Playin’ The Edge

My hips are my canary in a coal mine.  If anything is going on – I’ve sat too long, run too hard – it will show up as pain in my hips.  I was at the chiropractor complaining about the latest bout of cranky hips.  My usual awesome chiro was on maternity leave and I was seeing a fill-in guy.

Chuck is simply the cutest sweetest chiropractor you could ever meet.  And he’s good.

I said to him that I thought my hip was cranky this time because I’d stepped up my running a bit.  He looked through my chart and said, “with the regularity you’ve been complaining about this, I’d say it’s something that you’re doing 8 hours a day.  Hmmmm, it’s on the right side.  What’s on the right side of your desk at work?”  I told him my phone was on the right hand side and that yes I use it a lot and he gave me the perfectly reasonable advice that I try moving it more towards the middle so I’m not leaning on my right hip so much.

So brilliant it should be obvious right?

Then I told him that it’s so frustrating – when my hip is painful doing yoga is also really painful and that’s my favorite way of trying to help my body so if that’s out it doesn’t leave me with much that I can do.  And yes, i was saying it in a whiney kind of voice.  (Note: other things that help are light exercise like walking, hot epsom salt baths, a smear of tiger balm before bed and good ol’ ibuprofin).

He said, “Corilee you teach yoga, you know better than that.  You need to be doing 5-10 minutes a day of the stretches that you know help keep your hips limber.  Not save it all up for when they’re painful.”

Dang, so right.  How does he get to be cute and good?

He also suggested one of those wobbly things you can sit on at your desk so that your core is activated and your hips don’t lock up.  I haven’t tried that suggestion yet but have been keeping up on my core exercises and my hips stretches everyday.  Last week I realized that i it was 8 weeks since I’d been to the chiropractor.  I hadn’t made it that long without the urgent, “when can you get me in??!!” appointment request in forever.  I wasn’t in pain, but i went for a tune-up to keep any issues at bay.

Here are my daily hip stretches:

Option 1:

Hamstring stretch like Forward Bend.  Just hang for a few breaths and if back is tight keep some softness in the knees to stretch to balance the stretch between them.

High Lunge to low lunge, then move hands to inside of front foot and lower the torso to get real deep.  If this feels intense, i’ll go back and forth to give each side a break while i work through the three versions.

Pigeon.  As I hold i’ll come up on my hands to deepen the stretch and then add a twist reaching front leg side arm back to hold back leg.

Option 2 on back:

Squeeze knees into chest.

Cross right knee over left and squeeze both in, especially holding right foot towards body (really hits the IT band if it’s tight).

Hold one leg up a time for hamstring stretch.

Drop knees from side to side and then hold on one side, even sliding top knee to the floor above bottom knee for extra deep low back stretch.  Change sides.

Then outside of right foot on left thigh, pull thigh in (i’ve heard it called “threading the needle” or “Number 4 pose”).  If it’s tight i’ll do each side twice.

“Learn how to incorporate meditation into your daily routine, no matter how brief. So much of our suffering, pain, insecurities, and struggles are caused by a disconnection with ourselves and our source. Meditation costs nothing, requires nothing, and can be done anywhere. In order to change your body, you need to change your mind and the way it is hardwired.”

Jennifer Galardi, owner of LivWhole in New York City

I saw this quote and thought it was so perfect for running, yoga or anywhere that we safely push our boundaries to discover more about ourselves and what we’re capable of.

I’m glad to be here right now, poking at my threshold. I want to get more comfortable being uncomfortable. I want to get more confident being uncertain. I don’t want to shrink back just because something isn’t easy. I want to push back, and make more room in the area between I can’t and I can. Maybe that spot is called I will.

Kristin Armstrong, Mile Markers blog, Runner’s World.com

My beloved child,

break your heart no longer.

Each time you judge yourself you break your own heart.

You stop feeding on the love which is the wellspring of your vitality.

