Category: Yoga

I realized the other day I haven’t posted anything here for a long time.

I needed to take a break from everything to find other ways to decompress from my sadness. I was desperately trying to find other ways to let out my anger & rage. I was told that writing about it would help (and it did) but I felt I was diving deeper into a dark place that I didn’t want to be in.

I’m in such a better place than I was months ago. I no longer want vengeance…I crave peace. I’m no longer looking back but looking forward. I realized this when someone from my past, who wrongfully passed judgement on me while I was grieving, reached out to me in a 4 page handwritten letter to apologize. This person not only admitted everything I suspected but told me he was wrong. It took me a week to take that in cause it brought me back to that place where I didn’t want to be. I was going to respond but I changed my mind. I decided I was in a really good place & that person didn’t merit a response. He is not relevant in my life & there is nothing to discuss. I’ve officially moved on. That’s a huge step for me considering this person was high on my imaginary hit list, lol.

I’m definitely in a better place! Much better than months ago…HECK, leaps & bounds better than last year. So although time doesn’t heal all wounds it definitely makes it better.

I hide behind my pranks, jokes, laughter and big smile. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all completely authentic but sometimes I’m minutes or seconds away from feeling anger, sadness or even crying.

The anger I still feel is from my oldest sons untimely death from Cancer. Just remembering painful moments only him & I shared still haunt me because I know he was scared and I couldn’t help him. I’m angry cause I watched him wake up every morning & die a little more again every single day. It was torturous to watch and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I relive it every day in my memories.

The sadness I feel is trying to help my youngest son live a somewhat normal life despite his severe autism. It’s like watching someone trapped in their own body fighting to communicate on a daily basis. My fourteen year old son lives an extremely structured lifestyle and anything outside of it turns his world upside down. He needs 24 hour supervision and could never be left alone therefore my husband & I take turns running independent errands. We know no one will ever be able to give our son the special care & attention we give him which is why we chose not to ever hire a sitter.

Additionally, our son has severe sensory processing disorder. His hearing is extremely sensitive so we can’t have any televisions on in the house while he’s home. We can’t run the vacuum cleaner or microwave in his presence. The local emergency response vehicles who run their sirens on our road will trigger a violent meltdown from him. The latest trigger has been the birds chirping outside (yeah you read that right) so now we turn on the fan in the house to drown out the noise. We don’t throw parties, don’t have company & we’re usually in bed by 8pm cause we’re up every morning between 5:30am-6am (even on weekends).

I’m not complaining. This is our life & we’ve adjusted to this way of living. My husband & I laugh a lot, crack jokes & make fun of ourselves. Time is very precious to us and we do the best we can with what little private time we have each day. So when people invite us to go here & there (ie. wedding, parties etc) and we say we can’t go, it’s cause we really can’t. We never attend a function “together” for obvious reasons & if we say “yes” to something then only one of us will go.

The only time I will get annoyed is if someone becomes pushy about us “not attending” a function & that only happened once. I will explain “why not” only one time and after that I’m done. My patience level after my son passed has decreased tremendously.

I choose to make the best of what I have. Laughter helps me get through my pain & tough days. Laughter is my best mental escape.

The other day I went shopping for some home repair supplies. I went to self check out because there was a register available & I find myself to be quicker than most cashiers, lol.

My register wasn’t working properly & it kept asking for a code so I had to ask the head cashier to come over. The head cashier was a young man, early twenties, athletic build, who seemed flustered already. There were other people calling him over for codes so I knew all the machines were acting up. It was snowing mixed with sleet that day so I’m not sure if the weather played any part in the commotion.

Well my machine asked for a code a few more times & I can see this young man growing increasingly more frustrated each time he came over. By the fifth time I gave up & decided to go to a human cashier. When the young man sees me driving my cart away he says “where you going?” I replied “I’m going to a cashier” He then loudly says “You don’t have to get mad, I’ll check you out” But the best part was, he says that with an attitude. I was annoyed at this point but I kept my cool & I said “I’m not mad”

He then shoots back again with the same attitude “Still, you don’t have to get mad” Everyone else checking out stops and looks at me. Now I’m mad! I felt he was extremely unprofessional but I knew he was having a bad day so I didn’t say anything & I moved to his register.

