Ouch!

I've been suffering from a trapped nerve for a long time now. It comes and goes, but I usually get a bout every month or so. Really frustrating.

I only just realised that I get it so much (it's as if as soon as it goes, I forgot I ever had it!) so I've been looking in to what I do that could cause me to be in pain.
When I realised what it was, it was so obvious I could have slapped myself! But when we do things everyday, and they are habits, you simply don't 'see' them.
Well, I know that I sit down too much, hence the yoga I've been doing to bring more energy into my body through out the day, so I get up and stretch more often. But it's not just sitting, it's how I sit when I'm on the computer... I am such a fidget and sitting with two feet planted on the floor drives me crazy, so what I do is sit on one foot!!
Duh! When I realised that I'm doing that, I thought of how one side of my spine must always be pulling me back into alignment. :-/
Also, I sleep on my stomach, with my head turned one way, this may also cause a pull down one side of my spine.
So now that I've brought these two suspects into the light I'm trying to change my ways!

Firstly - sitting at the computer, I must resist all urges to sit on my foot! It's tricky, that was so comfy for me (apart from the resultant trapped nerve).
When I sleep, I'm going to try and sleep on my back for a while to ease stress. I sleep with very thin pillows anyway so that should help matters.
Also - not to sit down for too long, which I do. If I'm working or browsing, the time can go by quite quick, so I need to make a note, or set my phone to ring every hour so I can get up and stretch, even go for a walk. Get some energy moving around my body.

Let's hope this helps, because having a trapped nerve is really horrible. It's very uncomfortable.
Massage does help too - if you have muscle trapped sciatica as opposed to vertebrae trapped sciatic nerve.

I've been enjoying Yoga this week. I never really thought of Yoga as a exercise workout before, but some poses and flows can be rather challenging! My upper body is a little achey today, and I couldn't think why. I haven't done weights for a while. Then I remembered that I did some yoga with many downward dogs!
But for me, yoga is the best for strengthening your intuition and letting energy flow around your body. When I was a bit sick over Christmas I was achey and sore, and that was mostly due to not moving. It's so important to move and I think yoga is a great natural thing to do. It's really good if you focus your mind - because it is afterall an extension of meditation practices. Your mind is focused on your breath as you go through the movements - which is a sort of breath meditation. It leaves you feeling stronger, intune and calm.

The yoga I like doing the most is anything by Shiva Rea. She is a wonderful yogi and I really dig her way of expressing herself and her yoga and the moves. She uses very fluid language which on its own sounds really strange, but when you do the moves you really 'get' them! For example she says 'drink in your breath' - and when your in a difficult posture it's easy to almost stop breathing, when she says 'drink' you really remember to inhale that smooth air!

Before Christmas I joined up with a Dance class. It's modern jive and salsa and the company that teaches it calls it Ceroc.
Yesterday I managed to go out for the first time since Christmas and be social again. I went for a meal for some friends' joint birthday. We went out into the snowy countryside to a sweet little restaurant. Everyone enjoyed their meals very much. It looked all a bit meaty to me. My vegan cooked meal wasn't too great unfortunately. Luckily I wasn't very hungry or in the mood for food so I didn't eat the whole caboosh.

Anyways - I'm going dancing tonight. But once again I'm going without proper shoes or nice cool clothes. It's actually quite difficult to think of what to wear to go out dancing. I end up in a top and skirt with leggings but always take my shoes off because it's easier to dance without them. When I dance at home, which is often, it's just in my slouchy house clothes which are very comfy! Couldn't we all dance in our pj's?!

I mentioned Beth Ditto in the previous post, and I'll continue my praise for her. When I think of what to wear, I have to take in consideration my underarms. But for the wonderful Beth Ditto - who has hairy armpits - well she doesn't mind! She's amazing!

Here's a picture of the album cover for Standing In The Way of Control- yes ALBUM COVER! Which was on billboards all over. She doesn't have much of a broom look, but still, she's doing it!




























What a girl.

I took the plunge and dyed my hair dark.
It was strange the first few days - the last time I had long dark hair, I was 16!
Here's a perfectly standard pic of me, no computer fiddlery at all (seriously this time) : )
Hehe - in favour of au naturel! Woohoo. With my gorgeous nephew.


















It's not my natural colour - about a shade darker I think. But hopefully I won't have to dye my hair (so much) now that it's dark again.
I miss blonde, but dark is fun too.

I've finally recovered from my Crimbo illness! Woohoo!
But now I'm a bit of a hermit, and it's taking me a lot of energy to get out and mingle with people again. It's like I've lost social skills or something. Being ill does that to me.
However, I am feeling very inspired recently - and I think that's to do with taking time to calm down and litsen to my intuition. I'm being inspired more than I've been in a while.
People, places and lots more are inspiring me.

Here's one person - full of great energy and a message to spread. I like Beth Ditto. Here she is in Gossip.




Here are the wooden pieces of cutlery I made as Christmas presents. They are out of willow.



















They were a great project to make. Creating something useful and beautiful. Knife is a bit wobbly - but it didn't really matter. It was handmade with love and every curve and scuff was handmade. I liked it better than my woodworking class which is so precise! :)