Tag: self care

Lost and crying (in a good way) in cycling class
cycling · fitness · fitness classes · health · holiday fitness · motivation

Lost and crying (in a good way) in cycling class

elan.paulsonLeave a comment

One of my favourite fit feminist humans recently suggested I try the two-week trial membership for Lost Cycle, a Toronto-based woman-owned fitness company that expanded to my city in 2019. She thought I would like it because, as she said, it was “cycling in the dark to really loud rap music.”

I am already a fan of doing stuff to music in the dark, as I did with (Remote) Dark Dancing during the COVID pandemic. Also, the timing seemed good to counter any winter break inactivity. So, in spite of reduced holiday hours and some poor weather outside, I made it to four classes, two at each location.

My black car parked in the empty Lost Cycle lot on a cold, wet, sleet-filled morning.
My black car parked in the empty Lost Cycle lot on a cold, wet, sleet-filled winter break morning.

The Lost Cycle studio ambiance is what might be described as “boutique warehouse,” with minimal windows and the company logo spraypainted on walls but also gratis cold towels and individual shower rooms with complimentary products. The fitness areas have quality equipment: ON the bike classes include clip-in shoes and earplugs, while OFF the bike rooms have infrared heat panels and Lululemon yoga mats. The class leaders were all chatty and friendly on their mics, many showing plenty of body tattoos.

The spin class leader‘s station on an elevated platform, close to a podium to adjust sound and light.
The spin class leader‘s station on an elevated platform, close to a podium to adjust sound and light during class.

And, as mentioned, the classes are held in the dark, with just enough artificial and real candle light to see the mirrors and other people.

Dark spin class, with bikes lined up and towels on them. The photos don’t capture the ambiance created by the range of electronic dance music, pop with heavy beats, and occasional throwbacks.
Dark spin class, with bikes lined up and towels on them. The photo doesn’t capture the ambiance created by the range of electronic dance music and occasional throwbacks.

In class I tried my best to keep up, but made modifications when my knees ached a little. The low lighting and loud music worked to lessen my self-consciousness (being new and only an occasional group fitnesser), though I needed to place myself close to the front to be able to follow instructions. On the mic, leaders were genuinely supportive, reflecting the vibe of the post-it notes on the studio walls: you are enough, you showed up today, you can do this. Other people I have discussed spin with describe being called out during classes. Here, there was none of that.

Dark group fitness with mats, towels, bands, and handweights placed closely together in a heated room. OFF the bike was a blend of HIIT calisthenics, strength training, and yoga stretches.
Dark group fitness with mats, towels, bands, and handweights placed closely together in a heated room. OFF the bike was a blend of HIIT calisthenics, strength training, and yoga stretches.

Near the end of both ON and OFF the bike classes, there is time to really get “lost”: the lights go off and the music goes up and you just have about 3 to 4 minutes to yourself.

And, during the “lost” times while cycling away or lying on my mat, I found myself in tears or near tears. Now, I am in a particularly vulnerable place right now, due to my recent job loss. While I didn’t check if other participants had felt the same thing, in every class I experienced in the dark a kind of emotional release I didn’t know I needed.

Lost Cycle has tapped into different elements of cycle studio / gym ambiance that makes it feel like fun, luxury, and intensity, all the ingredients for something slightly cultish. Though I was on my way to becoming an initiate, I’m not in a $$ position to keep the membership. At least I am taking the lesson home from Lost Cycle: turn off the lights, pump my mid-life music, and make time for both strength and vulnerability.

Lost Cycle London est 2019 sweater
Lost Cycle London est 2019 sweater
A drawing of a gold star Go Team 2025: Beaming in your direction.
celebration · fitness · Go Team · motivation · self care

Go Team 2025: Beaming in your direction.

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

Hey Team!

So, as you probably know, I will be starting a new round of Go Team posts on January 1 – Go Team 2026!- but this is my very last Go Team post for 2025 and I have a very important message for you:

I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!

I am proud of your efforts.

I am proud of the way you keep picking yourself up.

I’m proud of the way you keep trying.

I’m proud of the things you decided to do.

