Yoga and Breath

I have been trying many things for my dry mouth for years.  I recently got TheraBreath to try.  It seems to help with my dry mouth, especially over night.  I feel like it could be better. Having a family history of sinus problems tends to lend itself to mouth breathing at night.  I drink water like it’s going out of style, I’ve tried oil pulling in the past (and loved it, however, I do it in the morning and my mouth tends to feel dry afterward).  I need to work swishing into my nightly and morning schedules a little better.  I’m also going to try and make oil pulling tablets (maybe make a few with turmeric) and try that.  I will report on that as soon as actually get around to doing that.  My dry mouth doesn't bother me throughout the day.  It's mostly that I wake up with the driest mouth and worst morning death breath.  My mouth has that dry, crust covered feeling.  I'm almost desperate for a drink of water as soon as I wake up.  I just know that the dry mouth can cause lots of problems for my teeth.  That, and my propensity to clench and/or grind my teeth when I am highly stressed.  I am wondering if combining tongue scraping and oil pulling prior to brushing and rinsing with TheraBreath after would help. I should probably also investigate if a Breath Right strip might help reduce my mouth breathing at night; therefore, eliminating the need to go through all of these steps.

This last week, I helped a friend move.  She was going to get rid of a wine rack (“I never keep enough wine around to fill this or make it useful, I always drink it right away!”).  I like wine, but I don’t typically collect it and keep it around.  I usually buy it with the intention to drink it soon.  I took it anyways.  When I was bringing it into the house, I was struck by my muse.  It was a little rickety, so I used our hex screw set to find the right fit and tighten up the screws.  It needs a rubber foot added to the bottom of one leg and maybe a paint job.  Those things might have to wait until summer. I might be able to do it this week since it’s been in the 50s and 60s recently.  I found a board in our scrap collection in the garage.  I set the board across the bottom rungs that hold the two opposing sides together.  On top of that, I placed my blocks, strap, towel, mat spray.  Across the rungs at the top, I set my yoga mat.  This keeps my fancy cork mat from I Love Gurus from sitting on the floor and being an open target for a dog to randomly pee on.  I placed this along the one free wall I have in my room.  The plus side is, once I take my mat off, I can easily move the rack out of the way and use the wall space for playing with handstands and other  poses with a wall prop modification.

*Funny side story: I let my Toby boy in and as I was in the bathroom, he peed on the un-cleaned up wine rack.  Figures, I want to use it so I can avoid accidents happening on my mat and he pees on it straight after coming in from peeing.  Since I’ve had it all fixed up, none of the dogs have expressed an interest in it (which is fantastic).

Sleep Potions and Halloween

Health:  I've been getting up early and getting a workout in.  I usually do 10 Minute Trainer with Tony Horton and then yoga or a run.  The first two mornings I was waking up before my alarm at 4:45am.  Monday I woke up at 3:15!  Yesterday, I slept in a little bit...until 5:45 :/  I came home from work so tired yesterday, I honestly went to bed by 9:30 and I slept in until 5:30 and then did my training with Tony.  It just goes to show how important sleep is to health.  I was so emotionally all over the place (typical for me when I'm tired).  I needed the few extra hours of sleep and I'm going to have to figure out how to get to bed a little earlier and still get stuff done.  5 1/2 hours is not enough for me to run off permenantly.  I can do it for a while, but my health for sure suffers without some good shut eye. He's really not my favorite; in fact he quite annoys me. However, he has inspired me a bit in my yoga practice and how to add weight lifting moves to my yoga. Inspiration is really good even if I think he's the most annoying person ever; and I won't turn away any inspiration.  I just made up my playlist for Halloween Happy Hour yoga tomorrow.  I am so super excited for it.

Relationships: Stagnated on the husband front to wanting him here NOW and just plain not being patient enough to wait on God's timing.  My friendships have also been stagnating because I feel like I'm mostly job and attempting to stay fit.  I need to get out and see my friends more and talk to them more!

Career:  I can't say enough about how much I like the products my two companies put out. Products for healthy, alternative living for humans and animals :)  Now that's something I can really get behind.


