Joanna Ashleigh: August 2012

It's a phrase that has been used quite a bit here in the past month. My mind is brimming with ideas, thoughts and vague feelings that will perhaps become something more, perhaps not, I suppose it's my choice. Dreams have been of weird semi-christian en of ze world-esque and have been slightly unsettling. However, all of the things progress, such as...

Dog Walks:

All of the pups have lost weight, which they needed to loose, since Ryan and I have been able to get them on consistent walks since June. Angel and Niko have each lost 12-15 lbs and we find out this Friday how much Nanook has lost when we take him to the vet. The walks are going to have to switch from mornings to evenings her pretty soon as it will be just too dark and too cold to go in the mornings unfortunately.

Dance Room Deux!

My new 'soon to be' dance room at the house.

so much to do...

We begin to paint the walls "ultra white!" Good bye yucky eggshell white!

Free speckled nail polish to anyone who wants to come help paint! ;)


Niko loves it when we vacuum his coat, I mean why else would we have the shop vac out?

Progress is slowly being made... we are hoping to have the rest of the paint done and floors laid by the end of this weekend though... here's to hoping and working our butts off! We are in the process of trying to get the condo ready to sell... anyone want to buy it from me? eh? eh?

My lil Flower Garden:

All of the beauties

I planted a lily bulb at the beginning of spring and she grew wonderfully.

New Mariachi Blue's!

Everything is placed where it will go...

And the finished product! There are two lily plants, one on the left and one on the right that you can't really see.

There are two bushes on either side of my lil garden that need to get trimmed back, this will be tonight's project before we paint the dance room more. There are currently bushes next to the front of the house too... I'm hoping that next year we can pull those out and perhaps I can plant some herbs or veggies perhaps or just more flowers! This whole gardening bit so so new to me, but I'm enjoying it immensely, yay for playing in the dirt again!

Yoga For Wellness Challenge:

I feel like I could write a decent essay on this experience. The gist of it was, Rachel Brice challenged her 8 Elements Initiates to do every single practice in the book Yoga For Wellness by Gary Kraftsow for 3 days in a row immediately followed by the next practice. It added up to 93 days straight in a row of yoga. Today is the last day and it looks like there are three of us who will complete this challenge. I'd be a liar if I said I hadn't already started the reading for Gary's second book Yoga For Transformation... I'm definitely debating keeping up the same routine starting perhaps on October 1st, I need a month break to do a few things like really delve into Datura Online which I bought a six month subscription to, create my Halloween piece, help my dear husband with moving out of our condo and into the house, etc.

The things I have taken away from this challenge are a little mind blowing, I never thought I'd get this much out of doing 20-30 minutes of yoga a day for 3 months straight to be quite honest. I've learned a lot about myself.

The most important lesson was in 'beginning.' The beginning of your daily practice, when you just haven't started yet, you ought to go put the dishes away, fold the laundry or you're just in such a bad mood from whatever has happened that you just don't wanna. I found the point... the point where I really probably should not have practiced that day, let myself off the hook and give it a days rest. There were plenty of days where I definitely just needed to get up off my butt and do it, but there were a few days where I was not in a good head space but managed to get through it anyway and I'm glad I didn't hurt myself. I can be a stubborn pain in the butt as most people who've known me long enough can attest to... so when I decide to do something I generally do it no matter what. However, I'm happy that I can now pinpoint when I need to back off or try specific pranayama techniques to change the mood I'm in. I've found that doing my yoga practice in the early mornings definitely works the best for me if I can manage it, I'm hoping once the dog's walks change to evenings that I will be able to manage this over the winter.

Food... to be honest the way I've felt about eating since getting out of high school is that it's a royal pain in the butt. I've definitely had many unhealthy eating habits or lack there of at points in my life; now to find a balance. Working through and reading Yoga for Wellness, taking Colleena Shakti's Intensive and talking with a multitude of friends about trying to have a healthy diet has re-kickstarted my attempt at just making healthier choices and deciding what the most sattvic choice is.

Slightly related to "beginning" for me is "focus." My mind is a very distracted one, I'm going to endeavor to take out some of the multitasking in my life, finish projects, no matter how small, one by one. "This is the point." There are many things in life to balance right now and I can only do one of these things at a time.

I do wish I had kept a daily journal specifically for this yoga sequence, I will try to do this as I work through Yoga for Transformation. There maybe be a part two to this "Yoga for Wellness" topic. We shall see.

Adios for now sweet peoples.