These days, our dust might come in the form of an overflowing inbox, never ending schedule, a perpetually messy kitchen or simply the stress of too much to do, in too little time.

Either way, it’s important to take a step back and decompress. Just like our beloved smart phones, our minds and bodies function best after they’ve been placed back on the charger.

Let this playlist serve as your personal recharger, something to calm your mind and your body. A few bars of music can go a long way in making those crazy days just a little more Zen. If you have any songs that help you find your chi, please mention it in the comments below and we’ll add it to our playlist.

rawheadrex/flickr.com

It’s just three

weeks into

the New Year

and many of those hard to keep resolutions have probably gone by the wayside.  What is so hard about keeping New Year Resolutions is they always seem to be focused on giving something up, doing something hard.

They emphasize what we as humans are doing wrong.  In some ways the resolution mindset has a built-in negative energy.  We say, embrace the positive.

How about resolving to do more of what we like, build on what we are doing right, and focus on what’s healthy instead of hard?  To that end, we humbly present Moji’s

5 ways to not resolve a thing

Love the process, lose the goal. Celebrate the small wins instead of being disappointed with your efforts to meet what could be a large imposing end goal.  You could focus on the negative–your singular trip to the gym this week or you could give yourself a pat on the back for being one gym trip closer to your final goal.  Making permanent changes in your life means making the same choice to change every single day.  As you progress, that daily choice will become easier and easier.  Thinking positively about your choices will give you the attitude and forward momentum to do that good thing again.  Build on what went right this week, leave what went wrong in the dust.

rawheadrex

Do what you do better. Naysayers proclaim it can’t be done, gain without pain. Big changes are just that – painful. Whatever the resolution, break it down and set mini-goals you can achieve based on what you are already doing well. If you are getting to the gym twice a week, walking the dog regularly, or doing the stretching your therapist prescribed, then simply add a little something – more time, more frequency, more intensity. You are already focused on said goal and resolved to keep it, just get more out of it. Keep building and soon you’ll have your personal Rome.

Go where the wind takes you. While it’s important to stick to a schedule, you should not only set goals that are reasonable, but also listen to your mind and body. They might have different plans. If you feel the need to sleep in instead of heading out for a morning walk every once in a while, that is not a bad thing. More sleep does a body good! It’s ok for things to be fluid if in the long term context of your resolutions you are making progress.

rawheadrex

Be bad for ultimate good. Too much of anything, especially a resolution thing, makes Jack a bored, disgruntled, and ultimately uninterested boy. And, lack of interest, leads straight down the path to abandonment.  If you have resolved to cut down on eating junk food, great.  That said, any forbidden fruit becomes more appealing at some point.  Give yourself some latitude, cutting down is relative and if you feel you’ve done a good job.  Give in when and where you see fit.

Lose the should. There are things we love (dessert!) and there are things we don’t. It is easier to stay with something and make it a part of your lifestyle if you dig it. My friend really doesn’t like fruit; it just isn’t her thing. However, she really loves salads. Instead of trying to introduce more fruits into her dietary regimen, she eats more of what she likes – big salads and lean protein. That works for her. If you aren’t a gym rat, why try to buck the trend every January 1? Don’t resolve to do what you already know in your heart isn’t realistic for you. Identify what you enjoy and pursue it passionately, be it gardening, team sports, or orienteering (if any of you know what that is).

rawheadrex

Life will always get in the way of resolutions, unless you integrate your resolutions into your life. Setting positive and achievable interim goals will set the ground work for keeping those resolutions for 2010 and beyond.

foodriver/flckr

Small Inspiration, Big Results

How a kid with a brain tumor sent the Bearcats bowling

Anne Stein, M.S.
Sports & Fitness Journalist/Author

“As a high school and college athlete, it’s all about you, getting good grades, studying for tests, being in the starting lineup. When you meet a child battling for her life who’s just excited to be there with the team, it makes everyone pause.”

At 12-0 and Sugar Bowl-bound, the University of Cincinnati football team has had a near-storybook season. But ask the players and coaches who most of the credit should go to and the answer might surprise fans: it’s Mitch Stone, a 12-year-old boy with a brain tumor who was “adopted” by the team at the beginning of the season.

