In the darkness of last night’s new moon, my family and I experienced a powerful storm. We heard the rain beating hard against our windows and felt the wind shake our house. It was exactly 5:55am when I stepped outside, the dawn light just barely peaking through the trees, and surveyed the scene. Grateful to report, nothing was damaged, things were just moved around. (I had to go looking for our patio furniture, and found...
I am not in denial. 2020 has been the strangest – and most trying – year of my life, but I’m still smiling because I choose faith over fear. How is that possible when fear is practically oozing out of our laptops?!? I’ve narrowed it down to two simple steps. Step One is to take it day by day. I sit with my daily planner (it’s paper, not digital) in the morning and come up...
Are you someone who wakes up behind the eight ball, rushing around in the morning? Do you take your coffee or breakfast on the go and speed off to work feeling frazzled from the get-go? Even though I am an early bird, I used to be this “rushing around” person. But I’ve changed. A few years ago, I had a realization that rushing is rarely circumstance, it’s a mindset. It’s feeling like you are in a race against time. It’s...
All of a sudden, the term lifestyle medicine is everywhere. I even heard it on the radio this morning while taking my son to school. I like the term – it’s a hipper way of saying healthy living, and it’s so true – the ways in which you live your life are ultimately good for you or bad for you. Lifestyle medicine is about choosing the good for you variation more often than not! Now, there’s big lifestyle medicine and then...
I know the common idea surrounding dressing for success is work-related, being neat, “put together” and looking professional. To me, however, dressing for success has another connotation: it’s about wellness, productivity and feeling authentically good. First thing is footwear. Is your footwear inhibiting movement? Does it slow you down? Does it hurt? If you answer yes to any of these questions take those bad influences off your feet immediately! I’m not kidding around when it...
Drishti is a Sanskrit word meaning focused gaze. It’s about where you are physically looking, but it’s also where you place your attention, even when your eyes are shut. A yoga pose, like Warrior II, has a very specific physical drishti, vital to doing the pose correctly. As you can see from the above photo, the drishti is laser-like, directed to the tip of one’s middle finger. This is by design, as a means of fine-tuning alignment, developing concentration, and heightening a sense of self-awareness. When...
Many of us feel a bit stuck at the moment, waiting for things to turn around. I’m sensing a great big collective “in limbo” status, which to be honest, I find agonizing. Feeling powerless is no fun, and the first reaction to this sensation is to do nothing, and wait. But your time is now. Go. Go drink a big glass of water. Go breathe with awareness. Go workout. Or go cook a great meal or organize your closet or...
There’s a new video fit tip today on Ellen Barrett Mindful Movement called Breathing Your Shoulders Down. It’s short and sweet, and I think we all could benefit by watching it right now, because it’s about releasing neck tension. I’m seeing lots of neck tension in people (myself included) across the board – kids and adults, men and women, on TV and in real life. Ugh… let’s loosen up people! As a fit pro, I am particularly clued in to neck tension because it’s dangerous. It...
Did you see that full moon last night? It was simply gorgeous – so big and bright. As I was basking in the moonlight, I felt lots of cosmic love. I know that might sound strange, but the moon is my homegirl, and we go way back. Yes, I’m one of those people who go on midnight hikes on full moon nights and celebrate the new moon with my own intention setting ritual. Even as a young child, I was hypnotized...
Originally – way way back – the idea for this workout came from emails from you. Many people wanted a longer walking workout, so my first working title was “Long Walk” but my 11-year-old son put the kibosh on that saying, “That is way too basic.” The next working title was “Endurance Walk” which I held onto for a few months but never really loved. I finally settled on Walk With Weights because after describing the workout to someone I said,...
