Tag Archives: Daily Something

It’s raining dogs and cats

3 Replies

It’s raining dogs and cats

Sometimes when you are working really hard at something, say writing a conference paper, training for your next fight or hitting your 47th non-stop morning at twisting your body in a pose, the goal still seems a million miles away from getting you anywhere.  More to the point, and not exactly a marathoner’s wall, your world will feel upside down and a bit backwards, because no matter the effort that sense of achievement feels illusive.

I think of it having run into a friend at Gleason’s on Saturday who is in the midst of training for a fight.  She looked strong, fit, and truly ready — and yet she also had that look that said, “wow, this is hard.” And is if her verbal constructions had hit into reverse, her far away gaze revealed the doubts that all of us feel when we are on the cusp of something.  I’d have given her a hug if I could, but it wasn’t one of those moments. Rather what she needed was a pause to acknowledge her efforts and struggle; something akin to a moment of breath, where she could intake slowly allowing for the catch in the throat before forcing it all out to begin anew.

And that is how it is sometimes. We work with tremendous effort on our goals, but feel caught in a backwards swirl of mind movies that have us see our world upside down before we can shake the tree enough to right ourselves again.

Call it a raining dogs and cats moment and then move on — because when you are working that hard, you really, really know it, and should trust that you’re doing what you need to do to achieve your that goal.

Your moment, your time.

Leave a reply

Your moment, your time.

This is as good an early morning as any to admit that getting up before dawn to breathe deeply as I contort myself into poses my body has no way of holding is just plain silly.  Okay, well maybe not silly, but given that my eyes are at half mast and I’m drifting as I write there is the question as to whether I am hitting diminishing returns here.  Yes, I got the junk out of my bones as I stretched and released — with the added benefit of giving the cat a place to scratch as I attempted the right hand on my outstretched left foot pose (that’s the donuty looking one — great on the tape, ridiculous on me!).

The gripes aside — it being Wednesday after all when these sorts of doubts hit my consciousness — I got to thinking that it is still my little bit of quiet including all this baby-bitching. Yep, let’s face it, sometimes we need some time to complain. We need that arrrghhh growl. That “damn-it nobody changed the toilet paper” grumble. Or my favorite, the loud as I can be empty out the kitchen sink plate slamming session where the object is to make as much noise as possible with nary a scratch to any of the pots, pans, dishes or cutlery. Where I draw the line is with the mucked up sponge which in my world just gets tossed out with a few under the breath curses to the moron who left it there to soak in the overnight potpourri of bacteria languishing in their special stew.

The point is the moments that are yours don’t always have to be pretty. Let’s face it, why else would you want to hit things?  Punching a heavy bag does have its attractions after all. As does beating down a huge mound of clay, digging in the dirt to plant bulbs or running till your heart feels as if it is going to burst. And that’s okay. Release is not always a slowly modulated intake and outtake of breath kind of thing. Sometimes its messy and full of rage, and sometimes its plain old complaint city when for the 116th time in a week you plead, cajole and beg one of your loved ones to pahleasssseee open the hamper lid before stacking their dirty laundry.

Sometimes you win …

4 Replies

Sometimes you win …

BroBrooklyn Bridge at Night, 1948 Gelatin Silver, by Andreas Feininger

Brooklyn Bridge at Night, 1948 Gelatin Silver, by Andreas Feininger

 

 

I managed to crawl out of bed at my usual ridiculous weekday hour in the morning today.  My head is still spinning a bit from being tired and I’ve been fighting off waves of didn’t-get-enough-sleep headaches — not to complain, which I’m not, but to state that the inconveniences of those feelings are out-weighed by the suppleness my limbs feel after my third downward dog pose and all the other stretches these creaky bones held this morning.

While I may or may not get to four rounds of shadow boxing when I finish this piece, the hiss of the steam, wanderings of the kitty and the sounds of the house as it reverberates with the slow morning echoes from the street below gives me something else.  A kind of serenity as I greet the day before the stresses and hustle and bustle of all the have-to’s begin to settle on it.

When one has a busy life with a tons of constituent parts that demand time, attention and thought, it’s so very nice to have the gift of a few minutes that aren’t in competition.  Rather, they’re just for oneself.  A little piece of the world one can own — if not quite the room Virginia Wolfe envisioned where one could state, “I am,” this place has more to do with a gift of quiet.  And sure, predawn self-ministrations get “old” by Thursday morning when the accumulated hours of missed sleep are wearying, however, the idea of finding a part of the day for quiet doesn’t.  I’ve been keeping to this schedule for six weeks now and have to say that occasional grumpiness aside these moments of quiet have truly given me something I didn’t expect:  a place of peace that’s a little of my own.

