During the pandemic, I enoyed daily Yoga with Adriene, but it’s been a challenge ever since. That’s more about knee surgery and knee physio than anything else, for me.
But I feel like I’m moving past–finally!–the focus on knees. I’m doing new things, like skating. I’m taking some fun classes, like anti-gravity restorative fitness at Movati, and I’m going on long walks. I am so very very happy about all of that!
I’m also thinking it’s time to revisit Adriene. I miss her! I’m not going to be able to manage every day, but I thought I might try her new content each month.
It was sunny here last Friday so my husband spend a bit of time shoveling snow off of our patio – mostly to have something to do outside.
When it was sunny and spring-ish on Saturday, we wanted to have the patio door open so I dug the screen door out of the shed and had the brilliant idea (if I do say so myself) to drag a few patio chairs out at the same time.
Now it was sunny and relatively warm and we had chairs on the patio so it suddenly felt like our outdoor space was available to us again.
Obviously, my next step was to drag out a mat and do some yoga outdoors.
Did it feel strange to be doing yoga outside with snowshovels in the background? I’ll let you interpret that for yourself.
Image description: a selfie of me (a middle-aged white woman with a round face and light brown hair that is pulled back by a cloth band that happens to contain earphones) in a dark pink hoodie with the sun shining on my face, smirking at the fact that I am doing yoga outdoors while there are still necessary snow shovels propped against my house.
Was it weird to be lying on my mat in the sunshine while the grass in my backyard was still mostly covered in snow?
Well, it felt weird enough to take a photo of it at least…
Image description: a photo of my legs with the backyard full of snow visible in the background while propping myself up a little as I was lying on my mat on the patio. In the photo, I am lying on the ground with my right leg bent so the knee is toward the sky and the foot is on the ground. My left leg is bent so the outside of my foot is resting on the top of my right knee and my left knee is pointing to the left. You can see my blue yoga mat and part of the patio through the triangle formed by my legs. On my right is our patio mats, and more patio slats and beyond them you can see the railings, a whole bunch of snow, some leafless trees, the blue sky and our faded wooden fence.
But even though it felt kinda weird, it also felt great to be doing that slow, steady, focused movement in the bright sunlight and the fresh air.
Despite the snow, it felt like warm weather and more outdoor fun might be just around the (very long!) corner.
And if you saw this when you opened your eyes after Savasana, you might have believed it, too.
A photo of my view upwards from my yoga mat. Image description: a photo of bare tree branches with just a hint of growth on them with the bright blue sky in the background.
PS – Thanks to Steve for shoveling off the patio and setting this whole thing in motion.
For me, January and February of this year have been busy and productive work and social months. I’ve hosted people at my house, gone out to social events, and done fun extra-curricular things at school with students. I’ve also written some conference abstracts, made progress on a newish research project and had meetings with my friend and research partner Norah.
But movement? Not so much. Yes, I’ve done a little walking, a little yoga, and went swimming with a friend and her toddler. But I haven’t established, much less adhered to, any sort of schedule or regular plan. And, I fell off the radar of my 226 in 2026 Facebook group.
Well, it’s March 1. What better time to start afresh with a plan for movement momentum?
And I have a plan. Well, rather my local yoga studio Artemis has a plan. It’s March momentum time!
What does this mean for them and me? Well, it’s simple: you just take classes, and with each class you take, you get an entry ticket into a raffle for yoga swag. Check it out below.
Yes, I would love a new yoga mat or other prizes, but the main thing here is it’s getting my attention with a fun challenge to restart my yoga practice. And I’m starting TODAY with a sound journey yoga thing for members only. My goal is to do two classes a week for the month of March– one in person and one synchronous online.
Like any good challenge program, there are also extra little incentives. Some classes are designated bonus classes, for which you get TWO raffle entries. I’m going to try to do at least two of those this month.
The last time Artemis ran this challenge, Norah threw herself into it, and she ended up winning a sweatshirt. Imma see if I can score something for myself this time.
What I really want to score, though, is an easier yoga habit. We’ll see how it goes, and I’ll report back in April.
Readers, are you feeling winter sluggishness or in a rut? Are you humming along with your activity schedule? How are your plans going? I’d love to hear from you.
First things first: Today’s post is late because I made space in my day to have brunch with friends but I forgot to make space to write this post beforehand. I don’t know if that makes me a good example or a bad example but I’m definitely something. 😉
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, today is the Winter Solstice.
It’s the darkest time of the year and traditionally a time when everyone would slow down, tell stories, do some reflection (or divination), and find ways to bring the light inside…at least metaphorically, through warm fires, bright candles, and good company.
And, of course, a lot of people still do all of that in one form or another.
