Mountain View News Saturday, April 18, 2026 
1010 
Mountain View News Saturday, April 18, 2026 
1010 
Michele Silence, M.A. is a 37-year certified fitness 
professional who offers semi-private/virtual fit-
ness classes. Contact Michele at michele@kid-fit. 
com. Visit her Facebook page at: michelesfitness 
Visit her Facebook page at: michelesfitness. 


HEALTHSPAN VS. LIFESPAN 

For years, most people have defined health the same way. If you go to 
the doctor and your tests come back normal, you’re considered healthy. 
No disease, no problem. But that idea is starting to change. More and 
more experts are now looking at health in a different way. Instead of 
asking what’s wrong with your body, they’re asking what your body can 
actually do. That may sound simple, but it’s a big shift. 

Think about it this way. Can you get up off the floor without using your 
hands? Can you carry groceries from your car to your kitchen without 
feeling exhausted? Can you walk up a flight of stairs without needing 
to stop and catch your breath? Can you keep your balance if you trip?
These may not sound like “fitness tests,” but they are becoming some of 
the most important measures of health. 

In the past, someone could be told they are healthy because they don’t 
have heart disease, diabetes, or any major medical condition. But at 
the same time, that same person might struggle with basic movements, 
tire easily, or feel unsteady on their feet. Under the old definition, that 
person was healthy. Under the newer way of thinking, they may alreadybe at risk. 

This is where the idea of functional health comes in. It simply means how well your body works in real life, 
not in a lab or on paper, but in your everyday activities. It’s not about how much you can bench press or how 
fast you can run a mile. It’s about whether your body allows you to live your life safely, independently, and 
with energy. 

Consider two people. The first has no diagnosed health problems. Their blood pressure is normal, and their 
lab work looks fine. But they have trouble getting up from a chair without using their hands, avoid stairs, 
and feel tired after short periods of activity. The second person has a manageable condition like high blood 
pressure but walks regularly, has good balance, moves easily, and stays active throughout the day. Which one 
is healthier? More and more, the answer is the second person, because health is not just about what you don’t 
have. It’s about what you can do. 

This idea is especially important as we get older, but it applies at any age. For younger people, this matters 
more than you would think. It’s easy to assume strength and energy will always be there, but that’s not how 
it works. The habits you build now determine how well your body functions later. Long hours of sitting, 
avoiding effort, and doing less physically can slowly reduce your ability to move well. Building strength,
balance, and endurance early creates a foundation that carries you through life. 

Your ability to move well affects your independence, your safety, and your quality of life. One of the biggest 
concerns is falls. Loss of strength, balance, and coordination increases the risk of falling, and falls can lead 
to serious injuries. These problems don’t appear overnight. They build slowly over time when we stop 
challenging our bodies. 

The good news is that functional ability can be improved, and it doesn’t require a complicated workout plan 
or expensive equipment. It starts with paying attention to how you move in your daily life. Practice getting up 
and down from a chair without using your hands. Take the stairs when you can. Carry your own groceries. 
Work on your balance by standing on one leg for a few seconds. Move in different ways instead of repeating 
the exact same routine every day. These small actions help maintain strength, coordination, and confidence. 

Exercise also doesn’t have to be extreme to be effective. Being able to do everyday activities with ease is 
often more valuable than pushing through a hard workout once in a while. Consistency matters more than 
intensity. When you move your body regularly in ways that reflect real life, you build a kind of fitness that 
supports you where it counts the most. 

This shift in thinking also takes some pressure off. You don’t have to chase perfection or compare yourself 
to others. You simply need to maintain and improve your ability to function in your own life. That’s a much 
more realistic and meaningful goal. 

So the next time you think about your health, don’t just think about doctor visits or test results. Think about 
how you move, how you feel, and what your body allows you to do each day. Because in the end, true health 
isn’t just about the absence of disease. It’s about having the strength, balance, and ability to live your life the 
way you want. 


Lori A. Harris 


UNLOCK YOUR LIFE 

THE GRATITUDE UPGRADE: 
A Guaranteed Mood Lifter 

Feeling sad, mad, or grumpy? Good.
There is nothing wrong with a day filled with things you would 
not choose. In fact, those hard days are doing something important: 
they are showing you the contrast. It is precisely because 
we know discomfort that we can recognize and genuinely 
appreciate the times when life feels good. That is the law of polarity 
at work. 

But here is where many of us make things worse. When times are 

difficult, we resist. Without meaning to, we become attached to 
how things were, or how we believe they should be. We are lulled into expecting conditions 
to remain comfortable, or at least to improve. Always. 

My teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, offered a radical reminder: we almost never appreciate the 
non-toothache. The absence of pain barely registers. We race past our blessings on the way 
to our burdens. Learning to love what is, even when it is hard, is both the exercise and the 
gift. 

