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It was 2005, and my hubby, some friends and I had traveled through some dusty desert to reach the town of San Pedro de Atacama. It was HOT at around 100 degrees and my Alaskan temperament was starting to wear my energy and attitude down a little bit. I needed a boost so we get in cue for the only bus that heads north to the swimming hole on the way. The bus roared up the dirt street towards us, stops and turns off its engine. A dude dressed in a Spiderman costume unloads and walks towards the building to get the list of next passengers. Spiderman is the bus driver! What….?!!!

Spiderman loads us all up and launches into his spiel that’s all about superhero bus riding. He cranks up the music that’s kept on repeat: Sol y Lluvia a revolutionary era band from the 70’s that, at least on this bus, inspires your inner Chilean patriot. Loud and awesome. The next few trips prove to be just as brilliant, traveling with Zorro and Superman who are just as funny and in character as the day before and has the same music blaring out the open windows along the way. This guy was so happy doing his job! His enthusiasm for what he does was infectious and you couldn’t help but be tickled by his effort and originality. Something you’d never expect.

A few days later, we found out about a salt lake way into the desert that you had to get dropped along that bus route and walk for about a mile to find it. It happened to be Valentine’s Day when we got on the bus and it was filled with helium red heart balloons. Check out the outfit on the right. He took the heart off to see but he’d pop it back on for the routine stuff at stops. The music was Chilean love ballads.  He stopped in the middle of nowhere, turned off the bus and got out for pictures with us, taking his time to explain the directions to us. Everyone looked on patiently amused, no rush! We headed into the trail-less desert with smiles.

What a gift this experience with the happiest bus driver ever was. I got onto that bus every time excited to see what the ride would be like and I felt so inspired about this simple thing, the value of surprises and the huge gift you give others when you pour enthusiasm and care into what you do every day. It’s a ripple effect, contagious and wonderful!

In these days of mellow winter energy, a great way to rev up in the morning is to take a moment to fill your energy tank to FULL before you head out. Here is my favorite mediation that I do as often as I can, in the morning or on a break in the day. It helps me to find my center, feel content in an imperfect world and create a little internal solar power.

Sit in a comfortable position in a quiet place with your eyes closed. Breathe thorough your nose and begin to notice your breath coming in and out of each nostril, filling your tummy and your chest and relaxing you with each exhale. Allow your breath to deepen and lengthen and notice any tight spots in your body. Release your tension as your breath comes in and out effortlessly. Imagine that there is infinite space around you that can fuel you with all of the energy, light, and love that you need.

On your inhale now, imagine that you are drawing light into your body. It’s a pure, positive light that fills every corner of your body. You can see the light  pouring into you like liquid. On your exhale, imagine breathing out any darkness and release that from your body. This can be any negative thoughts, fears or anything that feels dark to you, anything that no longer serves you. Just let that go out to the ethers.

3 breaths: breathe in light, breathe out darkness.

Now on your inhale, draw peace into your body. Fill your body up with calm serenity and let it expand within you. All is well. On your exhale, breathe out restlessness. There’s nothing out of place, no where else you need to be. Help your body to just let that go.

3 breaths: breathe in peace, breathe out restlessness.

Now inhale bliss. Let yourself fill with joy, happiness until you could burst with it. Feel that grow and settle into your entire being. You might find a smile. On your exhale, breathe out sorrow. Any lingering sadness or melancholy, let it go with your out-breath.

3 breaths: breathe in bliss, breathe out sorrow.

Allow yourself to sit for a few minutes, letting your body feel full of light, peace and bliss. Complete this meditation with three breaths:

Breathe in light, breathe out light.

Breathe in peace, breathe out peace.

Breathe in bliss, breathe out bliss.

And continue by having a beautiful, powerful day!

A big part of my role as a massage therapist is to listen to clients express goals for their health and to find solutions together on how to get there. A pattern that I notice so much is that there is always somewhere we “should” be that we’re not with our overall routine. There’s always the yoga that we’re not making it to yet, but will soon. There’s the sleep we’re not getting to, the water we’re not drinking enough of, the exercise that we once did but aren’t doing as much now. There are these nagging things that we know we should be doing that we’re just not really doing. Yet.

