EtsyMetal Blog Carnival - Jul 2, 2012 - What in the world are you doing?

 It's time for the EtsyMetal Blog carnival! Every month a new theme is picked. For this month, it is - What in the world are you doing?

And it doesn't have to be just jewelry and metal related. