My Yoga Journey | 'Werk it' Out Wednesday

It all started when I saw a Facebook post from our on-post PX shopping center. 

Fort Bliss has a place called "Freedom Crossing." And it's pretty baller.

It not only hosts our PX, but also hosts the Class Six, a Starbucks, our food court, an Under Armor Store, an Irish Pub, a beautiful women's clothing store, The Dollar Tree, Buffalo Wild Wings, a Texas Roadhouse, and many other awesome stores.

Basically, it's pretty rad and you should check it out the next time you're on Fort Bliss.

But to continue my story, one of the "fast food" restaurants Healthy Pizza, was offering free sunset yoga on the lawn of Freedom Crossing. Now, I've done yoga in the past and I dug it. But it wasn't something that really REALLY interested me. I just did it to do it.

I decided that my hot mess, stressed out self needed some ME time and told the hubby I was going to try it out and ran out the door.

And I LOVED it.

Every Tuesday evening, I'd head out there and do my thing and feel amazing. This lead to me getting into a holiday challenge with my friend, Chrissy. She challenged me to 12 Days of Yogamas and we ROCKED it!

With the holiday challenge and the free yoga on post, I was totally digging everything that yoga was doing for me ... and still is. BUT - it began to get cold in the desert and the free yoga ended.

I was at a loss.

I needed the motivation to keep doing yoga and face it y'all .... I'm not a good accountability partner to myself.

And then it happened.

Another Facebook post popped up and a local cafe was going to offer free yoga presented by Dare to Dream Yoga and I mean, LOOK AT THIS PLACE!

This location was a dream! And Dare to Dream Yoga's mission is that yoga should be available to anyone and for free. So I was once again hooked!

Every Wednesday, I'd head out to the west side, over the mountain and through the construction. It has become a religion to me. It calms me and allows me to escape from reality for an hour. And for that, I'm very grateful.

I've continued to do Instagram challenges that make me work hard at hitting certain poses in my practice but most of all, to keep me accountable. My strength has improved and I have lost inches due to yoga. However, my eating habits haven't changed. I'm assuming now, but if was I was to lay off the cookies, I'd probably have a significant change in body mass.

Everyone has their way of getting into shape. Not everyone wants to sweat sprinting up a hill carrying a 30 pound tire on their shoulders. 

What needs to happen is: you, moving ... whether it's slow and steady or fast and heavy.

Just move.

And that's the point of 'Werk it' Out Wednesday!

Get it GURL!

Momma's Stressed Out Folks | My Hot Mess

Guys,

What the hell ...

Why are my kids so crazy right now?!

I just need a second to collect my thoughts as the pork chops cook in the slow cooker. 

That's it.

Just a few moments PUH-LEASE.

These past few days have been super stressful.

Why?

Not a damn clue.

Cute and funny memes aside, I truly am stressed and anxious and physically drained. Probably mentally too ... but I can't let my brain win. The second I allow that, I'm done for.

My 9 year old and 3 year old will tear me to pieces if I fall into a depression.

Many people have told me to slow down. Stop doing so much. Sounds easy enough ...

But I can't.

I seriously can't just stop doing what I do. I like to stay busy. When I'm not busy, I worry that I'm forgetting something. If I'm doing nothing, I get VERY anxious. And an anxious stressed out mom would be bad for everyone....

I find myself asking questions like, "why can't the kids just listen?" "Why does the traffic happen right when I'm running late?" "Why do I run in a group, when the group's faster than me?" "Why even bother going to this event, I know it's going to be a bust." "Why can't everyone else be on MY schedule?"

When the real question is, "Why can't I control my inner voice?"

It's no one's fault that I try to fit in as much as possible in as little time possible. It's not my toddler's fault (even though I really want it to be) when he can't control his sweet little toddler patience with me anymore because we've hit five different events within a 3 hour timeframe. It's not my husband's fault that he can't get off of work every time I need a "me" moment. It's not my eldest's fault that he can't sit still and be quiet long enough for me to control my own anxiousness waiting on yet another doctor's appointment. It's no one's fault. 

I can even say it's not my own fault. Which is a sigh in relief to me as well. I'm just a busy body and need to be able to go go go! But I can say it is a tad - a very slight tad - I mean the smallest of smallest tad bit - my fault. LOL, that's why I've begun to work on it. 

Work on the stress, the anxiousness, the busy-ness, the ME in "WE need to get out of the house."

Oh wait, there's not ME in that .... you caught that right? ;)

I asked a close friend about her yoga practice. She appears to be happy. Appears to be stress free. Appears to know what she is talking about. When I finally remembered to call her to ask her about her practice, you know what she told me?

To breathe.

That's it. 

Just breathe.

She explained that the oxygen flow to the brain will do wonders with stress and anxiousness. I giggled to myself. 

I breathe every day. But yet, here I am, calling here and asking her for advice.

She explained about breath and meditation and how that alone would do wonders. The practice of yoga encompasses all of that, so might as well start at the beginning right?

And you know what?

She was right. 

I began taking 5 minutes, right before bed, to take in deep breaths and exhaling them. Concentrating on each breath, I cleared (or at least tried to) my thoughts from the day and began to relax. The least this was doing was helping me fall asleep faster.

I also began going to a free yoga class that is being offered on our army post. Um, heck yeah right? I'm beginning to enjoy the time alone, to be in the moment and just chill. Thankfully, I have a supportive husband who didn't hesitate to tell me to go as he wrestles the kids to bed. And I love him for that.

Guys. 

Just breathe.

I know you wanna just punt the kid across the store when he collapses into one of his tantrums ... but just BREATHE.

This too shall pass.

I highly recommend meditation ... or BREATHING. I really, truly do. I thought that kind shit was just for hippies. But if you think about it, how are hippies? They're happy. They roll with the punches. And they appear to be stress free --- unless fighting for the rights of humanity! ;)

I love all of ya, hippies and all!

Good Luck!

Check out my yogi-friend's blog about her practice and everything else in her life HERE!