Best Ottoman Award (a Story of Relaxation and CSN Stores)

On these winter days, I often get home from work feeling tired and ready to kick back. After trudging through the snow, I'm ready to get inside. It's so nice to finally warm up, get dinner started, and relax a bit. 

After figuring out what to cook and starting it up on the stove or in the oven, I'll generally make my way to the living room, and plop down on one of our comfy couches. The perfect moment just to be. Not figuring anything out or working on any projects, but just letting go and meditating for a minute.

For a while now, the Hubs and I have been longing for a way not only to sit back but also to put our feet up after a long day. And we got lucky: we scored a sweet ottoman from CSN Stores that goes perfectly in the living room! 

I cozy up and immediately feel like this:

Full relaxation achieved! Slippered feet on an ottoman. And one that's attractive and has great storage, too!

See, one of the best parts is that we can stuff our living room cuddle blankets in there, so it keeps the whole room tidier, too. Win-win.

I'd highly recommend checking out CSN Stores if you're in need of a new piece of furniture or decor. They've got a huge selection -- over 200 online stores where you can find everything from wall art to these Herman Miller chairs to cookware. In all my shopping there, I've had great turnaround times on shipping time, too.

CSN Stores, I award you the Best Ottoman Award -- a little footrest that's the perfect size for my living room, that was right in my price range (only about $40!), and that makes relaxation and a tidy apartment that much easier. (FYI it's this one, but in black.)

Now I don't even mind looking out the window to find the snow falling... because I know I can just curl up on the couch and know I am home for the night. :)

Simplify

Photo via Lululemon. This is one of their talented ambassadors, Meghan.

Hey yogis! How was your weekend? I hope you are back at work feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. I am!


I had a lovely weekend with a nice mix of productivity and relaxation. I've got some other creative projects in the works besides the blog, so I decided to a take a couple days off to put some energy toward those. Plus there is nothing like a Sunday at home doing some cooking for the week and having a little candlelit dinner with friends. (I made quiche! Mmmm.) 


The Hubs and I also had a little adventure at the local laundromat, plus a delicious sushi lunch across the street at Evanston's Seafood Ranch. We highly recommend it! You can buy fresh sushi and soups, or shop in their little two-aisle Asian grocery. They carry green tea icecream (my fave!), any sauce you can imagine for Asian cuisine, plus sashimi-grade fish for making your own sushi. I'll be back very soon to try that.


Anyway, I hope you had fun and maybe took a little time for yourself this weekend, too. It can be so worth it to have a break -- whether it's from work, or just your computer screen at home. Sometimes a few days off from the Hot Room can do wonders for your practice, too.


Sometime's it's just better to simplify. Do a little less. You may find yourself appreciating that task you chose to take out of your busy schedule, even yoga.


I know I am excited to get back to my mat tonight!


I'm also stoked to spend this week immersed in all of the Yogi Sponsorship 2011 applications. Thanks to all of you who have sent in your apps. We have some very strong candidates!


To those of you who have the app but haven't returned it yet, please do so soon. The deadline is coming up. I'm happy to give you a bit of extra time if you need it, but be sure to communicate before the deadline rather than later.


The choice will be tough. I can't wait to post the news! Stay tuned.

Photo via Lululemon. This is one of their talented ambassadors, Meghan.

Soap Heaven

Photo via Lauren Ross Photography.

Photo via Glen Allsop Photography.

Sometimes we need a space for escaping. A spot to relax, unwind, create, imagine. A space simply to be.

You can create such a space in your home with the right mindset, a nice candle or two, and a lovely spa in your very own bathroom.

I highly suggest soaps and dead sea salts from Sharilynn Studios on Etsy to do the trick. Shari creates dreamy handmade products that are awesome for daily use as well as for special at-home spa days. 

My husband and I have been enjoying her well-crafted, gentle, and lovely-smelling soaps for a couple of weeks now and we both love them. I also love knowing that they're made from all-natural, healthy ingredients that are great for my skin. Plus, she's got a great variety of scents that aren't overly feminine or masculine, so they are great for anyone.

Our favorites so far are the eucalyptus spearmint zen and the coconut lime verbena flavors. Amazing!

A few of Shari's amazing soap and dead sea salt products I've been trying. Love them!

On days when I feel tired or a little stressed, a bath featuring her amazing sea salts helps immensely. I can finally warm up, let go, and enjoy a good steamy bath with no distractions, no conversations, and no negative thoughts in my mind.

Sharilynn Studios also has awesome back scrubbers and pumice stones for sale, so you can get that little extra "oomph" in your cleaning routine.

I also love that Shari's site features artwork and art supplies for sale. She is a talented artist with an inspired, insightful eye for beauty. Swing by her Etsy shop to find out more-- and tell her I sent you :)  You won't be disappointed!

And believe me, when that lovely box shows up on your doorstep with goodies inside (like it did for me), you'll be on your way to luxe and joyful goodness!

Photo via Sharilynn Studios on Etsy. Artwork for sale.

YogaEarth: For Rainy Days & Quiet Mornings

A lovely morning in the kitchen ends with a balancing drink from YogaEarth.