 

The only thing you really have is your effort!

5 Replies

The only thing you really have is your effort!

I wish that were original, but it’s not.  My brother-in-law wrote it on his Facebook page last night.  Given that he is a working musician, I give him his due as it is never easy.

Similar to professional musicians, professional athletes, talented amateurs and even the rest of us mere mortals on the ground —  can usually only be sure of something based on the effort we’ve put in to achieve it.  For this 50-something body that means I am truly *earning* the increasing tautness of my upper body from all those pre-dawn downward facing dog poses.

Yep, the effort does pay dividends — although I will admit to mornings where the seemingly endless long haul feels a bit discouraging.

And sometimes — the plateau is just that.  The top of where you are going to go — say my ability to do a hand stand!  To use the vernacular – that ain’t never gonna happen – but, it doesn’t mean I don’t stop the effort to get there.

Okay, I know I’m being Pollyanna-ish again, but this notion that what we have is our effort resonated with me.  Perhaps it’s because when the effort is honest and truly your best the outcome is not the issue.  In other words, it’s the doing that matters, and while it is great to have a goal — and in fact often the most motivating part of getting yourself to the piano, the potter’s wheel or the gym in the first place, after a while the goal tends to slip away in favor of the doing.  We often find that the mere fact of following the path we’ve put in place whether its reps on a machine, rounds on the double-ended bag, or practicing the first four measures of a song for the 15th time, means finding the chance to discover beauty and serenity in that effort.  Well, okay, the beauty part might seem a little bit funny in a funky boxing gym — but the point is to not forget the journey, ’cause it might just be what you are seeking to achieve in the first place.

Twenty six days and counting

4 Replies

Twenty six days and counting

When one embarks on any sort of daily regimen of exercise, diet, writing or otherwise — or what I call the daily something, some days feel great and others are to put it charitably, “tougher” than others.

At best, one feels something a kin to a “glow” of self-satisfaction for having put in the work and effort while basking in what feels like tangible results.  At worst, however, is that feeling of being in the mud having worked and worked without getting anywhere — and maybe even losing some ground.

Like any annoying Pollyanna, my response is to say focus on the bright-side, but when one has schlepped oneself day after day to some activity, or to the discipline of say, no chocolate except on Saturdays and the scale looks back with numbers on the wrong side of the goal, that is small solace.

To put it more plainly, when one is my age, a later rather than sooner 50-something, a scale that tips the wrong way feels like a miserable defeat!   Inevitably (with a pardon to the youngsters out there) it becomes one of those “shut-up” moments when the whole hot flashing, weight fluctuating, mood altering, welcome to crone-hood stuff comes crashing down in a giant, “G-d damn-it”  because in my world it means I can’t find my glasses again to even keep the awful number on the scale in focus.

That’s when my other, less grumpy, too cheerful for her own good self makes an appearance and screams out “suck-it up!”

Let’s face it, 26 days of a daily something is an amazing achievement — and what’s meaningful is the “and counting” part of it.  So whether it’s shadow boxing before dawn, writing a poem a day or blogging about it, or any of the myriad of great things we all work hard to achieve, congratulations to you for even trying.

 

 

 

 

Waiting for morning to come

4 Replies

Waiting for morning to come

I’ll admit it, Yoga at 5:15 AM this morning felt cold and lonely.  Sure it was 9 degrees outside which had a lot to do with it, and yes, the cat had fun torturing my feet as I was in the downward facing dog position, but it was something else too.  I felt the sense of being in the middle without seeing the shoreline on either side.  Not exactly being adrift, but feeling dislocated.

A million odd years ago I took at windjammer type cruise in the Caribbean.  The trip was on an old Maine Schooner  (built in the early 1900’s), with about 30 passengers and crew.  The attraction to the voyage was that the trip was an actual crossing:  starting out in St. Martin’s making our way to such islands as St. Barts, St. Kitts and Saba Island towards the final destination of St. Thomas.  At one point on the trip, we were a sea with no land in sight.  I would cast my eyes about all 360 degrees and watch the shimmering waters as they met the horizon, catching the phenomenon of differing weather systems interacting:  here a sudden squall, there beams of sunlight pushing their way insistently through the gaps in the clouds.

