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Class OverviewIn creating a beautiful practice, our overall health practice affects our being, and fuels our practice to new levels. Frank will discuss health from the inside out and how we fuel our mind and body. (Check out the Top 10 Big Ideas from the class below!)Your ProfessorFrank Forencich is an internationally-recognized leader in health education and performance training. Frank has over 30 years teaching experience in martial art, performance and health education.How to Create a Beautiful Practice: HealthEveryone agrees that health is important, but beyond the simple desire to be healthy, hardly any of us can put their finger on a working definition. What exactly is health?In this class, we’ll explore some cultural definitions of health and look at some practical and sometimes surprising general principles for health promotion. This class may well change the way you look at your body and your life. The Top 10 Big Ideas1Heraclitus Was RightYou can’t step into the same physiology twice. You can’t step into the same life twice. Your body and spirit are changing continuously. There is no static, ultimate state of health. There are no “come backs.” Health is always about process and relationship. Heal forward.2Practice the FundamentalsWe know most of what we need to know. Old news is good news. Traditional cultures had most health practices in place: sleep, real food, physical striving, free time and positive social engagement. Modern discoveries simply confirm the value of old practices. Don’t look for “breakthrough discoveries” to make you healthy. Forget about “the cutting edge.” Go for the basics.3Stop Blaming ConditionsFor most of us, modern life is fundamentally insane. It calls upon us to make excruciating choices between genuine health needs such as sleep, exercise, quality food and the social experience we desire. These choices can sometimes be balanced with smart strategies and focused attention, but it’s never ideal.Compromises must be made. It’s easy to fall into the trap of blaming conditions: our toxic food supply, our sedentary lifestyle, our high stress jobs and the like. But blame doesn’t help; it simply exaggerates the duality we feel with the world at large. Start adapting.4Be On OpportunistForget ideal conditions and utopian solutions. Unless you’re rich or a professional athlete, you’re never going to find them. Instead, work with what you’ve got. Stay alert for opportunities between the cracks of regular life: movement, real food, meditation and positive social contact. Be ready to be unconventional: practice your movement outside of the gym, shop outside the supermarket, meditate in the workplace, talk to strangers.5DiversifyMonotony tends to be a health negative. Mono-diets, mono-exercise programs and mono-experiences are hard on the mind-body-spirit.Unfortunately, much of what we do in the modern world resembles repetitive stress injury. Just as habitats thrive with an increasing number of species, so too does our physical mental and emotional health flourish with diversity. When in doubt, do something different.6IntegrateHealth is always about relationship and integration, how the parts fit together into a harmonious flow. Fine tune your “medicine wheel.” If one spoke is too tight or too weak, it affects all the other spokes in the wheel. Hyper-focus in one area implies a lack of attention to others. If you make one adjustment, you’ll probably have to make an adjustment somewhere else. The process never ends.7Live In The Sweet SpotsAll of our most important health practices lie in the sweet spot on the famous “inverse U-shaped curve,” right between hyper and hypo. The art of living consists of recognizing sweet spots and tipping points. Distrust hyperbole and extremist practices. Goldilocks was right; the middle is “just right.”8Find Your MeaningMeaning is the mother of all health and resilience. When we have a purpose, the body will do whatever it can to make it a reality.In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl quotes Nietzsche: “He who has a why to live can endure almost any how.”Without some larger meaning, it doesn’t matter how good your diet and exercise programs are. Find your purpose and you’ll find your health.9Give It AwayIn our early years, it makes sense to strengthen the body through vigorous physical training, athletics and health promotion. A sense of mastery is vital. Self-focused disciplines give us the grounding we need to make our way in the world, but this orientation must eventually give way to larger, pro-social meanings. Once we’ve found our power, it’s time to empower others. Develop your health so that you can give it away. As The Who might have put it, “Health ain’t for keeping.”10You’re Still Gonna DieNo matter how sophisticated your food and exercise program, your body will eventually begin to decompose; aging and death are inevitable. There are no substances, practices, or technologies that will save us from the ravages of time. Our situation is, in one sense, hopeless; we’re one breath away from the great beyond. Stop hoping for a nutritional, medical or cosmic exemption. Start embracing the totality of this beautiful adventure, complete with its ambiguity, impermanence and insecurity.