Physical Health and Body Archives - Page 2 of 24

The Great British Baking Show Happy Days

The Great British Baking Show season means baking time, so that’s what this light-hearted foodie is sharing about today to lean into the happy! 😋

…And as a show fan, I get giddy like a school girl. I’ve even got my hair put up in a high up side ponytail like a teen to match my feelings. 🤸🏻

Oh, but don’t worry… this will probably be my only giddy post on the show if you’re not a fan (yet). I’ll be back on the healthy earth channel 🌱 next week… so stay tuned. 📺

…And tuning this week into The GBBS also known as the Great British Bake Off show 🇬🇧 is the alarm for me (and us home bakers) that it’s time to fall B-E-ake!

But before we bake, can you guess what this is?

It’s NOT butter. And it’s not fondant even though it makes a good food illusion 💭… but neither are good to eat on its own so that rules those out.

…Well, hang on to your hat (for that finished thought), and keep reading as it will make more sense when I spill the butt-ah…

Btw… in the States, we like our good sense, scents, and cents, as we’re multi-faceted and have many preferences to show.

We’re similar to our neighbors across the pond where we have adopted some nifty baking ways. Isn’t that right, Rahul? 😊… and we love that! 🇺🇸

I also love that we get to idea mingle with our UK friends that unite the kingdoms through our grams (Instagram and convertable baking gram measurements). 🇬🇧

…and isn’t it about worldly T-I-M-E!?

Cheers! 🎉 (as in thank you in Brit-English and cheers 🥂).

Oh, and did I mention we’re getting mini-Brit speaking lessons from the show’s entertainment side? 🐿️

One lesson note-to-self: I’ll now know to bring more pants than trousers and trackies to the U.K. next time. 😉

But all-in-all, we have a lot and even more in common… both countries speaking some English-variety. We’re also closest in time zones when you consider the other Old World countries.

…And GBBO o‘clock 🕰️ helps us bridge the ocean divide. 🥧

But I will add… it’s a little weird seeing the show baked creations before the episode airs on Netflix.

…Ah, but a few seasons in… like most watchers from the States, I’ve gotten used to the spilled (butt-ah 🧈) beans. 🫘

Plus I grew up in the simpler dialup era so no complaints (not my style).

Which btw, I think I saw one of those ☎️ this week and a green sewing machine that brought me back to my youth where we had one of those in the house.

…Plus I learned a new mini checkerboard technique a.k.a Battenbergs that I heard about from the show. 🏁

And that’s what I was baking up this week in my no-pressure tent? 🎪 Well.. sorta, but not exactly!

…I get excited about sugar talk that goes straight to my head 💭… I forget for a brief moment that I’m a low-sugar baker in the comforts of my kitchen.

So swept back to reality, a MINI Battenberg marzipan dessert is fitting. Because a mini one has very little sugar.

…And this one is reaallly small! …Good for maybe a big Barbie food table.

But too small to bake a cake in unless you’re Barbie baking for Ken and then it’s never too small. 💖

But for the rest o us, an all easy marzipan sweet bite can be made in minutes. It’s like playing with Play-dough.

…So that’s what I turned my butter illusion into. And making a fancy pattern marzipan is still less time than baking.

But I couldn’t leave my oven cold.

Because butter talk inspires baking.

…So I made a healthy delicious bake, but instead of butter (or butt-ah) I used an ingredient you may or may not have heard of… MCT oil.

It sounds like a pharmacy prescribed oil, but it’s OTC… and healthy! Now we’re back on track. 🌱

The healthy fat food supports weight loss, helping the body make ketones for energy that then gives us more energy.

It’s a form of coconut oil that most or all of us know. 🥥

And so I thought only fitting to make a healthy chocolate donut.🍩

That was made coconut tasty with organic unsweetened coconut chips that also make delicious snacks on their own!

