Dr. Rick with GS kids

What is the relationship between moon walking and cardiology? My students can tell you.

My students and teachers are moon-walking, rhythmically gyrating and thumping to the tune of “Beat It,” engaging in laughing bouts, and exchanging humorous remarks as they listen, inquire and explore the wonders of one of the hardest working machines ever known to human life. The children are not in recess. They are in fact, absorbed in an intelligent discourse with Dr. Rick, a professor and medical doctor, specializing in cardiology. They are discussing Heart-y Matters.

According to Dr. Rick, moon-walking is related to the study of cardiology! Kids were surprised when the doctor started moonwalking and encouraged everyone to do so as part of the lesson. Even our professional dance teacher was floored. How appropriate to play “Beat It” to get everyone’s heart happily thumping.

In just a few musical moments, the doctor was graphically able to demonstrate a series of essential heart matters that are often overlooked and taken for granted by most people. Just in a span of significant seconds, he joyfully thumped vital life signals that every child will forever remember.

Since you missed the hearty session, let me share to you matters of the heart that really matter in life.

Dance Beats

Life should be lived in full by donning a FUN attitude and outlook. Free yourself from the shackles of negativism, even society’s stereotypes. Unburden yourself because it’s hard to travel through life with excess baggage. Be uninhibited. Spontaneity offers a delightful store of surprises. No to negativism. That’s our hearty FUN life formula.

Kids are best models for a life lived in a fun way because in their unADULTerated state, they are naturally FUN. It is only when the adult influences the child that the fun slowly seeps away. They begin to learn how to bind themselves with negativism and carry emotional backpacks.

It is less stressful when you do not worry what other people think. Dancing has that effect on people. When you dance for yourself, in its purest sense, you are expressing yourself without care on what others think.

No Laughing Matter

Laughter is the twin sibling of fun. You cannot have fun and not laugh. Laughter is the joyful language of the heart. A cheerful heart is good medicine, the wise book says. Laughter each day does not only bust the blues away, it keeps the heart throbbing healthy life beats. A good laugh has magical effects not only to one’s soul but to others who hear it.

Sadness and stress are killers; and that is based on medical research. Studies have shown that exercise can prolong life. Laughter is a lung exercise.

These hearty matters are never stressed enough. I do not recall my teachers presenting to me these life’s treasures. What I remember was that I was swamped with an overwhelming amount of schoolwork that challenged the mind but left my physical muscles to atrophy as I strained to sit tight and work hard for long hours.

The Asian way or Philippine style of traditional learning, these days, seemed to have been limited in the world of textbooks and computer work. There is more to the world of learning using all the senses God has given each person. Students need to fall in love with learning instead of stressing their heart meeting endless deadl(y)lines!

Eating Healthy

Another substantial and practical hearty lesson is to eat healthy foods. Fatty and oily diet can clog the heart. Even the most scientific and meticulous lecture does not have enough power to change a person’s mind to change his/her diet. Thankfully, younger children’s minds are easier to mold and direct if a lesson is presented concretely.

If you are familiar with the George Foreman grill, you will understand my story. I simply show to the children how much fat a pound of ground beef has, for instance, by grilling it with this special grill that separates the oil from the beef. When the oil solidifies, they apply the circulatory and digestive processes that they learn. Blood flow gets affected by the wrong diet. Life lessons are drilled with the grill.

One day, my 4-year-old student sang our hearty song to her mother, “My heart is pumping blood. Thank you Lord for the beating of my heart.”

Teach heart-healthy vital life lessons that really matter in life. May this awesome truth strike your life in a positive way today …and even make you whistle a happy tune, laugh and dance with all your heart.