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by Jamie Farnsworth, Guest Blogger, 7th grade, Friends School of Minnesota

In early October, the 7th and 8th graders at my school take a 5 day, 4 night trip up to Finland, Minnesota and stay at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center. We spend one week doing all sorts of things that are related to the environment. We take hikes, play around in the creek, go rock climbing, and navigate obstacle courses (just to name a few things). Empoword’s CEO and Co-Founder Wendy Lutter’s son went on this trip with me. He is an 8th grader at my school and I’m in 7th grade. Our school was looking for parent chaperones and Wendy was available so she ended up joining us.

The first night we were there the teachers informed us that Wendy was going to give a presentation and also do some breathing exercises with us. So after we got all settled into our rooms, Wendy gathered all of us into a circle in the common room. She then talked to us a little bit about how words can have a great effect on our morale and our everyday life. At the end she gave everyone an Empoword button as a example of what we talked about. As I scrambled up to chose mine I grumbled to myself because the one I had wanted, faith, had been taken. So I chose breathe.

A couple days later it was my groups turn to go on the ropes course. Right before we had left our dorms that morning I snatched my breathe button and pinned it onto the top of my shoe. I wanted to put it in an easy place where I would be able to reference it whenever I needed. So it was now finally my turn to go on the ropes course. For those of you who don’t know what the ropes course is, it’s an obstacle course that you have to navigate wearing a harness that is attached to 2 carbines. You have to go across 2 bridges, one log, a double log bridge, a tight rope, and then down a zip line. I had barely made it across the bridges and over the logs when it was finally my turn to cross the tightrope. This was the part that I was the most nervous about.

My arms were shaking and my legs feeling like they were about to come out from underneath me and fall off. My mind was spinning and as I took my first step onto the tightrope my mind went into panic mode. I felt like I could see the celestial choirs singing. As I was nearing the halfway point, I looked down and noticed my breathe button. The sun was shining directing over it so there was the glare of the sun direction over the button. As I looked at my breathe button I thought to myself, “What am I doing looking at this button? What help is it going to do me in this situation?” But as I kept staring at my breath button the things inside me started to relax. My mind came to a halt and everything seemed to come to a complete stop. I thought to myself “you can make it through this. Just breathe.” I took another step and again came to a stop. I was as nervous as ever before.

I could hear all my classmates cheering me from the ground and the booming sound waves coming of support coming from my teacher. Again I told myself “just breathe.” I kept telling myself that as I took more and more steps. Finally I had made it across. As I took the final step from the rope to the platform I let out a sigh of relief and astonishment. I could not believe for the life of me that a simple word like breathe printed onto a button and pinned onto my shoe helped me through the most nerve-racking experience of my life. I could not believe that it had actually worked. For what seemed like the first time in my life I had completed a task as difficult as that and been impressed with myself and it was all due to one simple word. Breathe.

Empoword’s buttons are available for purchase at these Twin Cities stores: Hope Rising, The Garden of Eden, The Guthrie Theater Store, and Creative Kidstuff. Please contact us for more information.

Loyal Empoword blog readers know I broke my foot three months ago (see post below.)

When I first saw the orthopedist back in early June, he informed me that bone heals at a “glacial pace.” I was told there wasn’t anything I could do to accelerate the healing process. Of course, the doctor didn’t know about Empoword and the power of word-symbol pairings.

Right after I broke my foot, I created a visual mantra (what we call the Empoword word-symbol pairings) to speed my recovery along. The word I chose was KNIT. As in bone “knitting” itself back together. Then I drew an image that symbolized the word. Together, word and symbol became my visual mantra. I looked at the image on my bulletin board throughout the day. Every time I glanced at the scrap of paper, I imagined bone growing, looping back and forth, connecting my foot back together.

Broken feet heal over time. First you stay off your foot. When you move around you wear a boot cast to manage pain and protect against further injury. Then you graduate to a brace. Eventually you start physical therapy and begin a slow journey back to normal activity. While normal activity typically resumes around the three month mark, the bone does not appear fully repaired on x-rays until around the 18 month mark.

