Chautauqua Highlights

Good Morning! We are back home and I could not wait to get back to blogging. Chautauqua is a place where you can keep yourself mighty busy from dawn to dusk and to be honest, I just took advantage of that and enjoyed myself.

We had a great trip but have all decided that we need to go for TWO weeks next summer. The week flew by and I personally was not ready to come home yet. I would have loved another week to explore and recharge. I love the philosophy of Chautauqua: Everyone ?has a right to be all that he can be -- to know all that he can know.?

I love going to Chautauqua for many reasons but one of the main things is that it is a mix of old and young and I am so inspired by the older generation. They are out on their bikes, going to lectures, keeping their minds engaged and their bodies active. I love to run on the grounds of Chautauqua and many a morning I was running at the same time as a 75 year old woman who was in amazing shape and quick! I was so inspired by her and vowed that I would do all I can to keep my own mind engaged and my body active to age as gracefully as him.

The theme of week 3 was State of Mind and I learned all sorts of interesting things about the brain. One of the things I heard over and over again this past week is that two things help spur the growth of brain cells and enhance mental clarity into older ages and those are: Exercise and Meditation or Spiritual Practice

These two things have been scientifically proven to prevent and mitigate the symptoms of mental illness. As a personal trainer and yoga instructor I am a firm believer of this already but it was so cool to go learn more about it and to keep on my journey of exploration.

Some of the amazing lectures I went to were:

Thomas Insel, M.D., director, National Institute of Mental Health

Robert G. Toth, executive director, and Frank Peabody III, board chair, The Merton Institute for Contemplative Living

Elizabeth Loftus, prof. Univ. Cal. Irvine; expert on human memory

Elizabeth Lesser, co-founder, Omega Institute; author, Broken Open

Kay Redfield Jamison, prof. of psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

On my list of places I want to go to is the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. Elizabeth Lesser is the co-founder of the Omega Institute and an amazing woman. I was so inspired by her lecture and picked up her book called The Seeker's Guide- Making
Your Life a Spiritual Adventure.



I also picked up Exuberance The Passion for Life by Kay Redfield Jamison. She is another amazing woman who has bi-polar disease and has gone public with her disease. She is Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University of Medicine and author of An Unquiet Mind which is an awesome book that gives you a glimpse into what it is like to have bi-polar disease. I read An Unquiet Mind about 7 years ago and was very moved by it then and it was a real treat to see her in person discuss her trials and tribulations of living with bi-polar disorder.

Proust was Neuroscientist by Johah Lehrer, is another book that my husband picked up that he will be blogging about later today. He is a journalist by trade and has offered to be my guest blogger to discuss some of his experiences at Chautauqua.

Some of the other highlights of Chautauqua were:

Walking or riding my bike everywhere- no cars
Going to the Messiah Sing a Long
Watching the North Carolina Dance Theatre performance
Cirque Sublime- Amazing Show! I have never seen people with more CORE Strength than these performers. I am inspired to start doing pilates again.
The Chautauqua Symphony performance was beautiful and peaceful.
Discovering the Chautauqua Bats! Yikes.
Thanksgiving Dinner at Chautauqua
The Boys and Girls Club Camp- my kids had the best time. They spent their week swimming, sailing, kayaking, playing games, arts and crafts and singing camp songs.
Playing tennis
Eating Perry's Ice Cream
Having my sister Susan come to Chautauqua for a few days and spending time with Grandma!

and the ultimate was going to the ABBA Tribute Band the last night at the Amphitheatre. Okay, so I have to admit that I actually thought that the real band ABBA was coming but needless to say, two of the original members from the band did come, and the show was super fun! Complete with Disco Ball and all the favorite songs: Waterloo, Mama Mia, SOS, Dancing Queen!

Okay, enough about Chautauqua.... it is a wonderful and special place and I can't wait to go back.

Sister Susan


Steve's 40th Birthday!


Zoe and Ella, her new friend from Boston ( Zoe wants to move to Boston now, so she can play with Ella everyday!)


On deck today:

Getting back into the groove of things
Laundry
Exercise
(the scale was a nice surprise today-- despite eating ice cream cones and chocolate cake, all the exercise payed off and I was actually down a few pounds- Yah!)
Watching the British Open
Going to the grocery store
Making a healthy feast on the grill tonight!

I will touch base later regarding food!