Faith, Health and Healing Part 2

Lesa Koski: 00:00:01

Welcome listeners.

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I'm thankful that you're here

for, series number two in, my talk

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about the pillars of resilience.

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I have five of them.

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Last week I went through three,

faith, community, nutrition.

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I'm going to go through

rejuvenation and rest.

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We're going to talk a about breath work

and physically what I did to thrive

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better through a really hard time.

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So if you want to hear more and you didn't

hear last week, go back to Tuesday's

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episode and listen to how, my faith, my

community, how I eat all helped me to

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feel better through cancer treatment.

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Now today talking about.

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physically what I did.

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And I'm talking about rest and the

rest is the one that I'm not great at.

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I mean, sometimes I can lay on the

couch for a while, but it's the

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stress, in my life is the one thing

that I really needed to work on.

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So to begin what I started doing

different that has helped me.

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And I think it, I mean, we all know

that we need to lift weights and I

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knew that Before I got my diagnosis

and I just knew that with aging

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weightlifting is so important But I think

I don't know if I knew how important

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and I didn't know if I realized How

much better it would make me feel?

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and the thing about weightlifting was even

in like the darkest days when I maybe I

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mean I tolerated things pretty well, but

Maybe was feeling a little bit tired I

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would go down in my basement and I would

just have a certain amount of weights

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and I had a program that I did and in my

mind I was like, I'm going to come out

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of this stronger than I went into this.

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And that was hard because

I started with soup cans.

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After you have surgery, you

can't jump into lifting the heavy

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weights that you were before.

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So I started with soup cans and I took.

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And I've never done that.

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Whenever I've done weightlifting, I have

like just rifled through as fast as I

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could and made it a cardio workout too.

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And I don't think that's all bad,

but there is something really

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beautiful about taking your time.

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I'd put on an episode of

heartland, which I love.

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I would watch it and I would

lift and I would feel my muscles.

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I would really concentrate

on what I was doing.

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And I will add, I did have a physical

therapist that came up with my strength

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training plan, but I know that in

the past I've had my son do it.

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Just having someone with a little bit of

knowledge, put something together for you.

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And I became dedicated to

doing a full body lift.

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at least two times a week.

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I really do try to do three times a week.

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I am telling you, I think it helps.

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It does.

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It's supposed to help

speed up your metabolism.

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Your muscles are like your biggest organ

and we really want them to be healthy.

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So everything that you can do to

build those is going to make you

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feel better and healthier and

stronger So that has been a change.

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And I always kind of want it to do it,

but never really dedicate it myself.

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I don't know if many of you were like

this, but back in the eighties and

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nineties and early two thousands,

I was all about the cardio and not

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anything to do with weightlifting.

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I just thought burn,

burn, burn, burn, burn.

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So different now.

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I do like to go on short little runs

one or two times a week because I

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know it's really good for my bone

density, which is very important to me.

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But I go on way more walks than I ever

have just to keep that body moving.

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And then the weightlifting, I am dedicated

to it and I still will speed through

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it sometimes, Most of the time I take

my time to enjoy it and I never really

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have but if you take your time and feel

your muscles moving you actually can

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enjoy the workout and even, you know,

it's strenuous, but it's different.

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It's slower paced and I've

started to really enjoy that.

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So that's another thing I did.

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So I'm just giving you this

information because if you're going

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through a hard time, maybe add in

lifting weights and you don't have

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to do it for an hour or 45 minutes.

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Even if you just do something for

10 minutes a day, it's going to

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be a positive impact and change.

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We don't have to make

big changes overnight.

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I made the decision to make huge

whopper changes all at once because

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of my life circumstances, it doesn't

have to be that way for everyone.

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And I have learned now how to move slower,

but We all know it's a fact it's key.

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it's healthy.

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It's great.

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You're not going to get fat lifting

weights I think I used to worry about that

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a little bit but I do this amazing body

pump class in a little town in Wisconsin.

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And there are women that are older,

a little bit older than I am, and

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they look amazing and they are

so inspiring and the small little

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town I'm finding my inspiration.

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And so I've really enjoyed, I think

it's called a body pump class,

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but, so that is one thing where I'm

actually getting my community fixed.

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And I'm getting my weightlifting.

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It's a game changer.

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It makes me happy.

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It makes me feel good.

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So that is the fourth

pillar of my resilience.

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And the fifth is the one that I'm

still working on and that is the rest.

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and the reducing the stress.

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And what I am starting to figure out is

as I am learning how to have a little bit

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more fun, it relieves my stress a bit.

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I still fall prey to wanting

to be perfect, wanting to do it

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absolutely, you know, just right.

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If I can let go of that, And right

now it's kind of seeing that it's

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happening and trying to let it go.

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That's helping me also.

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the breath, I want to share

the breath work that I learned.

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And I learned this from that functional

assessment nurse practitioner

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who's going to be on this podcast.

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but she told me, and this was

so easy for me to do, and it has

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helped me sleep better and my stress

levels during the day are lower.

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when I wake up in the morning almost every

morning, I try to remember to do this.

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I breathe in through my nose for

the count of five it doesn't have

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to be exactly five But in through

my nose for five, I hold it for six.

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I breathe out with pursed

lips for 10 seconds.

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And then I hold for four seconds.

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And I do that over and over

again for five minutes.

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I do it at night, I do it in the morning.

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And you can be reading a book or listening

to a podcast while you're doing this.

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It has made a huge difference.

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Now I am going to do a podcast about

breath work where I get a little bit

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more because there has been more core

breathing that I've learned about that

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also seems to be reducing my stress.

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But.

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It is such an important piece and

it is the piece that I missed.

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You know, I'm telling you, I don't know

why we won't give ourselves a break.

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And like, even if you're feeling stressed

during the day, I would never have given

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myself a, Hey, you know, let's just stop

a minute and take some deep breaths.

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And you usually know when you're

feeling it, but sometimes I don't.

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I, Totally recommend those.

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In fact, I am going to, when I do

that breathing episode, I'm going to

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try to get aura on there so that you

can get in there and get a ring if

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you want, because they're amazing.

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They help you learn about your sleep

patterns and your stress during

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the day, I wouldn't know that I was

stressed if I wasn't able to see

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the results and to see the data.

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And that is something that's so important.

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some of the data is how you feel,

but there are other factors as well.

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Has been key.

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I think probably the most important

thing that I've learned is to have fun.

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And I mean, what a great thing to be

able to finally stop feeling like I'm

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spinning wheels, achieve, achieve,

achieve, and just slow down and go.

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Let's have a little fun.

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Let's have fun with weightlifting.

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Let's have fun with horses.

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Let's have fun with quick

little jogs and with friends.

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And so those are the last two.

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This was so quick and easy, just

a quick little 10 minute hitter.

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But I wanted to make sure that

I got all those pillars, those

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five pillars that help me through

a really, really hard time.

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And I know that I'm

going to keep doing it.

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And I know it can help you

through a really hard time.

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So.

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Thank you for being here.