lucky fire dragon

Thirding the fascination, wow! Is it like expanding a comfort zone maybe that would otherwise shrink further and further? And yes, moving is definitely the preferable option Stealing this for myself beginner at lifting YAY \o/ aaaaaand again!! This is really becoming a new habit is it go you! You so will So much WIN! Also yayyyyyyyy handstands and climbing, especially with no bad effects, whoohooo

All the impressive stuff again I love all your detailed self observation in your training. Got nothing smart to say, only sneaking inspiration from you

Here is a nice interview with Joe Dispenza for anyone interested

So yesterday was a bit lame and rather an involuntary rest day. I got up at 4 am to meditate and it was a tough day. My mind was all over the place and I had to constantly pull it back into the present moment. During the last 20 minutes it got better and I did feel some good moments, too, but afterwards felt super tired and rather tearful for some reason. Nothing to put my finger on, just a general mood. Managed to guide a good morning meditation for my morning group anyway - because they are so cool and hearing their cheerful good morning helped me switch into my work mode Afterwards I crumbled again though. As I felt cold and tired and hungry, I decided to break my fasting rhythm and have breakfast for a change. Had a lovely cup of sweet tea with sandwiches and then climbed back into bed and napped for an hour. Felt wayyy better after that I think I really needed that. Getting up at 4 am is a major change compared to the holiday sleep ins and what with the full on workout on Monday... After the nap I took a salt bath and then went to my Dad to take him to the neurologist. It seemed a very helpful visit to me and I am very hopeful on the new medication the doctor gave that might help for memory and brain function in general - yay After that I went home, fixed youngest some sandwiches that I brought along as I picked her up from school and took her for the doctor's check up on her arm at the hospital. Good thing too as we spent two and a half hours there, getting prepped for next week's op when the wires will be taking out of her arm again. Shame she was exhausted afterwards, long school day and then all that. Had a lovely hot bath herself to recover from the cold outside and then tackled her homework and vocab. Am so proud of my girl, she is consciously giving her best for school at the moment even on long days like this one. I ran some errands still and wanted to clean house and set up for this mornings' client session, but could bring myself to it. All I managed was sorting the laundry and cleaning the wood stove in the lounge, but that is looking like new It probably would fall under the "suck it up" things as I had been meaning to clean that stove for a long time, but honestly asking the neurologist if my Dad is still fit to drive the car himself took a lot more guts Was rewarded too though, by the doc saying my dad should only drive short distances on routes he is familiar with. That enables a lot as is but soothes my fragile daughter nerves Fun thing, I can't really claim for that day. Maybe the nap, haha? Not really. But I am still glad I did it. ------------------ Day 3 Today was much better. Felt way better rested and my 4am meditation went much better too. Still some mind battles but no comparison to yesterday and after the meditation I felt great Guided group meditation went accordingly well and then I set up for my client session and had a wonderful time with my patient too. After the session it was house cleaning and laundry time, I also changed our bedding and got some paperwork done that was important. I will count that package as the "suck it up" action of the day, because I often love to procrastinate on these things and now I did them straight away, woot woot My adventurous thing of the day was posting in the group chat of the March retreat that I am looking for a roommate at the hotel. I did not look through, who is searching already, but rather just put it out there in public, letting life bring me whoever. And within half an hour a lady contacted me, who has been to several retreats before and is helping as a volunteer this time. She seems wonderful and I think we will be a great match. So big yay on that too Now I am enjoying the clean house and feeling accomplished Only have to take youngest for her PT session later and that's it. Niiiiiiiiice

It is, isn't it? Haven't mustered it up yet, but am getting more and more determined Yes, it leaves the fabric a bit punched but yes, you're right of course Oh yes, it's weird THAT it works and yet it does. You know, if you are looking, there is one of his participants whose testimony inspired me so much on the "Change" mantra: Rudrani's testimonial I love that woman! Especially around 5 min into the video when she explains how she started using Change as a mantra and her brain asked like Huh?? What do you want me to change and she just said "I don't care, Just change it up! CHANGE!" and her adamant expression is the best. She didn't even have a clear vision how it should help her just that it should. And it worked a miraculous healing for her. So when I am not sure what I want or where to go, but I know I am in the middle of an old track that is leading nowhere, I think of her saying "Just CHANGE" and say the same and feel better instantly. As for Joe Dispenza's work, I read three of his books: "You are the Placebo" which was super interesting for me as a therapist, then "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself" to learn a bit more about Neuroscience and neuroplasticity - didn't even know I'd be so keen to learn stuff, but I love it, it's so fascinating - and then his latest book "Becoming Supernatural" which was awesome because it explains most of the meditations we did in the Progressive Workshop I attended with him in November 2017. Now I am signed up for a week long retreat with him in March and can't wait, because the Progressive already touched me deeply and the week long is the advanced workshop to follow it up. Dispenza's meditations are very active ones and probably not for everyone as he is a bit demanding. For me they go super deep however, so I am very glad to have found him. The experiences I am having with his work gave meditation a whole new dimension for me. Also I love understanding the science behind it better now. I have a much better grasp now what helps my patience improving their healings in general, yet I feel there is still so much I don't know. Now I can't wait what all will be taught at the advanced week long retreat, squeeee

