Sitting, tap, tap tapping…sadly not on my computer as a fantastic new post bubbled from my fertile imagination…just tapping, nonchalantly with my fingernails on the desk, pondering what the heck shall I write about today. Mind, empty, totally blank, barren of fresh new ideas. Heck a mind devoid of any ideas at all, let alone any that were fresh and new. And then…I did what I usually do when I’m stuck. I plonked myself down on my meditation chair. It’s not really a meditation chair, just a chair I like to sit in if I’m pondering something. And ponder I did, on the power of imagination. And how I desperately needed some right here and now. Funny how one thought is a jumping off spot for another. Imagination is amazing indeed. I thought of the people I personally know who’ve imagined their life to be better, or richer, or happier. …
A ounce of perception is worth a pound of performance, or so the saying goes. And according to the 2008 Harvard study of a small group of hotel housekeepers it would seem to be so. We have all seen hotel maids lugging heavy equipment around hotel corridors, yet those who participated in the study claimed never to exercise. And to add to the disconnect, given the amount of exercise these maids actually participated in on a daily basis, their body-fat, blood pressure, weight and body mass index matched their perception of how little exercise they undertook. Curiouser and curiouser. The housekeepers were split into two groups, one group being told that their daily activity met the surgeon general’s definition of an active lifestyle, and the other told nothing at all. A month goes by and the research team return to retake the physical measurements and surprise surprise. The group that…