"This is who we are. And no one can take us from us."

Bikram Yoga Pose. Bikram Yoga Seacliff

Sitting and relaxing after yoga this morning in Edy's class. I was extra tired this morning after staying up way later than the norm due to a venti Starbucks at 10pm and a new found obsession with Pinterest. Can I just say that Pinterest is the smartest website idea I've seen in a while. Best ever maybe...Now I can track all those random thoughts and ideas that run through my head, clean my countertop of paper clutter (printoffs of ideas and recipes), remove the library and clutter in my brain from all my 'oh yeah i was going to dos' and keep myself accountable to what I've promised myself. I invited my mother and husband to join Pinterest last night and it was made clear to me after Dustin joined that "hey its all women on here". Until he said that it hadn't occurred to me that it was so female friendly. Why not Pinterest, all you men scoping the internet out there? What a great place to bookmark all the projects you want to accomplish and the foods you want your wife to cook for you...ehhem apple cheddar hand pies? Its a great visual bookmark tool. Foods i want to eat, places i want to visit, projects i want to attempt. Even Lowe's has a my home tracker these days for you to see what you use at your house, its the same idea. What makes Pinterest so oriented to women out there, men have project ideas too? Step away from the artsy craftsy and its an idea board, online to share with friends and to keep your head on straight. I think more guys should get in on it. Ladies, let the gentlemen in so they can make their own honey-do lists for themselves. Maybe 2012 and men on pinterest will lead to a higher succession rate of honey do completion. OOooooo I've got a new board idea - Honey-do. The best part about it is I can find websites with tutorials for everything I want my honey to do and I'll more than likely be the honey doing it!
Back to the yogification...Class was packed this morning. More so than yesterday. Front row - second from the left was my place today and I rocked it and sweated it all the way until standing separate leg stretching posture. Edy told some funny stories about this all new favorite posture of mine. Note to self do not Bikram in New Orleans or I may be way too friendly with my yoga neighbor. Anyway...back to the upper back popping in this posture - again AWESOME feeling. After the pop I did the posture and was kinda hanging out in a neutral position, pulling is the object of stretching and I was admittedly half assing it. With all the gagillion people in the room I knew of course that there would be no way I'd be called out on my halfassedness in my new favorite posture. WRONG. Edy totally caught me and asked me what I was doing, just hanging out? He said "Amanda pull on your heels." so I pulled harder on my heels because I wasn't really pulling before. As soon as I pulled my forehead hit the ground (the whole goal of the posture) he repeated, "Amanda, what were you doing before? You weren't pulling like that. Now get your legs closer and pull again." Again my forehead hit the ground all while my Smiling Happy Face was laughing through the posture for being called out. Of course all Edy's chatter and me not pulling my forehead to the floor to begin with made the posture last longer for the entire class! My new goal for tomorrow is to pop the upper back and get the forehead to the floor as quickly as possible - Avoid Halfassedness will be my new motto.
This new goal from yoga lessons learned thing has happened before, the day that Lisa made us do 3 sets of Triangle. Yes 3 sets...I will never forget that class in my life and I will always always always go as low as possible within the posture to make sure that Lisa knows I'm busting it and so that I never ever ever have to do 3 sets again, brutal! The great part about the 3 sets was that I totally improved my posture and I bust it out every class to the best of my ability. My neighbor in class today even commented on how impressed she was with my Triangle today. I told her the 3 sets story as my inspiration for getting so low in the hips.
Amongst all the new projects and my 60 in 60 goal I have to remind myself daily that I am just me and can only do me. I am not a successful fixed firm poser yet...someday maybe..but until then I do what I do and I get through. Back to the whole ups and downs in life otherwise a flat line means we're dead idea. We are who we are. A little kick in the ass during a posture in yoga will help energize us but we can never apologize for doing what we do to the best of our ability. Halfassedness is not acceptable for me in 2012 but being me is. I may be shifting. realigning, destressing, decompressing, stretching, lengthening and striving my mindset, body, brain, life, outlook and love for myself and others, but I am still me and no one can take that away from me. I was inspired by Sue Paterno's words from the Washington Post article about Joe and the scandal that I read moments ago. Her words were the last few in the article and had little to do with its entirety but were the most important for me to absorb. No matter what anyone says, no matter how things change from one day to the other, no matter how up and down our life line ebbs and flows, "This is who we are. And no one can take us from us."
Eyes Open, Breathing Normal - Pulling is the Object of Stretching!