How This Belly-Dancer Got Her Groove Back (PHOTOS)

How This Belly-Dancer Got Her Groove Back (PHOTOS)

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The stress and strain of constantly being connected can sometimes take your life -- and your well-being -- off course. GPS For The Soul can help you find your way back to balance.

GPS Guides are our way of showing you what has relieved others' stress in the hopes that you will be able to identify solutions that work for you. We all have de-stressing "secret weapons" that we pull out in times of tension or anxiety, whether they be photos that relax us or make us smile, songs that bring us back to our heart, quotes or poems that create a feeling of harmony, or meditative exercises that help us find a sense of silence and calm. We encourage you to look at the GPS Guide below, visit our other GPS Guides here, and share with us your own personal tips for finding peace, balance and tranquility.

As a former semi-professional ballerina and belly dancer, being physically active has always been a centerpiece of 69-year-old Suzanne Goff’s life. Her ballet career ended when she was 34-years-old with the birth of her second daughter, and she resumed her previous career as a graphic designer. During that time, Suzanne also began learning to belly dance, and at age 50, she performed and choreographed locally near her home in East San Marcos, California -- a suburb of San Diego. Into her retirement, Suzanne enjoyed staying healthy and fit by walking outdoors, lifting weights, gardening and doing aerobics.

One morning while making her bed in December of 2011 she felt a sharp pain in her back. It wasn’t until then that she worried her ability to stay active would be cut short. After multiple visits to the chiropractor yielded her no relief, and her pain intensified, she took herself to the emergency room where an X-ray revealed she had osteoporosis and had suffered a spinal fracture as a result. Physicians initially recommended she combat her symptoms with pain medication and a brace. But three weeks into pursuing such a regimen, her condition worsened and she found herself unable to do everyday activities such as household chores, getting dressed, and preparing meals -- let alone aerobics.

Suzanne took matters into her own hands, determining that this was no way to live. She sought out the opinion of an orthopedic surgeon who informed her that a minimally invasive procedure, called balloon kyphoplasty, could be the key to getting her back to exercising and eliminating her pain. In balloon kyphoplasty, orthopaedic balloons are inflated to lift the fractured bone and return it to the correct position. Bone cement is then injected into this newly-created cavity to stabilize the fracture.

Since having the procedure in January of 2012, Suzanne is back to walking, weight lifting, tending to her plants and aerobics. She has even taken up tai chi. “I’ve gotten my life back and honestly feel even better than I did before knowing the osteoporosis caused my spinal fracture,” Suzanne said. In addition to keeping up her exercise regimen, Suzanne plans to soon begin volunteering at her local animal shelter and historical society. “You’ve gotta pay it forward,” Suzanne said. In her GPS Guide below, find the inspiration that keeps Suzanne moving and enjoying each and every day.

• Suzanne at age 27 posing backstage at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Pa. before performing in the corps de ballet opera “Carmen.”

• Even years after she retired from ballet, Suzanne stayed on the move and developed a passion for belly dancing. Here she is at age 56 performing on the dance floor of Greektown Restaurant in Downtown San Diego, Calif.

• When Suzanne was diagnosed with osteoporosis and a painful spinal fracture in December of 2011, she worried her ability to stay active would be cut short. Her husband Paul was -- and continues to be -- a big source of inspiration and support.

• Suzanne found hope in a minimally invasive procedure called balloon kyphoplasty, which corrects vertebral deformity and stabilizes the fracture. After the procedure, Suzanne was pain free and able to touch her toes and exercise for the first time in months.

• After the balloon kyphoplasty procedure, Suzanne was also able to regain her lifestyle and is back to doing the things she loves like gardening

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Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Erin Hawkes: I Thought I was Too Smart to Have Schizophrenia

Erin Hawkes: I Thought I was Too Smart to Have Schizophrenia

I have schizophrenia, they tell me. They line up my symptoms and thrust the diagnosis in my face. So here are your pills.

When I stop taking those medications I lose my grip on reality, but I don't know this. They, my psychiatrist, a security guard, the police, bring me to the hospital (again) and I am told (again) that I have schizophrenia.

No, I don't. People with schizophrenia don't have a Master's degree in Neuroscience. I'm simply too intelligent to have schizophrenia, right?