This young man was running from register to register putting his code into everyone’s machine & I could see he was losing his cool. It was so bad that I made eye contact with one of the other cashiers (casually pleading for her to help him out) so she came over when she was done with her customer & helped out.

When all the chaos was over, that young man came over & apologized to me. I accepted his apology, thanked him for his help & I left.

I could have easily escalated the situation….easily, lol. But sometimes you have to take a step back, take a deep breath and evaluate a situation. I knew this kid was having a really rough day and who knows if he was new, nervous or any number of factors.

Don’t get me wrong, that does not excuse his behavior by any means but maybe he also realized he was wrong. I’m just grateful that I kept my cool long enough to give him the opportunity to apologize to me.

Do you trust your inner wisdom? Do you know your own truth or are you always second guessing yourself?

This is the year that I decided to start trusting myself….I mean REALLY trusting myself. I’ve been saying for months that I was gonna rid myself of clutter that no longer serve me including people…(especially people) and I did exactly that.

I started walking away from people that were filled with negativity and I kept my circle small. I spent enough years of my life getting rid of my own demons and I didn’t need anyone else’s clouding my judgement.

It was the most refreshing feeling in the world to rid myself of all the clutter that was weighing me down emotionally. When you know someone is not serving you no good purpose in your life the time to let go is soon rather than later.

There was no long drawn out speech, no drama, it was just exit door to the left. I’m at a point in my life where I don’t have the patience to argue with anyone. I’d rather just disappear.

That’s how I roll these days.

Hello Word Press Family 🤗 Im back after a very long extended break!

I had a lot of soul searching to do. 2017 was an incredibly tumultuous year for me & before the year ended I made a decision to take care of me first. I am of no use to anyone else if I’m not ok.

I don’t believe in New Years Resolutions..not anymore. I always break them before January is even over so I decided to make small changes with myself. I started those changes mid December. I started getting rid of “clutter”.

“Clutter is not just physical stuff. It’s old ideas, toxic relationships and bad habits. Clutter is anything that doesn’t support your better self.”

I started cutting back on my social media presence, changed my diet & removed myself from toxic relationships/ friendships. This all happened in December. January came & I was already in motion. I felt stronger & more prepared because I was already in the midst of my personal changes.

I went back to my old love…daily hiking! I’m reading again, I’m halfway thru a book I got for Christmas and I’m making small daily goals and accomplishing them. I have to make a note for myself every evening of what I want to accomplish the next day and I stick to those short term goals. I feel great when I get these things accomplished.

I want to live more in the present, not only for my loved ones but mostly for myself. Being glued to my phone 3 hrs a day commenting on people’s posts & responding will not help me achieve my greater self. That’s 3 hours of my daily life I will never get back & I will never let that happen again.

I want to do more things I enjoy like hiking, reading, writing & traveling. I want to live each day more fruitfully. I want to make the most out of each day on MY TERMS cause memories are not made by clicking the keyboard. 😉

I did exactly what I intended on doing today which was escaping everything & everyone and going up to the mountains to be alone. It was first thing in the morning right after the kids went off to school & my husband went back to bed so I was able to just go without being on the “clock” and disappear for a little while.

It was extremely foggy & misty so I knew no one would be there. On a good day there’s usually no one around so on a crappy day like today I knew I’d have this certain spot all to myself.

I did a lot of stretching & then some Yoga for about an hour and a half whilst listening to the birds singing & the crickets chirping. I thought about my life up to that point, things that made me happy, things I’m grateful for & things I should be grateful for.

I sat for a little while looking out past the trees into the fog and I felt fortunate to have lived up to that moment. My life is far from perfect but I was relieved to feel this tremendous inner peace inside. The peace comes from knowing that I’m a good person, I have an honest heart & I can sleep with a clear conscience each night. I’ve always tried to help others & often go out of my way to do so.

Yes, sadness still exists in my life (it always will) but I knew at that moment, that every single day I HAVE TO choose to find that inner peace within me. No one can do it for me, I have to do it myself. Even if the happiness comes in short bursts of moments I still have to enjoy them when they do happen.

Sometimes you have to step away from the chaos of life to get back in touch with yourself. I will continue to remind myself every now & then that I NEED TO do something every single day that brings me peace, puts a smile on my face & makes me happy.

Instagram used to be my happy place. It used to be my escape from the ugly reality of the world cause I immersed myself into the Yoga community & surrounded myself with like minded people full of positive energy and fitness goals.

