To do: Yoga, Be awesome, Repeat

In my last post, I said it didn’t feel like summer. I take it back. Summer is here and I love it. I just had a four day weekend and it felt so much like summer vacation that I was shocked to realize I had to go to work this morning.

What did I do on this amazing weekend of summery bliss, you ask? The best thing ever: yoga! Six yoga classes, to be exact. And one dance class. Yes, it was exhausting, hot and humid. And yes, I loved every minute of it!

Friday night I went to a flow class where the teacher massaged my feet during pigeon pose. Bliss.

Saturday, I went to a flow class that was hot, hot, hot. Made me feel like I was in Cuba again. Bliss. Then, I went out to dinner with my girlfriends, followed by a night out at a club for a cd release party. Bliss.

Sunday, I made it to a detox class where I twisted out all the bad stuff and inhaled lots of good stuff. Bliss. After class, I went to Chapters to buy a copy of the Bhagavad Gita. I need to read it for my yoga teacher training, which starts in just over a week! Went back to the studio for an intro class. When you do two classes in one day, it’s nice to have one that’s a little easier!

Sunday evening, I was supposed to go to a house dance class with my girlfriends. One friend decided not to go, as she’d had a long day at work. When I got to the studio, my other friend sent me a text to say she wasn’t coming. I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t really want to go alone. I considered leaving, but I’d already paid for my class. I decided to stay and I’m so glad I did! It was so much fun. I’ve tried house dancing before, and I’m not very good, but I loved it. Bliss.

Monday was a holiday, so I went to an early class (9:30 is early, right?). Had the amazing feeling I get when I get something done before noon on a non-work day. Bliss.

Had a lunch and movie date with a friend, then back to yoga for a class called Pure Hips. Now, I’ve avoided this class for a long time, based on it’s name. It just screamed “dragon pose” at me. Fortunately, there was no dragon or gecko to be found. It was a lot of rolling out tissues on balls. Sounds weird. It is. It doesn’t feel great, and that means it’s working. It felt good today. Bliss.

Tonight, I went to a yin class that’s got me feeling all soft and sleepy. I can’t believe it’s almost the end of June and the 30 day challenge is almost over!

Summer solstice

If you were to image the perfect first day of summer, today would be it. It was sunny and beautiful. It was also the last day of school. Actually, yesterday was my last full day with my students, today was a picnic with all the kids and their parents. It was a lovely day. I’m working next week, but only for four days. Then I’m off for the whole summer.

The strange thing is, it doesn’t feel like summer. It’s not about the weather (which has not been happy lately). I think it’s because normally, at the end of June, I look ahead and see two months of lazy days, beach days and sunny days. This year, however, I’m going to be doing my yoga teacher training from July 4th to the 31st, six days a week. It’s not “time off” like I normally have.

I’m excited about this teacher training, and I can’t wait for it to start, but I’m also nervous and a little worried. I get sweaty palms and my heart beats fast when I picture myself talking in front of a group. It’s not the same as teaching kids. I’m a little scared because I don’t know what to expect.

I wanted to do something special for the summer solstice, because it feels like an important day. This day only happens once a year. But then I thought, all days only happen once. If you waste it, you never get it back. So instead of trying to find some meaningful, first day of summer thing to do, I did what was calling out to me. Reading and yoga.

This is not a very exciting way to spend a Friday, but I am tired. I feel like I just let go of one whole school year of thinking, planning, worrying, laughing, and teaching in just one day.

I went to Sasha’s flow class at Pure tonight, and she massaged my feet during pigeon pose. I could just feel the stress and the weight of the year melt away. I spend so much time standing, and my feet were happy for the love.

So, while there was nothing particularly summer solstice-y about my day, it made me happy.

What made you happy today?

Yoga for the body and soul

The yoga class I went to today was absolutely perfect in every way. That doesn’t mean it was easy, but it was exactly what I needed.

I had a long day (dressed as a Viking) and received some sad family news over the weekend. I am tired, because it’s the end of the school year, and that’s not an easy time for a teacher.

I’m not complaining, these are just facts. Another fact is that I don’t remember what my life was like before yoga. How did I relax? How did I center myself? How did I quiet my mind?

I am so grateful for this practice that brings me what I need. Today, it was an hour of perfection. Not perfect poses, but a practice that was good for my soul, my heart, my brain, my body.

And, because I can’t tease you by saying I dressed up as a Viking without giving you a picture, here it is. A Viking in a purple dress. And yes, I know they did not have horns on their helmets!

   

A mini-break

This has been a really great weekend for several reasons. Wine and friends on a patio Friday night, then a beach day with those same awesome girls on Saturday (we didn’t go in the water, it was too cold!) and a mini-break from my 30 day yoga challenge.

