Category: Life

Image isn’t everything

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…being human is everything!

I’ve been a bad little blogger…so much has happened, but this small thought is what made me find the time to sit down and start typing.

I am so thankful that I am learning (it’s still a work in progress) to live without worrying about what every single person out there thinks about me! That would be seriously stressful! And I know a lot of people who do worry that others are judging their every move/word/comment/choice…you name it; you probably know them too, one of them might even be you…and that’s ok! Just try to be aware of the extra stress you may be taking on.

I’ve been learning this for about six years now…I was thrown into this lesson when I started teaching fitness; I had to learn that not every student who came to my class was going to like me. Since then, I have been reminded of this many times over, but there are students that do like me 🙂 Hopefully more than those who don’t!

A yoga teacher of mine told a story once about the first time he did a challenging posture, and no one in the room cared…ah Yoga, the Great Teacher! Every time I feel really strong (or really weak) in a pose, I remind myself that no one in the room is looking at me, so I smile to myself and carry on 🙂

No matter who you are, what your title is, how much money you make, how many people recognize you, what you’ve accomplished…we’re all just human and we’re all here to help each other out!

Vent Sesh

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I’m going to apologize in advance for this post as it might not be the most positive, but I feel it needs to be said and this is my way of saying it.

I was out and about in beautiful, sunny Vancouver today and I was drinking in to-go cups (I try not to do this regularly) and eating out of to-go containers and didn’t have anywhere to put any of them! Vancouver’s current government is striving to be the Greenest City by 2020 and they’ve made some changes to help us achieve that goal, but I feel that some VERY basic changes are WAY overdue for a city of Vancouver’s size.

1. Compost!! Most to-go containers in this city are now compostable, which is awesome and I applaud the private companies for making the switch; unfortunately, there aren’t any composts to compost these compostable containers in! Riddle me that one people in charge of these things. Apparently people in detached houses have city composting; however, most of the population in this city doesn’t live in detached houses!

2. Recycling in public places. Recently a private recycling company rolled out 60 recycling bins around Vancouver, specifically at parks and beaches, woohoo, it’s about time! So tonight, after enjoying the meal created by playing my favourite game, Salad Bar Roulette, I went to use one of these new bins, only to find out that they’re for bottles and cans only! Seriously!? What is so hard about placing a compost/paper/plastic bin every other bus stop? I know it will be expensive, but so is disposing of unnecessary garbage!

I’ve also heard that there is such a thing as a recycling sorter!? Apparently this means everything goes into one bin and the sorter does all the work! One bin on the streets and one expensive sorter, or multiple bins on the street with the current method. Either way, I’d love a place to put my recyclables when I’m not close to home! And my compost when I am!

Fear is a funny thing…

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2012 has been a goal-crushing year so far: I got laser eye surgery, ran my first 10 km race, maintained a strong (almost) daily yoga practice, paid off my Visa, completed my first half marathon and jumped out of an airplane! Here’s the thing, I’m STILL terrified of losing control; this fear severely limits my ability to crush my goals of feeling comfortable in forearm balance and handstand, not to mention falling in love.

I recently ran into an old yoga friend of mine from Kelowna and we got talking about yoga and my recent goal-crushing and I had an ah-ha moment during our conversation. I realized that I’m happy to be in control or completely hand over control to someone I trust, but I can’t LOSE it. Here’s the difference: when I went skydiving, the person I jumped with had already earned my trust and had already proven his ability to maintain control so I was perfectly comfortable handing him full control of the situation; however, when I go to invert, there isn’t someone there to take over control; it’s me, and only me.  Here’s the sad part of this realization: I don’t trust myself enough.

My distaste for losing control is partly positive; it means that I don’t have the desire to try drugs and won’t allow myself to get drunk. On the other hand, I think it might have something to do with my fear of commitment and falling in love. Oh, and it is obviously hindering my yoga ASANA practice; however, not my YOGA practice as working through this IS my yoga practice.

I had hoped that jumping out of an airplane would help me break through my fear of losing control, but because I was able to fully hand control over that didn’t happen; so now it’s up to me to build up my CONFIDENCE IN MYSELF instead of being scared or putting my trust completely in someone else.

Bucket List Goals!

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Well, it’s a stormy summer night in Vancouver, and I’m not watching Batman like I was supposed to (see earlier post), so instead, I’m post-happy!

Last weekend I did something I NEVER thought I’d do! I went skydiving! O-M-G!

I think I mentioned in an earlier post not to judge yourself and what you think your life will be like and this was one of THOSE experiences! So here’s the story, maybe you can learn from my “mistakes” (read: be careful of the commitments you make, but allow others to help you push your boundaries).

