Laura Motes - The Benefits of Relying on Native Plant Species

Laura Motes enjoys learning about the flora and fauna of Georgia. She is a huge animal lover, and she loves gardening to a great degree. She is also a big believer in going native when it comes to planting, and for good reasons. 

You Can Save Water That Way

Not many people know, but planting native plants likely means that you can save water. The reason is very simple and logical: native plants are used to the local conditions. They thrived in that area for a reason, and that includes irrigation. Local species require very little extra help in terms of watering. 

Low Maintenance Costs

Once again, native species were able to thrive because they were able to evolve. It is very likely that they have natural defenses, or else they can rely on another species that helps them out in their battle against pests. 

If You Enjoy the Local Wildlife, It Is a No-Brainer

Local wildlife prefers local plants; it’s just the way nature works. If you love butterflies or other native insects, relying on local species is a must. There are many species of beneficial insects that help the local plants grow, and these insects usually lure in other animals that can be equally interesting. 

Support Nature

Plants and animals have less and less of their natural habitat to themselves. If you plant local species, you help them out just a little bit, providing them the valuable living-space they can thrive in.

Laura Motes is an avid gardener who always tries to plant native species in an effort to support the local ecology. 

Sources:

http://www.cnps.org/cnps/grownative/benefits.php

Laura Motes - The Rules of Trail Running

Laura Motes enjoys doing nontraditional training, including trail running. The activity, which is also called off-road running, comes with different challenges, and requires different rules and etiquette as well. 

Yield to Slower Runners

When it comes to trail running – or trail biking for that matter – the faster person should always yield to the slower one. This means slowing down a bit, and if the situation warrants it, even getting out of the way.

Stay on the Trail

Staying on the trail is extremely important for a variety of reasons. One of them is the obvious safety issue. If anything were to happen, people would start to look on and very near the trail. The other aspect has everything to do with habitat. If you leave the trail, you can easily destroy habitat, and if more people follow the example, after a while a new trail can emerge which can lead to additional confusion and safety issues. 

Don’t Leave Any Garbage

Littering is one of the most damaging activities people can do. Garbage not only damages the environment through a variety of negative processes, but it also reduces the quality of trail running for others. 

Be Aware of Your Surroundings

Knowing and understanding what goes on around you is the best possible way of enjoying trail running. That way, you can not only respect other runners and their activity, but you will be as safe as possible.

Laura Motes is an avid trail runner who enjoys the activity for a variety of reasons, including being able to explore new areas. 

Sources:

http://running.competitor.com/2014/05/training/the-off-road-rules-practice-proper-trail-running-etiquette_32863

Laura Motes - Sport Can Prevent Cancer

As a physically active person who spent the vast majority of her professional career in law enforcement, Laura Motes knows that exercise is one of the most crucial tools one can rely on to become healthier. Various studies found a link between being active and reducing cancer risks. When we are talking about sport as a way to prevent certain diseases, the implication is always a reduced risk, rather than a complete, bulletproof immunity from these medical conditions.

                                             

Waistline and Breast Size

 

More than 20 studies have found that women who regularly exercise have a vastly reduced chance of developing cancer. These women had 30 to 40% less chances of developing breast cancer, when compared to women of similar age who lived a more sedentary lifestyle.

Colon Cancer

 

Each year, more than 150,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with colon cancer. Similarly to the occurrence of breast cancer, studies have found a link between increased activity levels and the potential prevention of colon cancer. In general, those who exercise a lot enjoy significantly reduced odds of developing any form of the disease.

Can It Be Too Much?

 

According to various guidelines, the goal should be to exercise every day, at least half an hour. If one really wants to get all the potential benefits, however, one hour is closer to the daily recommendation.

Laura Motes exercises regularly, and hopes that people of all ages will realize just how massive a difference it can make in our lives, both from a physical and mental standpoint.

Sources:
https://www.fredhutch.org/en/events/healthy-living/Trim-Risk.html

Laura Motes - Healthy Living and Positive Rituals

Laura Motes has been working as a police officer for a long time and she knows about the power of positive rituals.
Great athletes, CEOs, and doctors all rely on positive rituals to structure their lives and achieve their goals. The same is true of people who ground their lives in certain values, such as healthy living.

It is easy to dismiss the idea of rituals because it may seem that they would make your life rigid and extreme.
At the same time, if you observe the areas of your life where you perform exceptionally well, you will notice that you already have a lot of rituals around it. These rituals may include a morning routine of getting ready, a planning session for the day or week ahead, or the time that you spend with your family.