I didn’t want to skip a day in my challenge, so last Wednesday, I did two classes and got to spend today, father’s day, with my dad.

Sometimes, I hear people say how they’ve become like their parents, and they’re horrified, like it’s the worse thing that could ever happen to them. I don’t get it. My parents are awesome.

I am my father’s daughter and I couldn’t be happier. He’s funny and smart and the nicest person you could possibly meet. He’s kind. He loves kids. Once, when my sister was younger, her friends came over to ask my dad to help get someone out of a tree. My sister wasn’t home, but those kids knew my dad would be more than happy to help.

When my dad is interested in something, he likes to learn everything there is about it. When I was little, he knew more about fishing than anyone I’d ever met. He’s the best poker player I know (he taught me how to play, and I play well enough not to embarrass myself!) When I decided to sign up for yoga teacher training, wanting to know more about this practice I love so much, my mom said I was just like my dad. She’s right. When I love something, I give it all I’ve got. It makes me happy and I’m grateful to my dad for giving me that.

This mini-break from my yoga challenge has given me time to relax and focus on other things I love, like my family.

Joyeuse fête des pères Pop!

Mellow yoga

Today, I took the day off (which, when you’re a teacher and it’s June, basically means “I took a sick day to work on report cards” It’s the teacher version of working from home.)

I decided to start my day off right with a yoga class. I didn’t make it to yoga last night, as my students were the oompa loompa’s in another class’ Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory play and I was busy with orange face paint and green wigs. (They were adorable, by the way.) Since I’m doing a 30 day yoga challenge, I can’t afford to miss too many days. Last Friday, I did two classes, so I didn’t fall behind even though I missed last night’s class.

I made it to the studio for the 9:30 class this morning. It was with Mike, and I’ve never done any of his classes because I usually work during the week. It was a yin class and he started off by saying “Welcome to the studio’s most mellow class” and then had us relax is supported fish for ten minutes. Every day should start with ten minutes of supported fish. Pure bliss!

The rest of class was a mix of super relaxing poses, like twists and wide knee child’s pose, and a few more active poses like gecko (yuck) and core stuff.

I’m planning on going to another class tonight, because it’s taught by my friend Ichih and I love her and her classes! It’s another yin class, so I’m declaring today my mellow yoga day. I love flow and power classes, but for a 30 day challenge, it’s good to have a balance between both.

So far, this challenge is going really well. Maybe it’s because I’ve taken a couple of days off from work to keep from feeling rushed all the time, or maybe it’s just because, even before the challenge, I was practicing so often, it’s become my normal. Whatever the reason, I’m enjoying my practice and my challenge very much and I can’t wait until July to start my yoga teacher training!

Have a blissful day!

Do more of what makes you happy

May was a busy, happy month for me. I spent most of it annoying people so they would watch my yoga video. I participated in a contest to win money for my yoga teacher training tuition. And I won! I am so grateful to everyone who watched. Thanks a million!

May had a lot of happy moments for me. Here are a few.

Climbing  fences.

Picking flowers.

Pretty flowers.

Surprise flowers by my door.

Reading a fairy tale.

Book day with my students.

Also there was yoga. Lots of yoga. Always yoga.

I know we’re well into June now, but I still wanted to share!

Midsummer madness

If you read my blog last December, you know that I participated in Dressember, which is the amazing challenge of wearing a dress every day for a month. I loved it! The only thing I didn’t like was that I couldn’t show off my most summery dresses. There’s a Dressember facebook page and it was suggested that we do a mini-Dressember in June so we could show off our summer dresses. I posted a few pictures, but here is the whole week.

Day 1

I love, love, love this dress. I love it so much I kind of wrote it a love letter.

Day 2

It was a rainy, grey day so I tried to wear as much colour as I could to balance it out!

Day 3

A dress I’ve had for years. I’ve never worn it with blue shoes before.

Day 4

My red dress. Probably one of my favourites.

Day 5

I don’t wear a lot of yellow, because it washes me out and people ask me if I’m feeling ok, but this is a light, sunny yellow, so it’s good.

Day 6

I had another dress picked out, but I overslept and ran out the door in 10 minutes. No time to iron, do my hair or my makeup. At least I still wore a dress. Also, I made it to work on time!

Day 7

It was very cold and it was raining, so I had to cover most of my dress up. I took two pictures: how I wanted to wear my dress, and how I actually wore it.

I didn’t wear a dress today, but I’ve still got plenty. If I can remember to take pictures, I’ll share!