When Mitch and his family first appeared at the Bearcats’ facilities, all 105 players plus coaches and staff greeted him with a standing ovation. Since then, the team has made a birthday rap for him, he has stood on the sidelines at every game he can attend, and the players keep in constant touch via texts and phone messages when Mitch is too sick to see them in person.

Mitch was adopted through Friends of Jaclyn, a foundation that has matched 170 children with brain tumors with primarily collegiate teams in 18 sports. There is a waiting list of 1,000 teams wanting to adopt, and several pro teams want to get involved as well.

The foundation’s namesake is Jaclyn Murphy, a young lacrosse player from New York who was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in March 2004 when she was nine years old. Her coach had connections to Northwestern University’s women’s lacrosse team, which sent cards and supportive texts.

In March 2005, Jaclyn’s dad drove her to Baltimore, where the NU team was playing Johns Hopkins. The team listened to Jaclyn describe her journey and battle with cancer – the devastation of a diagnosis, the radiation and chemo, dealing with hair loss, and finally, how inspiring the team was to her.

The athletes were stunned. “We looked at her and said, You’re inspired by us? You’re inspiring!’” says Sarah Walsh, a player who became executive director of the foundation after graduation. “We decided we would play for her. From that point on, she became a little sister to the team. It really kicked into high gear after we met her, and later we learned it was the first time she’d ever talked about how hard cancer is to deal with.”

The team went on to a perfect season and a national championship. The athletes kept texting and messaging Jaclyn. One day, as Jaclyn laughed and texted back and forth with her “big sisters” during chemotherapy, another little girl asked, “Who are you talking to?” Jaclyn said, “I’m talking to my friends at Northwestern.” Afterward she told her dad, “We need to get her a team too” – and the foundation was born.

Athletes have sat with children and played charades at their hospital beds, made them the focal point during team celebrations, and flooded children with encouraging texts during treatments. Some teams adopt siblings too, because dealing with cancer is hard on brothers and sisters of cancer patients.

“These teams provide so much energy and a different perspective because they’re out of the cancer world, but they rally around the children and make them feel special,” explains Walsh. The Murphy family has said that the team saved Jaclyn’s life.

The athletes benefit tremendously as well. “The joy these children have for everyday life is so humbling and inspiring,” says Walsh. “That’s been the biggest thing for me – to see their appreciation for the little things. When you’re around a child battling cancer, every moment is precious.”

“As a high school and college athlete, it’s all about you, getting good grades, studying for tests, being in the starting lineup. When you meet a child battling for her life who’s just excited to be there with the team, it makes everyone pause. It makes you so much more grateful for your life, health, everything you have – the things you accept as normal.”

For more information, go to: www.friendsofjaclyn.org

billaday/flickr.com

Chances are, you have heard all about the wicked waves that have allowed for only the 8th running of The Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau.

Chances are you’ve seen the videos.

Chances are you know swells were up to 50ft.

None of this takes away from the fact that this event was epic, in every sense of the adjective. The 2009 event provided surfers with a 3-day window of opportunity to take advantage of waves so monstrous and, yet, so pristine, that they may never see the like again.

While we could spend hours recanting the mindblowing stories of the day and the secrets of this year’s winner, 26-year old, Greg Long, we thought we’d let the video do the talking for us.

Enjoy the otherworldly nature of the surf (a reality shift particularly poignant for Moji as it is a stifling 3 degrees here in Chicago) and make sure you take advantage of all those opportunities that make a life epic.

One of our readers promptly noted that the article reminded him of the opening scene of Casino Royale, in which Sebastien Foucan displays Parkour stylings that are simply beyond compare.

For those who have yet to learn of this growing craze, Parkour and Free Running are the art and sport of moving from point A to point B in the most efficient and stylistically impressive manner possible.  In this literally mad dash across urban landscapes, Parkour runners use walls, buildings, lampposts, ladders, and garbage cans to propel themselves to…well, we’re not exactly sure where they go.

After watching many a Parkour video, we realized that although we did include trail running and aqua jogging in the article, we apparently left some key running surfaces off the list.  For this, we offer our sincerest apologies.

As to not short our community on their education about running surfaces, for this week’s motivational video, we have included the video that inspired it all.  Watch carefully for a brief tutorial into chain link fence hopping, sand dumping passage, crane training, and concrete table vaulting techniques.