Tag Archives: stress

All Together Now….A Long, Steady Exhale

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{via}

Michelle wrote an excellent piece about breathing called Epidemic Inhale. Please go read it.

No, really.

Go.

Read.

It.

Ok, while you were there did you follow her directions for a long, slow, steady exhale?

Feels good, doesn’t it?

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This is what yoga is for me now: one giant exhale.

A time and a place to just LET.IT.BE.

Reminders to pause, yawn, and be conscious of my breathing and how my body feels.

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It hasn’t always been this way.

I’m pretty sure most people are thinking I’m making funny shapes with my body when I’m “at yoga” and for a long time that is exactly what I did. The more difficult the class, the better.

I was ‘doing’ yoga, damnit.

But now, I’m focusing on the not doing. Letting things go. Asking myself what my body really needs in this moment.

More often than not, my body is craving rest.

And exhaling.

As a culture we spend so much going, going, going. Always pushing forward and racing from one project, meeting, soccer game to the next.  I am totally do this too. Even as I sit here with seven open tabs on my computer – including three email accounts, Twitter and Facebook.

So I rest.

You can too.

Ready?

All together now:

A long, steady exhale.

Saturday Senses

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tasting :: sautéed zucchini, chickpeas and tomatoes with israeli couscous.

hearing :: willie nelson’s demo sessions.

smelling :: peanut butter from my waffles this morning.

seeing :: when i see the amount we have paid so far for our adoption plus what we still need to pay – about $35,000 in all – my blood pressure rises. working on a grant application put this all in front of my eyes this week. hello, stress!

feeling :: squeezed/tight/constricted. spring break is still far enough away i don’t believe it is actually going to happen and i’m finally worried about money for adoption – i guess my long-held denial may be coming to an end.

wishing/hoping :: we can all find a little peace and calm this long week before spring break.

What about you?

What are your senses this Saturday?

Looking back, how was your week?

Leave a comment and tell me all about it. I’d seriously love to hear about your week. Now’s not the time to be shy.

This weekly tradition inspired by Pink of Perfection’s Five Sense Friday.

Don’t forget to click the links!

Saturday Senses

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tasting :: homemade soups and chili at our quarterly staff potluck

hearing :: peer tutoring in math {kindness first!}

smelling :: rain, rain, rain

seeing :: a dent in our huge pile of adoption paperwork

feeling :: stretched too thin

wishing/hoping :: we’ll be finished with our adoption paperwork by the end of the week

What about you?

What are your senses this Saturday?

Looking back, how was your week?

Leave a comment and tell me all about it. I’d seriously love to hear about your week. Now’s not the time to be shy.

This weekly tradition inspired by Pink of Perfection’s Five Sense Friday.

Don’t forget to click the links!

 

In Case You Missed It Edition! Volume 6

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Each week I’ll give you links to posts that made me laugh, cry, think or at least raise an eyebrow. Please click the links and check out the posts. You may find something that rocks your world too.

Leave me some feedback in the form of comments below on what you liked, what you hated and what you’d like to see more of. I’m here to help you find the best of what is online.

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My Best Of…

In honor of November being National Adoption Month –

10 Misconceptions About Adoption – a must read

Thanksgiving is coming! Marissa Bracke is showing her gratitude all month with the 30 Thanks Gratitude Adventure

Ever wonder what to wear to work or how to throw an office party or organize your ever-expanding must read list? Sacramento’s The New Professional Angeline shows you how.

Is all this talk of the holidays starting to stress you out?

Yoga For Holiday Stress with Madeleine is the best yoga workshop I went to last year. I’m going again. It’s going to sell out (there are only a couple spots left even though it is still weeks away), so sign up today if you want to come.

Have you heard of Postcards from Heaven? Every month I receive a postcard with a message I need to hear. I keep these personalized messages on my desk at work to remind me what is important to me. Elizabeth is doing a December special and if you need a little pick-me-up during the busiest time of year order a set for yourself.

Brene Brown’s TEDx courtesy of Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project (a goldmine!) – take the 20 minutes and watch it. She’s funny and I think she may have some of the secrets of life. Seriously.

That is the In Case You Missed It Edition for this week folks.

Remember to click the links and leave some comments. This is a conversation, you know.

In Case You Missed Edition Archives: Volume 5,  Volume 4,  Volume 3,  Volume 2,  Volume 1

Don’t Take It Personally

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It’s kinda says it all, doesn’t it?

Who are we to let others define who we are?

According to Don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements – if we take what others say about us personally, then we must believe what others say about us. When in fact, what people say about us is really about them.

In other words:

Don’t take it personally.

Not the good stuff.

Not the bad stuff.

Nothing is personal.

Each year I come up with a New School Year Resolution. I’m now in my seventh year with my own class and I think this one will help most with my (what seems to be up until now) suffering:

Don’t. Take. It. Personally.

{I thought it was worth repeating}.

What mantras help you get through the stressful times in your life? What are words you live by?

For a little background about my previous suffering – take a look at this post: The Good, The Bad and Sick of All the BS.

 {click on image for source}

 

Flu – who is to blame?

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I got sick this week  – sick enough to take two days off work without knowing who my subsitute would be and not really caring as long as I didn’t have to go into work.

I got sick enough I took a whole weekend off from yoga teacher training and well, from everything that didn’t involve laying on the couch or in bed.

I got sick enough that my big accomplishment for the weekend was showering and brushing my teeth.

I got sick enough I googled flu versus cold symptoms and fell decidedly in the flu column with a special shout out to the tiredness, unproductive – yet really, really annoying – cough, and overall body aches. Thursday morning I felt like my body had been worked over with a sock full of oranges Grifters style.

As the weekend progressed and I didn’t magically feel better, I began to wonder if I’d ever feel healthy again. I do this. When I’m sick I feel sorry for myself and to try to assign some blame as to why I got sick. It isn’t enough that it’s one of the worst flu years ever and I am surrounded all day by snotty, sneezy, coughy children. No, I need to know why.

A friend called me this weekend to check on me and her theory about my flu was less about my proximity to the little germ factories and more about totally stressing out about a high profile observation last week at work. And maybe report cards, grading and parent conferences coming up. As it turns out, she may be on to something or so says Parade magazine…

“Stress affects your heart, weight, and skin. It’s also linked with “poorer wound healing, an increased risk for developing depression, the common cold, and influenza, as well as associated with increased symptoms among those with chronic illnesses,” says Dr. Sheldon Cohen, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon.”

So now I’m thinking the big work stressors combined with the little germ factories is probably what made me sick to begin with. Now I’m left wondering how I can counter all those factors…. hmmm, maybe some yoga?