How much time it takes
To Honor our Mother Earth
One breath: Gratitude
***
cristy@meximinnesotana.com
P.S. If you have 90 minutes at 9am central time (U.S.), come and honor yourself today at the Mother’s Day online yoga retreat.
Tai chi in the park
Humans moving Together
And safely apart
***
cristy@meximinnesotana.com
P.S. This is the fan form group. I was honored to participate in Aimee’s tai chi yang-style group after learning the basics her 10-session daily series in early April. Her next online class series starts April 29th. If you are looking for a great moving meditation practice, I highly recommend it!Â
Hello Friends,
Warning: shameless self-promotion ahead. 🙂
This Sunday I’m piloting a Sunday yoga online “retreat” during the morning hours (central time) via Zoom conferencing. I’m offering a free class to anyone who wants to join my yoga enthusiast mailing list. Write to the email below, and I’ll send you the Zoom link information.
If you want to support Healing Within Acupuncture & Wellness Studio, to ensure that affordable acupuncture is available when we re-open again, we have a sliding fee policy and you can pay what you can afford. I realize times can be tough for people right now. We’ve got you. Do what you can. We understand.
Set some intentions for self-care for this upcoming month. Whether you are in service to your family, your work, your community or all of the above, you deserve to take good care of your body and soul.
And if you are suffering from screen fatigue, rest assured. I will verbally cue this session, with optional screen demonstrations to create your yoga “home studio” with props made from what you have at home. Bring a few blankets, towels and pillows for maximum comfort!
I can’t wait to see you there! Pets optional. 🙂
cristy@meximinnesotana.com
I love your mat, Mom.
It is a magic carpet
where you mellow out.
***
cristy@meximinnesotana.com
P.S. Join me for an online yoga class on Tuesdays or Thursdays! I’ll help you set up your own pet-optional yoga practice.
Content here first appeared on Linked in on April 14, 2020. It has been edited for WordPress and re-formatted.
***
Are you feeling like your head is busy and your body is unsettled?
Maybe you are trying to work from home, and it now seems like all you do is work…
Or maybe you are managing children’s “school at home” schedules and you are also expected to get work done.
With the uncertainty and virus concerns, many of us exist in a new reality. Even if we might worked at home before now and then, now we are possibly sharing space with more people.
We don’t necessarily have the “commute bumper” of our day to delineate starting and stopping anymore. For some of us, maybe the dining room is now our makeshift office. Pets or children may interrupt us many times a day, not understanding that it’s a Tuesday, not a weekend!
It does not help that the news can be grim, and that we worry about the state of our health, our loved ones, and of just how the world will “recover” from such a disruption. While we may be able to focus on certain aspects of our work during the day, we cannot totally keep from wondering… what is next?
During this period of collective upheaval and change it is important to schedule self-care into our day. I’m writing this while snow swirls outside in Minnesota as we speak. So while a walk would be lovely and I highly encourage that as a routine for before or after your workday, or after lunch, it does not always appeal.
Other things you can do include taking a break and making a cup of tea, and allowing yourself to step away from your desk. Grab a journal and write out your thoughts, or draft a screenplay scene with yourself as the protagonist.
If you’re like me, you will add yoga or other movement as part of your day. There are online NIA classes you might take. Perhaps some quiet meditation or listening to some soothing music will help you calm and center. Or engaging your creativity by getting out the paints or even some play-doh (remember kindergarten?) will give your mind a rest.
Whatever you decide to do, realize that these self-care activities are not optional. They are not frivolous, because they provide a respite from our left hemispheric thinking, which can be unrelenting. While thinking and problem-solving are wonderful aspects of our human capacity, over-emphasis can lead to anxiety, a focus on doing rather than being, and sometimes even insomnia.
I wish you well. I hope you experiment with and discover the activities that nourish your whole self, and nurture calm, clarity and resilience. I would love to hear about your favorite ways to relax in the comments below!
Take much care,
Cristy
P.S. If you have not already found online yoga options and want to join a live community of people via Zoom to practice restorative or slow flow yoga online, please join my email list (cristy@meximinnesotana.com) to get a free class offer. Or you can sign up for a sliding fee yoga class here. No prior experience necessary. Thank you for your interest! Â
Taking a departure from my Wellness Wednesday tradition for a mundane topic. It is actually related to wellness. But it’s about hair.
I am pretty sure I’m not the only person to be getting a little bushy up here, without my lovely Nicole Schreifels, the only person I trust with my hair. She always does a wonderful job and I walk away feeling cared for and sassy.
It is clear from the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases that this “Stay At Home” situation is not going to end (safely) any time soon. The number of cases in the U.S. continues to climb rapidly. While I think Minnesota may fare better than some states, we must still use caution to protect vulnerable people.
A dear yoga sister of mine told me Tuesday that she probably has the virus. She was advised by her tele-medicine practitioner that she could not get tested unless she went to ICU. With a severe and painful cough, fever, chills, and a loss of smell and taste, she was told to stay home and to self-quarantine for 7 days without the option of testing.
To me, this indicates a few things:
1) The actual numbers of infected people are MUCH higher than the confirmed cases reported (which include mostly hospitalized patients).
2) This is going to get worse before it gets better. How much worse? Nobody knows.
3) Despite many warnings from public health officials in recent decades that this type of event was probable, leaders ignored the warnings. They did not take time to understand the science to protect people. We need to listen to the experts, not the politicians.
4) Because infection rates increase in logarithmic progressions rather than linear ones, it is hard for us all to comprehend the nature of the spread. So, in a free society such as ours, we have difficulty complying with the kinds of orders that can slow the spread.
What does this have to do with hair? Well, wouldn’t it give a virus a lot less surface area to attach and inadvertently get into eyes or nose if I shave it all off? I mean, it’s short now already. As I washed my hands for the 20th+ time today, and brushed the hair out of my eyes, I considered a shampoo bottle and thought: wouldn’t be easier just to unburden myself further?
I don’t have the delicate features and symmetrical head shape of Sinead O’Connor, so I doubt I can pull it off personally. But in the interest of public health, why not at least ask the question?
Stay safe and well, friends.
cristy@meximinnesotana.com
mexi minnesotana 