Healthy coconut flour was used to lean into the tastes of chococonut (say that 10 times). The gluten-free flour makes a denser no-rise bake that’s great for pancakes or ONE donut here…

…that’s btw how us baking peeps fit into our fave jeans so we can better thrive in our mind-bodies 😊 where we’re all slightly different tuned that’s good to celebrate in our turning world.

Speaking of jeans👖…my baking genes wouldn’t fit in The Great British Baking Show fiery baking tent. 🎪

The show competitors got that competitive gene.🙌👏🏽

…And it looks like all of them this season were very blessed.

For the rest of us, we’re watching The Great British Baking Show and doing our stress-free baking. And on that note, you can enjoy with a best melted chocolate dessert.

Healthy Chocolate Coconut Donut (Gluten-Free)

This recipe uses chocolate and coconut chips as the sweet, and healthy coconut oil fat that used in moderation is a good sub for a delicious, weight-conscious donut.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Ingredients

1 cup coconut flour
2 tsp coconut oil for donut
1 tsp coffee (optional)
1 egg
milk (start with 1 tbsp)
unsweetened coconut chips (enough to cover top)
baking chocolate chip
coconut oil, a few drops for melting chocolate

Instructions

Gently mix the 4 donut cake ingredients by hand. Use enough milk to get the consistency closest to a cake batter (not too liquid and not too dense). Grease your pan with coconut oil and pour batter into the pan. Bake until top looks baked and a toothpick comes out clean.
Make the chocolate glaze: melt chocolate chips in a few drops of coconut oil using a bain marie (double boiler) setup. You don't need steaming hot water for melting chocolate. I used an inexpensive self-heating water kettle. I added a small ceramic cup and put inside a ceramic bowl. I poured the hot-warm water into the bowl about half way and the chocolate melts in a minute or two.
Zhugh with organic coconut chips that is recommended for a more pure coconut taste plus a crunch with kernel intact (compared to shredded coconut).
With coconut oil, this dessert will stay good at room temperature for 2 days (the day it's baked and the day after). For longer lasting, keep completely covered in the refrigerator so it doesn't dry out.

This site is all about happy and healthy living and eating ways and inspiration. If this is your first time here, I encourage you to find out more about me and this healthy lifestyle blog.

Frog Pose Life Metaphors In Wet or Dry Transitions

Frog pose is an inspired pool yoga pose, and maybe one you’re inspired to do because it’s hot outside… or reminded about an aqua blue Olympic size pool… or pool blue and frog green strokes…

Blue and green painting strokes are meaning and metaphors for life. — Strokes on a painting

Where the frog stroke is one you can do in the cool pool water without exerting much energy (unlike the crawl or breast strokes). 🏊🏻‍♀️

But in frog pose strokes you are getting exercise like in water polo that look effortless on the water surface, but OH MY! is a workout.

…I remember when I was younger, I was invited to play water polo for fun and was wondering why the net wasn’t on the shallow end.

Then I quickly learned that half the sport is done under the water, keeping the body afloat while trying to score points… it’s not a leisure sport.🏐

You need your team athletic mojo and active frog legs.

And if you want to keep it easy on yourself and score yoga points today… you can do the active solo frog pose on dry land on your mat.

It’s one you could have discovered in a Hatha yoga class along with the classic frog yoga pose where your legs and arms are laying on the mat in traditional frog layout.

It’s also one pose that resembles the name and you won’t mistaken for another identity. 🐸

We all know what a frog looks like.

As amphibians, like us primates, frogs have a backbone.

Amphibians in human form would look more like Spider Man ♥️💙climbing up a building. 🕸️

But frogs have been around way longer than modern super heroes.

They were named creatures that plagued our nations back in Biblical times.

And as part of our sustainable environment, frogs help to clean up our food chain. Frogs eat pesky insects so we can stay anti-annoyed, helping us keep our Pitta cool and calm. 😌

And in gratitude, doing a yoga frog pose helps you get a good stretch up your mid-back.

Most of us can use a good daily reminder to take care of our backs that will long-term take care of us.

