In this episode, the Lesa Koski continues the discussion on the five pillars of resilience, diving into rejuvenation and rest. She shares her personal journey with weightlifting, starting from using soup cans post-surgery to dedicating herself to a full-body lift routine twice a week. The host explains the benefits she experienced, including enhanced metabolism and muscle strength. She also addresses her challenges with managing stress and emphasizes the importance of breath work and having fun. Practical breathing exercises that aid in sleep and stress reduction are covered, along with the value of incorporating enjoyable activities into fitness routines. Listeners are encouraged to take small steps towards incorporating these practices into their lives for better resilience.

00:00 Introduction to the Pillars of Resilience

00:13 Recap of Previous Pillars

00:51 The Importance of Weightlifting

02:25 Incorporating Weightlifting into Daily Life

05:18 The Role of Community in Fitness

05:48 The Challenge of Rest and Stress Reduction

06:23 Breath Work Techniques

08:32 The Importance of Fun and Relaxation

08:59 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Welcome listeners.

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I'm thankful that you're here

for, series number two in, my talk

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about the pillars of resilience.

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I have five of them.

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Last week I went through three,

faith, community, nutrition.

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I'm going to go through

rejuvenation and rest.

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We're going to talk a about breath work

and physically what I did to thrive

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better through a really hard time.

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So if you want to hear more and you didn't

hear last week, go back to Tuesday's

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episode and listen to how, my faith, my

community, how I eat all helped me to

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feel better through cancer treatment.

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Now today talking about.

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physically what I did.

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And I'm talking about rest and the

rest is the one that I'm not great at.

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I mean, sometimes I can lay on the

couch for a while, but it's the

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stress, in my life is the one thing

that I really needed to work on.

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So to begin what I started doing

different that has helped me.

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And I think it, I mean, we all know

that we need to lift weights and I

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knew that Before I got my diagnosis

and I just knew that with aging

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weightlifting is so important But I think

I don't know if I knew how important

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and I didn't know if I realized How

much better it would make me feel?

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and the thing about weightlifting was even

in like the darkest days when I maybe I

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mean I tolerated things pretty well, but

Maybe was feeling a little bit tired I

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would go down in my basement and I would

just have a certain amount of weights

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and I had a program that I did and in my

mind I was like, I'm going to come out

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of this stronger than I went into this.

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And that was hard because

I started with soup cans.

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After you have surgery, you

can't jump into lifting the heavy

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weights that you were before.

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So I started with soup cans and I took.

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And I've never done that.

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Whenever I've done weightlifting, I have

like just rifled through as fast as I

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could and made it a cardio workout too.

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And I don't think that's all bad,

but there is something really

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beautiful about taking your time.

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I'd put on an episode of

heartland, which I love.

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I would watch it and I would

lift and I would feel my muscles.

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I would really concentrate

on what I was doing.

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And I will add, I did have a physical

therapist that came up with my strength

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training plan, but I know that in

the past I've had my son do it.

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Just having someone with a little bit of

knowledge, put something together for you.

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And I became dedicated to

doing a full body lift.

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at least two times a week.

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I really do try to do three times a week.

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I am telling you, I think it helps.

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It does.

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It's supposed to help

speed up your metabolism.

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Your muscles are like your biggest organ

and we really want them to be healthy.

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So everything that you can do to

build those is going to make you

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feel better and healthier and

stronger So that has been a change.

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And I always kind of want it to do it,

but never really dedicate it myself.

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I don't know if many of you were like

this, but back in the eighties and

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nineties and early two thousands,

I was all about the cardio and not

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anything to do with weightlifting.

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I just thought burn,

burn, burn, burn, burn.

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So different now.

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I do like to go on short little runs

one or two times a week because I

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know it's really good for my bone

density, which is very important to me.

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But I go on way more walks than I ever

have just to keep that body moving.

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And then the weightlifting, I am dedicated

to it and I still will speed through

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it sometimes, Most of the time I take

my time to enjoy it and I never really

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have but if you take your time and feel

your muscles moving you actually can

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enjoy the workout and even, you know,

it's strenuous, but it's different.

