29 Days of Movement: Check

I celebrated my first day of no-required-movement with an hour long walk. I know, I know - I didn't need to do any movement, but it was just too pretty a day to not go. Plus, walking is something that I have missed over the last month. I have taken a few walks here and there; I try to get out of the office and walk for ten minutes during the day and I walk Pacora (my dog), but I have missed my long pensive strolls - walks where I daydream, plan, and enjoy exploring new areas.

Even though there was a dusting of snow this morning, the temperature in Asheville slowly warmed to the low 50s and the sky cleared up completely. The daffodils even started perking back up. I walked through nearby neighborhoods that I haven't explored yet and found that I only need to walk 20 minutes to be outside of the Asheville city limits. 

I thought about how much I've enjoyed my month of movement. My training as a holistic health coach taught me the interconnectedness of exercise, relationships, career, and food on overall wellbeing. By just adding twenty minutes of movement into my daily routine, I feel like I have created momentum in other areas of my life as well. I tried to write this morning rather unsuccessfully, but the words just seemed to flow after my walk. This month I've also started new creative projects, cleaned out my closet, and addressed several nagging items on my to-do list. 

I am going to keep up the momentum with my movement. I probably won't do twenty minutes every day, but now I know how easy it is to add movement into my daily routine. 

And I'd like to add long walks back into the mix...

22 Days of Movement Down

I finished running this afternoon and turned to give David a high-five. Twenty-two days of movement down. And it was a beautiful day for a run - mid 60s and sunny in Asheville. Movement over the past week has been a combination of strength training, yoga, and running.

I have to say, part of me didn't think that I could/would do it. Some days have been easier than others, and some days I have eaten dinner really late when I waited until the last possible minute to get in my movement. I certainly hit a wall of resistance, but I pushed through it and kept going. 

Things that I've learned so far:

• Small daily action is key, but it has to be something manageable. My Morning Pages (Artist's Way, Week 5) have taught me this. When I have worked on new habits in the past, missing a day has really caused me to lose momentum. To keep up the momentum I need to do it every day - even if for just twenty minutes. These small daily actions make me feel committed and powerful. 
• Running does wonders for my digestion. I am already a pretty active person, but it's been awhile since I've had a consistent running habit. Aerobic exercise helps stimulate the muscles in the intestines and decreases the time food spends in the large intestine. Check out more info here and here. 
• Be nice to your body. My right knee started feeling funny about half-way through the month. Luckily, I have a dear friend who is a nurse practitioner who happens to specialize in orthopedics. She said the sensation in my knee was most likely coming from weak VMO (Vastus Medialis Oblique) muscles and advised me to find some strengthening exercises on You Tube. So, Tuesday's movement was slow strength training that focused on my VMO and core muscles, not activity that would further irritate it. 
• Planning is really important. During the weekend, I look at the weather and my schedule for the upcoming week and map out my movement. It might change slightly based on what my body is telling me on that particular day, but by planning, I know when I need to do my movement in the morning or days I might want to leave early to go for a run because the weather is going to be nice.

I only have a week to go! March 30th will be a delicious break and a day of celebration. It's a Sunday, so there may even be day drinking involved...With that being said though, there are several habits that I would like to carry with me. Moving forward, I would like to run at least three days a week and continue with yoga two or three days a week. Every other day I would like to do strength training for 10-20 minutes per day. Some days this may mean strength training in the morning and running in the evening.

So, for this final week I would like to do a little more exploration and get outside my comfort zone a bit. There is a Pilates class on Monday and a few yoga studios I have never been to. I hear there is a rock climbing gym that just re-opened...

Lookout Point

For my birthday this past weekend I went on a hike in Montreat, a small town just 20 minutes from Asheville. Earlier in the week North Carolina was hit with rain and snow so even though it was sunny and 60 in Asheville, there was still a few inches of snow on the ground out in Montreat. This made for perfect hiking weather. 

The climb to the top took about 45 minutes, but revealed 365-degree views of the mountains that made me tingle with my aliveness. I felt an urge to view it all from upside down. Lately, I have enjoyed doing headstands in weird places. This is partially inspired by my sister and partially inspired by my friend Alex who is in the middle of a 365-day handstand challenge. Normally, I have trouble with headstands and need a wall to help support myself. But on my birthday - for whatever reason - I practiced my strongest headstand yet. I have never felt so grounded and stable. 

I am humbled and amazed that when we push our edge we often find exactly what grounds us. 

Lookout Point

Montreat, NC 

29th Birthday Hike 
8 out of 29 days of movement 

Resistance

Don't you just love synchronicity? I put a book down for almost a month when I started The Artist's Way, and when I finally picked it back up, everything that I was reading felt like it was being read on a loud speaker.

I am still riding the honeymoon phase of my 29 days of movement. So far, I am excited. I have a week of movement under my belt, but I know the resistance is coming. The inevitable moment when I just. don't. wanna. do. it.

