YOGA!
I went to yoga last night for the first time in three weeks and it felt amazing. A whole different kind of amazing from skating, but equally powerful.
Skating is the only thing I have ever done where I literally get butterflies in my stomach each and every time I go to put them on my feet. When my foot slips in, it's like "Aaaaaah. I'm home." Sometimes a session doesn't go as well as I would have liked (like yesterday), but even if that's the case, I am still happy to be doing it. I just relate to the ground better with wheels on my feet. I've had a few moments where I've seriously questioned WHY it's so important for me to skate between little plastic cones, but whenever that has happened, I have always resolved the situation by realizing that It Just Is. It's a rather postmodern stance to adopt, but then again, so is skating between little plastic cones.
Anyway, yoga is a whole different discipline. It's the opposite of freestyle, and yet it is still very liberating. Sometimes I may not be in the mood to go to yoga class (and yes, sometimes I am not in the mood to skate! It is rare, however.), and even if the class doesn't go very well for me, it always forces me to realize that something is not right with me and I can work through it from there. Sometimes it's physical and sometimes it's mental, but I can always learn something from a yoga class.
Most of all, I learn to BREATHE, which is so simple, but so many of us overlook this on a daily basis.
Speaking of this, during the Wednesday night lesson that Tim and I give, I learned that some people find it difficult to keep breathing when they are concentrating on learning a new slalom move or practicing one that is new to them. Even worse, people may not realize that they are not breathing until they are so weak they have to stop and take a literal breather. So, since I don't have a great big epic skating post today, this is your tip: BREATHE evenly when you practice. Get yourself off to a good start by taking three deep, controlled breaths before you even start skating. This will help you clear your mind and shift your focus from everything else going on in your life to the only thing in the world that is important at that moment: you and your skating. It sounds trivial, and you might be thinking, "Well, duh, obviously I know how to breathe," but if you just take a moment for yourself to really feel the breath filling your lungs and subsequently being expelled, it can make a big difference in your muscles (both tension level and strength: oxygen to muscles = good), your mental focus, and your mood.
So, focus on it, if you haven't already. Just a little yoga tip. :)
Some other things that I love today (besides yoga) are:
yummy woodfruits loose tea with pieces of apples and strawberries in it + Jamie Oliver! + reading Time magazine and then talking about pertinent articles in class + talking with the people in my Dutch classes about adjusting to life in Belgium + peanut butter and celery + windowsill seedlings + soup + my heated mattress pad + Dexter + talking with my best friend Kym + getting excited about a job solicitation even though I probably can't take the position (unless they let me do it part-time! but I am getting waaaay ahead of myself there) + actually doing things on my to-do list + seeing Tim in the middle of a Thursday afternoon when usually we don't see each other til almost midnight + seeing how much stuff I can reasonably cart around on a bicycle + adding a new cooking spice to our repertoire + coffee
Next time I want to talk more about sitting tricks, and to be honest, the reason I wrote a list of things I love was to cheer myself up about that, because I took some video in my practice yesterday, and ay ay ay. It's still not pretty, people.
Well, at least I'm doing kick-ass sevens. I will take some video of that. :)
Until then, thanks for reading and bye.
meg
P.S. Naomi is coming on Wednesday! Yaaaay!
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