“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...
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” ―Confucius In the fitness world, endurance has a cardio connotation – it’s actually a byproduct of cardio, in that regular cardio leads to greater endurance. Endurance begs the question, “Can the breath keep up with the oxygen demand?” You definitely want the answer to be yes. It’s a yes to capability, to having a huge comfort zone, and to being able to go after all your dreams. There is another aspect to endurance...
Exercise tells your cells that you are alive. – Suzanne Somers “I’m so busy” is something I used to say a lot, but I stopped using it as a go-to statement whenever anyone asked me how I was doing. I’m really not that busy. I mean, I get 8 hours of sleep at night, and I have plenty of time to walk my dog, pack my son’s lunch, and water my plants. The truth is, “There is so much I...
God gave me a great body, and it’s my dutyto take care of it.– Jean-Claude Van Damme Have you ever been up close to a deer running wild in the woods? The way the deer moves is sheer elegance. She’s agile and light, and has precision and ease in motion that’s quite breath-taking. The muscles and joints of her body are coordinated, like a symphony. Your body wants to move in symphony too. Your body prefers unity over isolation. In fact, isolation is...
Today is your day!Your mountain is waiting,So… get on your way! – Dr. Seuss Self-awareness means mind/body connection. It’s paying attention to your whole self and its needs. Moving mindfully is a great way to bring in self-awareness because it puts your own attention on the mechanics of moving, and then of the sensations surrounding what that entails come oozing forth. (What a concept!) Self-awareness is lacking in our culture, and that’s because there are so many distractions. it seems, everyone...
There’s a brand new video fit tip on Ellen Barrett Mindful Movement and this one may be the most outside-the-box yet. It’s literally what’s in my daily go-to bag. I’m a working woman on the run and you’ll see I am very practical and my bag is very functional. A few initial comments I received upon posting this were: 1. you don’t carry food or snacks? Nope. I’m not a snacker. 2. What about a change of clothing? I usually do go home...
