Canada's most celebrated 'yoga rebel' encourages people to stop 'working out' and find a way to 'Work In'. I believe our resident fitness wunderkinds would approve!
http://tarastiles.com/blog/you-are-your-own-guru/
I read about Stiles last week...well, I skimmed an article! In doing so, I realised someting about the journey of transformation I have been on for the past 5 years. Just after I turned 44, I found a small lump in my neck. At the time, I had a friend recovering from Stage 3A Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma, so I took it seriously. When I told my boss I would need a day off for the Fine Needle Aspiration biopsy, he brushed off all my fear and worry, because his wife had had a thyroid biopsy 20 years ago, and thyroid cancer was 'the best kind of cancer you can get'. Did he tell such things to the 4 colleagues with breast cancer (including the one who lost a spouse to colon cancer DURING her breast cancer treatment?) I doubt it...but it started something in me.
I was already on a waiting list to remove tumours from my uterus and ovaries; we eventually managed to book the surgeries 9 weeks apart. The gynecologist opted to remove the uterus as well to preclude the cancers coming back...No more periods? COUNT ME IN! I recovered from my major abdominal surgery while waiting for my major throat surgery. After 4.5 hours, they removed the right side of my thyroid gland, which had grown into a mass the size of a kiwifruit. It rested on my carotid artery; when I lay down to sleep on my right side, I could take my own pulse by counting the beats of my heart muscle pushing blood past it...A week after the surgery, I realised I was no longer slow and groggy and dazed in the morning. I didn't wake up with a headache anymore...and 18 long days later I heard the most beautiful words in the world..."It's not cancer" and more changes started.
Fast forward to 2014. I am 48 years old, and wearing smaller jeans than I did in high school. I have curves, and I have some soft spots, but I have muscles and I am firm. I don't work out, I have said that all along. I 'just' walk my dog. However, what I started to realise after reading the Tara Stiles work in philosophy I realised that I don't walk WITH my dog, I walk LIKE my dog.
I put my iPod on and get silly, and I dance when Boogie Wonderland comes on...or Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)! I leap across ditches, I stretch when it feels good, I do some kicks when I need to. When I get to the spot in the woods where the two trees stretch across the ditch, I do deep DEEP squats, arms outstretched for balance, feet tilting to engage my core, and I think to myself, "You are a FUCKING MIRACLE OF NATURE..." and I grin. I lean forward, place my outstretched arms on a thicker tree, just in front of my feet. Slowly, I extend first my right leg (because it's the tight side) until my head is inverted, my supporting leg straight and strong, and I can feel my quads, my glutes, my abs engaging as I stretch towards the sky...and do the splits.
True Grit? You bet your ass I've got it....
http://tarastiles.com/blog/you-are-your-own-guru/
I read about Stiles last week...well, I skimmed an article! In doing so, I realised someting about the journey of transformation I have been on for the past 5 years. Just after I turned 44, I found a small lump in my neck. At the time, I had a friend recovering from Stage 3A Metastatic Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma, so I took it seriously. When I told my boss I would need a day off for the Fine Needle Aspiration biopsy, he brushed off all my fear and worry, because his wife had had a thyroid biopsy 20 years ago, and thyroid cancer was 'the best kind of cancer you can get'. Did he tell such things to the 4 colleagues with breast cancer (including the one who lost a spouse to colon cancer DURING her breast cancer treatment?) I doubt it...but it started something in me.
I was already on a waiting list to remove tumours from my uterus and ovaries; we eventually managed to book the surgeries 9 weeks apart. The gynecologist opted to remove the uterus as well to preclude the cancers coming back...No more periods? COUNT ME IN! I recovered from my major abdominal surgery while waiting for my major throat surgery. After 4.5 hours, they removed the right side of my thyroid gland, which had grown into a mass the size of a kiwifruit. It rested on my carotid artery; when I lay down to sleep on my right side, I could take my own pulse by counting the beats of my heart muscle pushing blood past it...A week after the surgery, I realised I was no longer slow and groggy and dazed in the morning. I didn't wake up with a headache anymore...and 18 long days later I heard the most beautiful words in the world..."It's not cancer" and more changes started.
Fast forward to 2014. I am 48 years old, and wearing smaller jeans than I did in high school. I have curves, and I have some soft spots, but I have muscles and I am firm. I don't work out, I have said that all along. I 'just' walk my dog. However, what I started to realise after reading the Tara Stiles work in philosophy I realised that I don't walk WITH my dog, I walk LIKE my dog.
I put my iPod on and get silly, and I dance when Boogie Wonderland comes on...or Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)! I leap across ditches, I stretch when it feels good, I do some kicks when I need to. When I get to the spot in the woods where the two trees stretch across the ditch, I do deep DEEP squats, arms outstretched for balance, feet tilting to engage my core, and I think to myself, "You are a FUCKING MIRACLE OF NATURE..." and I grin. I lean forward, place my outstretched arms on a thicker tree, just in front of my feet. Slowly, I extend first my right leg (because it's the tight side) until my head is inverted, my supporting leg straight and strong, and I can feel my quads, my glutes, my abs engaging as I stretch towards the sky...and do the splits.
True Grit? You bet your ass I've got it....
