yoga with adriene

Stay The Fuck Home Get In Touch With Yourself Edition

Yes. I know this title can sound one of two ways… a bit sexy time with yourself or a bit hippy dippy. This blog post is leaning more to the latter. Sorry to disappoint those who were hoping for the former. You do what you gotta do!

Yoga Yes, I’m talking about yoga… again. Seriously, if you aren’t already doing it, do it! There are so many benefits to doing yoga every, single day. Your health improves, you get physically stronger, you tone your body, build muscle and flexibility. On top of that, it is really good for your mental well being.

Yoga With Adriene has amazing beginner videos. I’ve been doing yoga for years off and on (now permanently on) and every once in a while, I will go back and do some beginner yoga videos to make sure I’m doing the basics right. Here is a great video I did today.

Mediation A great way to ground yourself, to start to clear the cobwebs out of your head and to help move out those negative thoughts. It can be hard in the beginning to concentrate, but trust me, it gets easier.

Learn Tarot I have friends that do a card pull every single day. It helps to ground them. They also use the cards for meditation. Some of them do readings online (professionally) and if you want to get in touch with one of them let me know. Otherwise, you can learn how to do Tarot basics on your own. You can try free online courses or do a paid course by a Tarot professional such as Liz Worth. I have links below for both.

Liz Worth http://www.learntarot.com/

Free http://www.learntarot.com/

Journal A great way to relieve stress and get things off your mind or chest is to journal. You could do it old style and get one with a lock and key (anyone getting flashbacks of catching your little brother or sister trying to open your diary), or just use one of the many journals you have laying around. You know, the ones you keep buying because you have always planned on writing a journal and you did it for two days and stopped. Did I call a few of you out. 😉

If you aren’t comfortable writing about how you are feeling, you could also make it about the things you are observing around you. Or, just use it as a way to put down a flowing of words. Write poems, dirty limericks. Just write something.

Kindness and Mindfulness We go through life being conscious (I hope you are) that we need to show kindness and mindfulness to others, yet, we tend to forget to do this for ourselves. Before this Twilight Zone episode that is now our lives started, most lived fast paced lives, never taking time for themselves. Now that everything has come to a halt, we have no choice other than to slow down. That however, doesn’t mean spending all of your time sitting on a couch watching Netflix. Do one or all of the things I listed above and in addition to that, take a long bath, start reading through that pile of books you keep meaning to get to. Give yourself a home spa day. Paint your toenails. Take an actual shower and dress-up! Sing a song at the top of your lungs, even if you can’t sing. Do good things for yourself.

What positive things are you doing for yourself?

Stay The Fuck Home The Move Your Ass Edition

One of the possibilities of self-isolation is we won’t get enough exercise. Self-isolation doesn’t mean sitting on a couch all day binge watching everything on Netflix or gaming until your thumbs off. Exercise will help with your stress levels and hopefully keep you from having a heart attack.

Here is a list of at home work outs and yes, I’ve included YOGA! Did you really think I wouldn’t. Don’t be like that. I’ve also included exercises for kids. They need to keep moving too! Plus, you can do the exercises with them and make it a family workout!

Yoga With Adriene
https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene

Self has a great list of at home work outs.
https://www.self.com/gallery/best-at-home-workouts-bodyweight

Nerd Fitness work out!
https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/the-7-best-at-home-workout-routines-the-ultimate-guide-for-training-without-a-gym/

25 Min Low Impact Cardio Workout for Beginners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8YsjljHt2M&list=PLX588G6cM3T40wujWmydqqnzQxQhXTkcm&index=2&t=822s

30 minute fat burning home workout for beginners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC_L9qAHVJ8&list=PLX588G6cM3T40wujWmydqqnzQxQhXTkcm&index=3&t=0s

Fun, low impact workout for TOTAL beginners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0c-4nZjIWQ&list=PLX588G6cM3T40wujWmydqqnzQxQhXTkcm&index=4&t=0s

Family Fun Cardio Workout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5if4cjO5nxo

Home Exercises for Kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHVR2FnTpdk

Stay The Fuck Home Entertain Yourself Edition

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts from friends witnessing way too many people out on the streets and in generally populated areas, including lounging in parks. Apparently, there are still people who don’t understand social distancing. The only times you should be going out is for groceries/supplies and exercise.