Today, the doctor walked in to see me after viewing my x-rays. “Your foot looks great! How long has it been?” he asked. “Almost three months,” I said. “Well, your x-rays look more like this happened 9 months ago.”

No this is not a placebo-based double blind study. Just an anecdotal report. But visual mantras work. Tomorrow morning I get to start jogging again. And this weekend, tennis!

Stephanie Ross, MA is the co-founder and co-CEO of Empoword. She is a certified MARI practitioner and maintains a private counseling practice, Intuitive Health Management, in St. Paul, MN.

Empoword is honored that Creative Kidstuff - a fabulous local toy store - has included our Word Vitamin Packs in their back-to-school program. All eight stores will be carrying the attitude and motivation packs.

Click here to check out our store locator page to find a store near you carrying Empoword’s products.

I had the most unexpected thing happen to me today. Instead of looking down, I looked up. And I was delighted by what I saw.

I went out for a quick bike ride, taking a break from the accounting and inventory I was doing. I was deep in thought, going over details in my head and worrying about the usual things. As I tried to get out of my head for a few seconds, I stopped looking at the road beneath me and turned my eyes upward.

Within a few minutes, I saw a bald eagle soaring across the sky, spreading its majestic wings. In the next five minutes, I saw a pair of yellow finches dancing in the air waves. The next time I looked up, there was a red glider. Then a monarch butterfly. Next, a fantastic pattern in the perfectly blue sky made by the jet wash of an airplane.

I felt inspired! Other people passed me, on walks or on their cell phones, not noticing anything I had seen. I simply changed perspective and in an instant I had adjusted my attitude.

So often, we spend time looking down. Figuratively, literally and metaphorically. We look down at other people. We look down at ourselves. We feel “down.” What would happen if we consciously tried to look up? There is a whole lot of stuff going on above us that we are missing!

This holiday weekend, many of us will already be looking up to see fireworks. Practice looking up the rest of the weekend too. You might be amazed at the treasures you see that were already there.

Try it. Let us know what you discover.

- Wendy Lutter
Empoword Co-Founder

A week and a half ago I slipped and fell off the outrageous shoes pictured to the right.

Within an hour I could barely walk. My right foot was swollen and fast turning black and blue. Ice, elevation and Advil did little to help. It was a bad sprain.

My kids helped me hobble around the house, while offering words of encouragement: “You will be running again in a week Mom!” The next day, friends and colleagues commiserated: “bummer,” “what a drag,” “sprains suck.”

But something told me this was no ordinary sprain. I got a ride to urgent care. An hour later x-rays confirmed my foot was broken.

Tell people you have a sprained foot and they offer sympathy. Tell people you have a broken foot and they offer to bring dinner!

Nothing had changed - the pain, the swelling, the discomfort, the challenge of maneuvering with an injured foot - but one word: “broken,” and suddenly people were moved to action.

My point is not that my friends are a bunch of callous louts. Far from it.

My point is, as cliché as it is to say, words do matter. I didn’t get to choose “sprained” over “broken.” But I do get to make lots of word choices throughout the day.

It makes me wonder, what impact do my choices have? It is something to think about.

Stephanie Ross, MA is the co-founder and co-CEO of Empoword. She is a certified MARI practitioner and maintains a private counseling practice, Intuitive Health Management, in St. Paul, MN.

Giggle is the Empoword Word of the Month.

When we ask people: “What do you want more of in your life?” - laughter is always at the top of the list. Summer is here, the perfect time to slow down the pace and find more time to laugh and play.

Sending wishes for a summer filled with giggling, laughing, hooting, hollering, tee-hee-ing and plenty of playing.

Here are 10 quick ways to add play to your day:

1) Keep a wind-up toy on your desk. Wind it up and watch it go.

2) Can you roll your tongue, cross your eyes, wiggle your ears? Do it!

4) Drink from a silly straw.

5) Keep a small bottle of bubbles on your desk or in your car. Every now and then, blow bubbles.

7) Buy a pinwheel. Keep it in your pencil cup. Wave it around occasionally and make it spin.

8) Buy bubble gum. Blow bubbles. Pop them.

10) Act like you are eight-years-old.