I’m proud of the the things you decided NOT to do.

I’m proud of the way you poured your energy into certain things and chose NOT to pour it into others.

I’m proud of every time you spoke to yourself kindly or took kind action for yourself.

I’m proud of the times that you noticed when you were being hard on yourself instead of just assuming those harsh messages were the truth. Even if you haven’t been able to adjust your messaging yet, you are on your way!

I’m proud of the times you chose consistency, routine, place-holding, or even phoning-it-in over relentless perfection.

I’m proud of your hard work.

I’m proud of your rest.

I’m proud of everything you accomplished, everything you tried, and even every time things didn’t work out.

Your effort matters.

You matter.

And you are doing the very best you can with the resources you have and that is something to be proud of.

Especially since those resources can vary from day to day.

I’m hoping you will join me in being proud of you but if you can’t quite wrap your mind around that yet, it’s totally ok.

I’m proud enough for both of us.

I see you. I see your efforts – even the effort it takes to let yourself rest – and I am cheering you on.

I’m cheering us all on.

GO TEAM US!

2025 is almost over.

You did what you could this year and you gathered information and experience to prepare for your next steps.

And that’s all that you can ask of yourself.

Here’s the final gold star for 2025 and I offer it to you, beaming with pride at your efforts:

a drawing of a shiny gold star with rounded edges.
A small drawing of a shiny, metallic gold star with rounded edges and trimmed in black. The drawing is on part of an index card so the background is white and I have made a frame of small black dots around the edge. The card is resting against my dark green mousepad that I have propped up on my white desk.
A drawing of the number 29 Making Space 2025: Day 29
holiday fitness · self care

Making Space 2025: Day 29

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Everyone,

I mentioned a few days ago that we would reach a point when I would recommend reviewing the things that didn’t get done this December.

I usually hate doing that kind of thing because I don’t like how it feels (yes, I know it can be beneficial but I still don’t like it!) but I think it can be very useful from a Making Space perspective.

In fact, it can be useful for making space this year (freeing yourself from feeling badly about tasks you didn’t get to) and for next year (identifying tasks that can be done at other times, by other people, or in a different way AND tasks that you don’t want to include in future lists.)

For starters, if we look at those tasks in the context of what *did* get done, then we can immediately see that, for various reasons, we probably didn’t actually have a lot of space to fit those tasks in.

And we can see if there are any tasks on there that seemed like a good idea at the beginning but that we weren’t actually all that interested in doing. If we want, we can spend a little time thinking about why we felt the need to put them on the list in the first place but we can also feel free to put them on a ‘don’t bother with these’ list for next year.

We can also see if there are any tasks or projects that would have been fun but that we didn’t have the time, capacity, or resources to do in December. For those, we may be able to choose another time of year to start those tasks or to gather resources to do them next December.

And if there are projects or tasks that could be done by other people, we may want to take some time now to make some notes so the people we ask to take on those tasks will have the resources they need to complete them without getting on our nerves too much. (ha!)

Finally, while we are in note-making mode, we can also jot down some info for ourselves about how we did certain things, anything we would like to do in a different way or at a different time, things we forgot this year that we’d like to remember next year, basically anything that would make December 2026 easier on ourselves.

When I make notes for my future self, I either 1) put them in a Google Doc, invite myself to edit it, and then snooze it to a good date when the invite arrives in my email or 2) create an event in my online calendar for a specific future date and then put the notes directly in the notes section or 3) put a note on a specific future date on my digital or analog calendar that tells me where the notes are.

Yes, this is another set of tasks for our current selves but organizing information in this way often helps me to create brain space right now – I assume it is because I am giving the information a container rather than letting it float around.

Also, I’m pretty sure that thinking this through will help our future selves have more brain space AND to make more space in their schedules for the things they want to do because some of the thinking will already be done for them.

But, as the same time, I recognize that everyone has their own way of doing things so if this process isn’t something that appeals to you or if it doesn’t seem useful, please ditch it entirely and do something else that feels spacious and good.

And I am wishing you ease today and always.