Then why do rats eat my brain, why do voices yell at me, and why am I being stalked by a homicidal man with a sniper gun (I've got proof)? I assume it is normal. I don't have any friends and I have withdrawn from my family so no one but Them (doctors, nurses -- everyone in league with the enemy) diagnose me, treat me. So here are your pills.

I remember my first antipsychotic. I was in the psychiatric hospital after a failed suicide attempt and, after drawing me out, my psychiatrist decided to start me on Risperidone. She did not tell me what it would do. Soon, my Voices were quieter, quieter, quieter. Rats stopped chewing and the sniper stopped tracking me. Wow, I thought. Those were symptoms? That was schizophrenia? The scientist in me knew it wasn't a simple placebo effect, since I had had no idea what those little pills were going to do. I became open to the idea that I might have schizophrenia.

Yet repeatedly, over the next half-dozen years, I would leave the hospital quietly, only to be forcibly returned after "decompensation due to medical noncompliance." That is, I fell into the oh-so-common trap of thinking: "I am doing well. I don't need these pills any more. I'm cured." Round and round the revolving door.

You would think that after all of this, I would surely realize that I had schizophrenia. I didn't, though. I was under the heavy spell of anosognosia: the physiological inability to recognize that one has an illness. It is common, and strong, in schizophrenia. But in me, equally strong was a scientist. So, experiment number one: recall that first antipsychotic? Well, it did strange things, things I was not expecting.

My second hypothesis: maybe I was just in it for the attention. When psychotic and certified in the hospital, I would bash my head against the concrete wall until both it and I were bloody; that bled the brain-eating rats out. It also earned me restraints, physical and chemical, which I raged against. I screamed and kicked and cried but the strong security guards tying me up and the nurses with injections (rat-laden!) for me always won. That was attention, I reasoned. So I decided to do it. Bang head, fight restraints, scream over injections... it was a good show, but it felt foreign. I was an actor, not a true patient, that time, making me realize that all the other times had actually felt real.

Then there were the Voices that harassed me continually. They yelled at me to kill myself, forbade me to buy even a coffee, and hissed at me if I dared talk to anyone. When these receded with medication, I later -- when everything schizophrenic seemed out of focus -- attempted a third experiment: I tried to create Voices. I thought really hard but to no avail. All I could generate was the "little voice in my head" that everyone experiences from time to time.

Finally, convinced I was too smart to have schizophrenia (an idea of mine echoed by an arrogant psychiatrist), I fought to keep an A+ average at university. I earned prestigious scholarships (two NSERCs, a Michael Smith scholarship, and various others). That's not something someone with schizophrenia does, right? No; there are other people with schizophrenia who attain graduate-level education. It is very hard, but it can be done, particularly when the person is stable on medication.

So a neuroscientist with schizophrenia. I tried so hard to prove I was immune to schizophrenia, but because of my experiments, I am convinced. It was a relief of sorts: an explanation, a treatment, a hope. It came to prove not that I didn't have the disorder, but that I can live beyond it. For me, medication is key; taking it reliably, the master key. And I become a person with schizophrenia who is well.

Interested in my story? My memoir, When Quietness Came: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey With Schizophrenia, is available on Amazon.

• In any given year, one in five people in Canada has a mental health problem or illness.

• Of the 6.7 million people who have a mental health problem, about one million are children and teenagers between nine and 19 years old.

• Mental health problems cost at least $50 billion a year, or 2.8 per cent of gross domestic product, not including the costs to the criminal justice system or the child welfare system.

• In 2011, about $42.3 billion was spent in Canada on treatment, care and support for people with mental health problems.

• Mental health problems account for about 30 per cent of short- and long-term disability claims.

• If just a small percentage of mental health problems in children could be prevented, the savings would be in the billions.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.ca

When To Start Using An Anti Aging Night Cream

When To Start Using An Anti Aging Night Cream
When it comes to aging, an ounce of prevention can save a lifetime of wrinkles and fine lines. It follows, then, that at some point in your adult life, you should begin using anti aging skin care products so you can have younger looking skin as you get older. The only questions are: when is a good time to start using these products, and how soon is too soon?
Source: EzineArticles.com