Happy Thursday!
As many of you know, yoga has become my favorite obsession over the past 5 months. Today I wanted to share with you my favorite online yoga sites so that you can give them a try if you're curious!
Do Yoga With Me - This is the site I credit for starting the yoga fire in my heart! Thanks to the lovely Meagan Smith, who told me about it, I visited this site for the first time in January and never looked back. There are hundreds of free videos, and you can filter through them by level, yoga style, and duration to find one that suits your mood and needs for the day. I started with this sequence for shoulder and arm strength and I've been hooked ever since!
Yoga Journal - This site has a more limited selection of videos, but it is full of demos and information for the new yogi! I don't know about you, but once I got started, I wanted to learn all I could about the practice. Check out the articles and the individual pose tutorials.
Yoga International - This one is a new favorite! I started following them on Twitter, and they tweet links to awesome videos all the time!
These are my top three, but there are so many! There is no excuse not to give yoga a try!
Top Ten Odd Collections in my Apartment
10. Bottle caps
9. Dish towels
8. Tea
7. Tea tags
6. Things covered in tea tags
5. Books that haven't been read
4. Candles I bought on clearance
3. Boxes of tickets, programs, and cards
2. Magazines to cut things out of
1. And my newest collection of photos of my staff girls, framed and hanging in the hall
Progress. It's a funny thing. Sometimes we feel like we're making great progress only to find that we haven't come far at all. Other times, things do change, little by little, until a milestone is reached and progress is apparent. This story is about the latter.
In August 2013, I began my job as an RD at Milligan. During training for the RAs, we went to do a ropes course. It had been a long, long, long, long, LONG time since I'd done a ropes course, and I was still in physical therapy for my shoulder. So when the vertical challenge climb came up, I made it about 1/3 of the way up before I had to come down. I watched many of the others in the group make it higher and higher, many to the very top (I'm estimating somewhere between 80-100 feet up into the trees), and I couldn't help but feel a bit defeated, not being strong enough to make it to the top.
On May 25th, 2014, my group counseling class took a trip back to the same ropes course, and we did the same vertical challenge climb. I wanted so badly to make it to the top. I knew I was stronger, but was it enough? I've just been doing yoga. Does that make me strong enough to climb? I didn't even make it halfway last time. Blah blah blah.
I had my harness on and they hooked me up, and I started climbing, and I kept climbing, and my arms were hurting and my legs were shaking and I felt the old injury burning in my shoulder, and I kept climbing. And I stopped to catch my breath and noticed that my mouth was totally dry and my heart was beating fast and then I started climbing again. My classmates encouraged me from the ground and I kept climbing. And then I rang that cowbell and looked down from the top of the course and I smiled.
This experience was a tangible proof of physical progress for me. But I've also seen progress in so many other areas since August. I am more dedicated to time spent in the Bible. I've finally found a church that I call home. I've found yoga and devote time to it every day. I am in a healthy relationship. My anxiety is under control. Friendships are blossoming. School is going well. Big leaps, small steps, progress.
Things are not perfect. If perfect was attainable, then there would be no more progress. And I am thankful for that. I'm learning that seeing progress is far more satisfying than perfection could be this side of heaven. So here's to progress.
Top Ten Ways I'm Going Green (On a Budget)
10. Eliminating paper towels. I've invested in a good supply of cloth dish towels for cleaning. I'm not spending money on paper towels every few weeks and I'm not throwing them away either!
9. Reusable shopping bags. You'd think this one would be a no-brainer, but I can't tell you how many times I've just forgotten the bags at home - or worse, in the car. I'm committing to not bringing home any more plastic bags!
8. Wooden pencils. Yes, the point of mechanical pencils is that you can refill them and reuse them. But I know myself, and I know that I am much more likely to throw the pencil away and grab a new one than I am to buy little packs of graphite. So I'm opting for old-school wooden pencils. Use them up and they're just gone!
7. Real dishes. Plastic silverware is convenient for parties, and the styrofoam cups in the library are perfect - but I think it is worth inconveniencing myself to keep from being wasteful. So I'm taking real mugs to the library and carrying dinner to class in reusable containers. Maybe it means more dishes to wash, but that's ok.
6. Looking for opportunities to repurpose. The coffee canister is empty - I could toss it OR I could use it to store my next batch of coffee beans. Just think it through!
5. Embrace nature. If it's the middle of the afternoon, do I need all of the lights in my house on? No, unless the sky is black and ominous from an impending storm. Open windows! Draw the blinds!
4. Research. This one will take time and effort, but I want to know more about where things come from. I want to buy food and products that are produced responsibly and without hurting the planet - or people. This concept goes beyond "green" - I think caring about the earth means caring about the people who inhabit it. So be aware of where things come from and don't support companies that don't take care of their employees (again, this will take time - if you have any good resources on the topic, send them my way!).
3. Less paper. As much as it pains me to read books and articles on screens, it really is better in terms of eliminating waste. Don't get crazy - I will ALWAYS be pro-paper book. But now as I do research for a presentation, I don't need to print all the articles. I don't need to buy magazines when I can usually find the article online. I can downsize. And of course, what paper I do use I can recycle!
2. Being a thoughtful shopper. I've recently realized how much food I waste. It's a challenge cooking for one. I'll make a bunch of something, save the leftovers, and never get around to eating them. So this means taking more frequent trips to the store and buying just what I need for the next few days. As long as I'm on my own, I don't need to stock up on a lot or cook huge portions. Time to think it through.
1. And at last, now that it is warm, I can walk to class and other places on campus and not drive like a lazy bum.
