Simple Pleasures

Last night after yoga class, I swung by the library to pick up an audio CD by Anne Lamott that I had on hold. I walked by the Friends of the Library stand and behold, there sat three shiny good-as-new copies of Bon Appetit. For 25 cents each.

Later that night, as I lay in bed under a down comforter and flipped through the pages, I realized that Molly Wizenburg, whose book "A Homemade Life" I just finished and enjoyed, writes a column for the magazine. Hm, I just might need a subscription.

Making Your Own Dreams Come True

"Do something every day that scares you."-Eleanor Roosevelt

Sometimes I wonder how many things in life we miss out on because of fear, be it insecurity and self-doubt, or just the fear of failure. Although I have experienced these in my life in the past, I am getting to a point of greater stability where I am making an effort to stop listening to the voice in my head that says I can’t and just do things that I want to do. Here are some recent examples:

1) I began taking a yoga class to pursue a long-time desire to learn that had previously always landed squarely in the "someday" category. I was nervous to try yoga because of my limited flexibility and minimal upper body strength. However, I discovered something that I truly enjoy and which nurtures the body, mind and spirit. I can't always do all of the poses or hold them for long, but it's a start down a road that I've been sitting and staring at for a long time.

2) I planned a dinner party, although I have always worried about not being a good enough hostess/cook/conversationalist/etc. I realized that I’m never going to learn how to entertain if I don’t invite friends over, so I’m going for it! (And I'm really excited to plan it, too!)

3) On the booking-reading social network Goodreads.com, I couldn’t find a group to cater to my interest in Food Writing, so I formed my own group. My first impulse was to negatively wonder: "What if no one joins and I look like a loser?" But then a positive voice shot back, "What if people with the same interests do join? What if I can learn more about something that interests me? Why not?"

I am slowly learning to tune into the positive voice and shut out the negative one. I once heard that almost all women (in particular) struggle at times with a negative head voice, or negative self-talk. Maybe the negative head voice is the real enemy for us. Perhaps the only thing holding us back from living the life of our dreams is our own underestimation of our potential. If so, the possibilities are thrilling.

What Type of Yogi Are You?

My recent discovery, since discovering the world of yoga, is a company called Gaiam. Their slogan: “A lifestyle company.” They sell everything from natural fiber furniture and bedding to organic yoga clothes and exercise DVDs.

I was browsing some of the information they offer on their website and found a fun little quiz called, “What kind of yogi are you?” The test supposedly tells you what kind of yoga would be best matched to your personality. When I took this quiz, I was equally parts “Neat Freak” and “Frazzled”. Don’t I sound like a charmer? Hopefully, the yoga class I’ve been taking may help me curb my occasionally neurotic tendencies. Here’s the link for the quiz, if you’d like to find out what your yoga personality is:

http://life.gaiam.com/gaiam/p/QUIZ-What-Kind-of-Yogi-Are-You.html

My First Yoga Class

Last week, I attended my first yoga class at the Recreation Center in West Sacramento. Yoga is one of those things I’ve always been interested in but never had an opportunity to attempt. I enjoyed my first class, although my brain did cross-associate the music with my favorite Indian restaurant and leave me craving Chicken Tikka Masala.

The class I attended was a beginning one, just challenging enough but not too discouraging. I hope to attend the class once a week to balance it with my cardio the rest of the week. I found an interesting article about the health benefits of yoga on a health web site, which are:

Flexibility
Strength
Posture
Breathing
Stress Reduction
Concentration and Mood
Heart Benefits
Other Medical benefits

Here are a few of the more interesting tidbits from the article I wanted to share:

"Yoga has been practiced for more than 5,000 years, and currently, close to 11 million Americans are enjoying its health benefits. Yoga can hardly be called a trend.

"The series of yoga poses called asanas work by safely stretching your muscles. This releases the lactic acid that builds up with muscle use and causes stiffness, tension, pain, and fatigue. In addition, yoga increases the range of motion in joints. It may also increase lubrication in the joints. The outcome is a sense of ease and fluidity throughout your body.

Yoga stretches not only your muscles but all of the soft tissues of your body. That includes ligaments, tendons, and the fascia sheath that surrounds your muscles. And no matter your level of yoga, you most likely will see benefits in a very short period of time. In one study, participants had up to 35% improvement in flexibility after only eight weeks of yoga. The greatest gains were in shoulder and trunk flexibility."

I was very surprised at all of the medical benefits of yoga. If you’d like to read more of this article, it can be found at:
http://www.webmd.com/balance/the-health-benefits-of-yoga

Even if yoga’s not your thing, I hope that you will try something new that you’ve always wanted to try! Go for it!