It put me in mind of the months and years that sailors would ply the waters of the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian oceans in search of whale or spices or for sheer exploration.  Not that a vacation tour or a stint in the dark can in any way equate, but yet we do find ourselves in the momentary panic of being adrift when in fact is we are on course.   It’s just that we can’t quite see it yet.  Yes the light *will* eventually peak up and over the horizon this morning, as surely as the vessel I traveled on made its way forward till we saw land, still, I needed to feel reassured and finding it have gone on to embrace the day — whenever it wakes up enough to show itself.

Boxing day

2 Replies

Boxing day

Now that I’ve gone to a once a week training schedule for boxing, I find myself getting really excited by the time Friday comes along.  The daily fitness routine I’ve found that can work with my schedule these days is based around early morning yoga, but it’s the thought of boxing that gets me pumped up and ready to go.

My Saturday morning boxing routine begins with dropping my daughter off for her Aikido practice, after which I take a nice long walk over to  Gleason’s Gym. By the time I get there I’ve logged 2-1/2 miles at a pretty fast pace so I am nice and loose.  About a 1/2 mile out, I start pumping my arms a bit so that by the time I hit the gym I feel ready for one of my two favorites:  three rounds on the double-ended bag or three rounds of shadow boxing using the slip-rope.

For those who don’t usually practice, the slip-rope is real old-school consisting of something as simple as a clothes line tied between two poles or across the ring around 15 feet apart at about chest height. The object is to move forwards and backwards along the line and “slip” under as practice for slipping a punch. The slip-rope is also great for practicing upper cuts under the line — or for simulating jabs to the body and jabs to the head.  By around the third round, I feel loose enough to dance around the slip-rope going forwards, backwards, and circling.  Having the rope at chest height not only helps to “remind” me to slip, but also gives me an approximation of where to place body versus head punches.

Alternatively, I’ll use the double-ended bag for warm-ups starting with a round of lefts and finishing the second two rounds with combinations and a lot of hooks or upper cuts off the jab.

If I can train with Lennox Blackmore, we’ll do three rounds of pad work — with an aim of getting to four rounds by the end of January, five rounds by the end of February and six rounds by the end of March!  Once we’re done with the pads, it’s back to the double-ended bag for three rounds to work on punches and combinations that Lennox and I focused on during the training session on the pads. This helps to solidify moves, especially slipping punches to counter — a Lennox special. After that, it’s on to the speed bag for three rounds and then a whole lotta’ abs!  I’ll add that if Len isn’t around, I might work-out for three rounds on the heavy bag in lieu of pad work, or add in an extra three on the double-ended bag.

By the end I’m exhausted, but happy — and ready for the quick walk back over to pick-up my daughter.  I hope to keep this going for about three months so that by April I’ll be fit enough to get back into the ring for some light sparring.  We’ll see!

Daily bread

2 Replies

Daily bread

My husband is the baker in our family.  He has perfected two different breads, one a traditional kneeded bread and the other what he calls a “sloppy” bread that he has developed and modified from a wet dough that sits and proofs overnight before he adds in flour and lets rise before baking.  Both are delicious still warm from the oven with mounds of butter and honey or as an accompaniment to a hearty soup.

I bring this up because many of us go about our daily approach to life from different angles, the results of which are a kind of perfection.  The ingredients are the same:  the equivalent of flour, water, yeast and salt, and yet how we get there; our path to our outcome can be long or quick, meandering or purposeful.

We are also always tempered by circumstances.  Is the oven on the fritz?  Is it overly humid?  Has the yeast gone stale?  Is the flour high gluten?  Unbleached?  Mistaken for cake flour?  I have found from my own attempts at a daily something that the path to completion is a constant surprise.  This morning is no different.  With too little sleep last night, I adjusted the alarm clock to ring an hour later.  That variable has set in motion a reordering of morning. I write first.  In doing so my energy is different.  My breath less full than the other mornings of the last three weeks.  Even the cat is puzzled as she flits back and forth challenging me to get up off the couch to pay her some attention.

And perhaps that’s the point.  Our routines, become so — and yet we must constantly adapt; not so different than sorting through how to approach an opponent in the ring.  The parameters are the same, a 16 foot ring shared by two bodies in motion, and yet the one may be constantly in a swirl of action with the other acting and reacting to circumstance; relying on the ingredients,  training and conditioning, to figure out how best to proof the self to the best outcome possible.