Rituals do not preclude spontaneity. On the contrary, they provide a level of security and comfort that allows us to try new things, take risks, and improvise. They provide a stable, predictable environment where breakthroughs and records can happen. Think of a great athlete establishing a new record or an executive making progress by coming up with a highly unusual structure for a deal that works for all the involved parties.

Rituals can also facilitate recovery and renewal. By their nature, rituals conserve energy. Will and discipline are resources that have very limited reserves. The unfortunate truth is that we have very little will power, and can control our behavior consciously for only short periods of time.

This is why rituals are so powerful. If you want to take your health to the next level, don’t hope that you will have enough will power. Create rituals that will help you accomplish your goals. As someone who worked as a police officer for twenty-one years, Laura Motes has created a number of rituals for herself, including spending time off on Broad River.
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Laura Motes - Healthy Living and Emotions

As a former police officer, Laura Motes knows how important it is to stay emotionally calm no matter what.

When thinking about healthy living, many people focus on physical exercise, eating properly, and sleeping enough hours, and completely forget to pay attention to their emotional well-being.

Physical energy is what we need to be able to do any kind of work or activity. At the same time, to be able to perform well we need to have pleasant and positive emotions in addition to having physical energy.

Negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger, and sadness release stress hormones into our bodies. This is why they are associated with feeling toxic.

In addition to having a healthy body, healthy living is impossible without the capacity to skillfully manage emotions, have high positive energy, and achieve full engagement in both personal and professional life.

Emotional energy works very similarly to physical energy. Our emotions need a balance between exercise and recovery. When our emotional muscles are weak, for example if we lack confidence or have too little patience, we need to learn to push through our current emotional capacity and then rest and recover.

Not only do physical and emotional aspects of our lives work in a similar manner, but physical and emotional capacities are extremely interconnected.

When we have a deadline that we need to meet, we emotionally feel a sense of urgency. This emotion immediately influences our physical state. We start moving faster and working quicker to meet the deadline.

This is why mastering emotional energy is so important for a healthy and productive life, especially if you work in a profession with high levels of stress like Laura Motes, who was a police officer for twenty-one years.

Laura Motes - The Importance of Exercise for Healthy Living

As a former police officer, Laura Motes is passionate about being healthy and exercising.

Given the number of benefits that even moderate physical exercise brings to our bodies, physical energy, and emotions, it may seem incredible that only a small percentage of our society exercises on a regular basis.

                                       

There is a simple explanation for why this happens. Physical exercise is about experiencing discomfort and getting our bodies out of their comfort zones. The benefits occur only after the discomfort, which makes most people quit before they can actually experience any of the benefits. 

Both strength and cardio training have a paramount influence on energy levels, health, and performance. 

The typical recommended exercise routine for the average adult includes twenty to thirty minutes of continuous exercise three to five days a week. 

In recent years, researchers have been saying that interval training, defined as short periods of intense aerobic activity followed by complete recovery, has profound positive effects, too. 

Interval training has not only physical benefits, but is also a practical reflection of our daily lives. Running up and down the stairs, bicycling, and sprinting are all examples of exercises that rhythmically raise our heart rate.   

There are many studies by scientists and businesses that prove the direct link between physical exercise and performance. 

For example, DuPont claimed a 47.5% reduction in employees skipping work over a six-year period of employee participation in DuPont’s corporate wellness program. DuPont also reported that employees who participated in the wellness program used fourteen percent% less disability days than other workers.  

Laura Motes believes that staying fit and healthy played a tremendous role in her advancement during her career with the police.

Laura Motes - Healthy Living, Stress, and Recovery

Laura Motes worked as a police officer for twenty-one years and she knows a lot about stress.

Our bodies require stress in order to grow. This is true for physical, mental, and emotional aspects of our lives. Stress needs to be followed by renewal.

Laura Motes

A lot of people think that a healthy life is a stress-free life. This is simply not true. A muscle that does not experience any stress dies very quickly. A muscle that gets no rest breaks very quickly. Growth and health require both stress and recovery.

A healthy life is a life that has a balance of stress and recovery. All great athletes and performers in all areas of life have rituals that help them optimize moving between recovery and stress.

The more effective and precise your recovery rituals, the quicker you can move to high performance.

The bigger the challenge, the more precise the rituals need to be. The Navy is a great example of this. It has rituals so precise and exact that it is able to turn soft and slow teenagers into mission-driven, confident, lean soldiers in about ten weeks. Recruits are forced to build rituals around all areas of their lives. There’s a ritual for how they talk, how they walk, what time they wake up in the morning and go to bed, when they eat, what they eat, and how they act under pressure.

In the same manner you can introduce rituals, stress, and recovery in your life. For example, Laura Motes loves spending time outdoors. It helps her relax and rejuvenate.