Today is a cold and gloomy spring day, and I just brought a cup of hot tea with me to my mat. I’m after TLC. My cup of tea, my sheepskin rug, my leg warmers, and my cute yoga mat with my name on it…they are my very own workout hygge. “Hygge” is a Danish word for a quality of coziness that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being. I was craving Hygge, and voilà – my at-home...
I’d like to candidly talk about menopause. I’m 50 and people keep asking me what my thoughts are. First, I do notice my body changing. I feel like food stays in my stomach longer, and I’m not quite the “furnace” I once was. Second, I notice I have to work a bit harder at maintaining muscle tone. Third, my cycle is still regular, but much lighter and shorter, which is fine by me. But, overall I’m feeling...
Exercise is an opportunity to tune inward, towards yourself, but to look at it a different way, exercise is an opportunity to tune out the BS. I recommend we take advantage of this exercise opportunity every single day, since there’s a lot of low vibration out there! In all seriousness, have you noticed that giving your undivided attention to your workout – be it 15 minutes or an hour – is a form of escape from reality? And that...
One of the biggest things I’m working on personally this year is not living with the feeling of “I’ve got to be somewhere else” or “I’ve got a million things to do.” Our society really celebrates busy-ness and rushing around, and women especially are expected to go-go-go with to-do lists galore. I bought into this for years, but now I see it for what it is: a lack of being present. You and I can accomplish just...
The more grounded you are, the more present you are, and the more present you are the less reactive you are. Reactive behavior is usually not in anyone’s best interest. Some examples include, reactively running to the kitchen and eating a tub of ice cream after a stressful phone call, or reactively shouting obscenities at someone for cutting you off in traffic. Lately in the news, there has been a tremendous amount of reactive behavior on planes! Dare...
You’ve probably heard the saying, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.” I have found this to be a thousand percent true. It’s true for me personally and for people I work with. As a personal trainer, the clients that never cancel are ironically the one’s with the fullest plate. At the root of this, it’s because the busy person has a tight schedule and he or she intends to keep it. There’s no time for procrastination. Kids procrastinate...
Being fit always helps. Whatever your career or your lifestyle, having mobility, agility, strength, flexibility, and endurance is always an asset. It’s never not a good thing! The hair stylist with his/her washing, brushing and blow drying, requires quite a bit of arm and wrist strength. The librarian has to climb ladders and crouch down to the lower shelves requiring agility. The preschool teacher goes up and down onto the floor all day requiring mobility. The waiter hustles all over...
“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...
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...
