Category: rest

Elan in the white canyon navigating a boulder Strong Enough for Egypt Vacation
challenge · fitness · holiday fitness · holidays · rest · traveling · vacation

Strong Enough for Egypt Vacation

elan.paulson

I knew my 16-day trip to Egypt with 3 midlife friends would be a fun, budget-friendly adventure, but it also became a test of stamina and strength for me.

We had no tour big bus providing a comfy, air-conditioned bubble. Rather, our ambitious travel schedule took us through half the country, hauling our backpacks up modest hotel staircases and navigating every natural and human-made obstacle in our path. Although we had quiet evenings, including a few days by a rooftop pool, by day our bodies were moving in lots of ways.

Our first of many tomb and temple visits, the burial chamber of Bannentiu, 26th dynasty (Roman Era) in the Baharia Oasis.

Bodies in Motion

In the desert near the Baharia Oasis we climbed up (then surfed down) sand dunes. In downtown Cairo, the honking cars, uneven pavement, and throngs of moving people in the street demanded constant physical manouvering. We toured ancient sites out in the hot sun, including Luxor’s Avenue of Sphinxes and Aswan’s Forgotten Obelisk. We also used steep ramps and narrow tunnels inside multiple tombs and pyramids, crouching under low ceilings carved over three and four thousand years ago!

Folks climbing a ramp in one of the Giza Pyramids, built for Pharoah Khufu in the 2500s BCE. Kim said the ramps were put in after her visit 16 years ago: before it was just dirt.

As well, we hiked three silent, stunning canyons in the South Sinai region that shimmered white, red, and multi-coloured in the sunshine. The next day, after a caravan of camels and their handlers got us most of the way up Mt Sinai, we used 750 steep steps to get up to its peak.

Riding Asfour (the Second), a 7-year old camel up the first 3000 steps of My Sinai was a highlight. And although Asfour did most of the work, my legs were still sore the next day!

Later, it was a relief to float face down in the salty water of the Red Sea over the most beautiful coral and schools of fish I have seen. We snorkelled twice: off the beach in Sharm El Sheik and off a glass-bottom boat in Hurghada. But even in and near the water, I had to be thinking about dehydration and sunburn.

Kimi and me snorkelling just off the beach in the Red Sea. Video by Lisa Porter.

Getting hurt could mean getting stuck. I nearly did a few times, once when I mildly rolled an ankle in the Coloured Canyon and when I jammed a finger on a tomb doorway at the Saqqara necropolis. But it felt good to keep moving. At least twice we saw a tourist who seemed unprepared or was having great difficulty getting through the tomb shafts.

Kim and Lisa going down the low-lit ramps in what I think was the Step Pyramid, built for Pharoah Djoser in the 2600s BCE. Video by Kimi Maruoka.

We covered thousands of steps per day, even on our 2- to 7-hour travel days. At the last minute I decided to leave my fitness tracker at home, and I’m glad I did. It helped me to make sense of how I was feeling in my body rather than by stats on a screen.

Rope repelling, then a rebar ladder, just to get down into the White Canyon. Our guide admitted he used this to judge hikers’ readiness for this canyon.

Caring Co-Travellers

And my body did feel many things, as I was under the weather for a good part of the trip: first menstrual cramps, a head cold that turned to cough, then mild heatstroke after the first time snorkeling, and finally a stomach bug. On my worst night, I laid awake shaking with chills, sipping tepid tablet-purified water, and waiting for dawn (or death, I had thought self-piteously).

A short video of Cairo’s downtown streets at night. Our group kept close watch on each other to avoid getting lost or run over.

But I survived. As a white, English-speaking tourist with a credit card and travel insurance on a holiday, I was never really in serious danger. I saw many Egyptians who may have been facing economic hardships and health risks I will never have to deal with as a middle-class Canadian.

Nevertheless, I am so grateful for my three travel buddies, who showed each other constant care throughout our journey. We divided snacks, each bought rounds of water, shared everything from tissues to electrolytes, and carried the mood for each other until someone sick (usually me) recovered.

A cat next to my day pack and water bottle. I stayed hydrated with old and new friends!

Kim, who had planned the travel and booked the local guides and drivers, happily made last-minute arrangements to help me join later when an early morning tour of Isis Temple in Aswan wasn’t possible for me. This caring company was the heart of my trip.

