YouTube Yoga

I am three days into a 30 day Yoga challenge on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene

There are millions of yoga videos on Youtube.

I have attended various yoga classes before and think it is for everyone; whether you are looking to improve your posture, breathing, co-ordination, core strength, stress release or circulation (but you probably knew that.)

Attending a yoga class is great because you can connect with an instructor, be corrected by them and enjoy the scented candles and how the mats smell like lemongrass (most of the time)

The cool thing about this YouTube yoga though, is that each class is only 20-45 minutes, and I can do it in my bedroom. It's more about the quality than the quantity and the fact that it's on YouTube means it's accessible at any time, as it is to anyone, eg people who hate leggings or men who are worried about being outnumbered in a class of Lululemon clad coconut water guzzlers who namaste their days away.

Here's a few things I have learnt "on the mat" that I think are very applicable to our daily lives. There are multiple yoga forums out there, and endless lists of benefits of practice, but if you like the sound of these simple ideas, get involved.

1. Set your expectations with how you feel on the day. If you are 'off' and not able to push as much as the day before, still give integrity to what you can do.

2. Explore, play through the movement, do what feels good.

3. Breathe. If you get bored, breathe. If you are tense, breathe. If it's hard, breathe.

4. Smile into your poses and your postures.

5. It doesn't take long to feel good if you commit to doing the good thing. Light the candle, remove the distractions and see how 20 mins flies by.

6. Go slowly, explore.

7. It's not all about the "ommmmmmmm" and more about the fun.

Jj

Use your Brain.

The other night, I was reading Broadsheet magazine and also sifting on my smart phone when my housemate came home. She showed me this book about the Chinese New Year and what my year had in store for me, so, interested,  I flipped it open and started having a read. Between each sentence about my future prosperity, health and romance, my eyes kept darting back to my phone, pressing refresh, looking back at Broadsheet and back to the book again. I couldn't stay focused on more than one paragraph of what was in front of me......

Sound familiar?

I'm not the first one to point out that more and more research and evidence has been found to illustrate that our generation's brains are changing thanks to the way technology is so snugly nestled in our lives. From 2001-2011, our attention spans dropped from 12 seconds to 5 seconds.

The Daily Mail reported the average person switches between devices as many as 21 times an hour. Advertising researchers tracked the online behaviour of 200 British people to discover how much time they spent on one device before picking up another and found our attention span is smaller than ever thanks to the growing presence of these multiple devices.

Have you done anything else since the start of this post?

I could go on and on with facts and figures, but I'm going to talk about a feeling.
Fear.

I'm afraid at how quickly we forget things.
I've been invited to several birthday dinners this weekend, but even though I've accepted the invitation, I can't tell you the name of the place we are going to. I know it's a new place in the city, but that's it.

Simple things like directions, phone numbers, place names and dates, we don't even have to try to remember anymore as we know we can find it in a few taps of our fingers.

How many times have you been out to dinner with friends and heard something like this-
"I watched this really good movie the other night"
"Oh yeah, who was in it?"
"Ahhh it was that guy from, you know, that musical movie with Anne Hathaway"
"Hugh Jackman"
"Na, not him, ahh that other one...(quickly does google search) ah yeah, Eddie Redmayne"
"Oh yeah, what was that movie called again"
"(looks at phone again, has also checked Facebook whilst still looking up Eddie Redmayne) The Theory of Everything"
"Oh yeah"

I'm afraid of how we don't try to figure things out, afraid of how we don't worry about actually knowing how to spell words correctly, or even remember simple pages to look up.
Even when I tell people about this blog, I post it on their wall rather than ask them to remember "thejoanasimmo.blogspot.com.au" 

Yes, I'm probably making generalisations based on myself and my peers, and maybe you have the attention span of a sparrow (which is long) 

The thing that sparked me to write about this, was not only the short length of my attention span the other day, but the questions some of my students (aged 10-20) have been asking me lately.
"Joana, my shoes are slipping- what do I do?"
"Take them off."

Google is the bomb. I use it for lots of stuff and I'm sure you are pretty aquatinted with it too. Google is smarter than me.
But that doesn't mean I have to just accept that I'm meant to be dumb and use the internet as a spoon to feed me things I can't be bothered spooning up or thinking up myself.

When I see someone get out their phone when they have forgotten the name of something, I push it out of their hands and ask them to use their brains. I used to write everything down so I didn't have to remember it, now I prefer to train my memory, thanks to the Mega Memory tapes my mother made me listen to in the 90s.

We know exercising our bodies keeps us healthy. We need to exercise out brains and our focus, as just as your biceps deteriorate with age if you don't flex 'em, so will your brain. Your hair will be grey, but your memories will hopefully be bright in decades to come!