If you miss interacting with you friends, you can have virtual coffee or a Netflix Party. Platforms like Google Hangouts, Zoom or Facebook allow video conferencing.

As mentioned another fun thing to do is Netflix Party. https://www.netflixparty.com/

You can also live stream from YouTube or Facebook. Get a dance party going!

If you want to do things on your own, you can get caught up on reading or learn something new. Here are a few suggestions.

Open Culture has a TONNE of free ebooks http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks

Go learn about ancient botany. https://botany.edwardworthlibrary.ie/ancient-botany/ancient-botany-2/

Take a virtual museum tour. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/virtual-tours-canada-museums_ca_5e7275c2c5b6eab77941338d

My friend Diana Coatsworth is teaching you how to do sewing basics such as sew on a button! https://www.facebook.com/diana.coatsworth.7/videos/10163201173745634/

Ask Sarah Has a lot of sewing tutorials and hacks. https://www.asksarah.com.au/

Draw something, even if you haven’t for years.

Find a cooking video on YouTube.

Do Yoga or some other form of exercise.

Dig out that copy of Macbeth you’ve had since High School and start acting out scenes.

Go through your closet and have a fashion show. This also helps you purge items you don’t need and someone else could use!

Learn how to do the CanCan! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL2g1WuuqKU

Adult Colouring http://www.openculture.com/2019/02/download-free-coloring-books-from-113-museums.html?fbclid=IwAR1exfo2aaUsahjbaGwue9yeJL9jhkPFVDkQFpGFCBspII4HMqHet0wyDg4

There are soooooo many things you could be doing at home. You don’t need to be out with your friends or meeting up in parks! Be responsible!!!

Achieve!

Oh no! Not a yoga post! YES! A yoga post! This is also a post about achievement.


What have you recently been able to do that was hard to do a week, a month or a year ago? Today, I was able to straighten both of my legs for Triangle Pose. Yesterday I conquered my fear of buttonholes. (They still aren’t perfect, but I did it without hesitating — they normally give me anxiety). I may not have figured out how to build a rocketship (don’t do that, also the earth is not flat) or did a calculation to get us to the moon, but I did two things that I wasn’t able to a few days ago.


What were your achievements? What are you hoping to achieve?


Today I’m hoping to get another chapter almost done. I’m leaving early for an appointment so I can get some walking in. Tomorrow I am determined to do a full plank pose… even if for a few seconds. Your achievements or goals don’t need to be huge, they just need to make you happy!


Back to Yoga! Don’t think yoga can be fun! This is why I LOVE Yoga With Adriene! She makes it fun! She also has a Yoga for Zombies video too!

I decided to build my own 31 Day Challenge with her videos. I made the playlist public if anyone wants to do it with me! I’m starting with video #1 tomorrow. The last few days I was picking and choosing videos that went with my mood that day.

Shame, Shame, Double Shame!

This week has not been off to a great start. Last night I was starting to get a migraine, likely weather related and fell asleep on the couch. Never a good thing on both counts. No one wants a migraine and falling asleep on the couch usually means a fitful sleep. We were fortunate to have a couple nice days and now there is a shift in the weather again and not only has it given me a headache, the shift may have stirred up some residual memories and feelings. These things I thought I’d let go keep popping up again.

If you’ve read my blog, you may or may not have come across a few posts about being bullied in High School for being different. For the longest time I called it being picked on, but in fact, it’s bullying. In my case I fought back, however, it still affected me. Being treated that way made me feel as if I was even more of an outsider and it pushed me to move out of that small town. I also had to learn at a very early age that I was going to have to take care of myself. No one else was going to stick up for me. It made me tough and independent. This doesn’t always happen. In many cases bullying has the opposite affect and to heart-breaking results.

In the case of myself, I tried over time to not think about it as much. I tried to let those feelings go. Yet, in my dreams it will pop up from time to time. After being fat shamed the other week, I felt horrible for a few days, then I made an effort to let it go. I’m wondering if last nights dream was that feeling stirring up again. Shaming someone will do that.

