"Work of the eyes is done, now
go and do heart work."
– Rainer Maria Rilke
Posted by Frederic Brussat on April 13, 2015
Posted by Frederic Brussat on February 5, 2015
The poet Rainer Maria Rilke used to spend his lunch hour outside watching the faces of the people walking by; he found it a pleasant way to pass time. One day he wrote in his notebook: "It never occurred to me before how many faces there are. There are multitudes of people but there are many more faces, because each person has several of them."
Posted by Frederic Brussat on December 23, 2014
We have read that sitting is the new smoking and when we sit all day hunched over our computers, we are doing irreparable damage to our precious bodies. In this article by Caroline Dowd-Higgins, she quotes Lisa Fields who believes there is a high price that eventually must be paid for our sedentary lifestyle:
Buddhists talk about the four postures of reclining, sitting, standing, and walking. In New World Mindfulness, Donald McCown and Marc Micozzi characterize sitting as the place where stillness and change meet. That's an interesting way of describing the one posture that we have persistently overdone in our lives.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on October 27, 2014
As a boy I loved to run just for the sheer animal pleasure of it. There was something magical about moving my body – the feet flying, the churning of the legs, the pumping of the heart, and the rapid breathing – that was immensely appealing to me. I had always been a walker and running became for me a natural extension of this form of exercise.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on August 21, 2014
Like other bodily fluids (snot, vaginal fluids, and semen), saliva is not something we talk or think about very often. This clear, watery liquid comes from several glands in your mouth which secrete two to four pints of spit every day.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on August 4, 2014
One of the many marvels of being human is the large role played by our biological clocks which regulate such activities as blood pressure, metabolic rate, digestion, heart rate, and urinary output. Because genes control our biological clocks this personality trait is inherited.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on June 4, 2014
Today I want to bring my attention to my wrists which like my toes have not received the accolades they deserve. They had an important role in my childhood and youth when I played baseball, helping me swing the bat properly and catch a ball with the right turn of the glove. I think of how important wrists are for most sports: golf, tennis, ping pong, darts, bowling, even the one-on-one battle of arm wrestling.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on May 8, 2014
Those who spend their time studying the body and human nature tell us that eyebrows are one of the most distinctive features of our appearance. No wonder so many women spend time plucking or penciling them. Others let them grow wild and take great pleasure in letting them extend in all directions. Since I cut my ponytail off years ago, I relish my eyebrows as a remaining outward sign of my inner rebel.
Scientists have a term for eyebrows: they are "superciliary patches." What do they do for us? Our eyebrows help keep moisture out of our eyes when we sweat or walk in the rain. You probably can recall some service your eyebrows have provided. I can think of many a time when they have kept both sweat and suntan lotion from getting in my eyes at the beach.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on April 21, 2014
Although it is not true that the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body, it could be argued that it is one of the most versatile. It is essential for jump-starting the digestive process by serving as a guide. It keeps food between the teeth until it is chewed or masticated and sent on its merry way. Here the tongue is a capable manager.
Posted by Frederic Brussat on March 28, 2014
By far, the most pain I have ever experienced was when I had kidney stones. They are accumulations of mineral salts varying in size from microscopic to the size of a fingertip that form in the kidney and then travel down the ureter to the bladder. As the tiny, sharp crystals rub against this tube, it causes severe pain through the region. It may take days or a week for a kidney stone to pass and throughout this period of watching and waiting it is best to rely on a strong pain killer prescribed by an urologist.