Here’s today’s suggested movement practice:

In this still image for No-Mat Pilates for Small Spaces/ Full Body Workout from Joyga, the instructor, a light-skinned person with dark hair in a dark tank top and capri leggins, is standing in an small rectangular space with white walls and wooden floors that appears to be at the end of a larger room. They are facing to the camera’s left, extending their arms forward and overhead while leaning slightly forward. Their weight is mostly on their right foot and they are extending their left leg behind them. On the right side you can see part of a door and on the left you can see part of a window and a heater.

And here’s our suggested mindfulness practice:

In the still image from this 4-Minute Guided Meditation: Mindful Coffee Walk from Headspace, there is a cartoon style drawing on the right hand side that shows a top-down view of a take-out coffee cup, someone’s left hand and left leg and sneaker. The drawing is done from the perspective of the person holding the cup so you only see the top of the white cup, part of their orange hand, the top part of their yellow pant leg, and the toe of their grey sneaker. The background of the still image is dark green and their is an orange rectangle with rounded corners on the upper left side that has the word Meditation in white inside it and there is white text reading Mindful Coffee Walk on the middle of the left side and the name of the channel Headspace is on the bottom left.
A drawing of the number 28 Making Space 2025: Day 28
holiday fitness · self care

Making Space 2025: Day 28

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Everyone,

I’ve already given similar advice several times this month but it still applies so I am going to remind myself (and you!) again.

If you have a list of stuff that you were trying to get done before the end of the year/the end of the holidays/the end of the month/the end of the week, then you probably have more tasks than time right now.

Sooooo, in the interests of creating space in your brain and in your schedule, it’s probably a good idea to review your plans and decide which things are actually important to you, which things you have time to do, and what you are going to do with the rest of the stuff on your list.

But before you get into that process, please promise me that you won’t be hard on yourself about anything that didn’t get done.

It’s really hard to judge how much time we will have in any given month, let alone in December when the air around us is essentially filled with possible tasks for us to take on.

(And it’s fine to be overly ambitious and hopeful about your capacity, as long as you aren’t mean to yourself when it doesn’t work out. Since I find it a challenge to prioritize my tasks and minimize my to do list, I often just pile AllOfTheThings on there and try not to put too much pressure on myself about stuff that doesn’t get done. I have varying success with this but it works ok overall)

Anyway, if you have your list on paper or screen, take a look through it and decide on a reasonable amount of things for you to do over the next few days. You can even schedule specific times for those tasks if it helps.

If you don’t have a list, just a vague sense of things needing to be done, then please, please, please, get those tasks on paper or on screen so they aren’t filling up your brain any more.

And just because the item is on your list doesn’t mean that you have to do now (or at all!) – don’t forget that items on your list can also be delayed, delegated, or deleted.

The idea here is to make space in your brain and in your calendar so you can spend the last few days of 2025 in ways that make the most sense for you and for your life instead of scrambling to get a bunch of unevaluated tasks done just for the sake of checking them off a list.

So, Team, I know we have varying degrees of freedom around choosing our tasks and our schedules, but I hope that doing a quick review right now helps you find a bit of space for yourself in there somewhere.

And, as always, I wish you ease and space – no matter how you go about making it.

Here’s today’s suggested movement practice:

The still image for this Chair Exercises for Seniors//10 Minute Ab & Core Seated Workout by Senior Shape Fitness shows the instructor, a light-skinned person with long brown hair, is sitting on a chair on a large blue mat with a tree in a white pot in the background. The instructor has their hands behind their head so her elbows stick out on each side.

And here’s our suggested meditation practice for today:

The still image of this 10 minute Guided Indoor Walking Meditation from Dr. Kelly Watkins shows the instructor sitting in a chair in the lower right corner. The title ‘Indoor Walking Meditation’ in white at the top against a peach background. The instructor is a light-skinned person with long brown hair curled in ringlets in a pink pantsuit with a white tshirt and they are smiling. They have a clipboard under their right hand and a pen hekd in their fingers.
a drawing of the number 27 Making Space 2025: Day 27
fitness · holiday fitness · self care

Making Space 2025: Day 27

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hello hello!

