Day 20

Good evening, folks!

Today was good, but I suppose all good things must come to an end (I work the next two days), right? haha!

I began the day with a walk through Lake Seminole Park, which is definitely my new favorite place to walk now.




I love the way the sun glistens off the water in this picture.



Bird basking in the sun!






My favorite photo.


Sans makeup...aah



Bunny!



I'll post more pictures of the park later in the week...

I spent the rest of the day cleaning, shopping, and making dinner.

I also bought myself flowers! I wanted a fall-feel for the dining area.



Dinner was Carrot Ginger soup with baked sesame pita from CLEAN FOOD.





DELICIOUS!!!!

And for dessert, we had a slice of cheesecake at the bookstore.

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For yoga, I did about 20-25 minutes. I was feeling anxious and hyper and had difficulty getting into it. I also had food in my stomach and drank some OJ right before, so yeah...don't do that, people!
Sometimes I think the amount of minutes practiced do not matter so much as the thought and intention/purpose that goes into the practice. For instance, I could have days when I do 90 minutes and am totally not with it. And others when 15 just blows my mind because I am completely one with everything. The fact that I am taking any time out of my day to do something intentionally good is all that matters to me.

Day 19

Just completed a good 30 minutes of yoga at home. I lit candles and put on my music and it felt great. I'm actually liking home practice a lot more than I had originally anticipated.

This morning we had our last lecture for CCIP. It was on shock and sepsis. I also finished all of my ECCO MODULES!! Amazing. 50 online modules of all the body systems. Each body system broken down into anatomy and physiology, tests and procedures, pathologic conditions, nursing care, etc! Next Friday is our graduation and I guess that means I will officially be a "Critical care nurse," although I already feel like one now. Well, maybe an impostor since I'm still learning, but I'm not a new nurse, sooooo...

Class ended for me at 10:15 because I'm already ACLS certified and didn't need to take the exam/mock code. I hung around the house for a bit and then it felt like a brick wall of exhaustion hit me around 12:30. I tried to stay awake, but gave in to the sleepiness. I unrolled the covers and slept until almost 4pm! What the heck!?

Mirza stopped by after school and we went for a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood. I'm absolutely loving the weather and walks and will be incredibly saddened when the heat returns.
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Lately, my neck and shoulders have been killing me. They don't hurt like muscle aches from physical activity, they just feel strained like I've been holding my body the wrong way. I'm conscious of when my shoulders come up to my ears, so I'm not quite sure the culprit.
I think I'll go look for some yoga poses to release neck and shoulders.

Any suggestions?

Day 18

It's almost time for bed, but I did not want to miss documenting Day 18!

The weather has been amazing! I know the word 'amazing' is completely over-used, but I cannot find another word to describe it, except for maybe: awesome, perfect, delicious, hmmmm?

I slept with the A.C. off (for the first time in over 6 months) and the windows OPEN. I definitely slept the entire night through. I was in some sort of peaceful trance. I think I often wake up in the middle of the night because when my AC kicks on it is super loud. I even slept until almost 9, which is late for me!

I enjoyed another beautiful walk on the trail, but went further down this time by parking at Target instead. I walked across the long bridge over the gulf and the wind was fierce! It was actually hurting my ear and my hands were numb from the cold. LOVED IT!

Yoga
After, I went to 11:30 yoga and the instructor was back from her yoga philosophy course, which made me incredibly happy because she rocks!
Honestly, I am finding my forward folds becoming deeper! I never thought it could happen for me, but in staff pose when we forward fold, I am not just a hunched over freak anymore! And the more important part: it is actually starting to feel good to forward fold since I am getting the stretch out of it!! I love progress.


I was feeling so great mid-afternoon because I had successfully gone on a nice, cool walk, completed an hour of satisfying yoga, and THEN a repeat of Kris Carr's Crazy, Sexy, Cancer was on TLC! I own the DVD and have seen it numerous times, but I had to watch! She is a complete inspiration and whenever I watch it, I feel inspired to be great. And she is just gorgeous in all aspects. I love her message for life. I think everyone should watch her documentary.


Around 2, the sun was shining, but the temperature was in the 60's, so I literally just sat in the middle of my balcony/porch and painted my toes...



It was just that kind of day...




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On Friday, my brother turned 30! In celebration, we got together at my Mom and step-dad's temporary apartment (long story) for dinner and cake!



Pretty much one of the only pictures of my brother and I in existence as adults. We're not very touchy-feely kind of siblings. I think we've probably hugged twice in our entire lives! hahah
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For tomorrow, there is a lecture on sepsis...!

