In case you hadn’t noticed yet, May 21 is World Meditation Day. What’s it about, apart from the obvious? According to India Today, it’s just what it says: a time to think about pausing and existing in the here and now.
This day is all about encouraging people to meditate and showing the benefits of meditation to everyone. It’s a chance to think about how meditation can help us relax, feel better both mentally and physically, and connect.
The day focuses on the importance of meditation for keeping peace, clarity, and strength. World Meditation Day helps us take care of our mental and emotional health.
Meditation is a simple practice that can help everyone. By meditating, we can connect with our inner selves, become more aware, and manage our emotions better.
Yeah, I can totally get behind that. In fact, I’ve sort of been preparing for today, using the ramp-up exercises from my Ten Percent Happier app. Last week, they started the big countdown with an activity for each day leading up to today. Here’s their seven-day list:
set an intention– it could be for more focus, or serenity, or gratitude, whatever.
take a tech timeout– set aside some time with no notifications or noise from phones, computers, etc.
eat a mindful meal– create a meal for yourself to be eaten without distractions, just noticing the food, the environment, and your own senses.
do some mindful listening– take some time to sit/stand/lie down/walk with a focus on listening to the sounds around you.
reflect on gratitude– think about what and who you are grateful for in this moment, in these times, in this life.
embrace simplicity– this isn’t about cleaning out your closets, but rather asking yourself what you actually need and bringing your attention there. This is my favorite one.
So, what am I doing for World Meditation Day? I’ve done my morning meditation, and will take some extra time to do a walking one. I’m dog sitting, so it may be combined with walking Dixie the dog. And I wrote this blog post to share with you the possibilities for today and other days moving forward.
I also wrote this post to share with you a picture of a cute frog meditating. Om.
A brass frog, serenely sitting with froggy legs crossed. By Soren Funk for Unsplash.
One of the way we get ideas about to blog about is that outraged readers send us some of the things that outrage them. This past weekend many of you sent us this. It’s been shared by many feminist groups on social media.
Tweet reads, “Last week, a 55 year old, 200 lb grandmother was the 1st to swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon islands, a -30 mile journey. She swam in 43° water & it took ~17 hours. She was stung by jellyfish 20 times. It’s considered the toughest marathon swim in the world.” Comment below reads, “The fact that her weight is included but not her name is an interesting choice. Congrats to Amy Appelhans Gubser.”
Most people were shocked that the tweet mentioned Amy Appelhans Gubser’s weight but not her name.
When I shared that tweet and the response on our Facebook page, many readers also pointed out that the “grandmother” identity is off-putting, too. We’re all pretty sure that men who achieve great things don’t get called “grandfather” in the headline even if they are, in fact, grandfathers.
The grandmother theme was pretty ubiquitous in the reporting of this incredible achievement.
I was impressed that in in my newsfeed at least Outside Magazine didn’t mention her grandmotherly status or her weight in the headline. She even got her full name in the title. Nice!
See here:
But then I clicked through and got this:
ARGH!!!
In some ways, it seems worse than the “mother” designation. At least in my case becoming a parent, is something that’s about me. “Grandmother” just means my kids decided to have kids. Is the emphasis on the age part of being a grandmother? Or do you think there’s something special about grandmother in particular that makes her accomplishment so remarkable? It’s like age + gender + parental status all bundled into one identity.
I used to wonder if it got used in headlines because the women themselves talked about it a lot in the interview. But no, there’s no talk of how thoughts of her grandchildren kept her going through the night, no discussion of how she worried about sharks and not being there for her grandchildren. It’s just there in the headline. Otherwise, it’s all the terrifying details of marathon swimming that we talked about in our Saturday night with Nyad blog post. You know, the cold and timing the swim, and the support crew and the jellyfish.
Anyway, what an incredible accomplishment. I’m in awe.
When I teach writing, I remind people that writing often is a good thing because it helps make your writing skills more available to you when you need them.
And I often compare that situation to doing kicking drills in Taekwondo. The drills aren’t just about exercising/adding strength they are about making my kicking skills more available to me when I need them.
Over and over I have proven to myself that doing the thing often makes it easier to do the thing when I need/want to.
Soooo, why do I have trouble remembering that fact when it comes to relaxation exercises and meditation?
I’m not a stressball at the moment, nor do I lack opportunities for relaxation, but, I do feel that my base level of stress could be a lot lower.
