a peek inside the fishbowl

In preparation for the long winter ahead I bought a winter weight duvet at Ikea. I am really excited to try it out tonight. I also bought a large plush gnome, just because it made me smile.

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Today I want to write about yoga. Yoga and me, we have a checkered history.

Many moons ago I attended a yoga class in the basement of a convent that’s just around the corner from me (and is now no longer a convent, THAT is how long ago I took classes there). I enjoyed it, for awhile. I liked two things about it (a) the instructor, who was great and (b) the end of the class where we just lay on our backs in corpse pose and focused on our breathing.

One of the things I remember from that class is how surprised I was when the instructor told us to relax our faces while lying on our mats like that, at the end of the class. What a crazy idea, eh? LIKE I CAN RELAX MY FACE MUSCLES. But I immediately realized that I could actually relax my face, and it felt amazing. I couldn’t believe how much tension I actually carried around in my face all day.

I also remember how hard it was to do certain things that I had thought were so easy, like sitting. Seriously, if you sat cross legged and tried to focus on every muscle being in a perfect position and in perfect alignment for many minutes in one go, you’d probably find it hard too.

I quit that class because I hurt my neck. I remember telling the instructor I wasn’t going to come anymore, and she was disappointed. (Apparently I was the class clown, which she enjoyed, although in hindsight I’m really not sure how appropriate it is to have a class clown in a class that is supposed to be silent for the most part.) I never went back there, and I didn’t attempt yoga until a couple of years ago. My work had a deal with the YMCA and my fitness pass included anything I felt like signing up for. I convinced myself that it was time to revisit yoga. I quit at the halfway mark. I quit because I really struggled, and the instructor was the kind who just did the moves at the front of the class and didn’t support newbies like myself. I worried about hurting myself again. And it hurt too much, and I worried about that too. Is yoga supposed to hurt this much? I wasn’t able to relax amid so many properly-attired bendy women, who easily folded themselves into pretzels around me. (And heaven forbid, what if I farted??) So I quit. And I hated that I quit.

It wasn’t until this year, perhaps, bolstered by the pandemic, that I revisited yoga on my own terms. It involved a total mind shift. Perhaps it isn’t yoga at all. In my version of yoga I do only the stretches that make me feel good and none of the ones that make me feel bad. 

It started with a few pushups that I was doing every morning. Stretching my back in child’s pose after each set felt really good, so then I started adding other easy stretches. I eventually got out the old yoga mat and eventually added a few more poses. Suddenly I had something that looked suspiciously like a yoga routine.

My morning stretches now include:

• Cat and cow pose
• Bridge pose
• Half lord of the fishes pose
• Sphinx pose
• Easy pose
• Sleeping pigeon pose
• Downward facing dog
• Standing forward bend
• Upward salute

There’s also a pose that I simply call “lying on my face” that I do somewhere in there to give myself a breather. I’m sure I’m forgetting one or two others but I can’t think of it now. I just do them. I will never been one of those perfectly bendy people but when I’m done I feel loose and limber, and ready. There is no performance, no worry, just me, waking up my tired limbs every morning in preparation for another day. I don’t know if I’m any stronger, or fitter, or more flexible, but it sure feels good.

This year, retailers have declared war on an unlikely enemy: glitter.

The sparkly bits of plastic are being removed from gift bags, ornaments and other holiday baubles. But is a ban on glitter really going to save the environment? https://t.co/HgTvit4wHP

— Bloomberg Opinion (@bopinion) October 24, 2020

• Prickly business: the hedgehog highway that knits a village together, theguardian.com
• Tuna-Salad Sandwich, Julia Child Style, nytimes.com
• How the ‘Diabolical’ Beetle Survives Being Run Over by a Car, wired.com
• Yarn vending machine? Bright pink box lands in North Philly, thanks to a young Black entrepreneur, billypenn.com
• Get a sneak peek into Ghibli Museum with these videos, timeout.com
• BONGO CAT, bongo.cat

Why is it considered lame if you go to bed early?

If there have ever been young children in your life you probably already have a keen understanding of the importance of going to bed at a reasonable hour.

Let’s be frank. When our kids didn’t get enough sleep, they were, ahem, rather hard to live with the next day. The interesting thing about bedtime is that the events leading up actual bed time (bath, teeth brushing, story, changing into pjs, dimming of the lights, etc.) were an important part of that too. Those things were a cue for their small bodies. A signal that it’s time to wind down and get on that train to Dreamland.

At what point did my own bedtime routine fall apart? I can’t even say. I do know that for many years, my routine consisted of me, falling asleep on the couch while we watched a show. Sometimes I simply dropped my weary body into bed. I bought face wipes for the times that I didn’t even have the energy to wash my face.

It occurred to me that I’d solve a lot of my problems, and dare I say, improve my life, if I just gave myself a bedtime, like we used to do with our kids. So every night around 9:30 p.m. (YES, REALLY) I put my phone on the charger and head upstairs to begin my bedtime routine.

By starting my routine a bit early, at a time which might seem a bit early to many, it meant I suddenly had time to do the things I wanted and needed to do, things I wasn’t really doing before, like flossing and writing in my journal and adhering to a proper skin care routine. When I’m in bed early, it also means I have more time to read before I pass out. This is a real treat.

It’s worth noting that I am almost always asleep by 10:30 p.m.

Going to bed early also means that I am able to wake up a bit early and do the things I want and need to do before I start my work day. I enjoy a leisurely coffee, do a 10-minute guided meditation, a yoga routine*, eat breakfast, and go for a brisk walk on the treadmill or outdoors if it’s nice enough.

On most days, I feel rested and better equipped to deal with stress or worry. I’d call that a win!

*This is just a fancy way of saying I do some stretching, but it’s really helped me. More about this later!