Mental Benefits of Exercise

by   October 19, 2021 with No Comments

By David Freeze

I have been home for just about a month now and most of that time has been wonderful. But every day at home seems to bring more news of rising prices and shortages of goods. This past week, the talk among runners and walkers includes the challenges of finding your favorite running shoe. Why does this matter as much as the rising costs of gasoline, home heating and groceries? Because the mental benefits of exercise help us deal with concerns and issues that seem overwhelming otherwise. I thought today was perfect to visit the reasons why exercise helps.

Exercise is not just about aerobic capacity and muscle size. Sure, exercise can improve your physical health and your physique, trim your waistline, improve your sex life, and even add years to your life. But that’s not what motivates most people to stay active.

People who exercise regularly tend to do so because it gives them an enormous sense of well-being. They feel more energetic throughout the day, sleep better at night, have sharper memories, and feel more relaxed and positive about themselves and their lives. And it’s also a powerful medicine for many common mental health challenges.

This is by far the most important reason that I run. I tell people almost daily that I need it, not for the physical benefits but for the sense of well-being. I read last week that as many as 20% of everyone who reads this has a prescription for mood-altering drugs.

Regular exercise can have a profoundly positive impact on depression, anxiety and ADHD. It also relieves stress, improves memory, helps you sleep better, and boosts your overall mood. And you don’t have to be a fitness fanatic to reap the benefits. Research indicates that modest amounts of exercise can make a real difference. No matter your age or fitness level, you can learn to use exercise as a powerful tool to deal with mental health problems, improve your energy and outlook, and get more out of life.

Studies show that exercise can treat mild to moderate depression as effectively as antidepressant medication — but without the side effects, of course. As one example, a recent study done by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that running for 15 minutes a day or walking for an hour reduces the risk of major depression by 26%.

Exercise is a powerful depression fighter for several reasons. Most importantly, it promotes all kinds of changes in the brain, including neural growth, reduced inflammation, and new activity patterns that promote feelings of calm and well-being. Exercise can also serve as a distraction, allowing you to find some quiet time to break out of the cycle of negative thoughts that feed depression.

Exercise is a natural and effective anti-anxiety and depression treatment. It relieves tension and stress, boosts physical and mental energy, and enhances well-being through the release of endorphins, powerful brain chemicals that make us feel good.  Physical activity helps to relax the muscles and relieve tension in the body. Since the body and mind are so closely linked, when your body feels better so, too, will your mind.

When faced with mental or emotional challenges in life, exercise can help you build resilience and cope in a healthy way, instead of resorting to alcohol, drugs, or other negative behaviors that ultimately only make your symptoms worse. Regular exercise can also help boost your immune system and reduce the impact of stress.

You don’t need to devote hours out of your busy day to reap all the physical and mental health benefits of exercise. Just 30-minutes of moderate exercise five times a week is enough. And even that can be broken down into two 15-minute or even three 10-minute exercise sessions if that’s easier.

If you don’t already exercise, or not enough to meet these guidelines, consider doing it. But get your shoes right away!

Racing is back! Locally, we have the Spooky Sprint 5K, fun run and costume contest at Catawba College on Halloween afternoon, Oct. 31. Check it plus five more 2021 events coming soon at www.salisburyrowanrunners.org.

You Saved my Life

by   October 18, 2021 with No Comments

By Ann Farabee

You saved my life

Sometimes, he asked if he could go to church with us. He was 14 and was my daughter’s  friend. He lived in a very difficult home environment and was not doing well in school.  Sometimes, we took him to church. Sometimes, he would fall asleep at church. Sometimes, he would stay awake. Sometimes, he would actually listen.

It lasted for around a year. As it dwindled away, we lost touch.

Until this week – which was 24 years later.

He tapped on my car window as I was backing out of a parking space at a convenience store. Although he looked familiar, I hesitated. But, when he called out my name, I put the car window down to hear what he had to say. I am glad I did.

He told me his name.

My heart was filled with tenderness.

He began to explain, “I didn’t know what it was like to have a family. I didn’t know what a normal life was like. I didn’t know about going to church. I didn’t know about God. You showed me those things. It was all new to me. I am doing good. I have a job and a daughter and a home and I am doing the right things.”

He showed me her photo in his wallet. She was a beautiful sight to see.

He continued, “I am trying to teach her some things I learned from you.”

His next words, “You saved my life.”

The words brought tears to my eyes.

It was all new to me.

You saved my life.