You’ll know if you need a dose more of healthy back stretching if you feel tension in the pose.

You can easily start off in a Downward Dog or a Dolphin pose.

Then lift arms or keep arms lifted off the floor, so that palms are flat on the floor. Check your fingers. Usually one or a few are not flat unbeknownst to you. 😉

…Sometimes we don’t know what our body parts (like our right or left hand) are doing, but when we use our eyes 👀 they’re off doing their own thing.

🌟 That’s a metaphor for aligning ourselves in our mind and body that are part of us.

Next bend your knees slightly and let the soles of your feet lift off the mat so only the toes and palms of hands are on the mat.

Your knees are bent and can be as high as somewhere between your palm and elbow height, to whatever feels good to you… because yoga is about feeling good in the stretch!

When you’re in that proper swimming frog pose form, move your bent knees in toward each other and then swim or move them out away from each other (without lifting your planted palms and toes off the mat). Do that a few times.

That’s active or swimming frog pose.

You can do this anywhere without getting wet… or breaking a sweat!

🌟Transitioning from wet to dry is a metaphor for changing seasons of life. And specifically, your leap changing seasons.

We go from summer to fall, even if the weather hasn’t changed, so we can feel off because of our internal Ayurvedic balance signals… where our bodies are feeling one way and our minds are in another place.

But often we roll with the punches and move along, adjusting as needed. Sometimes that’s what we need for our healthy growth and sometimes that can drain us and cause stress.

Most of us know what it’s like to go from relaxing seasons where nothing is happening… to EVERYTHING is happening all at once, like starting a new dynamic job or going full-throttle back to school. 🤹

…Once it starts, it’s a whirlwind until the end of the season.

The art of living in balance as I know it, is going in and out of these two opposing seasons with ease and peace.

…I remember the days in my over 2-decade long corporate work when I wished that I could take summer holiday vacation time off, and when event planning was counting down the days until the winter holiday event season ended. You may have a similar grind.

And when those work seasons ended, I got all my time back. It was all or nothing with no balance in between.

Work life balance was what you made it… and 40 hours a week was the best there was in that world. But your head was still spinning full of the busy go-go-go work theme, even on the night and weekends with an emphasis on work busy.

While in those corporate work seasons, I couldn’t see that start-and-stop seasons were good and helpful.

I was looking for a type of work-life-balance that didn’t exist. 🤔

But over time and wisdom gained, I could see that Life was actually doing me a favor…

Work heavy one season and life focus in another season IS Life balance.

When looking back, there’s a blend of both that’s all the past…

Both slow and fast paced seasons are useful and where growth is.

In the slow season, you can get clear headspace, catch your breath, and catch up on needed sleep. 💤

You recharge and reflect back to find what breakthroughs you’ve made on your journey and experiences.

And slow seasons are where you discover what growth you’ve made, lessons learned, and want to keep growing and pivoting.

And the hard charging, fast seasons with busy schedules is where you’re productive, gaining skills, and experiences that’ll be useful for the next leg of your future journey or next transitions.

💡Transitions are simply next steps… and nothing more or less.

Looking back.. I still remember picking out a first-day-of-school outfit. Funny because no one remembers what you wore and even the outfit you wore on school photo day that’s captured on camera.

…None of that ends up mattering as you get further away in time, even though at that time it feels like the most important thing in the world (in mindfulness).

And for my breakthrough, it was these accumulated small nostalgic memories and feelings that served as metaphors for this day and moment as fleeting… here today, gone tomorrow.

So don’t worry about what happens so much… and try not to worry at all (as worry is a time suck, and it sucks as a past time, yes?)❗️

Replace worry with trusting the future using your past as proof that all things do pass. And replace worry for bold living.

You can wisely pause and ask yourself: what did I do boldly today? Remember that old adage: life is not a dress rehearsal.

Life is about today, so no need to be crushed if your plans don’t work out because they will be the past soon enough.

You’ll transition into the next step that turns into your better step.

