Yoga....to reconnect with me

I am Nicole and I am a stress bucket … without a chance to reconnect with myself from time to time….well, it can lead to catastrophe…like Monday. Usually a fresh start to the week with hubby on standby with the children all weekend, Monday is my day at home blissfully playing Mummy doing the chores….usually. After getting the children down for their nap, I tried a yoga stretch, and broke into tears…..Cue husband arriving home for a quick lunch – great! Just what you want…an audience.

The truth was after three weeks of sick family and teething children I had given all I could…to everyone else. I had nothing left in my little red wagon to give to myself or anyone else for that matter. It was that old familiar feeling of too many gigs back to back…once upon a time when I was the career girl in the big smoke.

You need to go back to Yoga, hubby said. Well, sniff, theres a Yoga class on Friday mornings at 7, with my favourite teacher….sniff, can I go? Whilst Friday wasn’t ideal for him, he took the morning shift and I was booked and ready to go.

This morning despite a long night with miss 5 month old, I was up at sunrise, showered, dressed and literally skipping off to studio….I drove down a little lane to find the most beautiful little sanctuary…cold climate gardens, with the leaves just on the verge of turning…and a pretty little studio, big picture windows and a crackling fire….what a way to welcome the day.

Though its been nearly 2 years and a pregnancy since my last class, I did quite well physically, considering…the challenge was in silencing the mind…and finding my balance…but in time this will come and for now just being in this class is the most perfect way to give to me…one hour a week to surrender to my inner self and find my balance….for me…and nobody else…so I can be better at being me, the one that cares for them!

A front page listing, a miserable infant and a single moment of zen - all in a day at the house of red elephant creative!

We madeit on the front page of madeit today! YAY! It was a day for lime ... both on the madeit selection with our lime swing tags and in our house with a not so sweet, rather miserable and sour flavoured Miss Angel...snotty and blocked up...and tired after a night with no sleep...for any of us oh, except the toddler (thank goodness Mr Action Man sleeps like a log)!
Today being daycare day for Mr 2...I usually have a big long list of tasks for the Landscapers business and red elephant creative....not to mention the usual domestic chores of a superhero (sorry, SAHM)....and so the day became a jumble of School run, Toddler screaming to come back home, BAS, Attempting to settle miss grizzle, Filling orders, Attempting to settle miss grizzle, Paper supply orders, Nursing miss grizzle and Picking up toddler and so begins the evening routine, dinners, baths, feeds........Settling miss grizzle....it took nearly 2 hours to get her down....after vicks, panadol and finally the steamer mixed with a funny little settling sway thing going...we got there...and she settled....PHEW!
....AND THEN! I did something I haven't done for a very long time. I sat on the floor next to her cot....and stretched, in my favourite yoga pose, and breathed....for quite some time. Then I did another stretch ... and I found my inner sanctuary... for just one moment of peace.
I walked out to the landscaper, who asked me if I was okay....actually, I feel great....to which he replied with a tone of surprise, You look very relaxed.
I am Nicole, and a lot of the time...I am a bit of a stress bucket. Rewind back to my former life as Event Manager extraordinaire, and the place of zen amongst a whirlwind of gigs, clients demands, meetings, airports and hotels was to stretch and breathe....My discipline was yoga and it grounded me (not to mention the fab things it did for my body)!
Fast forward, two little miracles later, two family businesses and a house under renovation - I seem to have forgotten the important place that Yoga holds in my life. A very dear family friend reminded me the other day to give a little to myself....and so I will make this pledge...to myself....to remember to stretch, and breathe, and give to myself for just a moment of each day......as everyone should, in their own little way (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).......