You have a beautiful heart.
It gives you the drive to follow your dreams.
It sustains your life in this world.
It keeps going, even when it is hurt and broken.
It gives life to the rest of your body.
It continues to beat, after three miles, after six miles, and after twenty-six miles.
It allows you to give love and to have love.
Yes, your heart is beautiful.
ang
I’ve been thinking a lot lately. I haven’t been posting my Friday Affirmations very regularly, and I am missing that. Sometimes it is a challenge to come up with an affirmation every week, but it is a good way to dig down deep and figure out the things I love about myself. The things that we all love about ourselves.
But I’ve been thinking about how these affirmations, or any affirmation, compliment, or kind words can impact a person. Does it really make a difference? If a person looks in the mirror and tells themselves they are beautiful, does that mean they will believe it? Do I believe it?
One thing I do know is that the more a person tells themselves that they are ugly or fat or unworthy, the more they will believe it. So shouldn’t it work the other way around?
I have a challenge for you (and myself). Let’s change our thoughts to positive thoughts, and let’s send a message to the world. It’s okay to love ourselves. It’s okay to think we are beautiful just the way we are.
1. Change your thoughts. Look in the mirror each day and tell yourself one things that you absolutely love about yourself. It doesn’t have to be something big. It could be that you love that little freckle on your nose. It doesn’t have to be something physical. It could be that you love that you have a caring heart. No matter what it is, tell yourself something new you love everyday.
2. Change the world. Tell someone else that you think they are beautiful…and tell them why. Let someone know how important they are to you. Give a complete stranger a compliment. However you want to do it, make an impact on someone else…everyday.
The more we are able to share the beauty of this world…the beauty that is you and me…the more the world will start believing it.
ang
Last night as my husband and I were laying in bed he asked me if I knew what tomorrow was. I’ll admit that at first I didn’t know. I thought to myself, but I couldn’t come up with anything. I knew it wasn’t any of our anniversaries, and I usually remember all the specifics, all the way down to what I was wearing, to anything important as it relates to our relationship.
Right about the same time he asked me, a commercial previewing the nightly news came on the television. That’s when I remembered.
One year since the Joplin, Missouri tornado.
My husband asked if I remembered where we were when it happened. Of course I do. We were at our duplex here in mid-MO, we had just gotten some dinner, and we were preparing to cook it. At first when news came on about tornado development I didn’t think too much about it. Tornado watches, and even warnings, are fairly common in the midwest…but nothing ever really happens.
And then came the devastation. I continued to watch the news, and my level of concern continued to rise one-hundred-fold. Proof of the disaster kept appearing all over my television and it was evident in the news reporters…speechless and shedding tears.
…
There is one thing in life that becomes more apparent the older I get. Bad stuff is going to happen. Inevitable and simply out of our control. However, it’s in how we respond to the “bad stuff” that shows greatness, growth, and an immense amount of faith.
I remember watching the feed on twitter that night as the news of the Joplin tornado continued on through the night. I remember my heart sinking each time a new, higher death count was revealed. I remember listening in terror to the youTube video of someone hiding in a gas station as the twister came through. I remember sending up prayers each time someone posted the description of a loved one they were missing.
But I also remember all the people jumping to help. Doctors, nurses, policemen, firefighters, construction workers, and ordinary, everyday people. So many people wanting to help that they had to turn away volunteers. I think that in this moment of time, humankind’s true compassion was more apparent than ever, and I’d like to think that the people of Joplin felt that they were not alone. That they were loved.
I haven’t been to Joplin since I graduated from college there four years ago, but this summer I plan to visit the city that I visited nearly every other weekend for three years and spent a year living there myself. I have only witnessed the tragedy through photos and news stories, but even a year later I’m sure there is still evidence of it. But greater than the proof of the disaster, I am sure I will see evidence of teamwork, hope, and the greatness that can be achieved when people all come together for a common cause.
“We will recover and come back stronger than we are today.”
With God’s help they have, and continue to do so. Please send your prayers to the people of Joplin today, and remember to count your blessings.
ang
I’ve redecorated my living room…
…with a yoga mat.
I’ve been wanting to get back into yoga for a long time now. However, my yoga mat has been sitting in the backseat of my car never being used for close to a year. Poor little thing. Finally, yesterday, I decided to let it’s pretty pinkness back into my life…in the middle of my living room nevertheless.
So far I’ve only stepped on it a couple of times, only for a few minutes each time…but when I do I choose a pose that I love (i.e. triangle pose!) and it feels so darn good to be doing it. However, since I’m in the pose while watching the blaring television at the same time, I’m not sure you can actually call it yoga.
I’m definitely not a yoga guru, although I pretty much wish I was. Let’s go ahead and add become a certified yoga instructor to the bucket list. I’ve only ever taken a few beginner yoga classes, but I’ve always loved the way yoga makes me feel. The problem is that there are no yoga classes in town (that I am aware of) and I just feel silly doing yoga by myself in my home. Sure I know a few poses and feel great about my technique, but I have no ability to come up with sequences, fluidity, or anything that makes sense. Warrior 1, okay good. Um, next? How about pigeon? Better add some down dog in there.
See. Silliness. No good. (Maybe I should rethink that bucket list thing…)
There are a few things that I do know about yoga, though. Yoga helped me become a runner. I was doing yoga consistently when I was training for my first half marathon. Yoga helped me learn how to control my breathing which helped prepare me for the long distance. Yoga is a good stretch. Obviously. And stretching helps prevent injury. Lastly, yoga is good for the mind and for the heart.
It’s time to go hit up my studio!
ang
P.S. Does anyone have any at-home yoga advice?! Please help!!!
