Today is Connie's 63rd birthday. When I met her about a month ago and after getting to know a bit it was clear to me that a big part of our mission in working together was to get her MOJO back.
She chuckled when I told her this. I knew it wasn't totally gone because she had cheeky little painted toe nails and a great sense of humor. She really didn't believe me that getting her MOJO back was even possible. I assured her that yes, anyone at any age can have MOJO. I just asked her to trust me.
After a couple sessions I gave her some exercise homework and she's been pretty darned good at it doing it alone at home. Wow. That alone is an accomplishment. Most people get home programs and have a hard time with location motivation.
We've been working on getting her back in her body and getting her to push past what she thinks she can do. Over the years, I've developed a keen sense of how much to push people to keep their confidence level up and keep them safe. Connie can now stand on a BOSU while I throw heavy stuff at her. I could see from our first session that we needed to tackle her balance and coordination ASAP and she's moving forward fast.
As we get older, it's extremely important we do proprioceptive activities to ensure our brains stay healthy. People lose their MOJO often because we don't take time to connect our whole beings as a unified machine. We need to keep the brain body connection alive and even after it dies a bit we can still get it back with some good focus. But it's more than focus. It's about building strength again and learning to play at the same time.
More and more research is coming out to show the benefit of exercise on the brain:
"Working out isn't just good for the body, it's good for the brain, according to a new study, the latest to weigh in on the cognitive benefits of exercise.
Regular exercise speeds learning and improves blood flow to the brain in monkeys, the study found. The researchers suspect the same would hold true for humans.
While there is ample evidence of the beneficial effects of exercise on cognition in other animal models, such as the rat, it has been unclear whether the same holds true for people, said study researcher Judy Cameron, a psychiatry professor at Pitt School of Medicine. Testing the hypothesis in monkeys can provide information that is more comparable to human physiology."
taken from livescience.com
It's taken four weeks and already something dramatic has changed in Connie. She actually feels like going on a date for the first time in 13 years. The quality of the date is neither here nor there. It's just a first step getting Connie closer to her MOJO baby.
Go Connie! Luv ya!
Jane Clapp
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