What will you do this week to make a positive change for you?
Lift your heart to the sunshine & let your soul shine through
Beauty is 10% looks, and 90% what’s happening on the inside.
How you feel on the inside will transfer to how you appear on the outside.
When you feel a little down, rather than focus on the negatives lift your heart to the sunshine, allow your thoughts to drift to all the good and beautiful things in your life.
Watch the transformation yourself, as your soul literally shines through, you radiate happiness from the inside out!
Beautiful yes?
Your thoughts can make or break you
Your thoughts are the key to your success.
You have the power to change them, start within!
The greatest triumphs come with patience and dedication
This week I forced myself to slow down, to master the fine art of patience.
Patience with my practice, patience with achieving my business goals, and patience with people in my life.
I taught crows pose in class, and I watched the ones who leapt into it, their impatience literally throwing them off balance and they were unable to master the pose.
I watched the ones who listened who tried the pose in gradual stages, who kept trying until they got it right, it was an amazing thing to watch.
The greatest triumphs always come from practice, patience, dedication and a belief in ones self!
Life is about creating space
I believe life is about creating spaces.
Create spaces in your house where you can feel happy, creative and motivated.
Create space in your garden where you can escape and feel calm.
Create space in your heart to allow love to enter in.
Create space in your thoughts to focus on positive things.
Create space in your life to spend the time with people you care about and who care about you.
Create space in your day to take a moment for you.
Life is about creating spaces, start creating the space that feels right for you.
Like a tidal wave gratitude washed over my body
If you are really lucky you will experience a few unexceptional moments in life, that feel exceptional.
Those unsuspecting moments that creep up on you out of nowhere, that send jolts of clarity and waves of happiness through your body.
This morning at 8:16am (I know, because when it hit, I looked at my watch, and made a point to capture the moment).
At 8:16am this morning, waves of gratitude crashed over my body like a tidal wave.
At 8:32 am I sit by the Brisbane River, I eat the yoghurt and banana I had prepared and I try to put into words everything that is bursting from my heart.
As I said, if you are lucky, you will experience these magical moments where you feel exactly where you are meant to be in life.
This morning I dragged my sore, tired body out of bed to teach two people Pilates in the garden. These two people I am helping improve their fitness and strengthen an injury.
This morning before 8am I had positively helped two people, what a beautiful way to start the day.
At lunch I will help 10 more, I will give them a respite from their day in the office, to breathe in the fresh air, to find 45 minutes of peacefulness and calmness in their otherwise hectic day.
Last night I pushed 35 people to their limit and challenged them mentally and physically .
This past month I have had several people cry in class, for the simple reason that for that brief moment in time they had felt the best they had done in a long time. I won’t get into the reasons why, it’s not my place, but to make someone feel good even for a moment is a rare treasure.
There are a lot of people who do amazing things in this world, being a fitness instructor may not be considered one of them, but being involved in improving someone’s state of mind in a positive way for a few moments of their life, feels pretty amazing to me.
I don’t think it matters what you are doing with your life, if you are doing something that makes your life richer, that fills you and or others with joy and happiness then you are doing what you should be doing with your life.
If you feel gratitude for your life when you wake up, does it matter what life you are living in the eyes of others.
If you are walking along and you get wave after wave of happiness hit you for no particular reason then I feel you are definitely where you are meant to be, doing what you are meant to be doing.
The emotional side of exercise
It has been an oddly emotional week, for myself and others around me. I have had a few people cry in my classes and this of course has made me think more deeply about my life, and my classes.
Emotions are a funny thing, they can be pushed to the background for so long, before all of a sudden they explode when you least expect it.
Exercise releases endorphins we all know about this, it makes sense then that emotions can be released as well.
While you may feel more comfortable crying during relaxation or a hip opening yoga sequence than pumping weights or running on the treadmill, don’t be surprised if halfway mid squat you suddenly feel overcome with emotion.
Here is where all the guys are puffing their chests out saying whatever lady, well guys it happens to you too, I know this, I have seen it.
While you may disguise (or bury) it better than the ladies, it does happen to you as well 🙂
Think about it, when you are exercising, you are away from your life so to speak; no wife, husband, children, work, deadlines, chores before you – just you and your chosen exercise.
Your mind is now focussed, your breathing has most likely changed, without these other external factors what are you left with?
Your thoughts!
Your emotions!
Now for my yoga, pilates, body balance people; relaxation is confrontational, being left quietly alone with yourself and a potential racing mind can be daunting, so I am here to tell you that it is ok to feel whatever it is you are feeling.
It is ok to let some tears flow silently down your cheeks, and if you end up a blubbering puffy face mess then that is ok as well.
We tend to hold a lot of emotion in our hips, so if you are in the midst of a deep hip opening sequence then it is quite natural to start to feel an emotional release during this.
How you feel is how you feel, so recognise this, accept this and embrace it.
Release what needs to be released and I am confident you will feel a million times better for allowing yourself to do this.
Moving forward
Found these quotes recently and wanted to share with you all.
Have a beautiful week everyone.
When you can’t be stuffed preparing a fancy meal why not try stuffing a capsicum instead
Do you sometimes crave a meal that is a little different, but the idea of putting thought into a meal just seems too much?
I do; often!
I love cooking, I love creating in the kitchen, but there are times (normally when I am tired or have limited time) that I just can not be bothered.
A few weeks back I was tired, I was hungry, I opened the fridge about 5 times, I opened the cupboard and I repeated this process a few times, stomping around the kitchen sooking to myself that I had nothing to eat, when I decided it was time to stop being an idiot.
I grabbed the two red capsicums from the fridge and pretended I didn’t notice the haggard looking carrots, I willed myself to be creative and before I knew it I was preparing stuffed capsicums and if I may be modest, they were terrific.
Here is what I did.
Cut the capsicums in half take out the middle bit.
Put a little bit of olive oil on the top and place them under the grill until the top changes colour.
While these are cooking, boil some water and make some couscous.
In a saucepan fry a little bit of garlic, mushroom and tomato chopped into cubes (I add a handful of fresh herbs from my garden) then when almost cooked add a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar.
Mix this all together with your couscous and I add pine nuts as well.
Then take your (hopefully not too chargrilled) Â capsicums out from the griller, stuff it with your couscous combo and put a tiny bit of cheese on top.
Place it back under the griller until the cheese melts and goes a little bit brown.
As I type it all out, it seems a little more time-consuming than it actually is, trust me it really doesn’t take long at all.
I did try it with green capsicums the other day, which actually wasn’t as nice as the red ones, green ones take longer to cook and are not as sweet.
Please let me know if you try this and have any other suggestions, additions etc.
Happy stuffing and happy eating.
x