Category Archives: Uncategorized

There are so many retailers offering opportunities to give back that it seems like a no-brainer to do all or at least most of our holiday shopping with those businesses making an effort to contribute.  Let’s put some purpose to our purchases.

I love this basket from Indego Africa.  It would actually look perfect in my family room (my hints aren’t subtle).  Indego is a nonprofit based in NYC that supports women entrepreneurs in Rwanda.  100% of the profits from this $60 basket (and all other products) go towards education and job skills training for the artisans.

For the kiddos, tegu magnetic blocks get two enthusiastic thumbs up from me.  These are fantastic for a number of reasons.  First, kids (and grown-ups) can get very creative with designs (check out some pics below) and thus it seems to provide endless entertainment.  Secondly, because of the magnets, they store neatly, which I love. Thirdly, they are well-crafted and harvested from a sustainable wood.  Lastly, the factory is based in Honduras and offers living wages and career development to their employees and has also partnered with a local school.

If your kids are older, PB Teen is donating $10 from each purchase of their faux fur hats to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

United by Blue sells a well-curated collection of clothes and accessories…Rugged watches, canvas bags, and even canoe paddles.  This is where to shop for your thick-rimmed-glasses-wearing, stubble-faced, techy husband.  For each item United by Blue sells, it will remove a pound of trash from oceans and waterways.  To date, the company has extracted over 200,000 pounds of trash.

If you are looking for something to give your mom, mother-in-law, sister…look no further.  15% of the proceeds from this beautiful bracelet go towards funding microloans given to widowed entrepreneurs in Kenya.  Visit Bird and Stone for many more options.

Another option for the ladies in your life – pink slippers from Avon.  Unfortunately, most of us have a loved one who had breast cancer so let’s continue to fund research with pink purchases!

Everyone needs a water bottle so why not gift one that donates $10 from each sale to Matt Damon’s charity, Water.org.  Before you scoff at celebrity charities,Water.org provides safe water and sanitation solutions in developing nations and receives a near-perfect rating on Charity Navigator.

Lush’s Charity Pot Lotion makes a great gift for girlfriends, kids’ teachers, or anyone you know with dry hands.  100% of the purchase price goes towards a variety of different charities.  Thus far, Lush has donated $5 million to more than 400 grassroots organizations supporting humanitarian, environmental, and animal rights causes.

Subscription gift boxes seem to be all the rage right now and Sevenly offers a perfect option for gifts that give back when you don’t know what to give.  Each month, the recipient of the CauseBox receives a collection of items from companies doing-good.  In addition to that, with each box sold Sevenly donates $7 to one of the charities listed on its site.  A two-tiered giving gift!

During the giving season, don’t forget to check Charity Navigator to see if your designated charity is on the up and up.

I adore the holiday season, every aspect of it…well, except the total chaos that seems to unfurl between Thanksgiving and Christmas. toss in my husband’s Jewishness and my son’s birthday and it’s a pretty wild ride for 4 weeks.  At times, regardless of how organized I am, it feels messy; last minute presents I have forgotten to buy, babysitter cancellations at the 11^th hour, and cramming in as much holiday magic as possible.  There are countless articles and blog posts telling us to slow down this time of year. We shouldn’t buy so much, eat too much or imbibe too often.  Year after year the same mantra of “slow down, do less” is repeated everywhere.  This is a great mantra.  I would love to repeat and follow, but somehow it never seems happen.  There’s that catch-22 – we all want the season to move at a slower pace, but we also want to squeeze in as much fun, amid the obligations, as possible. How do we find the balance…?

Well, since we can’t move Christmas to January which I’ve been campaigning for awhile without success, we will just have to embrace the seasonal madness.  Trying to inflict control over chaos inevitably results in feelings of guilt, frustration, and major crankiness, thereby intensifying the existing chaos.  At the bare minimum it’s going to be a hectic time, then add on top of that the pressures of making it super joyous and trying to fit in every holiday event and party and elf hiding and then on top of that trying to make it structured and organized – c’est impossible!

Kids will get sick, babysitters will cancel, elves will forget to move, and hangovers will happen. Why fight it. When we fight it that’s when the crankiness sets in – instead let’s get messy and just let go.  This is the result –  a smiley face, carol singing,  driving safely without flipping someone off in the parking lot.  Holiday spirit emits from the face like the eternal glow of the North Star.  People will be amazed at this zen attitude and it will become contagious.