Me in a feeling-better moment, making silly Instagram poses with the backdrop of the Red Canyon behind me. Photos by Kimi Maruoka.

Proof of Life

I believe that our greater exertions paid off in greater fun. In exchange for living out of packs and in our sore, dust-covered bodies, we got to see and sleep in neat places, including under the desert stars, where we felt extremely lucky to be there, together and alive.

Our remarkable view of the white desert at night. This photo was not taken with a black/white filter.

There’s a certain idea of midlife that says to slow down, be careful, rest more. This trip refused that. It demanded and invited all kinds of motion, reminding me how much the body can still do when it must. It turns out that I was strong enough for Egypt.

Lisa and Elan racing (falling?) down a sand dune in the White Desert. Photo by either Kim or Kimi.

And by the end of the trip, I used nearly every pill I’d packed and every muscle I had. But getting over everything became part of my adventure story. I came home with a mildly sprained finger, hardwon but still overpriced souvenirs, and a feeling that my flawed and frustrating body could still bring me much, much joy.

Our fearless foursome trekking in the desert. To borrow a phrase from Kimi and her sisters: “We did it!!”
Go Team 2025: Reminder – You Are The Boss Of You
ADHD · fitness · goals · habits · health · motivation · rest · self care

Go Team 2025: Reminder – You Are The Boss Of You

Christine Hennebury

Hey Team!

I know, I have probably already reminded you about this before.

And you probably already know that you are the boss of you.

But…

But…

If you are anything like me, there is a big difference in understanding it in theory and actually practicing it.

So let’s review it together…

You get to decide what’s important to your well-being.

You get to decide how to take good care of yourself.

You get to decide how you want to move, what you want to eat, whether you want to set goals, if you want to journal, whether meditation is right for you…

YOU are the BOSS of your life and you don’t have to do what’s trendy, you don’t have to be a certain size, eat a certain way, or take up any exercise or wellness practice that you don’t want to.

Sure, we all have different needs, different pressures, different capacities, different obligations, and different abilities and those things are going to factor into our decisions but one thing we can all be sure of is that we don’t need to do ANYTHING just because someone else thinks we should.

We don’t have to do any resets, any boot camps, any ‘disappear for 30 days and become unrecognizable’ *programs that people are peddling left right and centre.

You can do any and all of those things if you want to but if you don’t want to do them then you don’t have to.

Why?

Because YOU are the BOSS of YOU and your plan is your business.

So, Team, please join me in ignoring the very notion of a ‘should’ and let’s really get in to being the boss of ourselves.

It’s hard work but we can do it.

And here’s a gold star for our efforts!

Go Team Us!

A drawing of a gold star against a background of purple with red spots
A drawing of a gold star with concentric gold stars within it (is concentric just for circles? I have basically drawn smaller and smaller stars within one another.) The background is purple with red dots and is framed with black lines.

PS – Right now (9:40PM on Monday night) boss is telling me it’s time to get ready for bed. You know, I think it’s a good idea to listen to her – she seems to know me pretty well.

*I know they are speaking metaphorically but, yet, every time I see one of those ads, I think, “I don’t want to disappear for one day, let alone thirty. And being unrecognizable just seems weird.”

fitness · planning · play · rest · self care

Self Care September

Christine Hennebury

I know, I know.

Thinking about self-care amidst the chaos of these times might feel a little ridiculous, somewhat of a distraction, a bit like you are gazing inward when you need to be looking outward.

And, yes, some people might take it to an extreme, focusing only on their own needs and buying a ton of unnecessary products in the name of self-care.

But most of us aren’t like that.

In fact, many of us could probably use a nudge to remind us to take care of ourselves.

After all, how are we supposed to do the important things we are here to do if we’re worn out, frazzled, and just churning through endless to do lists?

So, please let me remind you that it is ok – in fact, it is necessary!- for you take care of yourself, to be kind to yourself, to meet your needs, to rest, to connect, to get away from the push to be bigger, better, more. *

You can take care of yourself for your own sake – after all, literally no one benefits if you forgo self-care. It’s not as if you sacrificing a brief rest means that someone else automatically gets that time.**

And you can do it for the greater good. It will be hard to be part of the solution if you are too worn out to deal with the challenges we are facing – alone and together.

Yet, even when we KNOW that self-care is a good idea, it’s hard for us to take that time, to make that effort.