Here's my playlist so you can find and jam out too!
Adams Family
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Bad Moon Rising
Bad Things
Black Water
Born Under a Bad Sign
Don't Fear the Reaper
Ghost Busters
Haunted House
Hell Song
I Put a Spell on You
Little Drop of Poison
Little Ghost
Love Potion #9
Martians
Monster Mash
Purple People Eater
The Blob
Time Warp
Twilight Zone
Witchcraft

Paint the Town at Paint Bar

Hard at Work

I went with my sister last Friday to Paint Bar in Madison.  We got a Groupon to a "Freestyle" painting session.  The freestyle session are pick your canvas and paint whatever you want; unlike the classes where you get taught a specific painting.  Our Groupon also came with a pizza to split (we got the margarita pizza and it was delicious beyond words). 


Our yummy pizza

We ended up staying two hours working on our paintings.  I choose a sunset picture from my first trip to Puerto Rico as inspiration and my sister just free-styled a beautiful fall scene (she's an artist)!  We even made their facebook page! I had a ton of fun and was extremely surprised by how well I did.  I mean, my sister I knew was going to crush it; the last painting I did was in the 7th grade and it looked like crap.  I was honestly nervous when they put the canvas in front of me and handing me some paint and brushes. 


Finished Painting

 This is an event that I'd highly recommend to anyone.  It's just a fun, relaxing evening.  My sister and I got to work, enjoyed some tea and pizza, and walked away with gorgeous art work by us!  I really liked the free-style.  They have a wall of inspiration that has directions for how to complete each work, but it was fun picking something I wanted and painting it.  I picked one of my favorite pictures from Puerto Rico and it's magical sunsets. 

The Inspiration

My sister is probably getting very annoyed with me, because every day I look at my painting and go: "Dang, that painting is BEAUTIFUL!"  Lol.  I think the classes would be fun too and a different way to enjoy painting in a group setting.  We so often lose touch with our creative side; and too often creative people can become reclusive :) Good activity to bring the both together.



Fall Path by EW

Her painting reminds me of Europe.  I love fall and all the colors.  She did a fantastic job just painting from her mind.  I had a picture in front of me the whole time to reference.  I'm proud of us! 

I talked to the two ladies helping us.  I am thinking of doing Yoga and Event days like: yoga and painting, yoga and a mani/pedi spa day, yoga and glass blowing, yoga and hiking, yoga and rock wall climbing, etc.  They seemed really excited about it and gave me their bosses name; they said they loved the idea and they thought their boss would too!

Mudras, Pajamas, and Fools (Oh My)

Yup; that's me!  I did a video the other day and posted it on YouTube.  I was super scared and nervous, but excited to share what I knew about changing your posture in just a few minutes a day. All stuff you can do while in your pajamas.  Hence, the title and my awesome wardrobe choice.

I didn't post yesterday because I was on a very long bus ride back to Wisconsin.  And as noted, it's not possible to post a blog from an iPhone. Out of all the things you can do, you can't do that.

Instead, I started reading about mudras in Mudras: Yoga in your Hands by Gertrude Hirschi and another book, called Fools Rush In: An April Fools Day Anthology. They are both very interesting and I plan on posting the mudras that I have been practicing from the book. 



I'm not even through the first story in the Fools Rush In book, but I like it already.  The first story is about a teenage nerd that get courted by the popular cute guy and ends up getting hurt in one of those horrible public ways.  It keeps alluding to what happened, but it hasn't actually said yet. It's 12 years later, and Alex (the nerd girl) is putting her life back together and running her own floral shop.  She begins planning the wedding flowers for a local celebrity; one day, Beck (hot, popular betrayer) walks in with said celebrity client.  It turns out he's the brother of the celebrity lady. I'm really interested to see what else happens.  This is the point where my bus pulled up to the stop.  I'll keep you updated.