Part of the problem with the holiday season is the coinciding nagging guilt of too much. If we can eradicate the guilt and embrace the seemingly inevitable holiday rush we can alleviate a lot of the stress.  I’m not advocating for over-consumption or focusing on material goods but rather enjoying the elements of the season. When it starts to feel crazy, and we are knee deep in wrapping paper and tape, pour a festive cocktail and enjoy the moment.  Or when the kitchen is a total disaster because we decided to bake Christmas cookies just as 10 people are coming over for Hanukkah dinner just say, “forget it – my friends will have to deal with my messy kitchen and burnt cookies,” and we’ll just pour some more of that festive cocktail and not worry.  Or when we miss yoga class because we decided to enjoy too much of said festive cocktail and sleep in an extra hour embrace it because the holiday season is over way too fast to worry about missing one yoga class.  If we are late getting to the Nutcracker because we decided to stop for a gingerbread latte and drop off donations for toy for tots remind ourselves that we had 10 less minutes to keep kids contained in chairs.  As long as every one is safe all is good.

Let the chaos flow and ebb away.  By extricating ourselves from guilt and judgement and pressure we may find ourselves slowing down naturally. Embracing chaos will result in less chaos; life’s pace will ease as perspective emerges. We then emerge calm and happy amidst joyful madness.

Let us be the light this season.  Let us shine to those who need light and compassion.

Try this mantra:

Maitri karuna mudita upeksanam sukha duhkha punya apunya visayanam bhavanatah cittaprasadanam

Transalation (from Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (B.K.S. Iyengar)
Through cultivation of friendliness, compassion, joy, and indifference to pleasure and pain, virtue and vice respectively, the consciousness becomes favourably disposed, serene and benevolent.                                   

Here is another thought with which to leave you this holiday season:

“When life becomes too complicated and we feel overwhelmed, it’s often useful just to stand back and remind ourselves of our overall purpose, our overall goal. When faced with a feeling of stagnation and confusion, it may be helpful to take an hour, an afternoon, or even several days to simply reflect on what it is that will truly bring us happiness, and then reset our priorities on the basis of that. This can put our life back in proper context, allow a fresh perspective, and enable us to see which direction to take.” 
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living

Who doesn’t love a gorgeous tablescape for their T’Giving feast…

The Kids’ Table

Do you ever have those moments when your day has gone along wonderfully and then one minor mishap, one meltdown, or say one dog using your new living room rug as a restroom totally throws off your mood?  The prior 8 hours of marvelousness is quickly forgotten and all focus is on the 15 minute bummer that you face.  The day becomes defined by that slight unfortunate incident.  Why is it so easy to dismiss the earlier portion of the day that involved perfect children, coffee with a friend, and a great yoga class?  As I face such a situation at this moment, I am given the opportunity to take one of two paths – do I sulk and become grumpy for the remaining portion of the day or do I give myself a shake, and say what the hell, michelle, you just had an amazing morning. Big whoop the dog went the bathroom.  Send the kids outside, put the baby in his highchair and grab the steam cleaner.  [Let me instead focus on the wonderful fact that I invested in a steam cleaner…what great fortune.]

I come across the word gratitude a lot lately – especially on Facebook where people are posting their words of gratitude for various aspects of their life.  Some seem to be making a daily habit of writing the items for which they are grateful for that day – everything from good health to a morning coffee.  I love reading these posts.  It’s so enjoyable to read positive updates and also to see the many and often random things for which people feel grateful.  It helps to remind me to appreciate the small and big things in my life that are so awesome.  It also shows me that some of the things I so often take for granted – that morning cup  of coffee, or the kids drawing me a picture – are little treasures of goodness.

It can be easy to slip into moments of whoa is me especially if something is not going according to your plan (and I’m talking about small things – the everyday frustrations – not the big stuff) .  There are times when it seems easier to embrace the whoa is me and succumb to feelings of frustration and bemoan our situation.  Sometimes it is easier to focus on the singular moment of calamity and forget the larger picture of blessings.   My kids are not picking up their toys in this moment but most of the time they do.  I forgo appreciation for ingratitude.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I am  reminded again to express gratitude for my blessings.  This may be why I love Thanksgiving.  Christmas is my favorite holiday, but thanksgiving is wonderful in it’s own right; purely about love and appreciation; a day to eat and say thank you.