Sorry about the cancelled trip but wow what a wonderful reason for it! Congrats to Mr on the new job and hopefully lots of fulfillment there Also kudos to you for taking it in such a good stride and appreciating all the good things. Maybe you can make the home time extra nice, like with the movie for instance.

Oh Elize, I'm sorry to have poked the sore of all this negativity and I marvel anyway how you keep up your spirits as well as you do! Huge hugs and kudos. Praying with you for a harmonious solution for your family including mil. What a fun day Boys I can very much relate to that eye roll and am glad he's ok. My boy had his wind knocked out at the trampoline park last weened and could not move his arms all the way for a while, but recovered quickly as well. They're still young.

yes, I didn't think of the farm murders, true. Those are horrid and I hope so much our niece stays safe out there. Was more thinking of my sisters and now parents in law as well living in Graaff-Reinet which seem so much more relaxed there than when they lived in Cape Town or Port Elizabeth and even those cities seemed overall safer to me than say Pretoria or Johannesburg. And even when living in the city I never heard them needing a neighborhood patrol. Just normal security and big dogs. Which aren't always as threatening as they look but a burgler wouldn't know that But I'm not living there, so I can't really talk at all. Sorry, it is so tough right now. I really hope it gets better for the whole country soon! Glad your neighbor down the road was ok!

brave hobbit as always! You will rock it and I hope you will make great new friends there too. New city can be a turning point for things you'd like to start afresh as well, can't it? Oooooooooh this is all so exciting!!!!

It is like that. New environment does make new behavior easier. I'm sure you will have more in Puerto Rico

so it's the shiny exciting after all instead of the safer option, do I see that right? Whichever you choose, I am sure it will be wonderful, if not in all ways, because hardly anything ever is, but in many

True! then again there are some that turn into way bigger than expected, but the easy ones might actually outweigh them. Should I try and track and make a nice survey of it? ooooh that sounds lovely!! If it were spring, I'd totally want to do this now I thought of maybe picking up some embroidery again and try a dragon stitched onto something, but not sure what and then am scared to mess it all up and be super frustrated... and down the drain my mind goes Another idea was to craft dream catchers again... OR I am pondering to do things that give me more freedom. Like do things that scare me until I feel safer with them. For instance tumbling of any kind is really scary for me right now, but how liberating would it be to be able to just roll over from whatever fall or move without hurting myself! I might tackle something like that on some days, even though it's not yet fun, but might lead to fun things like cart wheels in summer or more confident handstand preparation. But as I say it's not something exactly fun right now. It's rather more of the suck it up category

Talking about your work place, I am wayyyy behind all the updates: have you made your choice yet? Soooo excited for you to have several options and not surprised they all want you, because duh, who wouldn't King George's island is apparently full to the brim with penguins, which is why hubby is longing to go. On your map it says examples of stops though, maybe you end up there after all

Maybe in summer anything before noon counts? In German Vormittag means literally before noon and if you translate that to English you get "morning" - so there

Suck it up Thing is done as well I had to call my webmaster about some stuff for my website that gave me trouble and was procrastinating as I wasn't sure what it would involve me to do and how much for him and also he just came back from holiday and... well I wanted to be nice Called him now and it turned out easier than I had worried about (some of it at least) so YAY What still needs to be sorted he will do for me, in fact nothing I can do about it anyway and he said I am not the only client with this exact problem right now, so I don't need to feel bad about ending his holiday chill so abruptly because more people will benefit from it. Comforting. Now I will edit a meditation recording or two and feel like a rock star It's very satisfying to count things as wins that didn't take much time at all.