The Tool I Come Back to Every Time 

Rather than fighting a difficult season, I rely on a practice that reliably lifts my mood. It 
involves no numbing, no scrolling, no addictive distraction that leaves you feeling worse. It 
is guaranteed. And it is free. 
It is gratitude. 

Research bears this out. SoulPancake, as part of The Science of Happiness project, studied 
what actually moves the needle on human wellbeing and found that expressing gratitude, 
especially to another person, produced one of the most significant emotional boosts of 
any activity tested. The effect was immediate. And it grew when the gratitude was spoken 
aloud. 

When you look for something good, something to appreciate, you will feel better. Instantly. 
Not eventually, instantly. And there is a rocket-fuel version of this practice that takes it to 
another level entirely.
The Gratitude Letter Practice 
Try this. Settle in somewhere and let your mind move back through your life. Where have 
you come from?
Let the images come. People. Teachers. A neighbor. A mentor. Someone who saw you before 
you saw yourself.
Make a list. Let it grow. At a recent retreat I led, one participant filled an entire page, front 
and back, and she was not finished.
Then, choose one person. Write them a letter. Tell them specifically what you are grateful 
for. Describe how their presence or their actions shaped your life. And close with the fullness 
of your genuine appreciation, not a polished sign-off, but a real one.
Now: pick up the phone and read it to them.
I know, It may feel vulnerable, but do it anyway.
There is nothing more nourishing. Nothing more fulfilling. Your heart will fill, and, fair 
warning, your eyes may leak.
Want to build a sustainable gratitude practice? Visit loriaharris.com to learn more about 
my work and pick up the 21-Day Gratitude Train Journal, a guided companion to make this 
your daily rhythm, not just a one-time lift. 

— Lori A. Harris is an Integrative Change Coach and Life Mastery Consultant. Her column, “Unlock 
Your Life,” runs weekly in Mountain Views News. 
If you’re thinking of making amove next year give me a call!
DRE#02015404 
626.253.1323 
suecookrealtor@gmail.com 
You Deserve an Agent Who 
Will Do More Than Just Sell 
Your Home 


Learn why sellers say that working with me was 
the difference between success and stress! 


ALL THINGS by Jeff Brown 

HOW FLOWERS MADE OUR WORLD 

By David George Haskell

 An exquisite exploration of the power of flowers, placing 
them at the center of the story of how evolution created the 
world we know today

We live on a floral planet, yet flowers don’t get the credit theydeserve. We admire them for their aesthetics, not their power. 
In this exquisite exploration of the role flowers played in creating 
the world we know today, David George Haskell observes, 
smells, and studies flowers such as magnolias, orchids, and 
roses, as well as fascinating but less celebrated flowers such as 
seagrasses and tea to show us what we’ve been missing.

 Flowers are beautiful revolutionaries. When they evolved, 
they remade the natural world: Gorgeous petals and alluring 
aromas transformed former enemies into cooperative partners. Flowers reinvented plant 
sexuality and motherhood, bringing male and female together in the same flower and amply 
provisioning seeds and fruits, innovations that also feed legions of animals, ourselves 
included. Through radical genetic flexibility, flowers turned past environmental upheavals 
into opportunities for renewal. This inventiveness allowed them to build and sustain rain-
forests, savannahs, prairies, and even ocean shores.

 
Without flowers, human beings would not exist. We are a floral species. Flowers catalyzed 
our evolution, and we now depend on them for food and a healthy planet. When we 
perfume ourselves, give a loved one a bouquet, or use blooms in gardens and religious ceremonies, 
we honor the special bond between people and flowers. The study of flowers also 
shaped modern science and horticulture in ways both marvelous and, sometimes, unjust.

 Looking to the future, flowers offer us lessons on resilience and creativity in the face 
of rapid environmental change. We need floral creativity, beauty, and joy more than ever. 
How Flowers Made Our World combines lyrical writing, sensual exploration, and the latest 
in scientific research to explore some of the most consequential life forms ever to have 
evolved, showing how our planet came to be and how it thrives today.
David George Haskell is a biologist acclaimed for his lyrical explorations of the living world. 
His books have twice been finalists for Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, in 2012 for The Forest 
Unseen and in 2022 for Sounds Wild and Broken. His 2017 book, The Songs of Trees 
won the John Burroughs Medal.Other literary honors include an Award in Literature from 
American Academy of Arts and Letters, and winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s 
Science Communication Award, the National Academies’ Best Book Award, Iris Book 
Award, Reed Environmental Writing Award, and National Outdoor Book Award for Natural 
History Literature. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, a Guggenheim Fellow, 
and is Adjunct Professor of Environmental Sciences at Emory University.

 You can order this book at Sierra Madre’s Bookstore Fables & Fancies 50 W Sierra Madre 
Blvd 626-655-8856 


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com