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It's slower paced and I've

started to really enjoy that.

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So that's another thing I did.

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So I'm just giving you this

information because if you're going

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through a hard time, maybe add in

lifting weights and you don't have

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to do it for an hour or 45 minutes.

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Even if you just do something for

10 minutes a day, it's going to

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be a positive impact and change.

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We don't have to make

big changes overnight.

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I made the decision to make huge

whopper changes all at once because

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of my life circumstances, it doesn't

have to be that way for everyone.

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And I have learned now how to move slower,

but We all know it's a fact it's key.

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it's healthy.

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It's great.

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You're not going to get fat lifting

weights I think I used to worry about that

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a little bit but I do this amazing body

pump class in a little town in Wisconsin.

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And there are women that are older,

a little bit older than I am, and

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they look amazing and they are

so inspiring and the small little

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town I'm finding my inspiration.

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And so I've really enjoyed, I think

it's called a body pump class,

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but, so that is one thing where I'm

actually getting my community fixed.

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And I'm getting my weightlifting.

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It's a game changer.

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It makes me happy.

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It makes me feel good.

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So that is the fourth

pillar of my resilience.

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And the fifth is the one that I'm

still working on and that is the rest.

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and the reducing the stress.

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And what I am starting to figure out is

as I am learning how to have a little bit

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more fun, it relieves my stress a bit.

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I still fall prey to wanting

to be perfect, wanting to do it

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absolutely, you know, just right.

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If I can let go of that, And right

now it's kind of seeing that it's

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happening and trying to let it go.

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That's helping me also.

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the breath, I want to share

the breath work that I learned.

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And I learned this from that functional

assessment nurse practitioner

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who's going to be on this podcast.

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but she told me, and this was

so easy for me to do, and it has

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helped me sleep better and my stress

levels during the day are lower.

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when I wake up in the morning almost every

morning, I try to remember to do this.

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I breathe in through my nose for

the count of five it doesn't have

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to be exactly five But in through

my nose for five, I hold it for six.

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I breathe out with pursed

lips for 10 seconds.

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And then I hold for four seconds.

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And I do that over and over

again for five minutes.

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I do it at night, I do it in the morning.

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And you can be reading a book or listening

to a podcast while you're doing this.

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It has made a huge difference.

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Now I am going to do a podcast about

breath work where I get a little bit

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more because there has been more core

breathing that I've learned about that

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also seems to be reducing my stress.

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But.

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It is such an important piece and

it is the piece that I missed.

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You know, I'm telling you, I don't know

why we won't give ourselves a break.

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And like, even if you're feeling stressed

during the day, I would never have given

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myself a, Hey, you know, let's just stop

a minute and take some deep breaths.

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And you usually know when you're

feeling it, but sometimes I don't.

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I, Totally recommend those.

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In fact, I am going to, when I do

that breathing episode, I'm going to

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try to get aura on there so that you

can get in there and get a ring if

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you want, because they're amazing.

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They help you learn about your sleep

patterns and your stress during

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the day, I wouldn't know that I was

stressed if I wasn't able to see

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the results and to see the data.

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And that is something that's so important.

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some of the data is how you feel,

but there are other factors as well.

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Has been key.

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I think probably the most important

thing that I've learned is to have fun.

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And I mean, what a great thing to be

able to finally stop feeling like I'm

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spinning wheels, achieve, achieve,

achieve, and just slow down and go.

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Let's have a little fun.

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Let's have fun with weightlifting.

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Let's have fun with horses.

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Let's have fun with quick

little jogs and with friends.

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And so those are the last two.

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This was so quick and easy, just

a quick little 10 minute hitter.

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But I wanted to make sure that

I got all those pillars, those

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five pillars that help me through

a really, really hard time.

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And I know that I'm

going to keep doing it.

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And I know it can help you

through a really hard time.

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So.

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Thank you for being here.