Luckily, Action for Happiness has a whole calendar of small steps that can help you take good care of yourself this September.

And hopefully it can help you build even stronger self-care habits from now on.

Here’s the calendar:

a calendar of self-care tips from Action for Happiness
Check out Action for Happiness for more versions of the calendar as well as links to other resources. Image description: a calendar of daily tips for self-care. Each calendar block is either light blue, medium blue, peach, or red and the edge of the calendar is decorated with cartoon drawings of people doing self-care activities like meditaton, exercise, speaking positively to themselves, etc.

And here are three self-care tips from Action for Happiness in a video presented by Vanessa King.

A video from the Action for Happiness YouTube channel. The still image shows Vanessa King, a woman with her dark blonde hair pinned up in the back but with sideswept bangs in front, she is slightly smiling, and is wearing a red and white patterned shirt.

So, whaddaya think? Want to give Self-Care September a whirl?

*Ideally, you would have other people supporting you in this/taking good care of you but this post is about ‘Self-Care September’ not ‘Mutual Support May’ or something. Note: Mutual Support May should totally be a thing.

**Yes, I know there are exceptions to this. For example, if you pull a longer shift caring for your sick baby, your partner can have more time to sleep but that’s a short term benefit. It won’t actually be helpful in the long run if you end up getting sick because you are overtired or if you become so resentful that it creates friction in your relationship. Ultimately it would be better for you and your partner to alternate break times so everyone can take good care of themselves and each other.

rest · Sat with Nat · self care · strength training

Nat ditches the bike in favour of weights, walks & waterfalls

natalieh (she/her)1 Comment

I’m waking up this morning in Gananoque (ga-nan-KNOCK-way) in a four post bed. It’s ostentatious. It’s the exact opposite of every stay Michel and I have ever booked on our way home to New Brunswick.

The 1,000 Islands Bed & Breakfast was a Michel find. He convinced me that on the return trip we always drive through. We can afford the nicer stop on the way down.

A claw foot tub stands under a chandelier. It looks swanky.

Our vacation is one week. We will drive over 3,000 km by September 1. We know it is a lot but flying is expensive and doesn’t get us close to where our families live.

Last week we were gathering gear, cleaning bikes and planning cycling routes. Then Michel looked at me and said “What if we left the bikes behind?”

Huh.

What if we left the bikes behind?

We had both assumed cycling had to be the center of our activities over our vacation.

Huh.

Then we talked through what we enjoyed the most from vacations over the past couple years. Time together. Traveling light. Being spontaneous.

It then became clear, less stuff, less structure, more fucking chill. Like. Way more chill. Still more. Almost chill enough. There it is. Very. Fucking. Chill.

We need sleep and rest and recovery.

So we are tucking some dumbbells in the trunk.

A triangular metal weight rack has 5 pairs of dumbells. The lightest is 3 lbs, the heaviest 20 lbs.

We can keep our Peloton strength training going. It’s an app and I often just work out in my underwear. Super classy! Also very chill.

The rest of the week, when driving, we are looking for waterfalls that are short walks. It served us great in Iceland last year. We’d whisper “foss” (Icelandic for “falls”) and point. It was silly and wonderful. We need more of both.

Michel poses in front of Schribner Brook Falls in 2021. Lucy the dog is having a drink.

Four years ago we made it our mission to hike all the trails near McAdam NB. The shortest one was Schribner Brook Falls. It was a pullover and park with a, maybe five minute walk? It was a magical little stop.

So the cycling stuff is in London and that feels like a good choice this week.

So here is to a week of weights, walks and waterfalls with a giant serving of chill.

Camping together gives women autonomy and community
camping · challenge · femalestrength · fitness · fun · kayak · kayaking · paddling · rest

Camping together gives women autonomy and community

elan.paulson

I recently went kayak camping with 6 friends at a remote Ontario provincial park called Killarney. Over 6 days and 5 nights we kayaked on a lake to 3 different camp sites. It was a chance for some holiday rest but also some active challenges.

Each site stop meant packing and unpacking my (borrowed) kayak: sleeping gear, food gear, hygiene gear, camp chair, bug repellants, clothes, and drying line. These were stored in dry sacs that kept stuff dry in inclement weather or if the kayak tips. We also agreed to each pack out our own garbage, which had to be stored every night in our kayaks to avoid attracting animals.

