yoga

Find Your Flow

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I have a story to tell you. A personal one.

When I came upon something that opened my mind, relaxed and yet strengthened my body and brought me closer to nature, I was floored.

Yoga.

It has since become a part of my spirituality.

My very first experience with yoga wasn’t amazing though. The instructor gave me a dirty yoga mat that I didn’t know was dirty until the guy who cleaned them told me right after class and then she kept calling out my name every ten minutes because she knew me, but still, it was my first time!

I did go back though and eventually, I learned about it and found my flow.

But life struck last year and I got married, moved and changed jobs all within 9 months, causing me to ignore the flow and jump right into the chaos without my precious life preserver.

Big Mistake.

I kid you not when I tell you that my muscles have tightened, my mind has been cloudier, my waist has expanded and my inner peace has struggled with the daily grind.

At first, I didn’t know what had happened. Here I was, happily married, with a job that pays my bills and then some and living in a beautiful new townhouse I got to call home. And yet, something inside didn’t feel at ease. My shoulders were always scrunched, my sleep was erratic and my bad habits came out of the woods ready to rage.

Then one day, I was looking through Groupon and a yoga studio caught my eye. It was close to home and offered a view of the ocean during practice. The price was amazing and I thought, “Damn, it’s been almost a year since I’ve taken out my mat!”

The moment I went, I was hooked right back on the yoga sauce.

That was two months ago. I do power yoga (a yin/yang/yin 75 min class) twice a week and I feel on top of the world.

When someone says, what difference can a little stretching make? I tell them:

All the difference.

Find your flow.

Namaste.

 

 

Make Healthy A Habit – Three Months Later

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It’s been three months since I decided to change things and make healthy a habit.

I wish I could write about how great it’s all been and how healthy has become so much a habit for me that I don’t have to focus on it…. but I’m not going to lie. It hasn’t been easy. And focus is exactly what keeps me going with it.

Allow me to explain…

My goal for making these changes to begin with is so I can live a healthier life and make the best decisions I can for my mind and body. Sounds smart, right?

But has it been easy? No. Not in the slightest.

I’ve had days where I threw caution out the window and reverted to the unhealthy habits I’m trying to get rid of. More than I care to admit actually. Things like deciding to go for the easy drive-thru meal rather than making a healthier one. Or opting for a third glass of wine, for the second day in a row.

No one is perfect and I’m fully aware of that. I’m far from it and I have no plans to live in a bubble. There are times for celebration and a little debauchery (granted it hurts no one other than yourself) but those should be the rarity, not the norm.

So, yes, I’ve had some struggles with reverting back to bad habits as time goes on and life kicks back in and the plans I made for the New Year just aren’t as shiny as they once were, now that the practicality of them has settled in while the romance has vanished.

But, and this is a big BUT, things have changed.

When I was pondering why I still made choices that are unhealthy for me, I realized something – they’re happening much less then before I made healthy a habit.

I’m much more conscious of living healthier now and even though my bad habits try to rope me back in, I’m able to resist them more by reminding myself of why I don’t want to make those choices any longer.

And the more I resist them, the easier it gets.

Here’s what I’ve found:

Three weeks may not make a habit, but it does change your focus.

And isn’t that the beginning for any real change? After all, how can you change something within if your focus on it hasn’t changed?

So while I may still have bad days, they are fewer then before. And changing my focus to be healthier these past three months has absolutely led to many wonderful things – regular weekly yoga, less processed food, healthier snacking and much more.

Personally, I think the key to changing one’s habits is being conscious about the ones you want to break and the new ones you want to make and then taking action, over and over again, to do so.

And know, it is not easy.  But then, what of value is?

Make healthy a habit. #makehealthyahabit

 

 

Make Healthy A Habit – One Week After

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It’s been a week since I ended my three-week long project of making healthy a habit, and I thought about how it would be best to write this blog post. I decided to go with stream of consciousness…

it’s been a week. i almost bought cheese puffs today at the drugstore. I haven’t had a snack like that in four weeks and counting… I resisted and went with cashews. the decisions are getting easier, but the temptations are everywhere. must they put candy in front of you at all times? no wonder kids these days live off of instant gratification and have two-second attention spans. treats are in front of them everywhere. i digress. i’m back to doing yoga. weekly. and with my husband now. if possible, i love him more. i recommend couples do this. wine has gone back to being a treat. i have it about twice a week. that’s better. sparkling water is great with dinner. i’m snacking on a banana as i write this. my habits have changed. it’s been four weeks now. i just had pizza for the first time. i’ll never quit that. just won’t have it too often. i feel good.