Personally, I enjoy small rituals to mark special occasions and the change from ‘it’s getting darker all the time’ to ‘it is slowly getting lighter all the time’ feels like a good occasion to celebrate.
It also feels like a good time for us all to Make Space for to give ourselves what we need – whether that is movement, rest, meditation, ritual, journaling, delicious snacks, good company, or anything else we can think of.
In that spirit, I have compiled my usual offering of a movement practice and meditation practice AND I have a bunch of other things for you to try – if you are so inclined.
And, as always, I wish you ease as you create more space for yourself in your own life and please feel free to ignore these suggestions and do what you need to do.
Here are some Winter Solstice journal prompts from _WovenWomen and Therapy_with_Noel and if you’re like me and you like a personal ritual to mark different times of the year, here are some simple ones for Winter Solstice from The Mystical Society*
Here’s our movement practice for today. It’s a longer video but please don’t feel that you must do it all – just do what you have time/capacity to do.
The still image for this 30 minute Winter Solstice Yoga from PERSON shows the instructor doing Virabhadrasana II (warrior 2) pose on a yoga mat with a large window behind them. They are wearing a blue tshirt and leggings and their hair is in a ponytail with some strands falling around their face. Their torso is mostly facing the camera, their right arm is extended in front of them and their left arm is extended behind them (both at shoulder height) their bodyweight is shifted onto their right leg which is bent and pointed to the right. Their left leg is extended in line with but away from their right and their left toes are pointing towards the camera.
When I looked for Solstice meditations on YouTube today, I found that they were either very long or that they were wandering too far into metaphysical spirituality to share casually without discussion.
*I like the simplicity of the rituals they suggest but I disagree with their characterization of more complicated rituals as bullsh*t. I also disagree with anyone who suggests that everything needs to be complex to be helpful. I’m sure it will shock you to discover that I think everyone should do things in the way that serves them best.
Today, I’m inviting you to take an extra moment to give yourself something you need.
Perhaps that’s a little extra movement or a few more minutes rest.
Maybe you need some time away from your email or a little time to chat with a friend.
You may need a warm cup of tea, a blanket, or some paper to make a list.
I’m sure we all have a lot of needs that are much bigger than any of those things (and I hope you can meet those needs, too!) but we definitely all have relatively small needs like this that we tend to delay meeting because they aren’t part of the big plan or because they feel a little inconvenient.
But imagine how much better the rest of your day would feel if you made space to meet one of those needs?
Personally, I am going to meet two of my current needs – putting slippers on my chilly feet and making a cup of tea – as soon as I finish typing this.
Whether you are meeting one of those small needs, following this yoga practice, giving progressive muscle relaxation a try, or doing something else entirely, I hope you can make a little extra space for yourself today.
And, as always, I wish you ease and kindness.
Here’s our movement practice for today:
In the still image for this 10 Min Neck & Shoulders Stretch from Yoga with Kassandra, the instructor is pictured on the right hand side. They are wearing a white tank top and blue leggings and sitting crossed legged with their left arm behind their back while stretching the left side of their neck by tilting their head to the right. Their eyes are closed and they look peaceful. There are a lot of windows in the background and snow on the ground outside.
And here’s our mindfulness practice for today:
In the still image for this 6 Minute Progressive Muscle Relaxation Guided Meditation from Beam Therapy & Training there is a circle on the left side that encloses a photo of a person with long hair, wearing a green sweater and blue jeans sitting crossed-legged with their eyes closed and their face turned upwards. Text listing the name of the video and the url http://www.beamtraining.co.uk is on the right side. The background is dark green and there are polka dots and other green shapes along the bottom edge.
Since the last full moon of 2025 will rise this evening (some people call it the Cold Moon which I find delightful), I thought it would be fun to have some moon-themed videos and links in today’s post.
According to some, this full moon is a sign to do a little introspection and to release things that no longer serve us. (see the Instagram link below for more on this)
Whether or not you follow or participate in any sort of woo or any sort of alternative spiritual practices, I’m sure you can see the benefit in taking time to reflect and to release things (even though it is easier said than done!) whether that happens now or next week.
Anyway, here are our practices to make some space for ourselves today and I’ve thrown in an IG post and a relaxing ambience video just for fun.
Whether you do these practices or something entirely different, I wish you ease and space today and always.
Here’s today’s movement practice:
A 15 minute Moon Practice from Yoga with Adriene. In the still image she is standing on her grey yoga mat in front of a window. There are plants and Benji (her sleeping dog) on the left side of the screen and an end table with more plants on it on the right. She is wearing burgundy leggings and a purple sleeveless tshirt. Her feet are wide apart and her legs are bent at the knee, her upper arms are raised to shoulder height and her forearms are extended upwards.