His words also brought deeper spiritual understanding to my heart.

Small acts of kindness shown to a young teen had changed his life.

It was not a decision I had consciously made. It was a result of him being planted in my life and me responding with compassion. I did it without thinking. It was simple. And it introduced him to a different way of life that he later pursued.

Hearing this 14 year old as a now 38 year old – giving ME credit for saving his life – was definitely a God moment reminding me to keep going. There is not a time to stop.

God used me to introduce him to Jesus.

And I was unaware that I was doing it.

Maybe we all do that more often than we realize.

Maybe some of those daily moments that we refer to as ‘having a lot to do today’ will end up being moments that will save someone’s life.

Isn’t that amazing?

Do not neglect to do good and share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Hebrews 13:16

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:4

Love one another as I have loved you.

John 13:34

We may save a life.

Oh Possum

by   October 16, 2021 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

            The other day we were so busy inside the house, we hadn’t been outside all day. My wife called me and asked if I had been in the garage. I told her no. She told me I had better go out there and take a look around.

            When I stepped out the door, I saw the problem immediately. Stuff was scattered all over the floor. I knew instantly we had an animal hidden in the garage. I opened the doors, hoping something would run out. All remained quiet. I backed the cars out to provide optimal escape routes. This animal was definitely bigger than a mouse!

            I cautiously went around the garage, tapping and poking with a broom. I picked up all the fallen objects and swept the garage out. I left the garage open for a few hours, hoping whatever had found its way in would find its way out.

            I quietly eased my way out into the garage about ten o’clock that evening. I looked around, and there sitting on a table in the back of my garage sat a cute little possum. He must have sensed my presence, and crawled back behind some things on the table. I opened the back door, hoping he might sense his access to freedom.

            At eleven o’clock, I quietly eased my way out there again. I knew his hiding place now and could see his tail and nose. I didn’t want to go to bed with the back door open. I was afraid he might go get some buddies and decide he found the perfect winter home. I decided the best thing to do was leave the garage door opened just enough for him to sneak out after we had gone to bed. It worked and the garage is now possum-free!

            My possum adventure reminded me of a story I wrote nearly thirty years ago. One of my colleagues from North Stanly had a couple of daughters and a son. One day while they were out, they discovered a mother possum that had been killed, but her babies were still clinging to her. The family rescued the baby possums and took them home.

            I went over to their house to see them. I wrote a story about the girls, who are now grown and married. The newspaper sent over a photographer, who took some pictures of the girls wearing the possums as earrings. The picture and my story made the front page of the paper. When the possums were big enough to survive on their own, the family set them free.

            I know that many of my readers care deeply about animals. Most of you have a furry friend who lives in your house. We have always had a cat. I know that many people love and care for their cats and dogs like they were children. A good pet is a member of the family.

            Many of us also care for the wildlife that lives around us. We have bird feeders and love to see the customers come. We love watching the hummingbirds at our feeders, too. I miss them in winter. I like watching the squirrels play and I think deer look beautiful. I just don’t care for them eating my vegetables. We also have turtles, frogs, and toads around our house. Don’t care for the snakes too much.

            God created all the animals and I believe He finds pleasure in them as well. Animals and birds can be so beautiful and entertaining to watch. God must be keeping a close eye on the animals too, because He said that every time a sparrow falls, He notices. Many people think that God must be so busy with all the crazy things going on in the world, how can He possibly find time to help or even care about minor things that occur in our lives? But God is omnipresent. That means that God can be watching some birds play in a field, and sitting with a sick person in the hospital, while He is keeping a close eye on a soldier who is away from home.

            I want to encourage you to remember that God is right there with you in every situation that you find yourself in. He is not too busy to care about your minor or major needs. In fact, He is planning out in detail every aspect of your life. He cares more about you and your situation than you care yourself. God keeps a close eye on all the animals of the world, but He is keeping a closer eye on you, because you are the apple of His eye.

Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com

Dawn’s Gingerbread

by   October 15, 2021 with No Comments

By Roger Barbee

            Many years ago I spent a few days in Cape May, N. J.  to see the historical town and its Victorian houses. One afternoon I joined a walking tour of the town and the knowledgeable guide told the history of many houses and pointed out all the details of each. I remember him telling the group the purpose of the intricate gingerbread was not only to decorate the eaves and porches, but also to cast shadows of its various shapes onto the house. Skeptical of his interpretation for the finely turned gingerbread, I took a walk-through town early the next day, and I found the treasures that he had described: Before that tour I had only seen the gingerbread of any house in one dimension, it was just a good decoration on various parts of a house, but after that morning walk on the quiet streets of Cape May I saw another reel of what I had thought I had seen many times before.

