Explore and Bloom in May
Explore: What feels good in your body and nature.
Issue contents:
🙋🏻♀️ Explore and Bloom
🧘🏻♂️ Yoga & Mantras
🏃🏻♀️ Thoughts on the Run
🎁 Free Gift for Paid Subscribers
Explore and Bloom:
May warms the earth and sets the stage to explore nature as it blooms. The longer days energize me and sparks a curiosity to seek out a park or take on a new experience.
May’s full moon appears in a few days. The flower moon reminds us to take notice and enjoy the earth in bloom.
Exploring a park or revisiting a long-forgotten activity can bring joy. Take a child in nature and notice their curiosity. Venture into a park alone and notice what calls for your attention. All senses light up.
Camp Helen State Park trail pictured below is minutes from a popular beach. This trail offers a soothing dose of the natural coastline.
Add something new to an annual vacation by researching local trails in the area. It might start a new tradition with a family hike, walk or bike ride. There is much to learn being in the physical presence of nature that hits all the senses with sights, sounds and smells.
Explore the possibility of a dream or goal that lays on the back burner. Choose one task daily that will move you toward your dream this month. At the end of the month re-evaluate the dream and the possibilities.
Explore possibilities.
Explore what you CAN do.
Explore what you LOVE to do.
A combination of sports and wellness allows us to explore growth in athletic performance along with mental and emotional aspects of purposeful living. To explore is to move past resistance. Resistance shows up as avoidance, excuses and negative self-beliefs. Explore and set to bloom your personal desires.
Yoga Poses to Explore. Choose poses that lift and open the heart. Poses that offer a feeling of grace and balance. For example:
Dancer
Tree
High Lunge
Archer
Explore what feels good in your body. Drop out of your thinking mind into your body. Notice your feet as they ground in each posture. Then bring attention to your shoulders and find comfort in each pose. Drop into the body with an ease using the breath. Feel to heal. The more body awareness the better the practice. Explore the beauty of movement and the joy of living fully in each moment.
Mantras:
Nature is my solace.
I am enough just as I am.
I trust my abilities.
I embrace challenges.
I am proud of who I am becoming.
I am capable, strong and resilient.
I radiate confidence.
Thoughts on the Run:
Avoidance came to mind during my short weekend run. Heavy, gray clouds with a few sprinkles keeps most people safely inside. I took advantage of the quiet streets by running early. Then the rain let up, people emerged. I noticed that when someone was in my path, I would change directions. Trying not to impose on anyone or get in their way. This avoidance is typical behavior for me. I change plans, directions and thoughts often in avoidance or being affected by others. I make note of the awareness to stop the insanity. I will keep my purpose and stay on my path. I will navigate obstacles and move past them. How we do one thing, most often, is how we do most everything. Habits engrained that have no purpose need evaluation to move forward with purpose toward a goal.
My goal for a big city marathon can be strengthen by releasing my avoidance issue. Running with 50,000 other runners on busy city streets will be controlled chaos. There will be no room for avoidance, if I want to reach the finish line. I will need the mental fortitude to stay in my lane, maintain my pace and run my own race from start to finish.
A practice of yin yoga and long runs will help to improve the mindset of staying focused on the task at hand. The endurance from both develops the toughness to push through resistance and move past obstacles. So much to learn from the marathon journey. I’m ready for the journey. I will come out on the other side stronger mentally and physically, whether I see the finish line or not.
Last week’s newsletter on releasing control related to overtraining and recovery for an athlete. This week’s note on releasing control relates to mindset. New mindset: It is ok for me to be here and work on my goals. If I am running in my own lane, then I have nothing to avoid. Stay on my own paper. Keep moving on my path. Address all obstacles and keep moving forward.
How can I support you in your athletic adventures…
Monday morning yoga class - start the week off moving and recovering from the weekend. Message me for details.
Recover and Restore 4 week Course - includes ebook yoga journal, weekly yoga Videos specific to recovery, weekly check in email. Free gift to Paid Subscribers in the month of May.
Paid Subscriber: Monthly yoga video for runners, community Q&A and additional runner specific resources. Hit Subscribe below.
Keep moving forward shining your light on and off the mat.
Namaste’
Jill
Paywall Contents:
-45 minute Yoga Flow to stretch the whole back body.
-May’s base training plan for a Fall marathon.
-15 minute video for full body stretches after every workout.
Note: Photos by author.