New Kicks

Look at these fancy new shoes I have!

Do you love how I "posed" my shoes?

 

First came the tennis shoes. My hip problems have not gone away entirely despite my almost-four week hiatus from running(!!!). When I look at people running on the street I am 100% jealous. If you would have told me that I would have any emotion related to jealousy in regard to running oh, about 5 years ago, I would say, You’s crazy! But I taught myself to run and made it an important part of my fitness life and now I can’t do it. Because it hurts. And this makes me sad (emoticon).

In response to my body’s rapidly-increasing dilapidation I have taken up more yoga, but of course you already knew that. I thought, however, that beyond stretching more and getting my body better toned, I needed to get new running shoes. The ones I bought a little over two months ago were wrong when I bought them, but I did it anyway. I thought I would allow them to conform to my feet, rather than feel super from the start. Hello! Amateur hour! Have I never done this before?! Stupid mistake. And now I have a sore (entire) leg, most markedly my hip and I am out an extra hundred bucks. BUT, I have a new pair of snazzy trainers (yes, that’s British, move past it).

In addition to my super fly kicks (again, just go with it) I picked up a pair of TOMS yesterday. I have been debating about these shoes for a while. Naturally, the purchase of a pair goes to a great cause, but I almost felt like a sell-out because every person in Charleston wears them. And I didn’t want to look like everyone else (is that so wrong?). But, then I got my head on straight and said, “Self, you have been thinking about these dogs for like two months. It’s a good cause. Get to the store. Right meow.” Seriously, that’s what my internal dialogue sounds like. You’re welcome.

Now I have two great pairs of shoes that I plan on scooting all over town in. Methinks my feet have never been so happy.

Even More Yoga

This morning’s yoga playlist included gems such as:

• “Evening Kitchen” by Band of Horses
• “Thistled Spring” by Horse Feathers
• “Fold” by Jose Gonzalez
• “Sans Solei” by Miike Snow
• “Burn” by Ray LaMontagne
• “Shelter” by The xx
• “Nostrand” by Ratatat
• “Mien” by Millionyoung

But the above song/video was the highlight of my practice. With each new song I hear by Beirut I become more enamored. When practicing yoga it’s important to breath in and out through only the nose. The helps trap body heat inside and helps the muscles to loosen up, leading to increased flexibility and circulation. Every so often (when practicing alone) I feel compelled to open my mouth and sing along. Today’s listening of “Goshen” was one of those occasions. The other instance of that this morning: “Season’s Trees” by Danger Mouse and Danielle Luppi (feat. Norah Jones). Swoon.

What’s the best part about having class at night? Being able to go to the beach and do my reading for school during the day! Off to catch some rays…

Mid-Week Meditation

Three days into the work (school) week and I am still going strong. First thing this morning I unfurled my mat and tapped into my inner yogi. I used the same playlist as Monday and felt myself immediately fall into the groove. Today felt really good. I began my meditative breathing in a seated pose and over the course of an hour I worked through cat, cow, moonflowers, sunflowers, sun salutations, warrior I, II, and III, pyramid, balancing half moon, triangle, tree, extended big toe, pigeon, seated wide angle, butterfly, supine twist, dead bug, and corpse. A few other oddities were thrown in there, but I can’t totally describe them as they are my own concoction. Yet another benefit of practicing on my own.

I’ve already thought of a few ideas for my practice tomorrow. I’ll take this as a sign that maybe this week’s yoga won’t be just another flavor-of-the-month workout routine.

 

Yoga is Good, You Know What I Mean?

Today counts as day number zwei in my week of yoga. I woke up with tender shoulders and knew that the yoga was working. Perhaps the residual soreness is another reason I postpone getting back into my groove: I know it’s gonna hurt! But it’s a good pain that usually goes away ten to fifteen minutes into my next practice.

At 12:05 this afternoon I unrolled my mat, lit up the ipod and got to work. Today’s music was a cocktail of Bon Iver songs, the surprise highlight being “Wisconsin,” which almost reduced me to tears. Honestly, something about that fuzzy song struck a chord with me today. A little over an hour after I started I was laying in savasana just thinking about how grateful I was for the meditative quiet hour. Thus far, my yoga week has been a rousing success.

I believe I have shared Bon Iver recently so instead I will leave you with a song that I heard earlier today at Kudu Coffee House, only a few blocks from my place. This song features on Ultimate Playlist #11, which is in pretty regular rotation around here. Right in the middle of a thunderstorm (the closest I came to seeing fireworks this holiday weekend) “You Know What I Mean” came on and I found it was the perfect tune to accompany the mid-morning shower. Enjoy!*

 

*Not exactly sure what the movie scene has to do with the song, but I kind of like it.

Back to the Mat

Sometimes I get into these weird funks in which I totally forget to incorporate yoga into my exercise regimen. I often believe it’s because I am afraid of what I will find when I get back onto the mat: I am not as flexible/capable/ohm-ish as I was only a few years ago.

Hello, old friend.

Today, however, I felt simply drawn to practice a little yoga. It’s not for no reason, though. Recently, as in like the past three days, my hip has been acting up somethin’ fierce. This is not unusual. At any given time something on my body ails me: my right knee, my lower back, an ankle, the soles of both feet (remember that last summer in Switzerland–youch!). Now it is my left hip. Unfortunately for me, this seems to be a traveling ache, which I have surmised is not good at all. So, I have prescribed myself a week of yoga and no-impact fitness. My aerobics have been run-heavy since I arrived in Charleston and methinks that has something to do with my latest pain.

So, at around 11:45 this morning I paused my reading of New York by Gaslight (which I have a paper to write about, due in one week), pulled out my mat and ipod and hit the floor! Actually, it wasn’t as aggressive as that, but you get the idea.

Music is an important part of my practice, and always has been. When I was teaching different yoga classes during undergrad I always put as much effort into the music playlist as I did the actual poses. I happen to like songs with words in them, though many people don’t, which I totally understand. As in, “Kristina, I can’t concentrate on my downward-facing dog over here while Imogen Heap wails about ‘busy streets, amess with people’ in auto-tune.” I get that. The nice thing about practicing alone in the living room is that I get to control the music, and there are no complaints. Today’s mix included, but was not limited to:

• “Infinite Arms” by Band of Horses
• “Take Care” by Beach House
• “Nyatiti” by Andrew Bird
• “Names” by Valley Maker
• “An Iris” by All Tiny Creatures
• “Faded the Grain” by Junip
• “Blindsided” by Bon Iver
• “When the Night Comes” by Dan Auerbach
• “Mango Tree” by Angus and Julia Stone

I snap-crackle-popped all over the living room floor as my spin, hips, ankles, knees, shoulders, wrists, and even elbows adjusted to the slightly unfamiliar postures. But, just over an hour of yoga was the perfect interlude to reading. I’m already looking forward to tomorrow’s session. Any suggestions for music??

 

Photo courtesy of maddisonmassage.net