Uncle Vic – May 2011

May 6, 2011 By: Victor Brick

Hooray, hooray, it’s finally May! Shorts, and t-shirts with the beach not far behind.

The answer to last month’s trivia question: Which college basketball conference has the most NCAA men’s championships and how many? Why, the Pac-12, of course, with 13 (The ACC only has 12!).

This month’s trivia question: Where was the site of Captain James Cook’s first landing on the continent of Australia? Turn your answers in to Jami.Mignogna@BrickBodies.com.

At the end of April Lynne, Vicki, Jon and I traveled to Australia. Lynne and I presented several business sessions at FILEX, the Australian National Fitness Convention, in Darling Harbor in Sydney.  Afterwards, while Jon and Vick stayed in Sydney to visit with friends, we went to our good buddy Tony deLeede’s lifestyle health retreat, Gwinganna, in the Gold Coast of Australia, not too far from Brisbane.

While there, Lynne and I attended a 4-day Chi program.  Chi is Chinese for ‘personal energy’.  We worked on being in the moment and did a lot of things that had to do with Eastern Philosophy and self-improvement and even stuck to a healthy, organic, no-sugar diet.  We did activities such as meditation, restorative yoga and nature walks to help support our calmer, cooler side, or our yin, as opposed to high-energy programs like boot camp or high impact aerobics, which are geared more to our active, warmer side or our yang. Lynne and I spend so much time doing yang activities that it was great to be there for 4 days doing more calming things.  We even did some equine therapy (horse whispering).

Every morning we would meet at 5:30am in an open-air pavilion to do a half hour to 45 minutes of Qi Gong.  One of the things in a lot of eastern disciplines which are martial arts based is being in the present and being focused.  You concentrate on your breathing and your balance and being more aware of your body positioning.

Gwinganna means “lookout” in aboriginal. From the yoga deck at the top of the retreat you can see all the way to the ocean 30 miles away.  The walking path up to the top of Gwinganna was more of a trek than a hike. The hikes can be treacherous if you are not focused and paying full attention.  The drop-off is not steep but you could easily sprain an ankle or slip and fall. You really need to stay focused.  This is one of the main things we took away from our retreat, the concept of being present, staying focused, and being in the moment.  When on a hike it is rather obvious because one wrong step could mean stepping in a hole, or, in Lynne’s case, walking into a huge spider web with the spider in it! (almost!).  But it is important in other aspects of daily life as well.

After 4 days at Gwinganna, Lynne and I realized that we do not spend enough time staying in the present. We often let mind wander to what we are going to do or what we just did instead of what’s in front of us. So we determined we were going to do a better job of:

1. Focusing on what’s in front of us.
2. Really enjoying the moment.

Just like when we were on those nature hikes!

We think most people need to do the same. Now, did we tell you anything you didn’t know?  Probably not, but isn’t that true with most things?  After attending some of the sessions and seminars at Gwinganna, we would say “gosh, we know that”, but in all our rushing around in our hectic lives we had gotten away from doing it.  So, remember to slow down and pay more attention to staying focused and in the moment. Add more Yin to your life so you can enjoy the little pleasures more.

Thought for the Day: When teaching, you do more reminding then you do instructing.