gift

CHILD POSE

Posted on by pennyjoliver

The sweet Child’s Pose, practiced during every yoga class and perfect for the Christmas season!
Christmas maybe the most wonderful time of year but it is perhaps the most stressful time too!
But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.
Join me and I will show you how to slow down to Christmas tree speed and still shine bright.
That way, all will be calm with you and you can bask in the warm glow of being all there in the moments you get to share with family and friends.

And now I present to you the gift of the basic, most essential Child Pose.
It’s the reassuring hug you been waiting for and the gift that keeps on giving.

Although it’s a warm-up or resting pose in a yoga class, it’s the perfect remedy to unwrap tension and stress anytime and a great antidote for a restful night’s sleep.

To enhance the healthy yoga goodness from Child Pose focus on your inhales and exhales.
Then let the soothing sanctuary of your Child Pose envelope you in a cocoon of warmth, comfort, safety, and ease!

You may fold up a towel to place between your heels and your sitting bones for comfort and support. You may also rest your head on a pillow for ease.
To begin, come to all fours and gently fold forward over your legs. Spreading your legs apart will provide a deeper stretch. Gently resting your forehead on your mat or pillow begin inhaling and exhaling slowly and deeply. Remember, it’s your time to relax and unwind so try to linger here for a few moments. One minute would be great, but longer would be better. The best scenario would be to stay as long as you need, not worrying about minutes or time simply enjoying the present peaceful moment. Besides relieving stress, practicing Child Pose on a regular basis stretches our lower backs, opens our hips, stretches our shoulders, ankles and ligaments. Therapeutic for digestion, it enhances circulation, calms our minds and fights insomnia.

Thanks for joining me!

May God fill you with peace and love this Christmas as we celebrate the most special child of all time – the Lord Jesus Christ!

And a very “Merry Christmas” every day of the year!

love to you and yours

Penny

 

 

 

STRESS, LET’S BREAK UP!

Posted on by pennyjoliver

Do you feel it too? All tensed up and nothing to help you?

Sometimes in life your going along and – pow! – you are all tensed up. Well, that’s me today. Actually that’s me all last week. I’m sitting here with achy shoulders that won’t stay down. They disobey my command to relax and quietly try to climb up into my neck all day. Then the neck becomes strained from holding the shoulders up. Tension then rides down my back and takes up space in other places. Sometimes, my ears ring and I feel my face all crinkled up from holding all my body’s tension. My mood is not kind, and fatigue sets in despite my efforts to get a good night sleep. I wonder how I got this way. I can’t imagine why, because I did yoga last week and yoga is my little stress reliever. Thinking upon God while I stretch and flex is my way of breaking up with stress before it becomes a problem. But today is a culmination of a week’s worth of unreleased tension, and I have been trying to analyze why it’s happening to me.

Bing! The light bulb goes on! “I think I know why,” I exclaim to myself… and now to you, because although my body engaged in the yoga I did everyday, my mind did not join me. I rushed through the yoga poses without being fully there. I did not come to the yoga party fully dressed! It’s not that our minds need to be on the mat at all times, but we do need to let our thoughts arise, whatever they may be, so that we can let go of them. Letting each thought that arises go, in the flow of your breath, lets tensions release. Once we let go of any stress in our minds, our stress will disappear in our bodies. That’s the gift of yoga. Our outer world shifts to reflect our new perspective.

We can enhance the gift of yoga by handing over all our cares, worries, fears and doubts to God and really break up with stress. Then make it your practice within your yoga to hand it over to the care and responsibility of Almighty God. Proverbs 4:23, tells us to,

Be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life.

Medical research is just catching up with God’s words from thousands of years ago. Studies and medical research are increasingly proving that you become what you think. I’m thinking that me and stress, yeah, we’re gonna break up!

How about you?

 

WE STILL DO!!

Posted on by pennyjoliver

We still do!