            Since that time in Cape May, I have marveled at gingerbread on houses and building. For many years I lived in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia which boasts many fine examples of gingerbread.  Now I  live on Lake Norman in North Carolina and the modern homes here have no gingerbread. But one recent morning while riding my stationary bike, I saw in the light of dawn the best gingerbread ever.

Because of the recent cloudy weather, and the earth’s tilt, the dawn I witnessed was markedly different than other ones, even on the day before. Riding the stationary bike in the shadow of our home, the sun was out of sight as it rose over Lake Norman, but its rays shown on the tall poplar tree across the road. The leafless branches of the tree held streams of dawn’s early sunlight before it moved on to lighten the shorter trees and eventually the lower trunks of the tall pines. Before too many minutes on the bike, I saw that dawn’s light highlighted the crepe myrtles in Brenda and Bill’s yard across our road. Since their row of crepe myrtles had not been crepe murdered, as observed by the Grumpy Gardner, their branches flowed skyward in a graceful reach. But I remembered the Cape May guide, so I looked at and beyond the bare branches of the trees to see their shadows on the Brenda’s house. By so doing, the dawn had another dimension.

Many dawns have I seen. Once I took a group of high school seniors on a hike in the morning dark to a rock outcrop overlooking Shrinemont, a retreat center in Virginia. Settling onto the large stone, we sat watching the dawn come, trying to locate on the forested horizon exactly where the sun would show. Time in that stillness seemed halted, but suddenly one of the students said in a hushed shout, “There it is.” We each watched until it grew too bright in the surrounding dark to directly look to, waiting for it to clear the eastern edge of that dawn. We then stood, stretched, and hurried down the trail to the dining lodge for a breakfast of fired apples, sausage, and pancakes.

In Hold Everything Dear, John Berger writes, “A mountain stays in the same place, and can almost be considered immortal, but to those who are familiar with the mountain, it never repeats itself.” Since moving to Lake Norman and taking my morning rides on the driveway, I have become familiar with our pine trees and the trees in our neighbor’s yards, the lake, our quiet road, sunrises, sunsets, and walking neighbors.   All are like Berger’s mountain.

Many dawns. Like Berger’s mountain, all are the same, but all different. Each dawn, like the gingerbread on a house or the people who live in the house, will cast a different shadow each day: The shadows of mountains, trees, lakes, people, and more will mark the day as the same, but never repetitious.

Many dawns, and each casting its own shadows and memories.

The Whole Bible

by   October 13, 2021 with No Comments

By Ed Traut

Matthew 13:52 He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

  • Rather than replacing the one with the other, we embrace both the Old and the New Testaments.
  • There are so many truths and principles from the Old Testament that we can learn from about God and His interaction with mankind.
  • There is treasure to be found if we will just search for it in His word.  Holy Spirit lead us on that very journey.

Prayer:  Lord I love Your word and I hunger and thirst to know more of Your scripture and Your word.  Open it up to me Holy Spirit that I can have understanding and revelation continually every day from Your word.  Lead me I pray in Jesus name.  Amen.
 

Ed Traut
Prophetic Life

Running is Nothing New

by   October 12, 2021 with No Comments

By David Freeze

I met Salisbury Police Sgt. Jennifer Moreau when she took our beginning runners class. The police department has been partnering with SRR and Salisbury Parks and Rec to offer the most recent classes, and Moreau took advantage of the opportunity. She is also part of the committee that approves our local race permits.

But running wasn’t new to Moreau.

“I was active duty Air Force, serving at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. The fitness test had just changed from the old ‘bike test’ to pushups, situps, running 1.5 miles, and body composition measurements,” she said. “I was 22 years old. Most bases didn’t have any running tracks yet.”

That was how Moreau got started, but more importantly she expressed great reasons to continue, “Partly because I am still in the Air National Guard and have annual testing, but mostly for my health and my family. I want to be around for my daughter, but I also want to be able to move around! My grandmother had a blood clot in her 70s that got into her lung and she kept saying “I can’t because of my lung.” She lived to be 88, but why stop there? How would her quality of life been if she had said “It’s hard, but I’m going to try?”

At the PD, she’s been busy.