Though I was a girl guide and did family trailercamper trips as a kid, I am newer to camping where you haul your own gear, purify your own water, eat primarily rehydrated food, and eliminate in a “thunderbox”. On every trip I learn more through observing others and asking questions to find what arrangements suit me best (eg, tent vs hammock for sleeping, what vegetarian foods I can take, etc.).

I’m on my own to make sure I can carry what I pack, I pick up after myself, and I keep myself clean, dry, sated, and injury-free. Although this seems like regular adult stuff, in nature with no other amenities than what I carry, I must plan ahead and be self-sufficient. As one of my friends said during the trip, “Doing this as a woman, as a group of women, is empowering.” (Another one said camping is having fun while being mildly uncomfortable.)

What is empowering is not just taking care of yourself but also working together as a group. These women harnessed 7 kayaks in a trailer safely for highway driving, navigated to a remote provincial park, kayaked to multiple camp sites, used fishing gear, arranged in pairs for food prep and clean up, found wood, set up big tarps in case of rain, and shared anything that was needed, from extra salt to insect repellant to tampons to skin bandages.

For nearly a week were on our own but also together: travelling, paddling, swimming, fishing, card playing, plein air watercolor painting, food and drink imbibing, mosquito repelling, storytelling, and looking out for each other.

I am grateful to have learned so much about the tricks and tools of kayak camping from these women. It’s given me a sense of accomplishment and pride in a hobby that’s fun but not always easy or convenient. I’ve chosen from here this quotation, attributed to Madonna (who may or may not also be a kayak camper), to sum up my thoughts:

“As women, we have to start appreciating our own worth and each other’s worth. Seek out strong women to befriend, to align yourself with, to learn from, to collaborate with, to be inspired by, to support, and enlightened by.” – Madonna

What do you do, on your own but also with others, that gives you a sense of personal autonomy as well as community?

7 kayaks hauled by a truck
7 women in kayaks
5 women sitting in front of a campfire at dusk
The view, of an overturned kayak near the water’s edge, from my tent at dawn
Go Team 2025: Think In Seasons
ADHD · fitness · goals · habits · motivation · rest · self care

Go Team 2025: Think In Seasons

Christine Hennebury

Hey Team,

Here I am with my latest reminder for us to be kinder to ourselves.

…wait, can I shorten that to ‘my latest re-kinder’? Probably not. That would probably work better aloud.

ANYWAY!

I remember reading a blog post or article years ago (I have not been able to find it since!*) in which the writer described her conversation with another Mom at the playground. They were discussing the challenges of getting supper on the table when you have small kids and the writer was feeling guilty about the easy meals she was serving. The other Mom explained that she generally served (carefully chosen) pre-prepared meals or meals that could be created from pre-prepared elements and things she could quickly put together (a supermarket-cooked chicken paired with a salad, for example) because she had decided that she wasn’t in a elaborate cooking season in her life right now.

That framing of the seasons of her life really stuck with me.

She had found the best solution she could for the realities of this part of her life and had decided to let go of any guilt or weirdness about it.

She was fully aware that things could (and would) change later and that she could/would re-evaluate things at that point.

And I think that framing works just as well for fitness and well-being as it does for meal planning.**

Maybe you are in a season of your life when you can really focus on intense exercise towards a specific goal. That’s great but please don’t get tied up in knots about other things that *don’t* fit into this season – perhaps your season for yin yoga will come later.

Maybe you are in a season where gentle stretching is the only thing you have the capacity for – you can relax into those stretches without feeling like you *should* (ugh! that word!) be doing something else. (Yes, it is hard to let go of that feeling but practice will help.)

Maybe your family commitments limit your time-flexibility right now so you have to do short bursts of exercise when a bit of time opens up, or perhaps you can only meditate for 2 mins in the car before going into your office – those practices still help.

Maybe you can’t sit to write in your journal these days but you can make some voice memos on your phone while you fold your laundry – you’re still getting your thoughts out of your head and giving your brain a break.

Maybe the literal seasons are shaping this season of your life. If it is too cold or too hot to follow the plan you would like to follow, there is probably another way to get the feeling you are looking for without compromising your health and safety.

The point here is that life is complicated enough without giving ourselves extra things to feel bad about.

If you find yourself feeling bad about what you’re doing or not doing for your own well-being right now, it might be a good idea to figure out what season your life is in at the moment and adjust your expectations accordingly.

