Musings about healthy people

Whenever I get back into a routine, especially a health-related one like going to yoga regularly or going to the gym every morning, I suddenly find myself more motivated to accomplish everything else in my life.  All of a sudden my room is a little cleaner, I actually have fresh produce overflowing from my refrigerator, and I call my mom (shout out to my Mom!).  A running start to the day keeps me on this action momentum, so I want to keep the productivity going.  It's like I am so proud of myself for going to Bikram that I want to tell everybody this accomplishment [so I started a blog about it, haha].  And in order to be really proud of that, I have to accomplish tons of other things too.  Self-fulfilling prophecy?  I don't know...you know, "accomplished and healthy people" do things like go to the gym three times a day and eat a Paleo diet, while buyling ONLY what they need from Target.  Maybe one's brain gets re-wired a certain way when it gets optimal amounts of exercise.  I'd love to become one of those people, because I can't begin imagine how efficient I'd be on any given day.  I'll let you know how that turns out :)

  

My Groupon is running out!

I have 2 weeks to go to 9 more classes!  Im going to try and go on all of my off days from work between now and the 11th. I'd say I'm going to class regularly these days, usually twice a week, but 20 classes is a lot!  This 20 for $40 Groupon was awesome!  And I do completely promote doing Bikram the economical way.  $20 a class is excessive.  It truly is a practice exclusive to privileged, crazy folks who make this practice seem like a low grade cult. It's an addiction, but when it vomrs down to it, the suffering I go through does not compare to other stuff I'd pay $20 for, na' mean?  And if you can make yourself do this shit, then you can def go to a (cheaper) gym.

But it does feel gooooood.  (Though I understand there are a lot of other methods more relaxing and fun to achieve the same feeling...it's a cult?).   Which is why I go. And as a nurse and person who regularly pushes her body to extremes, I push myself to do these extreme Bikram classes to make sure my body is in it for the long haul.  Its a more than decent way to condition and maximize organ and muscle strength and performance.  Insurance, if you will.   Why do you think in every studio that for every thirty something yuppie, there are two older, more "mature" yogis that do this practice every morning, putting us all to shame?  And every yin has its yang. Is it terrible that I think everything requires a certain amount of suffering to achieve any positive?

Today's class was no exception, just because the outside climate felt just like the yoga room; it was hot as Hades out today!  So there was no relief once it was (finally) over. I admit that the reason I went to class today was not to enjoy the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits it has to offer, but it was just to use up my Groupon.  Also I took a nice long nap today that I felt guilty about taking.  Stinginess and guilt are horrible motives, but ooh-wee, it felt nice after the grueling 90 mins!  My reasonable effort to make myself go to class tonight was cosmically rewarded by extremely positive energy for the evening, and surprisingly I had only positive things to marvel about during my dinner with Heidi.  I was just a super happy girl tonight, and I'm so glad I dragged my butt to class.  I'm sure it will be part of the reason I live til I'm 120!

Soul Control

Last week when I went to class, I completely forgot my most powerful takeaway message!  Kendall said it again this morning,

"Learn to acknowledge how you feel, without reacting to it"

To internalize and control our reactions makes us strong people.  To understand that things will fall into place the way they will and to learn to control reactions so that chaos is ceased, is so powerful.  For me, class gives me a chance to empty my mind (that is ALWAYS working!) and allow myself to focus.

"Leave all your worries about groceries, bills, tasks at the door.  There's nothing you can do about it in this room.  You'll be stuck here for 90 minutes"

Like I've mentioned before, the heat is such a barrier to this!  But once you have the natural tendency to embrace the heat and not enter mental struggles against it, focusing on poses and balancing and whatnot is less difficult.  Emptying the mind is so freeing.  And for 90 minutes, its extremely energizing.  It's like letting my mind rest, and all the compressions and releases of my limbs allow freer, cleaner blood flow back to my brain and the needy places in my body.  Whew.

