Rockin' Rollin' Rockabilly

Growing up Rockabilly was one of my favorite types of music. I was shy in school, so I never learned to dance, but I would go and watch the dancers at the shows when the stars would come to town. I finally got over my shyness in my first year of University and learned to dance. 

Not as good as these couples but watching them brings back some great memories. Enjoy the dancing in the video. I think this is based on early rock, from the fifties, not the sixties, but I could be wrong.

Nature's greatest artist

Nature is amazing when we take the time to look. This short video shows what some males have to do to attract a mate. Well worth the three minutes it takes to view this.

Dealing with Stress? Try this

Stress is dangerous if we don't manage it, but how do we start to manage our stress? We all know we need to manage stress. When things get difficult at work, school, or in our personal life, we can use as many tips, tricks, and techniques as we can get to calm our nerves.

Here is one idea, use music. Sound therapies have long been popular as a way of relaxing and restoring one's health. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used music to enhance well-being and improve health conditions.

Now, neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes give you the most bang for your musical buck. Researchers at Mindlab International in the U.K. wanted to know what kind of music induces the greatest state of relaxation. 

The study involved having participants try to solve difficult puzzles — which inherently triggered a certain degree of stress — while connected to sensors. At the same time, participants listened to a range of songs as researchers measured their brain activity, heart rate, blood pressure and rate of breathing.

What they found is that one song — “Weightless” — resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction in participants’ overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates.

Interestingly, the song was specifically designed to induce this highly relaxed state. Created by the Marconi Union, the musicians teamed up with sound therapists to carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms and bass lines, which in turn slow a listener’s heart rate and blood pressure, while also lowering stress hormones like cortisol.

In fact, the music is so effective, that many of the female participants became drowsy — to the point where lead researcher Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson advises against listening to it while driving.


But don’t take their word for it. Experience it for yourself here:

8 TED talks on Ageing

I received the following email from Kimberly and I thought I would share. The videos are easy to watch and very informative.

I work for a digital marketing agency in Denver called Volume Nine (v9seo.com). I am writing today to pass along a wonderful blog post called "8 Incredible TED Talks About Aging" 

Here is the direct URL: http://westminsterplace.org/incredible-ted-talks-about-aging.html

This post features short videos from TED speakers on the topics of ageing from brain function and health to living passionately and happily as you get older. This is a great grouping of videos to watch for blog audiences of all ages! 

Please feel free to share this blog with your blog readers as we are excited to share this content and think this would be great information for your blog audience. We are not looking for any type of promotion or links - we just want to get this great content out to the masses. 

A little background: Presbyterian Homes is an independent, not-for-profit, faith-based organisation that provides quality independent living residential communities, health-care programs, and services for older adults.