(Brisa Starr)
I made a skills bucket list last year.
These are things that I want to do to improve my skills – which are good for body, brain, soul, work (if you work), and just basic bad-ass-ed-ness.
Here’s my list and how they have (or will) help.
[Read more…] about My “Skills” Bucket List For Bad-ass-ed-ness
Unexpectedly, yoga has given me confidence… in the way I move.
Some backstory: As I have gotten a little bit older, I have become more protective in the way I move. I frequently make sure that my posture is proper and I make sure that I’m not mindlessly bending in positions that could cause an injury. You know how it is… digging toys out from under couches or constantly picking stuff up off the floor.
A couple times I have bent over to pick up a doll and I tweaked my back. The tweak made life miserable for days. I now squat when picking up things, but there are many times I find myself in weird positions cleaning or carrying things or digging around cupboards. Or this(!)… I find that when I am getting my daughter out of her car seat (or strapping her into it) and tightening that belt while I’m in an awkward twist, I can’t help but think I’m perfectly primed for a tweak.
I lived life in such a way that I was a little guarded in my movements. I figured it came with the territory of getting older.
But something unexpected happened…
[Read more…] about I Didn’t Expect This From Yoga
Do you have mornings like me where it’s all go-go-go? I think Kamea’s face shows you perfectly how I am many mornings.
It seems like that is my morning on at least three days a week and it’s just too darn crazy. Man, I think to myself, I gotta slow down more. But who has the time? I certainly don’t want to wake up any earlier because sleep is too precious.
Life shouldn’t be this way.
[Read more…] about Three Ommms to Start the Day (and two deep breaths) – Highly Recommend.
I needed to make changes this year. Changes I made.
Last year, 2014, was a fun year, but pretty busy and consuming. There were times I felt a bit out of control as I navigated motherhood, wifehood, and balancing my insane foodie passion among other things. Culinary School anyone?
As some of you might know, for 2014, I was drawn to working on one goal throughout the year and that was meditation. I wrote about it here in more detail with info on how I did it with tips. I had decided that meditation, and calming my mind in general, was of paramount importance to my well being, even more so than diet and exercise.
How did it go? Well, it was a successful endeavor for the most part. Meditation, even if only a few minutes a day, became a regular part of my life. Mission accomplished. I also found that I immediately went to deep relaxing breaths when stress appeared – it became my natural response.
So why did I still feel a bit crazed as 2014 was coming to a close? I thought meditation would have been the answer to, well, almost everything. It helped for sure and I will continue to practice it. I imagine my telomeres lengthening with each session, and there are undoubtedly longevity benefits manifesting as a result.
I needed more though. Something was just too jittery in me to feel totally at peace and I don’t think it’s the coffee I drink. I felt a bit unbalanced and it made me uncomfortable.
Every New Year’s eve my husband and I sit down and write out our lists of goals and intentions for the coming year. I usually divide up the ideas by life segments such as career, family, relationships, leisure, finance, travel, etc.
For 2014, I did something different. I did something I’d never done before. I decided that 2014 was the year I would embrace only one goal for the whole year: Meditation.
Why only one goal? For a long time, I’d been wanting to make meditation a big part of my life, a regular staple in my daily routine. But for some reason, I wasn’t doing it consistently. I always said to myself, “Oh, I need to meditate…. I’ll do it tomorrow.” And, as the 2013 year was coming to an end, I decided it was of vital importance to make it a regular part of my life (and for my family, too). So important that it was going to be the only goal I focused on for the year.
Why I meditate. There was a reason that I suddenly came to place meditation with such importance. That’s because I’m now a firm believer that meditation deserves top billing.
As most of you know, over the past couple of years, I’ve dramatically changed the way I eat. I went from being a militant vegan, with animal rights fueling my purpose, to eating a Real Food diet of grass-fed omnivore foods, when my family’s health was failing with vegan foods. (See here and here and here for specifics.) The frustrating thing about using diet for optimal health and longevity is that you can find diametrically opposed camps — with each claiming to have science on their side — about what is right and what is not right when it comes to the food you put in your mouth.
Amid the firestorm of controversy on so many facets of what comprises “optimal” health, the fascinating thing I realized is that there’s at least one thing that pretty much everybody agrees on: Meditation is healthy and important for health and longevity. You might have respected doctors vehemently disagree on whether kale or bone broth is the best superfood, or which position is the best way to sleep, or how to treat a cold… but I have never heard any expert in recent years say you shouldn’t meditate as a daily practice for optimal health. After years of peer-reviewed interventional studies, meditation has become not only non-controversial, but they just keep discovering new amazing benefits. The only people who don’t say meditation is good for your health are people who don’t know the first thing about the topic.
[Read more…] about Meditation: Why I Meditate. How I Meditate. Plus Meditation Tips