Posts Tagged ‘spring’
Spring Thaw
Posted on: March 12, 2015
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Spring is upon us and the dreadful cold of winter is hopefully just a memory. It’s been marginally warmer the past few days (finally), and the snow has been melting! We’re finally starting to see glimpses of greenery popping up!
As happy as I am that all of that is happening, I have to admit that I’m not much a fan of this time of the year. I hate mud almost as much as I hate the freezing cold. It’s such an ugly blah dull brown out, the only thing that makes it better is knowing that each day will get greener and warmer (I hope) than the last.
Today I was feeling noticeably better than the rest of this week and with it being 40ish I really wanted to get the kids out of the house. We decided to go to the bike trail after school. It was still frozen over in spots, which made it interesting, but overall it was a success. We went until just shy of the overpass (as it was frozen for as far as we could see, so we decided it was time to turn around). I was kicking myself for not finding my fit bit (and charger) before we left so I could count that as a workout.
The fresh air did wonders for my head and my mood! I’m hoping tomorrow is another nice day and I can get a real workout in, and maybe another walk. Though tomorrow there is a tour coming to check out Grandpa’s maple operation, so Little Miss and I get to help out with that š
I can’t wait for it to be warm enough for short sleeves!
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Day 30: Transforming
Posted on: April 30, 2013
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It’s here. The last day of April. The last day of the Main Street Yoga April yoga challenge. Day 30. I am finished. I did it! 30 days for $30.
All those hearts are MINE! š ā¤
It’s an ending but also just the beginning as I continue on my journey with The Ultimate Yogi. I get to reacquaint myself with Travis Eliot. I’ll reestablish my love/hate relationship with him (emphasis on the love… though sometimes I really have to grit my teeth during his practices and remember to BREATHE).
The end of the month of April is so bittersweet. I love my fellow Main Street yogarians. The community that Kath has brought together there is just amazing. So much positive qi (chi). You can’t hang out with those people and ever feel like you’re less. They bring out the best of you (well, me).
Looking back on this month, it’s been such a transformative journey already. April started with craziness for me. It was freezing. The morning practices would start in blackness and some days even finish dark. There was frost & the need to blast the heat on high for half of my trip to the studio. The days have now lengthened. The sun is already on the rise when my alarm goes off in the morning, and the sun is still on it’s descent after the evening class is finished. It’s been warm enough to wear a sundress, without also wearing goosebumps. It’s been rainy and miserable. It’s been sunny and beautiful.
Every time I meet my mat, I’m different. The mat, the postures, the space, they are all the same. But I am different. Each time I’m more in tune with my body. Getting to know what it needs, what it means when it feels a certain way.Ā One day I may beĀ vulnerable, the next needy, or strong, weak, wild, spunky, scared, timid, joyful. Some days I’m just existing. Other days I am alive, pulsing with the prana, feeling the breath awaken the dusty depths of my soul.
Every day I am different.
Every time I get on my mat, I am transformed.
Thank you Kath, for the start of this beautiful transformation.
Namaste,
Brin
A big congratulatory “Om” to all of my yogis that completed the April challenge, and to all of those that are starting their own.
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Day 26: Lie to Me
Posted on: April 26, 2013
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This morning was another killer.
I think back to the morning classes that started this month and in my memory they went like this: A super sweet warm up. A long stretchy ascent, brief peak, a slow cool down with a lengthy restful savasana where I always wanted to go back to sleep. They were almost *too* sweet though perfect. I missed the edge.
Now it’s all wham bam, thank you ma’am. It’s amazing how after class, even with them being 100% different, I am still all blissed out and feel awesome, in the same way. But man, she’s been kicking ourĀ behinds and I want to be lazy! LOLĀ (For the record, I’m totally glad she ISN’T going easy on us. We need challenge in order to grow).
I told Kath that if she’s going to continue killing us, great. I love it. BUT if she ever decides to divulge what type of practice it’s going to be (and it’s notĀ a sweet easy practice) to LIE. I don’t want to know beforehand.
Mornings are still getting increasingly harder to get up. Every morning it’s “can’t I just go to the 5:30pm class?” “NO BRITTANY, GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF BED”. You would think by now it’d be getting to be routine. I’m even forced to go to bed by 10:30pm! Craziness, especially considering I’m a nightowl and going to bed before midnight has always been a struggle. Now I can’t even stay up and watch a full length show on Netflix after the kids go to bed!
It’s a beautiful spring day today & the weather forecast says it will be a beautiful weekend too. I’m thinking it’s a short-day-at-the-office kind of day… The kind where I rush home to get a quick nap in with the kids and then we can do something awesome, like go fishing!
Have a happy day!
Brin
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Day 23: Becoming One
Posted on: April 23, 2013
You know the expression “become one with the Earth”?
I’ve always thought it was kinda cheesy. Like, really?! Not going to happen.
The more time I spend on my mat, the more I “get” it, this concept of becoming one. Not just with the earth, but with yourself. Blending breath with your body. Your heart/mind/spirit, working in unison. Building sweet harmonies, all on the foundation of the breath.
Break it down a little deeper… We are made up of water and other particles. We need the air to function. We need the Earth.Ā We need trees, sun, soil, water. That is life.
Everytime you breath in, you’re using the earth. Everytime you exhale, you’re building the earth. It’s a continuous give and take. We all know, we take way more than we give from the earth. How can we give back more? How can we change ourselves so that we recognize our greed and halt it in it’s tracks, so we can ration the sweetness the earth has to offer? What can you do?
It’s the start of gardening season. Can you plant something this year? Anything. A flower. A pumpkin. A tree. Some corn/peas/broccoli/tomatoes? Put your fingers in the soil and get the dirt under your nails. Feel it. Recognize it for what it is and what it does for you.