Waking up is hard to do

2 Replies

Waking up is hard to do

I have to admit, this morning was hard.

There was no way I wanted to get up out of bed — and when I finally managed it, the eyes that looked back at me from the bathroom mirror had bags, carry-ons and huge trunks.  I truly didn’t know that eyes could look that puffy without having gone ten rounds.

Once I got to the living room to start morning yoga, it was all I could do to unroll the mat.  I knew I needed something different or I’d fall right back to sleep so instead of following along with my usual yoga routine, Sara Ivanhoe’s Candlelight Yoga (available on Netflix), I went on Hulu and tried two of the Yoga Zone episodes, Gentle Yoga, Part 1 (if that’s gentle, oy…) and Strengthen and Tone, Part 1 (*lots* of leg stretches and downward facing dog poses).

Well, the fact that I’m writing means I survived, and I must say that doing the change-up really helped me to wake-up!  It also reminds me that whether one is boxing or doing yoga, changing up the routine with other exercises not only gets the body going, but helps focus attention on muscles that may not get much of a work out otherwise.

 

(Note the full video is available on Hulu.)

Your all the way for right now

2 Replies

Your all the way for right now

These days I can get to the boxing gym on Saturday mornings.  That’s a step up from the fall when I rarely put in an appearance and definitely better than the summer when I didn’t go at all.  At the time, I was agonizing over missed opportunities. Say during the weeks that my daughter was at summer camp! What I couldn’t get to, however, was a way of not thinking that gym time could only mean a three-day a week minimum.  Anything less didn’t feel like “training” and so I ended up blowing off the whole thing!

I’ve come to a an easier agreement with myself.  I’m going the distance with what I’m doing — on the best terms that I can set for now.  For my gym time that means, I can go on Saturdays for upwards of one and a half to two hours.  And if I show up on a Sunday or some evening during the week, so much the better, but the deal I’ve made with myself is for Saturday.

In practical terms it means that I’m a lot less stressed about it — and can actually gain the benefits of my gym time without that agonizing inner dialogue about not doing enough.   The truth is, I’d like nothing better than to put in a two-hour boxing workout every day, but that is just not possible.  What is possible are the things I can commit to on real terms — and attempting anything else is just plain silly because it won’t get done.

I call it the six-pack abs thing!  Sure, they’re there — but like digging for gold, they’re underneath the surface!

My body will never, ever, ever have a visible six-pack, but …. what I can have is a body that is strong, fit and healthy with enough stamina to get through a Saturday workout without panting.

100th post today!

2 Replies

100th post today!

The number 100 seems to have a lot of significance.

In boxing as with many other sports we talk about giving 100% of ourselves to our efforts.  It is also a marker for progress.  We speak of a president’s first 100 days in office as a measurement of success or failure.  We use the 100 degree measurement to signify the boiling point of water in Celsius.  We also often speak of the top 100 — say boxers of all time and consider a centenary birthday as a remarkable achievement as a much a testament to the human spirit to endure as to genetic make-up.

Thus, Girlboxing is proud, if humbled to mark its 100th post today.  Not to say that Girlboxing is even remotely in the league of the aforementioned achievements, rather, the number 100 is a marker for an ongoing personal commitment to a daily something.  To writing it down for personal growth as well as the chance to put out thoughts and ideas to the larger community.

Knowing that these thoughts and ideas have been listened to has been, well, humbling, exhilarating and a bit daunting!

Thank you to all Girlboxing readers and friends who have been so supportive of this blog — and of my efforts.  I am astounded that the blog has gotten this far and again have everyone to thank for encouraging me to keep on going.

I found the following on YouTube — pretty inspiring stuff, it represents the first 8 days of a 100 day fitness challenge!

(Note:  Will only play on YouTube)

PS – Big fights coming up in NYC!  Alicia “Slick” Ashley on January 13th @ Brooklyn’s Masonic Hall. Keisher Mcleod-Wells at B.B. Kings on February 9th.  Tickets available at Gleason’s Gym — link for information here.

Relaxing at will

Leave a reply

Relaxing at will

I’ve been doing Yoga on and off for more years than I care to remember considering that I’m still a rank beginner!

