My Newest Hobby

Since becoming a stay-at-home mom, I've been trying to find a hobby for myself. A hobby that really means something to me, that is for me only that I can do in a limited amount of time. What I needed from this new hobby was to really be able to make it more than a fling. I've had plenty of those hobbies that I tried out for a couple of weeks and decided it was too time consuming or expensive or whatever.

I started looking at my friends hobbies to find something that might be a good fit for me. I have really enjoyed baking and cooking, but with Scott being gone all the time, who in the WORLD was gonna eat all that food??? Certainly not me, I'm still working on losing the "baby weight", which I've been told you can call it that for anywhere from 2-5 years! So, that's what we're calling it. Anyways, baking/cooking everyday was wasteful with nobody else to eat it so on my search continued.

Whatever it was, I did want it to be something healthy for myself. Lately I had been feeling incredibly stressed out with all the obligations that Scott & I have and I really needed a good form of release. So one day I'm in Grand Island and on a whim decided to stop at Hastings Bookstore to see what I could find in the catagory of "stress release, hobbies and fitness". It was there that I found a book on Yoga!!

I know, hilarious right?

Its only for skinny, veggie eating, tree huggers right? Oh no! I sat down in the aisle and read a few paragraphs of the opening chapter and it sounded like exactly what I'd been looking for!

I left the bookstore with one book entitled Total Yoga and then stopped at Wal-Mart and bought an exercise/yoga mat. After I started to read the book I found out that Yoga is more than awkward poses and saying "OM". The book shows you how to get into the pose as well as getting back out (which is MUCH more important than it sounds!!!).

It's been about a month since I started doing Yoga. I usually practice in the evenings after Kymberlyn goes to bed and make that my quiet time. There's something very relaxing and therapeutic about it if you let yourself really fall into each pose and listen to what your body is telling you. For myself it's a time for relaxation, reflection and meditation. I download podcasts off of iTunes to give me variety, plus they have music with it and guided instruction.

If you're looking for something to help relieve stress, lessen back pain or shut your brain off after a long day; I highly recommend trying Yoga. Though I will not be giving up meat or going on any nature retreats anytime soon its definitely something I'm going to continue doing and learning more about. Even though it'll be awhile before I successfully make it in AND out of chakrasana (wheel pose) or bakasana (crane pose) I'm excited to get there.