Look at us at Day 27! Go Team!

I think today is a great time to take a minute to notice how much stuff you DID get gone this month.

Yes, I imagine most of us started the month with huge plans that we had to scale back quite a bit as we went along. And while it would be easy to get all caught up in our regrets and frustrations about the things we put aside, I think it would be waaaaaay more helpful to spend a little time congratulating ourselves on what we did instead of being annoyed about what we didn’t do. *

While we’re at it, let’s also celebrate doing all the tasks that we usually do without thinking about – work tasks, home tasks, family commitments – because this month we were doing them with extra pressure and less time.

(Truth be told, I think we could be celebrating that kind of work on the regular but since most of us don’t usually do that, let’s make a point of celebrating them now.)

All of that work, the regular stuff, and the extra December stuff, matters and it is really important that we notice our own efforts and congratulate ourselves for them.

Obviously, you can notice all of those things just by thinking about them but I can’t help but wonder if it might be useful to actually write down as many things as we can think of just so we can see the length and breadth of that list.

And, seriously, include everything you can think of, including things like washing your hair, getting snow tires on the car, and answering that phone call.

If you did it, it goes on the list!

I, of course, am celebrating you and cheering you on from over here.

And I am offering you this gold star for your efforts:

a drawing of a gold star
A VERY shiny star for your hard work, Team. Go Team Us!

Amidst the list-making and the celebrating, you may still need to make a little space for yourself so here are my suggestions for today:

Here is our movement practice for today:

In the still image for this Exercises for Relaxation – 10 Minute Stress Release Workout from Jessica Valant, the instructor, a woman with lightly tanned skin and long blonde hair, is doing a workout outdoors on a purple mat on a grassy lawn with scrubby trees in the background on a sunny day. She is wearing a dark pink tank top and dark pink leggings and is resting on her left hip with her left leg sort of folded in front of her and her right leg extended behind her. While her lower body is somewhat oriented towards the camera, her upper body is turned towards the right and leaning a little with her arms extended to support herself.

Here is our meditation practice for today:

In the still image for this 5 Min Meditation for Boundaries from Haven Inspired, the instructor, a black woman in a grey shirt with her curly hair pulled away from her face, is on the left side of the image facing towards the right so we can only see her in profile. She is wearing headphones, her eyes are closed, and she has her left hand resting just under her collarbones in what I think of as a self-comforting gesture. She looks peaceful and at ease. The background of the image is dark green at the top and light green at the bottom and there is a black bar with white text listing the title of the video that extends from the right side to just behind her head on the left but doesn’t go all the way to the left side of the image.

*There will be lots of time to use our regrets to help inform our future selves, we’ll get to that in a day or two. Today is about celebrating our victories!

s small drawing of the number 26 Making Space 2025: Day 26
fitness · holiday fitness · holidays · meditation · self care

Making Space 2025: Day 26

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Everyone,

I hope that today is a good day to find a little space for yourself with movement, meditation, or something else that makes you happy.

I don’t have a lot of advice today but I do have a question:

What kinds of small things can you do over the next few days to either feel more restful in the moment OR to help yourself start the new year with more ease?

Please don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself to figure this out!

But if you can think of a few things that will make life a bit easier for future you, please try to do them.

(Somewhat related: I thought this list of tiny experiments for the last week of the year sounded interesting. No pressure though! Take good care of yourself!)

Anyway, Team, no matter what you are doing today or what you have planned for the next week, I wish you ease and peace of mind and as much space as you need.

And with that, let’s get into our suggested practices for today:

Since this is Boxing Day, I had decided to post a boxing workout and a box breathing meditation. Boxing Day has nothing to do with the sport of boxing (nor about breathing practices) but I do like a tangential theme!

Then, on a less tangential matter, I realized that today is also the first day of Kwanzaa so I wanted to post a meditation and movement practice related to that celebration as well.

(There are a lot of holidays and cultural events throughout December and I don’t mention them all because I don’t always have the time to do proper research and determine if it would be appropriate for me to reference them in this type of post. If you celebrate something in December that you think would be appropriate for Making Space 2026, please let me know in the comments and I will include it next year.)