Relax and let your mind and body rest

Am I doing this only seasonally now, or what?  I haven't been to class since maybe March?  Last weekend I went pretty hard on my body, experiencing Electric Daisy Carnival in Chicago and dancing up a storm.  Seriously, I had the best time ever, but it left me wondering if all this dancing is conditioning to keep my body young, or a fast track to old age and wearing it down too fast.  So I took a day off of work and have been enjoying my time off!  Now that its a whole new season, with the 90 degree weather, it was the perfect day to go.  I had my nice little productive day, rising at 7 am, for starters.  I went to the gym, got a cute effing haircut (that was so easy to wear during class!), DEPOSITED cash in my bank, got groceries...so I thought, as I always do on my proudest productive days, why not go to class today, too?

SO glad that I did.  Kendall was my teacher, and her pace was so awesome.  Clearly the other students in class were not brand new, so she didn't waste time talking through all the poses and saying all the bullshit to guide you through the motions, which, let's face it, only serves as a distraction if you aren't in the right mindset, am I right?

I've been super stressed recently.  Definitely more mentally affected by my life than normal.  I usually thrive on change, but these new changes lately haven't felt like they've been for the best.  I've been busying myself in the past few days, doing some (uncharacteristic) personal housekeeping.  And it's worked!  Coincidentally, my take away from class was when Kendall said,

"Our biggest breakthroughs in yoga are just by taking a deep breath and making ourselves relax.  We tense up so much of our minds and bodies and waste so much energy worrying and putting forth extra effort to things that only require minimal energy on our part."

In boat pose, do you realize that our only effort should be in kicking back our feet?  I've spent so much energy pulling my ankles with my arms, and arching my back to balance, that when I relaxed my body and only focused on kicking my feet, I achieved the very same pose, with much less strain on my back.  Awesome.

Also a way to be efficient in life: Relax and focus only on what is necessary.

Awareness: When you see what's happening

After a 2 month hiatus, today I finally went to class.  That took long enough to do, but you know what?  I feel so refreshed and so happy that I went!  I can go as far as saying I feel pretty "zen" (I know, what?).  Even 4 hours later, I feel pretty bombastic (yes, Shaggy, I'm bringing that back).  As my instructor today said "The hardest part is right before you begin [the posture], once you've started you've got it".  Word.

I'm always a little nervous the first time I go to a new studio bc I'm always rushing and I always fret about where to put my stuff.  I find Bikram yogis to be super serious about the practice, so I never want to disrupt their flow by coming in late and making ppl move their mats for me once the room gets full.  You'd think I'd leave from home earlier, but I guess that's the reason I need a safe mental place to go like yoga.  Luckily, it was easy at the Locust Point studio and I got the last spot in front of the mirror, so I had a really nice start to class.  Seriously, the mirror spots are the best because you can really focus on your form without distraction.  When it's hot as Hades, you only have the energy to visually focus on whats in front of you.  So if all you can see is yourself, then you can't get distracted by the hot guy bending in front of you or your wobbly neighbor who makes you magically start wobbling too.  Also if you are narcissistic and myopic like me, it is awesome.

"When what you see matches what you feel, then that becomes what is happening".  Ohhh, applicable to so many parts of life, Emily...so much of life.  My instructor Emily was an amazing teacher tonight and what she did for my practice she has no idea!  Maybe it was because I wasn't profusely sweating, or maybe I'm at a low-stress time in my year. Maybe bc the Sun entered Pisces today, or mostly I maybe read too far into things, but Emily's words really helped me to focus that much more on my poses tonight.  My mirror spot also brought her words to fruition.

Awareness of something as simple as breathing can greatly control how ones body reacts to the heat and how difficult the movement can be.  If I am panting (what I see) and I feel tired and lightheaded (how I feel), I will probably start shaking and sit down (look what happened).  But if I control my breaths by watching my reflection (see), then that slows my heart rate and relaxes my shoulders (feel), and it may make the slightest adjustment of my arms to the left less sloppy and spastic; I'm less likely to fall over (what becomes).  If I stare the shit out of my right knee cap in the mirror (see), it forces my mind to make my thigh muscles tighten (feel) so my knees stay locked and somehow I can balance when I extend my other leg (becomes).  

As Emily says, if I stare at my muffin top long enough and then suck it in to tighten my abs inside, then in a few weeks it won't even exist anymore.  See how she's funny, too?

The longer you stare at something, the more attention it gathers, and more improvements can be made.  As applicable to Bikram as it is, its also applicable to work, finances, and noticing things in life that need to be changed in order to reach personal goals.  Such realization today.  Thank you, Bikram.