Stiff To Fit, Washington D.C., DC (2025)

01/07/2022

BREATHING

Breathing is instinctive, right?

Since we’re alive we must know how to breathe. That seems obvious.

If we are living a calm, peaceful life with healthy bodies, have a roof over our heads, food on the table, clean running water, a positive social support system and no stress, no worries, no anxieties & no pandemic (!) then perhaps we all would be breathing optimally and we wouldn’t need to discuss tips to better breathing.

I don’t live that life. And I wasn't taught how to breathe properly in school, were you?

Understanding how to breathe more effectively will:

*help us feel calmer
*better support our body's functioning
*be more able to handle whatever curveball life is throwing us.

Your body (and mind) will thank you!

Here are 3 easy tips to improve your breathing:

Tip #1:
Breathing is a wave-inhale, exhale, inhale exhale. The inhale/exhale (breath cycle) creates physical change in the body which we can feel if we know to pay attention.

To generalize:

On the inhale, the body responds by “making room” for the air i.e. an expansion happens in our torso area.

On the exhale, a contraction happens in our torso area.

Go ahead and take 3-5 breath cycles and see if you can feel both the expansion and contraction of your body as you breathe.

Tip #2
Having trouble feeling any physical sensations?

An easy way to become more aware of your breath is to lay on the floor on your back. Your knees can be bent or straight, either works although most folks prefer their knees to be bent to support their backs.

Put both your hands on your belly. Inhale through your nose and see if you can feel your hands move up towards the ceiling or out towards the sides. Find an easy flow of in breath and out breath and keep this flow going for a minute or two.

Stop and assess.

How do you feel?

Most people report a greater sense of relaxation physically and a mental calmness or "slowing down" of their minds.

If you don't feel your hands moving, try putting a medium size book on your belly. Can you get the book to lift towards the ceiling on your inhale? And can the book lower back down on your exhale? If yes, that's it!

Becoming more aware of your breathing takes practice.
Keep trying. You'll get it.
Sometimes people feel a little light-headed or "spacey" when they consciously breathe like this. Be safe getting up.

Roll to one side and pause, then press yourself to sitting and pause, then slowly make your way to standing and pause.

Tip #3
To calm your body even more, breathe in through your nose and out through your nose like you're smelling something wonderful. Freshly baked bread or chocolate chip cookies? Fresh flowers or a beautiful perfume/cologne?

Some folks call this “yoga breathing” which activates the part of your nervous system signaling "all is well, no saber tooth tigers or horrible pandemics approaching".

Breathing more consciously is an excellent first step to working better with your body.

11/17/2021

Embrace the Fall
Fall is the perfect time to shake up your health and wellness routines. As daylight reaches its shortest length in December and the weather turns colder, fine tuning your self care will pay great dividends during the long winter stretch.
Adjusting your diet according to the seasons is a way of eating more mindfully and more sustainably. Apples, squashes and root vegetables are locally available. Roasting veggies is a great way of adding more nutrition to your meals and enhances the flavor and smell of the vegetables. Try roasted sweet potatoes, roasted asparagus, roasted squash. Besides salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil, consider which spices you might like to add.
Many people instinctively turn to hot soups and warm beverages like tea and mulled apple cider during colder times. Soups are relatively easy to assemble. With a good blender, you can whip up a veggie soup like sweet potato curry in a short amount of time. Healthy smoothies can also be made quickly in a blender. Hot tea, whether black, green, white or herbal, is very comforting on a nippy fall day. Hot grains can be a wise breakfast switch. Did you know that you can make a hot quinoa breakfast much like oatmeal?
Do you like scents? Lavender is know to relax and calm the body. Maybe you prefer the taste and smell of cinnamon or cardamom, both of which are easily added to your morning oatmeal. Chai tea has a wonderful bouquet of spices which can warm the body almost as well as the hot temperature of the tea. All those spices can help enliven your senses and uplift your spirit.
Fall is also a wonderful time to clean and reorganize your things and space-like papers, clothes, closets and individual rooms.
What are you holding on to that no longer serves you? What can be released or passed on to another? Changing your bed clothes is also wise. Perhaps it’s time for a new pillow or mattress or sheets.
Now is the perfect time to take a moment and reflect on what fitness, nutrition and lifestyle changes you might like to make as fall continues and winter is almost here.
If you have a favorite tip, please post in the comments and thanks for sharing!

11/15/2021

Thriving

I participated in a women's mastermind group discussion recently and the topic was thriving during an uncertain time.
Several members questioned if we should even discuss how to thrive now.

Doesn't that seem selfish when the world has been turned upside down and 18 months later we're still not right side up?
Many folks are still struggling with basic needs and trying to survive, forget thrive. To focus on thriving seems well, insensitive perhaps? Or disrespectful?

The legendary civil rights leader and US Representative John Lewis asked "if not now, when?".
If we consider that now is the only time we have to thrive (who knows what tomorrow will bring?) then we might ask what would thriving look like?

The facilitator of our group mentioned we all are different human beings with different lives and different experiences.
Therefore we all define words & concepts differently.
What's thriving to one member might not be thriving to another.
Some definitions mentioned were doing well, flourishing, happy, joyous, healthy, realizing a goal.

I don't know about you but flourishing and feeling joyous have not been on my radar in the last 18 months.
For me defining how I might flourish and feel more joy might be my starting point.

Would my thriving create positive energy in the world? That depends.
Seeing someone else doing well can be inspiring and give hope to those not yet in a similar place. Or not.
As the facilitator of our group said, everyone comes from different places.

I say, if I'm fortunate enough to even consider how to thrive more in my life, than I have enough to offer something to someone else.

If hope isn't enough, how could we extend a hand to those are just barely hanging on? A kind word? Listening without judgement? Volunteering to help in our communities?

Help comes in many forms. What can we each offer that would acknowledge or lessen someone else's pain?

Let's remember that giving often benefits the giver more than the receiver.
If we have something positive to give, let's give it. And we can call that thriving.

11/04/2021

Start Now

When I work with clients, we discuss and set goals. Then comes an action plan i.e. determining the possible steps involved to achieve their goals followed by where the client wants to start.

I’ve found that clients can get stuck here. They have established clearly defined goals and know what action steps they want to take and then they …………stop.

Whoa! You might ask why does that happen? Are the action steps too big? Are the goals not what the clients really want? Are my clients unmotivated? In my experience, several things can get in the way of the clients moving forward. First is actually creating a new habit. Changing behavior takes brain cells i.e. emotional, mental and physical energy. Many of my clients come to me running on empty, stressed out by the both pace and the demands of their lives. Using more brain cells sounds well, honestly, horrible to them. The second thing which can happen is that they are very motivated to discuss their goals and create action steps but want to jump in the deep end and do everything today! We see this kind of mindset in January each year with folks setting “resolutions”, going full tilt towards an important goal only to abandon 4-6 weeks later and ending up feeling worse about themselves than January 1st when they started. What’s the answer?

Start now.

Any energy expended on behalf of your goal whether emotional, mental, physical or spiritual helps.

Stiff To Fit

01/07/2022

11/17/2021

11/15/2021

11/04/2021

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