...Dreams Are Made of This

Attended a celebration for refugees and this woman from Afghanistan talked about learning English, getting a job and buying a house. Her advice to new arrivals: eat healthy, work hard and keep learning...I thought it was so cute that her advice began with eat healthy. Not so cute are the words that stick in my head from a news segment when this woman, also from Afghanistan, said People who have something to eat don't care about those who do not...


A young man from the Congo, who spent time in Gabon before heading to the States, said similar things about learning English, getting a job and war in his country. He also said that his siblings were everything to him. His advice to new arrivals: stay positive and focused...


I don't normally exercise on Fridays but I have to work tomorrow which meant that I would miss Hot Yoga and the next opportunity would be on Wednesday. In order to prevent jonesing for Hot Yoga, I decided to go directly from work to the studio. Whew! I went home for lunch, grabbed towel one, towel two, dri-wick workout clothes, a change of clothes, dried pears and contact solution et al. My unwashed mat was still in the car so no need to grab it.


In the meantime, I had an internal dialogue with myself about why I go to Hot Yoga. I like yoga. I like a challenge. I like to sweat. Yoga has done amazing things for my body and mind.  Therefore, ergo...


I had not anticipated rush hour traffic complicated by baseball traffic, had to take a detour and almost turned around because I didn't think I would make it on time. I'm so glad that I did not turn around.


I've been going to Hot Yoga since December and I don't think that I've enjoyed a class as much as the one today. Maybe my attitude was more playful -- a tactic that Cindy suggests especially during the standing poses.


There were two things that stuck with my brain. Cindy reminded us that it's our practice and to do or to not do asanas. At the halfway point, as we hugged our knees to our chests, she said to give ourselves some reassurance which also turned into try a little tenderness for me. I felt amazing after class... and I felt lifted.

Beats Per Minute

There's nothing quite as disappointing as getting ready to exercise and your MP3 player won't turn on even though the battery symbol is indicating that there should be enough juice for many songs to play.

There have been several articles published lately to verify that music does help you through your workout and, as long as it's music that you enjoy, the tempo doesn't matter.


Personally, I like up-tempo music when fatigue sets in and I'm trying to get over the workout hump.

Here are the beats per minute for some of my favorite "gut it out" songs.

125 BPM: Billie Jean, Michael Jackson

134 BPM: Easy Lover, Philip Bailey & Phil Collins

130 BPM: Flashlight, Parliament Funkadelic

119 BPM: I'm Every Woman, Chaka Khan

120 BPM: It's A New Day, will.i.am

124 BPM: Miss Me Blind, Culture Club

120 BPM: Now That We Found Love, Heavy D & The Boys

123 BPM: Please Don't Stop The Music, Rihanna

115 BPM: Say, Say, Say, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

145 BPM: Sweet Dreams, Eurythmics

Of course, if the music does stop playing, I exercise unplugged...