Mulled Wine and Mince Pies!

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Afternoon tea with the family

 Autumn (or fall) is coming to an end and Christmas season is fast approaching!  December already!  November went fast, my advent calender is ready and waiting for tomorrow. 

November has been interesting, with the amazing snow that appeared overnight and then melted away, to the crazy walk to Yoga now it is dark by 5pm.  Drivers in St John's it seems, do not expect someone to be walking on the walking path and I have had some close calls, so now I walk on down with a bike light attached!  This month was a busy one with my research, so I found the detox class to be the one that I can take the time to go to, relax at and, being mid week it is a perfect half way through the working week class!  i have come to truly love detox yoga and leave feeling renewed each week!

The Buckingham Palace Christmas Tree

As Christmas time approaches, I have been thinking about my new yoga lifestyle and how this will fit, in particular, it has made me think a lot about what gifts I will give.  Commercialism is so huge, especially in Canada, it is easy to forget and get sucked into it all.  I have decided to try to make ethical choices and also, to give people gifts in other ways too, like doing something nice and baking something.  I will be thinking on this some more and will let you know what I come up with!

Big ben

London's Tower Bridge, opened in 1894

 I will be going back the England for Christmas, so I have included some England photos to get the English mood going!  I am looking forward to some mulled wine, a lovely red fruity wine spiced with oranges, cinnamon and cloves, also some mince pies.  I will be taking some photos over christmas and will post them as I go. 

The city of Lincoln, in my home county of Lincolnshire

Well, have a great December,  great Christmas and enjoy lots of family time, lots of time off work, good food, good company, and good conversations!

Constantly Connected: Is the washroom the only escape?

This month I have been reading some interesting articles about modern technology and finding time to relax.  This seems to be a topic that is common to many of us in our daily lives and in this months Yoga Journal, there is a fabulous article detailing the experiences of balancing the demands of work with finding time to be away from the constant connections.  I also came across a great article on ezine an article that discusses how to create a Zen office. 

Finding time?

The past few weeks, I have been trying to put some of these into practice and have spent some time thinking on these issues.  In the yoga journal article, a Google marketing manager with a 60hr a week schedule also is a yoga instructor and makes time for daily practice as an important part of his working day. Instead of finding the time to relax, breathe and focus on the moment and practice a form of yoga/ meditation, these elements make up and enhance your daily work, making you more efficient and focused.  By looking at it this way, instead of finding time for something else alongside a daily, busy schedule and job, why not think of this as an important part of the working day; as important as taking time for lunch (away from the desk!).  For these tasks do not impede your day, they enhance it.  I liked the way these articles talked about the goals for this, instead of trying to find the time for an hour long daily practice, start with 1 minute, or 2.  As the yoga journal article discusses, everyone has 60 seconds, this way goals can be maintained and you are not disappointed with yourself. 

When is your day off?

One thing I have noticed since moving to St John’s is how everyone around me is constantly “connected”, by this I mean to the internet and email.  Blackberrys, smartphones, ipads etc. mean that you no longer have breaks away from these things.  Emails on an evening or a weekend while studying for my masters degree in England would not mean that I would get a reply there and then, and I wouldn’t have expected one.  Here, it is common to have instant responses at any time of the evening or weekend through the handheld devices that now shape our lives.  How much of a day off can someone have if they are still checking and receiving emails?   Can you spend a whole Sunday, not checking any emails? 

The connection trap

After my Masters degree, I spent 4 years living in the Bahamas on a remote island and then living and travelling around in a sailboat.  Running the science, I still had work to do, our internet was so limited that, instead of trying to do some work, and then be distracted by emails etc. I got much more done, and was less stressed (I also had the benefit of daily yoga on the beach!).  While I am staying in St John’s and doing my PhD, I do feel these modern demands and I have found myself falling into some of these “connected” traps.  I have maintained my no mobile phone ethic, so when I am not at my desk/laptop, I cannot be contacted, no texts, nothing!  I enjoy the long pause and raised eyebrow look I often get when asked for my phone number and I reply that I do not have one.  It is quiet amusing!  I still do use my laptop for everything, work and play and I need to work through the modern trappings of connectivity.  So how to separate these so they do not all become mixed in?