The dishwasher is humming, its cyclical rinse turning over and over.


Outside, rain patters on the windows.


The day is dark, kept, soft. It is a Saturday for small moments and hushed sounds, for making soup, for curling up and chatting with friends.


It's a peaceful, quiet morning here at home. The Hubs is off on a shoot, Nick's asleep on the couch, and I'm in the kitchen, moving effortlessly between bundt cake batter and wild rice salad, simmering homemade chicken stock on the stove as I finish up the dishes.


Before pulling on my wool socks and cowboys boots to brave the rain, I mix a quick drink. YogaEarth pre-practice mix (beet, apple & acai flavor) with goji, carrot and pineapple juice. I can picture myself on the beach in Puerto Rico. Refreshing. Their products are relaxing, nutritious, effortless.

Plus, they blog about yoga here. Thanks, YogaEarth!

Men. Yoga. Yes.

Lithe and strong, like a yogi.

These incredible photos are by a friend of mine from high school, Emily Voigtlander. She's a talented artist with a dashing boyfriend, Jordan, featured above. They are living the dream in San Francisco with their adorable pup named Willow, writing a sweet cooking blog, adventuring in the city, and loving each other well.

I am about to feature a series on men who do yoga here at Alive in the Fire and I'm interested to hear more about your views on masculinity, strength, power, balance and equality. Do you tend to see a lot of women at Bikram classes? Feel outnumbered if you're one of few guys in the room?

Do you notice a difference when men teach in comparison when women do?

How do you witness yoga as a tool to bring together members of a local studio, and of a world community, regardless of gender?

What would you like to see change? Are there ways we can use the yoga to transform our perspective and truly bring an open mind to our life experiences whether we experience inequality or not?

Are you personally willing to practice the genuine concept of "Namaste" in your life?

"The good in me sees and acknowledges the good in you." I am here; you are here with me. 

"I bow to you." I recognize your beauty, presence, power. 

"I honor that place in your where the whole Universe resides. And when I am in that place in me, and you are in that place in you, there is only one of us."

Men, women, yogis. We are one.

Em and Jordan and their pup, Willow! I couldn't resist; I really couldn't. :) 

Such a happy family! Miss you guys and hope all is well.

Be My Thrill, Be My Honeypie

That's Steve and that's Deb of The Weepies, a really kick-ass folk/pop band I'm in love with. Check 'em out!

Next up in Letting Out the Domestic: A Series on New Apartment Life...

New Arrivals (It's in the Music)

Have you ever listened to The Weepies? They are one of my favorite bands, a folk duo with some of the sweetest tunes and most charming lyrics you'll find. Plus, Deb & Steve started just as bandmates and are now married with a beautiful little babe and that's just a lovely story all around :)

I highly recommend oogling at the beautiful pics on their Myspace page. You can see the adorable little Theo in all his glory and check out some of their awesome songs.

Oh, and also: they have a song titled "I Was Made for Sunny Days." Who wouldn't want to listen to that on a lovely end-of-summer afternoon?

I just downloaded the new album Be My Thrill and I'm stoked. It's some really great stuff, plus it's getting me even more pumped to see them live at Space in Evanston very soon with the Hubs! I am finally, finally checking them off the list of fave bands to see live.

The other night I was going through all my (32!) old ticket stubs from past shows -- everything from Spoon to Treasure Island fest to The Decemberists and Josh Ritter, too -- and I realized it's been awhile since I've seen some rockin' live music. And quite awhile since I've seen one of those intimate, life-changing acoustic shows that are the ones you really remember.

So, along with all of the other shifts and changes that this fall season will bring, I'm ready for a new arrival into great music, too. Other bands I hope to listen to more of as the weather turns cooler:

Lady Antebellum (for the smooth-talkin' days)

Rise Against (for the crazy days)

Innocence Mission (for the quiet times)

Mat Kearney (for when I'm longing)

The Ghost of Brown County (for when it's time to dance)

She & Him (for the long and winding days)

Amos Lee (for the peaceful moments)

Who are you playing on repeat lately? Who do you listen to get pumped up? To chill out? Who's bumpin' in your backseat on long travel days or in your speakers at home while you're cleaning? After yoga class?

Recommendations appreciated. Enjoy the tun-tunes!

Photo via Algo's Flickr Photostream. Beautiful, isn't it?

A Little Inspiration for Your Saturday Morning

Photo via I Can Read. It's true: the only one who can determine you is, well, YOU.

Readers, yogis, people of the world: can you believe it's almost September?

The fall season is my favorite. A better time to cuddle, wear a scarf and leather coat, eat soup, drink hot coffee, and of course read by the fire. In my case, the fireplace filled with candles, but hey it works!

There's nothing quite like breaking out your couch cuddle blankets, either. Movies are just better when you can burrow under a warm fuzzy, I say.

It's also a beautiful time of year to reflect on where you are as the sunny days come to a close, and where you'd like to be as the skies change over to a stormier, darker, colder time.

What do you need to accomplish while you've still got nice weather out? A bike ride to the Botanic Gardens? Flying a kite on the beach with your little one? More yoga in the afternoons?

