Nowhere else I would rather be

Marichyasana III - Sage Marichi Pose 3, Seated Sage Twist With Bind C

The kiddos, or you, or both 😱 are sick and suddenly, without warning ones focus is single minded and undivided; nothing else matters. 🧿

Trianga

Trianga Mukhaikapada Paschimottanasana - Three Parts Forward Bend

Trianga:

Three poses - Dandasana, Virsasana and Paschimottanasana 

Three body parts - buttocks, knees and feet. 

Why draw yoginis most often on their mats? Because I am personally terrible at - practically incapable of - asana-ing without attending a class. 

If three tenets of our happiness are faith, family/friendship and meaningful work then we must hunker down and stop seeking. 

Crunchy

Eka Pada Uttana Padasana - One Legged Raised Pose

I still slide my hands under my hips to support my lower back.

& Featuring what fun it is to be a hippie yogini (mommy).

PLASTIC - it’s everywhere!! I’m pretty sure my underwear is made of plastic. I am just so over plastic. & Chemicals. Unnatural clothing, bizarre body products. PLASTIC. …

Post-birth of each child I give myself a pass — the generosity to be gentle and relaxed with my otherwise crunchy ecological, home and health rules. (EG processed foods ordered in, tacky crafts or mittens overnighted in bulk.) But, youngest Bébé is now three, so I am no longer in ‘survival mode’ and am empowered - aka ruthless and rageful - against the world’s BS once again. 🐅 All crap must go.

Infinite

Ardha Padma Anantasana - Reclined Half Lotus Pose

Kubera Mudra for focused intention 

Sacrificing for your dream. Some days I look around (at my little life) and I feel overtaken with awe and immensely ‘blessed’. So much so, that the beauty of it can feel precarious (“too good to be true, so much to lose!”). But, as my husband elucidates, this life did not appear out of nowhere - myriads of sacrifices (countless other possibilities passed up) befalls when we make each choice. We are choosing one of infinite. So when the bliss is so joyous we panic, remember we had our hand in this; these are the steady and continuous - unprecarious - fruits of our labor. 🍇 

🦢 elegant and effective

 

Upavistha Hamsasana - Sitting Swan Pose

Both graceful and effective. 

Weekends are the necessary outbreath to your week’s extended and exaggerated inbreath. Keep your weekends 1. Nourishing 2. Restful 3. Warm. 🧤🧦🪶

Wholesome nature-based activities nourish the soul. 

Warm with Fire and Water (food and clothing).

Movement can be restful; rather than planning a ‘hike’, step right outside your door.

Have an approach that is lighthearted and buoyant.

Destroyer of all diseases

 

Matsyasana - Fish Pose

Reduce stiffness in shoulders and neck. Improve posture. Balance the thyroid.

Self-compassionate healing après over-giving. 

What fresh hell is this?

Supta Baddha Konasana - Reclining Bound Angle 

With a bolster, two blocks and blankets.

OH the sheer agony of caring for the family and tending to the home while feeling unwell. We know it from periods, pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum, traumatic or sad events, the common cold, chronic illness, heartache, heartbreak and beyond. There is no relief to be found. My personal solution? Complain (and blame) loudly and incessantly until someone (my husband) tells me they feel sorry for me and then all is a little bit more right in my world - merci beaucoup, dankeschön. 

Zero talent 🥶

Vyaghrasana - Tiger Pose 💖🐯⛸️

About to skate, swim AND climb with kids 🥶😶‍🌫️😱, these are precisely the words of wisdom this mom needed today: 

“Everyday you wake up, you can control your attitude and your effort… it takes zero talent to be a good person and a good teammate.” - Aspen Recreation Center, Ice rink

Long weekends = lots of spontaneous outings. 

Privacy

 

Pincha Mayurasana - Forearm Stand with stag legs 

Some poses are better practiced at home. 