I know this in my life because most (…and maybe 99%) of my half-baked plans never panned out the way I thought or hoped.

…And I’m thankful for that.

🧡…Because that taught me that the hidden gem is in the process of what you’re doing and who you’re growing into that’ll create your life of meaning and purpose.

Meaning and purpose is the dream that’s not easy to describe or manifest quickly, but are the highest worth pursuits… and you’ll know inside when you’re on the right track.

Because you’ll feel good inside for starters.

And that’s all that’s needed to keep you balanced and growing… and that’s how life is healthy productive, happy, and meaningful.

It’s usually not the life you thought you wanted in your 30s, because everything changes and wanes in excitement, and the biggest change is: you change.

So frog leap forward in your day and life (with frog pose as a metaphor)

Make your today transition steps about:

…making myself better than yesterday

…improving older habits

…keeping healthy patterns even with schedule changes

…loving myself

…finding joy

…making new healthy supportive friends

…And staying true to what I know I can do and be. And trusting what I’m doing, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it (among the endless number of other options I could be doing).

Maybe that’s where you are.

And if so, while you’re there, keep going and growing with where you’re at.

In my daily wheelhouse where I’m at, an anti-inflammatory healthy food list is a helpful must and maybe for you too in your busy growing season. 😎

Start Over Helps You (and My Blog Story)

Start over is a theme that many of us have experienced and maybe a lot since 2020. Whether we wanted to or not, it can be our ticket to our best lives… and that’s what this article is about so you can embrace your start over opportunities.

One thing we can all have a say in is… evolving in our personal growth and what matters to us.

Embracing what healthy gains we’ve made brings rewards for our daily lives.

And embracing starting over as a new way or perspective is a blessing gain…

It’s a micro mindset pattern shift you can practice in your day (maybe even today), so you can see and feel how start overs are good, and not bad or sad interruptions.

That self-training helps our future and best outcomes.

Because changes in life are meant to help you and if you see it that way, you help yourself grow and further.

For most my younger adult life I played the victim without knowing I had that internal narrative.

I also thought that choices I made would be permanent. I was naive.

And when good situations didn’t last, I was disappointed.

I saw them as failures.

And I fell for that over and over again.

If you didn’t have role models and influences growing up that drilled into you the more positive ways and helped shape your self-esteem, then that’s the pattern you’re likely to fall into.

And the saving grace is we have the Universe on our side as fall back and providing answers to us.

We may call it luck, but it’s part of the plan. 😉

You’ve probably heard the saying that the Universe keeps serving up the same lessons. The lessons are there to help us and not make us feel less than..

…I didn’t know that in my younger years.

And as years went by, I grew up in wisdom and got revelation, leaning more into internal truth.

Truth and reality aren’t the exact same thing.

Reality is what physically is happening or not happening. Truth are the thoughts that are real and factual. And lies are the opposite in false beliefs. Ego perception makes you believe they are real, when they are not.

And in that case, then anyone can be a victim to their own ego.

Recognizing this, my life realities started to better align with truth, where I also realized nothing stays the same.

I told my ego the truth, that it wasn’t just what I experienced.

Because everyone has their versions of uncertainty.

In my belief lies I had bought into, I was the only common denominator for the situations I faced.

So that made me the victim. But I turned that narrative around one situation at a time.

Rewriting my beliefs with love over ego, starting with experience outcomes (reality) showed me the deficit in my faulty thinking that my mind led me to believe.

And took me from victim to abundant mentality.

It was micro-start overs from little lie beliefs that got me over the hump.

Being abundant minded, changes the identity to someone who takes responsibility for changing her thoughts to positive, loving ones for better outcomes and perspectives.

Perspectives transform your life when no influences can.

And if a perspective change is what you think you need, this helped me:

This one exercise helped to changing the tide…

Let’s take something most of us have privilege to do every day: we take a shower.

