For the beautiful people...

It's the night before I head out to Mexico!

Things are lookin' up!  Arriba! Arriba! Ay! Ay! Ay!

For one, I finally found time to take a much needed nap this week and I felt so restored afterwards!
I've got a serious case of the sniffles still but my throat is no longer feeling as sore as before.
I've also tried on a number of bathing suits that never used to quite fit before and are now fitting awesomely!  Thank you Happy Hips!! 

Also... in case you're wondering... I haven't actually lost any weight yet.  But I have been noticing some changes in my body composition lately and the way my clothes are fitting.  A lot of new muscle groups are peeking through.  I'm really excited to see what my results will be like after week two!

This evening, I did Easy Street.  I figured since I'm not 100% well, I shouldn't get carried away.
Just before pressing "play", I remembered a Jivamukti class I went to at the North York Moksha Yoga Studio a while back.  This was the first time I had been introduced to the concept of dedicating a class to someone.  I don't mean this as in: "Hey, I'd like to give a shout out to my peeps in Windsor!"  I just remember that I picked someone that I wasn't terribly close to, but that I felt could use a bit of support.  With every breath in, I thought of this person and imagined what struggles they might be going through at that time, and with every exhale I imagined all of those struggles going away.  I put some serious intention into my practice that day, and made a conscious effort to send happy thoughts to this person.  It ended up being probably one of the most graceful practices I've ever had.

Today, a dear friend of mine has lost her grandmother; a truly wonderful woman who left an enormous, loving family behind.  She was simply one of the "coolest" grandmothers I have ever come to know.  I actually never met her personally but through hearing all of my friend's fun stories and the fact that her and her brothers refer to her as "Grandma DJ", hearing about her just always put a big smile on my face.  Unfortunately, this week seems to be bringing forth a lot of losses.  This is the third time I have heard that a friend of mine has lost someone close to them.  So today I dedicated my practice to my friends and their loved ones.  I hope that they can find peace with their losses and I pray that they can find comfort in that.

I'd also love to share one of my favourite quotes by Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.  She was a psychiatrist who wrote a ground breaking book called Death and Dying.  Anyone who has ever taken a university Intro to Psychology course would recognize her as the woman who invented "The Five Stages of Grief":  denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.  She led a truly fascinating life and I personally find that her take on death and dying brings so much meaning to my own personal experiences with it.

So with that, to my dear friends, I leave you with this quote:
 
"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.

These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep, loving concern.

Beautiful people do not just happen."