Have an idea to add to the list? Please share it.

by Sue Baldwin, guest blogger

When babies begin to relate to their parents, the adult hovers over them and tries to encourage their child to laugh. Then the child goes to school and a teacher will reprimand this same child for giggling and laughing in class with their peers. As adults we begin to assume the responsibilities that go with being “grown up,” and our giggles are there…but much fewer than before. When I was in grade school, I was continually getting reprimanded for being a “class clown.” I was told not to laugh and that I should take life more seriously. Now I get paid to teach people the importance of laughter and playing.

I have a friend who I have known for over 35 years. In fact, I used to be her boss, and then decided that it was more fun to be friends than her supervisor. There is some kind of chemical reaction when Vicki and I start laughing. Others might think it looks rather weird, including her husband, but we can bring up a fun memory from our past and take off laughing about the content.

Did you know that 100 belly laughs (and not the little smirks or lady-like laughs, but the ones that make your smile lines hurt and then sometimes you might even loose bladder control) equals 10 minutes of aerobic exercise? Now that works for me! Little giggles can lead to big laughter and it is contagious! I love the sound of laughter. Laughter is the sound of pure joy.

Have you ever been in a very serious place where it was very quiet and you started giggling over something? The more you try to stop it, the harder it becomes.

Laughing and giggling is good for our soul. I have found that I get the same kind of endorphin high from laughing as marathon runners do. I put very subtle reminders around my life to remind me to giggle. I have a T-Shirt, mug, button, and note cards that all say “giggle” (these can be purchased from Empoword); I have the word “GIGGLE” largely placed on my living room wall; and I will often place post-n-notes in precarious places to remind me not to take life so seriously.

I believe that life is too short to take everything so seriously. In 1997, I went in for a regular mammogram and was diagnosed with breast cancer. No family history. No symptoms. Nothing that would have warned me for this life changing event. As Charles Swindle says, “life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% of our reaction to the event.” Since this diagnosis, I have written two additional books to the two previous trade books that I had written. Lighten Up and Live Longer and The Playful Adult were my way of bring humor, laughter, and giggling to the forefront of my life. Encouraging people to find humor and laughter in their daily lives has become a passion of mine. It doesn’t mean that we all walk around laughing and giggling all day, but it is all about balance. The giggling will balance out the serious events that need to be dealt with. We have so many teachers on this topic: Erma Bombeck, Bill Cosby, Patch Adams, Robin Williams, Louie Anderson…..so many people who have had tragedy in their lives in one form or another…but people who have also taught us the importance of giggling and laughter.

I work professionally with child care professionals throughout the country, and I can see why so many of them love their job and are passionate about showing children how to have healthy lives. They are paid to be with children and to balance out being a responsible adult as well as a playful professional. I remember saying to one teacher, “It is really hard to be depressed around a two year old, isn’t it?”

A gift that I received after my cancer diagnosis was three grandchildren. There are the loves of my life, as well as my two adult daughters, and provide me with many occasions to laugh and giggle with them. They are very sensitive to my moods and when “Nana is happy…they are happy.” I recently taught my eight year old granddaughter, Ellie, how fun it was to blow bubbles out of the top of my sunroof and watch the people in the other cars at the stop lights. It would bring a smile to their face, and then even a laugh and giggle. What a great lesson for children to see – adults playing and having fun.

Last year, I got a new license plate. It says “JSTPLAY!” The man at the park-n-ride last week asked me the meaning of my license. I looked at him and said, “That’s all there is. It simply means – just play!”

So, you are invited to jump on my band wagon and get the world to giggle, laugh, and play more often. What harm will it do? Think of all the good it will do!

Sue is the owner of INSIGHTS Training & Consulting. She wears many “hats” which exemplify her motto of “Life is Short ~ Pursue Your Passion.”

Sue is a certified doula (birthing coach.) She is with parents as go through their pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum. Sue is also involved with the American Cancer Society. And she is the author of four books. Visit her website www.suebaldwin.com for more these fun and informative publications.

by Matt Bierschbach, L. Ac., Guest Blogger

Who cares about breath…

So I’m trapped under the water, like being trapped in a giant front loading washer on a super-turbo speed setting. I was well out of breath and just about to have that reflexive inhale kick-in (ya know, the one that makes you lose a breath holding contest)… one more stroke and I’ll get to the surface! So I thought… till I hit sand. (Stay tuned for the rest of the story.)

