Monday, April 21, 2014

Time to Blossom

One of my favorite quotes of all time is this one from Anais Nin:

These earrings just "blossomed" in my shop!



And the day came when the risk 
to remain tight in a bud 
was more painful than 
the risk it took to blossom.
                               
- Anais Nin



I don’t know about the rest of you, but I seem to cycle in and out of taking care of my body.  When everything comes together—exercise, eating well, sleeping sufficiently—my mind and body feel good.  Then at other times, I fall far short of taking care of myself and I start to feel run down.  Tired, crankier, I gain a few pounds.  That’s where I had been over much of this winter.  I’ve been exercising fairly regularly…3 to 4 times per week…but I haven’t been eating so well and I’m definitely overtired.  

My friend Tricia has been feeling the same way it seems.  When she suggested we form a support group for each other’s health and fitness goals, not only did I jump on it but so did two of our friends, Eileen and Marie.  I’m calling it Team Blossom.  

It’s not clear how this is all going to work, but Tricia promises to send out encouragement to us on a regular basis.  Tricia knows that by keeping us accountable that she will keep herself on the right track as well.  So far we've been texting to each other via a group text.  I've found myself becoming more diligent in my exercise.  Instead of a vicious cycle, it's a virtuous cycle--I'm motivated to exercise, I feel better, I want to keep exercising to keep feeling that buzz, I feel even better, and so forth.  We're about 10 days out since we formed our little group...I'm surprised at how much stronger I feel already!

My yoga instructor, Howard VanEs said something last week that stuck with me.  It became a positive internal message to me all week--I mulled it over again and again as I exercised and throughout other parts of my day as well.  He said that the purpose of yoga is not to be able to do some idealized version of the postures.  Instead, the purpose of yoga is to meet yourself where you are and accept it.


This is the perfect approach for reaching the level of fitness and health you want or you previously had.  For me it means I can stop beating myself up if I am not returning to previous benchmarks as quickly as I would like.  If I accept where I am, I can expend my energy working from that point and moving forward, instead of recriminating myself for having slacked off for a bit.


In any event, I’m glad to be resuming my yoga practice, skating a bit longer and more often, focusing on healing my shoulder injury, and enjoying the support and encouragement from my group, Team Blossom.

I’m going to try to get Tricia to write a guest blog for me.  The way she has taken to running over the last few years, including regular 1/2 marathons, has been so inspiring to me.  It helps me to keep going--if she can do it, then I know I can too!

Or maybe one of the other members of our Team Blossom group would like to write a guest blog...Eileen, Marie?

Join us!  Leave a comment and tell me how you want to blossom!  It's time.

Hugs,
Nancie 

My last skate:
4/18/14
Skate #34 of ?
6.17 miles
Iron Horse Trail
Alamo, CA

Nancie Zimmerman
NamiZuni Jewelry Design
Express Your Inner Goddess

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