Tag: Yoga

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Friday Five: Yoga at Home

Posted on by beckylevine

So I’ve been taking yoga classes now for about 5 months, if you don’t count the MONTH I missed during Family-Plague season in the fall. (And I’m pretty sure going right back to the classes as soon as I was healthy enough to do so means I don‘t have to count it.)

I love my studio, and I love the classes, but today I’m going to do my own yoga in my own office. Why? Well, for Friday, I’ll give you 5 reasons.

  1. What else am I supposed to do with the beautiful pink bolster, lavender block, and sea-green therapy balls I’ve purchased. (Yes, I also have a lovely purple mat, but I do take that to classes with me!)
  2. Doing yoga at home this morning meant I could lay in bed for 15 more minutes, which is TWO hits of the snooze button, and you know you just can’t underestimate the value of the snooze button.
  3. I have some pretty cool yoga-type music I downloaded for just this purpose, that I’ve only played twice. Three times?
  4. My arms are VERY much still sore from Wednesday morning’s class, and you can just bet that in this morning’s practice, the instructor (that would be me) will not be doing the bridge pose. (Although I’ll do it again next Wednesday, if it’s in the line-up!)
  5. It’s just barely raining outside, the skies are a beautiful gray, I have a space heater, and a little by-myself yoga in my space sounds pretty darned good.

Just so you know, this will not be me:

What are you doing to enjoy your Friday?

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Friday Five: Adventures I’ve Had This Week.

Posted on by beckylevine

Anything can be an adventure, right, as long as your attitude says so? So, in that spirit, here are 5 of my adventures this week.

1. Joining the Writers on the Move Facebook page. I’d seen Christina Katz’ posts, and it looked like a good way to share my quick thoughts about yoga in a very supportive place. I was right.

2. Taking my first Restorative Yoga class. O….M…G…relaxing for an-hour-and-a-half straight and calling this exercise? And feeling awesome when you leave? Two thumbs up, people.

3. Importing a file into Scrivener. It worked! And it got me refocused on finding the conflict in a scene, by making me look at what I’d written in the last draft and trying to target it to the place my character is now, in this draft. Good stuff.

4. Getting together with my “boss” at my new volunteer job, the one that will hopefully lead me back into the workplace. The paying workplace. Actually, I’m going from here TO that adventure, but thinking it will be a good meeting. “Meeting.” Just the fact that I’m using that word makes it all feel one step closer.

5. Buying a humongous pile of vegetables at the grocery store, chopping them all up, cooking them, and–yeah, eating them. I am pretty darned tired of salads, and it’s all about trying to eat healthier, even though vegetables are not my favorite thing. But I have to say, the ones I picked were not half-bad, and I do think the leftovers will actually get eaten, not just sit there in the back of the fridge and get green…er.

What adventures have you taken on this week? And how did those go for you?

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Friday Five: Giveaway Winner & Other Random Stuff

Posted on by beckylevine

1. And the winner of my Random Acts of Publicity contest is…

Mike Jung!

Which is more than fitting because Mike is the one who reminded me about the RAP, AND because Son pulled Mike’s name out of the hat bowl last night, which pretty much proves that the BOOV are out there & taking an interest in our lives. Mike, send me an email at beckylevine at ymail dot com, with your snail-mail address, and I’ll get a copy of Steve Kluger’s My Most Excellent Year out to you!

2. I read through some past chapters of my YA historical, downloaded the newest Beta of Scrivener, and came up with a different way to approach the next scene (one already written in the first draft). Which officially means, yes, I’m back to work on the YA.

3. I have seen several yellow leaves drift out of the trees as I drive up our road into the hills. I don’t think autumn is officially here yet, but between the leaves and the shorter days, I can tell it’s on its way.

4. I realized I have hit a yoga milestone. Well, a few. First, yes, the tips of my fingers have actually touched the ground during forward bends. Did I say my knees were straight at the time? No, I did not. They’ll get there. AND I have gone a week+ without having to take an afternoon nap the day of a morning yoga class. Did I say I wasn’t tired? No, I did not. I’ll get there. I’m counting it all as progress.

5. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of Kathryn Fitzmaurice’s latest book, A Diamond in the Desert. This book blew me away. Who says a historical novel has to be heavy on details? Who says it has to bury us in historic figures & facts. Not Kathryn. She’s chosen an amazingly taut, light structure to tell the story of a young boy playing baseball in a Japanese internment camp. And it all works beautifully. Watch for a future interview here with Kathryn about the book.

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Thankful Thursday: Finding My Words

Posted on by beckylevine

Okay, heads up: this post may get a bit woo-woo. But, hey, it’s Thankful Thursday, right? Just proceed at your own risk.

I’ve never been very happy with the way I deal with stress. When I was young, I backed away from many things that even held the possibility of anxiety or fear. Over the years, I’ve tried to work on this–I’ve pushed myself to take more risks, and I’ve been more than happy with the results of saying “Yes!” when I was thinking “Maybe” or even “No?” But even when I stopped avoiding challenges, I often found myself in a tizzy as I took them on. Think the Looney Tunes’ Tasmanian Devil, without the charm.