I know it isn’t easy – it’s not like you can flick a switch to the acceptance setting – but identifying this season of your life could make things a lot easier on your brain.

(This framing really helps my ADHD brain step away from the all-or-nothing default that I get stuck in. I’m not claiming that I always remember to consider life seasons but things are better when I do.)

So, Team, I invite you to give this seasons thing a whirl and take your self-kindness up a notch. Let’s find the kindest, gentlest description of your current season and adjust your expectations and your self-talk accordingly.

You can totally do it. I believe in you. 💚

And here, as always, is your gold star for your efforts to name your season and to be kind to yourself about it.

May you find ease.

Go Team Us!

A photo of a small drawing of a gold star propped up against a green backdrop.
Sometimes I forget how relaxing it can be to draw some patterns. I highly recommend it for my future self and for you. Image description: a small drawing of a gold star against a background of a series of concentric circles in which each set of circles overlap the other sets. The star has thin black lines running vertically that create a striped effect and the stripes alternate in colour between yellow and gold.

*I really dislike referencing something and not being able to give the writer credit so if you know the article or post I am referring to, please let me know. Also, just to be transparent, I may be referring to a small part of a longer piece and/or I may have lost the details or other points to the mists of time.

**Have I written about this before? Almost certainly. But if I go hunting for the old post then I will get distracted from this one so I am working from the assumption that if I need a reminder of this framing from time to time then other people probably do, too.

Gathering myself in
ADHD · fitness · mindfulness · rest · self care

Gathering myself in

Christine Hennebury

On Monday, I started the second half of my Storytelling tour with my friend Catherine and our first day went really well.

But you know what else?

It was really tiring.

The kids were great and the teacher was great and the school was great, but there was a lot of energy going in all sorts of different directions today – just the nature of a busy school day – and it made it a little bit challenging for my slightly-sleepy ADHD brain to focus on my stories and on the work I was trying to do.

So, I had to use a lot of energy to concentrate and stay on task and, at the end of the day, I felt a bit jangled. Kind of scattered. A little bit at loose ends.

I know from previous experience that when I feel that way, it’s all too easy to lose the rest of the day to kind of aimlessly wandering from task to task in search of ways to settle my brain.

On Monday, though, I refused to lose my evening to that feeling. Instead, I decided to take action to find equilibrium, to gather my energy back to me.

I started with a good chat with Catherine about the interesting parts of the day and the things we especially enjoyed.

Then, while Catherine was out for a walk, I did some journalling and had some tea.

My journal, a pen, and a mug of tea on a table
A photo of my journal, a patterned, pink, soft-covered notebook, with a teal and silver pen on top. Above the notebook is a mug of tea, the mug has a moose and the word Canada on it.

I followed that with meditation and deep breathing before heading out on my own solo walk (around Port Union, NL, in case you’re wondering)

A photo of a river in early spring
Photo of a river with a grassy incline in the foreground, a few large rocks in the water, and a rocky, shrubby incline on the other side.
A photo of the trunks of two birch trees
A photo of two birch trees growing close together, the trees don’t have leaves yet and the trunks have interesting patterns in the bark.
A photo of a small harbour
A photo of a small harbour with scrubby grass in the foreground and rocks outlining the water

And when I got back from my amble, I lay on the floor for a while in a restorative ‘legs up the wall’ yoga pose.

A photo of my legs resting against a pillar
A photo, taken from my perspective as I lie on the floor, of my jean-covered legs resting against a pillar in our rental unit as I do legs up the wall pose.

It all helped and I feel much more at ease.

And, sure, I may have felt better with just one or two of these things but I was enjoying the process so I decided to roll with it.

Do you know that scattered feeling I am referring to?

What process do you use to gather yourself in?

Outdoor photo of a dog skidding the ground Christine’s Current Conundrums
ADHD · health · injury · rest

Christine’s Current Conundrums

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

Conundrum #1

As I work towards healing the muscles in my back, neck, and shoulders, I need to do a certain amount of movement to keep the circulation up, to create ease, and to maintain mobility but I can’t do too much or I will end up hurting myself and have a setback. 

How can I tell if I am doing enough or doing too much?

It’s a conundrum – there’s actually no way to tell, it’s something that everyone has to kind of figure out for themselves.

