Friday Five: 5 Ways to Destress

1. Take a deep breath.

Don’t move. Feel the breath go in your mouth, through your throat, into the chest, into the belly. Out the belly, the chest, the throat, the mouth. Breath it into your fingers and your toes. Close your eyes. Listen. Breathe.

2. Meditate for 5 minutes.

If this is hard, try repeating a mantra as you sit, cross-legged, in a comfortable seat. Perhaps sit on a blanket. Back and neck are long. On the inhale, think, LET, on the exhale, GO. Inhale, LET, exhale, GO. Set a timer, or just stop when you’re ready.

3. Accept yourself today. (Or at least try.)

Don’t wait for when you are thinner, are in better shape, get a promotion, accomplish some goal. Accept yourself today, because it’s wasting time if you can only think about the future or the past. Be present, and be okay with you as you are. (This is not to say don’t have goals – just don’t beat yourself up if you’re not where you want to be.)

4. Drink a cup of tea. Savor it.

Be present as you sip your hot drink from the mug. Feel the warmth in your hands. Feel the tea in your belly. Watch when and where your mind starts to wander.

5. Try a sun salutation.

The simplest sun salutation variation I know is this:

Inhale, sweep your arms up overhead, press the palms, look up.

Exhale, swan dive forward, fold over your legs.

Inhale, look forward, flat back.

Exhale, fold.

Inhale, reverse the swan dive, sweep arms up, press the palms, look up.

Exhale, bring hands to prayer at your heart.

Repeat.

5 Friday 5 Links:

Five random Q’s.

  1. What was your first wristwatch like?
    –I don’t remember.
  2. What lately seems to have been a thief of time?
    –My “chitta vritti” – the whirlings and turnings of the mind. I’ve been distracted and unable to focus. Need to reign it in and start being present.
  3. What were yesterday’s quietest five minutes like?
    –Savasana after an Ashtanga practice.
  4. In what way have you lately been saving time?
    –More home yoga practice instead of going to the studio. Good in that it saves time; bad in that I probably am not doing all the poses I should be doing.
  5. We are often charged hourly rates for labor, but we never get to reciprocate in kind when promised completion times don’t match actual completion. If you could bill people for the time you spend waiting, what would be a reasonable amount?
    –This could be like some deadlines in school – for every day it’s late, it’s a letter grade off. I suppose a reasonable “letter grade” charge would that any additional work past the original estimate would be at least 10% off.

Weekend Link Love – 05.30.2011

Weekend Link Love

(Inspired by MDA)

I will leave you with my project of the evening (Bobby is at a music festival, cats are with my mom, so I am alone – a rare occurrence):

Organizing! (Tea, in this case.)

Do you have a lot of completely alone time? Do you have any? What do you do?

Tea Time and Relaxation

The Perfect Tea(Maker)

One of my very favorite things to do at night (or any time of day really) is make myself a nice big mug of tea. I’ve loved tea ever since I was in college. I got into loose leaf tea when Bobby brought me back some Lupicia loose leaf tea from Hawaii just a few weeks after we started dating. This was back in the winter of 2005-2006. Can’t believe that cute college boy turned into my husband! Things certainly do change over the course of 5 years.

A lot of my friends know about my love of tea too; my one friend that I talk about a lot (a bridesmaid) actually got me the Perfect TeaMaker from Teavana as part of our wedding present. It really does make the perfect mug of tea.

I have been loving the Earl Grey Creme flavor the most – it’s actually replaced my morning coffee. I sweeten it with a few drops of NuNaturals Stevia and drink it up as I do my morning routine. Here is the fresh loose leaf tea (you might recognize this from my header):

Going in…

Ready to pour the near-boiling water!

Steeping.

After it steeps you just set the Perfect TeaMaker on a mug (it fits with just about any size), which pushes up the bottom and lets the tea drain out. If you just have it sitting on the table (or its base) it does not leak. It’s very well designed! Then add your NuNaturals stevia (I only say NuNaturals because it is my favorite brand of stevia) and let it cool enough to drink. Speaking of NuNaturals, you have until Thursday to order and get 15% off! Click for coupon.

Tea & Yoga/Health

One reason I like drinking hot tea is that I can’t gulp it down quickly. I have to savor it. Something it’s hard to sit down and really savor meals/drinks/life. So tea makes me slow down and appreciate the moment. It’s almost like yoga or meditation. Savoring tea teaches you to savor the moments when you’re not drinking tea, if that makes sense. It’s the same principle in yoga – when you learn to hold a challenging pose you are practicing for how to face challenging situations in life. You breathe and you get through it. Tea helps you learn to appreciate moments of pleasure even when you’re not drinking tea.

Project Food Blog Entries That I Like (and that you should vote for too, if you like ’em)

Whew. Long post. Lots to say.

Do you drink tea? What’s your favorite flavor?

My favorite flavor is “cookie tea” from Lupicia. It tastes just like a cookie, especially with milk and a touch of honey.

Don’t forget to enter to win $65 from CSN Stores! Deadline is tomorrow night.

My Favorite Food Blogger Entries & Thankfulness

Did you know that you get 400 votes for Project Food Blog? I did not. You can vote for me and all of my favorites too! Check out these lovely posts:

(If I missed you let me know and I will make sure to vote for you!)

I don’t have much to say today so I am going to steal Kim’s daily gratitude feature. Don’t forget to enter my book giveaway if you didn’t already. It ends tomorrow.

***

Things I am thankful for today:

  1. Beautiful fall weather. Walking to work today was peaceful (as peaceful as a New York City morning can be) and relaxing.
  2. Having a steady job and enjoying it.
  3. Choir practice tonight!
  4. Having a very understanding and supportive husband.
  5. 30 Days of Yoga 🙂
  6. My morning cup of tea. (It’s not morning anymore, but it makes me happy all day.)

Thankful Thursday & Happiness

Did you see the stevia contest winners yet? I updated them.

On Being Thankful

I had a great birthday yesterday, thanks to your comments and lots of wishes from friends and family all over the country and even around the world. I’m so thankful to have met so many people through this blog and this healthy living community! And I’m thankful for technology that lets me stay in contact with friends and family that I otherwise would not see or talk to.

I was in a pensive mood yesterday, and I was thinking about being thankful, and being happy, and I came to the following conclusion:

If you are happy, that is all that matters.

At the end of my (hopefully very long) life, I want to look back and think, “wow, I was a happy person, and I spread that happiness to everyone I knew.” That would make me feel accomplished. And happy! It’s the little things in life that are important, right? Little things like…

  • hugging your friends/family/spouse/significant other
  • taking time to savor life (and food, yum)
  • being proud of the little things that you do really well at your job
  • finishing a Friday crossword (ok, that hasn’t happened yet)
  • learning something new
  • and so on.

I’m thankful for lots of simple (foodie) things, like seasonal and organic heirloom tomatoes that my mom gave me last weekend

Chopped heirlooms with a simple dressing of soy sauce, vinegar, and peanut oil.

I’m thankful that I can make time for a relaxing cup of tea each day.

Earl grey tea from a dear friend.

And I’m thankful that I can enjoy coconut cookies for breakfast (recipe to come).

Coconut cookies in my big breakfast mug.

What are you thankful for?

I am also thankful for my yoga challenge (join me!), and thankful that I have the chance to do another giveaway… so stop back tomorrow! Other upcoming posts include a post about wine, my Project Food Blog post, and something else I am currently forgetting. I must be getting old 😉