How did it happen? In my realm of reality…I really don’t know. My husband and I were just doing life. Ya know, falling in love, getting married, having kids, kids growing up with college and careers. One day you take a breath, sit back and say, WOW! Actually, I always thought old people stayed married that long – not me. I’m not that old! Well, it’s hard to admit you’re that old! I have been married for 35 wonderful years that sped by like a rocket! Although it is an astonishing feat, one I can’t say is all because of me, I can still think it’s pretty awesome that my husband and I can say, “We Still Do!!”

I sure hope to inspire you too. To let you know that you CAN do it. You can be married a long time and you can have a great marriage! Sure, it won’t always be easy, but it does change as you age. And if you’re willing, you can learn to be more of everything: more content, patient, kind, compassionate, and loving. The older you get, you realize your time here on earth is expiring. What do you want people to remember about you? Don’t you want each moment to be the most awesome it can be with all the people that you love, especially your spouse? He or she is the one you made vows with before Almighty God. You both own the marriage. It is a duel responsibility to make it work. They say a happy marriage is the union of two great forgivers, that a happy marriage requires falling in love with the same person many times, that when you love your spouse you are loving yourself because the two of you are literally one.

Recently, my husband and I had the opportunity to celebrate our anniversary by cruising to Bermuda. We took our kids too. It was a grand celebration! I was also under the impression that our Bermuda cruise was our anniversary gift to each other. Well, I was wrong. He showed up with 7 anniversary gifts, one for me to open each night. I of course, had nothing. Each gift was wrapped beautifully with a bow and a small humorous/romantic note attached. It is by far the most thoughtful, romantic, unbelievable surprise I have ever received from him! And, probably nothing he does in the future will match it! But the best he can and has given me all these years is the best gift of all, himself! He is mine and I am his….til death we do part! It sure doesn’t get any better than that. To be the most special person on earth to someone is by far totally incomprehensible to me, but most wonderful!

Here’s the gifts and the notes which are just too romantic not to include!

The sunglasses…“To see me in a different light”

The perfume with an atomizer, of course, because…” Marriage is a blast”

The “We Still Do” Christmas ornament because… “Every Holiday is better with you”

The Betsy Johnston watch because…“To keep track of the next 35 years”

The black diamond earrings because…“Even when times are dark you shine”

The rose-gold diamond and black diamond earrings because…“Beautiful as Rose, Brilliant as a gem

The coach leather pocket book because…” Loverweave Backpack Level 1000 to carry all your loot!!!!!!

(pocketbook not included in the picture, but my husband is a crafter of bags of all levels for our characters in World of WarCraft. To carry all our loot of course!)

…and then on our last evening, the Filipino waitress sings us a song with her beautiful voice. I am overwhelmed with emotion of the magnitude of our special milestone!

…and then just when things don’t get any better than this, Jesus pops in my head. In the Scriptures it says that,” I am His and He is mine. “(Song of Solomon 6:3) Can we even grasp the depth of these word’s written for us by God so that we might know that Jesus is yours and He is also mine? 2 Timothy 3:16 says” …all Scripture is God -breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” No, I don’t think we can grasp such Heavenly things. It’s probably why Jesus tells us to believe them instead. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”1John 3:1.

Moody Stuart states how God is mine and I am his the best:

God is mine to look upon, to lean upon, to dwell with; mine to bear my burdens, discharge my all my debts, mine to answer all my accusers, mine to conquer all my foes; mine to deliver me from hell, mine to prepare a place for me in Heaven; mine in absence, mine in presence, mine in life, mine in death, mine in the grave, mine in judgement, and mine in the marriage of the lamb!

He laid down His life for me so that Him and I can have all of this…

God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

My heart stirs with deep gratitude and love for my awesome hubby! To be loved is the greatest gift a human being can possess. Yes, my husband and I can say, “We Still Do!” And I am deeply honored. But there has not been a moment since God created me that He has not been doing all the things above, for me! And, He is also doing them for you too! Essentially, there is not a moment that passes by where God is not doing something for you and me too. God is always doing because ” God always does!” Most definitely my hubby and I can say, “We still do because God always does!”

Halleluyah!

love and blessings!