Category: Yoga

Back in Business

On By debweeksIn Homeschool, Motivation, Organization, Projects, Weather, YogaLeave a comment

After a couple of days of some wonderful tinctures made by my friend Katie at The Garden Fairy Apothecary, I am feeling considerably better.  Last time I started using her tinctures at the first sign of getting sick and didn’t get sick at all.  This time I waited too long, but with hours of taking my first dose of Echinacea and her Cold and Flu tincture, I was starting to feel better.  I know not everyone is convinced herbal remedies work, but I am quite sure they worked for me.

Now that I’m back in business, it’s time to get caught up on some things.

Yesterday, we had a nice spring-like day, so I put on my jacket, grabbed my rake and headed outside.  Part of our yard is fenced off, primarily for the dogs and it was quite a mess from a winter of neglect.  I began raking and cleaning, then decided to spread some grass seed over some bare parts of the yard.  As I was throwing the grass seed, I realized that little to none of it may actually grow.  After all, dogs run and do their business in this yard, but not typically where it’s all dirt or in this case, mud.  It was worth a try and I’m hopeful that some pretty green grass will begin to change all the brown and black bare spots into a pretty green pasture of new grass.  If not, I’ll move on to plan B.

Last night we got a little rain, which I’m sure the grass seed loved.  Today we’ve had clouds and cool temperatures all day, so the girls and I headed to the basement and began tackling that mess.  The basement had become our rec, play and homeschool area, but I discovered that I really didn’t enjoy homeschooling the girls in the basement.  It was great space, but it’s not the bright and cheery area I wanted to create.  Eventually, I began homeschooling the girls in the kitchen and then we made our way to the dining room.  There is a sliding glass door that gives us tons of natural light and the table provides us ample space to do our work.  I have since brought the bookcases upstairs so their books and supplies can be put away instead of taking up space on the table or countertops.  Other bookshelves were put in each of the girls rooms and all their reading books are now at their fingertips.

I still have a lot of cleaning and organizing to do in the basement, but it will go back to being just a rec and playroom, with lots of room to run off energy on snowy, cold and/or rainy days.  It will also be a great place for me to spread out my mat for some yoga.

Apparently, being sick provided me time to focus on all the things I wasn’t getting done.  I have a better picture of what needs to be done and I’m motivated to get moving on things.  Guess something good came out of a couple of days of down time.

 

 

Benefit of Yoga

On By debweeksIn Health and Weight Loss, Positive Living, Yoga5 Comments

First of all, why does yoga look like so easy? It’s NOT!!!

I went to my first yoga class Wednesday evening and I took the easy class, which goes to prove that I’m severely out-of-shape.

As I get older, I have begun to experience more aches and pains, especially in my neck, back, and knees. While I know age is a factor, the bigger factor for me is stress. I needed to find something that would be easy on the knees while allowing me to get my back and neck muscles in better shape and yoga seemed like the perfect fit.

My first class went pretty well. I didn’t experience discomfort in my neck, back and knees. For a matter-of-fact, some of the stretches felt really good and alleviated much of the pain I’ve been experiencing for months and months and months.

Two days later and I am definitely feeling some benefits of yoga. I’m feeling less pain and stiffness in my back and neck. The headaches, which had become a daily occurrence, have been gone since class. While I’m feeling less of the pains I’ve been experiencing for months and months and months, I can also tell that yoga gave me a little bit of a workout. My arms and stomach muscles are feeling the effects and that’s a good thing.

Overall, I would have to say that yoga is right for me. Not only does it appear to be providing me the physical benefits I need, I’m sure it will provide me additional benefits of emotional, mental, and spiritual wellness as I give myself a break to focus on just me a little bit during the week.

Yoga

On By debweeksIn Debbie, Health and Weight Loss, Positive Living, YogaLeave a comment

Each week at co-op, the girls participate in a 40-minute yoga class.  As they participate in their classes, I sit on the side-lines watching them with a smile on my face.  It’s very entertaining watching 3-7 year olds doing yoga poses but more than that, it is very good for them physically, mentally, and emotionally.

As I’ve watched them each week, I’ve have had a growing desire to participate.   40-minutes of stretching, breathing, more stretching, more breathing and relaxing my mind, body and spirit.  Ahhhhhh!!!!

You see, I’m not very good about giving myself a break during the week.  In fact, I’m not very good about taking a break during the month.  In fact, I had my first break in 7 months this past Saturday evening when I went out with my sister-in-law to see a show.  No kids.  No housework.  Just some me time away from my normal everyday life.  Like I said, I’m not very good about giving myself a break so a little yoga each week sounds pretty good to me. 

However, it doesn’t do me any good to just sit and watch my girls participate in yoga while wishing I was participating too.  So tonight I took the first step and now have a membership at a local yoga studio. For about 1 1/2 hours, a couple of times a week, I am going to give myself a little break to stretch, breath, relax and take care of me.  Ahhhhh!!!!!