The hospitality rubber band has been stretched to its maximum and must now snap back; after a many-weeks-long, very social streak for our household, mom and dad are enforcing nuclear family time, just the six of us (plus the pup). 

Avert burnout 💥

 

Parsva Bakasana - Side Crow Pose

Some days (weeks?) are No Guest Days (no play dates, neighbors, workmen, dinner crashers, carpools…)  Determine the duration and spread the word. 

🐭

🍂🧡🎃💛🌻

- 💚BAKE zucchini bread. 

- 💛Light a CANDLE at dinner.

- 🧡Autumnify the NATURE TABLE. 

- ❤️UNEARTH the winter socks. (And pants, and hats, and mittens…)

- 💜CRAFT in the common family area.

Mirror rorriM

Bhujangasana - Cobra Pose arms wide 🐍 

When we lessen our own material requirements, (persistently removing those pesky impulses and cravings one-at-a-time,) the incessant worldly demands of our children (and other household members) no longer vex us, as the mirror aspect is removed. 🪞 

XS enough to schlep XXL loads.

Make do 🍋🐑🥥

Weekends are for using it up or chucking it out! Clean out the fridge + actually clean the fridge = resourceful foods for the famille and a fit kitchen for the week ahead. 🛒

Lemon Mousse from lemon curd left-overs and on-hand whipping cream.

Remaining cup of sheep’s yogurt into Brownies 🐑

Coconut milk revives last week’s rice 🙀

💋It’s always the sweets that seem to get photographed. 🤷‍♀️

Twisted bow

 

Dhanurasana - Twisted Bow Pose

The real twisted bow is described below 🎀 

The children are not at school. And somehow I have to get them ready for the school year. But surely they must be out of the house for this to be possible. But they are all home. And there are so many of them 🐵🐵🐵🐵… 

It is absolute chaos-insanity-frenzy pressure-cooker-crazy and then POOF they are off.

Symbiosis

 

Relationships with our children can be mutualistically symbiotic (both parties benefiting from the interaction), in which case they are heavenly. Of course, much of the time we must accept as parents that the symbiosis will feel parasitical (children rule, we drool), or commensal (they thrive, we status quo), at best.

🌹Mutualistically Symbiotic, of course 😘 

Course of inaction

 

Wake-up-got-nowhere-to-be-but-here is my 💛 preferred vibe. & what I am ⚡️ currently choosing. 

Bolognese with 🍰 & photos

Marjaryasana - Cat pose / Adho Mukha Svanasana - Downward Facing Dog Pose

 “I KNOW we didn’t have dinner! Because I DON’T remember sitting down together !”  

The family sit-down dinner is steadily back in fashion as baby gets increasingly older. And the children very much rely on this ritual. 

You can find us at home cooking (and eating). Alfresco. 

Schweet

Sukhasana - Easy Pose, Sirsasana II - Tripod Headstand 

Homemaking is love - giving the gift of beauty, comfort, fun, happiness, health, hope, joy, magic, safety, security, success to those in your home. And this life-styling is modeling a concrete methodology for your kith and kin to recreate inner peace and outer beauty for themselves and others anywhere, anytime. 

Home schweet home. 

Celestial zenith

 

Sukhasana - Easy Pose

Mothering (fathering, teaching, nannying, mentoring,) children is the ultimate sacrifice, but the equally zenith reward is never wondering if your life has purpose or meaning. 

SuperCareGiverHeroStar 🌟

 

Utthita Eka Padasana -  Standing Balance, One Leg Raised

As I watched another woman caregiving today (I had a few hours away from my own supportive duties,) it stopped me dead in my tracks how important, beautiful, and fulfilling it is - the work of caring for others. On my end, rearing my children nonstop has felt demanding and intolerable as of late, but the image of this smiling lady pushing a grinning older gentleman in his wheelchair on our wooded path was just what I needed to startle me back into recognizing our shared guardian superstardom. 🌟 

Present parent, calm kids 🎁