Day One - I survived!

First day anxiety is a real thing for me. It has prevented me from starting several projects or goals in the past, but I am learning to embrace my fear and step out of my comfort box little bits at a time.

I am approaching my training the same way. My first conscious thought is what my day will bring me. If I start to feel overwhelmed, I just remember: It's one day. I've already planned for it, and hopefully I did some preparation the night before. I just have to roll out of bed and do what I agreed to do according to the plan I set out the night before. Past Me has made sure everything is set out and ready to go for the day. Which is another challenge. I tend to flake out in the evening pretty early, which if I don't prepare for my next day, gets my morning off to a rocky start. So it all starts in the evening. 

Last night I planned my day out. I knew I'd be going to cycling class and then straight to work, so I had to really be on top of it. I spent about 30 minutes getting ready here's my quick and dirty check-list:

• Finalize my menu and my schedule - For more strategies on developing a good habit of pre-planning, check out www.MonaPlanner.com There are also lots of great menu-planning resources out there.
• Put my food in serving sized containers - Check out BeachBody's 21 Day Fix for a reminder of portion size and more strategies to help eat a well rounded menu.
• Picked out my clothes for my workout - set on the bathroom counter where I can't miss 'em and I don't have to turn the bedroom light on
• Packed my clothes for work in a bag and set them in my 'staging area' next to my purse
• Made sure all my smoothie and coffee making items were clean and ready
• Set my heart rate belt and my phone out to charge
• Set my alarm for the appropriate time (usually 5:30am)

I am proud to say I managed to get out of the house on time having meditated, made coffee and my smoothie. I grabbed my pre-packed clothes and my lunch bag and off I went.

Now, it's almost time for bed, and I've accomplished almost everything on my to do list. I'm feeling pretty good - just a few last things left to do before bed and I checked more off my list than I left on, so I'm calling today a success.

2016 - winter training plan

I'm training my mind body and spirit this season. Training includes:

1) Efforting meditation every morning - I have a very specific order of events here so it becomes unconscious: get out of bed, pee, come downstairs, Toss down a cup of cool water with my probiotic, make a hot cup of water with two or three drops of dōTERRA wild orange, go sit in my meditation spot and get right to it. 

2) Mobility: after sitting in meditation for 10-20 minutes, I am ready to start moving. Those in the CST world would recognize my list of movements, but generally, I focus on Breathing with my movement for about 20 minutes.

3) Starting Monday I get right to my training plan. I'll be using the 4-day training wave with the focus that I must keep my heart rate in the appropriate zone no matter what I am doing. My primary goal here is to have my heart rate strap and my phone ready. I'll be rotating Clubbell Yoga with Flowfit and Clubbell Athletics. More on this in another post.

4) Drink my smoothie immediately after training! Why do I always wait so long?)

4) Prepare food each day. - I have a rotating list of simple dishes when I'm working to detox like I will be these first two weeks. I keep the menu simple, light and frequent. I double most recipes for plenty of leftovers, and make sure I have a good mix of veggie dishes and fruit 'desserts' and toss meat in with the veg from time to time. I like having a hash dish I can eat for breakfast, and a big hunk of steel cut oats. 

5) Do something for me each day. This could be taking a bath, reading something inspiring, spending time knitting/crocheting, writing. 

6) Have a meaningful interaction with someone. Some days it's just my husband, some days it's dozens of people (or even hundreds if I'm on stage) I interact with throughout the day. This sometimes is all I need to feel like I've had a successful day.

Life goes on and I also intend to remain flexible and present in the moment. 

Today and tomorrow I am taking the last of the 'me time' to prepare food and finish writing out my goals and decorate for the holidays. 

Ginger Curry soup

This afternoon, I finally got an hour alone in the kitchen to cook. This is one of my favourite flavors of autumn.

1 T. Olive oil

1-2 yellow onions

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 t. (?) Fresh ginger

1 1/2 t. Hot yellow curry powder (Muchi)

1t. Salt

4c. Broth/stock 

1T. Honey

Chop your onion and mince your garlic now, but don't mix them up. Now, coat the bottom of the pot with about 1T. Olive oil. Turn heat on low and wait until the olive oil starts to shimmer. Toss the onions in, stir them around and let them soak up the olive oil. Stir every 1/2 minute or so for the next 5 minutes, to gently sautée the onions. While this is going you can tackle the butternut squash however you need to get about 1" chunks of peeled squash. 

I have a serrated veggie peeler as well as a smooth peeler. I used both today...

Peel the carrots and chop into 1" chunks.

At some point, I turned off the stove and threw the garlic in to soak while I finished chopping. If you don't need to, just give the garlic a minute or so to heat through, but not to get browned (it happens fast). 

Grate the ginger and stir it in with the curry and salt until all the onion is well coated. Add the cut up orange veg. Add the water/stock. I didn't have any stock handy so I used Better Than Bouillon.

Cover and simmer 20 minutes, then take the lid off and let it heat up the house and thicken a bit. 

I have an immersion blender, but if you don't, you can use a blender but do very small batches and let the soup cool for a while (30+ min) before scooping into the blender.