Here’s one of our movement practices for today.

In the still image of this 10 Minute Kickboxing Quick HIIT Workout from BodyFit by Amy, the title of the video is on the left in black and the instructor, a person with light skin and freckles and their blond hair in a ponytail and cloth hairband, is demonstrating a punch with their right fist towards the camera and their left arm close to their body in a guarding position (upper arm close to the body, elbow down, forearm leaned slightly across their chest, fist near their chin. They are wearing a blue cropped tank top and you can see the black waistband of their pants (or shorts?)

Here’s our first meditation practice for today:

In still image for this Box Breathing Relaxation Exercise from Hands On Meditation, a variation of the video title ‘5 Minute Box Breathing Relaxation Exercise Beginner Pace’ is in the middle of the screen with the first two words in yellow, the rest in white. The first four words are in larger text than the last four. Behind the text is a silhouette of a square with thick lines for each side and the background is a sort of patterned blue that gives the impression of being underwater. In case you are interested, here’s a good explanation of the benefits of Box Breathing from Sunnybrook Hospital.

Here’s our second movement practice for today:

In the still image for this Kwanzaa Quick Workout video from Uhuru Dancers, Atlanta the instructor, a black person with curly hair pulled upwards away from their face with a yellow and brown patterned scarf, large hoop earrings, a black tshirt with the word LEGACY in white, a hip scarf in the same pattern, and red leggings, is standing on a white and red patterned rug with their hands on the back of their hips. They look calm and determined. In the background, next to a red wall, are several tall drums, and a wooden table. There are posters and other hangings on the wall.

And here’s a Kwanzaa meditation from a few years ago:

In this still image from Principles of Kwanzaa, 7 Day Meditation Challenge Day 1: Umoja – Unity from Manii Dot Calm, the instructor, a young black person with their hair covered in a brightly coloured scarf is sitting on a couch that is covered with yellow fabric and there are two windows with blinds closed behind them. They are wearing a white sleeveless blouse over a burgundy tank top, and they are wearing gold earing and bangles on both arms. Their eyes are closed and their arms are raised so their elbows are away from their body, their forearms are closer to the camera and their hands are palm inward at face height but maybe 6-8 inches away from their face.

If you are interested in more Kwanzaa meditations, her other videos are available at Manii Dot Calm but they are not in a separate playlist.

A drawing of the number 25. Making Space 2025: Day 25
fitness · health · holiday fitness · holidays · mindfulness · self care

Making Space 2025: Day 25

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Happy Holidays! Happy Christmas! Happy Thursday!

Or, if you aren’t feeling any of those things, I wish you a perfectly acceptable day with no unpleasant surprises.

I have gotten myself a bit tangled trying to write this post because I was trying to say just the right thing to everyone.

But since that is impossible, I am just going to say this:

No matter how this day finds you, I wish you ease, I wish you space, I wish you peace.

May you have a little extra breathing room.

May you have a little more peace of mind.

May you have joy in your heart – even if it is just a flicker right now.

If you want it, may have company to help you celebrate or to help you carry what needs to be carried.

If you want it, may you have solitude so you can hear yourself think, so you can find ease, or so you can choose how to spend your time.

May you know how much you are loved.

Please be just as kind to yourself as you are to others, today and always.

Please know that I am thinking of you and sending you warmth and kindness and spaciousness.

On that note, I feel like it’s a good idea to put our meditation practice first today:

In the still image from this 5 Minute LovingKindness Meditation from Unearth Compassion, what I interpret as small green tendrils are poking up from frozen ground on a misty day.

And here’s our movement practice for today:

In the still image from this from Holly R Jahn, the instructor is wearing blue leggings and a grey shirt and trying on the floor on their back next to a large white pot for a houseplant. They are side-on to the camera and they have their arms outstretched and their right leg is crossed over their left. Their left is outstretched on the floor and their right foot is placed near their left knee.

