Happy Monday, everyone! Hope your weekend was full of all things fun, loving & happy.
I had a yoga-full weekend, no doubt! I couldn’t tell you the last time I did this. much. yoga. in a weekend, and my gosh, it felt GOOD.
I think I was in need of all this yoga-ing more than I was aware of. As much as I love, love love yoga, I easily fall back into my gym rat phases because deep down this was my first fitness-love + some days its just easier to get to the gym than to the yoga studio. I’ve been lifting a lot more over the last couple months + have increased my running quite a bit (for me) and as a result I’ve been doing a lot less yoga.
The lack of yoga yoga has definitely been showing up in my body. I’ve been feeling incredibly tired, fatigued and just… blocked – physically & energetically – over the last couple weeks. My hips have been painfully tight, my stomach has been bloated, I didn’t poop for 2 days last week & I’ve just been feeling so blah. For someone who’s used to having tons of energy, this is a really (really) shitty feeling.
Perhaps a marathon weekend of yoga was just the remedy!
Friday, I did a walk a mile /run a mile cardio sesh in the afternoon + yoga with my boyfriend at Arrichion. There’s nothing traditional about the yoga at Arrichion and its not my studio of choice, but my boyfriend likes it, its close to our house and the class time just worked well that day. This is quite possibly the hottest studio in town ( hotter than Y2, dare I say! lol ) Class was hot as hell, I sweat like crazy and it felt so good!
Saturday morning, I was up before 6am to take my boyfriend to the airport then made my way over to Yoga One to double dip on the 8am & 930am classes. I haven’t started my day with yoga or doubled in I don’t know how long and I forgot just how incredible the two feel! I had the opportunity to practice with two new-to-me instructors – Sally Gambrell (who happens to be the owner of Yoga One) & Lindsey Crisp. Both led fun, motivating, empowering, beautiful practices.
Both classes included a number of deep hip openers & twists. In yoga, we are said to hold a lot of our stress, tension & emotions in our hips, and twists are known for their detoxing benefits. With the combination of the two, I think these classes were everything my body has been needing and then some. The sweat, was this deep, detoxifying sweat, as if my pores were wide open and a faucet had been turned on. My hips are feeling amazing & not to be all tmi and everything but, within 3 hours of my practice you’d think I had taken a colon cleanse or something!! yikes! Needless to say, it was a cleansing practice in many ways.
I took one of my ATF classes of the week with Rian Harris at Yoga One on Sunday morning + stayed for mediation afterwards. Class was amazing as always and mediation couldn’t have been more peaceful. Honestly, I don’ know how much meditating I did, rather just relaxing x a bit dozing off, but I soaked up every minute of it.
I set myself up on a yoga bolster with my head, neck & back supported on the bolster, bottom on my mat, legs in supta baddha konasana (think butterfly..soles of the feet together, knees apart) arms out wide, palms up. This position is kind of everything – chest, shoulder & hip opener – total relaxation station.
Rian began class with this reading from one of my fave books, Journey to the Heart by Melody Beattie. I hope you love it as much as I do. Remember to love life, love yourself and the universe will reflect that love back to you. xx
“Do more than just accept yourself, tolerate yourself, put up with yourself, endure who you are. Love Yourself.
There came a time in my life when I simply could no long put up with putting up with myself. I had talked about self-love. I had said out loud that I loved myself. The words were good, but they didn’t ring true. I had to actually begin experiencing and practicing love for myself. It became the next step on my path.
To live in a magical way, one in which you connect with the universe, loving yourself isn’t optional. It comes first. To hear the quiet voice of your heart so you know when your being led, to hear your thoughts so you can what you really believe, to trust and open your heart, you must first experience love for yourself.
Have you abandoned yourself? Let yourself see if that’s true, feel if that’s true. Then learn to experience love for yourself.
Learn to love the way you handle things. Love your unique way of learning, growing, and seeing things. Love where you’ve been. Love what you’ve done. Love where you are, and what you’re doing now.
Love how you look, smell, and feel. Love the color of your eyes, the color of your hair, and the radiance in your heart. Love how you laugh. Love how you cry. Love your mistakes, and love all the good you’ve done. Love it all. Love all of you.
Step into love for yourself, and the universe will reflect that love back to you.”
So Much Love,
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