Well, all those pretty little endorphins finally wore off, and the post-marathon blues have set in. It’s crazy how a person can go from feeling on top of the world to feeling not so hot so quickly. If there is a secret to not letting that feeling go away, someone please tell me!
I’ve been endlessly searching through local race websites to find another race to do before Chicago. But my calendar is still raceless until October. Turns out there aren’t many marathons in the heat of the summer here in mid-MO. It’s not like it’s too hot or humid here in July. (In case you’re not from around here, that was blatant sarcasm.)
And, on top of the post-marathon blues, I have this inner thigh muscle that is giving me some trouble. I don’t think it’s serious, however, it’s just enough of a worry and a bother that I don’t think I should be on it. All that bottled up energy I-can-do-anything-I-want and I-can’t-wait-to-run-faster mentality has pretty much been shut down. I can count the number of times I’ve ran on one hand since April 21st, and that makes me pretty sad.
But I’m going to turn this depressing blog post, day, and mentality right around. It’s time to get back into the swing of things…fitness, eating better, and blogging. To start I’m going to take this pretty little thing for a w-a-l-k (I can’t say the word yet or she’ll go crazy!)…
…do some light strength training at home, and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of yoga. Then later I get to sit in the beautiful outdoors at a ballpark watching a high school baseball game. I think that’ll make for a pretty darn good day!
ang
Recovering from my marathon two weekends ago has basically consisted of no running. That’s probably not the smartest way to recover, especially since I plan on continuing running, continuing running long distances at that, and especially since I had a race on Saturday.
It was no marathon, but an extremely challenging 5K nevertheless.
That required face paint…
…and muscles…which are for the most part lacking on me. (Oh, did my neon bright white skin blind you? I’m also lacking any semblance of a tan. Sorry about that.)
My hubs and I along with two of our friends, a.k.a. the Ultimate Warriors, ran the Warrior Dash in Kansas City!
We met up at one of the guys’ houses where we found his beautiful wife diligently painting his face. His wife continued to paint our other teammate’s face while I sat my own hubs in front of me for his makeover. Apparently there is a famous wrestler (dead or alive, I don’t think anyone was sure) named the Ultimate Warrior and all of the guys wanted to “be” him for the race.
I, myself, chose to just go with a little multi-colored eye-black.
After everyone was made-over and arm-tassles and headbands were created, we headed to the race. Again, the boys all listened to the opening theme music for this Ultimate Warrior wrestler the entire way there. Oh the joys of a thirty minute car ride with three boys, err, men. Grown men who apparently love professional wrestling.
Once at the race site we had to take a bus over to where the race actually took place. We proceeded to initial and sign our waiver forms, pick up our packets and t-shirts, use the port-a-potties (always a definite must for me), and head to the start line. We were very early, so we were at the very front of the start line for our heat. After thirty minutes of nervously waiting for the countdown to start we were finally off and running!
I knew I’d be racing with the boys, and while I trusted in my running ability, I was worried about keeping up with them on the obstacles. Right out of the gate, though, the course was very downhill, and I warned them all that we were probably running at a sub-8 minute pace. I definitely knew that I couldn’t keep up a pace like that, and I secretly (so not to harm their egos) questioned the boys ability to keep that pace, too.
After three quarters of a mile we approached our first obstacle which required crawling under barbwire. Fortunately, I was short enough that I could crawl regularly without having the put much effort into lowering myself closer to the ground. My hubs, on the other hand, had to army crawl the distance of the wire. Once the four of us completed this obstacle our pace slowed drastically as we were hit with our first (of many) uphill climbs to the next obstacle.
We proceeded to crawl through trenches, climb up walls, slide down poles, swim through nasty, muddy, swampy water, hoist ourselves over walls, cross a balance beam, run through a field of tires, climb up a cargo-net, and finally leap over fire…all the while running uphill through a muddy field between obstacles.
Just a little over three miles later we crawled out from under the last of the barbwire through the last muddy water pit, all four of us hand in hand, and crossed the finish line together.
Mud and all, I had an absolutely lovely time.
ang, the only female member of the Ultimate Warriors 
All I want to do is run. After completing a long training plan and running a full fast-for-me marathon I thought I’d be itching for a break from it all. My life has been all live-by-my-planner-and-training-plan for the past four months I thought I’d like the idea of relaxing, letting loose, and going with the flow for awhile. Yeah…that’s not so much the case. Since setting my new PR on April 21st, my mind has been stuck on one thing.
Running.
Running faster.
(Side note: Running a marathon is definitely worth a free beer. But notice that my Garmin says I that ran 26.49 miles. Point. Four. Nine. Not 26.2, but 26.49. Don’t get me wrong, I am ridiculously pleased with my 3 hours 54 minutes and 1 second finish…but when my ticker had me clocking 26.2 miles in 3 hours 51 minutes…that extra .29 seemed excruciating, teasing, and downright mean. But I guess it was worth 2 free beers.)
Unfortunately, this urge to run has been halted by a little thing called finals week. And studying for finals week (which I should actually be doing right now for this phantom final that is in two and a half hours that no one truly knows what it’s about). And work.
(Insert dramatic sigh here)
But only two finals stand between me and summertime. Beautiful summertime…warm weather, bright sunshine, no tests, new training plans, speedwork, pavement to be covered. With this new amount of free time back in my schedule, the wheels in my head have been rolling with possibilities. I still feel like superwoman after my marathon, and reading other pretty bloggers recent marathon recaps, my motivation level is flying freaking high. With Chicago in my sights, I feel like the possibilities are endless if I put the work into it.
And that is definitely what I plan to do…only after I tackle this multiple-choice-but-all-the-answers-seem-right final. Running a sub-3 hour marathon seems more possible than this!
ang
