Reset: Day One

Day One
An object at rest certainly likes to stay at rest. All the way home from work, I was coming up with brilliant excuses to skip the run I had planned. It looked like rain. I'm too tired. I don't want to. When I got home, I discovered that I would be home alone for the night, so I decided to do a Pilates Anytime workout. I like having the bouncy ball to follow along. When I practice Pilates, I have two general modes: classical in order and messing around doing what feels good. Sometimes, I like having someone choose what I do. It gives me one less thing to think about.  I did Class 175: Meredith Rogers - Mat Workout - Level 3. I'll say this about BASI instructors, my abdominals always tremble within the first 10 minutes. Meredith had some great approaches to exercises that I hadn't used before: side bend and side twist before side kicks, side kicks with bottom leg bent and propped on bottom elbow, and an exercise involving flexion and extension from child's pose that was really yummy, as well as a closing series integrating external shoulder rotation with slight thoracic extension.

I enjoyed the workout so much, I'm tempted to change 90 days of movement into a mat specific adventure. Perhaps I'll do 90 days on movement, 90 days of mat, 90 days of reformer, 90 days of chair...but I'll try not to get ahead of myself.

Vaction Interrupticus

In case you didn't notice, I fell off my 90 days of movement wagon.
Two weeks ago, in preparation for vacation...I slacked with the bloggong aspect, but still did my workouts, and last week I went on vacation and slacked on the workouts. I did discover two new favorite ways to move: kayaking (so peaceful) and life vest swimming, which was actually just our way to cool off in the unbeachified lake that we were staying at. It was too gross and mucky off the dock to wade out in, so we bellyflopped off the dock and kicked out into the deep cool part of the lake. It was just what the doctor ordered on that boiling hot day. One can only go back and forth between blazing heat and indoor AC so many times before you want to lose your mind.
 I'm human. It happens to the best of us.

I did, however, do a lot of the reading that I have been piling up over the past year or so. Stretch to Win is a great book to work your way through, which I did. So actually, I suppose I did move almost every day, but...for my purposes I'm not going to count it because part of the point was to explore the movement n ot just do it. I also finally got through this cute little book about Sciatica, it mostly confmirmed every thing that I already know about sciatic pain and it's sources, and it gave me a giggle because the author and editor, if there was one, fell victim to their own spell check and mentioned the "lumber" spine in several places.

We're home from our trip now, and honestly, I'm going to take the next 24+ hours to hang out with my boyfriend and continue to enjoy my vacation. On Monday, the clock resets and I'll restart at day one of my 90 days of movement project.

Promise.

Day 12: Sunday is for Living Room Yoga

What I did: On Demand Shiva Rea Radiant Heart Yoga
Intention: To further explore the energy discovered yesterday
Result: A rebith of including the spirit in mind-body workouts

Yes, I did an onDemand Yoga practice again today, and I really liked the snippet of this that I did. So, I bought the whole DVD.

This challenge, surprisingly, has reignited my interest in things that are more ethereal. In 2009, I took Anatomy in 3D through Balanced Body and was so inspired by that path that I took it upon myself to become an instructor for the program. The result was that I becames obsessed with the enginering behind movement and opened up a whole mental pathway that was scientific thinking, and I started leading with a different hemisphere of my brain. In spite of the fact that I have always tested well in math and science, I have rebelled against that side of my brain for the majority of my life. Choosing to lead with my emotions, rather than my intellect, I spent most of my adolescent and adult life as a passionate, somewhat serious, creative type.

Discovering the Anatomy in 3D as a vehicle to strengthen my intellectual muscles, I started taking more action in my life based on things like facts and reality, rather than making decision after decision based on emotion. Over the past three years, I've evolved from a hard working but always broke instructor who bounced back and forth between happiness and depression and who didn't feel like an adult into a grown woman who runs a department of 20 with car payments that she can make comfortably, enough time on her hands to explore and learn more, and the ability to spend time developing her self-awareness.

Interestingly, this 90 day challenge has lead me in directions that I never expected. I set out thinking of vanity,  assuming that if I forced myself to move for 90 days, my body would look better. I never thought I would find myself going back to the frontier of life force and chakras, but here I am again, finding comfort in energy work, something that is considered less "scientific" in most circles. There is always something that feels kind of magical about energy work (and by energy work I refer to lots of things: Reiki, the GYROTONIC® method, yoga, T'ai Chi.), and yet I'm convinced that there will one day be a solid scientific explanation as to why these things are so beneficial to our health.

