Yoga - My Obsession...

nope... not me - borrowed from the web

I have now been taking weekly yoga classes for almost 3 years. It has become a real passion and a necessity for my general well being. I started to notice the benefits of the yoga practises after a few months and I am still thrilled every time I squat/bend/stretch and feel that I am more flexible and stronger than I used to be. Sitting on bent knees or squatting was something I could never do as the knees would hurt too much. That is no longer a problem. I rarely suffer from any types of back aches (I have had a bad back for many years) and I just love the feeling you get after a yoga class. I can go tired into a class, yawning and just wanting to curl up and go to sleep, but after the class I am calm, awake and refreshed. No wonder yoga means 'to join' body and mind!

 

And I know that I will sleep deeply that night waking up refreshed the next day. The breathing practise is great for focusing the mind and you feel how good it is for the body to take deep concentrated breaths as we all tend to shallow breathe too much.

 

I highly recommend yoga to anybody - no matter what size or age you are. In yoga you don't compete with anybody else - we are all differently made and just because you can't do a posture perfectly doesn't mean there is something 'wrong' with you. Perhaps your body just can't do that particular posture. A friend once lent me a DVD where this fact of different physical limitations was illustrated very clearly - simply because we are not all built the same way! But that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy yoga and benefit from it! Yoga is not about pushing through pain. If you feel pain, you are not doing it right.

 

This fall I have also signed up for some lunch time classes on Thursdays. I have to admit, I am not that good doing the practises on my own although I am getting better and I actively use the breathing practises in my day. So, Thursdays I rush from the office to get my one hour of yoga before I go back relaxed and ready to take on the rest of the day.

 

Tuesday evenings and Thursday lunchtime is

 

ME TIME

 

Do you make sure you get some YOU TIME during the week?

 

 

Yoga Milestone

I had a particularly good yoga session last night

- just love it! - 

but I have to admit I might never be quite as able as this lady is...

I think she is even more flexible that the cat on the cushion...

♥

Busy Days!

It is a bit quiet on my front these days 

- not much time for the blog.

My dear in-laws arrived before the weekend

and we have been busy settling them in and

spending time with them.

This is a busy time of year for many people I guess, not just us in the educational sector.

Conferences, meetings, plans, budgets, as well as the needs of new staff, new visitors, new students all need to be addressed.

It is like everybody have hatched and thought up a lot of ideas and plans while on summer holidays...!

But on the whole I like it!

I like being busy.

But I also like to see an end to this particularly stressful period... probably will stay this intense for another couple of months...

In the meantime -

Thank God for Yoga!

It is literally a life saver and keeping both my mind sane as well as my body flexible.

New class tonight and

maybe a glass (diet-Coke) in the pub next door afterwards....?

:-)

Doing Without...

Sometimes I think about all the 'stuff' we surround ourselves with to improve our lives. 

Do they always make it better? 

As always, I guess it depends on what we are talking about...

When we were on holidays in France we decided we didn't want to watch TV. There was a huuuge flat screen TV in the flat, but nobody was interested in becoming familiar with French TV. We read, talked and used Ipads for entertainment. 

I felt the evenings were longer and we got so much more out of them.

We have now been without our car for two weeks after The Best Neighbour in the World accidentally backed into our car outside our house (poor thing, she was devastated). It was only a rather superficial scratch with a dent on the driver's door and needed to go into the repair shop to have the entire door replaced! This is where the 'fun' (NOT) started as the company handling the claim (outsourced by the insurance company) would not give me a replacement car as my licence was not EU, but FOREIGN! This has NEVER been a problem before. After discussing, arguing, shouting, screaming, speaking with one supervisor after the other and threatening with NEVER using them again (not sure how worried they were as I hope not to have too many car accidents like this in the future), I was still without a replacement car. To be honest, I think I am loosing my 'touch'...!

So, this means that I have been without a car for two weeks. 

And it hasn't been much of a problem, to be honest. 

Our 'guilty' neighbour took Our Boy to the guitar lesson last week and this week we walked our bikes while balancing the guitar on the handlebar. 

Ok, admittedly it was a bit of an inconvenience, but the sun was shining so not too much suffering. 

Really. 

All right, I know I am lucky as I bike to work and have food delivered after shopping online. 

There are of course friends I can't get to see without using the car and other places I would have liked to go, so it would have been nice to have the car.  

But to be honest apart from this, we haven't struggled much.

Back to my point -
I wonder what else we take for granted and think we NEED that we can do without...?

By the way, the car is being returned TODAY!

(And the Yoga class starts up again!)

Happy Day!!

