December always marks a large change for many of us.
It is a month filled with activity and celebration and lots and lots of excess. Between buying a gift for every person that has been a part of your life over the previous year was not enough, we also spend more time running around, start feeling the chill of winter descend into our bodies and overindulge in food and treats of all kinds.

However, holidays don’t have to mean going off the deep end, rather they can mean a getting back to basics and celebrating our fortunes big and small. Take an inventory of the blessings the fill your life early in the holiday season. Instead of focusing on what you want or worrying about the endless lists of “must-haves” make a list of the basic joys that fill your life. Keep it simple like being grateful for your favorite sweater, a good book on your shelf, for a rerun of your favorite holiday movie. Remember that being thankful is the most powerful blessing you can give...

How much is your health worth to you?
In real terms, place a monetary value on your health. Consider all the aspects of your health that you value: energy, weight loss, cardiovascular fitness, disease prevention, freedom from pain, sleep quality, and even emotional state.
Really think about your health, the only asset you will control over the course of your entire life and the only factor that determines how you are able to spend your time. The most valuable asset you have is your health.

I love to read magazines about all of the hottest trends in society. I find it interesting and entertaining. The one thing I notice time and time again is that people will spend money on maintaining the illusion of health before they will spend money to maintain real health. By this, I mean botox, hair removal, skin dermabrasion, plastic surgery, diet pills, and thousands of dollars of supplements that they do not even need. People are more willing to dedicate hours of their time to pursuits that...

By David Leon Moore

Via USA TODAY

BEIJING — Kerri Walsh's and Misty May-Treanor's waltz through pool play in their quest for the first repeat gold medal in Olympic beach volleyball history might have looked routine. It wasn't.
In fact, nothing this summer has been routine for Walsh, who is in more pain and has had more worries about her right shoulder than she normally lets on.

Though the gregarious Walsh is, in public, perpetually smiley-faced and provides more happy talk than Mister Rogers, she wasn't so cheery on that van one early morning in June in Berlin on her way to play a semifinal in her first international tournament of the year.

Walsh had taken a brief break from the AVP Tour schedule because of recurring soreness in the shoulder on which she had surgery in November to repair a torn rotator cuff.

In Berlin, two months before the Games, she was in agony while riding to a match she wasn't sure she could finish.

It was then that she began to receive treatment from an...

1. Recognize the places where fear limits your decisions and seek out support and resources to limit its influence.
2. Visualize and maintain an image of yourself healthy, strong, capable and able to accomplish all of your goals
3. Eat foods that are close to their source, that have imbibed the sun and that still retain the character they had when alive.
4. Use your body for movement, every day, even when your mind tries to give excuses not to.
5. Place yourself in nature as often as you can, breathing deeply, walking barefoot and sitting quietly, absorbing the lessons found there.
6. Seek laughter every day through friends, movies, books or comedy and let yourself find humor in your own mishaps, never allowing seriousness to take center stage.
7. Develop relationships that make you stronger, allow you to feel peaceful and that feed your spirit.
8. Dedicate your life to doing things that you feel passionate about, that inspire you to do more and that make you feel powerful at the end of the day.
9. Remove...