And imagine if one day you do your regular shower routine but you don’t get most the soap off your body or shampoo out of your hair. Maybe you were distracted and busy with shower thoughts.

After you’ve dried off and gotten dressed for the day, you realize that small miss.

What are your options?

Live with the fact and try to forget about the remaining residue.

Or…

Take a few extra effort minutes to go back in the shower again and rinse off knowing that you’d have to dry with a towel again and essentially re-trace all the steps you would do when you got in the shower the first time. It’s a small hassle in a busy day.

And while most would probably just live with it and get on with their day…

If you have the extra few minutes, you’re better off to get back in the shower.

Why?

…So you can get your best day.

If you don’t do a redo, then you keep the residue theme running in your day as part of your thoughts and maybe a physical reminder.

If you do rinse off again, you start clean and fresh.

So those extra 5-10 minutes back tracking was worth the time.

Initially our lazy bone tendencies can kick in and resist.

But fight the urge and jump to the though part of what you’ll gain in those critical decision moments.

Change the thoughts in your mind to productive ones, such as: you’ll be happier later on.

Picture yourself happier.

Try this taking extra minutes with another daily self-care or micro routine you do that didn’t work out the first time… maybe cleaning, shower, or grooming routine.

Take an extra 5 minutes.

For the narcissist, you don’t have to tell them twice, but for the rest of us — those are good minutes.

The micro change in our new habit and patterns creates new perspectives.

Eventually you don’t mind a redo or start over whether it’s a shower or a season. You teach yourself not to succumb to immediate feelings and wants for better outcomes.

Embrace the lesson here is: don’t skip what will bring more joy and a clear mind as the biggest gain rewards.

And on a grander scale in your life, start over with what you first started with that has never left you. That you still think about today.

Those can be part of your dreams come true realities.

Another wisdom lesson is: forget time. Time never heals. As you grow wiser, you realize changes and experiences heal.

We can’t gain time. And the feeling of lost time can keep you stuck if you let it.

Like take me for example, I started a blog in 2009 that took off.

And a few months in I had to quit.

The blog was about my local area businesses I was living near and I ended up moving that year.

So the blog no longer made sense to me as I couldn’t be in that area, and it was hard to juggle writing with the busy work life I had in the hustle and bustle of DC.

Then in 2019, I started over where I picked up writing again.

And then started this blog in 2020.

Starting over in blogging again was so different the second time around.

I had some blogging skill experience under my belt but the landscape had changed.

In 2009, very few out there knew what a blog was.

And when I came back a decade later, the internet scape was full of blogs.

But that didn’t stop me as blogging is something I have felt passionate about since I got my first taste.

Despite the challenges, I still feel as passionate if not more, so I know it’s meant to be.

In your start over or start overs, if you come back, that’s a good sign too! Because most things in life we don’t go back to unless it’s meant for us.

…Maybe the first time we weren’t ready, the timing wasn’t right, or we needed to make a little tweak (or perspective adjustment in ourselves).

It was all of the above for my blog.

My blog topic this second go round is so much more personal and about helping my reader’s personal growth, happy life, and healthy living.

In my first blog experience where I got the chance to interview business owners, I wouldn’t have been ready yet to write on personal topics.

But with another decade, personal growth, and more life experiences, then I was able to launch and sustainably contribute writing in this blog.

So my encouragement to you, my blog article reader, is to use your start overs as your opportunity to take steps in the areas you couldn’t do the first time around when you weren’t quite ready.

The first time wasn’t a failure.

That was your introduction.

Going back is a high call.

We can miss our higher calling if we choose to look at time and deadlines as rules.

If we allow for our entire life to be the time span we accomplish our goals, then we open up opportunities.

How you finish is what matters most, not how you started.

So it’s never too late no matter if you’re in your 30s, 40s, or 60s and beyond.

And in the shower metaphor… by the end of your day, you won’t have remembered the time getting back in the shower, but you will remember feeling like a million bucks coming out and what you achieved that day because of your feelings… and that maybe you wouldn’t have if you let soapy thoughts last.

