Could there be a higher purpose for REAL wellness, an outcome that trumps all others? How about becoming a better human being?
 
There are almost countless benefits to living in a fashion more or less consistent with lifestyles most would associate with wellness. Healthy and constructive attitudes and behaviors, skill sets and commitments to positive living seem self-evidently desirable. Not a lot of attention has been given to any kind of hierarchy of benefits from such disciplined, self-directed lifestyles. Well, maybe someone should. Maybe I will.
 

Could there be a higher purpose for REAL wellness, an outcome that trumps all others? How about becoming a better human being?
 
There are almost countless benefits to living in a fashion more or less consistent with lifestyles most would associate with wellness. Healthy and constructive attitudes and behaviors, skill sets and commitments to positive living seem self-evidently desirable. Not a lot of attention has been given to any kind of hierarchy of benefits from such disciplined, self-directed lifestyles. Well, maybe someone should. Maybe I will.
 

I read a provocative article the other day by Greta Christina. Entitled, "Five Stupid, Unfair and Sexist Things Expected of Men," it suggests that men are victims of sexism, as much as women. Of course we all knew that sexism hurts women, but how many of us think about sexism working against men? The thought is enough to rattle the chauvinist male piggies among us.

If Someone Asks You to Pay for His Exercise, Should You? A Critical Look at Contributing to, Or Seeking Donations Related to Participation in an Event for a Cause

A few years ago, a Running Times article noted that charities and running events "are inextricably intertwined." Individuals competing for a cure for one thing or another "have raised millions, if not billions, of dollars for hundreds of worthy causes."(See Jim Gerweck, "Finishing Kick: Charity Begins at Home," Running Times Magazine, December 2005.)

This weekend, the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) will sponsor a dozen or so billboards around this metropolitan area promoting freethought ideas. Such ideas are very much at odds with prevailing Christian orthodoxy in Florida and most of the American south. This is certainly true of such eye-catching, mind-engaging phrases on billboards as:

Not many doctors conduct freedom tests on their patients during clinical history taking. They check blood pressure, heart rate, weight and height, cholesterol and triglyceride levels and sometimes body composition, but almost never ask patients about how their liberty is going or if they feel free enough. In his classic work "How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World" (Avon, 1973), Harry Browne's first sentence was, "Freedom is the opportunity to live your life as you want to live it." That sentence set me on my path to wellness.

Did you know that many American companies pay employees to exercise?

A Wall Street Journal article entitled, Employees Get Financial Incentives to Lose Weight (July 8, 2010) describes the extent to which some employers will go to induce workers to make sensible choices that reduce their risks of preventable illnesses. For the most part, payments are offered to motivate overweight or obese employees to walk, run, bike, swim or otherwise move more often than is their custom. What do you think of this practice? Before deciding, let me tell you a bit more about it.

One of my favorite movies last year was "Doubt." Doubt is a drama set in 1964 starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Sister Aloysius Beauvier and Father Brendan Flynn, respectively. Streep's character is a rigid and suspicious principal or Mother Superior at a Catholic school in the Bronx; Hoffman is a kindly, wise priest assigned to the school. Both have their doubts about each other.