No internet while we were living on here!  We had solar and wind power and a water maker too.

Even if you had a phone, there was no service while we lived here! 

Switch off: Washrooms, planes, libraries and scuba diving.

What do washrooms, planes, libraries and scuba diving all have in common?  At the moment, at least these are places where we are still forced to switch off.  Instead of becoming annoyed at the flight attendant coming around to tell you to turn off your phone, you should be thanking her for reminding you that you now have time to sit back and relax.  In the future there will be tv screens in the shower I suppose, on the back of a toilet door?  Underwater?  But for now, these places remind us to switch off, perhaps everyone should have a space in the house for this to happen also.  A “no wires, no connections” room.

Multi tasking or muddling the mind?

I do agree that multi tasking has its benefits, however if this involves starting a series of projects and tasks, but not finishing any how is this more beneficial than fully concentrating on one task at hand?  I have decided to put my yoga practice into my daily work ethic.  I made a start today by cleaning up by desk/office space, filing away projects that I am not working on right away, and creating a structured list for the order I want to tackle each project.  This way, I think I will be able to accomplish more by concentrating fully on each piece without getting carried away “google searching” or emailing when it can wait until after.  I am going to integrate this with daily yoga and reflection to focus my thoughts.  This will be for 5 minutes each day, in addition to yoga classes at the studio.  This way, I hope that I will be more efficient in my work, more organised, and have a calmer mind all day, not just when I am entering the yoga studio!

8 steps to your own November

Here are some things I am following to make November mine; I have listed them in case you want to try any to make November yours, number 9 may be a challenge! 

1          Create a clean, tidy place to work – A Zen workspace

2          Turn off that smartphone/blackberry if it is for work, and you are not at work.

3          Work completely on one task

4          Turn off email alerts and check them periodically, not constantly.

5          Dinner with family, talking to friends? – turn off the work phone!

6          Eat lunch away from a desk and a computer screen

7          Spend one minute of your work day doing yoga or meditation

8          Go to a shakti yoga class as often as you can

9          Try going phone less??!

Enjoy your phone free November! :)

Kate

Articles:

Yoga Journal

The trend toward enlightened thinking in the high-tech world yields wisdom for all of us about how to stay connected with our inner technologies as well as our electronics, by Andrew Tilin

http://ezinearticles.com/?Yoga-at-Work---Creating-a-Zen-Office&id=5127831

Yoga at Work - Creating a Zen Office, by Mariellen Brown

Windy sunshine and mangos

 

A very windy Cape Spear!  This will certainly blow the cobwebs away!


Happy 1st of October!  And amazingly here we are in our t-shirts and shorts, with the blue sky showing.  In England it is so hot, people are busy sunbathing on the beach and swimming in the sea! 

This week I enjoyed a wonderful heart flow class and a detox class and I felt very happy that I took the time to walk to the studio and participate in these wonderful sessions of renewal and relaxation, away from my desk, laptop, notes, and even away from my many thoughts, and when I got back home, my work was still there and yet, after having taken the time for yoga, I was able to return to it with a clearer mind and better perspective.  I am still amazed at the diversity of these classes, i have not been to a single class where i have not learned something new.  Each time I come out of a class, I love the way I feel all warm, calm and happy.

Taking advantage of this wonderful, yet still crazy weather, we went for a walk at Cape Spear this week, which quite possibly was the windiest place i had ever been to, we had a lot of fun playing in it, especially as it was still warm and sunny! After this, we felt like we had been renewed by the wind! A great experience. 

I was excited this week to be able to buy a giant pumpkin from the shop, in England, we don't really have them but here they are really popular so I am looking forward to making some good soup.  I think I may also try the yummy sounding soup recipe on this Octobers newsletter, coconut and squash sounds great.  I think I may have to give this one a go!

Reading Bobby's experience with Coconut and how this reminds her of being in India made me think about how certain tastes and smells can take you right back to a certain time.  For me, it is mangos, these always remind me of sitting down under a mango tree in the Bahamas and spending the afternoon chatting to the locals and enjoying the delicious fruit as fresh as could be! 

For now, I do have to get one with some work, however I will be taking time this evening for my yoga mat, I dont want it to feel like the neglected mat in the corner!