And I have some small practices in place:
I do a very, very short meditation every day and I do a longer one on occasion. (Every time I do a longer meditation, I ask myself why I don’t do them more often.*)
And I have relaxation music/visualizations that I listen to sometimes and I have relaxing drawing practices that I usually only remember to do when I am already feeling a little frayed around the edges.
But, even though I know that doing important practices more often makes them more available to me, I don’t apply that rule to relaxation practices or to longer meditations.
I know that if I practice relaxation exercises (visualizations, music, drawing) more often, I will have a deeper well of relaxation to draw from.
I know that meditating for longer feels better in the moment AND brings me more ease overall.
I know that lowering my base level of stress will help me to be responsive rather than reactive when something goes awry.
And, yet, my brain still manages to convince me that the practices are too long or too much trouble to do on a regular basis.
Irritating, hey?
So, Fit is a Feminist Issue friends, I officially declare that it is time for me to make a change.
I am fed up with this flaw in my thinking and I am going to correct it.
I am going to turn my relaxation/meditation practices into another example of skills that are available to me because I use them often.
I’m writing this from a cabin on the edge of Algonquin Park, where it’s 28 degrees at the of May. It’s hot here, and there are wildfires burning across Canada.
“Three in five adults in England say extreme weather has had a negative impact on their ability to be physically active, according to new research by Sport England.
The funding agency is announcing a new investment package “to help sports battle climate change” as part its first environmental and sustainability strategy.
A total of £45m will be used “to help more people get active in nature, restore flooded sports pitches and help sports clubs become sustainable”.
“With already low grades for children’s physical activity, climate change is emerging as a new barrier for children and youth to get more active.
For instance, the number of weather alerts in Canada is rapidly trending upwards, which could indicate an increased number of days where k”ids can’t play outside, recesses take place indoors, and sports and school days are cancelled.
Events like poor air quality from wildfire smoke, heat waves and heat domes are becoming more frequent during the summer, with climate scientists predicting they will only grow more intense.”
The connection between the health of the planet and the health of human beings got me thinking about one health approaches to the study of human, animal, and environmental well-being.
What does it mean for me personally?
July and August used to be my big riding months. No more. I think I’m likely to start thinking of recreational cycling outdoors as a spring and fall activity. It’s getting too warm here in southern Ontario.
Currently, my summer cycling plans have a gap between mid-June and mid-August, and maybe that’s okay.
But while recreational cycling outdoors moves to the fall, I also plan to increase my bike commuting year round. It’s never made sense to me to react to the heat outdoors by getting into an air-conditioned car. They’re part of the problem.
Recently, I wrote about how I had been experiencing vestibular issues that were interrupting my regular scheduled jogging. It was also making me walk with trepidation as the world did not feel stable. Not to mention what it was doing to my ego. I run, partly, for mental health. Was my mental health affecting my ability to walk and run?
Today I had my first steady jog for over 9km. It wasn’t my fastest time ever but I was able to jog consistently and smile while doing so.
What have I done since I started experiencing balance issues?
I called in professional help.
I spoke to my doctor about this new experience and how it seemed to be anxiety induced. We discussed options. We agreed, in my case, it was best not to avoid walking or trying to jog. I have a history of anxiety affecting others activities and avoiding those activities have just made it worse. I didn’t want this to happen to my experience with walking and running. We decided I didn’t need SSRIs for now. He agreed to give me a prescription for low dose Ativan, with a limited number of pills and repeats, in case I needed them for panic moments. I’ll come back to this. I had already been on a wait list to see an obgyn (or at least I thought I was but my dr hadn’t entered the referral properly). my dr sent a new referral to an obgyn so I can talk to them about possible hormonal causes.
I started doing grounding and breathing exercises to try to calm my anxiety and to try and give me a feeling of stability when I went out for a walk or jog.
I went to see a physiotherapist who ruled out specific conditions. All roads continued to point to anxiety induced vertigo and he gave me some balance exercises to work on and I have been checking in with him weekly.
I tried to give myself a break. Even though I felt shook up about this new problem and didn’t understand why it had become a problem, all of the sudden, I told myself to get over it and be nicer to myself.
I kept at it. I sang Natalie Merchant and Taylor Swift (yes, not sorry) and I listened to Julia Louis-Dreyfus” Wiser Than Me (if you haven’t seen it, she won a Webby for this podcast yesterday and in her acceptance speech she simply said, “Listen to old women, Motherfuckers!”. I agree.
Some walks were better with mantras such as, “my feet are strong, my head is strong” and, “run towards the danger” (thank you, Sarah Polley), my old standby, “I am. I can. I will. I do. Envision. Thank you”. Also, just, “thank you”. I said that a lot. Thank you universe for this moment. Thank you to whatever is working – and whatever is not, too.
