I was blessed with a rather unorthodox nanny as a child. Short, black and hairy, his rotund body sharply contrasted with his four slender legs. Throughout my childhood, Ony Pony was my best friend and greatest nemesis. I spent hours riding, crawling under and over Ony, sliding off of him, and almost as often falling off of him. Runaways and pony track bruises, were not uncommon. Our time together bore a striking resemblance to the once popular Norman Thelwell cartoons.
This unorthodox upbringing, did little to lessen my enthusiasm for horses. I’ve taken a number of spills from horses, in the twenty years since. As a result of this abuse, my spine is often, for lack of a better term, out of whack. So as a result, I visit a chiropractor with some regularity. His advice is always the same, strengthen your core muscles. This recent trip to the chiropractor has confirmed the obvious. A winter of semi-hibernation, will turn you into a marshmallow. Normally, horseback riding is highly recommended for core benefits. My current riding habits, which involves no riding for a month or so, followed by an intense series of 8-12 hour days in the saddle, are less than therapeutic.
His second recommendation, practice yoga. I confess to being a dilettante practitioner of yoga. I enjoy the benefits of practice, but I fail to practice regularly. Which brings me to the question, where do good habits come from? I recognize my own lack consistency when it comes to healthy and productive habits. I do spend a great deal of time thinking about good habits, such as healthy eating, regular yoga practice, and writing (more blog posts, anyone?). However, thinking and doing are not commensurate, when it comes to enacting better practices.
I often wonder and the apparent ease with which bad habits are formed, and the mountain of effort it seems to take to achieve a new, good habit! Lets hope a summer in the cow pasture will do the world of good for your core strengths and that being unplugged will free up enough time to develop a new habit of being with yourself and your body on the yoga mat!
Happy times. It was good to meet you.
Good Habits come from a DEEP desire to change. It is most definitely difficult to get it “all” in….. to know that you have a very busy little one, a busy husband….and you are working to make it work and be reasonably happy. That’s enough.
For whatever it’s worth…..it supposedly takes 21 days to create a new habit. I think they also come from a true desire to change.
This is good to know, since my core is my weakest link and I do like practicing yoga. Need to make it back to at least 1x a week!