#sundayzenday: Restoring mind, body, and soul: #7daystretch

Sunday, the day of rest for most of us. The day for sleeping late and brunching and all around being lazy. Well… Not for me.

Though mimosas are the best!

For the first time, I have a traditional work week, as in I actually have Saturdays and Sundays off! Woo hoo! It definitely helps with coordination with friends for fun plans. My best friend (who is also my roommate) and I have taken to a weekend schedule that has become the norm for us. We get up early, head out for some amazing hike/nature adventure, come back to chill in our neighborhood coffee shop with books (with work for me), make our way to some yummy, bougie restaurant for happy hour or dinner, and maybe end it all with a show. Repeat on Sunday. And those are the weekends that we (yes, we) stay in town.

My normal weekend schedule may not sound restorative to everyone, but it works for me. I tend to only truly be able to relax once I've already done something active that day. Hence why when I'm on vacation at the beach I'm always running, surfing, and doing yoga. Same mentality for the weekend. There are definitely days that I need to stay home and veg and catch up on stuff around the house. But overall, I like to use my days off to go for long runs/hikes/explorations as well as some chilling.

Colorado "ruined" me for that. I now have to get outside regularly to feel sane, not just hit the gym or go to yoga class. The trails/slopes are now my zen place. (As is my yoga mat, as always!)

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by prAna and Fit Approach, but all opinions are my own. Shop the fall line with the code LiveInprAnaF15 for 15% off (offer valid through September 30, 2015, and not valid for influencers, with gift certificates, or other offers). 

Saturday stretch & salute session… #7daystretch

For Saturday, it's all about side stretching and sun saluting! One of my favorite poses right now in general is not only a side stretch but a backbend and a heart opener… You guessed it, wild thing!

I love incorporating this pose into a flow. It feels so yummy to open everything up after some knee-to-nose core work and an intense lunge/balancing sequence. You can also bend both knees for flip dog, and take it all the way over into wheel pose. One of my favorite things to work on in a backbending class is walking your dog out, but flipping over into flip dog, take it into wheel, and then come out of it into downdog on the other side. And take it back and forth, side to side.

It can also be a little bit of a safety net, too! When you're working a bound or extended side plank and you feel like you're about to fall, you just drop your foot behind your calf and lift your hips for wild thing!

BONUS: #sunsalutesaturday! I'm going on a long hike today! It's finally supposed to rain here in Portland, but I'm still planning on getting outside and reveling in being in nature all day! That's #thatpnwlife!

Saluting the moon still counts!

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by prAna and Fit Approach, but all opinions are my own. Shop the new fall line with the code LiveInprAnaF15 for 15% off! (Valid until September 30, 2015, and not valid for influencers, with gift certificates, or other offers.)

Feeling Free! #7daystretch

For today's #liveinprAna #7daystretch theme, it's #FreeFriday! prAna and Fit Approach want us to share what makes us feel the most free!

What an interesting idea, and one that's difficult for me to narrow down since there are so many different things that make me feel amazing and free! Being outside all day AND going out dancing in heels. Snuggling up watching a movie at home AND traveling the world. Handstands AND pigeon. Overall, I think my "schedule," or lack thereof really, demonstrates the full spectrum of freedom that I love! 

One of the beauties of my job is the ability to work from home, or iPhone, or coffee shop. So after putting in some hours this morning with a cup of Stumptown cold brew, it'll be off to the trails to get some time in the woods. Hopefully my ankle will be up for some trail running. Regardless, I'll get in some #stopdropandyoga in the forest!

While I'm in Northwest, I might as well hang out at a coffee shop and do some work, right? That makes total sense. ;) But in all reality, I do work really well in a coffee shop. I have since college. I always preferred the "white noise" of conversations and espresso bean grinding in the background to the silence of a library. Commissary, after being recommended to me when I first moved here by my friend Krystyn, has become one of my favorite spots on the westside to hangout and do work. Right between NW 23rd and the Pearl District, it's perfectly located between awesome areas and Forest Park, and has amazing coffee and eats!

The afternoon will be a mixture of showering, working, and maybe some happy hour with friends. Tonight is a dance night with my roommates and various friends and significant others! One of our roommates is leaving us next week, so this is our last big night out as roommates! We've had an amazing 6 months together. Seriously the end of an era!

Even though Gavin's honorarily one of the girls...

First night out after I moved in!

Our new roommate is so lucky to join this group!

Yup, it's going to be a pretty awesome day! A mixture of work (that I love), being active in the outdoors, partaking in Portland's amazing food/drink fare, and going out with some of my favorite people! 

The freedom to move around throughout the day and have a flexible schedule definitely feels free! Sometimes I do miss working at nights so that I have my days completely wide open to be outside hiking and skiing! But then I'd miss out on things happening at night with my friends that had day jobs. Pros and cons to everything. My life is pretty amazing right now, if I do say so myself! 

BONUS: In addition to it being #freefriday, it's also #forearmfriday! Aka, one of Liz's favorite weekly themes! ;)

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by prAna, but all opinions are my own. Shop prAna with the code LiveInprAnaF15 to get 15% off!

