By the time I finish a long day of work my mind is pretty shot and my A.D.D. meds have started to wear off for the day \u2013 inevitably there always comes a point each evening where that combination leads to no chance of my being able to sit still and focus.\u00a0 Tonight I had just hit that point for my day when I then needed to head out with my daughter to attend our weekly youth group activity night at our church.\u00a0 The activity tonight was an introduction for our teenager girls to learn the art of Yoga.\u00a0 Okay so how can I say this best?…..Me + my teenage daughter who is also A.D.D. but without meds + my long day today + my own ADD meds wearing off for the night + a yoga class where you are supposed to find your Zen place and focus on breathing in and out without making any noise = a recipe for disaster!<\/p>\n
When the first pose started my daughter turned it into a hip hop bootie shake move which was when I knew there was no way either she or I would make it through the class with even a slight ounce of seriousness.\u00a0 We both started giggling almost immediately.\u00a0 When the instructor (who was amazing by the way) told us to do the tree pose, my daughter immediately transformed it into a swaying palm tree with the wind whipping her branches.\u00a0 When the instructor suggested we do the warrior pose I couldn\u2019t help but bust out my Mr. Miyagi Karate Kid move from the final fight seen of the movie.\u00a0 We giggled and laughed and generally caused a total distraction in the classroom.\u00a0 Our poor instructor (who again, was amazing, and I am so sorry we were disruptive in your class \ud83d\ude42 ) let us know that if we were in an actual yoga class that we would have been invited to step out into the hallway as to not disrupt the class….oops….<\/p>\n
My daughter and I tried desperately to be serious but there was just no way we could.\u00a0 We had already entered the \u201csilly zone\u201d where no matter what someone said we were going to find a way to make it silly and funny and we would end up giggling about it!\u00a0 Toward the end of the class the instructor (did I mention just how awesome she was yet!?!\u00a0 Because she was!) asked all of us to sit cross legged and to breathe deeply and find our Zen.\u00a0\u00a0 We made it through one or two deep breaths in our cross-legged stance when my daughter started doing the neck sway dance from side to side, and once again, we busted out laughing.<\/p>\n
Looking back it may have appeared to others that my daughter\u00a0and I never found our Zen tonight \u2013 but that isn\u2019t true \u2013 what I realized tonight is the fact that for me and my daughter, the \u201csilly zone\u201d is our Zen!\u00a0 I realized that the laughter and playfulness and dancing is where my daughter and I actually find our Zen!\u00a0 \u00a0That fun joyfulness is what helps she and I to relax, let go, and replenish our cups with renewed hope and excitement for the future.<\/p>\n
Yes, tonight I realized that all of us find our Zen differently.\u00a0 For some it\u2019s quiet meditation.\u00a0 For some it\u2019s quiet prayer. \u00a0And for some, like she and I, it\u2019s that not so quiet moment at the end of the day where silliness and laughter reign and all becomes well with our world again.\u00a0 So my challenge for all of you today is to find your Zen \u2013 wherever that may be \u2013 find it and relish in it!<\/p>\n
PS.\u00a0 Did I mention that our yoga instructor Lori was fantastic?!\u00a0\u00a0 Because she totally was!\u00a0 (We love you Lori \ud83d\ude42 ).<\/p>\n
~Amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By the time I finish a long day of work my mind is pretty shot and my A.D.D. meds have started to wear off for the day \u2013 inevitably there always comes a point each evening where that combination leads to no chance of my being able to sit still and focus.\u00a0 Tonight I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1309,500,733,46,251,60,63,902,1308,96,89,83,571,7,30,29,244,65,55,180,464,38,64,35,53,821,1307,1306,854,27,112,149,250,1305,1304],"class_list":["post-3273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-add","tag-appreciation","tag-attention-deficit-disorder","tag-attitude","tag-balance","tag-beautiful","tag-blessings","tag-breath","tag-breathe","tag-culture","tag-dance","tag-experience","tag-focus","tag-future","tag-gift","tag-god","tag-grateful","tag-gratitude","tag-happiness","tag-happy","tag-joy","tag-leadership","tag-life","tag-love","tag-motivation","tag-play","tag-playful","tag-rejuvinate","tag-relax","tag-self-confidence","tag-self-improvement","tag-success","tag-work","tag-yoga","tag-zen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3273"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3278,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273\/revisions\/3278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}