Flapjacks, Runs and Getting ‘High’
Today has been wonderful, I’ve felt so many happiness moments and so many peaceful moments. I feel as though I’ve been productive, as well as restful and active. It’s so awesome when you’ve been slowly working towards something, to see it start appearing.
I’m still struggling with waking up in the morning. I pretty much exclusively wake up in an intense dream, and then I spend 20, 30, 40 or even 50 minutes drifting in and out. I looked up some articles this morning about sleep cycles. There are 4 main sections to a sleep cycle:
- Light sleep/drowsiness – basically as you’re falling asleep, that same feeling – easy to wake up
- Start of Non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep – everything starts to slow down – harder to wake up but not too bad
- Most restorative stage of sleep – very hard to wake up
- REM sleep – where dreams occur – very hard to wake up
These cycles take roughly 90mins to occur and then start over again. Often when you wake up in the middle of the night, even if it feels like you’re coming out of a dream, you’re waking up during stage 1 or as you come out of stage 4. It’s recommended to get 5 or 6 cycles per night which equates to 7-9 hours per night.
So if you’re having trouble waking up in stages 3 or 4 when your alarm starts ringing in the morning, it’s suggested that you attempt to change your sleeping hours to 7.5 or 9 to fit into the 90 minute cycle. My main issue with is, I have no idea how long it’s going to take me to get to sleep. It could be anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour and half.
You know that’s something I realised I miss so much since being depressed and fatigued, the other day. I miss just getting into bed, and falling asleep almost immediately, nearly every night. Not needing a sleep story, a meditation or an audio book, or just lying there for ages until eventually my brain gives it up. If you get to sleep easily, count yourself lucky – I plan to get back to that wonderful place! Anyway, I’m going to stick with the 8am alarm for a few more weeks and see if it makes a difference. If not, we’ll look at some other options.
At any rate, I eventually got up. Decided to shower first today, then do my breathing exercises, wolfed down a banana as I realised it was 9.56am and I had a ‘Slow Flow’ Yoga class at 10am (I just about tuned in on time, but there was a little mouth gas, as in burps, as I’d eaten the banana so fast). Man, my legs were burning in this class this morning – I’m not sure if it was from the workout the day before, or if it was genuinely just a hard flow. But I could definitely feel it both during and afterwards!
This was followed by some thai curry for brunch – I made this back at the start of the lockdown and froze it. Defrosted curry is actually pretty good, not as runny as when I first make it, and I’d made this one a decent spice level. Then I sat down with a cup of tea and listened to a bit more of ‘the passion test’. During this, van flattie starting shouting and screaming in awe out the window, so had to go have a look. We got a heap of snow last night and the mountains out in the national park look truly spectacular – really the main benefit of winter is the beauty. I attempted to take a good photo, but you know it’s my phone and the clouds weren’t playing ball either.
As the sun was appearing after the downpour and snowfall of the previous night, I thought I’d make the most of it and go for an earlier Mt Iron loop. I felt good, strong, fast. I walked aroudd and up the backside, and then jogged back down and to the house. Strava decided to go a bit mental and teleport me a couple of times and no unfortunately that elevation is not correct, it’s more like 200m but still a good run!
I came back and did a warm down – my body isn’t used to this running thing, so the face was as red as a beetroot. Also, everyone was out of the house, so I decided to blast out some Shania Twain, as she’d been some inspiration while on the run.
I then thought I’d whip up a quick batch of sugar and dairy free flapjacks before jumping in the shower. Didn’t take into consideration that I’ve never made these before, along with some breaks for some epic Shania Twain solos, I was pretty damn cold by the time I got into the shower. The flapjacks turned out more like a muesli bar, pretty tasty, and will probably make again but with more seeds and nuts and less dried fruit.
I relaxed for half an hour, playing my Train Game as downtime, with a cup of tea and some flapjack, and chatting to a friend who’d being doing laps of Gunn road (a very steep hill in Wanaka) and is absoutely mental but a machine nonetheless. I suddenly realised I had yoga at 5.30pm and needed to start Day 2 of ‘SOMA’ if I was going to get it done before.
I forgot to mention yesterday that they start the meditation off with some ‘Oms’. I used to love collective Oms back at Mountain Om Yoga in Canada and do wish more places would do them. ‘Om’ is supposedly the vibration of the universe, or the earth, depending on your view. So coming together, you connect with both the earth/universe, and also everyone you are ‘Om’ing’ with (that’s definitely not a term, but I’m going with it). It’s very grounding and a beautiful practice.
Today’s session was held by a woman (I couldn’t decipher the accent) and she was much calmer – though sometimes her voice was drowned out by the music – but I much preferred her style. We moved into meditation and onto the breathing exercises, doing four rounds with the last really picking up the pace. I spent the first 2 sitting cross-legged on a cushion, but my back gave in and I laid down for the second 2 rounds.
I definitely experienced more of ‘high’ this time – tingling, sensations, deeper and more relaxed. The third round was the most intense, I really pushed past wanting to breathe while holding my breathe and felt as though I nearly passed out. I think this could be interpreted as both good and bad, depending on how you look at it. I drew back a little in the last round, but the sensations in both were lightening and joyful, as well as energising. Part if me wonders if this because I was in a better frame of mind before going into the practice. OR, am I in a better frame of mind, partly because I did the practice yesterday . . . one to ponder on. I look forward to what tomorrow brings.
This actually made it quite difficult to move straight into a ‘Yin Yoga’ practice; I was very fidgety and struggled to settle in. I know tomorrow to do the ‘SOMA’ before I want to do something more energetic . However, the Yin felt soothing on my sore muscles, and I’m glad I stayed for the duration.
This brings us to now. We have skateboarding world championships from the last couple of years playing on the TV – this is one of other flattie’s hobbies and passions. Van flattie is also a bottle of wine down, and becoming very involved in the competition – it’s quite entertaining.
There’s talk of playing a game shortly instead of watching a movie, so I may get involved in that. Or, I may attempt to finish my Yoga Retreat article – still unsure why I keep procrastinating on this. And dinner is more thai curry from the freezer (tomorrow is shopping day).
I leave you with a quote from my book earlier:
“We do not succeed in spite of your obstacles and challenges, we succeed precisely because of them.”
Richard Paul Evans
We made it through to day 25 – stay happy and healthy people.
Ramblings of One Elizabeth Doubtfire 