What if we just for a moment throw away all of those “shoulds” and “really need tos” and just breathe deeply for a moment.

There is another way of looking at self-care, health, well-being and happiness that takes into account how much true satisfaction and contentment might play a role in every other part of your body’s health. There are so many layers and levels to your body’s wellness; your mind, your physical body, your sense of self and fulfillment, your emotional self, your spiritual side, your social side and beyond. Considering that nurturing each of these sides of ourselves is important for overall wellness, why do we focus only on the physical so much of the time? Why do we only see stretching, the gym and eating a certain way as the entirety of our self-care repertoire?

The other day I woke up to a sunny Saturday late morning and even before I was really awake, the usual shoulds of what my day might look like came to my mind. These  included a yoga class, yard work and some other things that can be put in the “making the most of my Saturday” category.  I decided to start the day with a ridiculously engrossing book and cozy in bed, I just kept on reading right past yoga, past breakfast and past the rest of my day, basically. How awesome to spend a whole day like that! I felt renewed and overfilled with self love for letting myself do what I really wanted to do that day. My mood was elevated and in turn, my body felt great, rested and in tune.

I’m not promoting that reading a book all day is equivalent to a yoga class for anyone else, but for me on that day, it was. What feeds your soul? What are the juiciest things you would love to be doing right now if you had an entire day to really choose? Remember your favorite, most peaceful and balanced moments in life and recreate them or invent new ones. Sometimes it takes a little love from deep within to refuel and re-inspire our idea self-care.

This morning I had some enlightenment around a nagging injury I’ve had. Someone asked me to move in a way that I was convinced I couldn’t. I tried it despite my fears and I freakin’ did it! Why didn’t I think I could do a bent knee Ju Jitsu roll on the floor? Well, since martial arts training  is new to me, it had never occurred to me to do a rolling back kick to anyone’s face before. It just looked painful, wasn’t on the “my body can move in that way” list.  When I actually did the roll, my fears were put to shame, my body didn’t even complain a little bit. A ray of light shone on my sweet, formerly bum knee and its limber future of possibilities ahead.

I once wrote a poem called “Oh, knee of misfortune”. Maybe I had let that story sink in a little too deep, for a little too long and it’s time to reinvent my perception of what I can do, how I can actually move now, in spite of my fears. That my body is actually asking for new information constantly.

“No matter how much I move myself around, my strongest tendency is to move in the same ways that I have always moved, guided by the same deeply seated postural habits, sensory cues, and mental images of my body; but if I can succeed in surrendering to the movements that another person imposes on my body, without my own system of cues and responses interfering, it is possible to treat my mind to a flood of sensations that … [can] indicate what things I have been doing that have produced my aches and pains at the same time as they have reinforced my normal sense of self.” –Deane Juhan in Job’s Body   More about Yoga Teacher, Bette Calman, 83

Some ways to reconnect with your ever changing bod:

• Join a new class at the gym just to see what it’s about like some Latin-inspired Zumba or a free movement class.
• Every hour or so just shake your shoulders, your legs and your body. Shake it, shake it like you’re Jell-o.
• Check out Yoga, Qigong, or Tai Chi. Slower movements with breath to create greater awareness.
• Give yourself 5 minutes in the morning or evening to enjoy a good stretch. Watch a cat and learn.
• Sit on a bouncy ball at work instead of your chair.  Try to be graceful.
• Get a personal trainer session at the gym to check your form with familiar activities or to mix up your workouts a bit. Sometimes these are free!
•  Eat a meal, brush your teeth or do anything with your non-dominant hand/side.
• Float in water and be a fish for a while. Feel weightless.
• Lastly, play like a kid more! Do some silly animal walks with your child, get down on the floor with them and roll around. Dance like you’re new! Watch children romp around and let their wacky wildness inspire you to explore and redefine your experience of your own new and precious body.

Watch this video for some serious inspiration!

Shake it like a three-year-old!