It is often said that the first step is the hardest: certainly true of starting this blog! So with a deep inhale here we go…So far, my 50’s are teaching me to accept change and new challenges. I hope to share and exchange tips that may ease the way. Blog posting is new to me, hopefully I’ll get the hang of it soon. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
Plan A, B, C to Z
A few weeks ago, like so many, I tested positive for covid 19. Thankfully symptoms were mild and with the support of family and friends I was able to rest and isolate as required and recovered pretty quickly.
Having to self- isolate meant I was unable to visit with family in the way I had hoped to. The whole experience has been a lesson in being present and not focusing on the things that are out of my control.
Although I’m now well, I have been more tired than usual, so I’m only just getting back to a gentle physical yoga practice. If you are looking for some nourishing practices check out the link
https://yogainternational.com/ecourse/finding-balance-in-mid-life
If you travel during these “covid-times” have a plan A, B and C!
Smaller Spaces
I am currently away from home to visit family; and have been staying in a succession of short term holiday lets, B&B’s and travel hotels. My yoga has had to adapt to smaller spaces, without props and often without a yoga mat (I will share more on this soon). Practising this way has reminded me that I don’t need a studio, special yoga clothes or a thick and ‘sticky’ mat. Yoga comes from the inside out; you can practise it by going for a walk or doing poses on a towel on the floor.
Dance!
It’s not my job anymore, and sometimes I forget how important it is. But I was recently reminded we must dance: often. With a partner, your friends, your kids, or my current favourite: alone. For a minute or all night long. With music, or to your own internal rhythm. It’s a primal human instinct. And it feels SO GOOD! #dance #somatics #yoga #yogaeverydamnday #onceadanceralwaysadancer
Keep on moving…
I have recently been less motivated to practice and meditate at home. I seem to have lost the discipline. But when I do manage to get on my mat, I wonder why I haven’t been doing so everyday. It’s as if I get in my own way, in my own head, and caught up in covid-anxiety and forget what helps me. This short heart and hip opening flow showed me how tight my joints are today, and how much I need to move everyday. Can be a little or a lot: moving is my medicine, what’s yours?
Keep on Moving
Yesterday morning I walked the same route I always do to get to the yoga studio. But I kept noticing ladders; perhaps I was walking slower and taking in my surroundings more than usual, as HK streets are quiet on a Sunday morning? Maybe, but I like to think it was a message, a little sign to keep on going, keep climbing, onwards, upwards! There were honestly ladders everywhere I went!
Needing Yin and Yang
I’ve recently returned to teaching some hot yoga, I love the intensity of the hot room but for the health of my body (and mind) I have to remember to balance it out with something softer, like yin yoga.
I think it goes hand in hand with a professional dance training: to have an affinity with rigorous, strict practices, to work in end range of movement and perform every action with 100% effort and purpose. This has been my comfort zone.
I find yin yoga way more challenging than the hottest most humid hot room! I am gradually realising there is equal rigor and discipline in yin yoga. To be still, to allow my body to be supported by the floor or props rather than muscular effort, to pull back from my end of range and find a place of a more nourishing, intensity, takes determination and focus. To be in my head and body without distraction. If I allow it to, the physical stillness gives rise to mental calm and clarity. Could it be that sometimes the thing that makes us uncomfortable might actually be the thing we need the most?
Sometimes, less is more.
A Beginners Mind
In the Zen tradition, A Beginners Mind is open and without preconception. Adopting this approach can put a positive light on many things: perhaps learning a new skill or adapting to a new role at work, a maybe a relationship or parenting problem. Try and look at it through a beginner‘s eyes, without preconception.
At the suggestion of my university Dance history professor, (who was also my first Pilates teacher in 1987!) I have begun exploring somatic movement.
What a revelation! I’m only a couple of weeks into an introductory course and so far the controlled and conscious movement and breath work is really resonating: a perfect foil for my ageing dancers body, that has a leaning to effortful ‘yang’ movement, and a tendency to physically manifest stress.
I feel these somatic movement techniques will help me with postural habits and discomfort and I’m sure they will be a valuable tool for teaching my yoga students. I am excited to learn more, to put aside unhelpful habitual movement patterns and to re-discover my ‘beginners mind’. And I’m going to try and hold on to the feeling of being open to new things.
Enough Love
In Hong Kong we celebrated Mother’s day last Sunday. For those of us whose Mothers are no longer with us, it is often a poignant day, even as we celebrate with those that we ‘mother’.
I was 33 weeks pregnant when I lost my mum to cancer 16 years ago, she was 55. I have five siblings. As each of us grew up and Mum was left with fewer of her own children at home, she began taking in foster kids; providing both short and long term safety and love to many children in need. She maintained that in general, all a child needed was love, and everything else flowed from that. When she was sick and I was pregnant with my second son I anxiously asked her, “Will I have enough love for them both?” she said, “your love grows as your family does, there is always enough love”.
