Bridget from my hot yoga days loved to say that the face is soft.
If your face is not soft, you're holding your breath and, if you're holding your breath, you're not doing yoga. Got it...
I've been uncluttering which shares a weight loss core value: it didn't happen overnight.
I've been letting go of books that I thought I would never get rid of and, as I've been deciding what to donate, I've been skimming books including books of quotes that were given to me as gifts.
After yoga, I felt particularly drawn to this quote:
When you feel terrific, notify your face. *Yoga, in general, and Jen, specifically, made me think of this next quote since she put an eye pillow in place for me after I ended up at the opposite end of the pillow and didn't realize that it was time for savasana since time had gotten away from me...
Take the gentle path. -George Herbert **For now, I am not putting Life's Little Instruction Book or Simple Wisdom in the donation pile. Uncluttering, after all, doesn't happen overnight.
*Life's Little Instruction Book
**Simple Wisdom
I started divesting myself of books several years ago. I hated to do it, but they were taking up too much space. I mostly chucked 1) reference books, because everything is on the internet, and 2) classics, because they don't go out of print and they are on the internet. And now that I have a Kindle, I'm not faced with trying to read on the giant computer monitor, which I dislike. Just those two categories cleared out a LOT of space. But I'm such a snob it kind of bothers me to NOT have a copy of The Moon and Sixpence on hand, even if I never read it again.
ReplyDeleteWhen I learned to belly dance (about 40 years ago!) one of the hardest things for me was not showing the effort on my face. You're supposed to always smile. Ever since then I've had a great appreciation for dancers who make it "look effortless." It is so NOT effortless! And to me it's very hard to train my face to not express every single thing I'm thinking or feeling. (I'm a terrible liar).
That makes me feel better about getting rid of the dictionary and thesaurus that I donated. I still have a long way to go and I know of, at least, two Toni Morrison books that I won't be parting with anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteI knew this woman -- used to, jokingly, call her a mean little Telugu child. She was a dancer and I totally admired that she had an authentic-looking smile on her face throughout routines.
Thanks for sharing the belly dance history.