Pool meditation is underrated. And so is sea salt therapy especially for cooling Pitta.
Pink Himalayan sea salt therapy for cooling.
One of the intentions of Meditation is to quiet the mind that’s always running. And that’s how I came to discover pool meditation.
In any meditation, the peace is in the silence. And I have a pool meditation idea that worked for me… and I’m passing on to you in case you want to give it a try!
BTW, I am the first to admit I’m not a good half-conscious meditator. I prefer to silence my mind awake fully conscious and eyes open. And whatever works for you, works!
Specifically isolating the mind’s ego is a good goal for your meditation 🎯
…Because we’re stuck with our ego for life, and good or bad, whether we’re meditating or not.
And our ego is a good part of why life goes back to the way it was after the recent meditation effect gradually wears off. Even if that’s just ennui (boredom) that the ego can turn into woes-me.
When we go back to our lives from peace and meditation, the ego snaps right back into active mode. And it wants to be right (not necessarily happy).
So it’s a great idea to enhance the calming meditation effects and have it last longer.
I tried this for the first time years ago when I was practicing how to be conscious of the mind-body connection.
…Long before my first meditation experiences (when photos were fuzzy and taken from snap cameras 😉). Like traditional meditation, we could sit still in a chair or Indian-style sitting position on the floor.
Meditation Room at the Chopra Center
And today for any of us, ongoing calm can be the day and every day when focused and engaged in the moment (that’s part of our modern day self-awareness movement).
And long before my first meditation experience, I stepped into this calm discovery decades ago in an indoor swimming pool… 💭
In one temporary corporate job I held many moons ago, there were two great job benefits. The first one was leaving at 5 pm that was not a common occurrence in any modern work in the Western world. You probably know what I’m talkin’ about!
And the second benefit (and first ever perk for me) was use of the indoor pool attached to the conference center I worked in.
That summer, every weekday at 5 pm on the dot I got excited about my day change. I jumped into my swimsut and I transformed into my meditation calm.
The first few minutes in the pool cooled me off (both in mind and body). And the longer I stayed in, the more calm I felt. Even on the drive home I could feel the stress of the world melt away.
I still felt alive when I got home, that’s not the usual feeling from an exhausting work day around work people. And on some days I had a second job to go to. I had caught my second wind in the pool environment.
I didn’t need any special breathing techniques or calming meditation narration. The pool created a naturally calming effect on the Pitta summer side of things that’s heightened in the heat.
When you step into a cooling pool, it does your body good. Your body recognizes the environment as healing. Yes, it’s a healing pool of water. And our bodies are mostly water, so it’s natural osmosis.
You cool down with the shimmering body of blue water around you, and take yourself out of the usual dry earth we’re mostly around. Your mind can travel a million miles away from your life.
So it’s also an escape. 💭
And that’s how calming pool meditation can be for you where you dip your toes in this tranquil setting. You slip away from the earthly troubles and enter a new realm. Not to mention the blue ripple color is mesmerizing, serene, and good for eye-open meditators like me (…and maybe you too 👀).
You get a part two in your day like you’re starting a new day in the same day. And sometimes a start over if the first half wasn’t so good or relaxing.
Some cool pool meditation tips:
Sit by the pool steps to start with so your body is partially in the water. Then gradually enter the pool water. For indoor pool meditation, I like to hang along the pool’s edge like I’m reading a book, but I’m actually reading the calm in myself. I’m just chillin’ and forgetful of time. 😊
You not only cool and calm from stress, you work on letting go of those negative thoughts that your ego feeds you non-stop throughout the 9-5 day. So you do yourself healthy good.
Also, pool meditation only works well in a quiet pool setting. Not an outdoor pool with splish splashing kids playing or a pool class with instructor and a headset.
You’d be better off under the shade of a tree or in a cool spot inside, but it won’t be the same as an inside pool. Hotels usually have these indoor pools that are almost always quiet.
…Then when you get back home, capture the way you felt.
This is an amazing power and tool that you have control over. You don’t have to wait until the next free day or moments you have. You just reset yourself in that pool calm place in your imagination.
Your body may even cool down just from the thought. That’s the healthy power of the mind-body. 🌱
You may even want to have a blue wavy color or pool photo in front of you as a reminder. Visual cues are so powerful to empower you. 🎉
In contrast, a bright photo or retro Barbie colors in front of you invigorates, that can just heat things up in your mind. Bright red is even more alarming than the color of hot chili peppers and fire trucks (but BLUE is a soothing color in all shades).
