unplugging

:: the plan ::

~ Maya C ~ 1 Comment

After many iterations and (too) much thought, here is my 6ish-month, doable-yet-challenging plan:

  1. Eat:
    • Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
    • Identify the foods that work best for me. Eat them.
    • Identify the foods that don’t work for me. Eat less of them.
    • Herbs.
    • 4 litres of water per day.
    • Enjoy every sandwich.
  1. Move:
    • Walks, walks and more walks.
    • HIIT and weight training.
    • Make space for yoga.
    • Whatever my physio tells me to do.
  1. Listen:
    • Meditate.
    • Unplug.
    • Rest.
    • Journal.
  1. Be:
    • Gratitude. Practice it.
    • Pleasure. Delight the senses.
    • Connection. Reach out.
    • Acceptance. One day I’ll miss these days.
    • Perspective. Tell happy stories.
  1. Allow: Be open. Allow this to be a fluid journey that ebbs and flows as it needs to. Allow for imperfection. (By no means is this a rigid daily checklist!). Say yes to life.

More details on each pillar to come…

mxo 💕

P.S. Thank you so very much for the tremendous amount of support! Wow. 🙏

unplugging…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

… then again, there comes a time when it’s best to unplug and delve inwards, to stop over-documenting life and start truly experiencing it instead.

That’s what I’m feeling and so, for the time being, we are retreating.

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” Walden

mxo

point of arrival…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

6:40am. I’m actually starting to enjoy these early mornings.

The arctic freeze hit Toronto again and yesterday was just far too cold to take my munchkin out. So we put on our comfy pants and started the countdown to when daddy got home.

A few hours in, I had a thought – just how much of my life has been a countdown to something…

… to finishing high school
… to exams being over
… to graduating university
… to my wedding day
… to babies
… to my due date
… to when this horrid winter finally lifts
… and to the next phase of Ryan’s life

And in counting down, how many precious moments did I wish away?

If we’re always looking ahead, when do we ever arrive?

Right now, I don’t want to be anywhere else but here and now, with a beautiful baby boy who will never again be five weeks, three days and one hour old.

mxo

sicky sundays and sunny places

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

Alright, it’s been five days. Five days of this nasty cold. Five days of utter sloth-like-ness. I, for one, have had enough.

But on to more fun things, like this:

nikkiretreat

I had the pleasure of practicing with Nikki last year when I was in Nica and she 100% converted me to yin yoga. If I wasn’t going to be 8+ months prego, I’d so be there. Instead, how about you go?

If you do, please give Nikki a big hug for me!

Happy Sunday…

mxo

 

zombies…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

This past week I added myself to the queue for the iphone 5S and I watched this (though I’m not entirely sure in what order):

It’s something I have thought about for awhile, our zombie-like-ness.

Image

This is just sad.

But what really struck me was the idea that we have forgotten how to be alone. The minute we start to feel the “uh oh, I don’t know what to do with myself now” feeling, we seem to need to anesthetize it with texting, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.  It’s a temporary comfort, a dull, mildly satisfying experience… but at the expense of what?

“You never feel completely sad or completely happy…”

I often daydream of just deleting all of my accounts and going all Walden for awhile… but I know cutting myself off technology isn’t the solution either (it’s analogous to when my mom traded in McCain’s fries for quinoa – keen-what?! – 20+ years ago).

So for now, perhaps it’s even to just be conscious. The next time you check your Facebook account, ask yourself why.

mxo

tiny steps…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

Today was better. Significantly so. 

Here’s why:

I ate every meal at a table (NOT a desk), sitting down, doing nothing else but eating. Who knew?!

I deleted all of the social media apps on my phone (except Instagram – I like taking pictures!) I need more quiet moments to notice the raindrops and let magic in.

I logged out of every social media site on my computer. It seems I check them mostly out of habit. When I navigate to one without thinking and stumble upon a login page, 9 times out of 10, I don’t care enough to log in. 

I ate tremendous amounts of greens. Tremendous.

I left work at 5:30 and got my steps in. I love the rain.

mxo

advice epidemic…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

I woke on Sunday compelled to box up all of my self-help books. All of a sudden, I had this super clear sense that they were doing more harm than good. Those seemingly helpful words were actually distracting me from listening to my own inner voice.

Then today, serendipitously, I watched this:

Minute 14:40 on REALLY hit home.

We are suffering from an epidemic of too much advice. The internet is chock-full of articles, videos and blogs (like mine, ha) with tips and tricks on life, love, fitness, happiness – everything! The self-help business is booming – Oprah has built herself an empire on it. Most of these resources come from people honestly trying to be helpful BUT the sheer volume can be absolutely overwhelming.

Here’s the thing: there’s no cookie-cutter solution. We are all unique and we all need to live our lives in our own ways. You’re never going to know if you’re on your right path until you get so quiet that you can hear yourself think (and feel!).

Two bookshelves, packed almost exclusively with self-help books!

Take it all with a grain of salt and set a goal to regularly tune out the world. Tune inward instead. That’s mine big goal for the next long while – all I’m allowing myself to read and watch is fiction. Period, of end story. 🙂

Happy Tuesday!
mxo

P.S. The ironies in this post aren’t lost on me… 🙂

simple…

~ Maya C ~ Leave a comment

Happy Tuesday! My body is humming from another sweaty hot yoga class – what a perfect treat in the winter!

A few days ago, in the midst of an email discussion about health and happiness, my brilliant husband wrote this:

”the constant ability for humans to ignore the obvious solution staring them in the face never ceases to amaze!”

 
It’s true! We do tend to ignore the obvious and we certainly don’t want to hear it. Case in point:

Who wants to hear AGAIN that you should eat more vegetables, exercise and unplug?! It’s just so booooring. But, alas, it’s also true.

I get it. Trust me, I have looked in every nook and cranny for a magic solution but there isn’t one. Health takes commitment; it takes hard work. But eventually, when you start feeling truly awesome, this hard work becomes fun! And the beautiful upside of all of this is that it’s also simple – we can feel so much better just by taking small, itty bitty steps.

So, based on the Doc’s prescription, what kind act can you do for yourself? What work can you put in towards your health? As for me, I need to ditch my computer!

Be kind to yourself.
mxo