Meditation has always seemed an obvious solution, but one I haven’t been able to make work for me. See, there’s this stillness and calm required… Sure, if I had that, well, yeah, I could meditate!

I’ve also tried yoga many times, without success (being defined as enjoying it and wanting to go back). But I recently made another attempt to take yoga classes, and this time it seems to have clicked. I started because, lately, I’ve just been feeling more stiff and sore. Let’s face it, I’ve been feeling older. And you know, the age thing just isn’t going away anytime soon!  I’ve also been doing some reading about retraining one’s brain–actually changing the chemistry, the reaction our brain has to stress. I LOVE the brain. I love its elasticity, its hidden secrets, and all the things it can do that we don’t understand. And I love the idea that I can actually teach it that the place I’ve built for myself in the world is actually safe and happy and good.

This is coming back to the meditation and to the words. Really.

For some reason, when I’m doing yoga, I find that I can do a little meditating. Probably because my body is actually doing something–I don’t have to deal with my body and my mind needing to be still. Also because the soft music and the teacher’s voice, both something I can let skim the surface of my brain, give me something to sort of focus on and sort of tune out all at the same time. So I’m busy, as I’m trying to be quiet.

I know. Remember, Tasmanian Devil.

But here’s the magic part. The revelation…probably only for me. I give you all permission to slap your foreheads and shout “Duh!” One of the parts of meditation that I’ve seemed to have a problem with is the words other people–meditation teachers, writers, “guides” on mp3s–use. Yes, the words. I’ve sat there and looked at the page and said, “Huh? That’s not what I need.” Or listened to an mp3 and thought, “What? That’s not going to work.”

Okay, I’m picky. Why do you think I’m a writer and an editor?

Anyway, when I’m in yoga, I have time and space (and exercise and noises) to try out some of my own words. And guess what…THEY WORK! When I find the phrase, the mantra (??), that means exactly what I need to hear, it’s like a little, private chime goes off in my brain. And all of a sudden, I can stay with those words, I can use them to relax, to relieve whatever stress I’m dealing with at the time. Because they have the exact meaning I’m looking for.

You’re all probably there ahead of me. Yes, we can bring this back to writing. It’s what makes it worthwhile to revise and revise and revise again. It’s what makes it worthwhile, whether you’re working on a picture book or building a world for your 300-page fantasy novel, to think and rewrite and think and rewrite…until you  hear the chime.

And then you keep that word. You use it. You find its place in your story and you tighten everything else around it. Because it belongs. And, believe me, if it works for you that strongly, it’s going to resonate with your reader, too.

All these years, what I was looking for was, yeah–right under my nose.

Words.

Of course.

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Thankful Thursday: Getting My Butt Kicked

Posted on by beckylevine

So, this week, I started back in on yoga. Let me tell you a few things about me and yoga:

  • I have never been able to touch my toes. Knees? Okay, yes. Barely.
  • I am not good at the slow, in and out, breathing thing. Especially, and this is important, during yoga.
  • I’m not fond of being told what to do. Like, you know, to touch my toes.

But…in the past year or so, I’ve been getting some of those little aches and pains that I thought weren’t supposed to show up for another decade or three. Sore back. Tight neck. Possible arthritis in, of all places, my left middle finger. (Best explanation I’ve come up with for that one: that’s the finger that has typed oh-so-many Es on various keyboards over the years.)

So, when I saw that a local yoga center was offering GENTLE yoga three mornings a week, at a time of day that I’m basically just puttering, I decided it was time to try again. I’ve gone twice so far: Day 1: not so great, but I gritted my teeth and got through it. Day 2: AWESOME. Probably, yes, because I concentrated on (see above) breathing, more than anything else. I think I remembered to do it about 90% of the time.

As opposed to about 10%, which is my usual.

Result of both Day 1 and Day 2?

Yes, it’s a GENTLE class. Yes, I see the irony. But this goes back to my baby steps vision of life, and I am willing to give up a few hours of brain productivity, now, for more strength and (in my dreams!) the possibility of touching my toes in the future. And, I’m sure, the increased clear-headedness all that breathing will bring me.

So, today, I’m thankful for the OWS! I was uttering all day Monday and Tuesday. I’m thankful for the lessening ows that came on Wednesday. I’m thankful for the incredible sleepiness that has hit me three days in a row, at about 7:30 p.m. and the awesome nights of sleep that have gone along with it. I’m thankful for the need to sit out side in the sun and imbibe a bit of caffeine before getting started in the mornings.

And I’m VERY thankful for my wonderful husband who has happily taken on driving our son to his job at camp, so I can go and (try to) bend into positions I’m still not sure are meant for humans to achieve.

What have you taken on lately that you’re doing for the long-term benefits, rather than the immediate positives? And how’s that going for you?!