“I was on patrol for a few years, as well as the street crimes unit where I did gang investigations. Now I am in the Administration Bureau where I manage a lot of programs such as permits, the vehicle fleet, School Resource Officers, the evidence section, new recruit training, events & permits, and all our equipment,” Moreau said.

For hobbies and other interests, Moreau said, “I love being outdoors, beaches, mountains, lakes, rivers. I am a supporter of true camping — in a tent, fish for your dinner, campfires and marshmallows. Trail running keeps me from being bored and I have run a small portion of the Appalachian Trail in NC. I love to cook and do front step container gardening so I have herbs to use in cooking almost year round. I’m always taking classes and reading. I like to kayak and explore, as well as finding those obscure places like the last-in-the-world clamshell-shaped gas station from Shell Oil, which is in Winston-Salem, NC! I enjoy participating in all forms of art, from window painting, murals, sketching and I even do calligraphy. It is as soothing/calming as yoga and has many other benefits. I started calligraphy in high school, learning about the transcription of the U.S. Constitution, and it taught me patience — which most people wouldn’t think was related to something like fancy writing!”

Moreau’s family, including her dad, stepmom and older brother, all live in Rhode Island. Here, she’s at home with daughter, Alexia, who’s in high school. They also have two dogs and cat. Moreau added, “I constantly nag Alexia to come run with me.”

Moreau is currently getting back on track after having COVID. Her best moments in running so far include reducing her pace to an 11-minute mile after past injuries like a broken tailbone, two sprained ankles and more military related issues, plus turning 45.

When asked about how she arrived in Salisbury, Moreau said, “I have lived all over due to military life. When I decided to switch to the Air National Guard in October 2006, I stayed with a friend in Canton, N.C., while I searched for the best place to settle down. After six months, I found Salisbury and the perfect home to raise Alexia. We have lived here ever since.”

The fall will be busy for races locally. Saturday October 9th has the T-Man’s 5K in Mooresville, benefitting teen suicide prevention. On Sunday October 31st, the Spooky Sprint 5K takes place at Catawba College, complete with the popular Halloween costume contest while benefitting Rotary projects.

Other upcoming events are at www.salisburyrowanrunners.org

Mini Golf

by   October 11, 2021 with No Comments

By Ann Farabee

Mini Golf

A game of miniature golf is a must at least once a year, right? 

One would perhaps assume I was pretty good at it, since it is an annual family priority. But no. I tend to always come in a strong 4th position on our four person team.

The original mini-golf was Putt Putt, which was founded in Fayetteville, NC, in 1954. All Putt Putt holes were a Par 2. It was designed to where a ‘hole in one’ would be a possibility for each hole. When I was a teenager, the orange and white Putt Putt facilities were quite the popular spot for date night.

When playing Putt Putt, a player finishes his hole before the next player starts. In mini golf, each player takes his first putt, then the player farthest from the hole takes his second putt.

Putt putt or mini golf – I love it – but I never win. I never come in 2nd place. I used to hold back on my skills when my children were young so they could win. That went by the wayside very quickly, but I still never won.

My strategies for success:

  • I align my body with the golf club and the hole.
  • I keep my eyes on the ball and the hole.
  • I tap the ball easy or hard, depending on how far I want it to go.
  • I assess the layout and make my plan for the hills, valleys, and traps.
  • That’s about it – unless you count how to make adjustments based off the fact that you are carrying a bag with everyone’s stuff in it, while trying to keep score on that little scorecard with the little pencil with no eraser. That takes skill.

Options for making mini golf more fun:

*Hit the ball so it hits the hole, circles around it several times, and then fails to go in.

*Hit the ball so that it hits the hole and then jumps out of the hole, crosses the boundary, and ends up near another hole where another family is playing. (This works in bowling, as well.)

*Hit the ball to where it leaves the course and cannot be found.

Yes, I have done all of these.

Sometimes, it tends to not be 100% fun. Too hot. Too cold. Too crowded. Too slow. Too impatient. Too cranky. Too tired. And that is just me – I am not sure how the rest of the family feels.

The only part of mini golf I have not experienced is winning.

But, on our way home, we always realize we made a good memory.

Making memories matters.

Genesis 1:31 says that God saw all that he had made and it was very good.

Not just good – but very good!

We took time to do something for fun.

We took time to be with people we care about.

That time is never wasted.

Now that I think about it, I guess I win every time I play.

We all do.

Lord, thank You for family and friends. May we cherish those moments with them. May we remember that these special times are not just good – but are very good! Amen

1 2 3