If you would prefer more seasonally-themed choices, here are a few choices:

Christmas-Themed Workouts Playlist

Christmas-Themed Mindful Drawing Video

Festive Spirit Meditation

Finding Peace During The Holidays Meditation

A small drawing of the number 24 Making Space 2025: Day 24
fitness · holiday fitness · mindfulness · rest · self care

Making Space 2025: Day 24

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

For some of us, this is Christmas Eve.

For some of us this is just Wednesday.

For many of us, it’s something in between.

For all of us, it’s near the end of a busy month.

At this point, it’s really hard to know what kind of space we might need to make for ourselves.

Maybe we need some focus.

We may need something restful to do.

We might need to make space for movement.

We may need a mindful activity (and, remember, almost any activity can be done mindfully!)

And all of those needs are important and they all matter – because YOU matter and the things YOU need are just as important as all of the other needs you support on a day-to-day basis.

So today I’m inviting us all to find ways, even small ways, to give ourselves what we need right now.

Maybe you don’t have time for the hour long nap that you need, but perhaps you have time for a short break that will be helpful even if it doesn’t fully meet your needs.

Maybe you need a half an hour of high intensity exercise to sort your cluttered thoughts. But if you don’t have half an hour right now, maybe you can do a shorter workout and do some sort of list that gets all of those things out of your brain so you can see them clearly.

Maybe you need a long, slow meditation to soothe your nervous system and help you feel more like your favorite self. But if you are feeling hurried and frustrated, that might feel impossible right now. Perhaps you can try for a shorter version of your usual practice or you can ask yourself what ELSE helps you to feel like your favourite self and give that a try.

(When I take my list out of my head onto paper onto a screen, it becomes easier for me to see which ones actually need to be done. Which ones I can delegate and which ones can actually wait quite a while before they need to get done but inside my brain, they feel equally important.)

I guess the key thing here is to recognize that it is OK for you to need something and it’s OK for you to try to meet that need, even if you have to do a smaller version for now.

I know you probably have a lot of competing priorities and a lot of things to get done for others but please try not to put your needs at the very bottom of your list.

And no matter what you need right now, what you want right now, or what you have to deal with at the moment, positive or negative, I wish you ease with it.

As much as possible, may you have peace in your heart and in your mind.

Here are two movement practice suggestions for today:

The still image of this Yoga for Brain Power video from Yoga with Adriene shows Adriene with her hair pinned up and wearing black leggings and a gray sleeveless shirt. She is standing on a yoga mat that is divided horizontally into two different colours of grey. She is doing tree pose with her left foot resting on her right inner thigh while she’s standing up and she has her arms raised above her head. She is smiling and looks happy. Her dog Benji is asleep behind her next to some large plants in pots, there are windows behind her and there’s also a table with plants and some decorations on it nearby.

In the still image for this jumpstart cardio workout from Fitness Blender the instructor sitting on a blue yoga mat with their legs crossed and their hands in their lap. There is a large light haired dog sleeping next to them sort of curled around the right knee. The instructor is wearing two layers of tank tops one peach and one blue and they have on black exercise pants. Their long hair is parted on one side and is hanging down past their shoulders. They’re smiling and they look happy.

And here are two mindfulness practices for you to try.

In this 5 Minute Mindfulness Art Meditation Practice from Nicole Schyns, the still image is divided in two parts on the left-hand side. The instructor is shown with their eyes closed, sitting in their living room in front of a low table. They have a pencil in one hand and they’re holding an object in the other. They are wearing a long sleeved light brown turtleneck, and their long brown hair is pinned up on top and hanging over their shoulders on both sides. On the right side is a close-up of a couple of their drawings so they have but looks like two rocks the actual items there and below them are their drawings of those items. One of the rocks looks like it’s made up of a bunch of different small pieces or maybe covered in barnacles and the other one is a gray rock that is almost semi-circular.

And a steel image for this 10 minute Guided Meditation for Inner Peace from Declutter Your Mind you can see a wooden dock that extends through what looks like a merch with plants growing up on either side to a a lake with trees on the other side of the lake that are reflected in the water.
A drawing of the number 23 Making Space 2025: Day 23
fitness · habits · holiday fitness · self care

Making Space 2025: Day 23

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Hey Everyone!