Kate

Finding Balance - The Fall resolution

The past few weeks have been a little crazy and very un yoga ish, since the new semester started, I have found myself filling up my diary and the to do is list getting longer.  However, I have been quite rubbish as I have missed one important element from this and that is to find the time for me.  I do believe that if you want to find time to do something, then you have to make the time;  as Bobby put it, 'you have to find a balance'. This is true, did I get more out of staying in the office later?  or did i get more out of walking down to the studio, rolling out my mat and giving myself the time to relax, breathe and calm my mind?  I think the answer to this one is easy. 

What is not easy however, is remembering this and doing it.  Once I am there, at the studio, I feel wonderful, yesterday evening I went along to the Detox class and once I was in there, it was fabulous.  But why then have I not made the time to come since the class I had 10 days ago?  I do think that often in life, it is easy to say you are going to do something, and also that you even will do it, but this is far different from actually doing it.  This is something that I can relate to and I know other friends whom have had the same problems, anyone have a gym membership but not gone?  how about some running gear in the wardrobe unused?  I think that finding balance is a goal that is not easy, but when it is there, then all of the other tasks become easier and are managed better.  Coming away from the studio, I always work better and can concentrate more. 

Often, new years resolutions are made, however i am going to make one now, a Fall resolution.
I will remember to make time for myself, time to sit quietly away from computers, cook good food, read a book that is not about my research, and enjoy yoga no matter how busy and full my diary gets.  These balancing things are imperative to my overall health and without these, I don't think my research would be as good anyway!

for now though, there is a lovely blue sky this afternoon so I am going to go outside and enjoy it!

until next time, :)

Blueberry Muffins!

Yummy Blueberry muffins, with hand picked berries and a Shakti recipe!

My first blueberry picking = some good muffins :)

Over the holiday weekend, I managed to try something I had not done before and that was to go blueberry picking.  Jason and I went on a really nice hike and then found ourselves in the midst of blueberries.  It is beautiful on the East Coast Trail, the sheer cliff drops to the blue ocean are great for breathing practice.

Once back at the house, with a water bottle full of Blueberries, I decided to bake something.  I remembered to recipe on the Shakti newsletter and thought i would give it a go.  They came out great, but I did alter a few things, instead of egg substitute, (which I didnt even know existed)I used eggs, and then instead of oat bran I just used oats, but still, they were kind of the same recipe. 

This week has been great for weather!  I love this humidity, although everyone else seems to hate it, but being able to walk around in t-shirt and shorts, brilliant!! 

Wonderful relaxation – but do I fall asleep?!

Over the summer, I managed to keep up with the challenge of four classes a week for 3 months.  There were some weeks when I didn’t make 4 classes at the studio because I had a trip back to England, and then to America Despite these breaks, I still managed to attend the studio four times a week while in St John’s and then, while away from the studio, I managed to keep up practice on my own.  At first I found this harder to do, I found that away from the studio, I was spending time on my mat trying to think up the exact sequence or trying to remember every pose to a class, and feeling disappointed or inadequate about my routine; but by the time I went to America and took my yoga mat along, I felt much more confident about letting the poses come and letting the flow between the poses come without worrying about the next step.  I found that I became more relaxed and could easily spend longer on the mat and enjoy it more. 

This summer has been great, I feel truly honoured that I have been able to take up the opportunity to try out something new and all the time, I have been made to feel so welcome by all the instructors.  Each time I go to a class, I feel like a sponge, eager to soak up as much of the wisdom, experience and guidance that each class and each instructor brings.  I leave each one feeling like I have learned something new and amazing.  What a feeling! 

I was going put out a list of my experience over the summer, well I suppose a list is a bit static and boring for this, I will just write out a series of thoughts and see what it turns out like!  That sounds more like it!

Healthy in body mind and spirit:  At the beginning, I guess I thought of the classes as more of a fitness class, and now at the end, they are way more than any fitness class.  Do they make you fit?  Yes, on the fitness side, the strengthening and stretching along with the holding of poses will get you fit, that is for sure, but the best thing about it is I don’t think of it as a fitness class.  I guess I think about it now more of a lifestyle class, guiding me on staying healthy all round, inside and out.  It has helped me to be more healthy in what I am eating, drinking, my posture while sitting at a desk, helped me to get more relaxing sleep and also on how to ‘zone out’ of annoyances like that screaming child that I always seem to get sat behind on a flight.  Any flight I take, and I fly quite a bit, you can guarantee that the ‘naughty, screaming I want everything child’ will be sitting, yep right in front of me.  This is when I would like to have some of those pricy fancy sound-cancelling headphones!  But this time round, I had relaxing music on, did some breathing exercises and I was relaxed!   Thanks yoga! 