In the dream, two friends and myself are at a Rockabilly bar. One of them recognizes a man, who is standing by himself, from a Toronto band from the 1980s. (in my dream I remembered this band, when I woke up this morning it left me) They invite him to sit at our table. The conversation is fun. There is some reminiscing, lots of laughter and everyone is participating in the conversation. The musician even talks about how their band is going to start up again now that 80s music is so popular again. Then it happens. He looks directly at me, and says, “You are so fat and ugly, no one would fuck you.” At that moment everything had gone quiet, the music, the sounds of conversations, everything. Then, after he stopped talking, it started up again. He then looked away and said he had to go to the bathroom and the two friends (male) both said they needed to go as well. I then waited for what felt like a really long time and when they didn’t come back, I left. When I left the bar, my feet were suddenly bare and there were shards of ice everywhere. I had to choose to go back into the bar or walk on the ice and I kept walking. Then the dream ended.

Shaming is bullying.

In the last few years I’ve really struggled with my weight. I went from being slender and physically active, to hurting my knee, unable to exercise and gaining weight. Menopause hasn’t helped. I used to have a friend who said things such as, “Hey fatty!” When I would tell her that was a horrible thing to say, she would then say, “Just KIDDING!” In her mind twisting it into a joke made it ok. Guess what! It’s not OK! It’s never ok! EVER!

Bullying and shaming hurts the victims. Every single time. It has to stop!

How did I get to this blog post today? This morning when I went to begin yoga, I didn’t feel like it. I was tired, I still have a headache and the dream was bothering me. I was going to do an intense core practice today and rather than do nothing at all, I chose the Fill Your Cup video. It is a 22 minute video and was just what I needed, also hearing Adriene’s voice, telling me it’s ok to feel the way I feel and it helped. Doing this practice every day is helping my mind as well as my body. During the practice I kept coming back to why I can’t let go of how horrible I feel about being bullied and shamed, then started to feel heart-broken for those who are pushed to suicide because of it. Bullying has to stop!

If you are being bullied or feeling helpless, lost and suicidal I am including links to helpline’s. I know you may not feel like you can talk to anyone, but please, if you can, contact one of these helplines.

Bullying Canada — https://www.bullyingcanada.ca/
Canada Suicide Prevention — https://www.crisisservicescanada.ca/en/

Bonus! Aka Day 31

Bonus content! AKA Day 31. Don’t worry, this is the last daily post about yoga. Some have been loving my daily posts… some have been absolutely hating it. 🤷‍♀️


Today I did an intense video because I wanted to challenge myself and I also wanted to see how far I’d come. It was hard and I shook and there was a position I couldn’t hold all the way to the end and my legs are going to hurt tomorrow! Will they ever! However, if I don’t challenge myself and if we don’t challenge ourselves, what’s the point. I’ve gone through life jumping in to many situations because they would be learning experiences (good ones, sometimes they turned out bad). I would go for job interviews and not have 1/2 the skills required and say I did and when I got the job, busted my ass to learn those skills before showing up for day 1. Hell, I quit a day job to write full-time! Yes, a lot of it is scary, but… we have to not let fear stop us from trying.


When we were kids my Dad built a treehouse. I was scared to go up the ladder because I didn’t know if the treehouse would fall down. Once I got up there, I was terrified to climb back down and had to get my Dad to help. Two days later I stood at the bottom of that damn tree wanting to go back up into the treehouse. I had to talk myself into it, but I did it. I climbed up and yes the journey back down the ladder was slow and cautious, but after that point, I kept going into the treehouse. Yes, mostly to annoy my brother, but… you get my point!


This weightloss journey is one huge challenge. I’m doing it for my health. I went from being fit and slender to messing up my knee, not exercising, being sedentary and then whammo menopause. All of this had me put on weight. Now… I am fighting the battle to get it off.


Who is still doing the Yoga challenge? What have been some of your life challenges?

Day 30

Day 30! Today was a really challenging workout and I loved it! It was also done without Adriene talking. She wanted us to use our 30 days of practice and it was a great way to show me how far I’ve progressed! I was actually able to grab my toes in the seated position (legs stretched out). Couldn’t do that day 1. Also further proof my belly is shrinking!