And here’s our meditation practice for today:
This video from A Big Breath In is called Full Moon Feels 5 Minute Guided Meditation and the still image shows the title against a light pinkish yellow background. There is a mandala drawn in the centre of the screen with part of the title above it and part below.
I chose this post from Arlyn Flower Farm on IG because it had a good combination of information and reflective questions. The still image shows a very close-up depiction of the moon.
And, finally, here’s an ‘ambience’ video that I like to have on my screen when I am doing paperwork or reading my book. I thought that some of you might like it, too.
This video from Dead of Night is called Vintage Christmas Window Ambience and the still image shows a desk and a view out of the window. Outside you can see a Victorian street lamp, the moon, some houses, and some snow falling. Inside you can see books, a lamp, a tree made of book pages, several candles, a warm chocolate drink, and just a small piece of a Christmas tree in the left corner.
Last week, when I wrote my list of ‘10 activities for the 10th Month‘ I made sure to create a mix of ‘easy’ activities and slightly more challenging ones.
And my definition of easy and challenging is not just limited to the physical effort involved.
Physical effort is one factor, of course, but on any given day my ADHD brain might toss up some extreme resistance to anything that requires turning on the computer or changing clothes or asking someone to shift a plan.
And the really annoying thing is that I might not be consciously aware of the details of my resistance. My brain will just kind of slide over the idea because it is ‘too hard’ and unless I make a point of focusing on why I can’t seem to do that specific task, I’ll just kind of have the impression that there’s a logical reason why I’m not doing it.
Yes, in case you were wondering, that is all just as fun as it sounds.
So, I was prepared to face some resistance to starting my tasks, no matter how easy I had initially thought they would be but I hadn’t prepare to face continued resistance once I got going.
After an unexpectedly busy week last week I finally got around to choosing something from my list on Sunday.
Because I had plenty of time, I decided to do two things – journaling while sitting on the floor and a yoga video that was at least 30 minutes long.
The journaling was pretty easy and I enjoyed sitting on the floor to write for a change.
I had already rolled out my yoga mat to sit on and I had already picked out a video to do so I thought I had removed any obstacles to my practice.
By the way, this is the video I chose:
A YouTube video from the channel ‘Yoga with Bird’ called 30 Minute Restorative Yoga for Stress and Relaxation.
I was totally wrong about the obstacles.
It turns out that my brain did NOT want to do a 30 minute yoga practice that day.
In fact, it didn’t want to do any kind of yoga practice at all and it threw every thought it had at me.
‘You have other things you should be doing.’ – I did not. This was the time I had picked for this specific task.
‘You aren’t really up for a long practice today. You can stop here and do a long practice tomorrow.’ – There was no physical reason why I couldn’t do my chosen practice on Sunday. And there was no reason to believe that I would be suddenly more able to do it on Monday instead.
‘This is too hard for you right now. Maybe just do some alternate poses.’ – Sure, some of it was a little out of my range right now but there wasn’t anything especially difficult for me in the practice.
‘Maybe you should stop this and do some drawing or reading instead. It’s way harder to find time to do that stuff – you can do yoga any day.’ – This is a straight-up lie. It’s harder to find a time when my brain will let me do 30 minutes of yoga than to find a time when I can read or draw.
I think I know what was going on there.
My brain knows that my capacity has varied WILDLY over the past few years and it wanted to protect me in case I actually couldn’t – mentally or physically – do the practice.
If I CHOSE to do something else, to switch or shorten my practice, to be creative, then it would feel like self-care.
If I COULDN’T do the practice then it might end up feeling like a harsh reminder of the challenges I have been facing. It might even feel like failure.
No wonder my brain was trying everything to get me to change course.
But I chose to keep going.
I didn’t do it by white-knuckling it and forcing a sort of gritty, ‘no-excuses!’ style of self-discipline.
Instead, I just gently kept going – giving myself permission to stop if it felt like too much.
One of my drawings for ‘March of Robots’ back in 2019 – it seemed to match the vibe of this post. Image description: a drawing of a small grey and purple robot sitting on a metal box with its legs folded and its hands together as if in meditation. Some text at the top is supposed to be a from an instructor and it reads ‘relax your circuits, return to the bolts’ and text at the bottom reads, ‘Robot meditation…it’s hard to let go of your programming, even for a few minutes!’
I didn’t force anything – I tried to do that yoga thing of ‘meeting yourself where you are’ – and to just find some ease in one movement and then in the next.
I don’t think I found a lot of flow and I definitely didn’t get into any zone.
I had to choose to keep going over and over again and that kept me in a self-conscious, hyper-aware kind of space that was really not ideal.
But I knew that even if I wasn’t having a ‘perfect’ yoga experience, I was having an honest one, and my body was going to benefit from it all the same.