All in all, this just reinforces what I have always thought about health, everything has to be in balance. Balance is health. Balance between intellect, emotion, physical strength and flexibility, and spiritual health.

Day 12: GYROTONIC® with Fernando

What I did: A private GYROTONIC® session
Intention: To prepare for my Pretraining, learn more  about the method that I manage but don't teach yet
Result: Lots of good discoveries today.

As usual, when faced with stress, I can concentrate intensely on the work. My swim lessons go better when there is something on my plate at work that is challenging. Yesterday, I encountered a "situation" minutes before my lesson and considered late cancelling my session. However, that little kick in the pants sparked me out of my Saturday stupor, and I entered my session "on the ready." The movements have started to become less mehanical and I began to feel the energy work that comes from the movement. It felt like a heat, a power was pulling up from the ground through my heels, a lot like the energy I used to generate with a regular T'ai Chi practice. Even learning new pieces of the work, I found the energy generated from doing the more familiar movements carried through into the new choreogrpahy I was learning, and the new movements seemed to happen by themselves as though that is what was meant to happen.  This feels like a good path to be on with the work.

Day 11: PIlates Anytime

What I did: Pilates Anytime workout #257
Intention: To do a mat workout
Result: Joy

Pilates Anytime  is a godsend for an instructor on one of those days when you want someone else to tell you what to do, but you don't have the desire to leave the house or can't find a class. I just chose this workout at random.The instructor, Amy Havens, provides a great clarity in her instruction. She is no nonsense, relaxed, and good at getting you to be precise. I like what they call the pace of this workout: deliberate. It is exactly that. You go at a speed that allows you to really tune into what you are doing and yet, you only did 4-8 repetitions in most of the exercises. She reminds my of my first instructors, who were very good at putting you in the moment and making the movements so purposeful that you could be done with them after a few reps and not feel like you cheated. Highlights of this particular workout include:

• a cruel broken up 100: 50, then single leg and double leg stretch, then the other 50
• a sweet little pelvic placement exercise prior to open leg rocker
• an interesting take on side legs, I was also comforted that she almost forgot part of her series aon the second side. I would do that more often than I would like to admit when I used to teach mat classes regularly
• an interesting thoracic rotation exercise

I also love that she gave mention of her influences. This is a "Pat Guyton" thing she would say when referring to a couple of movements.

Like Comcast onDemand Yoga, Pilates Anytime is not for everyone, but it's a gift for some.

It has physically been a good week.

I am really looking forward to my next GYRO. session tomorrow with Fernando.

Day 10: Going Deep

Day 10: Going Deep
What I did: Pelvic Clock, shoulder clock, and passive rotation
Intention: Listen to my body
Result: It was a fair to middling experience.

More?
I almost skipped my task today, but after talking to several people today about how setting this intention has kept me moving and accountable, I couldn't give up. Initially, I was going to do a mat workout. Last night,  I woke up in the middle of the night, and I was sick to my stomach this morning, so much so that I thought about calling in sick today. I still feel a little woozy and out of it, but mat work seemed like a way to pass the time. I lied down on the mat and felt askew. So I worked through some pevic tilts and thought to myself, how often do I spend time exploring my movements deeply these days. In theatre school, we would spend an entire hour doing Feldenkrais pelvic clocks. So, I went there. Pelvic clock for 20 minutes, 10 minutes on each shoulder, and holding a passive spine rotation stretch for a few minutes each. All in all it felt good, but I still feel wonky.

It did make me remember sometime how much  I like mindful, simple movements, as well as how wobbly even the tiniest movement can feel if it isn't executed frequently.

Day 9: Swimming Lesson

What I did: Swimming Lesson
Intention: To be able to swim well enough to use lap swimming as part of my exercise routine..and to still the voices in my head.
Result: 2nd intention acheived, 1st intention, I'm getting closer.
What else can I say about it?
 I have a running joke with my instructor. If I have an easy day at work, I am a disaster in the pool. If I have a stressful day at work, I am excellent in the pool. Today I had stress: it was my first day teaching the stroller workout, meetings to talk about issues that are frustrating, a list of phone calls to make. And I was briliant in the pool. I only stopped in the middle twice. I was sort of able to take the cues that Ericca gave me. However, what I truly belived influenced my lesson the most, was the invincible feeling that I got from the day before. Self confidence is sometimes as elusive as motivation. I find motivation to be like a heavy boulder. It's a challenge to get it rolling, but once you set it in motion it is easy to keep it going. I hope that my self confidence operates the same way.