Search the Community

on we go Lucky fire dragon shifts shape part 3 Shifting shape part 1 had me slim from 70kg down to 68kg roughly, in shifting shape part 2 I got to 67kg but then back up to the 68 and now I'm aiming to stabilize at 67 and/or go lower aaaaaaaaaand stronger again Strength gains happened slowly as I had to tickle myself out of big inertia, but slowly I'm getting into motion again, whooohooo. Now to keep it going and build up a bit more. As shifting shape also needs a certain innate flexibility and clarity in focus, I've been training my meditation skills and will keep building on those some more as well. Inspiration is another helpful aspect to keep me going, in many ways this is really just a continuation of my previous two challenges. Part of this challenge however will be providing the best mom-support I can for my kids especially my son as he is in his second last school year, with lots of exams coming up over the next weeks and months. One of his major exams will be in sports and he chose basketball and swimming for this. He will also have to run through a circuit training of basic strength and endurance drills like push ups, squats, weighted sit ups etc... While I can't help him with basketball, I can renew my daily 10 motivation and have him join me and I can take both kids to the indoor swimming pool regularly for a while. Youngest is learning to swim the crawl (is that how you call it?) at school so extra practice will be great for her as well. My boy needs to build up to 600m swimming endurance, which I think should not be a problem, but we'll have to see how far that really is in the end and also depending which style he needs to swim it in. Best to tackle it early so why not theme this time just SWIM Sadhana Sadhana practice is what kundalini yogis call their morning practice and ideally it means rising 2 - 2,5 hours before sunrise, freshening up with a cold shower and then practising pranayama (breathing exercises), kriya yoga (physical exercises), chanting and meditation. In a way, hubby and me had started on this with our 5am meditation habit already, so now I'd like to expand on it. I gave this way too much thought again I'm good at complicating things - wondering how to do it that I don't wake any of the kids up too early, like would the shower wake them... how do I find undisturbed time to add the pranayama and kriyas in... should I get up at 4am, will that be enough time... will I manage though? I already struggle with the 4.45 getting up time.... and so on, my mind would try and plan and drive me mull So this morning after our meditation time I woke youngest, popped their buns in the oven and made her tea, tidied up a bit around the kitchen until the buns were finished and then went right back into the living room and started a pranayama exercise. I didn't care about youngest thinking her mom might be totally nuts now and I didn't care when I had to interrupt in between for talking to her. What I realized is this: I won't EVER be completely undisturbed! Yes, I could force myself up at 3am in the morning or whatever, but then the cats would think it's time for breakfast and even if kids and cats and the whole world would not interfere, my mind would still cause a racket from time to time and I'd have to refocus just the same! This realization brought immmense freedom for me: I can basically do my exercises of choice whenever and when I have to interrupt, I'll just get refocused and start again. With time I'm sure, we'll work it out in a way that's smooth enough. It's better to do it imperfect than not doing it at all, so if I do my yoga while the sun is already up, so what?! I'll still do it first thing in the morning and have a great start into my day So here is my plan: Get up at 4.45, wash face with cold water and feed cats, meditate with hubby until 6, get buns etc for kids ready and wake youngest, once she is sorted do my pranayama and kriya yoga, then take my cold shower while my boy gets up for his breakfast, see if he's alright and then get my own breakfast going and voilà I'm set for a great day. Wish me strength - those kriyas are harder than they look and getting up is still a battle Water Despite being a fire dragon, water is really good for me I'm aiming to go swimming with the kids at least 4x over the course of the challenge Drinking at least 2 Liters of water / day Have cold shower in the morning and wash my feet with cold water before going to bed at night (I found it very soothing and helping me sleep deeper) with some lovely skin creams for luxury after (I have so many nice creams and lotions and hardly ever use them, time to shine instead) Inspiration An idle mind often comes up with such nonsense! I'll keep filling it instead with inspiring stories and teachings by reading and reflecting on helpful things. Also have to finish writing the script for my healing workshop and that will challenge me to tap into my inner inspirations, so that will count towards this goal as well. 10 minutes of reading per day keeping my 4TW streak going (444 words per day, currently my streak is 61 days) will be enough. That is a small goal to reach, so I'm hoping to top it on many days and to really reach it every single day even amidst unexpected action and chaos, which are part of life and bound to happen. Mom support As meditation is already part of the sadhana practice I'll dedicate the M to my mom duties instead, well duty is not the best word as it's much more voluntary then that. I want to be the best support I can be for my kids. Not sure how to structure this goal yet, as I'll have to see when making them study and maybe helping them study is due and when break times, games, or outdoors times would be better... might just look at it a day at a time and do my best without a structured measure to go by. And yes, salads will be a continuous thing and so will yoga classes be - do shout at me if I start slacking on them again! That's it, let's do the thang