An Essential Exercise (read this if nothing else)…

Simple breath and awareness exercise.
1. Sit anyway you like, as long as your spine is straight (vertical)
2. Take a few strong deep breaths, filling the belly like a balloon and keeping all the chest and neck muscles relaxed
3. Relax the breathing effort, but keep breathing into the belly with a natural flow
4. Place your attention on your breath - coming in, going out, filling the abdomen, the little pauses between, in and out, out and in
5. Anytime your attention goes elsewhere, just bring it back to some aspect of the breath

Very simple, right?

Simple, yet effective. Simple, but not easy at first. Why?

There are two main obstacles I notice in people’s breathing. First, is that we are constantly in the stress response (fight-or-flight, the sympathetic mode of the autonomic nervous system), which causes shallow breathing from the upper body. Deep abdominal breathing not only is more nourishing and oxygenating, but it also stimulates the relaxation response (parasympathetic nervous system), which is essential for digestion, immune function, listening and clear thinking.

The second obstacle is that people think we should be able to somehow ‘turn off’ or stop our thoughts. This does not happen. No chance. We do however have control over where our attention is directed, and the little exercise above is a way to begin the journey of having a say in how our minds work, how we react to things, and how we feel. It’s a journey well worth taking.

A simple metaphor is that the thoughts are like a constantly moving roller coaster at an amusement park. It never stops. And, where we place our attention or awareness is where we are. If we are allowing our attention to be captured by the perpetually moving thought machine, then we are on the roller coaster - going up and down, around and around, endlessly. If we intentionally place our attention elsewhere, we are choosing to be off of the roller coaster, and despite the fact that the roller coaster is still going crazy, we are not subjected to all the ups and downs and being tossed about against our will, we have more of a say in our experience of life.

Trust…

Every breath is an act of trust. We let go of that which sustains our life, not knowing for sure if another breath will follow, but if we don’t let go of this life giver, we will certainly lose our life. We all know (yet few really contemplate or consider it) that one day, our exhale will not be followed by an inhale.

Connection…

Our breath is shared with every living thing on the planet. Through our breath, we truly are all connected.

Facts…

• you can survive without food for a month
• without water for 3 days
• if cold and wet, without shelter for 3 hours
• and without breath… about 3 minutes

Words…

Inspiration has its roots in Latin, and means ‘to breathe into’. So, if we are seeking more inspiration in life, we can start with our breath. The Traditional Chinese Medical system goes into great detail about this as well, and speaks of aligning our will and intelligence with the our life’s purpose.

Without you…

Breathing brings air into our bodies, which would be lifeless without it. Therefore, it is safe to say that with every breath, we ‘breathe life’ into our otherwise lifeless bodies.

Story continues…

Late winter, San Diego, the sea was swelling, and it was my first day of big wave surfing. I went out alone, and after catching what had been my biggest wave yet, I was paddling back out for more. And more was what I got. There was a giant wave, much bigger than the set waves, and I thought I had made it past the monster, but right as I was breaking through to the back side of the beast, the wave crested so fast that it picked me and my board up, turned us upside down, and threw us onto the water below, and into the turbulent turmoil that comprises the inner workings of a beautiful, peaceful wave.

That’s the background to the beginning of this bloggation. The end of the story is that after reaching the sand, I gave up, and thought “this is it, well, its been a good life and this is a good way to go”. Its really difficult to describe what happened next, but the surrender was so deep, that time and space shifted, or opened, and I was somehow suspended is some very light and peaceful state. Then POW! My head popped up through the surface of the water, and I had a reflux gasp to pull in all that sweet, sweet air. Two seconds later (maybe one second), another wave pummeled me and took me for a spin. But I had learned the power of surrender, and how that not only saved my breath, but got me to where I needed to be much faster with less struggle.

Matt Bierschbach practices acupuncture in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He can be reached at matt@acuMPLS.com.