I topped my bowl with a dollop of sour cream.

Deeelish!!

Spinal Twists

You don’t have to be an advanced yogi to reap the benefits of a practice that includes some spinal yaw. Besides the more obvious flexibility one gains, there are several other benefits, such as:

• Increased circulation
• Improved digestive function
• Strengthens the back to help reduce back pain caused by daily activities such as sitting for long periods
• Opening chest, shoulders and back helps release tension and increase feelings of relaxation

 Access the above benefits with any of these poses:

Twisted Lunge-clubbell in torch; Shinbox w/arm thread; Down dog w/cross-bind; Seated spinal twist w/straight leg & knee bind

This picture shows only a few different ways we can access these benefits through a practice that incorporates ‘yaw’ or spinal rotation, but there are more. 

It doesn't have to be complicated. Take a moment to reconnect with your breath and release tension in your spine in a simple spinal twist at your desk.

Sit straight and tall in your seat, evenly balanced on your sit bones, breathe in and get tall, as if someone were pulling the crown of your head up with an imaginary string. Exhale and rotate shoulders, drawing your shoulder blade down your back towards the opposite hip. grasp the back of your chair for support but don't pull yourself beyond where your body can take you on its own. Expand into the pose with each inhale, deepen into the twist one the exhale. When you are ready to switch sides, unwind on the exhale.

Try adding one or two to your day and notice the benefits of released stress, improved digestion and a stronger spine.

Slainté Mhath,* (*Gaelic for "To your good health")

Roxanne Sailors

Clubbell Yoga and Clubbell Athletics Coach

Musician-Maggie’s Fury

Toleak and a look back at Summer 2015

 Toleak Point is on the coast of Washington State, about .....

In my transformative year last year (my "Chariot" year, in Tarot), I experienced a very painful and deep loss of and unravelling family/friend relationship. By the time my first  Toleak Point backpacking experience came upon me, I was raw and exposed and desperate for renewal. Having never experienced a long backcountry hike like this one, Everything was new and fascinating and challenging and unexpected, mainly because I went in with no expectation.

This year, (my "strength" year in Tarot), that wound has begun the process of healing. This was also my second  Toleak Point backpacking experience, and I understood the physical challenges of such an excursion. As with any repeat experience, there is as much to compare with similarity as there are differences in each experience.

This year I came to Toleak feeling stronger, more grounded, having practiced setting my personal boundaries that were so thoroughly dismantled from my loss last year. I spent most of my waking moments practicing being in the present moment. This is what Tokeak means to me. I woke when I became aware of my surroundings, and got up when my body bid me to rise. I ate when I was hungry, and moved when I felt the urge to.

One of the beauties of extended "recreation" is that there is always something to do, but very little that must be done. Having the time and space to return to listening to my own intuition, my own body's requests and taking the time to fully explore each moment without agenda or time constraints is a rare gift. To be able to do it amongst a tribe of like-minded people expands the experience from a personal one to a process of building community. Each of us is able bodied, and I believe we all came prepared, but the opportunity to share our experience, our knowledge and our resources deepened our tribal bonds, and created a sense of peace and safety in the middle of the wilderness.

This sacred and safe space and community provided the opportunity for each of us to explore our own inner journey, and reclaim something we were missing, or had lost touch with. For some, it was a silent solo journey. For others, it was an opportunity to be held in love and comfort as they fell apart and released that which no longer served them.

There will be other posts for me to share some of the more playful and outward/observable moments we experienced at Toleak, but for me, Toleak is different from other adventures in that the opportunity to set up our tribal village and practice being a tribal community is highlighted. 

Just like each of us in the tribe, Toleak remains similar over the years, and yet each time we return it is undeniably changed. 

For me, having had a year to heal from my emotional scars of last summer, I see how far I've come, but the scars are still fresh and still hold me back from time to time in my relationships with others. Being able to take the time out of my day to day life, I am better able to hear that still small voice inside me, once the clatter, chaos and rush of modern civilization is removed. 

I recall one morning, as my love and I made the half mile journey around the point, over the log jam, and waded through the stream to get to some clear water to filter for the day, I felt the shift away from my civilized mind and into my human animal mind. No longer was I consciously focusing on correct body movement, and my outward appearance. It was like somebody turned off the glaring light of civilized expectation, and I was blessedly moving in the dark, using proprioception and inner cues to move my body fluidly from log to log, focusing on my place in space, rather than the gaping abyss below each log. I trusted my body's cues. It's so very difficult to find the words to explain this shift, but it was very clear to me, that I was "humaning". I was experiencing the full expression of my whole Self. My civilized shell was gone. And I wasn't rude, or bad, or wrong. I just was. I was be-ing. 

Later, my husband and I had this exchange:

E: "you are clearly in your happy place"

R: "what do you mean?"

E: "I see your light shining through clearer now than at home. You are at peace"

Well, it went something like that. The point I took from it was to remember that feeling. Seek that out in my daily life, and make that my anchor point. When I get too far from that sense of calm and sense of true Self, it's time to return to nature - my happy place - and find my center.