Now I find the place that was once my refuge has now become breached.

Just when I thought I was starting to come to terms with my sons death from Cancer yet I see many, many messages about yet another person who is dying from Cancer. I thought I could be supportive (which I was) but I found myself sinking back into that deep depression I was in when my son first passed. I’ve been declining emotionally and where I saw progress with my acceptance of my sons disease now I find myself questioning once again “Could I have done more”.

I thought I was ready to be a support system for others who are battling this ugly disease but it’s clear I’m not. Just because I’m smiling & laughing on the outside doesn’t mean I’m whole. I’m still very much broken on the inside. Not everything on the surface is what it appears. I’m still battling the aftermath of Cancer & I can’t be present for my family if I’m falling apart every time that wound gets re-opened. I’m taking another break from IG cause I just can’t deal with all the sad notifications. I don’t even watch TV anymore cause I break down every time I see all the Cancer commercials especially the St.Jude kids.

Now my only escape is the place I love, the place I’ve always loved from Day 1, the mountains. My only solace, my only escape where I can clear my head and actually take a deep breath.

This past weekend I took a break from social media just so I could focus on myself. I didn’t post any pictures, didn’t log in to see what anyone was doing, I didn’t make a big “unplug” announcement, I just went M.I.A and disappeared. You know what? It felt damn good! I finally got a lot of work done around the house & spent more time with my family and I felt really relaxed. Not that being on social media stresses me out but I can easily get lost in it & innocently looking at 1 post can turn into a couple of hours of looking at post after post (at least for me).

Luckily for me my only vice is Instagram. My Instagram is primarily for fitness & positive posts. My Facebook is inactive and I don’t have any other accounts. I know people who run multiple active social media accounts and I have no idea how they have a social life involving real human people, lol.

I limit my social media time & and now that I know how good that break felt I will be taking more mental health breaks.

Sometimes you need an escape from the world to refocus on what’s really important within yourself.

It’s ironic how critical the world of Yoga has become when it’s suppose to be about being “judgement free”.

Yoga, as I understand it, is suppose to signify any form of connection. It’s a conscious connection to something to allow us to feel & experience that state of bliss, a joyous feeling. There is no single definition of yoga but in order to understand it we must study it in all it’s different forms and definitions.

There are some days when I crave restorative yoga (slow paced), other days I crave more activity (vinyasa-style yoga) and yet other days I just want to do my own damn thing, have fun, find something to climb on and test my balancing skills, lol. I don’t always have time to go to a yoga class and sometimes (to be honest) I just want to be alone and do my own thing in the park or in my backyard. I’ve recently tried an aerial yoga class (yoga using a hammock) which was pretty cool and I will continue to experiment different forms of yoga classes cause variety is the spice of life.

On social media, I absolutely love the variety of monthly yoga challenges. They range from challenging to silly but I love them all cause depending on how I feel will dictate which challenges I join. It also forces me to get on my mat when I’m not in the mood.

The variety of social media Yoga has helped me a great deal with my struggle with depression. By nature, I am a silly person and the goofier something is the more it will bring me out of my shell. I don’t do well in serious situations, I just withdraw. So it saddens me when I see the commentary on what Yoga “should be” about or the condemnation of the sillier versions of Yoga challenges.

Yoga is an individual journey and it should continue to have variety just like people. That’s what makes it so interesting & so beautiful.

 

How do you even begin to find a way to move on with life when someone you love passes?
The grieving process is so long & complicated and because everyone grieves differently you don't know how you're suppose to feel or what's considered normal.
I received a pamphlet in the mail today from the funeral home that handled my sons service and the timing was perfect.
I've been experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions since my sons passing and it's been very confusing for me. Some days I feel ok, other days I feel angry and yet other days I cry for hours but mostly I feel numb.
This booklet described every range of emotion I've been experiencing from A to Z and reading all of that felt like someone was reaching out to me to tell me everything I've been feeling is normal and I was going to be Ok. I felt like it was a personal message delivered specifically to me & it made me feel better cause I didn't feel so alone.
Sometimes just having someone else validate your feelings can be enough to help get you through the process.
No one will be able to erase the permanent pain imprinted in my heart but I feel better knowing everything I've been feeling is normal and sometimes it's ok not to be ok.
But what's even more important is that on good days I shouldn't feel guilty cause it's also ok to be ok.