"It is the Mind That Makes the Body"

"It is the mind that makes the body."  Sojourner Truth uttered those words over a century ago.  They were words of truth then and have been words of truth throughout history.  I am constantly reminding myself to treat me better, but I get so busy.  I allow my mind to get focused on work, on obligations, on everything other than treating my body like the treasured temple it is. 

Part of my busyness includes authoring a non-fiction book called "Lather Rinse Repeat, Three Steps to Success" which is an analogy for learning, assessing, and doing based on the learning and assessing.  The Lather and the Rinse is supposed to help you set goals, make good decisions, and do better because you know better.   It is about bringing together knowledge and experience to give you a leg up. 

Problem is, I have been so busy in the telling of stories, including my corporate job, my two romantic suspense novels, and the third novel in queue that I haven't been focusing on the practice of Lather Rinse Repeat (LRR).  In my case, LRR should mean I am putting to use the knowledge I have gained to eat right and exercise daily.  But, here I sit so focused on the words flowing into this blog that I am not moving.  And this morning, I had my bacon, eggs, and biscuit.  We don't want to go there on the downside of that breakfast.  So what have I learned that I feel I can share with others in LRR?  I have learned to never stop learning, and that I do know better, and that I am getting better.  And, the one mantra I need to keep in mind while accomplishing all of these things is that "it is the mind that makes the body." 

I will keep you posted on how well that works for me.

Dilsa Saunders Bailey is the author of the searing hot suspense series, The Sperling Chronicles.

New information gives you a new perspective

Remember the anxiety you used to feel when you were starting a new class or a new grade in school.  You knew at the end of the last school year or the last semester, you would be leaving that which had become familiar behind.  Or, perhaps it was time for the ultimate…graduation, and life as you knew it was sure to change.  There are many situations like this that I could describe, the ending of one familiar experience to be replaced with the unknown.  But, isn’t it wonderful how the unknown becomes the known, giving you a new learning experience as well as a new perspective?

Let’s look at the new perspective for a minute from the learning aspect.  Dictionary.com defines learning as:  knowledge acquired by systematic study in any field of scholarly application or the act or process of acquiring knowledge or skill or the modification of behavior through practice, training, or experience.   Did you notice two of the definitions referenced ‘acquired knowledge’ and the last reference a ‘modification of behavior’?  Why?  The objective of learning something new, even if it is triggered by instinctive behavior, is to modify your behavior.  And, why does the modification of behavior take place?  Because, what you have learned grants you the ability to look at your world from a different perspective, good or bad or indifferent, but differently.

In the lathering process, you want to acquire knowledge that will modify the type of decisions you make in life.  For example, when you were younger and thinner and moving all the time you could buy a box of Girl Scout Cookies, consume the whole box, and not suffer any consequences.  Perhaps, as you grew older, you noticed the pounds beginning to stay with you no matter what, except the no matter was an improper diet.  You began to pay attention, acquired knowledge about the affects of poor or healthy eating habits.  You learned how that very tasty box of cookies could possibly add two or three pounds to your ever increasing thighs. 

If you are lathering properly though, you will use the acquired knowledge to motivate a change in your behavior.  You will now make the decision to eat a few cookies at a time over an expanded period of time, and not the whole box in one sitting.  You will look at that colorful and delicious box of cookies from a new perspective.  You will deem those cookies as a means to satisfy your sweet taste little by little, without overindulging and reducing the likelihood of those cookies adding even a centimeter to the diameter of those thighs.

What were the Lather Rinse Repeat practices in this article?

Lather – you learned you could change your outcome (the size of your thighs)

Rinse – you assessed what you learned (the effects of poor diet versus a healthy diet)

Repeat – you made the right choice (smaller portions of the cookies make your thighs happy)

Dilsa Saunders Bailey is in the process of writing the non-fiction book, Lather Rinse Repeat.  If you would like to learn more about the concept, contact her for your next speaking engagement.  Or, blog with her here at simplydilsa.

Don’t forget to pick up her novel, Dreams Thrown Away.  The romantic suspense novel that tracks a couple whose drive to reach their dreams drives them to make all the wrong decisions leaving all sorts of havoc behind including sex, lies, and murder.

Lather Rinse Repeat - Graduate

Life is awesome.  There are always lessons to learn.  Some of them hard, very few are easy.  The important thing is to actually grow and not to repeat them over and over.  You have to graduate one day.  I'm ready for graduation!!!!