Just something to consider about your start over that every day and morning opportunity is. 🌅

I like to reset every day with new food creations. I was inspired to start over with this sweet potato squid turmeric salad bowl of anti-inflammatory food goodness. 🍠

Fish and Chips Cod Recipe – Healthy Baked with Waffle Chips

Fish and Chips with Cod is a recipe to share because it’s easy, filling for a family, and made healthy light when baked… that’s a tasty way to make food count and enjoy the calories.

This one is accompanied with healthy waffle chips with a salty and tangy sour dip that has balanced tasty notes (…what’s not to love?). The recipe is below. 🧡

healthy baked and fish and chips recipe with healthy sauce dip. — Baked fish and chips cod recipe below. 🧡

Jump to Recipe

…But first, I wanted to share my inspiration. Making fish and chips takes me back to travel and one special place memory of my time in U.K. 🇬🇧 hoppin’ in and out of London Cabs after dramatically being re-routed from visiting the Mediterranean south.

I didn’t mind as I had worked in food party planning for Mediterranean (Lebanese, Spanish, and Italian) restaurants for years, so that felt a little like home.

And, re-route is part of adventure.

Oh and travel is always an adventure… and GOOD times…

…even if it’s serious business getting history (Stone Henge) downloads.

…And then getting my bearings back up to food familiarities like with these small BUT mighty food bites at Covent Garden near Westminster where I stayed…

…and scallops. I see a smile on this plate. 😋

…Even as big as London is, somehow I found the comfort food. What a memory! 💕

And one memory dish that U.K. is famous for and you don’t have to look long and hard for there is Fish and Chips.🐟 … it’s as common as U.S. served crab cakes, corn on the cob, and potato chips.

That’s a mouthful of “c’s” to say.

Saying Fish and Chips is much easier…

The common U.K. fishes sourced for the dish are salmon, cod, and haddock.

The healthiest fish are wild fish anywhere you source because the fish eat what they would in the wild… makes sense.

And cod is the best choice.

Why cod?

It’s easy to source and that means affordable groceries .

Most U.K. fish come from the shared seas in the North Atlantic and Norway I learned working with chefs and travel.

Fresh salmon like this in Bergen fish market could be used for a baked fish and chips recipe. — Fresh salmon at the Bergen, Norway fish market.

My last fishy travel tale was in the Bergen, Norway fish market as I’m going down memory lane 🐟

…And in the U.S., we have our own fish markets. it’s common we source wild fish from the Northwest Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

But anywhere you are and anytime of the year, you can make your light (aka healthy) baked Fish and Chips.

And this lighter version pairs great for Wimbledon time 🎾

If you’re a fan, as you’re maybe catching points you can decide how you want to serve up your taters. An unsexy 5 lb bag of potatoes makes up points by being long lasting in your fridge and versatile for any spud dish…

And this healthy baked fish is served with waffle potato fries that doesn’t compromise taste or health… and is so simple to make.

Potato waffle fries are made with a little extra virgin oil love that’s healthy. You can use a waffle iron if you have one or you use a skillet and make potato hash or flat pancake potato shapes.

And if potatoes are not on your menu choice and you want a different style with the same basic ingredients in baked fish and chips, alternatively you can cook your fish with boiled potatoes.

This fish and potato dish is inspired from my hotel catering days as a food service professional. It has a French bistro vibe with capers and lemon sauce.

Baked fish and chips without chips can be made with a lemon and caper sauce.

But if you just want to stick with the traditional fish and chips fare made healthy, enjoy this one recipe with no guilt.

…Even the “tartar sauce” is a healthy cottage cheese dip with fermented probiotic goodness mixed in.

A tartar without mayonnaise works well with this healthy baked fish and chips cod recipe!

