My friend Amy told me yesterday that she is trying to get better about “disciplining herself around joy”. In other words, using her awesome inherent sense of self-discipline for good, rather than the evil of simply being hard on herself.
I can relate to that. (Except for the part about having self-discipline.)
I try to practice yoga 3 times a week. Today was to be my third time this week. But I woke up with the sniffles and am somewhat in a panic about having a head cold when we leave for Europe. Traveling while sick is…. no.
I know a lot of people think a hot sweaty yoga class is a great way to work through being sick. I am not one of those people. I think lying in bed and reading Us Weekly is a great way to work through being sick.
So, I decided that instead of investing in the 3+ hours it normally takes me to go to a yoga class on a Saturday morning, I would spend that entire time just taking care of myself.
- I whined to Alex to make me black tea, and read for a while in bed. Whining feels great when you’re sick.
- I made some more of the brilliant sickie soup that I invented and bragged about heartily last week.
- I drank an entire blender-full of garlic, ginger and maple syrup juice. (Thank you for that suggestion, Leslie.) Real maple syrup from New England is pretty much a cure-all, as far as I’m concerned. There may not be any medical evidence to back it up, but I am pretty confident about this.
- I took a bath with eucalyptus bath salts. (From SimpleBasic!)
- I swallowed about four brillion supplements including Wellness Formula, vitamin C and Yin Qiao San Plus. Covering the entire gamut from Eastern and Western medicine to naturopathy (and a little bit of shamanic prayer) can’t hurt.
And I absolutely did not feel guilty about that yoga class. Because self-imposed, needless guilt is bad for your health. No offense, yoga industry, but sometimes it’s healthier just to blow it off.