When I choose to take the path of gratitude rather than resentment or self-pity I emerge as a happier person.  In fact, there are so many benefits of gratitude beyond the people around me being happier to not hear my whining.  When I took that moment to choose the path of big whoop instead of big whine, which believe I don’t always do, I saved myself an immense amount of energy and spared my day.  Erasing self-pity and the negativity in my gut stopped the whole cycle in its tracks.  My life is great and  I wouldn’t change one aspect of it.  As a bonus, living a life of appreciation and gratefulness enhances energy, improves health, and may make us even more attractive. When we are thankful for our many blessings the world transforms, and I’d rather keep my glasses rosy.

5 Things I am loving for this weekend:

1. The brilliant Natasha Rizopolous’s Align Your Flow video series.
2. Wholesome and hearty pumpkin soup, courtesy of Mimi Thorrison, the creator of Manger, a gorgeous food blog that you should definitely visit.
3. Beautiful, simple pottery pieces from Vitrified Studio… maybe Christmas gifts?
4. Pendleton blankets for the porch.
5. Speaking of porches…my intended perch for the weekend, reading books with the little ones.

I’m currently teaching a 7 week series, Introduction to Vinyasa Yoga.  This is the third time I have taught the class, and I have loved each “semester.”   My goal is to get the group to enjoy yoga, experience the benefits, stay safe, and hopefully continue a practice.  I want to get the students interested in yoga without intimidating or boring them, and with such a wide range of fitness levels it can be a challenge.  

It’s a nice refresher to lead an intro class and a great opportunity for me to enhance teaching skills.  Beginning yoga students are eager learners and blank slates.  There are no bad asana habits to correct or egos to bruise. It is also a great discipline for me as a yoga instructor.  I can’t take for granted that people will understand yoga jargon, nor permit myself to bark out a sequence of poses nor simply say,” take a vinyasa.”  Rather, I have to deconstruct the poses and offer more variations and detailed instruction.

There is a delicate balance between communicating the right amount of information to send a clear understanding of a pose and overwhelming students with too many directions.  Of course this includes being sensitive to using yoga terminology and body awareness.  In yoga, the subtle adjustments to the body in a pose can be difficult for a new student.  Yoga involves physical perception that a seasoned practitioner can discern, but for a newbie this requirement can seem foreign and maybe even hokey.  Phrases such as “lift the pelvic floor,” “send the breath to the sacrum,” or “spiral inner thighs back” can sound very odd and confusing.

A few helpful things I have discovered:

• Do the sequence with the class.  For many of the students, this is the first time they are seeing poses so having a visual demonstration from which to work is helpful.
• Get familiar with the sequence before class; not just reviewing the order of poses but going through it with the perspective of a new student.
• Include child’s pose liberally.  Many new yogis are following instructions to a T.  Therefore, if you don’t incorporate resting poses, they won’t take them on their own when they may in fact really need one.
• Offer lots of variations on poses.  This will help balance the range of students.
• Infuse a bit of sanskrit throughout.  The words sound melodic and provide a sense of authenticity to the class. When the students take a higher level class, they won’t be thrown off by teachers casually tossing out Chaturanga or Virabhadrasana.
• Offer a casual atmosphere to foster communication.  Encourage questions since many of the other students will often have the same ones as well.

We were all new to yoga at some point.  My first yoga “class” was during high school – an Ali MacGraw VHS set in the desert (very few people can pull off a white unitard like Ms. MacGraw).

How did your yoga practice unfold?  When you started yoga, what elements of the class did you enjoy the best?  What aspects of the teacher did you admire?

Savasana in theory should be one of the easiest poses; lying like a corpse on a mat for the last few minutes of class. However, for most of us it’s the most challenging; unless you are one of these enlightened folks who discovered how great it is as a beginner in which case I applaud you. I’m particularly aware of savasana’s difficulty as I sit in someone else’s yoga class and watch a few people sneak out just as the lights dim and the music quiets. I get that. I totally get that temptation to leave. “Oh, I can use those extra 2 minutes of time to beat the rush and get on to my next activity.” Believe me I totally get that feeling because I have often times spent these last few moments thinking about what I have to do after class. In fact I wrote (mentally, not on my laptop) this blog post while in savasana in the class that I just attended, which is why I have lately been noticing that my savasana time is spent pondering the class, thinking about how I can turn it into a blog post or what elements I can add into my own sequences (I have some great teachers in studios around me so I love adopting some of their ideas).