:-)

Wonderful Weekend Anticipation

picture borrowed from the Internet

I don't know what happened to this week!

It has just flown by.

Being busy has that effect, I guess.

:-)

The week has as usual been filled with

• work (but funnily enough I don't feel I have much to show for it, though...),
• a day long conference on employment law,
• a quick drink with the girls one night,
• taking Our Boy to his guitar class,
• lovely lunch with a friend
• yoga class in the evening,
• some work meetings
• many phone calls,
• cooking dinners,
• some cleaning,
• some laundry,
• some tv,
• reading 
• and so on...
 

In short - LIFE

But it has been really chilly even though it looks like spring.

The picture above is from the area behind the colleges called 'The Backs' and it looks exactly like this now as the crocuses are all in bloom.

I hope the weekend will give some time for taking some pictures and catching some rays of sunshine.

According to the app on my new phone (!) it is going to be sunny on Sunday!

I hope you have some sunshine, too.

Wherever you are!

:-)

Advent Calendar Blog, GCSE and Yoga!

If you are starting to get into the Christmas spirit (which I have to admit I find hard to avoid), the very charming blog

Charmerende Gjenbruk 

is sharing tips, inspiration and recipes and general Christmas joy every day from 1 December - just like an advent calendar!

(The blog is in Norwegian, but with lots of inspirational pictures - I will suggest she add Google Translator to her blog)

Over to something else:

Last night was parent-teacher evening at Our Boy's school. The event is arranged so that you get 5 mins with each of your child's teacher. Each teacher has their base with a table and chair in the school hall and the parents move around. A bit like what I believe speed-dating is like (Not that I have tried that! That concept didn't exist 25 years ago when I was "on the market").

The meetings take place together with the students so it is really a dialogue between teacher/parent/student.

Very useful, constructive and makes the kids feel involved, I think.

Our Boy has started the preparations for the GCSE-exams which for most subjects will take place end of next school year, except for maths which he will do this year. The next big exam will be in 4 years time with the A-levels which will determine University entry. Although they still look at the GCSE grades as well. University entries are so competitive over here, so there is no room for slacking!

The meeting meant I missed my yoga session, but I went to a new yoga place at lunch time on Tuesday which was great! Also, my Tuesday teacher offered me a place in her Wednesday class tonight, so JOY! I get two classes this week!

Just love it.

Weekly Routines

Tuesday evenings are my FIRST Yoga evening of the week. My teacher was away on a hiking-and-yoga trip in Greece the last two weeks. She had asked the lady she herself had trained with - all those years ago - to take the class for her.

WHAT a lady!

We guessed she was perhaps 60 and was SO impressed with her. She was of course the fittest of us all... You can imagine our shock (and inspiration) when we were told that she was actually way into her 70-ties...

I WANT TO BE LIKE THAT WHEN I AM 70!

The evening was rounded off as per usual with a drink (fizyy water or Diet Coke) in the pub next door with The Ladies Who Dine.

So civilised... ;-)

My SECOND Yoga evening of the week (yes, I have joined another class) is on Thursdays.

It is very interesting to see the different teachers' approaches. I have had 4 teachers so far since I started after Christmas and have enjoyed them all for different reasons.

However, this week I won't be able to make the Thursday class as I am flying over to Norway for a couple of days to see my mother. She is not well and we will be speaking with the doctors who are struggling with her medication.

It is not easy getting old, and particularly not when your ability to communicate has been so severely damaged by strokes.

On a brighter and more selfish note - I get to see mum!

More Yoga

I have started my second class/term of Yoga practise (every Tuesday evening) and I am still as eager and loving it as much as when I started a couple of months ago. That hour spent in total concentration on myself and my body is soooo good. I have found myself in postures I have not tried for over 30 years...! and it really brings me into such calm mental state. I feel stronger and this particular form of yoga - Vini yoga - focuses a lot on the breathing which aids the inwards focus. No matter how stressed I am before class I always come away so refreshed and ready to handle "anything".

I borrowed a dvd and a book from my teacher and hope to find a suitable yoga-cd that I can plot into an iPod so I can do it on my own at home. Does anybody have any suggestions? I am too new to Yoga to go at it on my own, but I think a CD should be helpful when I do the exercises on my own. I am aware that there are many forms of Yoga, but I am open to suggestions.

I understand Yoga might not be for everybody, but I urge you to give it a go! It just might be your "cup of tea"!

Tuesday evenings are normally rounded off with a drink in the pub, but last night my Welsh friend came by after yoga and we had a good old natter, a coffee and a "Bolle" - the English translation is in one of the comments.

It was a good ending to a good day!