…If you’re a bit Kapha minded these days, maybe that’s what you need! 💕
We had a neon pink light outside the meditation room that looks like a photo developing room (…maybe you remember those where the negatives 🎞️turned to positives 📸?). And from this room, we came out as transformed half-asleep meditated beings 😉
You may never have this glowing experience that I had, BUT you can do your own meditation wherever you are… or test pool meditation and see if that’s your meditation jam. 🧘🏻♀️
And from there you can get your creative personal essence back in case you’re having a creative mental block or dry spell season of ideas… or searching for your life’s purpose. And this is just one of many techniques that can get your cool-calm-and collected swag back as a first step. 😎
For Pavolva, whip egg whites to make meringue base. Add to a pan that will be your presenting dish/pan or use a Silpat for easy transfer. Alternatively you can make a grits pie base that's quicker to bake, with grits, egg, and coconut oil that complements tropical fruit flavors.
Bake in 200°F oven until it feels solid and formed (like packed snow).
Decorate with fruit (dragonfruit, pineapple, passion fruit, and guava). If you want to use less fruit sugar or for a breakfast Pavlova, you can alternatively add berries and green bananas.
These days, we’re open to expressing our burnout feelings. And that’s a healthy restoring move. But the cure to anxious situations and moods is in your mindfulness.
We all know what mindfulness means… being present in this moment.
But do we practice often?…
Usually not, unless we’re in an engaging activity we’re all into.
Mindfulness isn’t the natural path. Our minds tend to naturally wander to dreaming about the future and drift back to worries from the past even if that was earlier the same day.
Mindfulness is an open-door opportunity in every moment. It’s less exciting and also less dramatic.
It’s where your peace is at, in any moment.
If you’re solving a problem, you’re finding a way to have peace of mind, and that’s what satisfies your mind, your loudest critic.
In mindful peaceful moments, you can be the heroine in your life, and the solution to rising above your situations…
So below, I share some tips and lessons learned on how to connect the dots to this valuable life skill of getting mind freedom.
If you already know how to stay in constant mindfulness, kudos to you because you’re far and ahead of the pack. It takes work in a noisy world, but it gets easier when you know what to do and look for…
And if you can break through the noise and find your mindfulness, that can help unleash bottled-up inside thoughts and emotions that cause unhealthy stress.
That describes me in my early 20’s when I suffered a panic attack at work.
…That was the symptom. But, the deeper message was I had a lot to learn and process with emotional trauma buildup from those earlier adult years and childhood.
All that kept me playing small, stuck in life, and stunted my growth in fulfilling my identity potential, even though everything looked fine on paper.
And that kept thoughts and feelings pushed down so they couldn’t ripen (and I couldn’t bloom) sooner. When those thought-feelings re-surfaced, they disappeared when ignored in life’s busyness.
But then would rear its ugly head again later on down the road in the unconscious mind that caused inner strife, and was the lens I looked out from to make small decisions.
The better way all along would have been to process and purge the emotional thoughts at the moment in time it happened (or asap), so that healthy information was recorded as plain as black-and-white, and not left in the dangerous gray zone.
That sounds obvious when pointed out, but we don’t usually process difficult and subtle situations right away. Delaying is a missed opportunity.
Instead, we process and make choices that are easy and light for us, like what to eat and what to do later in the day.
But in life’s design, we don’t get to choose everything, good or bad, that happens to us in our day.
We do get to choose how we react. And if we healed the damage done by some situations better and quicker, our lives would be better off and we wouldn’t carry around invisible baggage that shows up later.
…Like, if we brush off feeling anxious energy as a natural body reaction, that can interrupt the entire day. That’s a message we shouldn’t ignore.
With anxiety, the body is alerting you that the mind has detected a threat based on a harmful situation or one that is deemed as “dangerous” based on context and past experiences you’ve had.
Your mind sends panic signals to your body that are very similar whether you’re being chased by a bear or in a non-life threatening verbal attack made by a person. Attack is attack.
And another person’s attack can be even worse to a mind if it’s personal. Because then the receiver has to deal with all the emotional thought drama that the ego loves to spin. At least with a bear you know it’s innocent. 🧸
And either way, if anxiety is something you feel often, then this might help get your body calm and relaxed quicker…
When the body alarm bells have gone off, a list of restoring drills can be performed, like drinking a lot of water.
…And 4-7-8 breathing to reset a calm mind and heart. And while calming the body, changing negative and fearful thoughts (where the anxiety started) helps restore the mind-body fastest.
And this is where most people stop… once they’ve gotten out of the woods and the bear out of the picture, they forget to practice changing their thought process as part of the drills so that next time they can shorten the anxiety episodes and restore in minutes (vs. not easily recovering).
You can do yourself a favor with a reminder prompt like: “I don’t have time for that!”