Wonderful relaxation – but do I fall asleep?!   Another thing has puzzled me lately in that I have been feeling so relaxed at the end of a class that I am so ready for the relaxation at the end, so ready in fact that I eagerly settle into it to the point that if it wasn’t for the helpful chimes that brings everyone out, I am not sure I would leave the studio at all!  Am I falling asleep?  I don’t know I can’t quite tell but sometimes, when we are so nicely brought back out of our relaxation I feel like I have been there all night long.  It is after these classes, and on evenings when I walk back home, that I can feel light, and free and almost like skipping home and breaking into song!  A few occasions I have hummed a few notes along the way, without realizing it!  It is a pretty good feeling!  But I don’s think I am supposed to fall asleep, but how do I know if I am, interesting..

And also, accepting people as they are.  Yoga has helped me to remind myself to accept people as they are, to get along with or not to get along with someone is fine, but to be non-judgmental when around different people every day is a quality that I want to have and I like having.  Yoga reminds me to stay this way, and even to recognize emotions in people.  I believe that it is my Yoga that has allowed me to be more observational and to pick up on subtle cues in my friends and family, and even strangers that perhaps before I may have missed.  While back in England, I reconnected to some of my friends I have known for years, but perhaps not been as close to due to my travelling habits.  I became closer to my sister than I have been in many years and our bond has become so much stronger now.  My sister has always meant the world to me, but this time I was back, we spent time reconnecting and focusing on each other in a way that I had not done for a long time.  Why the difference?  I personally think that in our everyday lives, we can become busy, and our minds busy to the point that we can listen and be a part of someone’s life, without truly listening and feeling it.  I did not knowingly do this before, but now my feelings are so much more open, I can pick up on the subtle things, ask better questions, listen truly and openly, be objective, supportive and honest.  I was these things before, in a way, but not now compared to how I have felt since allowing myself to open up through yoga.

So I owe yoga a lot, to reconnect, to relax and to feel good, it has been all of those things.  And now, as we move into the fall, Bobby and Meaghan have asked that I carry on writing the blog.  I am so happy about this!  To be able to continue this journey and write about it is wonderful and amazing, and I cannot thank Bobby, Meaghan and all of the wonderful instructors at the studio enough.  They do amazing things and by attending the studio, I feel amazing and inspired! 

I am going to continue to go to the studio when I can, and along with this I am going to share some more everyday life, stories, things I find along the way, photos, sayings, strange things, interesting things, who knows what I may share with you all!  I hope it will be interesting, perhaps entertaining and maybe some people will enjoy reading it, I will do my best!

See you in the studio!

Kate

yoga in the tetons

This past few weeks I was away for a family wedding and it happened to be set in a beautiful area of the Grand Tetons national park, Wyoming.  I eagerly packed my yoga mat in anticipation of the yoga I would be doing.  The beginning of the trip found a new use for my mat; due to a very long delay, we ended up overnight-ing in Toronto airport.  No need for an airport hotel for me!  Behind the check in desks as 1am there I was, yoga mat out, sleeping bag out and union jack pillow to hand and I was sorted!  We woke to the staff climbing over us to open up check in! 

Once we had arrived, we were staying at a beautiful campground with a backdrop of the grand teton mountains.  I woke eagerly the next day and took my mat over to a secluded spot and spent a good hour going through all the various poses that I have been learning.  I was so relaxed that I hadn't realised the mosquitoes until the end! 

Aside from my campsite yoga, we did a lot of beautiful hikes, the scenery was so amazing with wildflowers and beauty everywhere that I couldn't resist taking the time to sit for a few moments, and even do a few poses out there with the view! 

Amazing!!  This week I have my final few classes that takes me through to the last of my three months of yoga, and tomorrow I will write more about this journey.