Defying Circumstances Through Inner Conviction: The Sapeurs


When you think of who you are and what you’re made of, the implication is to go big. Embody extraordinary and you will achieve. And that’s the American mantra that teaches us, “go big, or go home,” “work hard, play hard” mentalities. But today I wanted to focus on a small group of men in the Congo that are not about being big anything. They’re just a cool group of men that defy circumstances on a daily basis, to bring hope and inspiration to those around them.

“I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.”

Meet The Sapeurs–members of the Congolese society, a group of men united by style but bonded by an underlining moral code of inspiring others by example. I came across an article about them on Co.Create. The Sapeurs are “all about defying your circumstances through inner conviction–something which though small, is totally unique to human beings and extraordinary in its own right.” I like that mentality, not just for style, but for living a healthy life. I like the idea of celebrating people who put more into life to get more out of it. That’s the type of coach I want to embody everyday–a person who inspires their athlete to put their all into their effort, not because they’ll win but because they’ll get more out of life by going outside their boundaries. And as The Sapeurs remind us, it doesn’t have to be a big effort. It can be a small moment, a microsecond during competition where you think, “huh, why not change my frame of mind; do it not to be better personally, but to inspire others around me to be better.”

Here are a few tidbits from their life and how they succeed in living it:

  1. you have to mix it up
  2. look up to your elders
  3. it’s not about money
  4. it’s not the cost, but the man inside
  5. respect others
  6. be polite, not vulgar
  7. peace

When there is peace, there’s The Sape. When there is peace, there is life. You can always choose who you are.

 

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Multipurpose Stem Cells

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Groundbreaking work in #stemcell development; Japanese researchers have discovered an easy way to turn ordinary cells into multipurpose stem cells that can be used to create any living mammalian cell. They’re calling them STAP cells for Stimulus triggered acquisition of pluripotency. Great news for research since harvesting stem cells is a difficult and costly procedure. With the ability to easily change ordinary cells to a pluripotent stem cell state, research can proceed at a much faster rate and we could see advances in research and human development and care much faster.

It’s a simple procedure–bath cells in a low ph of 5.7. Drop cells in citric acid. Normally this would completely erase everything in the cell, but extraordinarily instead of killing itself, the cell self organizes and is able to be pluripotent–create embryonic cells AND extra embryonic stem cells for placenta. Most stem cells are unable to make both–but these pluripotent cells can.

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Is Thoracic Spine Mobility Important?

Shayna Robinson, MSPT, PhD | January 25th, 2014

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Top 5 Pain Interventions to Avoid

Shayna Robinson, MSPT, PhD | January 24th, 2014

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Risky Business: Are Your Vitamins Good For You?

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Are your #supplements certified by the #FDA to be in #compliance? Look for #NPA GMP, and #NSF GMP certified supplements. These are industry regulated and exceed the current FDA regulation of dietary supplement.

What are Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs)? What is the difference between compliance and certification? What do the alphabet of names

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Glutathione: Power Antioxidant

Glutathione is the mother of all antioxidants, the master detoxifier and maestro of immunity. GOOD NEWS, our body produces it. BAD NEWS, when the body becomes overloaded with toxins, it switches off the gene that allows for Glutathione to be created and recycled within the body.

Nearly every person who suffers from chronicfatigue syndrome, heartdisease, cancer, chronicinfections, autoimmune disease, diabetes, autism, Alzheimer‘s disease, Parkinson‘s disease, arthritis, asthma, kidney, liver disease and more is missing the functional ability of the GSTM1 gene.

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Daily Mantra: Stay With Yourself

Monday morning can be difficult but it always presents a new opportunity to start fresh. You can change how you feel physically by taking a small step today towards a goal. Monday is a day to practice staying with yourself. Being present, being aware of yourself in your surroundings. Stop reflecting on the resistance that’s pushing in around you. Quiet the external thoughts that bombard you while you workout. Feel whatever your body wants you to feel. Allowing yourself to feel the momentary physical awareness will quiet your mind from the chatter going on around you and let you be open enough to progress forward. It’s a physical revelation. And when you start trusting your deepest feelings, whether or not you can explain them, you start trusting your body to do what it was designed to do. Before getting to this point, I wouldn’t let myself do something unless I knew I could explain it. Now the explanation can come later.

1. Relax into yourself. Trust your body not to lead you astray.

2. Stay with your experience; whatever you are feeling–tightness, pinching, opening–stay with that feeling and acknowledge it as temporary.

3. Feel the joy of your ability to experience. Many people in this world don’t have the ability to experience physically what you can.

4. Surround yourself with this joyful thing, this experience. Know that you are loved by this joyful thing, this gift of physical experience. Love it back, in the moment.

5. Relax into yourself, because you know you are this joyful thing. You are this physical gift.

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Daily Mantra: Resistance

People start resisting when they are making themselves do something that they don

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Athlete’s Secret Training; FF Factor

The best training secret an athlete can give you is that in their most successful moments, they have absolutely no control over their body. Their body is simply following through on the training they have gone through, strengthening their quick twitch muscle fibers. They let their emotions take over and their body simply follows suit. So one of the best things you can do is training is to practice

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Aging Well; My Favorite Secrets To Beautiful

Shayna Robinson

1) Change your diet: Eat anti-inflammatory.

There are certain foods that reduce inflammation and cause positive cell turnover. I try to eat a diet rich in spinach, kale, blueberries, coconut water, olive oil, agave and peppermint. Watermelon and cantaloupe can be great during the summer. The best athletes will also supplement their diet with vitamins and minerals. My essentials include a proprietary blend for liver detoxification (NOW brand Liver Regenerator and Detoxifier), Thyroid health (NOW brand Thyroid Energy), Raw B Complex (Vitamin Code Brand), Undernatured Type II Collagen (NOW brand UC-II) and a hair, skin and nails proprietary blend (Nature’s Bounty Brand).

2) Sweat: Work out hard enough to detox.

Some argue sweat causes breakouts, but that’s only if you don’t shower immediately after a workout. Sweat is your bodies natural detox process, and it also helps maintain body temp and water balance. When you sweat, your body causes your metabolism to adjust to a burning mode. It’s struggling to maintain the internal body temperature, and your thyroid is engaged producing endorphins that make exercise feel easier so your body is more efficient. Sweating should be part of your goals in exercise to maintain healthy organs.

3) Electrolytes: Refuel the right way.

Both muscle tissue and neurons are considered electric tissues of the body. Muscles and neurons are activated by electrolyte activity between the extracellular fluid and intracellular fluid. Electrolytes work to aid the body in transferring water in and out of cells. Without proper electrolytes the ability of muscles to contract is weakened and can cause muscular contractions (such as cramping). It’s important to maintain this electrolyte balance when exercising so that there is proper contraction of muscle and nerve fibers in addition to maintaining the proper strain on the kidneys. In terms of aging, constantly being dehydrated can lead to cell death and a diseased cell turnover. Keeping yourself hydrated results in healthy cell turnover, muscular strength and correct rapid firing of the nerves. I love coconut water for it’s hydrating benefits. It makes my skin glow and unlike other sports drinks, it has a natural electrolyte component, as opposed to synthetically added electrolytes in Gatorade.

4) Regimen: Set your routine.

Your body functions better and more efficiently when it knows what to expect from your level of care. When you nourish your body with good food, exercise, sweat and electrolytes, it responds in the best possible way–glowing skin, a young complexion, a body that rivals a teenager and recovery from the common daily routine. Send your body a positive message in these three ways on a daily basis and it will function better and look better in 4-8 weeks.

 

 

 

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