Healthy Baked Fish and Waffle Chips

Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets

Equipment

waffle iron

Ingredients

white fish such as cod, whiting, or flounder
Panko bread crumbs
white or all-purpose potatoes
cottage cheese
pickles or gherkins

Instructions

Brush fish with olive oil to keep from drying. Add to oven at 325℉/165°C until fully baked.
For bread crumb topping, toast panko crumbs in a separate pan from fish. Set bread crumbs on the top oven shelf so they don't burn. They will toast brown in about 5 minutes or less on the top shelf.
Cook/soften your potatoes until they are mashable. Scoop out small balls about the same size and flatten. You can make the "chips" in a waffle iron or on a sautee pan with olive oil.
For the tartar sauce, mince the pickles and add to a blender with cottage cheese. Add a tiny bit of pickle juice for stronger flavor. You can do this in a Magic Bullet or similar easy blender.

Dolphin Pose Yoga + Water Animal Flexibility

Dolphin pose yoga is a common pose like Downward Dog. Both animals are enticing to pet and add joy to our celebration of life.

Dolphin pose yoga is named after a cute dolphin like this guy.

But if you can’t get your hands on petting a dolphin, today is National Strawberry Parfait Day.

You can celebrate a simple moment of joy with a summertime strawberry lemon parfait you can make that’s healthy and 100% delicious!

…You can also get in your Dolphin pose right where you are! 🐬

For inspiration, dolphins are one of the friendliest animals to us out there… and we think of them as our happy, summer ocean friends we can pet.

…Next to our dog land friends. And maybe that’s why the yoga Dolphin pose is similar to Downward Dog… and both poses are done on dry land.

In Dolphin pose yoga moves, instead of your arms fully stretched out, your elbows bend while your forearms and palms are laying flat like pancakes on the mat.

Because of this, your nose in awareness is also a lot closer to the mat.

…Like dolphin beaks called rostroms that are in placement where noses usually are on mammals.

This gives dolphins their appearance that they’re smiling and then when they show their pearly whites, we smile… and maybe that’s partially how they charmed their way to Hollywood as celebrities in Dolphin Tale with Florida home perks. 😉

But back to noses, dolphins have blow holes at the top of their heads where air is connected to their lungs.

This is where they breathe like us (and not like fish with gills)… and we can remember them in our daily Ayurvedic yoga breathing.

On the mat (…maybe you’re there now?), our Dolphin pose yoga fins and palms are also flat on the mat for good yoga form.

You get a good stretch in your entire body from head-to-toe in Dolphin pose yoga moves.

What you may notice that’s different is your body formation.

Your top half of your body may not be the same length as your bottom half.

If you have long legs and a shorter torso, then you won’t be as high peaked.

Your upside down “V” in the air will look different if that’s your body description. So you get to play around (or splash around 💦) in your Dolphin pose.

…You’ll be more like a hill than a mountain by design.

And that helps you to embrace your unique body and special creature that you are!

…You look more like a dolphin swimming instead of jumping hoops in dolphin show formation. 😁

Like us, dolphins are social and intelligent creatures with abilities.

To get more of their vibe, you can swim with a dolphin and not be afraid that you’ll be thrown.

Well, I take that back…

Once upon a time I swam with dolphins… or a better description is I was thrown from a dolphin’s beak landing into a pool of water.

That was a dolphin ride! Even though in the beginning I wasn’t sure what to expect 🤔

But I did know dolphins are happy and friendly creatures, so I knew we’d get along great in the end. And we did that day.

So all was good…

And I got my Vata anti-worry and cool and simple Pitta balancing self-therapy day in.

In that spirit, you can try these other water animal yoga poses that help with flexibility, and you can do on dry land without a splash.

Water Animal Poses

You can use Dolphin pose as a transition break pose before ending in Fish Pose (that’s an opposite position pose on your back), reminding us that dolphins aren’t fish.

And if you’re starting in Dolphin, you can then transition into a Turtle Pose, turning and facing sideways on the mat.

This way you can use the length of the mat and get a new perspective of your surroundings.

💡This is a good metaphor in life to change your perspectives for good outcomes.