And that gets you to do better the next time. Quoting the late Maya Angelou, “when you know better, you do better.” But if I take a page from my young history book, I didn’t know better…
I stayed inside my mind drama for so long, like most do until they learn a better way. Then I woke up one day from years of unaware less-than thinking that I didn’t recognize as misery being a prisoner in the mind at the time. …Not knowing there’s a much better way than misery existence! 😉
…And that’s the higher way of living and thriving. It’s not choosing fruit from fallen apples on the ground. It’s growing orchards that you and others enjoy for years to come.
Until you know and experience a higher way, you can stay in a fuzzy caterpillar existence. And then when you’re ready, you can be a uniquely patterned butterfly fluttering around in the air tasting honey… and being useful to the world by visiting all the colorful flowers.
With new higher perspectives comes a new mind-body and a new identity.
So with a new thought life, you can have a much better life.
But how you will stay that way is in maintenance, practice, and creating habits that help you to refer back to mindfulness.
Why Mindfulness Works As a Better Way:
Mindfulness bypasses fears.
Because in mindfulness, you let go of fears that are rooted in the future (aka worry), and you stop losing time thinking of sad memories from the past.
Hanging on is ego’s trick. And in design, will keep playing with you until you disengage or can snap out quicker in mindfulness.
In lessons learned, dodging daily ego-mind tricks is like passing a grade and earning a butterfly wing.
And, using daily mindfulness skills is like graduating with both wings intact because then you have the practical mindful way to dodge the ego.
I think it’s sad we learn all these useless things in our school years that 99% of our life will never use, and the daily life-giving skills we need, are never taught! …Or work we don’t enjoy and will never do again as part of our life’s process of moving us along.
Thankfully with mindfulness, you don’t have to revisit any of those places again, or even feel pain.
Because in this moment, you’re fine… you’re breathing… and well, you’re more than fine. You’re growing, and feeling neutral at worst and joyful at best.
That’s something to be happy and satisfied about.
And when you focus on what this moment has to offer, and not the future that hasn’t happened or the past where ego lives, life is pretty darn good.
Numbing pain is the opposite and only delays pain. Time doesn’t heal, but changes can heal over time.
In delaying hurts, the thoughts resurface like described in my example above. And you want them to, so you can change and re-write them, and practice the new script that helps you evolve.
…And maybe can even laugh now at how far you’ve come. That’s a joy worth recording.
…Or maybe you help others who have the same struggles you once did. In mindfulness, your attention changes as you can be present and focused on what others are going through and what they’re saying to you.
That’s what getting on the other side can do.
And finally, your mindfulness breeds productivity since you have freed up headspace from noisy thoughts.
So if that’s something of interest, here’s how to build up your mindfulness skills…
Building Up Your Mindfulness Skill
Imagine stepping out of your body and observing the entering thoughts from an outsider’s perspective. The person you see in the mirror is someone different than what’s coming out of the mind.
And while that can sound complicated (an outer body experience?), awareness produces great results… and dare I add role models too!
Mindfulness is hyper-focus and can be the cure to any A.D.D. labels.
Like most skills, it can be learned with regular practice and habit.
If it’s one you want to build, you can proactively think of a weaker area you want to improve today that you can apply mindfulness to.
By choosing a weaker area, you’ll see a larger difference in your progress vs. marginally improving a skill you already know.
This can be for work or personal areas where unpredictable situations arise weekly. You could write down right now a few practical areas where you can apply this so you don’t forget. Then start practicing mindfulness in that area.
And in making progress, you get to pat yourself on the back and you never know, you could turn your weakness into a new interest.
…and that could be a byproduct game-changer for you this season (in addition to mindfulness mind freedom)!
That’s the high note I wanted to leave you at… and hopefully, this helps you or someone you know (and wasn’t too much like heavy pillow talk 😊). Brain health talk gets my wheels turning.
Next time I’ll bring my energy to a lighter body health diet topic, as it’s hot on many minds.
Mindful thinking can break you out of your stuck shell areas. And taking a mindful break can provide a simple solution to some of your life’s biggest challenges.
Delicious healthy parfait sundae 🍨 recipe below 😋 (and maybe you’ll change your mind from a high calorie sundae).
You can take a break with this banana-Greek yogurt bowl with cherry and berries. It’s not only a happy sweet, but a healthy snack loaded with prebiotic-probiotics.
The sundae puts a sun to my day ☀️ And the healthy to my happy joy.
Can you make a list of ordinary mindful 5-minute micro-moments that bring you happy and healthy joy daily? I’m sure you can!
In the past, I would have dismissed the smaller items on my list below as I only saw the bigger happenings worth noting, but that was missing the point of mindful micro-moments.
Our brains are wired to sometimes focus on what we don’t have which only makes for souring the day. So when I focused on little life joys, I noticed the outcome and outlook of the day changed for the better.
And when you adopt good lessons you’ve learned from your life experiences, focusing on what you DO HAVE, then you too appreciate simple and ordinary day things. And, appreciation for small things makes a big difference.
