#LJInspired: Where do you find the most love and inspiration online?

The online community is amazing! My first experience with this was really the yoga community online. I love taking part in pose-of-the-day challenges! You learn new poses and variations, get alignment and photo tips, and are part of an amazing, supportive, and inspirational community. My favorites are the challenges @kinoyoga and @beachyogagirl put on, as well as the @inspiredyogis community (@monkeymix, @gordonogden, @rachelanna_yoga, and @kikasanayogi).

My latest online inspiration is the Sweat Pink community! Getting to work with Fit Approach and be a Sweat Pink ambassador has afforded me the wonderful opportunity to be a part of an incredibly supportive fitness group. We're all over the world, and get to come together on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to share recipes, workouts, triumphs and failures. The support staggers me! Thank you sweaty ones, for welcoming me into the fold!

Join us on Instagram! @LornaJaneActive @FitApproach #LJInspired #sweatpink

#LJInspired: Where does your inspiration take you?

My inspiration has taken me everywhere! I'm no where close to the place I envisioned for myself, and it's all thanks to being inspired by the people and places around me. I moved to Colorado after college, inspired by ski bums and instructors I'd met over the years. I became a yoga teacher, inspired by my teachers at my studio during university. I've traveled internationally, inspired by my time studying abroad in school and my grandparents and mother. I spent a month in Costa Rica, inspired by my time in Spain and many friends who took off during "mud season." I moved to Oregon, inspired by, well, me! In reality, by my need to change my life. Inspiration has taken me everywhere, and will continue to do so in the future!

Join the conversation: #sweatpink +Fit Approach, LLC @FitApproach #LJInspired +Lorna Jane @LornaJaneActive

Open Heart, Open Mind

The theme for my classes this week is "open heart, open mind." This might be getting a little heady, a little out there, for some of you. But if you get beyond the "oh, goodness, what is this hippie yoga chick blathering on about" you might see some something. 

The mind-body connection isn't a secret within the yoga world. I frequently talk about it in my classes when we're in long holds, like pigeon. If you don't believe me, start tracking the sensations you feel in intense poses like that. You'll notice some days feel really open and light and easy. Others feel like holding this posture should have been part of the Spanish Inquisition. Check in with why this might be. Did you have something stressful or emotionally difficult happen recently? That might be why you want to cry and swear. (For example, all last summer I was in physical therapy for knee and neck issues. A common technique for us was dry needling- meaning he'd take an acupuncture needle and send it directly into areas of tightness to try to break up the tension and release it. Very painful on a good day. For the week after my breakup last year, he couldn't get within 6 feet of me with a needle because I was so emotional and stressed.) In a hips and twists clinic with Les Leventhal years ago, he phrased why this is very eloquently, "We hold the scar tissue of our emotional baggage in our hips." That can be why they're so tight, because it's a defense mechanism from dealing with whatever you experienced. 

Similarly, we inherently protect our hearts. It gets so tight in that area, literally and figuratively. In the last year, I've really been working on that part of my physical practice. I could say it's been about one pose I've been working with, but the reality is is that I realized how many poses relate to opening the heart that I wanted to work on. It started with flipping out of handstand into wheel. Then I started playing with hallowback handstand and forearmstand. Then I really wanted to start working the full bind in king puff pigeon (catching my foot overhead). Then it was forearm wheel. Then it was straight legged wheel, which really focuses on pressing the heart through the shoulders. Do y'all see where I'm going here? By wanting to work on heart opening and back bending for one posture, I discovered I'm really working on it for a lot of postures. 

So yesterday was Transformation Tuesday. Being a yoga photo junkie, I have a lot of throwback pictures to chose from. I love being able to see the progression of my physical practice, and seeing where I still want to go. For me, a lot of the most drastic changes are these backbending and heart-opening poses. Again, by focusing on deepening one posture, I immediately saw the correlation between many others. 

Opening your heart is scary. Whether it's starting a relationship, diving into a new job, moving, or even just going to a new yoga class. Any time you're trying something new, you're opening your heart to that experience. But here's the catch. You have to go all in. If you hold something back, it's not going to work. If you sequester part of your heart, even if it's for your emotional protection, you won't get all that you could out of the experience. If you don't give 100%, you won't get 100%. Yes, it's f***ing scary. Yes, you could fail or get hurt. But isn't it worth the risk to get the chance to love, to excel, to totally rock it out?! Hell yeah!

So by working on opening our hearts on the mat, we're physically trying to break up all that tightness we build up to protect us. We're actively making ourselves more vulnerable. Another way to look at that, a more positive way to look at it, is that we're working to open ourselves more and more to love, opportunity, and experience. To accept and revel in everything that comes our way!