What about the friends and family you've neglected to visit with while there's time to sit on restaurant patios? I highly recommend a few appetizer plates or beers or both at an outside table before your chance ends! Take advantage of what's in season and the fact that this is the golden time of year to share tasty morsels and true conversation with the people you care most about.

Last night on the big Critical Mass tour of Chicago, I was so thankful to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and chance to wave hello and shout "Happy Friday!" to all the Chicagoans lounging outside of little cafes and bars all along the city streets. Especially the ones that waved and shouted back with big smiles. Seemed like such an intimate yet fleeting moment as I whizzed by on the bike. Incredible!

It got me thinking, too: how much of the time we live so fully inside ourselves, so disconnected from the world around us, holding back from even our close family and friends much less strangers in the place we live. Not that there's not a benefit to understanding our own selves -- goodness knows in the past few months I've been discovering more and more the beauty behind introspection, meditation, and strengthening your own soul with what you love.

But the bottom line is this: we weren't created to experience the world all on our own. We were made for relationship. In the past year, I've been developing, fostering and falling more and more in love with my Wonder Spouse, my husband, my best friend.

And what's more, planning our wedding and enjoying the Big Day brought me closer together with my parents, his parents, my siblings, and his siblings, too!

The more we have given all summer, the more we've received in terms of love, support, and guidance along the way. It all hinges on this idea that's so central to our faith, too:

'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

(Matthew 22:36-40)

What a huge demand which includes an incredible blessing beneath it! God calls us to love Him fully, wholly, with all our identity and our life, but also to love others with the same pure, life-changing practice. What isn't stated explicitly in this passage, but what reigns true throughout the Gospels is that our reward for these efforts -- and however imperfectly we love our God and our people -- He will continue to love us, forgive us, hold us, and help us.

No matter our faults, we will not be forsaken or left alone by Him. We are never alone. Not on cold fall evenings when we sit alone on the porch. Not on nights when we're cuddling with our spouses, or tucking the babes in for bedtime. Not when we feel lost, confused, tired, or in pain. Not when we ride in the middle of the Chicago city streets, waving to strangers and locals who watch with a perplexed look as we pass by.

On this lovely last Saturday in August, my challenge to you is to see what you can let go of about yourself. See what fear, shame, or regret you can give up. See whose opinion you can ignore, knowing that it does not in any way have to shape who you are -- but only if you decide not to let it to. Chances are you're like me and you're your own biggest critic. And guess what? You don't need to be!

Breathe, let go, move on. And get pumped for fall!

Photo also via I Can Read. Whose opinion do you fear? Can you let go and know that you are beautiful as you are?

Afternoon Thunderstorms and The Untouchables

Photo Via SunSinger's Flickr Photostream.

Last night was a beautiful practice. My body needed the heat, so I hustled over to the studio after work and got there just in time to secure a spot in the second row, set up camp in the humidity, and proceed with some pre-class backbends, hip-joint cracks, and slow neck rolls.

It never ceases to amuse me how we all have different warm-up routines at Bikram. Some of us stretch out like we’re about to run a race, strongly pulling our muscles and staring at the mirror with stern, serious looks on our faces. Some of us settle into a relaxing child’s pose, or simply sit cross-legged with our eyes closed, connecting with our breath and body. Often beginners or newbies can be found glancing around the room, trying to get a sense of what to do and why people aren’t running out of the room.

And then of course, the rest of the room usually unwinds in savasana with their heels together, toes open, palms up like champions of the hot nap.

So there we all are, a mixed bag of yogis sprawled out and sweating, calmed in the heat, preparing for the next ninety minutes. We are the beginning.

Meanwhile, outside, cue torrential downpour! Through the little windows I can see a monsoon of rain, the sweep of forceful winds, and a darkened, charcoal-colored sky. The thunder booms.

The teacher enters the room. “Stand up, please! Alright, this is Bikram. Stay in the room. Hands and feet together at the gray line in the middle of your mat…”

Outside, flashes of lightning flicker and the resounding thunder roars again.

Yes, yes, yes! I’m thinking. I love thunderstorms. And I love yoga. And I love meditations where I can be wrapped up in the moment, safe in my hot room space, concentrating on nothing but my body moving and finding a way to fully occupy stillness.

There’s nothing better than a summer afternoon thunderstorm, and the way the rumbles and bellows rise and grow and explode in the distance like faraway cannons. Like God’s own fireworks.

With every pose, the storm wore on but it could not touch us in our shelter of the hot room, our refuge, our calm harbor.

Outside, the world was ending and the sky was crashing down and the wind was whipping around the streets and sidewalks… but inside the heat was on and we were safe, our Bikram bodies holding us up like warrior statues, the yoga making changes in us.

Outside the world was ending, but inside the hot room we moved as one and could not be touched.

A couple hours after class, the sky erupted in a beautiful expansive rainbow and I stared at it off the porch, so grateful for my practice and such a stunning reminder of the wonder of stillness. This was the end: the calm after the storm.

Thanks to photographers over at The Chicago Tribune for capturing THE exact rainbow I saw yesterday after yoga!