned to our previous dietary habits. Not the worst diet, to be sure, though the addition of caffeine (coffee!) and a modest amount of sugar (chocolate!) noticeably shifted how we felt. While we primarily ate unprocessed plant foods, the small quantity of oils, processed grains and caffeine indelibly impacted our lived experience of wellbeing. Fermented foods remain an important part of my diet. We’re now 6+ weeks into our baseline, whole-foods, plant-based regimen, and the results are pretty clear – we don’t feel as vibrant as we did last Summer. Without the rigorous focus on fiber and eschewing any proc
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Polyvagal Theory - Does Wanting it to be True Make it True?

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My first-grade classroom had a Ouija Board tucked among the missing-pieces checker boards and outdated magazines. My classmates and I were intrigued by its premise, and while our pronunciation of Ouija tended toward rhyming with squeegee, for a short while the Ouija Board held our collective imaginations. I wouldn’t describe myself as a skeptical kid, though my first (and last) question to the Ouija Board, do grasshoppers wear pants? , seems to evidence at least some Ouija-skepticism. The “yes” answer clearly contradicted the abundance of evidence, and even in 1973, wishing the Ouija Board’s answer to be true didn’t make it true. In the aftermath of this dissonant answer, I quickly shifted my attention from the Ouija Board to more pressing concerns, such as scuttling worksheets and talking to my neighbors. Despite my transient interest in the Ouija Board, this first-grade experience continues to inform my worldview. Jiminy Cricket figured prominently in various "I'm No Fool&qu
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Taking Gladys Home

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Eight pounds doesn't seem like a lot of weight to carry in a backpack, though when I recently climbed the Manitou Incline , the pack felt quite heavy. At 2744 steps, the Manitou Incline is known as a challenging hike. Despite being less than one mile in length, these thousands of steps gain almost two thousand feet of elevation - all of it at "high" altitude! At that altitude, carrying Gladys' ashes in a backpack proved challenging, albeit it satisfying. The oxygen content of the air at high altitude is significantly less than in my Driftless-area home. When planning my recent trip to Colorado, the Manitou Incline wasn't on my radar. While I've heard fable of this hike for decades, climbing a long staircase within sight of a tourist-town wasn't on my bucket list. Or even my kinda-interested list. But necessity is famous for altering priorities, and scattering my adoptive Mother's ashes was one of the primary intentions of this trip. My adoptive Mother
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