As we get down to the last few days before Christmas and/or the last few days of the year (depending on what you happen to celebrate) the pressure may be increasing for you.

Whether you are guided by work obligations, family traditions, your own vision of the tasks ahead, you may find yourself feeling overwhelmed by trying to do AllOfTheThings.

And ask you decide what to prioritize, what to get done and how to do it, I have a question for you…

What would it look like to choose self-kindness?

Yes, yes, I know that your ease is not the only factor to consider here.

And I know that you probably have more to do than on an average day so you may end up more tired than usual.

But still…

What if you chose self/kindness?

What if you did the version of your tasks that gave you more peace of mind?

What if you chose an easier, more straightforward version?

What if you chose a version that was more fun or that was quicker?

Now, I know this isn’t possible for every task but I equally well know that it is possible for some.

And I know you can’t prioritize your own needs in every case, but you *can* do it sometimes.

Doesn’t it make sense to choose some areas to go easy with so you have more energy for the tasks that require it?

At the very least, it’s worth including self-kindness as one of the factors in your decision-making process.

It’s definitely a good way to make more space for yourself in your own life.

Wishing you ease with this and with everything else you encounter today.

Here’s your movement practice suggestion today:

In the still image from this “On your feet all day? Try these stretches to relieve pain and fatigue” video from Ask Dr Jo, there is text on the left reading ‘Retail Worker Stretches’ and Dr Jo, a light-skinned woman in a green T-shirt who has brown hair in a short ponytail is on the right demonstrating a stretch. She is visible from the waist up and she has both hands on the back of her head and she is leaning back slightly.

And here’s today’s mindfulness suggestion:

In the still image for this “Coffee or Tea Meditation / Brother Phap Linh” from Plum Village we can see early morning sun through the leaves and stems of a plant in a glass container on a windowsill. There are other glass containers with possibly tea or coffee in them to the right and we can see blue sky at the top and on the left of the plant. There is white text in the centre of the screen that reads “Coffee or Tea Meditation”

A dog is curled up on a cluttered bed. Some Calm Amidst The Chaos
ADHD · fitness · habits · meditation · mindfulness · self care

Some Calm Amidst The Chaos

Christine Hennebury4 Comments

I’ve been writing the Making Space series daily every December for 5 years and, as it goes with these things, I am probably the person who needs the advice the most.

I am just as likely as anyone (maybe even more likely?) to get caught up in how much I could be doing and forget that there is just one person doing all the stuff I put on my list.*

My ever-expanding to do list is the result of the combination my ADHD-related challenges with time/capacity/prioritization and the ambient pressure that comes along this time of year.

Writing the Making Space posts have been helpful for me every year – a daily reminder that making space for myself in my own life is a valuable and worthwhile endeavour AND a practice that actually forces me to focus on a task (writing) that I enjoy.

I also find that the movement and mindfulness practices help, of course. Even though I don’t always complete those specific practices on those specific days, the structure of seeking them out to share with you reminds me to include at least some movement and a little meditation on even my busiest days.

But, despite how helpful all of that has been in the past, this year feels different – in a good way.

This year, I feel far more calm in December than I ever have.

Now, there are lots of contributing factors here – my kids are both in their 20s, my freelance work has been better distributed this year, I have gotten better at planning and prioritizing- but, aside from (because of?) all of that, I have found myself leaning into my movement and mindfulness practices and feeling much better because of it.

When I feel tense, I’ve been asking myself how my body needs to move right now.

When I feel stressed, I’ve been asking myself to pause and breathe.

And, yes, I have been doing this to a certain degree for a long while, this year seeking movement and mindfulness has been a more automatic, more consistent response to those feelings of tension and stress.

It feels really good to respond in those ways so often, so directly.

And I am proud of myself for getting to this point.

My practices may not be perfect but they do allow me to take better care of myself and that’s really the best case scenario, isn’t it?

*Yes, there is holiday teamwork at my house but I am talking about the stuff I tend to pile on to my to do list, not the stuff that actually must be done for our house to function and have the holiday we want to have.