When living with a chronic or terminal disease you have to talk about it a lot! I lived at the doctor’s office, I lived in hospitals, the dialogue was always about my disease. That eventually bled into all of my conversations with family, friends, people I had just met, etc. Two things happen, in my opinion, you get so used to talking about your disease that it just becomes natural to talk about it, and you become addicted. Just as someone gets addicted to a drug, or trauma, you become addicted to your “disease.” My disease, Lupus, became my crutch and excuse for everything, for all my problems. It was the reason I couldn’t do this or that, it was the reason I was a certain way, or acted a certain way…but it wasn’t. I was swimming in my own sorrow. Of course my disease is limiting, there truly were and are certain things I cannot do, but where did I draw the line… I didn’t.
Rest & Recover
Rest is SO SO SO important. If I could workout 7 days a week I would BUT because I am a good yogi I allow myself one down day per week (typically Sunday), and one restorative day per week (typically mid-week, like Wednesday). Listen to your body! It will always tell you what it needs, you just have to listen. If you’re body is telling you that you need to workout like a maniac 7 days a week, be the boss and tell it to simmer down. When we overwork anything it becomes worn out, our bodies are no different. It needs rest to be healthy and happy. If you don’t give yourself time to recover from anything (work, illness, exercise) you will get sick, your body will eventually call it quits. So take one day off during the week, and also take one day to practice restorative work. That being said, take a look below for some easy restorative yoga poses. Practice safe my friends ❤ Continue reading “Rest & Recover”
Backbend For A Healthy Spine & An Open Heart
Backbends are some of my favorite yoga poses to practice! I love the way they make me feel, and I love the way they challenge me. Also, how cool are they? The shapes we can make with our bodies still fascinates me. As with most or even all yoga poses, backbends offer many benefits, let’s take a look at some of those benefits, as well as poses to get you started.
Continue reading “Backbend For A Healthy Spine & An Open Heart”
Yoga Q & A
I get A LOT of questions about yoga. Emails, texts, phone calls…oh the mystery that is yoga. Today I have decided to answer some of these questions. Though I know I will not be able to answer them all, I have chosen to answer the most frequent questions. Let’s get started and dissect some yoga stuff today.
The Story Behind YogiNest
People often ask me why I started YogiNest. They wonder why I didn’t just go and get a job at a yoga studio (trust me sometimes I do too, running a business is hard work, hahaha). While starting your own business is not for the faint of heart it truly is so rewarding, even if you’re only able to change one person’s life. YogiNest is hard work, but seeing how it affects the lives of my students is the gift that makes it worth it.
A Gift Disguised As A Tragedy
I remember the exact moment of diagnosis like it happened yesterday. I remember the details explicitly; what I was wearing, who I was with, and where I was. My phone rang, caller ID said it was my doctor and my stomach flipped. I was waiting for results of a test that would determine whether or not I had Lupus. I raised the phone to my ear and she uttered results that somewhere inside I already knew where positive, I had Lupus. It was like everything you see in the movies. Everything around me slowed down, noises around me became faint, I took a deep breath, found a place to sit down and told her I’d call her back.