I hate that for me because I really have NO IDEA how hard I am working at any given time – even when I am not injured – so I can’t compare how I am moving now to how I moved last time (even if ‘last time’ was 5 minutes ago.)  

I’m sure you can see how that makes it very challenging to take a ‘do what you can, evaluate, then make adjustments next time’ approach for this healing process. 

I know a lot of people with ADHD mention having issues with this sort of thing – a lack of perception regarding our efforts – so it seems to be one of those challenges that everyone has but is often exacerbated by ADHD. 

The whole ‘how much is enough/how much is too much’ is really an unanswerable question loop so I’m really just going to hope for the best. 

Conundrum #2

I woke up on Sunday morning with the sort of panicky thoughts that usually only show up when I am having the sort of migraine that doesn’t involve any actual headache. I thought that was odd until I sat up, my stomach turned and I realized that I *was* having a migraine. 

I took a migraine pill, slept for another few hours, and then felt pretty ok until about 9pm on Sunday night when I suddenly stressed myself out about something and my stomach turned again.  Next thing, I was lying in bed with my migraine hat on , listening to cello music , putting an ice cube in my mouth, holding a hot water bottle to my stomach, and trying to find some ease.

Did I actually have the same migraine all day but the meds in the morning put it in the background? Or did getting stressed out bring on a new migraine? Or did a pre-existing migraine make me more vulnerable to getting suddenly stressed out and the stress just brought the symptoms to the foreground again? 

Is there even any point in asking myself these questions?

Since I haven’t ever been able to reliably predict my migraines there’s probably no point in going through the thought-loop but it would take a lot of energy to stop myself so I might as well travel the loop until it burns itself out.

Conundrum #3

After my Sunday night migraine,  my Monday self felt pretty lousy but I also had a bunch of tasks that I needed to do.

If I had felt any worse, I would have just taken to my bed like a Victorian lady and called it a day but I wasn’t that kind of sick. It was a ‘take it easy’ day, not a ‘grind to a halt’ day so, basically, I was in the same kind of loop as the ‘enough/too much’ question above except with work and rest.

Rest is important, obviously,  but my day wouldn’t be very restful if I couldn’t put those tasks out of my head, especially since I knew people would be checking in with me about them. (I never want to risk getting extra email.)

The best answer would be to identify the most important tasks and work on those but that brings me to a different challenge: 

Prioritization is extremely difficult for me under the best of circumstances and a day in which I am very tired and recovering from a migraine was not the best of circumstances – especially since my ADHD meds are less effective when I haven’t slept well. 

And if my meds are less effective, it not only affects my ability to prioritize, it also affects my ability to concentrate on my work so I am going to be slower and less focused.

So, I basically spent a good chunk of Monday putting a lot of mental effort into my attempts to prioritize/cut back on my work for the day so I could rest. 

Conundrum #4

As I got towards the end of my day, I discovered another conundrum:

Am I too tired/out of sorts to take Khalee for a walk or will taking Khalee for a walk actually make me feel better?

Luckily, I quickly figured out the correct answer for that one:

And about 5 minutes after we got home, it started to hail (just a little, but still!) so I was really glad that my ‘Will a walk help?’ loop was far shorter than the others. 

Conundrum #5

My final loop of the day was ‘Do I feel up to writing a post for the blog? What am I going to write about? Should I write about this loopy day? Will anyone want to read about that? Am I just being self-indulgent and whiny?’

And maybe I am being self-indulgent and whiny but I also know that I often feel better when I read posts like this. When other people write posts like this they always remind me that I am not alone in my frustrations, and thought loops, and in my efforts to make my way out of ordinary, fairly low-stakes conundrums. 

So perhaps today is my turn to do that for you.

It’s ok to get caught in conundrums – thought loops happen to everyone.

It’s ok to struggle to balance things and lots of us find it hard to figure out how to rest. 

There’s nothing wrong with you if it feels like AllOfTheThings are in your way today. 

Please be kind to yourself as you make your way along.

Dancing · motivation · rest

Anxiety Paralysis

Diane Harper

Are you feeling it? Judging by the social media comments I find as I doomscroll, I’m pretty sure it’s not just me.

Other things are contributing too: trying to organize a big event at the other end of the province in a few weeks; navigating insurance after my car was hit while sitting in my driveway; insomnia brought on by all of the above…

I’m trying to use all my tricks: lists, reminders on my phone, the Pomodoro app. Aiming to do five things (or even one), no matter how small to break myself out of the frozen feeling. I even took my laptop to the pool so I could do paperwork while on my break.

