Minding the Gap Within

Hi guys! I've missed you. I've been itching to blog but stuff kept getting in the way. I know, excuses excuses.

Anyway, we're halfway though the month of May, so I thought I'd give you a bit of a rundown on how my mind and body challenges are panning out so far.

The meditation challenge has been difficult. I have kind of improvised on this one to make it fit into my day. I meditated for the first few days by using the 'body scan' meditation supplied by Mindful in May but to be honest, I found it really boring. I didn't like the voice on the meditation and I found myself becoming really restless.

I think the voice on a guided meditation track is REALLY important. I guess I have been a bit spoilt because my meditation teacher, Sara, has a really soothing, calming voice. Her voice makes you relaxed but even more importantly, it doesn't distract you from your meditative state. A voice that is dull or too quirky can be very distracting.

So anyway, after a couple of days of using the supplied meditation, I switched to some chakra meditations that I already had in my iTunes. I instantly was able to connect better with my inner stillness. These tracks have music only, so I simply listened and let the music take me deep within.

I've been meditating off and on for the last decade, and pretty solidly for the last four years. It's something that I've been aiming to do everyday but  haven't been able to settle into a pattern. What I realised with this challenge is that I feel like I have 'moved past' guided meditations and need to experiment without a guide.

Which brings me to my yoga practice. This has been going great guns (what the? where did I pull this stupid saying out from?) I am on Day 11 of my 28 yoga detox challenge and I am loving it! And the great part is that we finish each yoga class with a meditation! So I have been able to combine both my challenges.

The hardest part of the yoga challenge is the detox. In particular, the no sugar part. It's really tough. I didn't quite realise how much sugar I had in my diet. I've always been more of a savoury person but for the last couple of years, I have managed to grow a sweet tooth. A really big one. Not a day went past that I didn't eat some chocolate or biscuits or cake. My sometimes food had become an everyday food. But because I have been exercising consistently as well, I didn't really see it as a problem. Until now.

Why you may ask? Cos sugar makes you feel like shit. It shoots you to the moon but instead of doing a Buzz Aldrin, you come plummeting back down again to earth with no parachute. Ok, maybe I'm being slightly dramatic but now that I have moved past the difficult first week, I am feeling alot better. Happier, more energy, more pizazz! No people, not pizza...pizazz!

So far I have drunk a couple of green smoothies and although the ingredients were highly questionable (think spinach, coconut butter, chia seeds and chlorophyll - yep the green stuff from plants!), I really love them! They taste good. Really good.

I'm not sure what's going on with me...maybe I'm having my mid-life crisis early. Nah, if the was the case I'd been doing something far more exciting, like cougaring the neighbourhood and cruising around in a sportscar...

Until next time folks. Arrivederci!