Once upon a time, I was crushing on this guy who loved to skydive. After 11 meetings, he asked me out and we started dating. During our first few dates we talked about his love of skydiving and my fears of jumping out of perfectly good airplanes; he shared that his goal was to become a Tandem Master and, being a “girl in like,” I told him that when he achieved his goal, I would celebrate with him by jumping out of a perfectly good airplane strapped to him. Well, this summer, three years after I made this commitment, he achieved his monumental goal, and, even though we are no longer together, he strapped me to him and we jumped out of a perfectly good airplane together…and it was AMAZING! I think sharing that moment with him was just as amazing as jumping out of the plane 🙂

There are only a few people in this life that are able to give us the support to push our limits; allow them to do that!

Disappointment – How do you deal with it?

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Apparently I don’t deal with it very well…apparently I become a bit of a b*tch about it — not some of my proudest moments. The worst part is that my knee-jerk reaction (focus on the jerk) is to take it out on the person closest to me; tonight that was a good friend.

Really, I’m only posting this in an attempt to make myself more accountable in an attempt to avoid lashing out in the future; and, I have a feeling, I’m not the only one out there who needs to work on this…

What do you want your kids to experience?

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Recently The Globe and Mail published the article Bucket list for kids: 50 things to do before they’re 12. We all know our lives are too sedentary and kids, especially, aren’t as active as we were when we were growing up. I know I took my childhood for granted! Saturdays were spent riding bikes, “playing” tennis, swinging on swings, climbing trees, jumping on my net in the woods, finding deer bones on the ridge, building boats out of bark, combing the beaches…today, kids…um…watch tv?

I’m not a parent yet, but reading this list, and a recent visit to my childhood home, has definitely reinforced how important it is for parents to ensure their children get to experience at least some of these activities!

I also feel that you’re never too old to play, and, whether you have children to do these activities with or not, try to cross off a few more activities from your list!

Happy Playing!

Surprise goals

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2012 has become my year of “yes”…well, at least as far as pushing my boundaries and what I thought I could do. Maybe I’m not doing “one thing a day that scares [me]”, but definitely more things this year than any year before, or even all those years combined!

My good friend and I recently had a discussion about the next five years of our lives and one of the things that came out of that discussion was that we had two years to really dig deep and check off a whole shwack of items from our bucket lists. I actually didn’t really have a bucket list, so 2012 has become the year of not only developing a bucket list (of things I didn’t know I wanted to do), but also crossing them off! Run a 10k? Sure! Done! Join a relay team to run a 50 mile trail race through Whistler and Blackcomb? Why not!? Train for my first triathlon? Ok! Jump out of an airplane? Ok…that one’s taking a little more effort to persuade me to do, but I know it will happen. And today, Fun. is playing the after party for lululemon’s SeaWheeze…Well, ok, I guess I could run a half marathon (in 56 days); why not!?

My point is, surprise goals CAN be fun! And they ARE like getting hit with an inspiration bomb! And you really don’t know what you can do until you kick that little voice that keeps telling you “that’s not who you are” and “you can’t do that” OUT OF YOUR THOUGHT PROCESSES!

When do you practice yoga?

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I’ll get back to that, but first, I need a white board in my shower! One that would work in a shower. I find that all my best thoughts come to me mid-shower and I end up rushing to get out, grasping those thoughts!

Ok, back to the original thought process… A new yoga studio opened in my area recently (I’m sure I’ll write more on that in the near future) and I was super excited to try out this teacher my friends have told me about. Everything was going according to plan and the class was starting off pretty good, then the woman one person over stopped and the teacher came over…the class ended up being cancelled due to a medical emergency (she seemed to be ok, but needed medical attention to make sure everything would continue to be ok). This raised the question: when do you practice yoga?

This question has come up for me quite a lot recently. A little background; I’ve been doing yoga for close to 10 years now; however, I’ve been practicing yoga for about three years. I say I was doing yoga during those first seven years because I was, what my friend liked to call, a ‘clock-watcher’; I would show up, do the poses and constantly think about all the things I did that day or needed to do that night, or the next day, or the coming weekend…and then I would tell myself off for not focusing. About three years ago (could be four), Rockstar Yoga Teacher Laura said something in class that has stuck with me; she said, something along the lines of: watch your thoughts like you’re watching leaves floating down a river; don’t try to reach in and grab the thought, just watch it pass by. It’s ok to have thoughts, but just see them float along. That changed me. Now, I practice yoga and I find myself practicing yoga everywhere, during every situation. It’s ok to think things as they happen, but I don’t hold onto the thoughts or situations, I just let them float on by.

It’s very easy to get caught up in a situation and how it makes you feel, and how you feel about how it makes you feel, but really, it’s just a temporary moment and a temporary feeling.

When things don’t go according to plan, or a coworker annoys you, or you make a mistake, or, or, or…try watching that moment/thought/situation float on down that river (it might be a slow river and that’s ok) and allow yourself the freedom to not grab at it and hold on and squeeze it and look at it from all different angles and agonize over it…just let it float… Oh, and if you do grab it, just unclench your fist and let it float off (watching the judgement thought that’s sure to follow float on down that river behind the original one…because I know it’s there).

That’s when I practice yoga everywhere, in every situation; it’s not just about the perfect asana practice – they both come with time 🙂