However I am missing out on what is possibly the greatest moment of my day…or week. A few blessed moments of pure silence. Me and my breath. No thoughts, no ponderings, no musings. Those are all synonyms, but I’m a bit jazzed up after this rather intense yoga session. My legs are actually still shaking. My goodness that is hard, just me and my breath. What?!

When I first started yoga – forget it – I didn’t even try to participate in savasana. I mean, I lay there of course, but I desperately wanted to take off early with those other people who were probably already checking things off their to-do list. “Ahhhh it’s killing me,” but the fear of offending a teacher (and teachers do not appreciate early departers) kept me there, and in time my appreciation grew.

As I started a regular practice, I began to relish those moments. What’s 120 seconds going to accomplish in the scheme of life, even 300 seconds. Maybe by laying there and delving into meditation I am ultimately making room for more productivity, more appreciation, more happiness! Who knows, but I like to think so.

Savasana is arguably the most important part of a yoga session. This is when it all comes together; when the mind and the body integrate all that they have learned and experienced in the last hour.   It allows the body to get back to neutral, release stress and affords us the opportunity to take note of how the body now feels.

Why then am I back to mind scrambling during savasana?  How can I get back to meditation? Here are some suggestions for myself and you if you are not one of those people who just get savasana and are rather more the “I really need to check off my to do list” type person comme moi:

• Play around with savasana.  We can execute it in a number of different manners.  Try props – like a blanket under the head or a bolster under the knees.  Lie on the side if lying flat is uncomfortable.  Allow some freedom to experiment.
• If clearing the mind sounds like an impossible feat, focus on your breath and each time your mind wanders acknowledge the thought, send it away and return the focus to the breath.  It’s unlikely we will be reaching transcendental enlightenment at the end of a yoga class between school drop-offs and rushing back to work. Let’s cut ourselves some slack, just keep trying, and enjoy the quiet.

In the meantime, check out Yoga Journal‘s  marvelous step by step on how to get into and reside in corpse pose.

I am just returning on a flight back from Austin TX.  48 hours in Austin with 2 of my best gals made for a fantastic weekend.  We haven’t seen each other in 2 years but we  “talk” via group email nearly everyday so when we see each other we plunge right back into our old groove.

There is something so mentally cleansing about spending a weekend with “old” friends.  After four years of living together in college, we know even the most random details about each other. It’s 2 days of mutual therapy and endless laughter.

We are all juggling, raising families, working, being wives, working out, getting involved, staying at home, staying smart, and trying to look darn good while doing all of this.   We need a couple of days to get away to quiet the endless chatter in our brains and recharge our batteries.  At any moment in our weekend, it can be guaranteed we have a cocktail in our hand, whether sitting by the pool, sitting in the lounge, sitting in a restaurant, sitting in a steam room (ok, no cocktails in the steam room), and one of us relaying a recent drama, a recent NPR story, a retelling of a recent movie, a crazy work story, a frustrating husband story, a hilarious kid story, or any combination of the above.  Talk about unloading.

Our convos may not be earth shattering but it’s like having a confidential panel discuss, appreciate, validate, and advise without providing all the solutions.  I love that about girlfriends – we offer advice without it sounding like we just solved all problems.  Oh of course, we capped off Saturday night with a midnight yoga session, probably not the most elegant sight.

Not only was the weekend an amazing time spent with 2 amazing women who are doing amazing things, but as I return home, I feel so refreshed and ready to get back to my routine.  Today (this is the day after I started writing this entry),  the kids and I made Halloween crafts and went for a fantastic fall hike, all done enthusiastically by all parties.   They were psyched to see me – a couple of days without mom definitely made the heart grow fonder – and probably needed the break just as much I did.

On another note, Austin is a great spot for a girl’s weekend.  We could all fly direct (a “middle” ground for CA, CO, & MA).  It’s small so can be easily explored in 2 days and has a fun and bizarre mix of cowboys, college students, and hipsters.  Here are my recommendations.  Keep in mind I was only there for a weekend, so I only know what I know (that’s very yoga’y).

1. 6^th Street: A crazy nightlife scene, think Bourbon Street but smaller.  A long corridor of bars, the street closes to cars in the evening and fills up with mass amounts of college students.
2. Parkside: A nice respite from 6th Street, this restaurant is definitely more civilized than its neighboring establishments.
3. South Congress Avenue (SoCo): If you are looking for something a bit more mellow than 6^th St, this strip has a wide array of restaurants and eclectic shops; including my favorite, Heritage Boots – a purveyor of handmade cowboy boots.
4. Perla’s:  A great al fresco dining spot to end an afternoon of shopping along South Congress Avenue.
5. Bats – Austin is super into their bats.  I believe we were able to catch the tail end of bat season before they migrate out with their pups, which makes the bats seem rather adorable.
6. Festivals – Austin seems to always have a festival going on at any given time.  This past weekend was ACL (Austin City Limits) a massive music fest, and of course there’s SXSW (South by Southwest), the major film/music fest with a variety festivals in between.