How?…
For one, you’re less disappointed about expectations that didn’t happen. You get off the life roller coaster you can’t always control, and where you’re relying on your situations to bring happiness.
Secondly, you find internal happiness and peace with yourself. You silence the unhelpful noise and have the opportunity to learn to drown out and replace negative mind chatter.
Then you experience more meaning about what this life can grow into for you that’s different than what you started out thinking it would be.
That can happen by changing and developing more loving attitudes that affect your feelings and moods… and make bigger waves in you, than in the situations you experience.
So on that note, this is a page from my daily inspired healthy, and joyfully mindful minutes:
Daily, I check on my avo-plants that came from delicious avocados.
They’re daily living organisms that don’t need any type of green thumb. They remind me of living more eco-friendly and #earthday every day.
These plants have food names based on the flavor of the Oui glass they started their roots from. That’s too cute (or nerdy), right?
…That was the only way I could keep their starting growth dates straight as I had multiple seeds growing at the same time. “Lemon” was the first one I started in 2020.
The naming exercise helped me keep track of dates as 2020 was an off-year for all of us (but not the avocados). The seeds grew despite the major world happenings.
Plus, it didn’t need any kid-glove attention. So, I grew out of the date recordkeeping stage and just started enjoying their presence.
And that’s a good lesson on how our lives could be: more mindful focusing on the enjoyment of the moment, and less on detailed minutiae facts that won’t matter in years to come or even tomorrow.
Most of our memories fade and what you do on most days, you forget. And that’s why the only time that really matters is now. You appreciate and let the present moment pass through you.
And if you don’t want a memory to fade, you could take photos, or make journal entries and share posts– as great memory reminders.
So, now I’ll remember these plants for years to come. 🥑
…And then sitting next to the indoor plants are a table humidifier that’s another mindful break.
Filling room humidifiers with clean water is another way to appreciate the moment.
When I pour fresh water from a reusable water bottle, I stay mindful that clean water gives our bodies and our planet, LIFE.
Water is a source for regeneration: if we had more water to support healthy soil and plants, then we’d help keep new carbon in the ground.
Moisture from the plants and trees would allow more humidity into our air and help lower our climate temperature. Just like the small room humidifier does, but on a much grander scale.
And since I’m on the sustainability topic and #stopfoodwasteday is tomorrow, consuming and buying organic foods from farms that don’t use harmful pesticides helps our health and the planet. Or better yet, grow your own.
Thankfully we’re starting to take this seriously. And as consumers, we have a say and can live out our part.
Another mindful ritual is taking daily supplements.
Like the yogurt photo above, which has healthy fats (almond butter and nuts), I combine the meal with Vit D and A vitamins so they’re better absorbed. There’s an order that matters.
And I make sure I have filling lunch food in my belly before having a multi-vitamin as a general rule, but mostly just to keep a daily routine reminder (i.e. habit stacking).
Clockwise: Mushroom complex, Vit D-3, Vit C, Cod liver oil/Vit A, Magnesium-Calcium-Zinc, and a multi-vitamin.
Then later I take my magnesium (which has an optimized ratio of calcium and zinc) with my mid-day “red wine.”
…It’s actually a pure cranberry-tart cherry blend, water, or water spritzer blend. But, I had you there for a second in case you were mindfully drifting off! 😉
And, I know there’s so much controversy today about vitamins. For them to work they have to be absorbed by the body or else they become expensive pee.
I see and use them as a backup plan and a supplement to prevention. They don’t hurt in approved low doses, but they can help. So they’re worth time and money.
A good multi-vitamin to take is a prenatal vitamin with extra B-vitamins (we all need a lot of B-vitamins to run properly).
And adaptogens that are the rage these days, like a ‘shroom complex to support wellness, immunity, and to help fight off environmental stressors to our bodies.
So now I’m done describing these quick healthy rituals, and moving on to daily writing…
Writing, of course. …Oh yes, duh, that’s a no-brainer on the list. And there’s nothing quick about writing. It’s not a 5-minute ritual. It’s also a labor of love that takes energy and passion. And why a robot can’t replace me (at least not today). 🤖
Robots also don’t have moods, so they wouldn’t want to sing along with me to music tunes like Sam Smith’s version of “Time After Time,” which is a 5-minute break.
You probably have a different jam or song you hum to.
Finding a personal way to express yourself by singing or in another outlet you enjoy, breaks up the day.
Even if this is spending 5 minutes looking out the window. Those few minutes get remembered more than the hour you spent doing any unrewarding jobs you don’t look forward to.
And maybe you have a deeper side passion you spend more time with like dancing, exercising, yoga, playing an instrument or sport, cooking, drawing, or painting, to name a few ideas. The list of possibilities is endless.
