December is a huge month in my household. For one, my husband, son and dog all have birthdays in December. Secondly, as it is year end, there’s a big work and school-related “wrap things up” energy, And then, on top of it, the holiday hoopla is in full effect. Many of us don’t enjoy this time of year because the sense of pressure we feel clouds the festivity. After traveling for Thanksgiving, and then jumping...
Fitness is all the time. It may, at first, seem like it’s just that hour or so you spend working out each day, but at closer examination, you’ll see that everything is part of your fitness routine. From the quality of your sleep to the hours you sit at your desk – even the people you surround yourself with – it’s all part of your fitness routine. I have a client that flies all over the...
In the United States, it’s Thanksgiving week. It can be a challenging week on many levels, but it is especially challenging for those of us wanting to stay on a healthy living path. Be sure to spend some time today setting an intention for yourself. For me, it’s to stay grounded and move my body everyday.We tend to get way off-routine this time of year, and sometimes that “off-routine energy” continues until New Year’s. You can...
Season’s change. Right now, in Connecticut, it’s beginning to feel like winter. While every time of year has its greatness, this time of year, late November specifically, has always been hard for me. I already miss the barefoot ease of summer, and winter is not fully in effect. It’s colder and darker, and nature is still in route. We ‘ve left the shores of summer, but haven’t “landed” in winter, and I think that’s why I can...
“Close your eyes, fall in love, stay there.” – Rumi After years of working with people and being privy to some clients’ destructive inner dialogs, I realized self-criticism is the biggest obstacle to true wellness, and it usually comes from a place of self-loathing. At first, I thought, “Oh, it’s just words” but as my understanding of health and happiness grew, I realized that words stem from beliefs, and beliefs rule the world. How we feel about ourselves...
“Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. If we are frantic, life will be frantic. If we’re peaceful, life will be peaceful.” – Marianne Williamson For a long time I thought finding serenity was getting rid of stress, but it’s actually diverting your attention away from stress and towards the peace of now. I know that sounds corny, but for most of us, stress isn’t ever completely going away. The top athletes have mastered serenity. During competition,...
GRACE (noun): simple elegance or refinement of movement Grace is a mix of self-awareness and serenity, in action. Some people seem to, naturally, have loads of it. Others need to call it in. There is someone alluring about grace and I think grace turns ordinary movement into a thing of beauty. How can we cultivate more grace? It’s easier than you think. All it takes is to move calmly and pay attention. I think “hyper” is the polar...
“The best way to capture moments is to pay attention.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn Mindfulness in movement is self-education. You learn yourself. At first it’s physical things, like you learn how your ankle tracks when you step forward, and that lunging warms up your quads. Then it’s more than physical – just the other day, I learned that my breath tightens with thoughts of the approaching holidays! Our workout today is the most mindful one on the ellenbarrett.com platform. It’s Moving Meditation, 20minutes of meditative...
“Root yourself in this earthand it will root itself in you.”― Sheniz Janmohamed Having good balance gets more and more precious as the days go by. From navigating slippery steps to tripping over the cat and catching yourself from falling, balance is just so handy to have in real life. It’s one of the most underrated byproducts of regular exercise. I really do notice that the people who move their bodies on a regular basis have better balance than the ones...
“No tricks, gimmicks, special pills, special potions, special equipment. All it takes is desire and will.” – Richard Simmons It feels good to be strong. It’s handy to be strong. And it looks good too! But strong doesn’t necessary mean bulging biceps – it can be subtler, especially for women. “Strong” is using core muscles with every movement. It’s stabilizing shoulders when using dumbbells. It’s breathing out on exertion, and breathing in to refuel. It’s being able to support one’s own body weight in...