Some walks were still not great. After a week of much better walking, some successful, stop-and-start jogging, I was feeling better until I had a day with some “wonky walking”. I felt frustrated even though my physio had warned me this would be normal, it wouldn’t be a perfectly, linear, experience. I persevered and even that wonky walking day ended better than expected. And, two days later, I enjoyed a successful 4+km jog.
I will add here that out of the 10 Ativan tablets I had stashed in my purse, I have only used 2 and none this week. I didn’t want to have to rely on them to run.
I have also talked to friends about my issue. As with many things, when you start talking to friends, you will often hear that they have experience similar things. It’s helpful knowing you have good company.
Also, I continued going to the gym. I felt fine at the gym. I tried to jog, even the short distance, to the gym, and celebrate whatever wins happened there. Before having vestibular issues, I wouldn’t have tracked such a short jog in Strava, but every little bit counts now. To me. Yes, I know. Only to me.
At the gym, I continued to enjoy feeling strong and working out with friends. Yesterday’s conditioning workout included shuttle runs outside the gym, on the sidewalk. I was a little nervous that I would have a problem. But it was fine. I’m sure having my friend Laura next to me helped. I also think those shuttle runs helped me with my jog this morning.
I got up today, had my coffee, completed my NYT puzzles, did a 10 min yoga for grounding and stability, added some alternate nostril breathing and set out.
Instead of my usual, “you are strong” or “I am. I can..etc.”, I started out with, “Just jog and smile”. I kept repeating that. Maybe a fluke, but it worked. I ran just shy of 10km at a steady pace. There were moments I forgot I had a problem. Thank you. To the universe. Thank you.
This week marked for me the end of my semester and the start of summer. I’ve turned in all my grades, attended graduation, finished a somewhat late grant report, and written a flurry of wrap-up emails about this and that.
This spring was a particularly emotionally depleting term. I had what seemed like a record number of needy students, and I spent lots of time and energy on helping them make it through to finals. This is my job and I’m committed to doing what it takes. But it took a lot out of me.
My therapist made a a great suggestion: she said I should consider myself as enrolling in self-care bootcamp as a way to rest, recharge and prepare myself for my research, home projects and travel for the summer. What a great idea!
Starting on Monday, I spent two days doing nothing but sleep, read, eat meals and watch back episodes of Star Trek Discovery. I did a little yoga on my mat in the living room and also meditated, which I do every day.
On Tuesday, I went to acupuncture, then bought lovely produce at my favorite lovely produce place. I thought about cooking.
By Wednesday I had emerged from my drowsy state and started to unearth my house from the layers of clothing, papers, books and other domestic detritus that had built up over the semester. I ran the first of several loads of laundry, cooked some of the produce and ate a nice meal. I read and then watched a bit of a historical series on PBS.
On Thursday I felt like tackling some small-scale house projects, so I did. I also picked up Dixie the dog– I’m taking care of her until next Tuesday. We walked around my neighborhood, admiring the flora and fauna in our specific ways– me by looking, her by sniffing. I cooked another nice dinner, with Dixie paying very close attention.
Rolling on the grass is clearly fun for Dixie. I haven’t tried it myself. Yet.
Dixie and I have gotten into a routine of meals, walks, play, napping, and social activity. We went to Watertown Porchfest with friends yesterday, walking around town to hear various bands set up on porches (obvs) and driveways. At one such concert I headed to the dog section, and made myself popular by offering dog treats to all four-footed music lovers in attendance.
This backyard was filled with folks and dogs, listening to a band.Dixie made friends with Blakey, a very curious and cute Peekapo.
When I’m not attending to Dixie, I’m engaging in other self-care tasks. I unsubscribed from some of the many Substack, NYTimes and miscellaneous other newsletters that I signed up for. I want to be informed and I love diving into topics I never knew were so complex and fascinating. But the throughput is just too much, so I’m giving myself a little vacay from having to decide whether and when to read any one of a dozen-plus newsletters.
I’m also doing a clear-out of excess stuff from my kitchen, pantry and study. My church is holding a sidewalk sale June 1, so this is a perfect opportunity to lighten things up and send many formerly-loved and used items on their way to new homes. It feels liberating and self-caring to let go of things that I’m not using or valuing anymore, in the hopes that someone else might use or value them. You never know.
The cherry on top of my self-care sundae is today’s two-hour gentle yoga and restorative sound bath with crystal singing bowls at Artemis, my local yoga studio. I did a one-hour sound bath a few weeks ago and felt very refreshed. I’m really looking forward to this one.