These are all good mindful breaks you can build into your balanced and reshuffled day.
Doing your preferred activity helps you bypass the negative emotions, thoughts, or worries at any moment, and can break you out of any ego-mind drama that definitely doesn’t serve you.
What does serve you is feeling better as one of your daily goals.
I can pull together ingredients for a lazy recipe in 5-minutes and that pulls me away from a lazy Kapha mood.
Baking and coming up with baking ideas is one of my fun weekly leisure activities, plus keeping up with a community that does also. You could probably guess my favorite flavor is healthy bakes. And that leads me to the last mindful activity on my list…
Feeding my sourdough. Are you part of the sourdough cult (I mean culture) that came out in 2020?
I can’t exactly say that I am. And I’m glad that it only takes less than 5 minutes to make a starter from scratch.
I kinda have a love-hate relationship with sourdough (even though I don’t like the word hate for anything).
I love the healthy baked dough that benefits the gut (and have even researched/written in well-known healthy pubs about the health benefits).
The problem is I don’t prefer the sour “gone bad” aroma that lingers in the air. It’s strong and irks the Pitta body out of balance.
Pitta is the fire dosha in us. If you learned about Ayurveda or have read other posts I’ve written about using balance to improve life, then you know that you and I can shift in and out of Vata, Pitta, and/or Kapha imbalances at any time.
But back to the homemade sourdough starter… it’s a healthy reminder of bacteria living among us as a breathing organism that’s omnipresent in the air (and plus our bodies are mostly made of bacteria).
So, the “newish” sourdough bread idea can take a bit of adjustment, especially growing up in an ideal germ-free society.
The sourdough plan is to adjust and make enriched doughs like in a sourdough brioche.
And to continue to make my weekly sourdough on demand and not grow a starter pet in the fridge. No reminders are needed.
It’s celebrational Easter holy week. I’m also happy to announce (my and) this 100th blog post lands this week. Double holy cow! I thought it’d be fun to celebrate by listing 100 best yoga poses 🎉
Easter and 100 blog posts deserve confetti sprinkles 🧁
But before mentioning the 100 yoga poses, I just wanted to wish happy birthday to anyone who already had a birthday celebration this year. I try to find an excuse to send a cake whenever I can 🎂
Even if it’s just an emoji. But sentiment and kidding aside, these days, it’s easy to be reminded with showering confetti “Happy Birthday!” emoji messages that bring us a ‘lil joy.
I think of the ultimate birthday as those who have reached the 100-year-old mark, who I think deserve their own special confetti emoji. That milestone is definitely worth commemorating. You’ve got to admire Centenarians who have endured and thrived through life’s marathon.
Besides seeing and participating in what their friends and families (young and old) are doing, some of the longest-living people have been naturally active and practicing yoga all their lives.
In some cultures, they get up and off the floor (or out of their sitting position) on a daily mat in one fell swoop as they did in younger years. And that’s just another reason for them to get back up and go out and appreciate the day.
Some Centenarians can even still remember facts and figures that younger decade folks can’t. And they can retell stories of their youth like a historical tale.
They breathe purpose daily (…and have breathed about 1.4 million more breaths than a 30-year-old).
And whatever age you’re at, you can too with your purposeful breath and yoga moves.
Here’s a list of 10 yoga articles to inspire your specific moves and journey:
Yoga is amazing because of the benefits for the mind-body connection: where the mind and body “talk” to each other. If we’re lucky and focused we pick up on the cues as a witness to our mind-bodies.
This is an area that traditional Western doctors aren’t necessarily trained on. It originated from Ayurveda, an eastern life science perspective, that’s made its way slowly to the Western world (and I started practicing in 2008 when I became aware).
Over the past decade, we’ve learned that the prevention of chronic diseases and inflammation in the body is connected to better mental health and less stress we carry.
And we can often tell by our anxious, irritated, or lethargic moods.
Sometimes it’s hard to do yoga until we get in a balanced mood, even though we know if we did yoga, we’d get there sooner. We can get in our way.
So, in case you need to overcome that or need a dose of moving or getting going inspiration, I’ve listed 100 best yoga poses that are timeless reminders, challenging, and fun (I think so anyway!).
I included some quick encouraging words for each pose that come to mind. They include thoughts of when to do the pose, reminders, or intentions that could be useful for you as they are for me. Some poses are better done when you have more energy.
And it helps if have a known purpose for doing the pose, to help be motivated. We can all use a good metaphor reminder in our daily lives.
