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Join me outside!
I am taking on two challenges this month: the David Suzuki Foundation's 30x30 Nature Challenge and Screen-Free Week. At first I wondered if maybe I was trying to do too much, but then I realized that the two challenges support each other well: what was my screen time will become my nature time.
Join me in these adventures?
Warmly,
Sarah
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Writing from My Blog
Physicians and other health care providers are starting to regularly recommend breath work as a way to calm the body and reduce pain. It's great that the message is getting out, but I regularly encounter people who, despite their best intentions, are working with their breath in unhelpful ways. Seeing people try to force themselves to breathe in ways that are visibly stressful for their body inspired me to write these two posts:
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Taking Care
I've done a Taking Care on reducing your use of plastics before, but I couldn't help writing about it again. Four years ago, a woman I know by the name of Taina Uitto tried to go a year without acquiring any plastic. She was an inspiration to me, and I wrote about it at the time.
This April, I went to see the premiere of her documentary film From the Waste Up: Life Without Plastic, and I have become increasingly committed to plastics reduction. I also went to a cleansing workshop this month that emphasized "whole life cleansing" (as opposed to just paying attention to what you put in your mouth), and the holistic nutritionist and naturopath who ran the workshop were both talking about the considerable amount of toxins we take in through plastics exposure.
After seeing Taina's film, I wrote a piece called 10 Ways I Will Use Less Plastic. Decreasing our use of plastics is really essential for our own health and the health of the planet. Please take care.
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Yoga for Pain Relief
Next Yoga for Pain Relief course starts this Thursday, May 15
Learn more on my website and please email me if you have questions.
Thursday mornings, 10:00-11:30am
May 15th – June 26th
$150 for 7 sessions
East Side Yoga Studio, 1707 Grant Street, Vancouver, BC
To register online please visit the event page on East Side's website or contact the studio director Julie Peters by email to arrange registration in person or by phone.
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Movement Education &
Relaxation Training
Classes for pain patients
- Multiple days and times – ongoing
- Physician's referral required
- Classes covered by MSP
- Visit www.changepain.ca for more information
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Recommended Read
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I used to read a lot of books on food; I was constantly searching for the "right" way to eat. Two books by Michael Pollan gave me the answers and the peace I was looking for: In Defence of Food and Food Rules.
If you are looking for more certainty around eating well, I recommend both of these books. Pollan's Food Rules is particularly useful if you are just looking for what to do (and less concerned with the why). It is a very quick read with 64 straight-forward and to the point guidelines for eating.
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The Side Effects of Sitting
Need more motivation to join Screen-Free Week? This article references an 8.5 year study that found that people who watched the most TV had a 61% greater risk of dying than those who watched less than 1hr per day.
The article titled Don't Just Sit There! looks at all the harmful side effects of sitting too much and of not sitting well.
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Study: Yoga reduces pain in women with fibromyalgia
A study by York University researchers finds that practicing yoga reduces the physical and psychological symptoms of chronic pain in women with fibromyalgia. Click here to read a brief summary of the study. |
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When Gratitude
is Harmful
Practicing gratitude is popular these days. The benefits are desirable and long-lasting. I recently came across this post called When Gratitude is Harmful. The titled turned me off a bit because it felt contrived to be controversial – but the content is solid and important. |
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A little more about Screen-Free Week. It is an initiative to encourage people to spend a week without using a screen for entertainment. You can still use a screen for work or school. Instead of watching TV, surfing the internet, or playing video games in your downtime, Screen-Free Week is challenging people to read, play, think, create, get physically active, and spend more time with friends and family.
I've decided to take on a Screen-Free month this year. Click here to learn more about this organized movement to take a break from screen-based entertainment.
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30x30 Nature Challenge!
What will I do with all my screen-free time? Join the David Suzuki Foundation's 30x30 Nature Challenge, which encourages Canadians to spend 30 minutes a day in nature for 30 days in May.
I participated in the 30x30 Nature Challenge last May for the first time, and it was a highlight of my year. It changed my habits, and it changed my perspective. You can read a bit about my experience in this blog post called 27 Days in the Woods. |
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