When I was a teenager, my Grandma Betty gave me an old Instamatic camera and an 8 mm movie camera. Neither worked, but both intrigued me. Eventually, my parents gave me a working camera for my birthday and I went photo taking crazy.


Fast forward a few years, after graduating college for Graphic Design, I felt like something was missing, so I took a college course for photography. For a while, I worked in both fields, but I didn’t feel either stretched my mind creatively. Photography then became more of a hobby.


Fast forward a few more years and I did something I still regret to this day. In a desperate situation and between that fine line of being evicted and living on the streets, I sold all of my photography equipment so I could pay rent. Doing so kept me off the streets, but it took something away from me that I cherished. For years after that, I considered buying a new camera to restart photography, but could never afford a camera or at least the one I wanted.


Fast forward to a few years ago, my husband and family I created Cate and Laurie all went in together to buy me a camera. Even to this day, I can’t even begin to explain how much it meant to me. Though I don’t get out as much as I want. I have been and this year (once winter passes) I plan on getting out even more. It brings me so much joy. More than I will ever be able to express.


What brings you joy? Who made it to day 30 or are you still going. Tomorrow I am starting to go through her other videos. I also will stop posting daily about yoga. I will post from time to time about my progress.

Day 29

Day 29! My legs are shakey after today’s practice! I am so glad I started this practice though. I’m getting physically stronger every single day. Getting strong and building muscle will help me let go of the weight I’ve been holding onto.


If I was alive (maybe I was in another life) in the early 1900s, I fully believe that not only would I have been a flapper, I would have been in Vaudeville or the Silent movies. I must have been. What little kid (yes I was into this stuff as a kid) is into all of this stuff otherwise. One of my dreams was to put on a full Vaudeville show. Though I didn’t do a full scale one, I used to run a monthly Cabaret. Running a smaller show I fully appreciate all of the work that a full Vaudeville show would have been to put on.


One of my other favourite parts of Vaudeville are the amazing posters!


To learn more about the history of Vaudeville, please click on the below link.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaudeville

Day 28

Day 28! And I feel great! {could turn this into a dirty limerick – maybe later}
For a couple of weeks, I wasn’t really losing inches, which is odd, because along with long brisk walks, I’m doing yoga every day and I’m still eating healthy. I am keeping track and I noticed that I will lose, then two weeks nothing, then lose, then two weeks nothing. Apparently, this is how my body loses weight. This time it was 3 weeks before something disappeared. I also wonder if it’s because I’m starting to build some muscles. (being hopeful here)


Here are the current stats on inches gone:
Arm = 1
Bust = 1
Waist = 4
Stomach = 9.5
Hips = 6
Thigh = 4
Calf = 1

I LOVE ghost stories. Reading them, writing them, watching movies and documentaries about them and you guessed it, even those reality-style TV shows about them like Ghost Adventures. If it goes bump in the night, I want to know about it. Do you like ghost stories?


Who else made it to day 28? Two more days to go in this challenge for me!

Day 27

Day 27! I cannot believe it’s already day 27! Today was another challenging video, but I personally prefer the ones that make me work! I think by round 2 I will be able to hold and do most of the moves except Crow Pose. That one is going to take work. Otherwise, I’m doing pretty good!


Since I was quite young I have been intrigued by Marilyn Monroe. Over the years I have watched and rewatched her movies, purchased and read many books about her (I have kept my favourites) and watched lots of documentaries about her. She was incredibly fascinating and super talented, she was also someone who suffered from depression and a sense of low self-esteem. Many of us can understand that to certain degrees. She had a beautiful soul and died way too young. When asked if there was anyone dead or alive I would love to meet Marilyn is at the top of my list. I would love to have had a coffee chat with her.


As many of you may or may not know, I make a lot of my own clothing. This year I have a goal to make 2 of her many fabulous dresses. The well known blue dress and the red dress from the movie Niagara. For the blue dress I am going to be using the Lila + June Picnic dress (I just need to find the right material) and for the red dress a Gretchen “Gertie” Hirsch pattern. Both I will be making over the next few months! I’ve always wanted to make them as a tribute to Marilyn and this year I’m doing it!