So here we go…
Standing best yoga poses:
1. Sun salutations – reminder: life is constantly changing, and you keep moving. This is a good series of poses to start the day with, like just before you have your first glass of water for the day
2. Warrior I – reminder: feel empowered to take on the day
3. Warrior II – reminder: take up more space
4. Warrior III – reminder: focus on moving forward
5. Sun Warrior – reminder: don’t forget to look up and stay open
6. Dancer pose – reminder: you’ve got this day with your calm and grace, and letting go of the past. Today is a new day 🌱
7. Tree pose – reminder: you’re resilient and unshaken even in uncertain times
38. Staff – do when you want to straighten your back and remind yourself that your back is an important part for your body’s support. (reminder: build strong abs)
Side best yoga poses:
39. Side angle – do when you need a break or stretch
40. Extended side angle – intention: stretch your mind
41. Side crow – do when you feel adventurous; one side is probably easier than the other and that’s your strength
42. Side plank – do when you feel strong
43. Falling Star – tip: like half-moon is great to do against a wall when you’re first starting out so you can lean further. Intention: feel free and creative
Front face down best yoga poses:
44. Cobra – reminder: you’re making progress
45. Sphinx – reminder: you can do anything you want
46. Upward Dog – reminder: you’re almost there!
47. Turtle – reminder: stay steady on the course
48. Bow – reminder: your hands, head, and feet are all closely connected
Lay down poses (starting with back flat on the mat):
49. Bridge – tip: use a block on the small of your back and feel grounded
50. Fish – reminder: relax and let go of heavy problems
51. Lay down spinal twist to one side – when you do this on each side, you see a different part of the room or space you’re in and is a good reminder that you have different options from different perspectives
53. Knees to chest (knee hug) – reminder: of self-love
54. Half locust with one leg slightly lifted: reminder -it can feel strange but still be helpful
55. Through the hole stretch – do when you feel tight like from driving or sitting, or when you feel uptight
56. Spider laying down – intention: holding onto your purpose but letting go of how you’ll get there
On all 4’s:
57. Inverted plane – reminder: great for bringing your shoulders back in mindfulness
58. Downward dog – intention: feel the day in earthly roots
59. Downward dog with one leg lifted – intention: enjoy the day by doing something new
60. Cat – do when you’re feeling fearless
61. Cow – good for feeling balanced
62. Balanced cat reaching out one arm and opposite leg
Back challenge: you can arch backward relying on all 4s
63. Backward Bend – do when you’re feeling energetic and youthful
64. Wheel – and you go higher to see and feel new possibilities
Front challenge: you may never do a full handstand, but you can get both feet off the ground
65. Crow – intention: strength (you’re stronger than you think)
66. Crane – and you can stretch higher
67. Peacock – reminder: you can get over the limitations you have
68. Firefly – reminder: you can do something different to light up the world. You may feel like a kid again doing this one (one of my fave poses and I have happy memories of catching fireflies )
Inversion best yoga poses:
69. Shoulder stand – do when you’re feeling moderately energized
70. Half shoulder stand – do when you want to feel energized
71. Plow – reminder: encouragement that you can take two steps back and come out ahead
72. Legs up the wall – intention: feel supported by the environment around you
Resting best yoga poses:
73. Child’s Pose – reminder: you don’t have to be doing something every minute of the day. It’s not how busy you are (something I had to unlearn)
74. Hare – intention: purposefully resting
Other inspirational best yoga poses:
75. Inclined plane – when you’re feeling like you want to get off the ground or you’re excited to start a new project
76. Plank – intention: building daily strength for any trials or difficulties you’re going through
77. Camel – reminder: let go
78. Dolphin – reminder: we’re born with natural abilities
79. Splits – intention: flexibly grow daily and watch progress
80. Happy Baby – do when you want to feel safe and carefree
81. Swan – reminder: have daily grace for those areas you can’t change
82. Hero – reminder: we can all be a hero in our ways in our lives serving and doing what we do
83. Neck rolls – intention: calming and releasing mind tension
84. Neck side to side – intention: take a moment to relax
85. Shoulder shrug – intention: be less stressed (letting the weight fall off your shoulders)
86. Frog – intention: feel youthful and free to spread out
87. Garland – reminder: take a break; good for when you’re feeling unsure or in between energetic and tired
88. Locust – reminder: try something different or take on a new project
89. Wild Thing – intention: let go of worries and enjoy more
90. Goddess – intention: feel ready for the world
91. Swan dive – intention: go with the flow
92. Cactus arms – reminder: take time off
93. Airplane – intention: feel free and in control at the same time
94. Spider with feet and hands on floor – reminder: you’re a beautifully unique creature
And then these sounds and breathing pair well with yoga poses and intentions:
95. Om – making the sound clears nasal passages along with mind and body. Try a variation by using your mouth to create an ah-oh-mmm sound sequence. Intention: peace and living stress-free
In yoga, breathwork is super important and great for calming. If you get heart palpitations from anxiety, these are good breath exercises to refer to and do.