#makehealthyahabit

Acupuncture

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A month ago, I was at the Abbott Kinney Street fair with my boyfriend. We had come upon a booth for an acupuncture school. He had tried it before and as for myself, having read some Chinese philosophy, I had been intrigued in the past about this type of medicine but had yet to experience it. This school was offering free assessments and herb acupressure on the ears, which by the way, say a lot about you. As does your tongue. So we both decided to give it a try.

My boyfriend’s assessment went very quick. Extremely quick, actually. He was finished before my intern even got through asking me preliminary questions as she felt my ear lobes. After some time later, I had learned I had a slow pulse and needed more protein in my diet, big time. My intern acupuncturist had me captivated with information about our mind, our blood and our health. She knew and learned so much about me by simply touching my earlobes and looking at my tongue. I could have sat there for hours but I saw my boyfriend’s patience in the bright sun wearing a little thin so I tried to wrap things up. Before I left though, she gave me her card and an offer to try acupuncture for free at her school’s clinic.

I met back up with my boyfriend, who I had to find by calling his cell since he drifted away, which I don’t blame him, and together we talked about what happened to the other during all the earlobe touching. I then learned why things took so long for me. I need to be healthier. His intern told him, and I quote, “Your ears are very healthy. You are a very healthy person.” Needless to say, my intern did not tell me that.

Fast forward to last week when I brought the coupons my boyfriend and I received at the booth to his house and made an appointment for acupuncture for both of us. We were fortunate to get the same time and day and while he saw a randomly assigned intern, I requested the girl I had met at the fair.

And now for today. After quickly jogging her memory about who I was, the intern acupuncturist remembered meeting me and told me she was glad I came in to give this a try. She did a much more thorough analysis of my health this time. Her questions were those many doctors don’t ask, which I found intriguing because of my sudden awareness of how important they really are. Questions such as, “How’s your libido?” “Do you eat a lot of protein? “How thirsty are you throughout the day?” “Do your fingernails show good blood circulation? Let’s see… They do!” (You can press down on your nail beds and once you release the pressure, if they return to regular color quickly, your blood has good circulation.)

After a great and LONG conversation, the intern checked my vitals (all good!) and then had me put on a gown. I laid down on my chest, with my arms on my side, and she did a procedure called CUPPING. It was fascinating to experience. In certain places, after heating a cup with flame and moving it over my back with the help of oil, she would leave it there and it would create a suction of sorts. Once it was removed, it felt great. I have two red circles on my back right now, which she said will happen if I have toxin-stuff to be removed. So, yeah, I have toxin stuff. This was then followed by four acupuncture needles being placed in various parts of my body. It was a jolt when a couple of them went in but the other two I barely felt. An energy aromatherapy of sorts was used during some of this process as well.

Before I left, I was feeling better just thinking about the information I learned today and how I wanted to implement it into my daily life. I told my intern so and knowing I’m on a budget, she advised me to spend my time and resources on herbs and vitamins right now, to help clean my system and get my pulse and blood moving along better. She also advised some herb treatment that could help with my OCD, which makes me ecstatic because not one doctor I’ve seen for OCD has offered a natural medical solution to this problem. I thanked this intern several times as she slipped me her card and email address, advising me to see her whenever I wanted to discuss my process or do some more cupping or acupuncture.

I learned more in this hour-and-a-half long visit than I have in years at other doctor’s office visits. And I’ve never had a doctor’s office visit that lasted this long!

With the healthcare situation being what it is in the US right now, with primarily government, pharmaceutical companies and health care insurance firms deciding what’s best for us, I can’t think of any better time than now to begin to learn about alternative medicine.

But I have to walk the talk.

From now on, I’ll be writing one blog post a month detailing my experiences with Chinese medicine, alternative medicine and my adventures in the world of yoga, which is something I’ve added to my life recently but have yet to get serious about. It’s time now though. I want to do it.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
– Lao Tzu