This year Mother’s day got me thinking about how strong the ‘maternal’ is. It is protective and powerful, nurturing and caring. You don’t have to be female and have given birth to have this feeling, this power. Since our world has as been changed by covid 19, I’m experiencing the maternal in a more expansive way. I feel protective of my family; my friends and colleagues; but also my neighbours and community, my fellow humans. I hope there’s enough love to get us through this pandemic. Enough love for people to come together, to collaborate on finding vaccines and effective medications. Enough love for us to be bold enough to keep some of the positives that lockdowns have brought about. Enough love to keep checking on the elderly and vulnerable in our communities, enough love to value and reward those in caring and service professions, enough love for our leaders and governments to act in the best interests of their people rather than along party political lines, or in response to powerful lobbyists. At the risk of sounding like the old hippie that I am, I hope there is enough love to look after our planet and each other.
In Hong Kong, social distancing measures are being loosened, which is great, but this brings new anxieties. On Saturday I went to a birthday dinner for 8 people, I attended a group Pilates class yesterday, and I will be teaching in-person yoga classes this week. Whilst I am grateful to be doing these things (all with suitable precautions of course): it is impossible to know if we will be hit hard with another wave of infections as we embrace a new normal of temperature checks and questionnaires at building entrances, of ubiquitous mask wearing and hand sanitising. Once again to manage worries I turn my attention to what I can do: the small things. Whilst I can’t control national policies or government decisions, I can’t control whether someone observes good personal hygiene or is honest about their health history. I can be kind. I can do as the great philosophies and faiths advise; I can treat others as I would hope to be treated. And I remember what my Mum told me, “there is always enough love”. I find there is comfort and power in that. I hope you do too.
Good Days and Bad
Much of the world is in some degree of social/physical isolation or lockdown. The situation is fluid and things are changing quickly, it is easy to feel unsteady and out of sorts. To ease that unsteadiness I’m trying to keep some kind of routine, for myself and the family. Having a structure to the day, breaking it into manageable blocks of time for work, exercise, mealtimes and rest seems to help me find some calm. This may not work for everyone and I definitely have good days and bad. Sometimes just contemplating the magnitude of what’s going on can be panic- inducing.
It does help to be kind, to yourself and those around you. It also helps to keep yourself informed but maybe think about limiting news sources to a handful of trusted sources that you check twice a day rather than every time you scroll through instagram. We all do it, me included. However I increasingly find social media ‘news posts’ to be inflammatory, highly subjective and argumentative, often of unclear origin and authenticity. The internet is not always a kind place. That said, social media and online group meeting platforms are a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, especially at the moment, when for most, travel and physical socialising are not possible.
With all that’s going on I can’t always identify what’s affecting my mood. There is just so much: from covid19 and concern about the health of family and friends to worry about what the economic fallout will mean for everyone. As I said, there are good days and bad, or more like, good and bad bits of each day! I don’t have a quick fix. Sometimes all it takes is a few deep breaths, a few rounds of sun salutations or an inversion to shift my perspective. And sometimes none of that works, but a moan to a friend, a good cry on my own or a glass or two of wine might do the job! How are you keeping things in perspective during these strange times?
This is day 8…
Of compulsory 2 week home quarantine with my youngest son. We are both feeling fine so far and have been surprisingly busy up to now: online school for him, some online courses for me, learning to teach virtual classes via online group meeting platforms, plenty of cooking, cleaning and sorting: an opportunity to tackle some home projects I usually put off, because I can’t find the time.
The biggest challenge has been not going outside, we live in an apartment so a turn around the garden isn’t an option for us. Being active is such a big part of who I am it’s been a real learning experience to have restrictions placed on my movements. I am keeping up with my home yoga practice for my mental as well as physical well-being. And I’ve been reconnecting with some much loved yoga teachers via online streaming classes. Thank you @patrickcreelman and Lisa Mak @glowingstories
These are such strange and challenging times. We are in the midst of an unprecedented global health crisis. Life feels like a movie. How can we cope with the very real stresses this is placing on us all? I’m reminding myself that there is a lot about the situation that is out of my control. The big picture can be overwhelming to contemplate. What can I influence? What do I have the power to do? I can take the precautions recommended by the authorities. I can be mindful of interactions with others in my community. I can look after myself and my loved ones as best I can. I am able and thankful that I can eat nutritious food and move my body. I have shelter and love and the opportunity to breath deeply and try and manage stress. I am blessed.
We do the best we can with what we have at a particular time in a particular place. Some days it’s easier said than done!
feelgoodoverfifty 