Eventually I was able to do a thing, which led to a few more things, so hopefully I’m getting myself back on track. But I think this will be a long process because so much of what I am dealing with requires what some people call executive decision-making. My brain is too tired to brain right now.

Yesterday I had a profound revelation about keeping going. There was a drop-in student at my dance class. She didn’t know the work, but she clearly knew how to dance. She was an honest-to-goodness ballerina, or had been at some point in the not-too-distant past. The rest of us watched in awe.

After class, our teacher said something about her being there just to move her body and be part of the group. She wasn’t performing before a critical audience. She wasn’t setting a class and training students. She was just “there”.

Just being “there”. How lovely. I need to remember to move my body in ways that give me joy, and let go of all those things I’m trying to manage – if only for a few minutes.

A child in purple ballet gear and pink slippers relaxes (or sleeps?) on the floor. Photo is from Brilliant Dance.
fitness · holiday fitness · holidays · meditation · mindfulness · rest · self care

Making Space 2024: December 31

Christine Hennebury

Hi Space Makers,

Well, here we are at our very last day of Making Space in 2024.

I hope that my posts throughout December gave you a little room to think, a little room, to breathe, and helped you have a little more space for yourself in your own life.

And I hope that my enthusiasm for your space-making efforts helped you to feel supported and helped you to find a little more ease as you made your way through the month.

As we move into a new year (and as I move into creating Go Team! posts for January), I hope that you can take some of that spirit of ease, that sense of space making, that determination to create a little more room for yourself, into your day-to-day.

I truly wish more ease, more relaxation, more personal energy, and more of whatever kind of space you want for yourself for you in 2025.

As I often say in people’s birthday greetings – May the year ahead bring you plenty of time to spend as you choose and may you have plenty of energy to enjoy it fully.

And since this wouldn’t be a Making Space post without some suggested practices, here are a few for you to choose from. (And, as always, you are free to choose something else entirely – you are the boss of you!)

For today, I decided to offer a variety of things – some are long, some are short, some are relaxing, and some are energizing. It’s a ‘take what you need’ kind of thing around here today.

First up, we have our movement practices.

Here’s a relaxing Vin Yin- Relax & Flow 30 Minute Yoga Practice from Yoga with Adriene.

still image shows the instructor lying on her back on a yoga mat with her legs bent at the knee and leaned to one side while she rests her hands on her belly.

And a short Relaxing Yoga Before Bed practice from Yoga with Uliana

still image shows the instructor lying on her back on a yoga mat with one knee bent (foot flat on the floor) and the other leg bent with the bottom of her foot pointed towards the ceiling and she is holding that foot in both hands.

If you are looking for some extra oomph, this Energy Boosting Cardio Jumpstart – Total Body Warm Up from Fitness Blender might be just the thing.

still image shows the instructor standing with one foot further ahead than the other and her arms are in positions they might be when running – one bent at the elbow at her side and one bent at the elbow in front of her.

If you are looking for a longer workout, this PS Fit 30 Minute Energizing Cardio Workout with Amanda Butler is worth a try.

still image shows three happy looking people in exercise clothes demonstrating exercise punches towards the camera

And here are our mindfulness practices.

First up, in case you have a little extra space (or need a little extra space!) we have a 20 Minute Meditation for Inner Strength and Peace from The Mindful Movement

still image shows a photo of two mountaintops on the right and an expanse of pale blue sky on the left and overlaid on the image is the logo for Mindful Movement (overlapping Ms with a purple lotus on top and the word Meditation beneath) and the words Mountain of Strength.

If you are looking for a shorter meditation, then Circles 5-Minute Guided Mindfulness: Relax, Recharge, and Refocus could be just the thing!

And if you aren’t looking for movement or meditation but you want to have something kind of friendly on in the background while you read, rest, do crossword puzzles, or do some handiwork, I have been really enjoying The Dead of Night‘s Ambience videos this month and you might like them too. (If that channel’s videos don’t draw you in, there are tons of other ambience channels you can explore.)

still image shows an animation of a roaring fire, a purring cat, and a cup of tea in a candlelit room that seems inviting (at least to me!)

And that’s it for our Making Space posts for 2024.

Thanks for reading!

May you have ease, joy, and strength in 2025.