Day 17

As the morning began, I almost felt hey, I could live here if the weather was like this, I could tolerate everything else...

...until I stepped out of my car and onto the Pinellas Trail where I was met with a schizophrenic homeless woman babbling on about just getting out of one of the local psych hospitals! I gave her $5 and begged that she please go to Walmart and buy some new pants, as hers were covered with blood. I'm kind of sickened that the psych hospital would let her leave while on her period and not give her anything! Disgusting failure.

So that kind of shattered my heart-warming feelings towards living here, to say the least. But my walk was nice after! *sigh*










Yoga was an 11:30 class at the gym. It was okay. The instructor gets a little floozy and new-age-y for me, if that makes sense. We actually did some tai chi type moves, but she had on this horrible music where the singer kept repeating (for a freakin' hour) something about "honoring the mother in us all." It was too cheesy for my tastes.
I'm getting a bit sick of the gym yoga classes. They try to make it a "yoga environment," but there is no question we're in the gym since the lights shine in and you cannot drown out the upbeat music outside and clanging weights. Very distracting.
But, I cannot afford to keep going to studios and although I love home practice, there is nothing like having a teacher.

After class, I enjoyed a nice, warm cup of Yogi Detox tea with the sliding glass door open and cool breeze blowing through. Max is loving the cooler weather. He was acting quite frisky, running back and forth from the bedroom to the balcony like a wild beast!



The rest of my day was spent with Mirza, which included: fixing a piece of his guitar in Tampa, searching for his vehicle registration/insurance that was misplaced, eating brownies from his mom, and then finding old songs on youtube for him to play by ear on guitar! I love 90's music, like "Brick" by Bens Folds Five and Counting Crows. Fun times!

Day 16 recap

Good morning!

Yesterday was a long day. When I came home, my body was just exhausted. Took care of a very sick patient.
Mirza and I went out for a late dinner to Athenian Gardens and gorged on super deliciousness. Probably not so healthy, but my body needed it!!
We got home around 9:30. Before bed, I took a hot bath and then attempted yoga. I was determined not to break the 31-Day Challenge. Folks, I did about 10 minutes. My arms wouldn't move. Every time I closed my eyes, they just wanted to roll in the back of my head. 10 minutes was enough and savasana was out of the question. Definitely would have fallen directly to la-la land. I did not want to force it because then it would not be a nice, intentional practice, but rather something I felt I had to do.
Learned today: you cannot force it!

I LOVE THE WEATHER!!! As you've seen from previous posts, it has been nothing but HOT HOT AND sweltering HOT. Well, I knew when I woke up this morning, it would be different. I ran to the sliding glass door of my balcony, threw it open and stepped out into the crispness of lovely 62 and just breaaaaaaathed it all in with a big smile on my stupid face.

All of my windows are now open and I'm airing out all that nasty indoor pollution from the AC being on since...hmmm, April? About 6 months.

Have a great Saturday. Day 17 post later tonight. I'm going for a long walk!

Day 15: work, yoga

Greetings! Quick post before bed because I am exhausted. My day begins at 4am and ends at 6:00pm. That is a looooong day. And it isn't 12 hours spent behind a desk, but 12 hours on my feet, providing care to critically ill patients; it is emotional, stressful, and PHYSICAL: turning, pulling patients twice, triple my size. Holding them up to clean, etc. It's a hard day's work, for sure.

This evenings yoga was all about relaxation and releasing of my lower back. I woke up this morning sore from the ashtanga yoga, especially my arms and between my shoulder blades--upper back, and lower back.

I completed only sitting and laying poses, lots of spinal twists, and this:

Viparita Karani

25 minutes.

Followed by a 15 minute guided meditation on desires and achieving goals.

and now I'm going to the ultimate savasana, haha!

Day 14: Two weeks!

Today marks two weeks of the 31-Day Challenge! It is going SO FAST.
I'm thinking of extending it to a 60-Day Yoga Challenge, hmmm, any thoughts?


In honor of day 14, I tried out a new studio: St. Pete Yoga. I attended the 9:30 class Asthanga flow: Internal heat. It is for levels 2-3, according to the site. It was a difficult class for me. The sun salutations weren't a big deal, but they did a lot of other poses that I'm not used to. However, I liked the instructor because she helped to adjust my position numerous times (she asked first, of course), which was nice because sometimes you wonder if you're doing a simple pose correctly or not. And the instructors at my gym don't really do that.
My back is kind of sore today though probably from all those attempts at dancer pose yesterday!

