Ford Wellness Car Yoga To De-Stress

A little while ago I was working with Ford Canada on their Bliss Behind The Wheel, Ford Wellness campaign here in Edmonton. Helping drivers de-stress and find a bit of wellness behind the wheel.

I love this initiative, because in our busy every day lives it can seem daunting to add ANOTHER thing to our to do lists. Of course I'm all for going to a yoga or meditation class, but sometimes there aren't enough hours in the day. 

Additionally we live in a world that has so many demands on us. We are constantly being pulled in a million directions and this adds stress to our minds and bodies like never before. Unfortunately our bodies haven't caught up to technology advances yet and don't really recognize the difference between stress of a job, friend or traffic in comparison to life threatening situations like a bear chasing us. All this stress, all the time can have a toll on our health.

So, I came up with a few tips you can use in the car to help a bit. You are already in the car, so it;s not adding to your schedule any! Some of them are light stretches and the main one is calming the body with breath. This breath can help our bodies relax and send signals to the brain to calm down. 

So let's start with before we drive:

• Sit up nice and tall in your seat. imagine reaching the crown of your head to the roof. Put your hands on the steering wheel. Take a big inhale as you push your chest toward the front of the car and then as you exhale round your back, tuck your chin and look to your belly button. Repeat 2-4 times. 
• Next sit up tall again. Take a big inhale and as you exhale twist to your left. Look over your left shoulder and hold for 2-4 breaths. Repeat on the other side. 

No only do these two stretches help you connect with your body and de-stress through breathing, but it's also stretching lightly to help you shoulder check and see better.

Next, during the drive, while stopped at red lights:

• Put your hands on you stomach. Take a big inhale, let the belly expand with the air, and as you exhale actively pull the belly button in. Repeat 2-4 breaths.
• This breath uses the diaphragm to breathe, which massages a nerve that connects to the "restore and calming" center of the brain.  
• Keep eyes open for safety and keep the breath slow so not to get dizzy. Safety is of course number 1 priority.

This breath can be done as driving to, with the hands remaining on the streering wheel. When you feel overwhelmed by traffic possibly, find a breath or two, allowing the exhale to come from the mouth, maybe even a sigh sound. This is very soothing an calming.

Once you've arrived at your destination:

• Sit up tall. Inhale as you draw your shoulder towards your ears, exhale as you push your shoulders back and down away from the ears. Repeat 2-4 times. Notice the softening sensation in the neck and shoulders.
• Sitting up tall, take your left ear to your left shoulder and hold for the stretch 1-3 breaths. Repeat on the other side. 

During the drive tension can be created in the neck and shoulders. Whether it be from traffic, road conditions or anything happening in the car. allow a few breaths here to release the tension before going on to your destination to start from a place of calm. 

Additional tips:

• Leave a little bit of time in your travels. Rushing will only create more tension and stress.

• Take advantage of the car features to help you out. Use the Ford sync for hands free control of music, destinations and phone calls and my personal favourite... heated seats... ha ha

For a visual of all of these check out the CTV segment I did too!

Take care, 

Love, Jen

The Art Of Slowing Down

This post has been a long time coming. Since I graduated from yoga teacher training I've been reading more and more about basically doing less and it meaning more. A big epiphany hit me about a year and a half ago when I was attending a restorative yoga teacher training. We had discussions about the science behind relaxing the body and what it does to our physical and mental states. Legitimately you can increase your sex drive and loose weight just by relaxing! 

I've got your attention now don't I?

Of course it's not as simple as just relaxing once and miraculously you loose 5lbs or want to jump on your partner, but allowing the body to come out of it's high stressed out state and turn off the "mama bear on attack" hormones let's our bodies restore. Come back to a place of resting, digesting our food and pleasure. If you want more info about these things I highly recommend you read/learn basically anything from Michele Theoret from Empowered Yoga.

Since this training I have been on a mission to help share self care. Taking care of yourself actually and truly is not a luxury. Taking care of yourself is bringing you into the "restore" mode. A time for your body to recharge of course, but if you followed along on my Self Care Sunday blog posts for a while, a theme I often had was that you put your phone away. Rest your mind. Because as I said in the Simple Bath post, are you really feeling relaxed in the bathtub as you scroll Facebook? (Especially when that one irritating friend is on a status update rampage).

