Mamarestore

75 minutes, 4 poses, 2 bolsters, 2 blocks, 2 blankets and one eye pillow equals one totally relaxed and happy mama.

If you've never done restorative yoga, try it. It's the anti-doing and when we are rushing and doing and doing some more, we forget to breathe and then we forget to pay attention and then life flies by and then we say things like "I don't know where the time has gone."

But after class, time still keeps going and life still keeps going, but I am there for all of it. Really there.

Pressing pause

When life gets too loud or too fast or too much, I am learning to press pause.

My husband left last night for a trip that will last over 14 days - 10 of which he will spend in silence, rising at 4am, sitting in meditation and getting re-acquainted with the sound of the bell that dictated our actions when we did this same retreat together in 2008. This is the longest we have ever been apart - this is the longest he will be away from the nugget.

When we told most people that he was going back to Thailand, most responded with support, though it may have masked their slight scepticism. Others quickly followed with, "Well when do you get to go?" And it made me smile - that they wanted things to be fair - for me to have the chance and the time to re-set, re-charge, re-center. And with all sincerity, I replied that my turn would come and I believe that with every bone in my body.

What I often didn't say is that my husband's time in silence, without his computer, without the news, without his IPhone - directly impacts the "we" and the "us". It can't not. So yes, he is doing the work right now, but we are a unit, and what deeply affects one of us, affects us all.

So, yes he is on retreat and I am home, with an 11 month old baby. But somehow, I too feel as though I am on a different kind of retreat - that even here at home, with dishes and recycling to carry out and laundry to fold and a baby to put to sleep, I too can re-set, re-charge and re-center.

This time alone, for me, right now, is me pressing pause.

Eat breakfast.

Really, it's a no brainer. eat breakfast please.

what does this have to do with new motherhood you ask?

well, mostly, as a new mom you forget to eat. or you don't make the time to eat. or you eat what your baby didn't {when you have made organic pureed sweet potatoes}. or you shovel what ever you can get your hands on into your mouth. or you get really good at runny on empty.

and if you are nursing, well, you figure it out.

so i am posting this because i need to take better care of myself. one of my new year's resolutions is to make my food either before or at the same time as i am making food for the nugget. then i eat right before, or with him or right after. either way, he might have a to wait for me for a few extra seconds, but let me tell you, it makes all the difference.

since i start to get extremely bored with breakfast foods, i use photographer jen causey's
simply breakfast blog to provide some much needed inspiration.

bon appetit.

Hello body, nice to meet you.

Image from http://joyofnia.com/welcome.html

We had to introduce ourselves at the beginning of class and say why we had signed up for this 8 week Nia class.

Yoga is too slow and hip hop is too fast is what came out of my mouth.

I am in awe of the new moms who sign up for baby-boot camp, start running their regular 5k ritual or rejoin their advanced yoga class shortly after giving birth. My body has revolted and it is a different body from what it was 15 months ago. It is a body I am not quite familiar with. But it is mine and though I have a closet of cloths that remind me of what was, I am working on embracing and even accepting what is.

My hope, without being attached to any kind of result or outcome, is that this Nia class will be a chance to get re-acquainted.

from Body + Soul Magazine

Perhaps there is some gem of information here that you can use. Pick one suggestion a week and see if it makes any difference in your new crazy post-partum, sleep-deprived, over-scheduled life.

My First Date

It's Monday night and I am on a date with myself.

I am at our corner coffee shop - with students and artists and couples on dates and a young man immersed in the pages of a yellowing old book. And right now, I am not a mom.

This new plan - of Monday nights for me are an attempt to establish or re-establish some sort of equilibrium. Of finding my inner calm and sanity that somehow after almost 5 months of being a new mom seems farther away than the Great Wall of China.

So I could be out shopping or at some bar or with some friends or at some yoga class, but instead I am sitting here, typing. I have chosen this because I have been yearning to speak - at least through the written word about what it feels like to be a mom, what it feels like to be responsible for feeding our family when cooking is one of my least favorite things to do and what it feels like to be a milk farm.

So, for my sanity, my equilibrium this will be my place to come back to, when I have something to say.

Do you have a spot - just for yourself, where you can go to tune out the world, silence the phone and just breathe?

{the ritual of public baths}

From Japan to Turkey to Finland to Russia, the idea of communal bathing is certainly not a new concept. However, it is not part of our American culture and it is a shame. Our closeted and fearful relationship with sexuality and sensuality and nudity makes communal bathing still a fringe experience.

Luckily I live in San Francisco, which means I have a few more options when it comes time for this lovely and relaxing ritual. However Osento, the women's bath in the Mission is now closed and the popularity of the public baths at Kabuki now means that I might have to wait for 2 hours to get in, so I am in desperate need of a new place to soak and get warm.

So for now, I will have to share with you about a spot in Seattle, that is certainly worth a visit.

Banya 5 : Seattle Urban Spa

I have only been there once but I will be certain to visit again when I visit the Pacific Northwest.

{maintain well-being}

If an artist date is time to nurture my inner creative self, then a wellness date is just time to nurture myself, period.

Self-care shouldn't be a tricky or foreign concept, but it may just be the most diffilut thing for some of us to do. We don't take care of ourselves. I am fascinated with the why and will probably spend lots of time and entries getting to the essence of the answer but until then, I am going to commit to a weekly wellness date - time, alone, to nurture myself.

This week I visited Safronya, an Ayurvedic retreat center, in San Rafael. Once a month, they host a sangha - the Sanskrit word for a gathering or community with a common goal, vision or purpose - open to the public to share and discuss the practices and philosphy of Ayurveda.

Ayurveda, the living and healing science of India, is a true lifestyle approach to well-being. Nourishment and therapies include guidance with food, stress reduction techniques, mindfulness practices and movement - though it can not be reduced to these "To do" things. It is truly holistic in nature and I have found it to be the most beneficial approach to my own health. It requires your own participation in your life and health and that you take care of yourself.

Safronya offers services for body, mind and spirit that go beyond spa treatments. Last night's sangha was a beautiful gathering of women, who each gave themselves this time to connect, listen and learn.

I left feeling excited, happy, empowered and eagerly awaiting the gathering in August.

For more information about Ayurveda and Safronya, please visit their website.

{my creative self}

On my journey of self-discovery, Julia Cameron's The Artists Way proved inspiring and habit changing - the key to any type of transformation. In it, she encourages readers to take time for themselves, specifically time to nurture your creative-self. This time she calls Artist Dates.

What is an Artist Date?
A weekly commitment of time, for you alone, to explore and indulge your inner creative self.

The key to artists dates is that you are alone and that you stick to them, as diligently as you stick to your other commitments. And your inner artist doesn't have to be a painter - cooking, nature, house decorating, dancing, music, scrap booking, reading, knitting - these are all creative outlets.

For me, it is a time to be unavailable to everyone else - there are no bills to pay and nothing to do but explore something that delights me. It may sound indulgent, but for me, they have become as necessary to my health and well-being as eating well. I have committed to a weekly artist date and will share with you my adventures + insights, in the hopes of inspiring your own inner artist.