Teacher, Teacher, Teach Me

Well tonight was pretty interesting!  I showed up to take a yoga class and ended up teaching it instead.  The regular teacher canceled last minute and when I showed up, they asked if I would teach.  YAY!  My heart was pounding at the beginning.  I know there were things I can improve on still, but it went well.  I just now realized that I totally forgot side plank on the opposite side.  We did it once, but not the second time.  Oops.  I didn't let myself get bogged down in "not being perfect" even though I knew the whole time I was being compared to Renee.  I just had us send our energy and happy thoughts out to her at the very end.  I'm happy my first class at the co-op was a surprise; I didn't have time to panic about being perfect and not having taught anyone since I passed my test.  Wow, I'm glad that first class with more than one person is behind me.  Now to let it go and come at the next class fresh!

Scorpion Queen

I have decided it is a goal of mine to be able to do the scorpion pose by the end of the year.   I'm really rather excited about this challenge.  The last two mornings I have gotten my butt of of bed and started working on the moves to work up to the scorpion pose.  What can I say, I saw this pose in a book and I became obsessed with it.  Just look at that BAMF skill.
This is what scorpion looks like:

So until I am BAMF enough to pull this off, I've been doing forearm planks, dolphin pose, and single leg dolphin pose.  Surprisingly, it was already getting a little bit easier this morning.  That is just working on getting to the forearm stand.  Once I master that, then I can add the bend.

Oh, I like making challenges for myself!

Testing Out Stranger Danger

I was feeling testy today.  And the bad sort of testy. (lol - I have such a dirty mind.  That last sentence just made my mind go to a dark place).  I mean all the bad weather had me feeling somewhere between grumpy and giddy.  To start, we were supposed to have about 5" of snow by morning.  I woke up at 7 and it wasn't even snowing, neither had it snowed during the night.  I thought: "5 inches, they said, 5 inches my ass" (again, mind just went into the gutter - tonight is apparently not a higher level thinking night).  I turned around 5 seconds later and the snow is coming down like crazy...it has just stopped within the last hour.  I then proceeded to leave the house with my snow boots, I realized once I got to my car that I had left the dress shoes I was going to wear at work next to the door.   Almost no one came in today.  When I had gone home for lunch, I ended up putting on the dress shoes that were sitting by the door out of habit.  Needless to say, my feet realized, about the time they hit the 5-6" of snow, that I had forgotten my boots this time around.  Ugh. I then got to come home to finishing my state taxes.  I am getting less than $20 back from the state.  Woohoo.  It pretty much wasn't worth me wasting the time to figure it out, print it out, and mail it in to the government.  Stupid. To make matters worse, while looking for articles on Mercola.com, I came across and article about a 15 year old boy that developed a cheap and simple test for detecting pancreatic, lung, and ovarian cancer.  It made me feel highly NOT productive.  I know that grammar is wrong; however, I feel like a dunce when I think about  the amazing thing this kid has accomplished and his voice hasn't even dropped yet. 

I do have to say there were a few light moments during the day.  While shovelling in the snow, the pristine white snow falling made me think of "snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelash."  Thus began a little hum fest while shovelling the front walk clear.  I also did a creeper thing today.  I noticed a mother, leaving my building, about to walk her two kids to school in the nasty snow this morning.  I stopped them and offered a ride (I drive right passed the school every day) and I was privileged to meet Maria, Maria, and Jose.  I felt a little like "Stranger Danger" since there mother was with them.  I feel a little badly that the mom had to still walk home in the snow after I dropped them all off at the school.   I also got in an hour worth of yoga.  That always makes me happier and calmer. 