The time has come, your time

To live to celebrate and to see the goodness that you are…

Let no one, no thing, no idea or ideal obstruct you

If one comes, even in the name of “Truth”, forgive it for its

unknowing

Do not fight

Let go

And breathe – into the goodness that you are.

Bapuji

I did the detox again and noticed some packaging and food guide changes in the kit.  I like them!

The food guide is more clear and concise – easier to understand for someone who is in a Day 2 detoxing haze.  I like how they put millet, quinoa, buckwheat and brown rice all in the 80% category.  Even though i mostly rely on brown rice (a habit) it’s nice to have the other options too.

I like how they clarified that unsweetened almond milk is an 80% food.  The previous “soy milk in moderation” in the small print never felt clear to me (is that one cup or one teaspoon per day?).  And i appreciate the “all oils except peanut” as i’ve become pretty addicted to coconut oil

As i was detoxing, i came across a couple of tricks to keep it easy for myself and want to share them.

• Make brown rice every other day and take the guesswork out of the process.  I soak mine overnight or during the day in my rice cooker to reduce cooking times.  And don’t forget that when you’re really crunched for time, there are parboiled versions of brown rice, like Uncle Ben’s etc.  They cook up in 20 minutes so you can even do a batch before heading to work.

• Buy as many veggies as can fit in your grocery cart or shopping bag at the market.  Buy the things that might normally be only “sometimes” veggies.  I bought things like avocados, fresh herbs, raddiccio, radishes – anything to make my salads extra interesting.  Wash everything when you get home so things are ready to be pulled out and chopped.

• I normally have a real issue with snacks, i’m really hungry between meals and have to find detox-friendly snacks that stay well within the 80% allocation foods, worry-free, so the detox can do its work.  So this time I did up two salad lunches.  One was a nice big green salad with all the salad fixin’s i love with a handful of almonds or a half can of salmon.  I saved space for a small container of dressing (a dribble of oil, squirt of lemon juice, a drizzle of fruit juice, herbs, salt and pepper).  The other salad was a rice or grains-based salad.  Using leftovers from the night before I’d add the chunkier veggies that hadn’t gone in the salad – carrots, celery, broccoli, a sprinkle of herbs & pepper, a handful of chick peas.  I found that by eating two salads (around 11:00 and 2:00), i could make it through a workday without hounding for snacks.

• The other trick i figured out is that when you make a salad, make 2 or 3.  If you’re making one up for dinner, make two in carry containers for work too.  Or on Sunday evening, make up a couple so you’re good to go on Monday a.m.. Why not, once you’ve pulled all the stuff out of the fridge it doesn’t take that long.  And that way you have something waiting for you when you look in the fridge bleary-eyed in the a.m. wondering what on earth you’ll eat all day.

Honeybunny is an incredibly loyal Edmonton Oilers hockey team fan.  He started back in the 90′ s when they had Gretsky and has followed them ever since.  Living in Halifax, a city too small for a team means that hockey fans can follow any team.  But most people follow the teams close by, in the East.  Honeybunny stays up many late nights all winter long following a team that’s in a time zone 3 hours behind us.

This season we watched “Oil Change”, a show about the team and even though I don’t watch the hockey, i like shows about hockey.  I find the players and the business and the expansion story fascinating even though I hardly remember any of the people’s names.

In the last episode we watched Taylor Fedun shatter his femur, his thigh bone, when his knee went into the boards.  The crazy thing about these elite players is that they take injuries in their stride.

Hockey is a pretty dangerous sport and I’ve seen the ugly face injuries, the jaw wiring, the nasty kind of owies that would throw me for a loop.  But seeing Taylor in the wheelchair after hours of surgery, and not knowing how the story played out, i really wondered if he’d make it back to the game.

They showed the long process of his rehab and talked to his physical therapist.  The therapist said, even when Taylor was improving, *every* workout was painful.  But he just saw the pain as sensation to be managed like anything else.