I was right – my body felt much better when I was done than it had felt when I started.
October is an extra-busy travel and research month for me. I’m giving four talks and flying to two conferences, one in Hamilton ON and one in Portland OR. I also have to decide what to pack for Portland, as the peaceful and creative citizens of that lovely city have broken out the Halloween costumes early in response to incursions by masked ICE teams and National Guard troops. The main choices seem to be frog or chicken suit:
A guy in a chicken suit looking up at Kristi Noem, who is surrounded by National Guard troops with nothing to do.Civilians in work casual and froggy attire gather peacefully outside a Portland, OR ICE facility.
As you can see, there’s a lot on my plate this month. However, in the brief lull beforehand, I found myself last Friday with room for some self-care. Herewith, my trifecta of attention to reducing stress and increasing yummy feelings of well-being.
Stop one: physical therapy.
I’ve been in PT since August for sciatica, and am recovering, albeit slowly. The last thing to get better is my ability to climb stairs without pain or weakness in my right hip. It’s improving, but not there yet. So, the PT bros at my great physical therapy practice have me working with weights, from farmer’s carry to asymmetrical weights for stepping up and down stairs and such like. Also, I’m doing one-legged leg presses (which are harder than I expected, but good for me) in addition to regular leg presses. And of course core and stability stuff. All good and good for me. I felt thoroughly worked out by the end of the 60-minute session.
Stop two: acupuncture.
I have been getting acupuncture for musculo-skeletal pain for many years now, and I really like it. There’s ample evidence for its effectiveness– look here, for example, for a review of studies. I also find that I’m super-duper relaxed after a session, due to addition of ear points (see here for an interesting case report), dreamy music and a heat lamp on my knees. My only wish is that someone would show up at the end of a session to escort me to the back of their station wagon and drive me home… However, I did manage to get in my car and get back to my place with no problems. Once home, I did some reading and then fell asleep for a 30-minute luscious nap.
Stop three: restorative yin yoga.
After waking up refreshed from movement and chill stillness, I did some light housework (dishes, laundry, and a little cooking) before heading out to my local yoga studio, Artemis in Watertown, MA, for evening restorative yin yoga. Norah had saved a spot for me up front, and I gathered up an armload of blankets, a long round navy-blue bolster, and blocks, depositing them in my little space. There was slow, chill music playing, and I settled in for 75 minutes of stretching and relaxing. Here are some yin poses, including several we did Friday night:
Our yin teacher, Liz G (there are multiple Lizzes teaching at Artemis) apologized for not having a yin bus parked outside to take us all home afterwards. We agreed that this would be a welcome addition, but we happily toddled off to our respective homes after class.
Optional stop four: the Great British Bake-Off
Once I got home, I remembered that there was a new episode of Bake-Off, so I woozily watched the contestants labor over pastries. However, I felt no stress at all, either on their behalf or mine. Not too long after, I shuffled to bed, sleeping like a log, perhaps dreaming of elaborate confections.
Unsplash calls this pastry, although it’s possibly a hybrid? It’s exquisite, in any case. Thanks VF for the photo.
So readers, what are your favorite chill modalities when you have some time to shift into the slow lane? I’d love to hear any suggestions.
When I was a kid, I sometimes watched and followed along with Kareen’s Yoga. This long-running 1970s show, out of British Colombia, was hosted by German-Canadian yogi Karen Zebroff. I think I even owned a copy of one of her books.
Kareen Zebroff as I remember her, from her website.
Occasionally I think of those early experiments with yoga and give it another whirl. I have tried Yoga with Adrienne but it never stuck as a habit.
I experimented with chair yoga during the depths of the pandemic work-from-home period. I checked out Yoga with Kassandra on Youtube with hometown Ottawa yogi Kassandra Reinhardt. I connected most with Paula Lay (yoginimelbourne) and did many of her short videos focusing on spots that hurt or to help me sleep.
I’m currently on a break from ballet, swimming more frequently, and I have been working hard to change how I engage certain muscles thanks to my awesome physiotherapist. The downside is that I am feeling more tight than usual. So, once again, I am poking into doing yoga.
It’s all a bit random, to be honest. I’ll do nothing for days, then suddenly get the urge to do an hour’s worth of videos focused on hip mobility. Or do a couple of shoulder/neck stretches while standing in my kitchen waiting for something to heat up.
I would love to figure out a way to become more consistent (that doesn’t involve changing into yoga gear first thing in the morning, or going to a studio). Maybe I just need to acknowledge that my yoga practice will always be random, but I will keep coming back, just as I have always done.
Happy Baby, possibly my favourite yoga pose. Photo found at Mamduka.com.