Read me a story

A few months ago in class, I tried to get one of my student’s attention. He was reading and he didn’t hear me. I had to repeat his name several times, and when he finally looked at me, he had a dazed look on his face. I told him “I get it, you were reading and your mind is still in the story. I love books too, so I know how it feels.” This led to a discussion with a few students about how much we all love books and reading. I don’t remember if the idea came from me or a student, but we decided to have a reading day. A whole day of nothing but books and reading, no other school work. The kids were so excited!

This was in late winter, so we decided to wait until it was nice enough to read outside. That day was last Friday. The kids worked really hard all week so they could read on Friday. I thought of making them little reading passports, where they could put stickers or stamps, but I decided against it. They were happy to read for the sake of reading, they didn’t need anything else.

We started off with a game of pass-the-book. Each kid picked a book from the ones I had set out on the tables. They sat in a circle and passed the books around while music played. When the music stopped, they had a minute to flip through it and decide if it was a book they would like to read.

Then we took a trip to the library, because no matter how much the kids thought they could sit still and read all day, I knew better. We needed some action.

When everyone had picked out their books, we went to the park to read there for a little while.

After lunch, we headed out on the lawn in front of the school with our books, beach towels, blankets and water bottles.

At one point, there were a bunch of us reading a book about the toe fairy (like the tooth fairy, but with toes). We were all crowded around the book and one kid poked my foot with his finger and asked “Who’s foot is this?”

Yes, that is a small child on my back. She’s like velcro. We were looking at a book about Vikings.

It was a perfect day. I told the kids we could do it again next year.

How to survive a core flow class

I don’t have a very strong core. I have strong legs and arms, but not my core. That’s ok, because I can work on it and get stronger. The thing is, I don’t like working on my core. I don’t like planks and dolphin push ups and a million boat poses. I don’t need a six pack. The other thing, however, is that I really, really want to do a headstand, a handstand, a forearm stand, and any other inversion. You need a strong core for that.

I’m on day 5 of my 30 day yoga challenge, and the only class I could fit it yesterday, on day 4, was a core flow class. I usually avoid this class, although I love the teacher (hi Amber!). I go to her other classes, but not this one. Except for yesterday. I thought I would put together a helpful little list for anyone who might not know what they’re getting into.

1. Don’t go.

2. See step one.

3. Ok fine. If you’re going, don’t take it too seriously.

4. Ask the teacher to go easy on the core work.

5. When the teacher says “Take it easy, you don’t want to tire yourself out in the first 10 minutes”, listen to her! Also, don’t yell out “What?! It’s only been 10 minutes?!”

6. Do dolphin pose. Do one dolphin pose push up to see what it feels like. Forever avoid dolphin pushups.

7. When you do side plank on your forearm, you can’t adjust your arm without falling down, it’s kind of holding you up. Not that I fell or anything.

8. During the 24 minute plank pose, just hang out on your mat like you’re at the beach and tell yourself everyone is so busy not passing out that nobody will notice.

9. After class, don’t ask your teacher if she noticed you wimped out on most of the poses, because when she says she didn’t notice, you can’t really laugh and say “Haha, just kidding, I did it all!” She won’t believe you.

10. Your abs will hurt the next day when you laugh, even if you only did a third of the planks (that’s still like 32).

11. Go out for dinner with your girlfriends to reward yourself for all your hard work.

Today I went to yin, because there was no way I was doing a power class! I think tomorrow might be a yin-day as well.

I’ve been wearing dresses for my week long dress challenge too. It’s so much easier to wear dresses than to do a core class!

Day 4                                                            Day 5

  

Bird with a broken wing

Today was day three of my 30 day yoga challenge. Two of my friends from work are also doing the challenge, and today we realized we all planned to go to the same class, so we had ourselves a little post-work yoga party!

The class was prana vinyasa and it was led by Megan. There’s something special about her classes. The way she puts everything together, the pace of the class, I always work hard, but I don’t need to take a lot of breaks.

Towards the end of class, when I was good and sweaty, she led us into a twist, then offered different stages of the pose. By this point, I was feeling a little tired, but one of the options was an arm balance, and I never turn down an arm balance! I tried on one side, but I was so sweaty my foot slipped right off my arm and I fell down. Then, on the other side, I decided to try again. Megan was beside me and she guided me into it, and I did it! It only lasted half a second before I fell, but I still did it!

The pose is parsva bhuja dandasana, also called bird with a broken wing (I’ve heard it called firefly or grasshopper too.)

I tried to do it again when I got home, so I could take a picture, but it was hard! These are the best I got. I need to bring my foot up a little higher on my arm, but it makes me happy to have a new pose to work on!

Today was also day three of my week-long dress challenge. I’ve had this dress for a few years, and I’m still not sick of it!

Happy Monday!