Oh well, not that I’m counting, but it is kind of funny to be struggling with the same poses twenty years after learning them.   What I have found is that when I begin to practice with some regularity my rank amateur status seems to fall away pretty quickly.  In a matter of days, my body is limber again and I’m amazed at my renewed strength and the tautness of my muscles — and this from the “easy” Vinyasa Yoga (where you work on smooth breathing and the flow of movement), not to mention the “power” varieties that have you posing on the tip toes of one foot with your arms in the air or something like that.

Given that I’m no Guru, I do find that incorporating some Yoga practice into the day provides a chance to stretch safely in poses that help to slow down the breath — and therefore create a space for relaxation, the side benefit being some additional fitness.

My renewed flexibility also helps my boxing – a lot.  I find that my stamina increases and as my overall “tone” is improved, it adds a little something extra to my boxing training.

Yoga classes certainly abound for every level of fitness and stamina — YouTube, Netflix and Hulu have tons of online options.  If you are new to Yoga or haven’t done it in a while, you’ll want to look for beginning classes or find the sun salutation sequences which are a terrific way to wake-up your body in the morning. You may not be able to relax at will after your first class, but after a few days you’ll sure feel better and it is a nice option for your daily something.

 

Getting back to normal

2 Replies

Getting back to normal

Still feeling a 2010 hangover?  What with all the best of/worst of lists that abound it all feels a bit much.

To get into a new-beginnings frame of mind that’s a lot more cheerful, here’s a list of our own of things to do on day two of the New Year.

1.  Go to the gym, they’re open today — and sure there will be the extra New Year’s Resolution crowd in there, but it’ll still feel great and if your gym has one, spend a few extra minutes to relax in the hot tub or the sauna (or a really hot bath or shower at home).

2.  Take a long walk somewhere, preferably with someone you love, but if not, with the person you love the best — yourself.

3.  For Girlboxing’s boxer friends, feel inspired.  This is going to be a great year for women’s boxing with a lot of well-matched bouts, plus some terrific amateur fights.  Check out Women’s Boxing Archive Network’s 12/30 piece on upcoming fights to get of taste of what’s coming up here.

4.  Help someone.  Whether it’s being extra nice to your kids, your spouse or a friend; or going out to give your time to a charity or something as simple as buying a street person a cup of coffee, none of us can do it alone and it’ll sure feel good.

5.  Write a short list of five things or less that you want to accomplish this year.  List out how you can go about achieving those goals.  You don’t have to think of it as a set of resolutions so much as a map of the things that are important to you.  Having written them down — consider that now is the time to start getting them done.

 

 

 

 

Getting the jump on those pesky resolutions

2 Replies

Getting the jump on those pesky resolutions

Yep.  It’s that time of year again — when you need to confront all the coulda’, shoulda’ woulda’s from 2010 to write-up the “list” for 2011.

I will box every day!

In years past, I’ve run the gamut from writing them hung over on New Year’s Day, to thoughtfully considering them for days and weeks before the turn of the year.

To be honest, the New Year’s resolution list is often an afterthought somewhere around the 3rd of January.  By then of course, I’m in a decided catch-up mode which in turn can spiral into a state of New Year’s resolution anxiety if I’m not careful.

This year I’m trying something a little different.  I’ve started my New Year’s resolution two days early — with the goal of doing at least *one* physical thing every day.  Okay, sure, that can be tough, but with a hat tip to Conjuring My Muse, doing one activity — whether it’s one three-minute shadow boxing round in the living room or a full-on two-hour work out at the gym is achievable!  And like doing anything else every day — it’s gets to be a terrific habit.

So to keep true to that New Year’s vow, I threw on my sweats, grabbed my gear (some of it with that new leather smell — thanks, Santa!) and walked down to Gleason’s Gym.  The sweet part was being accompanied by my daughter — and while I must say that the work-out was tough as my latest lay-off has been way too long, I worked out just enough to feel terrific about making the effort. It also helped that she was there to cheer me on, especially when it came to the sit-ups.

I’m heading down to Gleason’s again tomorrow to work out with Lennox Blackmore with the hope that I’ll be able to throw in one or two extra rounds and a whole lot more ab-work.  And though the gym will be closed on New Year’s Day, there’s yoga, fast-walking or dancing to James Brown to keeping me going strong — least ways that’s the plan!

Peace!

Leave a reply

Peace!

Wishing everyone a fabulous day of peace, love and joy!