Last week I sent my son to school in his pajamas. It was one of those mornings. “I don’t want to go downstairs, I don’t want to eat breakfast, I don’t want to brush my teeth, I don’t want to pack my backpack, I don’t want to get dressed.” When he dug his heels in over changing out of his pajamas, I asked myself, "Does he really need to put on day clothes?" And I decided it wasn’t a fight I was willing to fight.
We all wish certain things for our children. And while my kids are often my greatest teachers, there are many life lessons I hope they learn. I feel that if they live with these five philosophies in mind, life will be far easier for them.
Muscle aches and stiffness can be a natural consequence of running, especially when we’re increasing our mileage or adding things like speedwork or hill running to our training regimen. Our muscles become stronger by rebuilding and repairing themselves as they adapt to more challenging activities. But for any change of routine, it is important to be able to differentiate between the body’s natural response to increased training (adaptation) and pain that is caused by injury or overtraining.
We all know our thoughts are powerful. Each of us has a variety of different messages we tell ourselves on a daily basis. But for many of us, these messages are full of self-criticism and negativity. What if we trained our minds to be on constant default to a positive thought? If we looked a criticism in the eye, acknowledged it, and then followed up with a positive mantra?
We need to take care of our hearts. It’s a no-brainer, right? Do the recommended amount of cardio to get the blood pumping, limit the amount of stress we subject ourselves to, and eat a nutritious diet in order to live an energetic and healthy life. But what about taking care of the heart in a different way?
In yoga, we nurture the heart physically, but we also recognize the power of the heart on an emotional and spiritual level.
It’s day three of back-to-school and my daughter is happy to be back in her Grade One classroom after the holiday break. She loves school and is thrilled to be seeing all of her friends. When I pick her up after school she’s all hugs and smiles.
Expectations. Have you ever noticed that if you expect something to go a certain way, it’s almost a guarantee that it won’t? Like when your infant is finally sleeping through the night and you stay up that extra couple of hours because you expect her to sleep the eight-hour stretch she’s been sleeping for the last two weeks? Then bam! She wakes up four times that night. Yeah, that.
Letting go of, or managing, expectations can also ease the potential stress of the holiday season.
My six-year-old daughter, Lizzie, is curious. About everything. What does that say, mummy? Why? How does that work? Why did they do that? How did they do that? This past Sunday, we were walking back to the car after seeing Pinkalicious, the Musical, in Guelph (lots of fun, by the way) when we passed a memorial for veterans. Lizzie paused. The pinkatastic chatter stopped. “Mummy, there are poppies and wreaths. Is this statue for the soldiers?” “Yes,” I replied. “Can you read the words to me?” she asked.