PS, I wanted to share that I wrote this post in a coffee shop in Portland called "heart." No, I didn't plan it that way. :)

#LJInspired: Where do you feel the most inspired?

Creative juices start flowing for me at such seemingly random times. I often work really well at coffee shops. Caffeine at my fingertips, white noise in the background…best work environment. Often times ideas will hit me while being active. Novels will start to write themselves in my head when I'm out hiking by myself. It'll seem brilliant, but then I won't remember word of it when I go to write it down when I get back. Tasks and ideas I want to remember will hit me in the middle of yoga class, but then will slip out of my mind, along with everything else, during savasana at the end.

I also feel inspired when I'm in the presence of amazing people. I get inspired in yoga classes by other people's practices. Jamie King inspires me when we're out running and at bootcamp. People within a place inspire me to push myself to try things I never thought possible!

Join the conversation on Instagram! #sweatpink @FitApproach #LJInspired @LornaJaneActive

#LJInspired: Where is your favorite place to work out?

I love to switch up my work outs! Trying not to do the same thing in the same place two days in a row is important to me. I love spin studio workouts, yoga studio classes, runs out in the woods or on the trail or around the city, bootcamps down by the river, circuit training at the gym… I love it all! I love the variety!

Join the conversation on Instagram! #sweatpink #LJInspired @LornaJaneActive @FitApproach @lizwilsonyoga

Perfectly Portland Weekend

After weeks of travel, followed by weeks of playing catch up, it felt so good to have a full weekend in Portland. To hike, drink wine, eat good food, drink coffee leisurely, and watch movies with my best friend! 

FRIDAY: Solo hike/run up Angel's Rest 

I already wrote in the previous post about this. But it was such a perfect way to start the weekend, I needed to throw it into the mix again! 

It was followed by an impromptu coffee date with a new friend, work, and a quiet evening cooking dinner and sitting on the porch with a glass of rose. 

SATURDAY: 

Caitlin and I woke up early to hit the trails in Forest Park. It was my first time on Newton Trail, a 5.2 mile loop. Caitlin warned me as we started a mile of intense uphill in direct sunlight, "this is not going to be pleasant." It was definitely the fast and furious part of the hike, that DID lead to a gorgeous view of the river, while the rest of the hike was in shaded Narnia-esque woods with ferns and moss. 

Our plan was to spend a few hours out on Sauvie Island, sitting on the beach and playing in the water. However, neither of us had been there before and didn't think to plan it out beforehand. Turns out it's not a simple as crossing the bridge and the beach is right there. So we ended up driving around for a bit to explore, and stopped at the Lavender Farm. OMG the smell of this patch of land was so intoxicating! 

With our extra time, we went back over to the eastside over our favorite bridge to our favorite coffee shop. 

Part of the afternoon was spent in North Portland in the Mississippi neighborhood. We went to Interurban with a friend for lunch and rose (rose is the best hot-summer-day wine!). The excursion of course included a selfie (or five) and some street-art-yoga! 

As it got up to 100 degrees that day, we spent the evening in an air conditioned movie theater. Let's just say, going to see Magic Mike XXL isn't exactly the best way to cool down, though. ;)

SUNDAY

Thank goodness we got up and out early, hitting the trail for Triple Falls by 8:30. The sun didn't rise over the crest of the gorge and it didn't start to get crowded until we were well on our way down. I'm always ok with getting out of bed early(ish) Sunday morning when I get to see gorgeousness like these waterfalls, and to mostly have them to myself! It was only about 4 miles, but was a steady uphill back to the falls. Great way to get the blood pumping in the morning! 

The afternoon was spent lazily/productively hopping around town. After a stop at Kure for a smoothie, I posted up in Albina for a few hours to get work done. Then it was off to Canteen for a delicious quinoa tempeh bowl, followed by a glass of bordeaux at our neighborhood tavern, Woodsman. I used the rest of the evening to enjoy the cool cloudiness and get work done. 

Such a wonderful, and very Portland, weekend! I love it!

To see more excursions, follow me @lizwilsonyoga.

#LJInspired: Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration EVERYWHERE! I'm one of those people who takes pleasure in even the littlest of things, like prettily blooming flowers and funky foamy latte art. Some days it's a pretty obvious source of inspiration, like hiking up a mountain peak and seeing an incredible 360-degree view from an alpine lake. Oh my goodness, those days fill up my camera roll and blow Instagram up! Other days are filled with mundane errands and crazy amounts of work, so it's necessary to find your inspiration from the little pleasures. Like sitting on your porch at the end of the day and watching pretty pink clouds in the sky as the sun sets. Where do you find your inspiration?

Tag #sweatpink, #LJInspired, @FitApproach, and @LornaJaneActive to join in the conversation. 

And as always, follow me @lizwilsonyoga!