New stretches in all the stretchy pants!: #7daystretch

For #throwbackthursday today, prAna and Fit Approach challenge us to share a time that we tried a new stretch.

I love partaking in pose-of-the-day challenges with various Instagram yogi communities. Over the winter, Kino MacGregor and Kerri Verna challenged us to attempt kapotasana, which they demonstrated kneeling and arching backwards with their heads on the ground. I immediately said, "whaaaaa?!" I initially wrote it off, knowing that I don't have the bendiest back. I "knew" this pose was inaccessible to me and decided I would take camel ustrasana pose as a modification.

I then read the instructions Kerri included with her post. She described it as more of a quad burner than a really deep backbend. You have to lean back and engage the core and quads rather than just arch backwards. Hm. Well, I gave it a go. And...

Ta-dah! Not that much further than in camel, but I definitely felt the difference and definitely felt the burn in my quads! They are totally different (kinda) poses! It is absolutely amazing what you can do when you try new things without having expectations, as long as you stay safe! 

I've continued to play with this pose…

And then this happened for this past #transformationtuesday…

There are still so many places to go, things to do, poses to learn and try and work on… But sometimes it's pretty amazing to look back and acknowledge when something awesome happened, how it changed things, and the subsequent journey forward! 

BONUS!: In honor of their new fall line, prAna wants us to share some of our favorite leggings. Oh man, you asked for it!

Liquido Active's patterned lycra pants are definitely some of my all-time favorite leggings! The orange/pink ones above are one of my favorite pairs, as are…

These lululemon High Times Pant (left) and teeki Love the Elephant Pant (right) are some of my new favorites right now!

And then there's good ol' black, classic for a reason… Can't wait to try prAna's Misty Legging!! Shop prAna and get 15% off with LiveInprAnaF15! You're welcome!

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by prAna, but all opinions are my own!

No more just getting through hump day: #7daystretch

It's Wednesday! Otherwise known as Hump Day. Rather than viewing it as a day that signifies being that much closer to the weekend, I'd rather see it as the peak of the week!

For starters, for #WorkoutWednesday, I've gotten into the habit of taking class with this rad chick. I'd started doing spin classes for the first time when I moved to Breckenridge. But Burn Cycle (or Soul Cycle for you Californians) is a whole different ball game. It's 45 minutes of non-stop spinning, literally sprinting pretty much the entire time, in a dark room with DJ beats blaring. All the while, this spitfire lady is motivating and inspiring you to keep pushing, which she somehow manages to do positively while also dropping f-bombs. I leave the studio a sweaty mess (seriously, I never knew I could sweat so much), but so inspired and energetic. Jessi D is totally my #womamcrushwednesday.

Ok, so now we're getting into the nitty gritty of the issue. It's been pretty much the theme of my life for the last four years considering I postponed (indefinitely) law school in favor of some ski bum years. I knew I'd be a good lawyer, but I wasn't sure if it would make me happy. A conversation I've had many times of late with my best friend is about lifestyle. A lot of people see pictures I post (maybe even read this blog, she says hopefully) and wonder how I'm so happy, how my life is so adventurous/fun/idyllic. Two pieces of news for you:

1. It's NOT perfect! I still deal with bills, breakups, disappointments, insecurities, money issues, anxiety, and stress. There's a lot of unrest when you're changing things frequently, which definitely makes me tired and anxious. There's a lot of sadness when you have to say goodbye to people and places you love.

2. I MADE MY LIFE THE WAY IT IS! My life didn't just happen to me. When I was growing up and in college in North Carolina, I didn't envision the future and see myself as a yoga teacher in Portland, OR. To have lived in Colorado for over three years.

I give a lot of credit to my dad. (Which works out perfectly since today is his birthday, too!) But when I was on the law school track, my hippie lawyer father encouraged me to do some soul searching, working, traveling, ski bumming first. I will forever be grateful to him, for he literally changed my life (not to mention also helping give me life), and he agrees that was probably the best advice he ever gave me! Because of him encouraging me to take that initial step away from the norm, I have made the conscious choice to explore and wanderlust. To not be behind a desk all day every day. To date. To move around. To meet new people. To experience.

Back to the conversation Caitlin and I have had many times. Lifestyle. The idea that some people live only for the weekend, or only for the vacation that is 6 months away, is so sad! There should be something every day that you look forward to and that excites you! I'm not saying you have to be loving life when stapling stacks of papers and grinning as you're faxing documents all day every day. On the flip side, it doesn't have to be that you summit a mountain every day. It could be a coffee date with a friend in the morning, happy hour with work friends, a yoga class, an early morning run, your before-bed ritual. Anything!