Dilsa Saunders Bailey

Finding My Core

How many times over the last ten years have I noticed that I was off-centered?  My waistline has expanded along with the expansion of my job description.  The more I work, the more my body spreads and the more I spread, the more I have lost that power of centrality that should exist in my body.  The first time I noticed was when I was visiting relatives that had both a pool table and a ping-pong table.  These two games were my favorites as I grew up.  I could lean into a serve or crash back a return with ease.  On the day I paddled away at this table, the more I realized I couldn’t twist and turn with the same ease anymore because my stomach wouldn’t let me.  I had the same problem with my aim at the pool table.  I tried to blame my eyesight, but it was my flexibility or the fact that my arms kept hitting the pockets of fat.  Oh, woe is me I thought.  I have got to lose weight.  But, that focus was lost easily as  I went back to long hours at a desk and on a phone and in meetings, and on airplanes squeezed into small spaces with no place to exercise.  But, life went on.

And now this, I discovered Zumba.  I love Zumba, because I love to dance.  In retrospect, before my children, I was in a constant state of movement, dancing.  I could hustle, freak, shimmy, jerk, twist, four-corners, all of those wonderful dance moves with such ease.  And I weighed just enough not to get tipped over by a feather.  Everyone used to comment on how small (skinny) I was, and there was definitely a reason for that.  I wasn’t eating out of frustration and sitting, sitting, sitting trying to meet the latest deadline which could mean absolutely nothing sometimes only a week later.  But, that’s changed.  Deadlines or no deadlines, I want the center of my universe to return strong and powerful.  I want to find that core of who I really am and that core exists in my waistline.

It took a bit of lathering to open my mind to changing my lifestyle from a sedentary to active lifestyle.  It didn’t take a rocket science or a ton of books to make me assess (rinse) my waistline and the journey I would be taking if I took no action.  All it took was the sight of me in the mirror in a gym, trying to keep up with my Zumba instructor when I decided to make the right choice, the choice to live a vibrant, healthy active life and to follow my core to a longer, more prosperous life. 

Dilsa Saunders Bailey, author of Dreams Thrown Away, a suspense novel available on Kindle.

Determined as My Beagle-Shepherd Mix (Slick)

The other night I heard my daughter screaming for her dad.  I was in the bedroom, he was on our screened in porch, and she was rooms away in the sunroom.  My first thought wasn’t one of alarm.  You have to know my family, especially my oldest child.  Everything she does has a dramatic flair.  But, I heard her continuing to cry so I finally joined the two of them in the sunroom to see what the latest event in the Bailey household had taken place.  I found her standing there crying like a baby, and my husband sitting in the floor with the dog in his lap stroking its belly.  For a moment, I thought he was going to break down in tears.  Okay, go ahead and think I am heartless, but the next thing that came to mind was ‘how much was this emergency room visit going to cost me?’   The last one was for about $600 for vet, tests, and meds.  But, I got down on my knees and started stroking Slick’s head.  He gave me that, ‘yes, you know you are going to shell it out, cause I am not going anywhere’ look.

In the midst of all this my daughter had spilled her meal, a Thai dish she had purchase for her late meal missing our measly dinner, her view point.  Anyway, trying to determine what story to tell the vet I asked what happened.  She’s cleaning up and still crying.  Hubby and I are still stroking the perpetual toddler in our home and she says, ‘He can’t walk.  He was stumbling, falling into the wall, and his legs kept giving out.’ 

At this point, my husband is lifting him gently like a baby and carrying him to his bed where he will be more comfortable.  I sit there on the floor still interrogating. 

I said, “He was fine a few minutes ago.  He was sitting there begging for my pizza crust.”  Pizza was my measly dinner.

She said, “Yeah, he looked fine when I came home.  I was sitting here watching television and I heard this loud crashing noise.”

“Where did it come from?” I asked.  Now I am real curious, because the dog who had just been lifted with the utmost care was now stumbling back into the room to find any leftover Thai on the floor.  My hubby is behind him trying to command him to sit or lie down.  Normally, he’s very obedient, but not when food is on his mind, my dog that is.  Instead of slowing down and giving me that “I am going to die if you don’t get to stepping and take me the vet” look, he is in search of morsels with flavor.  That’s when it hit me.  My little Slick loves pizza crust.  I think he learned all of his cute dog tricks in hopes of a reward of pizza crust.  He will lie down on command, sit, play dead, high five, play catch by tossing you the ball, and kiss all for the rewarding pleasure of a piece of pizza crust. 