For all of us, staying mindful of breath gets us in a good reminder habit to be healthy-minded. And when you get a good breath of air you can send that energy through your mind and body, to help improve both mental and physical health.
Your nose acts as a natural filtration system. If you regularly breathe through your mouth when you sleep or if you have nasal congestion and obstructed nasal passages, you may want to look for solutions to help you breathe out of your nose regularly.
And these are the special breath exercises you can do with yoga:
96. Sounding breath – this includes long and slow breaths while laying down, so is good to do when you’re getting in and out of bed. Reminder: you’re alive and able to take purposeful breaths
97. Breath of fire – while sitting, exhale out short and quick breaths from your nose (like a fire-breathing dragon that doesn’t exist) until all your air from your diaphragm feels expelled. And then fill back up gradually like a balloon. Daily reminder: you’re a miracle with automatic breaths. You can control your breathing using your respiratory muscle, your diaphragm, that sits just below your two life-giving organs: your heart and lungs
98. Bellows breath – do this one when you’re in standing mountain pose with hands at heart center (optional). Full inhale/exhale from the mouth. This is a good one to do in the morning when you’re first waking up
99. Sufi Mother’s Breath – this is a simpler version than the Pranayama 4-7-8 version. Exhale through your nose, then inhale through your nose for a count of 7, and then exhale again for a count of 7. This is great and simple to do on a walk where you’re staying present and observing your surroundings
100. Alternate Nostril Breath – take one hand and rest a middle finger on the forehead, thumb from the same hand rests on the closest nostril temporarily closing the airway, light ring, and baby finger on the opposite nostril. Then, inhaling through the open nostril. Intention: notice details about how each side feels as the air circulates more intently to one side of the body from your head to your feet. Reminder: how the air affects our body at and in this moment and how we affect others and the community around us with our breath
So there you go… those are my best yoga intentions and recommendations.
And one last thing that I wanted to mention…
Each week I bake and participate in an inspiring home baking challenge with a community of enthusiastic bakers.
And some could probably go on The Great British Baking Show.
As for me, Iwon’t be applying to be a contestant anytime soon, even though I’m pretty sure I’m one of their biggest fans in my area. 😊
But since watching the show, I’ve learned a thing or two.
Like this last season with German Week…
I’ve learned a sweet bun or two from The Great British Bakeoff show 🧡
And so, this week’s challenge is Hot Cross Buns, an egg-cellent choice for Easter. 🐇
I’ve never made the buns before, but I did make cinnamon buns for the first time this year. No matter how these hot buns turn out I’ll show you a photo in an upcoming blog post.
…And since I’m putting myself out there, maybe that’ll encourage you to stretch your mind-body and challenge yourself to a new yoga pose or two if baking isn’t your thing.
And if you need a ‘lil more gentle nudge, just send me a note (on the blog home page under “Contact”) letting me know what muscle pain or soreness or intentions you want to work on, and I’ll send back 5 yoga poses that would be good for you this season to bring back some fun. 🧘🏻♀️
Mindfulness is awareness. And it’s on the path to your happiness.
Have you ever had a bad dream that set you off for the day?
That’s how I felt early on over the weekend. Despite the dream,I ended the day well in mindfulness with a sweet 2021 Netflix movie,Long Story Short (have you seen it?).
The witty romantic comedy movie has good meaning about appreciating your life and those around you, just in case you’re looking for an uplifting movie. 🎬
But back to where I was…
Before I got to the pillow that same night, most of the day I felt irritated.
The ego in my mind was trying to get the better of me and steal my happiness.
You may know, the unhealthy ego wants to take over you and spin lies in your head (and it tries to make you believe in your mind that anyone who believes that is full of nonsense, in case you’re not aware of your ego just yet).
You can look at a behaving ego as a separate channel that you frequent when you need a healthy dose of self-esteem or a boost of productive motivation.
But most of the time you want to stay clear and reject fiery-ignited ego thoughts running in your background, as its destructive power can get you in a hot mess at its worse.
Like it can be a wildcard as it showed up at this year’s live Oscars where anything can happen.
Or it can leave a bad mood when it’s mild (like I had). And it can show up as an Imposter, and make you think (and made me think): “I’m not enough.”
It will lead you and your life for as long as you’re still under its spell.
I share because I think it helps to know.
And it happens if you’re not carefully aware and just letting thoughts run their course. The way a lot of innocently unaware people operate. And that’s how I used to operate.
But now knowing better, I still had this mood that tried to damage my self-esteem and derail me from being productive.
The robbing ego thoughts just kept at it… so I didn’t write for a day at all as I thought it would be disingenuous writing in this feeling “not enough” Imposter-minded state. And even though I’ve contributed to hundreds of articles and publications, some on Apple news feed with millions of monthly views.
