Thursday, October 29, 2015

Essential Tools & Inventions that Make Life Better!

Essential tools mark the passage of time and the establishment of civilizations. The creation of tools to help the health of mankind are one of our civilization's ultimate legacies.

Francis W. Parker, a school in Chicago, boasts a motto which sums up what is best believed about human nature and its usage of essential tools:

“Everything to help, and nothing to hinder.”

Mother Necessity leads to amazing innovations and inventions to help us lead safe, efficient, and productive lives. Everything we enjoy, ingest and share is dependent upon essential tools. Essential tools and instruments give us art, health, shelter, and sustenance.

What essential tools do you own?

It is such a simple question, and one that seemed too simple for even a blog—until you really think about it.

Consider some of the great moments in history and the mandatory tools that helped create them:

That unique pen that allowed the Founding Fathers to sign the Declaration of Independence

The first tool allowing humankind to bend and mold metals to create musical instruments, allowing the creation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  (Many of our readers say listening to Beethoven’s masterpiece is an essential tool to uplift their spirits.)

Even the essential hockey stick used to score the winning goal in the 1980 Olympics’ Miracle on Ice!

It's often easy to take for granted, but when you take a moment to truly appreciate the tools that help allow every day to happen, it's quite astounding.

Let’s expand upon sports and essential tools developed out of necessity.

Humans needed to run for survival, so we developed protection for our feet and invented shoes. As civilization progressed, we created stronger, lighter, and more stylish shoes. Essential running shoes were developed for conditioning and sport. The likes of Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Saucony and New Balance were invented. Each one offers features, benefits, and solutions unique to our needs.

The same is true for exercise and stretching. Essential exercise tools make exercising easier, more productive, accurate, safer, and effective. Lifting a dumbbell is more accurate, easy, and safe, than say, lifting a pile of books. Using a treadmill makes it easy to keep track of speed, time, and distance. Using a jump rope with handles is much easier on our hands than frayed rope or everyday barn cord.

That is why Miracle Stretch® created the patented Piri-Stretcher® home therapy tool. The little piriformis muscle is a hard one to isolate, and when tight, it compresses the sciatic nerve, which results in low back, buttocks, and leg pain. The Piri-Stretcher® is designed for leverage, isolation, and control to help you gently relax the piriformis with an optimal, productive, and safe stretch.

Using an essential tool like the Piri-Stretcher®, there is no uncomfortable twisting, crunching, or worrying about whether you are doing it right. We make it simple. We make it reliable. We make it effective to combat your pain, and affordable so everyone can experience relief.

You simply just have to use the tool and relax into a focused stretch.

Every day we get thank you emails, comments and letters from folks who have used the Piri-Stretcher® to help alleviate their pain and discomfort completely. We love to read them.

Thank you, and please keep them coming!

It is a humbling and rewarding experience to know the Piri-Stretcher® is a positive, essential tool in the process of healing. And to hear how it has made a difference to help you get back to life’s greatest moments.

“Everything to help, and nothing to hinder.”

And with the right people and essential tools, we are just getting started! 

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Hope Springs Eternal

“Hope springs eternal.”

Of course hope is very good to have, but it’s effectiveness increases exponentially when initiative or drive is applied to it.

Take the Chicago Cubs for example. It has been 107 years since the last World Series Championship.

107 years.

To put that in perspective, the last time the Cubs won the World Series, the Ship Titanic had yet to be completed, launched, and tragically sunk.(Like the many playoff attempts of the Chicago Cubs.)

But this year feels different. And please note: you do NOT need to be a Cubs fan to appreciate the amount of hope and excitement being felt in the hearts of CubsNation.

You don’t even have to be a baseball fan.

What we can all take away from this year’s Cubs season are many positives to apply to our own lives.

Do Not Accept Labels: The Cubs have been the “Loveable Losers” for generations. They are no longer accepting that moniker and are evolving the fans along with them on the journey of self-discovery. We can do the same. We all have bad habits but we are not condemned to them.  Those labels of “I’m too lazy to get up early to workout, or I could never learn a new language is an acceptance of failure without trying. That mentality is unacceptable.  So start your on fan base by creating something for YOU to cheer about. Even if you are the only member of the fan club. It will grow.

Next year is here: Change now. Yes, there is always next year, but why wait? Why not step up to the plate and make a small change in the right direction? Just make contact with the ball.  You don’t have to go undefeated, just string together some wins here and there and before you know it, you’re on a winning streak.

Why NOT you? Routine and comparing yourself to others are mental trappings. Avoid them. Being happy for others is always the right move, and it shows you are a good sport. But focus on your goals, your fundamentals, and before you know it, you are also a contender.

You’re always on deck, so keep your head in the game. It’s a long season. Pace yourself with reachable goals. “Experts” can predict outcomes on paper, but the game must still be played.  Be committed to yourself. Don’t be afraid to strike out swinging. You’ll be back up to bat soon enough. Give yourself motivation and do it daily if needed. Nothing wrong with making that voice inside your head a coach!

Trust in your team. There is a team around you. They are rooting for you and will pick you up when you need them. There is nothing like having support you can count on. Nothing. Remember those who are always cheering for you to succeed. At Miracle Stretch®, we love hearing about your successes!  We can’t wait to cheer you on! We are the ultimate bandwagon fans, we are always pulling for you to be pain free and back in the game of life.

Stretch.  There’s a 7th inning stretch in every game. It will provide relief and perspective while allowing you to recover energy,

That’s when you will shock the world by winning.

It happens all the time. We call that the Miracle Stretch.

(See what we did there?)


“Play ball!”