I spent the rest of the day taking care of business, errands, etc. Also browsed through the winter Kripalu catalog, drooled over the awesome retreats...

Made an early dinner from a combo of recipes from Clean Food.

I made the Quinoa with Almonds and Currants, and on the side enjoyed the Sauteed garlic greens (I used purple kale).





Dessert was a coconut almond ice cream bar. mmmmmm.


I'm feeling kind of bummed right now. Pretty sure it is a combination of hormones and the fact that I work the next two days and I had like 8 days off (I did have labs though). Going back to work is always difficult when you have fun days off. It isn't that I am sad to go to work; more stressed. I'm always worried before I go in, especially since I am new to the unit and wonder who will be working and blablabla, it's dumb. Staying positive and cursing female hormones.

Day 13: Take two

Alright, I feel much better now. I was just so frustrated earlier by the fact that it is October and it is still soooo hot that I cannot even go for an autumn walk. I want fuzzy sweaters, beautiful foliage, crunchy leaves, crisp air!
We've been breaking all kinds of record high temperatures!
But relief is in site for the weekend:


I cannot wait!
I plan on taking a nice, long walk.

After my little meltdown, I did about 20 minutes of yoga, followed by 5 of savasana and then a 15 minute guided meditation from Living Joy.


I forgot I bought this cd over a year ago and it occured to me during savasna, so I jumped up and put on "Living Acceptance," since clearly I need to accept the fact that I live here! haha

Max participated:





hmmmmmmm? I was probably thinking about dinner...



My best attempt at a dancer pose. I don't know how people get their legs practically over their heads and torso up, but...you know...this is me!


I can go forward, but not up!


Balance is not an issue for me, but apparently flexibility is!:)


Made some homemade chocolate chip waffles for dinner...




Pretty new pictures in honor of the 31-Day Yoga Challenge:

Day 13: frustration

Today I am feeling: frustrated.

And it has nothing to do with my yoga practice.

And everything to do with FLORIDA.

To put it nicely, I AM SICK OF FREAKIN' LIVING HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is hot, miserable; I'm sick of going outside and seeing nothing but CEMENT, BUILDINGS; dealing with pissed off and rude road-ragers, red-necks, crack heads, even old people running me off the road. I'm sick of not having nature.

Everyone always says the same thing when I mention these things: oh, but Nicole, no where else can you go to the beach in October! Florida is SOOOO NICE!!

Really? I would like for someone to list me some great things about living in Florida that do not include THE BEACH. I'm pretty sure no one can think of anything else.
And yes, the beach...it is nice, but seriously? Is that ALL Florida has to offer??
There's Disney world...ooooo wooopdeeedoo!!!

ANYWAY, I'm feeling bitter and annoyed today with the heat. It should be getting cooler in the week and then maybe I will be a little happier about being here. It isn't like I can just get up and leave. You don't just leave your relationship of almost 7 years to move to another state. I don't, anyway. So, I am stuck here, for now.

What can I do about it? YOGA.
Will be doing a nice home practice.

Day 12: Apple squash soup

This morning I wanted to go to a studio class, but decided to save money since there was a 10:30 class at my gym. Today's practice was refreshing; it felt like we held the poses for an eternity! Sometimes I love that and sometimes not...I did today!

I spent the rest of the day finishing up my GI/Heme CCIP modules and then decided to go shopping!
I bought a pair of yoga pants from Old Navy and some shorts, too.
I also stopped by Borders and almost bought this book.


But decided to wait and read reviews online first. Has anyone read it? Worth buying?

Dinner was Apple-Squash Soup from Clean Food. I highly recommend this book. My CSA begins in one month and I know it will definitely come in handy.

As far as the soup?
It was delicious!! Had an apple-sauce kind of feel, but the flavors were all over the place good. UNFORTUNATELY, my camera is still at Mirza's and I have yet to retrieve it, so no pictures:(

For the recipe, it called for a hand held blender and I bought one for $20 at Walmart. Call me weird, but it was fun to use! I'm going to be finding more recipes to incorporate it.

I'd really like to hear how everyone's yoga practice is going, especially if you're doing the 31-Yoga Challenge. Please comment with any stories, inspirational thoughts, anything!

Have a happy night!