Turtle Pose is especially good for shoulder streching and tight hamstrings where you’ll feel a good stretch in those parts.

In the pose, your shoulders are a bit hunched over forward to give that turtle back look. 🐢

Turtle is a low to the ground pose where you’re seated and legs are ideally in “V” formation laying flat on the mat, or with slightly bent knees until you get more flexible.

Yoga is a journey.

Then you span your wings (that were fins in Dolphin pose) as far from one end to the other underneath your legs.

Maybe you bend forward with body closer to the mat if you can.

You can challenge yourself daily to bend forward as much as you can in the pose, and then build up your flexibility with knees straightening and legs flattening down toward the mat.

Then after you’ve spent enough time as a turtle, you can turn into a frog.

…Which btw, turtles are reptiles and frogs are amphibians even though they both live on land and water.

And in your land-water abilities, still optimizing the length of the mat, you can flow your legs that were positioned forward in a “V” previously… and move them behind you like frog legs.

Your arms can rest on the mat and floor in front of you.

Frog Pose is exceptional for inner hip and thigh flexibility.

🎉Between turtle and frog, you’re getting full upper leg stretches. Your legs are in the largest muscle group in the body.

You optimize your legs in Frog pose that looks just like the yoga pose name, so it’s easy to remember and get into the position.

If you’re a swimmer and know frog swimming strokes, then you’ll be a natural. 🐸

This is a good pose to challenge yourself and see how low you can go eventually, but if you can’t get there just yet (and still feeling a bit like a turtle), blocks are good to rest your forearms on.

For any yoga pose, don’t hurt yourself by overdoing it the first go-round.

Let yourself open up slowly like a lotus 🪷 and that way you protect your joints and tissues from injury.

💡It’s better to start up high and easy and then work your challenging way down, down, and more down to the mat over time.

In a good way, yoga can take you out of your regular norm and reset your mind because usually going down references in your day are easier than getting up and going.

You can pause and think about that one in the pose. And the longer you spend in the pose, the better! 😊

If you spend 5 seconds in a pose, that counts for total time. If you spend 30 seconds in one pose, that’s 6 times the amount for total time.

Not that you’re playing a game of keeping score, but the point is the longer you spend, the greater the daily benefit… and for next time.

Yoga flexibility is all about gradually stretching further each time.

The longer you hold the pose, the more flexible you become in your body’s abilities.

So don’t expect it to happen the first time.

And if you take a break or a season off from yoga, you’ll start over in flexibility. BUT, the your body cells don’t forget so you’ll likely get there quicker than the first time you tried.

Like dolphins that have good memories, body cells also have good memory.

And like the turtle fable metaphor, slow and steady wins the race.

If you’re naturally super flexible, you can rest your forehead on the back of your hands in front of you for both poses.

Then to round out your water poses, you can finish by going into a seated position and laying back into Fish pose. You can do a Dolphin pose yoga move before your transition if you like.

Fish Pose is a great stretch for your neck.

You lay back with your elbows resting on your mat behind your shoulders like you’re catching some rays. ☀️

Then you let your neck rest backward behind you.

Your neck could be wound up as we spend most of our day with our heads and necks leaning forward especially if we work most our day on a device.

So a counteracting reverse pose like Fish Pose helps our neck unwind.

Before you try it full on without prep, it’s good to stretch your neck looking up first to get it more ready and flexible.

Our necks are delicate because they have such small muscles that also have to hold up our heads that weigh like bowling balls.

Like other areas of injury, necks can take weeks to fully heal so be gentle the first few times.

For precaution, a good pre-stretch for the stretch can be practicing looking up toward the ceiling at least 15 seconds several times a day.

I micro-habit stack this move while I’m filling up the filtered water pitcher that takes about that amount of time.

You can also do head circular motions wherever you are and turn your neck from side to side. Those are good if you spend a lot of time car seated.

Hope this keeps you encouraged in your yoga moves and instruction. Stay cool! 😎