I would see the pain as a sign that i shouldn’t be doing the exercise – this obviously isn’t making my body happy.  But it just goes to show you, you can reframe anything in your mind.  And be up for dealing with anything.

It reminds me that it’s not the circumstances in life that make us happy.  The fact is, life happens.  Stuff happens.  That’s Life’s job.

Our job is to deal.  Find the best ways to look at it.  Make up the most innovative healing stories to tell ourselves about it.

I had a stash of money on the counter and Angus (age 7) asked for some.  So i gave him a toonie (a two dollar coin).  He started to walk out of the room.

I said: hey, what do you say when someone gives you money?

He said: Yaye!

I was looking for “thank you” but i think he’s right.  Anytime someone gives you money you should say “yaye”.

I’m always trying to find ways to get more brown rice into me during the Wild Rose Herbal Detox so that i don’t have to stress about staying within the 80/20% restrictions.  Breakfast is tough.  Before the detox i’d been playing around with having grains for breakfast and found that you can sprinkle cinnamon on pretty much anything and make it taste breakfasty.  At least to me.

Here’s a really quick way to make a breakfast out of last night’s leftover brown rice.  That’s one of my rules of detoxing.  Make brown rice (or quinoa or millet) every day or 2 and make lots so you have it in the fridge all the time.

This rice pudding is obviously not as creamy as real rice pudding, but i find it makes for a hearty breakfast that holds me over until lunch.

Quick and Easy Brown Rice Pudding

Put 1 cup of leftover brown rice in a bowl and add a good shake of cinnamon, a shake of cardamom and any other spices you like (like pumpkin pie spice, cloves, nutmeg, you get the idea).  Add any where from 1 tsp to 1 TB of coconut oil (I really like the stuff, so i go with a TB).  Microwave for 1 minute and then stir it well to combine the spices and melt the oil.  Add a drizzle of almond milk and microwave for another 30 seconds.

I’m working on a more involved version that will hopefully be creamier – stay tuned!

I was being really bothered recently by someone I found really annoying.  Me and this other person – let’s call him Joe – just were not seeing eye to eye.  He really bugged me.  And then i was finding that i was thinking about my annoyance when i’d much rather be enjoying my weekend, say.  Or sleeping.  And then that would annoy me even more.

One morning i was in the car listening to a podcast on Lovingkindness meditation.  I love it, i do the meditation in my yoga class all the time.  My favourite one goes like this:

May you be happy.

May you feel loved.

May all your suffering be healed.

May you be at peace.

We do the meditation silently during relaxation and i say each line and pause so they can repeat it to themselves.  We say it first for ourselves, next for someone we care about , again for someone who’s totally neutral (the person who sells you coffee in the morning) and then finally for someone who we have a harder time with.  The kind of relationship that has been difficult or needs some healing.

When we got to that part of the meditation in the podcast I immediately thought of Joe.  And I put the lovingkindness out to him.

And it was really cool because I felt myself soften toward him with each line.  I didn’t feel so resistant and on-the-opposite-side-of-the-fence to him.

When it was done i really felt like i didn’t need Joe to be any different.  I felt like I cared for or respected him enough to allow him to be exactly who he is, without the annoyance this time. It felt really freeing.

You know that Gandhi quote, “be the change you want to see in the world”?  I always thought that was for really big change like world peace.  But it ocurred to me driving to work that morning, that I had just done it.

I had wanted Joe to change and be less annoying.  But instead i managed to change my perspective so I was less annoyed. I was the change.

But it gets even better.  You know what happened when I saw Joe?  I was much more open to him without even trying.  I was warmer and more accommodating instead of resistant and shut down.  Just waiting to be annoyed.  I was genuinely interested in how he was doing.

It was pretty cool.  Because I think of the lovingkindness meditation as something we put out to the people that we’re thinking about.  And that may be true.  I like to think we’re sending those people good stuff. But the real juice is the gift you give to yourself.

Being open and caring and genuine is such a better way to be in the world.  I can attest that it sure beats being annoyed.