Jj 

A Valentine's Day story.....

We all have, or know someone who has one.

A dramatic, memorable and hopefully romantic Valentine's Day story... 

Mine is about as romantic as the thin film of kitchen grease on your kettle that no amount of pine-o-clean can eradicate.

With my now 'adult' perspective it doesn't really feel THAT dramatic though when I reflect on it, the scene still always plays in slow motion so I guess that means deep down I'm holding onto the drama of it like a housewife holds on to a neighbourhood scandal.

So what is it that has had me dig my head in the sand every mid Feburary since?

Well, it all started at yr7 camp. I was ten, freckly, able to get away with tagging along to the popular group and occasionally stuffing my bra. 

This camp was a week of nature walks, water slides, baked bean breakfasts and our much awaited "free time." It was at the start of the year as it gave the new kids a chance to become in with the old ones, and see who was cool or not. 

It also fell on Valentine's Day.

Being a kid in New Zealand at this time, we didn't really pay too much attention to these American holidays, I mean, our teachers never made us make cards or anything, the best they would do is put a heart around the date on the whiteboard or something. 

But, we girls knew what it was and giggled and chirped about who was asking who, who liked who and who was "going out" with who.

There were probably about 4 main boys who were hot property. The one I liked, I had actually liked since yr2. We also did gymnastics together and his brother was friends with my brother so I guessed it was meant to be. 

Singsongs on the bus, games, late night talking and getting hyperactive had made me lose my voice. I was squeaky and husky in a "I've been at the footy" way rather than "I'm a modern age Marilyn Monroe" way.

It was the day before Valentine's Day, and I decided I'd ask him the next morning. I was planning my script/what I was going to wear to the wedding all day, starting to feel quite good about  it all.

During that afternoon's free time, he was at the swings in the middle of the campground, and I was walking from one  part to another, about 100m away.

I looked in his direction, and then saw, from the other side of the playground another girl, blonder, newer to school and also more popular than me was being pushed in his direction by her friend.

She was going to steal my Valentine! 

So, with the hope of disney movies and the endless dance and drama classes as my education, I ran toward him. Across the campground, with my arms open, yelling his name. Except I was husky and it was like a squeak that prob didn't really make him turn around. So I squeaked "be myyyyyyyyy vaaaaaaalllleeeennnnttttiiinnnnneee" all the way torward him. When I finally got there, out of breath and full of desperation l, I begged him to be my valentine.

I don't remember my exact words, I just remember him turning away from me.

I said one more "please" and watched the other girl, my competition, not even talk to him at all but climb the jungle gym her friend pushed her torward.

A confusion that ended in humiliation. 

Luckily, not many other people saw it.

Unluckily, I was imitated and realised my approached looked like a ferrel seagull squarking and hopping with open wings to a coveted chip.

Luckily, the boy who turned me down he is an erotic male dancer (and a good one at that)  now so probably wasn't meant to be.

Unluckily, me saying that is going to make him identifiable to my school friends reading this. 

So I had a Valentine's memory that I've struggled to forget..... I hope yours will be one you want to remember, whether you are going whole hog with surprises and flowers, or scrolling your newsfeed whilst watching The Block.

Jj

10 reasons why being a Kiwi is mint

Today is Waitangi Day. It's New Zealand's national holiday to recognise the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between representatives of the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840.

The treaty was all about the land, governance and ownership though there was some fault with the translation and understanding of the terms between the two parties which consequentially has been a point of dispute ever since.

However, for our humble few islands at the bottom of the world, Waitangi Day for some is the celebration of what it is to be a Kiwi, and so I thought I'd use this week's blog to do so.

My (not necessarily top) ten reasons why being a Kiwi is mint. (Read that again in your best nz accent and that's a reason in itself)

1."Chur" "aye" "Oi" "na" "bro" are words that all have endless meanings and can be used in almost any context.

2. Growing up with  no crocs, no snakes, no shoes

3. Kiwis have the desire to see and make their mark on the world. I've been living out of nz for almost 7 yrs but I always call it home.

4. 

5. Jelly Tips, Hokey Pokey, Cookie Time, L & P, fejoa, Kumara, lamb.

6. First country to allow women the vote, give entitlement to all to a state pension, have a transgender member of parliament and a world heritage site in the sky

7. Fat Freddy's Drop, Kimbra, Lorde, Flight of the Conchords (to name a few)

8. 

9. Just mention what high school you went to to another kiwi and they will probably know someone you know. I've had the most uncanny 'small world' connections with people I never knew before. 

10. When I tell people I'm from New Zeland they might get me to say "fish and chips" but then they tell me they haven't met a Kiwi they didn't like. 

Now I'm gonna go put on my jandals and stock up my chilly bin and have a primo Waitangi Day.

Jj