An old friend from college recently asked me for some advice with relation to happiness. He's found himself in a grad-school-to-career path that he likes but isn't super happy with at this present moment. We both agreed he didn't need a huge life change. You don't need to be a ski bum/yoga teacher to find happiness, that was just my path! Not everybody lives in the heart of the mountains with accessibility to hiking and skiing that I had, or the flexibility with work to go on a trail run for half of a Monday that I do. But we talked about the little things he could plan for himself throughout the week. Those friend dates, actually making hikes on the weekends happen and not just thinking about it, partaking in activities throughout the week. Yes, it takes effort. But YES, it's so worth it! This is your life! Don't wish time away from yourself. Do everything you can to make the most of it!

So I don't pray for the weekend. I look forward to every day. Maybe not the whole day. But at least some part of it. Every day. I made my life that way, and you can, too!

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by prAna, but all opinions are my own! Shop the fall line with the code LiveInprAnaF15 and get 15% off! Offer valid until September 30, 2015, and not valid for influencers or with gift certificates or other offers. 

Backbending: Everything Connects to Everything: #7daystretch

prAna and Fit Approach ask us about backbending today, in honor of prAna's #7daystretch #liveinprAna campaign for their fall line. They're also gifting us (aka everyone!) with a 15% off code: LiveInprAnaF15.* Yay fall shopping!

Backbending does not come easily to me. There are some people that have "accordion" spines, which bend and flex deeply and easily. From the beginning, bridge pose was not comfortable or fun. I blamed back problems, which do run in my family. But it was more an issue of not wanting to work on what didn't feel good or natural.

My friend's accordion spine versus … mine

Transformation of one-legged wheel

Transformation of straight legged wheel

It took wanting to work on handstand to put the effort in with my backbends. How do they relate, you ask? When I kick to hard up into handstand, I flip out into wheel pose. But to do that safely and comfortably, I needed to work on my wheel pose so that I could land in it without jarring my spine. So began the backbending…

Practicing flipping out of handstand with a spot

I began to realize how integral backbends are into a lot of poses, especially the ones I wanted to start focusing on! Like dancers, pigeon, and hallowback. As I've gotten deeper in these poses, I've wanted to continue to progress, and have shifted focus to pure backbends like scorpion variation of handstand and forearmstand, forearm wheel, straight arm wheel, and camel. Most of the most dramatic progress I've made has been with backbends (#transformationtuesday).

Transformation of dancer

Transformation of scorpion forearmstand

Transformation of king pigeon

Backbends like wild thing, wheel, and dancers have become some of my go-to #stopdropandyoga poses! And I'm totally loving playing with scorpion and hallowback in my inversions!

The beauty of yoga is you really can't focus on just one pose or area of the body without realizing that everything relates. Everything is interconnected! Take something like scorpion handstand: not only do you have all of the elements of handstand (engaged hands and fingertips, non-hyperextended elbows, shoulders engaged, shoulder blades squeezing together, core engaged, spacious low back, active legs), but you're melting your heart between your shoulders and shifting your gaze forward to counterbalance your legs arching overhead (to the crown of your head in theory) while not letting your core collapse or your back hinge. Oh, and you're inverted on your hands the whole time!

So when you're working on backbending, you're working on probably 65%** of yoga poses, but in different variations. So hop to it and get to bending!

*Code is valid until September 30, 2015, and is not valid for influencers, with gift certificates, or other offers. 

**statistic is completely fabricated to prove a point ;)

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by prAna, but all opinions are my own. 

The end of an era! But the bracelet stacking continues...

Those of you who have come to know me or spent time with me in the last year or so know of my deep-seated affection for bracelets. I'm rarely without bracelets stacked on both wrists. Ever.

My left arm stack interchanges with various bangles and Chan Luu wrap bracelets. But the ones on my right wrist stay on pretty much all the time. Showering, running, hiking, skiing, sleeping… And it all started with a black rope bracelet with a copper bead woven in from Costa Rica. While out shopping in the few boutiques in our little beach town with a friend, I picked up my first right-hand bracelet. The beauty of this one was being able to put it on and leave it on for everything! Which was ideal since I'd left pretty much all of my jewelry back in the States for this trip and was pretty much constantly sweating, swimming, surfing, and rolling around in the sand while in Costa Rica.

Upon returning Stateside last June, the rope stayed on my wrist. And others joined it. I got a gold bangle in San Diego while visiting in November. Then a half gold bangle/half silver chain bracelet while visiting Portland in January. I added a hammered bronze bangle from a local artist after moving to Portland in March. And a designer friend tossed in a thin silver and gold bangle when I saw her this summer. The right-hand-bracelet-stack all started with a few strands of black rope.

The inevitable happened this weekend. The rope finally wore thin enough that it snapped. No more black rope bracelet from Costa Rica that I've been wearing on my wrist for close to 18 months. It's been through countless yoga classes, through mountains all over the country, rolling around in sand on beaches also all across the country (and CR!). It's been on my wrist for wine dates, moving cross-country twice, breakups, reunions, first dates, weddings, and travels. It has never left my wrist since the day I put it on in the shop. However, the trend and memories live on! I now have a collection of clinking arm candy on my right wrist, and all because of a few strands of black rope. 

Missing you already. And scouring Pinterest looking for things to do with the copper bead to keep the spirit alive!