But the Universe has been listening and preparing me for this. Danielle LaPorte shares five tips for working through resistance in her book "The Desire Map" (if you are not familiar with this book, I strongly recommend that you check it out). These tips come from her friend Todd Herman who is sports psychology coach: 

1. Breathe.
2. Grip your power thought (aka: your core desired feelings).
3. Remind yourself that you are growing and that resistance is just a signpost of this growth.
4. Script the process (not the outcome).
5. Make tweaks and keep going.

While all of these are important reminders, the fourth one really resonates. I choose to make the month of March about MOVEMENT. Not about running a certain number of miles, benching a certain weight, or how many yoga poses I "master". Rather, I chose to focus on the process and practice of movement. When I hit the resistance phase, which I know is inevitable, I am plan to just make tweaks and keep going. 

March Movement: Kicking off the First Month with a Run

Since I first thought of this project nearly six months ago, I had planned for my first month's focus to be yoga. I love yoga and it seemed fitting to do 29 days of yoga during my birthday month. But now that the month is here, my body is telling me something different. Today, my body said "Run!" And so instead of doing yoga, I pulled out my running shoes and did laps in my new neighborhood. It wasn't easy and the distance I can go is slightly depressing, but I did it. Tomorrow I may run again (finally, we have some nice spring-like weather in Western North Carolina!) or I may lift weights for 20 minutes or do an hour of yoga. Regardless of what my body is craving that day, I intend to get a minimum of 20 minutes of movement every day for the next 29 days. 

This change-in-plan reminds me of a couple things: 

1) I don't want this year to be too pre-planned. I have a list of different things I would like to do, but I intend to roll with the punches and see where this thing takes me. 
2) Stop. Breathe. Pay attention. This practice is not about things I "should" do or what my brain thinks I need. It's about listening to my heart and my gut, and practicing from an authentic place, not a forced one. 

I would consider myself an active person, however, in the past couple of months I have gone into hibernation mode. Snow and cold weather have kept me indoors. The management at my old building decided it was a good idea to put air fresheners (the kind full of phyto-estrogens) in the gym and I didn't want to make a fuss about it right before I moved out. I do a lot of walking and go to yoga one or two times a week, but I have been craving more heart-pumping exercise. 

So, during the month of March I plan to practice MOVEMENT. My parameters: 

• At least 20 minutes of movement each day, not counting walking. 
• If the movement is yoga, I need to do at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour. 
• Walking counts as my daily movement if I am hiking (most of the hiking I do is up a mountain and therefore gets my heart-rate up). 
• Push myself to be creative and explore. There are several yoga studios I have never been to and I would like to check out other exercises classes like zumba and pilates.

The Twenty-Ninth Practice: A Year of Paying Attention

Part of my motivation for doing this year-long project is to remind myself that life, like yoga, is a practice. Every morning we wake up and it is a new day. We have an opportunity to do something new and different or to stick to a time-tested routine. We choose to make someone smile or laugh or cry. We choose to see the glass half-empty or half-full. I don’t mean the next statement in a negative, pessimistic way at all, but...there is no light at the end of the tunnel; there is light every single day and we have the choice as to whether or not we see it.

We have such a tendency to say “oh, someday I will…such-and-such”. Unfortunately, a lot of those such-and-suchs go to the Island of Someday and die. I don’t have regrets so far (don’t get me wrong, I have done a lot of stupid things, but I am chocking those all to first-quarter learning experiences), but I don't want my "someday I will" things to die on the Island of Someday. 

Every day I want to show up and rejoice and celebrate the abundance in my life. Before I reach 30 next year (gasp!) I want to cultivate a greater appreciation for the practice of life, because, frankly, life is too damn short. This is not an uncommon sentiment for me. In 2010, my boyfriend and I quit our jobs in Nashville, TN to travel in Central America. Why? Why not?? We gave notice at our jobs. We consolidated our stuff and ourselves into one apartment. We started saving a lot of money by eating beans and peanut butter sandwiches. Right after Christmas, we flew to Guatemala City and spent the first three months of 2011 backpacking from Guatemala to Panama, where my sister was living. And I don't regret this "Why not?" attitude one bit. 

The Twenty-Ninth Practice is my year of "why-the-hell-not?!" I turn 29 next week and am excited to spend the next year practicing and paying attention. Each month, I will choose a different "29" practice to focus on. Sometimes the practice will be a habit I want to cultivate, like meditating everyday. Other months, the practice might be a creative project that I have been thinking about for a long time.  

What are some of the things I want to pay attention to and practice? I delight in poetry. I love reading short stories. I worry about my every-day coffee habit. I wonder if I drink too frequently. I want to learn how to do a handstand and have an excuse to try out new yoga studios. I want to add more recipes to my gluten-free cooking repertoire. I would like to improve my photography skills and explore new trails. I would like to see more live music. I want to express more love and gratitude to the people that I care about. 

Quite simply, for my twenty-ninth year I want to rock it. I want to live intentionally every single day, not just some-of-the-time-when-I-happen-to-think-about-it.

So, the year begins. 

Namaste.