Just as sometime in your day pause for a moment, mindfully take inventory of your breath. You probably are breathing very shallowly. Can you deepen your breath and feel that in your chest? Feel how the breath makes you come alive. Feel your heart beating. Feel your ribs expand as you breath in the crisp spring air.
Image from http://www.aarynwest.com/blog
Pranakriya yoga is so alivening. The attention we give to our breathing in these classes is delicious. The breath is front and center. Victorious breathing; Ujjayi. It’s a lifeforce. It is what keeps us alive. There truly aren’t even words powerful enough to describe the feeling of those moments, during and immediately after the intensity that is pranakriya. Entwining breath with motion so seamlessly that it’s as if you cannot do one without the other…. Then the sweet floating that comes from just doing nothing and soaking it all in. Nothing in your mind but the breath and your inner light. Breathing in more light, exhaling all darkness.
In that moment, you are able to become one.
Namaste,
Brin
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Day 15: Smile
Posted on: April 15, 2013
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It’s a beautiful spring morning. The air feels light and fresh. It wasn’t freezing and that made me smile.
The sun was high in the sky at 6:30 as we really got into our practice. It was beautiful.
This morning’s practice was perfect. I’m used to a hardcore power hour vinyasa flow type practice, so going to the sweet and stretchy morning practices has been great BUT I feel like I’ve been cheating since I’m not getting that intense work-out. I miss it. And if i’m honest, I have a fitness goal (to be swimsuit acceptable by July when I go to Mexico) and I feel like these mornings, however sweet they are, they aren’t helping me get toward that goal.
This morning Kath did the crescent lunge flow. Right–flow chatturanga, down dog– Left– flow– Repeat.Ā It got my blood coursing through my veins. My heart was pumping. I broke a sweat. Mmmmm. Yes! Cardio! She even threw in navasana. It made me smile.
Smile! š
I got stuck by a thorn-apple thorn thingy yesterday on our walk, right at the base of my wrist/palm. And it is SO so sore. It hurts when I move my fingers, put pressure on my hand, anyting really. It’s miserable. It made for an intense practice this morning because it was very down dog/plank heavy and my ouchie just was screaming the whole time!
It was definitely a test for my breathing.
I left yoga this morning with a refreshing bounce to my step, a smile on my face, and a bring it on attitude. *Sigh*
Today is going to be a good day!
Brin
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Day 14: Lazy
Posted on: April 14, 2013
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Two weeks down.
If I hadn’t done this before (and 45ish days of UY) I would be worried that I was getting burned out. Today I feel like doing nothing. I got up and went to the morning class this morning… but since getting home, I’ve accomplished very little aside from taking two naps… cooking/eating… and going on a walk with the boyfriend & littles. Oh wait, I also did do a load of dishes AND a load of laundry.
However, I have a mountain of clothes that need to be folded on my bed. Like seriously, a 3ft tall monstrosity that is overtaking my queen sized bed.
I don’t wannnnnnaaaa.
I just want to be lazy and do nothing. Tomorrow is Monday already. Back to work. Back to being busy. I want to be blissfully bored for just a while longer.
The kids are watching a movie, after getting tired out (and a little chilly) on our walk. So I think this girl is going to take a super hot bubble bath… then hopefully muster up enough motivation to clear off the bed and put away these clothes. After though, I’m totally thinking it’s a movie night sort of night.
Goodnight!
Brin
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Day 9: Spring to life
Posted on: April 9, 2013
- In: Yoga
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Spring is here!
…for today.
I slept horribly last night because apparently something happened to our furnace and both my grandparents and I were awaken to this odd gassy smell… I was convinced we were going to die of CO poisoning… I even checked all the ovens and burners, TWICE. But alas, it was the furnace and my grampa found the problem.
Even so, my alarm went off this morning and I got up. I actually felt pretty decent. Got ready and was pleasantly surprised when I opened the front door and was greeted by the crisp, but just cool, air. It wasn’t freezing! There was no frost! Woooot.
I had a shocking encounter as I got to town this morning, some crazy with a joint in her hand waited on the sidewalk as I got out of my car **before six am!**, to ask me for a lighter. Are you kidding me?
She seemed rather “off”. I gave her a polite “No, I don’t smoke” and went about my way… Creeeeper.
Yoga, day 9.
I did something to my glute in the past few days. It’s sore on the left side. I want to baby it & stretch it out at the same time. I want the lingering pain in it to subside and leave me alone. It’s rather annoying and it’s one of those muscles you can’t even complain about because people raise their eyebrows at you and think dirty thoughts. No people, it’s not ACTUALLY my butt. It’s my MUSCLE. It hurts.
You can tell even the sun is embracing spring, finally. This morning the sun came up early and we got to do our entire practice with the sun beams traveling through the windows. We could see the sun just behind the trees on the horizon. It was beautiful. At least we get a second day of sunshine before the April showers make their appearance. (Bringing along that disgusting smell of WORMS and mud.)
We did a lot of shouder and hamstring work this morning. I met it with excitement. My shoulders have been SO tight the past few days. It felt amazing to focus so much energy between my shoulders, through my traps, and down in my arms. I could feel my deltoids lengthening. Mmmmmm. It was delicious.
We did some slightly “weird” strap stretch (I say “weird” because it isn’t really, unless you were an onlooker and then I’m sure we looked insane) for our hammy’s and that was yummy too. There is nothing like stretching to startĀ your day.
My beaten Manduka eko lite mat: Front & center, soaking up the sunshine as it fills the room.
I had an optometrist appointment at 8, so I hung out in the lounge a while then went and got an ice coffee & sat in the sun outside. It was so nice to be able to enjoy the spring day for a few moments. I breathed it all in.
These are the moments we need to hang on to.
Namaste,
Brin
Goodbye Ordinary 