OK… so I’ve not put much effort into building MommyOm over there on facebook. I know… way slow to the party!
So, please help me get this facebook train moving! Giveaways to come soon for facebook like-ers. Announcements to come soon, but don’t let that stop you! No matter when you like MommyOm, you will be included!
101 days since mommy’s last tweet… 101 days since mommy’s last post. Hmmmm…..
OK… so things have kinda been falling apart. Just a lil’ bit.
But inspired anew, with a tidy place to transform my butt-ugly-early mornings from groggily logging on to facebook- I mean, my email and other work related stuff- to something truly transformative. I’m turning to meditation to aid in persistent headaches, a pesky snacking habit and even more pesky weight gain… and really just an over-all case of the blah’s- physically and mentally.
I’ll let you know how it goes. Consider this a 365 Day Project of a different shade.
Forget New Years. Meditation. Everyday. Now.
Tell it, Senor Kabat-Zinn….
Happy Earth Day, all!
In honour of all things earth, lets talk what we can do to combine our love of yoga with our love of this wondrous host that sustains us.
1. Get outside with your mat. OK, so it still might only be slightly above freezing in some parts (ahem. mine.), but I bet it warms up some by this afternoon. Even if it’s just a quick sun salute out on the lawn… bring your practice closer to the soil on this special day!
2. Walking meditation. Find a favourite spot outside, take off your shoes, and walk it. Back and forth, with method and deliberation. Feel the sensations in your feet: every grab of your toes, the pressure in your heels. Breathe deeply. Welcome thoughts as you patiently dismiss them. Yes, to your neighbours, you’ll sort of look like a victim of the bodysnatchers, but who cares?! They’ll have no idea what they’re missing and you’ll feel invigorated by the experience!
3. Sitting meditation. Again… find a favourite spot outdoors, arrange your preferred seat, and sit. Be. ‘Nuff said.
4. Get outside with the kids. There is nothing to ground you to our Mother, like fully embracing that within yourself. Even with the screaming, crying and whining… OK, maybe that’s just my brood.
5. Unplug for mercy’s sake. Turn off the God-awful tube, X-Box, PS, wii, computer (… yeah. right.) Nothing says we love you Earth, like conserving a little energy and getting people away from screens gets everybody expending a little for a change.
6. Today… water is for drinking. Take a break from flushing, washing, watering.
7. Sit down with your family and make a “Conservation Commitment”. Talk about some ways you all can impact the Earth less, why it’s so important and sign a contract that seals the deal.
8. For this day, as you move about your daily lives, keep conservation in your consciousness. When I approach the fridge and grab for something, I like to ask, “does this really nourish me?” Same goes for your activities today, “Does this help or hurt?”
It’s a beautiful, wonderful day. Thank Earth.
Compassion. Integrity. Cooperation. Hygiene. All important principles to living a full, happy life. However, in this age of technology, over-scheduling and increasingly interactive, realistic and solitary-bordering-on-anti-social pursuits such as computer games, XBox and facebook, increasingly difficult principles to nurture in our young ones.
And, if unplugging isn’t an option, maybe reconnecting our kids, and ourselves, to these human truths can be as simple as a story. These important messages have been conveyed through story-telling for a millennia. In regions of Buddhist faith, messages of Empathy, Consideration, Wisdom and Modesty have been passed on through the Jataka tales to help guide and govern human behaviour and develop the character of the people.
I found this interesting resource at BuddhaNet, a great resource for all information Buddhist… if you’re looking for a good way to introduce your kids to Buddhist – heck, healthy human!- principles, complete with easy to digest morals, HERE is a wonderful collection of translated Jataka tales to read aloud to your kids.
They are as simple as can be, some of them a little hokey to be sure- they’re fables after all!- but perfect for getting conversations started and kids (and us- ahem!) thinking!
With New Years resolutions already falling by the wayside, yoga studios all over are capitalizing on the lack of resolve by offering another chance for instituting change.
To get your sorry butt off the sofa stir the embers of motivation, perhaps a little challenge might be in order. The 30 Day Yoga Challenge might be what you- and I, Buddha knows!- need to be finding our way to the mat more regularly.
Beginning February 1st, we shall all commit to practicing every day. Every day. If you miss a day, it’s to be made up on the following.
Remember, it’s a Challenge.
Perhaps you find it easier participating with a class, such as that at Vancouver’s Yogapod, as many studios are offering such programs. The beauty of this is, of course, you can always do it on your own.
Choose your venue. Choose your style… and for heaven’s sake, feel free to choose the time of day and the length of practice that works best for your schedule. Keep in mind that this has less to do with the 30 days you’ve committed than to instituting real change in your life and health.
As I consider my own commitment, I know that here in the sticks I don’t have the benefit of a studio that can provide me with such a program. I’m on my own. With no one but my lone reader many readers to keep me honest.
30 days? Dare I say… I’m in?!
I’m afraid it’s been a busy month in the world of MommyOm… I was under the impression that, as Staples keeps reminding us, “It’s the most wonderful time of the yeeeeeear!” because September means Back to School and thus find myself way behind the 8-ball and totally slow on the uptake in this being National Yoga Month!
For those of you not completely lost in the bliss and sudden abundance of peace and quiet in your lives, perhaps this month might also mean taking advantage of the various specials held at studios around America and getting acquainted with yoga for the first time. For others, such as myself, it means considering what yoga means in my day-to-day life and perhaps re-committing to a regular practice… or maybe I did that last month?!?!
Whatever. Whether it’s Back to School or National Yoga Month, do yourself a favour and check out a local yoga class this month. It might be just what you need to fill up all the time you’ve recently acquired!