A Lobby for a Hobby

Well, tonight was interesting.  I didn't get out of work in time for yoga (sad face).  That was okay.  I did a morning flow when I woke up this morning.  I was feeling much better and it was so energizing to put my body and mind to the challenge right away. I just weaved the sequence below into a sun series and voila - morning started off right.  I was a little lazy and I didn't want to get my mat from the car - ouch, did my rug burned hands feel it! It was very interesting to hear a lot of the DWTS contestants and pro-dancers talking about this seasons dancing giving them so much confidence in themselves.  For me, yoga and Zumba gave me loads of confidence.  After a really tough and grueling session of yoga, it is nice to meditate on what your body just did.  It is amazing what you really can do when you put your mind to it and don't listen to the dissenting voice in your head.  Zumba just makes me feel good about letting loose.  It's a party that is whittling a pretty amazing body while building loads of confidence. I'm so glad I found to things that really get me excited about discovering all the possible things I can do!  Before Zumba, I'd claim 2 left feet.  Now, I know I can do some complicated (for me) footwork with practice, of course.  About a year ago, I couldn't tell you a single hobby/activity other than reading that I truly enjoyed.  Now, I just listed two that have enriched my life by not only helping me get healthier in body, but in mind as well.  I still don't have infallible confidence, but it is definitely better than the girl more comfortable in the corner with her nose in a book. If you don't have a hobby, I dare you to try and find one.  I had no idea where to start looking for a hobby, I just had to go out and start trying the different things my city had to offer.  Wow.  I'm so happy to see how much my life has changed in a year with the addition of a hobby/hobbies.

Creepy!

hahaha- Youtube hates me.  Really, I look up guided meditations and I see a video for "Best of Josh Hutcherson." It sure knows how to distract me! It didn't help that the guided meditation was completely boring.  I guess I am so used to Renee's meditations of imagery.  She takes you to a place and helps you feel calm and centered in that spot.  She also seems to say exactly what you need to hear at the moment.  For example: "Breath in love, breath out jealousy.  Breath in hope, breath out fear.  Feel the soft strength of the rock beneath you and how centered you are on it.  You are looking up at the night sky and you see a shooting star.  There are many of them now and they start to fall on you.  Bringing light and happiness to you as they embrace you.  Take in that light and breath it out into the world, sharing your light with the world."  It is hard to go from something like that to: "Breath in fully, breath out fully."  The sound of the waves was really working for the guy leading the meditation.  He also sounded like he was trying way to hard.  There was something forced in his voice. Renee's meditations just seem to flow straight from her mind and are genuine; not rehearsed.   A few other yoga related things:  so excited that a studio is giving free demos of aerial yoga soon and I am anxious to start making my Samatahiti video once I get all the components.  Once I get the video together, it shall be on here!

I figured I should follow up my post about peeling.  IF I HAD KNOWN THIS BEFORE, I think I'd be a much happier person at this point in my life.  I feel like one giant itch.  Between peeling scabs and peeling sunburn, all I do is scratch.   Here are some useful sunburn remedies that are all natural.  I will say, I did rub two aloe "leaves" on my legs and it helped a bit.  I wish I'd known the vinegar one though!  The linked article has natural remedies for other summer time complaints (bug bites, tick prevention, etc.).

1. Vinegar – Surprisingly this came out as the number one remedy for burning, itching sunburn. Use either white or apple cider vinegar they both seem to work equally well, spray it on or apply it with a cotton ball and let dry. It takes away the itching and burning and helps your burn not to peel quite as much.
2. Aloe – No sunburn list would be complete without Aloe on the list. Long known for its healing properties this is the remedy that most of us are familiar with. Simply apply aloe juice, gel, or direct from the plant and leave it.
3. Tea or tea bags – Tea will reduce the burning as well has help your burn fade a bit faster than it otherwise would.While many people suggest applying tea bags directly to the burn if you have a large burn this could be a bit difficult. You can brew your tea let it cool and use a rag to apply the tea directly to your skin. Use this remedy two to three times daily till the pain stops and the redness fades. Especially good on severe burns.
4. Ice – Removes the burn and pulls the heat out of your skin, ice will also help to reduce any swelling that might occur from severe burns. Best if combined with other remedies. You can use ice cubes, ice packs or put a wet towel in the freezer and let it freeze.
5. Mustard – while this might sound a bit gross, and truthfully it is the first time I had heard of it many people swear by it. Smear the burn area with mustard and let it dry. Remove by washing it off, it takes away the sting and will prevent blistering from occurring.

