I will admit, I've been a bad girl this week again. I've not only skipped on my cardio and weights since last Thursday (so literally a week), but I've eaten really really bad. On that note.
I took a yoga class at school before I got my degree. I went to a 1 hour 15 minute class twice a week. The stretching and relaxing truly helped with my back problems. I attributed it to a new mattress originally, but looking back now, I'm convinced it was the yoga. So my question to myself (as seems to be a recurring question with my health in general) is WHY did I stop doing it just because I stopped going to a class?
My first realization of the effect that yoga truly had on me was about 3 months ago when the muscles in my back started spazing. I noticed that if I did just 15 minutes of yoga my muscles would be stretched enough that they could relax, and then if I meditated for about 10 minutes, I could actually relax. This did wonders with my back, and I could actually feel the tension releasing in my back. Again though, the problem was temporarily "fixed" and after that one day, I didn't do yoga again until tonight.
Let me tell you, I was not in the best mood tonight. I've been grumpy for the last few days (I'm still trying to figure out why) and I've had the beginnings of a head cold that I've been fighting off since yesterday afternoon (yes, I was crabby before that, so its not the cold). When Neal originally left for work, I decided to sit and mope that I was home by myself. I got the laundry folded and the kitchen cleaned, but then I sat down with the intent to watch tv for the rest of the night.
Then I decided I really should do SOMETHING exercise-wise so I actually had something to talk about this week. Since I wasn't up for driving all the way to work to use the gym, I decided to try my at home yoga routine again. Plus, my back was starting to spaz again (grrrr....). Can you guess how I'm feeling now? I'm feeling WONDERFUL! Although I am still tired, I don't feel nearly as grumpy and snappy as I did about an hour ago.
As I was finishing up my actual stretches, I was trying to decide which meditation to do. I remembered a meditation that one of my fellow students in my class did as a presentation that I felt REALLY good about after. I remembered that it was a Chakra meditation of some sort, but I couldn't remember exactly how it went. I decided to look on this wonderful tool we have called Youtube, and I found it! I didn't even feel like I was meditating for 10 minutes! I really felt like the video was moving super fast, but it wasn't. Before I knew it, I had been doing this meditation for a whole 10 minutes!!
The meditation seems kind of strange at first, but if you really do what it says and give it a chance, you can feel the movement of the energy in your body (I'm not crazy, I promise). When I was done, I felt quite a bit more balanced and definitely in a better mood than earlier. Even if you don't have time to do the full yoga, I suggest doing a few breathing exercises and then following this meditation. I think you'll be surprised how much of a difference it will make in your mood!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs_DuZigRzY