Yoga is hard. Yoga takes discipline. Yoga can be downright frustrating.  It took years for me to commit to a regular yoga practice because of this.  I included it as part of a larger fitness regime and was in and out of practice, but it was not my focus until a few years ago.  I desperately wanted to integrate it into my everyday life but just couldn’t wrap my head around it for a couple of reasons.  First, I felt like I really needed to be doing fast-paced workouts like bootcamps and runs to stay in shape.  Secondly, and as I said before, yoga is hard.  It takes patience, concentration, and surrender.

Listening to hip hop and bouncing around a room is easier for me.  As a high-energy person I get the benefit of the workout right away. Yoga, on the other hand, challenged my natural instinct to want to move fast and get that heart pumping immediately.  I also wanted to “do” all of the poses from the start and was frustrated that I couldn’t.  Headstands, crow and the many other challenging asanas looked awesome and I felt frustrated that they didn’t just happen.  I was not patient enough to practice at the beginning, but I was intrigued.

I intuitively felt that yoga and I would be a great match, and I continued to return to it.  Sometimes doing 2 or 3 classes a week and other times going months without it.  It took years and a teacher training course to fully appreciate yoga’s benefits.

I still love to run and occasionally pop into a cardio class.  They’re fun, the music makes it go by quickly and I feel fantastic afterwards. The reward with yoga, however, was that the benefit came after class, and with time I realized my yoga high lasted long after I got off the mat. The advantages revealed themselves in a way that no other workout could.  A run feels amazing, spin class feels worthwhile, but yoga feels transformative.  Yoga fills me with energy and optimism in all facets of my life.  Patience on the mat, means (more) patience at home with my kids.  Gratitude and optimism in class transfers to relationships with family and friends…usually.  Once that started to click with me, the devotion that so many others develop for yoga all made sense.

Seeing an improvement in my focus and patience has realized itself in other areas – I’m not going to just be good at things or just know things through osmosis.  Hard work and dedication is key.  Yoga has helped me realize that I can achieve other goals.  Yoga has taught me patience and discipline; that consistency pays off.  Yoga has minimized my frustrations because I realize I can’t achieve without practicing.  That is one of those mysteries of yoga – it takes wading through frustration to get to the moment of peace where it all starts to make sense.

It’s hard to say goodbye to summer, but the autumn season is officially upon us.   Gone are our tans, coconut cocktails, jimmy buffet  (yes, I adore listening to buffet in the summer), and long afternoons at the beach with the kiddos.  Granted, along with that festive summer fun, my routine derails and the regular yoga routine becomes a bit irregular.

Although it’s back to schedules, carpooling and pale skin (and jimmy just sounds out of place this time of year), I welcome the chance to wipe the slate clean.   It’s a nostalgic season with fond memories of my back to school days – freshly sharpened pencils and fresh starts. After the first week with the kids back in school, I embrace the opportunity to get back on track.  I’m more productive and organized.  There’s just something about putting on a cozy sweater, popping open the computer, sipping something warm, and getting work done again.

That’s one of the grand things about fall – a fresh start. In fact, I find September a more refreshing time to integrate changes into my daily life and to set goals for the coming year.   You don’t have to be a student to consider this a new year. The new season affords us with the chance to say goodbye to habits we want to stop and introduce the ones we want to include in our lives.

We don’t have to resign ourselves to using January as the only time to make a resolution.   I’m putting my resolutions out there but tweaking the way I phrase them. Instead of the broad goals that are too intimidating to accomplish, I’m committing to smaller, attainable steps.

• Practice yoga everyday albeit 15 minutes.
• Play 5 songs on the piano a week – any day, any time, any song.
• Read at night even if it’s only 1 page because I’m too exhausted to keep my eyes open any longer than that.

Maybe we can all celebrate Rosh Hashanah this September; a time to consider our blunders of the past year and our intentions to make changes in the new one. Let’s take a deep cleansing breath and fill ourselves with the energy and optimism of a new year.  This fall is a time of wonder and possibility.