Day 11: declutter mode

Today was all about de-cluttering! I took everything out of my closet (not clothes, I don't have a lot and got rid of stuff I don't wear awhile ago) and threw away a ton of papers. I had sooooo much stuff from high school and college and just weird things I've hung onto. I am not afraid to throw things away. I used to be, but realize they are just things and toss them. I was holding onto approximately 12 binders of work from college and realized: Okay, I haven't even LOOKED at this stuff in a year, so I don't think I ever will again.
I went through and saved papers that I had written (the ones worth keeping) and everything else went into the garbage. I kept a few blank binders (the good/clean ones), but the rest are going to Goodwill or Salvation Army tomorrow.
I also had a ton of papers from high school and the Poynter Institute (I was in the high school journalism program).
I ended up with about 5 categories of STUFF:
-Photos that don't belong in an album (ie-loose)
-Writings (papers, newspaper articles I had written, anything)
-Journals (I've been journaling non-stop my whole life)
-Love (Letters and notes from Mirza!! I have A LOT!! They are so wonderful).
-Junk drawer kind of stuff (ie--things I need or want that don't have a place)

I decided I wanted square boxes with lids and a place to write what's in the box, you know, a simple organizational system. Kind of like those photo boxes, but bigger...
You'd think this would be easy to find, no?
Well, I went to: Target, Michael's, Marshall's, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Jo-Ann fabrics, Home-goods, Walmart, and finally Ross.

AARGHHH!!! Nothing! I finally had luck with Ross, but had to settle for boxes that had designs on them. I only wanted something plain. Geez!

I wish I had a before and after picture to post, but Mirza borrowed the camera last night and I forgot to get it back!!
I feel clean and fuzzy inside now.


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I did all of this organizing after my 11:30 Yoga class! It was intense. We had a sub who usually teaches kickboxing and martial arts. It was actually a great work out!!

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When I was at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I found two pieces of art that I could not resist...
The weird thing is that I saw these photos just yesterday on a necklace from an Etsy.com page. You can see a small version of one of the pictures through the link. The other one is a woman sitting cross legged with hands in prayer position.

I'll post pictures tomorrow! They go perfect for the theme of the month.


In honor of declutter day, I leave you with George Carlin's take on STUFF:

Day 10

Mirza played a show last night with some guys from school (Mirza is studying to be a music teacher, for those unsure) at the Pegasus lounge. It's an instrumental band with a progressive, funky, Indian/Egyptian sound. Really, no way to describe it, except to say that they only practiced together twice and it was complete improvisation. In other words, they rocked!!

My point is that I didn't get home until almost 1am, so I couldn't "document" my yoga.

Day 10: 1 hour session at gym. Gentle yoga.

Week 1 recap

Okay, so today is Day 10, but I wanted to do a recap of the first week.

Since Day 1, I've done approximately 525 minutes of yoga, or 8.75 hours. Not that the minutes or hours mean anything, I'm just trying to keep it in perspective for myself.

Favorite practice was on the roof, which was Day 7. There was just something about being in nature and literally being in front of the sun while doing sun salutations. I almost feel like all of yoga should be practiced outside.


I'm also quite surprised and proud of my home practice. Before this began, that is what I worried about the most. "Would I know what to do? Would I end up just giving up because it didn't feel like real yoga?"
I had a lot of concerns, but the first night totally crushed those apprehensions.

I feel stronger physically and I'm noticing that some asanas are becoming easier (and that I am doing them the right way!). I can now successfully get my feet flat on the ground during down dog. Forward folds are still a challenge, but I feel my hamstrings and back loosening and slowly inching my way there.
The most important part is that I am just doing, not trying. What I mean by that is if a pose is uncomfortable or I feel like I am not "doing it right," then I either don't do it or I modify and stay content. I realize that every moment and every practice is different.

Stay content...

Besides the physical aspect, since that is just one component of yoga, I have noticed a sense of calmness in my step. It could be intentional since I am trying to make this month all about positivity, but a lot of it does have to do with the yoga...especially the breathing. I'm not forgetting to breathe anymore! In fact, some days I walk a block to work from the parking lot (as opposed to taking the trolley) and during that walk, I do feel anxious: what is today going to bring? what preceptor will I be with today? how will I react during rounds?? what if someone codes? And I feel my heart start to race and I begin to pick up my speed. And then, I am able to remind myself to breathe and remember that everything will be okay if I just slow down.

I asked earlier in the week everyone's favorite pose. Honestly, I'm still trying to figure mine out. Let's just say that I feel strong and powerful when going from chaturanga into upward facing dog and then down-dog. I like the fluidity in the movement and the way the breath follows.






Question of the day: Have you practiced yoga some place other than studio, gym, or home? Where was it and how did it make you feel? Or maybe your studio is so peaceful and calming that it feels like a new place or the outdoors...PLEASE SHARE!:)
(photo sources: http://pranaflownz.com/, http://www.yogatic.com, http://www.yogatg.com/)