I say something in my yoga classes all the time too. After we put in some work and some stretching I like to almost always end in a lying twist of some sort where I cue "and move your arms and legs in any way that is comfortable and relax the muscles". Like really relax the body physically. Basically no effort given. Because we are super amazing at multi tasking and doing all the things and being busy, but we SUCK at relaxing and slowing down.

I wont even exclude myself from this. I am totally a hyopcrite a bit here. I am the master of doing all the things and so busy I sometimes feel as if I have missed days or weeks in time. I'm working on it. And that's exactly it. We don't have to be perfect at it or rigidly follow a schedule. We just have to be mindful. Mindful that we have made ourselves so busy that we aren't even relaxing. 

I am a week and a half post surgery and have basically been home most of the time. I thought I would be going crazy from boredom, but in reality? I've slowed down enough to enjoy things. I've slowed down enough to enjoy the moment of laughter with my kids. I've slowed down enough to evaluate the things I do that make me so busy. 

Sit for a moment. Think about everything that has lead you up to this moment today. All your errands or tasks. Pick out the moments that have you brought you joy. Not something you are "working on" in order to get you to joy. By this I mean, you worked an extra couple hours so you could make more money to buy more things that bring you joy. Not that. That's a false idea of joy I think. What had happened in your day where you felt true joy?

THAT is the art of slowing down. Finding those smaller moments of joy sprinkled throughout your day. Isn't that what we are after anyways? Feeling good. Feeling the joy? 

I recently read the book "Mindfulness" by Gil Hasson where it talks about of course we need goals. Things we are working toward are not bad things at all. Gil says "But for longer term goals, the emphasis is not on where you will arrive at, it's on what happens and what you experience along the way. The emphasis is more on the experience rather than the result."

Lightbulb! Slowing down, taking note of whats happening in the current moment IS the joy. 

I work to make money. I make money to pay bills and buy things. I buy things I enjoy. I enjoy these things because they bring me joy. Brief joy or maybe it's prolonged, but none the less seeking joy. But what if in the process or working, making money and buying we are miserable? WHAT IS THE POINT OF THAT?!?!?

Slow down, evaluate and be mindful of what we are doing and if it's filling the "doing" side of the column or the "enjoying".

Again, I'm a hyopcrite a bit here and great at being buys, but about to go back into my regular schedule after time off for my surgery, I'm taking a really good look at what the hell it is I am adding back in. Is this important to me? Does it bring me joy? 

Easier said then done I feel, hence the word "art". The ART of slowing down.

Love, 

Jen The Bitchin' Housewife

22 Pushups for 22 Days Challenge

I've seen a few friends post about this challenge and finally a good friend said she wanted to do it and well... here we are. I donated my $22 at www.woundedwarriors.ca (you should too) and today I start the challenge. 

Suicide is a real threat to our Armed Forces personnel, veterans and first responders. Let's show them some love by having some fun and spreading the world. The more people that share what they are doing, the more exposure the people have to it, eventually prompting them to engage! Just like I did. You, as the one single human being you are can always make a difference.

To keep it fun, check out my Facebook page everyday for a new style of push up to try! 

Love, 

Jen The Bitchin' Housewife

The Emotional Lesson I Learned From My 4 year Old

Yesterday morning we dropped off my husband at the airport to head out to work. He is usually home for 10 days and gone for 3 weeks. This has been the schedule for a while. Or something similar since well before either of the kids were born. 

Well, yesterday morning (like at least half of Daddy drop off days) my 4 year old started crying. Intensely. Tears streaming down her face, pout to her lip and all. She was sad Daddy was gone. I immediately stopped the car, got out and hugged and kissed her and tried to help her feel better about seeing him soon.

20 minutes later she was fine and smiling and forgotten all about it. We usually think "Typical child, off to the next thing. Mind like a goldfish." But let me tell you I admire this. 

Last weekend I was in some Restorative Yoga Teacher Training and my teacher wrote a Ernest Hemingway quote on the board. 

"Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat and when you sleep, really sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough."

Well today I was angry. And I tried to suppress this anger. Not letting what was bothering me, bother me. But then I thought about my 4 year old and her tears streaming down her face. How she got sad. Good and sad, let it all flow out and then she was done. Letting it all go.

So I got mad. Good and mad. Without reacting I just got angry. I thankfully had an amazing friend there to let me do just that and listen. I got mad and then pouted a bit. Then I was able to just let it go. 

I embraced the intense emotions instead of trying to push them away, felt them and was able to move on. 

Things will upset us, that will never change. It's whether we let it eat us alive or not that matters. 

Love, 

Jen