What hit me was a pizza box sitting out of his reach in the kitchen.  No one was in the kitchen, and my guess is, all that he could think about was that pizza crust in that box.  I wasn’t there, but I think someone (Slick) took a running start for the kitchen counter and nearly knocked himself silly.  We didn’t run out to the vet, thank God.  I am still a mother who has had many, many hysterical visits to an emergency room, medical and veterinary, in my life, only to realize that perhaps we over-reacted.  Within the hour, our little man was running around, not stumbling, and today sat watching me carefully for some leftover pizza crust.

Slick taught me a lesson about determination.  I like to share with others my analogy about Lather, Rinse, Repeat (Learn, Assess, and keep doing it to give yourself the ammunition to make the right choices).  But, I should probably add to the speech that a heavy dose of determination is also required.  You can’t have anything or achieve anything unless you are determined to have it, like Slick was determined to have that pizza crust.

Dilsa Saunders Bailey is the author of Dreams Thrown Away, a literary novel filled with intrigue, suspense, and a little romance.   If you want to laugh a little, cry a little, and just want to get mad and amazed at what life can throw at you when you fail to make the right choices, BUY it on my website, and get free shipping through Valentine’s Day.  Get a copy on Kindle at Amazon.

©2011 Dilsa Saunders Bailey

For permission to reprint, contact me at dilsa@simplydilsa.com

Lather and Learn

I love going to the hair salon.  More than getting the cut and curl, I love the shampoo.  Imagine with me for a moment sitting in the chair being draped ceremoniously with the foam strip around your neck and the big plastic cape.  You sit back against the cold porcelain sink and lay your head in some one’s capable hands.  The shampooer first runs a spray of warm water through hair to get it nice and wet, then she pumps the shampoo in her hands and begins to lather the shampoo into your hair.  At first, if your hair is really polluted, the suds won’t get foamy.  The shampoo will lather, but there is resistance.  The dirt or the pollutants don’t want to budge from their comfort zone until shampooer rinses you hair again with warm soothing water.  Her hands massage your head, your temples, and the back of your neck as she starts the lathering process again.  This time the stubborn pollutants that were holding on for dear life have loosened, have lessened their grip and are making room for the nutrients in the shampoo to  bond to your hair.  Once again, the lather is rinsed from the hair and the hair gets to assess the world and see it in a new light.  It is no longer clouded in pollutants, but dressed in a new shiny enclosure that makes the world look better and brighter.  Your hair stands out; it uses the new light and the new coat of shiny armor to look its best.  It chooses to flow freely and be open to new styles and new cuts.  Are you ready to shed the pollutants, the old way of thinking? Are you open to learning?  Can you lather?

Lather, Rinse, Repeat! Make the Right Choices for You!

I

was in a business meeting, a teleconference call actually, describing the operations of my department as we were developing a database to fit my needs.  Needless, to say some of the operations were repetitive, so I said jokingly, lather, rinse, repeat.  We laughed and as we continued the conversation whenever the repetitive steps were discussed we merely laughed again and said, lather, rinse, repeat.  Well, days later as I read the report, lo and behold, inserted in this report was lather, rinse, repeat.  The phrase had stuck.  It is a common phrase seen on shampoo bottles around the world, but it took on its own meaning when I saw it embedded in the report to lather, rinse, and repeat. 

I started thinking about all the things lather, rinse, and repeat could mean, and it hit me.  One of my goals was to share with teens, young adults, and adults that the choice is theirs to succeed or fail.  I was already making notes for a book and had created a PowerPoint presentation for an opportune speaking engagement, so I went back to learn more (lather), assess what I was learning (rinse), and repeat (put my choices to the test using what I have learned).  I hope you get the message as I lather, rinse, and repeat in this blog to assist you in making the right choices to succeed or fail.  If I can take this simple phrase and help you to remember that the everyday choices you make will take you where you want to go or where you don’t want to go.  After all, it is all about choices.  Now let’s all succeed.









To engage Dilsa Saunders Bailey, author of Dreams Thrown Away and soon to be released LATHER, RINSE, REPEAT as a speaker, send an email to dilsa@simplydilsa.com.  Read an excerpt of Dreams Thrown Away at http://www.dilsasaundersbailey.com/.