*Note: I am becoming slightly concerned with how crazy intelligent our technology is getting.  Really, my desktop just asked me: "See What Bing Knows About Stephenie?"  Creepy.  I think technology is getting smarter and people are growing dumber.  This was honestly in a health pamphlet that was sent to the office.  Really?  Pregnancy is a fact of life.  NO WAY!  I didn't know that!  I can't believe we populated a whole planet to almost over population without pregnancy being a fact of life.  I get what the writer was going for, but it makes me want to die reading redundant statements of just pure idiocy.  My internet can tell me exactly what I want to find without even asking for it; however, there are human beings that the phrase "Pregnancy is a fact of life" is enlightening.  No, it really isn't.  And with the modern woman and growing concerns of over population, more and more couples are choosing to keep pregnancy from being a fact of their lives.  My neighbor and I were joking about babies being a game changer.  I met a guy with a "Game Over" shirt with a married couple on the front.  I thought, heck, add a pregnancy belly to that image and it would be accurate.  That is at least the way I feel at this moment. 

Second spooky thing of the day.  Guys who hit on you in front of their wives.  I thought, silly me, when I quit working at a hardware store, I'd have to stop fielding weird requests.  I got asked today if I wanted to be a sugar mama - with the guys wife sitting right next to him.  I've had marriage proposals and requests to spank with a paint stick, but this is just a new level of creepy.  I know the man was completely kidding, but I wonder how that makes his wife feel.  To hear him ask another woman to take care of him.  How rude?  And to put me in a situation dealing with that -  I don't need to be brought into any other relationship. 

PS: After I wrote last night's blog, my neighbor really did stop by and ask for a cup of sugar.  It had me chuckling for a time since I had only put it in my title as a joke.  Life is funny sometimes.

Walk New Ground

Oh my, it seems the internet just doesn't want to cooperate! 
I'll make this short. 

Work - long.
Yoga - ouch/sweat (literally, everyone was pouring sweat).
Dinner - ugh, my tummy and head hurt.
DWTS - Oh Max.
Cleaning - necessary evil.
Now - REALLY tired.

That isn't all that true.  I actually really like to clean.  I really like cleaning carpets :D  I also ate something that had already given me a stomach ache the first time I tried it.  Most exciting about today were the two amazon packages I had waiting outside my door.  That smile on the box really does make your day.  Now I just have to wait for England, Their England.  YES!  I got my Ahnu shoes today and I really love them.  They feel amazing on my feet.  They are way better than the sketchers that I purchased with the thought that they'd be a comfy walking/slip on and go shoe.  These shoes deliver - I am so happy that I saw them in the Yoga Journal.  What really impressed me about the shoe was the "catch phrase" that was written on the box: "Walk New Ground."  I like it.   I think if should be my motto/mantra.  If there is something that I really want to do with my life, it is to never stop exploring and "walking new ground."  This world is so amazing and I want to meet as many people and see as many things and do all the things it is feasibly possible for me to do.

So go out there and walk new ground.

Eat Crow Ghosts

Ugh - I am super tired tonight!  Just like I was last night.  After I got done with work (around 7ish) - I went and cleaned up my apartment for my company this week.  I am so excited to see my nephew!!!!  Sometimes I think my heart could burst out of my chest - and that's just looking at a picture.  I'm so lucky to have him as my graduation present (he was born the day I graduated from college).  Today, I worked early until 6 - then I ran to my yoga class, where the instructor kicked our butts.  I honestly couldn't do a majority of the last phase of sun salutations.  I just kind of attempted, sort of....  What the heck is a crow position?!?!?

hahaha - yeah right!  I couldn't do that when I was young!

Afterwards, someone had brought wine and cheese and almonds and chocolate!  We munched and talked about scary ghost stories.  There is apparently one that haunts the yoga building and the one next door.  Two of the people last week heard the door rattling (like someone pulling on the door, trying to get in), first faintly, and then really loudly.  I got a chill as they were explaining this!  I told them about the rolling ball at the palace in Scotland and the library ghost that slammed the book drop closed one night as I was walking away from locking the front doors.  We had a lot of fun and then giggled at the fact that we were sharing ghost stories like the Christmas carol, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, says:

"There'll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago."

This begs the question - why are ghosts such a part of Christmas?  Is it all because of Scrooge and his Christmas ghosts?  Are there other ghost stories that are supposed to go along with Christmas?  I can't think of any off the top of my head...maybe it's because I spent too much time trying to do the crow.  What do you think?