…So what did I do instead? I turned the news on and was humbled in empathy by the sad world news happenings going on.
That lasted a few hours and then the ego gremlins came back, and again I was wrestling with a sour mood.
Par for ego’s course, it even tried to block my taking steps to reach for the healthy restoring Ayurvedic lifestyle things I know to do. Like the ones that work to stop the body from further irritation and moods.
Ego keeps you from taking productive action and even wanting to pray. It detests the idea of mindfulness because then it dies.
And it skips over words and activities that would help you. It wants to keep you down.
This sounds severe, but the reality is this is how a lot of people are these days in brain fog and not knowing what to do (if anything).
It’s hard to snap out of moods immediately, even with an evolved mind like I believe I have now. Plus, it was a sunny day outside. 😊
Specifically, I was hit with that lazy thinking-feeling. You know that mood when you don’t want to do something. But you know if you do, you’ll come out better.
So then I took another step. I could only sit on the couch for so long. I broke out of following my ego-driven thoughts into managed thoughts and read a few paragraphs from A New Earth, a self-help ego book.
That book only makes sense to me now. But years ago it didn’t when I was still processing Eckart Tolle’s earlier book: The Power of Now. A great read by the way.
I align those book lessons to Scripture verses like “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
See, years ago I learned that ego conveniently stands forEdging God Out, but back then hadn’t connected the dots fully.
Those days, seeing out from the lens of ego, I showed up in pride typical of the area I lived in and did not see any regretful situations I was part of or needed to find forgiveness for. Even if they were just hurting me mostly.
Ego talk didn’t resonate with me back then because I was being played by my ego (and most people are with their ego in some way in their lives).
But not today for me. And not this recent time, where I wised up in mindfulness. That came from experience and wisdom even when I didn’t feel it just yet.
Sometimes it can take a day to take effect even when you’re conscious. But, a weekend was longer than I was willing to wait– not wanting to lose a day. 🌈
How To Get Ego Aware In Your Life (From Mindfulness)
Harmful ego shows up invisibly and doesn’t want you to know that your life could be so much better and those around you if the negative filter spin or misperceptions of reality was lifted. It loves being critical and skeptical.
It preys on the weak and vulnerable moments like when you’re too busy, had some kind of trigger, or have a bad dream as I had. The smallest things can set it off.
It’s not a person’s fault. It’s a fault in humans when it has gone bad.
Just remember, ego works its way in at any time, in any thought situation, and in anyone who has a mind.
And I think is the most powerful or dangerous weapon on the planet. That’s billions of us walking around with this running machinery.
Calling it out in the present moment awareness slows the motor. And eventually pulls the plug until it shows up again.
Awareness is the first line of defense.
And it’s in your ability and control to manage.
Finding a simple distraction can be a good way. Taking a walk or shower…
Or meal prepping as a mindfulness break can swing the pendulum back to productive or loving-thought moods. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
And if you believe the next day will be better, it will.
My Next Day…
That’s what happened to me the next day. I wrote in flow. It’s this same flow where the unhealthy ego leaves and creativity emerges. You’ve probably heard of this flow-business or experienced it before in your mindfulness passions or activities…
For me, that’s an hour of writing for what could’ve taken me all day or at least hours.
After the wordsflow through, it’s pretty much forgotten. That’s part of staying in mindfulness.
And if you’re ever considering writing a book…
That’s also one of the common reasons why it takes so long to publish (…and anyone who has, knows this).
The mind has already moved on to another new topic.
And it took me a year to read over my own work many times agreeing authentically again to the meaning of my flowed through written words, before publishing.
That’s my jam, but if writing isn’t yours, you have other usable, maybe even more fun skills, abilities, and talents. And you can use them productively today living your best for today.
And tomorrow you canquestion if there is something more important you could be doing in this life. Because in constant mindfulness, and wanting to not waste time, you’re going to live a better life.
Oh, and one final thought on this…
Chef Jose Andres came from being a comfortable foodie restaurant chef and evolved into a humanitarian World Central Kitchen founder.
He’s an example of using a healthy ego for good purposes.
And our healthy ego and pride can do that to motivate us to take the next steps and make good contributions through us in our daily lives.
For all of us, it’s where life leads each of us. And once in a while, reflecting back and being reminded of coincidences and memories to feed the healthy ego. Like I once worked as a marketing manager for a similar Spanish tapas restaurant a few blocks away from Chef Jose’s restaurants (those were the good food days 😋).
And ultimately, it’s not what we do but how we do it and who we become. Life’s a marathon, so don’t worry if you haven’t figured it (or most things) out. Choose to have a healthy mind and believe for good things to work out, and they will.
If you think this blog post was helpful, please share or grab the link and text it to someone else that would find it useful.
