Barefoot and On the Mat April 2024 -- All Welcome!

[luvcritters]

Qigong for Anxiety. I have pre-op tomorrow morning. The man will leave work early tonight to be here to go with me. It's a shame they take a person off their anti-anxiety meds when they need them most before a big surgery.

Sandra - sometimes its hard to know where my foot is in relation to the floor. My husband used to complain about how heavily my foot would hit the floor. It isn't so bad now. I guess I learned where the floor is.

[cyana]

The Evil Spreadsheets have been vanquished. No time for a victory lap, another batch of spreadsheets have arrived to take their place, but they have to be light years better, so I shall conquer them, too!

Linda - Qi Gong for Anxiety will never leave my "first aid kit". Some years back, I was preparing to leave for a business trip and couldn't believe how stressed I felt, even though I'd traveled extensively for business and was looking forward to spending time with colleagues that I rarely saw in person. I did that Qi Gong practice and the difference was amazing. Hope it works for you!

[luvcritters]

Starting my day with Qigong for Anxiety. It's much too early to do anything but follow Lee.

cyana - it's amazing how Qigong for Anxiety can calm the mind and body. It's a keeper for sure. I have the DVD and it's in my library at Lee's site. When my internet doesn't work my DVD player does.

The other night around midnite I heard what sounded like three helicopters go over my house. My first thought went to MT. Weather, that not-so-secret place in VA. Then I wondered if it was a life flight or police helicopter. Turns out there was a bad car accident and the helicopter was circling, waiting for clearance. Not a good sound when trying to sleep.

[toaster]

Linda, sorry about pre-procedure anxiety. I hope everything goes smoothly.

cyana, yay for vanquishing the spreadsheets!

Glad it is Thursday - but how can it be mid-April already?

Last night I did a Pilates routine and then an Ekhart yoga "calming" practice (from the DVD).

[Donna D]

Linda - Best of luck with pre-op; I understand how stressful it can be. I have my pre-op next Monday. I have just about every DVD Lee Holden has made, including the one for Anxiety and High Blood Pressure. Right now I'm only doing the 30 day challenge a few times each week.

Sandra Yes, it would be nice to have someone to work with to share the goal of lowering BP. Congratulations on doing so well with your post-surgery rebab.

Cyana - Are you an advanced Excel user? I could only do the very basic formulas when I worked. Often times I used it as a fancy table.

Paine Thanks for the recommendation about the book; I've heard that exercise and diet can reverse heart disease in some people.

Beth - What was the short KB workout you did the other day?

Waves to everyone else! Have a great day.

[Donna D]

Checking in with a 5 minute Leslie cool down walk and Qi Gong 30 day challenge - Day 7 - approx 7 minutes.

[Paine]

Deep Stretch Yin Yoga with Mimi Solaire (Legs & hips Yin yoga practice)

Best wishes to Donna D and Linda for an easy successful surgery this month.

I'm also keeping Gale, her sister and her BIL in my thoughts.

[toaster]

Donna, I have been alternating several different KB routines from the Ryan Raw channel, most between 15-20 minutes.

This was the most recent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BySK...=5&pp=gAQBiAQB

Others:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwkd...4s&pp=gAQBiAQB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYmn...=4&pp=gAQBiAQB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8oV...=3&pp=gAQBiAQB

[YogaGal]

I know I’ve been away from VF for a while, but my life has been so overwhelming for the past month or so. First, I was sick with allergies and/or a virus (2 covid tests came back negative) back in late February and into March, so that slowed me down with a lingering fatigue and cough. We had relatives (BIL’s son and daughter along with their two high school aged sons) come out during Spring Break in mid-March. I was feeling better then, but still not 100%. The two great nephews are both doing well in school making top grades. One also excels in sports (football and basketball) and the other is quite successful in theatre staring in school plays.

The second difficulty has been keeping up with the project for the addition to our summer house. It’s involved several trips to Home Depot, trips to Payson, and a lot of decision-making about what we want done, especially when it involves additional money.

The third challenge has been keeping up with work. Even though I only go in for two days/week, I went through a period in March where I had a lot of in-person classes followed by a LOT of online grading (four quizzes). I could do some of the online grading from home, but it was still doing work! I have only four weeks remaining after this one and only one more online quiz to grade which should be in late April.

This past week I’ve been busy getting ready for a trip with BIL and SIL to California for a week (we leave Friday, April 12). So, lots of housework, advanced packing, and setting things up at work being covered at the Reference Desk during my absence and arranging things with my pet sitter.

My fitness routine has been much the same, except perhaps doing 15-20-minute workouts (instead of 30) followed by a bit of yoga. Although, yesterday I did the Interval Walk from my new Jessica Smith dvd, which was 32 minutes.

I hope to have some time in the coming week off work to get caught up on everyone here, but I'll just wave to everyone now and wish you all a great day!

[luvcritters]

Carolyn, take care of yourself and enjoy your trip.
I hope you get lots of rest.

Paine, thanks. I wish PT was over. Compared to rehabbing a knee or hip replacement, rehabbing anything to do with a shoulder is my idea of hell.

Beth, I'm most anxious about rehab. Shoulder PT can make grown men cry.

Donna, thanks. Good luck to you, too. My labs are already back and "perfect" according to the nurse who called. EKG is the same as August so yay for that. I still use Lee's DVDs that you sent me years ago. I think I have most of them, too. When I'm stressed I do Qigong with Lee and Tai Chi with David Dorian Ross.

Donna and Sandra the DASH diet works for some of us. Funny story. In 1990 I saw a dietician to make a cholesterol lowering diet. When the first version of the DASH Diet came out it was just like the diet I made with the dietician. I also want to say that "they" are sometimes full of bull for some of us. I lost 107 pounds back in the 1970's and a year later I got high BP. In my case weight had nothing to do with it. Do what's right for you.