Happy Yoga Month!
I mean, some people swear they function best when they have to rifle through piles to find what they’re looking for… they even maintain that unless they are rifling through piles, they couldn’t possibly actually find what they’re looking for.
Really?! I’m always struck a tad incredulous with those claims… but hey, who am I to judge?
What I know for myself is that when my home, particularly those spaces in which I need to be productive… ie. kitchen, office, bedroom- ahem!… is tidy, clean and efficiently functional, I’m all the better for it. I’m more comfortable in these spaces and therefore enjoy spending more time in them. This is especially wonderful for me in my office… for my kids in the kitchen, and in the bedroom… well, I suppose hubby is the lucky beneficiary there!
Surely you’ve heard Oprah and her lovely Nate Berkus frequently wax poetic about your home “rising up to meet you…”; or her Australian guru of all things tidy and organized, Peter Walsh, making some mighty strong statements about the reflection the condition the home makes of one’s true state of mind and mental health. Then again, the people he’s dealing with are dealing with some pretty big issues beyond just some unruly piles of mail and magazines and general untidiness.
As I’m tidying and cleaning to prepare for this fast approaching holiday weekend and seeing piles disappear to whence they came- where they actually belong or the trash!- there’s a sense of calm and peace come over me that I usually only know after a cycle of sun salutations. There’s a feeling of all being right in that moment and I revel in each and every clutter-free space. Even the hallway downstairs where I’d been piling clothes to go to my sister’s kids, clothes to donate, seasonal items to be put away (yes, I have those infernal to-be-put-away piles that grow and grow until you have company coming to stay and finally PUT the stuff AWAY!!), ski suits to be tried on, car and boat batteries, the new light fixture for the dining room… I could go on….
Anyways, the feeling of satisfaction at having finally dealt with the various piles, the various messes, the general disorganization, is so worth the effort once the day is done. So, in honour of Thanksgiving… despite the stress that always accompanies these holidays, I wish everyone gratitude and peace of mind, whether it be from digging through your organized piles, or getting rid of them.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I think by now everyone is familiar with Oprah’s revelatory January ’09 issue where she essentially came out of the closet about “falling off the wagon”. While I, along with millions of others, have followed her weight loss battles over the past two decades, I found this admission, accomampanied by the before and after picture on the cover of her magazine, to be particularly admirable.
Given my own experience over the past six months or so, I found it resonated pretty profoundly.
I began this blog, or more accurately, plog (practice + blog), to provide some additional motivation to implementing and maintaining a regular practice schedule in addition to initiating a forum to connect with others plagued overwhelmed with good intentions. At the time I began writing here over a year ago, I was close to the best shape of my life. In the months following, my fitness continued to improve as I trained for two shorty triathlons, and when all was said in done after these events, the last being July 1st of last year, I was feeling- and looking- pretty darned good.
However, sitting here eight months later, for a variety of reasons and excuses, the story is dramatically different. I am up two pant sizes… my practice is, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, undulating… and, between work, travel and winter, my usual training routine has never really re-gained any real traction.
Perhaps if I had a dog that required yoga-ing, I’d take my commitment to a regular practice more seriously. But, alas, my lovely beast of a dog would rather be walked than yoga-ed.
And as a result of this tender, gentle, affectionate, needy beast’s need for exercise, it is given priority in my day. Just about every day. As it should. On those days that I am unable to fulfill my commitment to her, we both feel it. Guilty. Irritable. Just plain not right.
The benefits to walking are abundant. As are the benefits to yoga. Unfortunately, however, I don’t have a pair of big, brown doe eyes staring at me, following me, urging me to be sure I get in a practice everyday. Perhaps there’s a business idea in there somewhere…. What I have is the wondrous feeling, laying in savasana, my body limp and damp, and sinking into the floor, longer, lighter and more invigorated than before. Not eager eyeballs, just the joy of well-being.
So, as I talk myself down from the “Doh…I haven’t practiced in a week already…” ledge, it is this feeling I have to keep in mind when I am putting it off and putting it off, a seemingly perpetually unchecked activity in my dayplanner, with morning disappearing into lunch, lunch fading into afternoon and afternoon evolving quickly into the mayhem that is the late day activities, supper and bed-time rituals.
It’s the feeling of light and opening… and it’s as essential to me as our walks are to my lovely beast of a dog.
Although, to my credit, my daily meditation has taken hold as something of an early morning habit. Wonderful. Not unlike most, mine is a mind full of thoughts and images in freaking TechniColor and SurroundSound, even at five in the morning, I still enjoy aspiring to the stillness.
Just me, a freshly lit fire in the fireplace… and my lovely beast of a dog.
Wow!It’s been quite some time since I announced I’d be back NEXT WEEK!!
So next week came next year….
Anyways, after the turn of a new year… and the turn of a new decade, I turned 40 last month, and in the last months and years leading up to this milestone birthday I have come to better embrace the ebb and flow that is my creativity, my motivation and my progress. Basically, my life. That isn’t to say during certain points I can be found lolling endlessly on the sofa until the flow kicks in… no. I just know that there is an ease that can be found and luxuriated in at times and at others, things come with a little more difficulty and can’t be forced.
That said, as we settle into 2009 and back into our homeschool winter, I am also in the face of some exciting challenges professionally and need to look to yoga and meditation as a means to best approach and overcome these challenges helping me to meet my goals. I am leaving a period of relative ebb into a wonderful flow, where I want to be able to access the inspired, the creative and the most productive in me.
I know a regular practice to be, in times of busy-ness and a little craziness, an effective tool but also a welcome respite, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
To keep me from losing my mind.