Thanks, I'll take it to heart Thank youuuuu

So first workout in BOOM Might have overdone it a bit today 2 rounds circuit training with 40 sec training and 50 sec rest consisted of (per round) - kettlebell swings 12kg - hopping up and down the tire while holding 5kg dumbbells in each hand - gravity trainer push ups (feet one notch higher, because they oiled the gears and now it's so much easier than before with the notch higher the last few were hard though, did 12 reps in the 40 sec) - rope swinging - bodyweight rows at the sling trainer (proud to say my feet are completely over my previous measuring line now, 8 reps are easy, the next 2 hard, the last 2 reallllllly hard) - T-bar lifting with 7.5kg loaded (overhead, down to the side until upper arm stretched, back overhead, other side and so on) - power sledge with 10 kg loaded (slow run, and boy does that thing get my heart racing but it's getting better) - lunges with 15 kg Bulgarian Bag over shoulders - ab roller - Russian twists with 4kg ball in hands After those I went straight to the wall and walked into near handstand up and down 3x, held the top position for about 10 sec on the third time and could do no more. Those are soooooo exhausting!!! But I am very proud for having attempted it, because handstand is a fear thing and fascination for me at once and I will totally count it for my adventurous thing of the day No Video because one of the personal trainers worked with a client right next to me and I would have had them on the video as well. Don't like doing that. Afterwards I practiced the headstands, both on lower arms and the tripod and I am sooooooo excited how they are improving So far I kicked up, added the other foot to the wall and than slowly took one foot after the other off into the full headstand. Today I kicked up, had the kick up foot on the wall and FELT the balance point before the other foot would have reached the wall. So I managed to take the first foot off again and go straight into it, whooohooo Tiny differences maybe, but to me it's huge, because I think my sense of balance is improving really well Managed to hold for maybe half a minute and then not much anymore. But that didn't matter because success had already happened Tripod had that nicely controlled lift up again (can you tell I'm feeling awesome today ) and I held it for about 40 sec. Then my arms were tired. I watched out for my elbows today and yes, they would totally like to flare, so I kept them in, but it was hard work. So much to learn... After that I went to the weights and did some 3x 12 squats with 5 kg loaded on the barbell (bar alone weighs 20kg so that is plenty for me), at the lat pulley I did 12 reps with 20kg which went super well, so then 12x with 25 which felt a bit too tough, so back to third set of 12x with 20 kg finally I did 3x 12 reps at 20kg with this bench press machine thingy that looks like this Oh yes, and in between the arm stuff I did some knee raises hanging from the pull up bar and crunches on the bosu ball. Afterwards it was down dogs and lunges for stretching, pidgeon stretch and some others, plus some twists and for some reason I am really tired now Good thing I planned in nap time due to the early get ups now. 4 am meditation happened as planned and was real nice, as was the one I guided for my group at 6 am Did some household stuff so far and will take youngest to her physio session later, otherwise it's a calm day today. Which suits me very well

Thanks Me too haha Yay! Welcome not weird, just not what most people do but very sensible and of course it works other self talk makes a difference too, we just don't always do it on purpose or out loud, unless it's me, I often talk out loud to myself at home One of the first meditations I practiced guided by Joe Dispenza involved the word "Change" when you'd find yourself in the mode that you wanted to shift. In the meditation he'd suggest you find yourself thinking the old thoughts, feeling the old feelings and becoming aware of it and then saying "Change" shifting into the thoughts and feelings you'd rather think or feel and making new choices accordingly. It's a thorough meditation, walking you through this 3x and it worked so well, I found myself in the middle of the day, indeed noticing when I slipped into the thinking habit I wanted to shift (for instance worrying) and then I said "Change" to myself right there and then and it works beautifully, too. Hubby did the same meditation for a month with me, so whenever we find ourselves worrying along old thinking patterns or so, one only has to say "Change" to the other and the spell is broken it's kind of cool. I like mantras of all kinds and these ones feel really powerful, thanks for the reminder

ahhh that makes sense, thanks for the update

Talking about crows and headstands, does anyone know what @Norgaard is up to? Missing him

Thank youuuuu It feels amazing to be able to do this Still can't do regular crow, but I'll get there.... one day

woot woot for good habits in place and listening to your body, that is wonderful! And a big yay for having fun on scary things and enjoying all the rides and holiday adventures Go have a blast in Puerto Rico!

woah that was strong lifting indeed!! I hear that our German government wants to lower the barriers for some workers to immigrate into Germany. We are short of people in practical jobs like plumbers, electricians and the like it seems and it's true, if you need a handyman, you have to be patient until someone can come. So they want to open up for people along those lines to immigrate even if they don't have a contract with any company just yet, but are coming to apply for work. Not sure if that helps in your case, just wanted to mention it I must say I felt a lot safer in the southern regions than when we were up at Pretoria and driving from there to the Kruger. Also in the Karoo it feels much more peaceful in general, but then that is further than the back of beyond so you probably don't want to move there. It's a huge decision for sure and worth thinking through until both of you feel very sure about it. Hope you will find a wonderful, safe place to thrive in

woooo handstands

did someone mention dragons? agreeing with Elastigirl, another awesome challenge set up and rocking already Are you serious about the immigration idea? How about moving into another part of SA where it's safer instead? From what hubby tells me there are huge differences between the different areas. Yay on the musli solution, and ooooh a metal dragon would be so very awesome for the garden. I'd totally trust you to weld it by the way