Next week begins more focused work on summer writing projects. I think I’m ready. This week was great– I slowed way down and only did what I wanted and needed to feel more replenished. As I ramp up activities, I hope to carry some of that self-care with me.
Readers, what do you do when you are out of gas and need to rest and refuel? I’d love to hear from you.
Dixie at rest on the loveseat. I was similarly sprawled out on the couch.
Caroline Paul is a thrill-seeker and writer who is on a quest to encourage women to get outside and embrace adventure as they age. She and Steve talk about fighting fires, walking on airplane wings, and finding awe in birdwatching.
“Today’s SuperAge episode features author, pilot, and lifelong adventurer Caroline Paul, who shares her insights on the importance of outdoor adventure and its positive impacts as we age. Caroline emphasizes the significance of embracing new experiences, breaking through societal norms, and the unique empowerment that comes from stepping outside one’s comfort zone. Her personal journey, highlighted by her various outdoor exploits, illustrates how engaging with nature can lead to a richer, more fulfilling life in one’s later years. Caroline’s message is clear: aging isn’t about slowing down but about rediscovering oneself through adventure and exploration.”
At least in the USA. In Canada, it’s the start of the May 24th long weekend, so the traditional start of the season when people go to the lake, camping, kayaking, etc.
Everyone should learn to swim, or at least learn enough about water safety to keep themselves and their families from drowning.
It’s also a great form of low-impact full-body exercise and a new skill you can learn at any age. I taught my grandma to swim when she was in her early 80s.
I admit to bias, as I have been swimming since childhood and find my calm and peace in the silence and rhythmic movement of swimming. It’s also where I have met a whole network of adult friends.
Diane and four friends taking a selfie in the water. All five are wearing bright caps, goggles and swim floats.
If you do a lane swim regularly , or swim with a masters club, or even swim competitively, that’s awesome. If that’s not your thing, please enjoy the beach, the pond or the river – safely.
Last weekend, I participated in the first Kidical Mass Ride of the season in Ottawa. What is Kidical Mass? From their website, it’s an alliance of hundreds of organizations from Canada to Australia united by the vision that children and young people should be able to move around safely and independently on foot and by bike. Children who are active by bike and on foot from an early age remain so as adults.
So where does the feminism come it? @envirojen.bluesky.social, a safe cycling advocate in Halifax says: “If you’ve attended one of our (Kidical Mass) rides, then you’ll know that many of us were radicalized by pushing a stroller, or cycling with kids. Motherhood has certainly helped me flex my movement building muscles.”
This photo is actually from an anti-pipeline protest in 2016, but I have seen the same sign at many protests around women’s rights, and this one has a bicycle. The older woman in the picture has a sign attached to her mobility device that says “I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit”.
Change requires a mass movement. ‘Stop De Kindermoord’ in the Netherlands (1970s) and the ‘Baby Carriage Blockades’ in the USA (1950 & 60s) are historical examples of safe streets movements organized by parents, and in particular, mothers.
Historian Peter Norton, a professor at the University of Virginia, has been documenting how the movement for safe streets has largely been the work of mothers. He recently wrote about a protest in Montreal in April 1974, when about 70 parents, wearing black arm bands, marched to the office of Montreal’s traffic director, bearing funeral wreaths to present to him. They were calling attention to the deadly peril children faced on their walks to school. On paper, speed limits in school zones were 20 mph. In the absence of any signs near most school zones, however, motorists drove much faster. The parents demanded signs. The marchers were led by three mothers whose children had been injured by drivers. When the three arrived at the traffic director’s office he refused to see them, and had police escort them out. Before leaving, the women left their funeral wreaths for him at his office door.
Black and white image from the Montreal Star newspaper showing women carrying funeral wreaths, protest signs, and their children as they march in pairs.
Fifty years later the fight continues. As Cassie Smith, one of the Kidical Mass organizers in Ottawa says: Even now women have less access to cars and more caregiving responsibility giving us particular insight into the injustice of space.
This week, an eleven year-old child died while riding his bike in a supposedly safe area near his school. He was the friend of the son of one of my colleagues.
I got into cycling advocacy because of climate change and to have more safe access to the public space, especially for people on bikes, and because cycling is fun and practical. I was aware of some of the equity issues around cycling and active transit more generally, but I have learned a lot since, and now I’m angry. I hope I won’t still have to be protesting this shit for years to come, but I’m fully prepared to do so if necessary.
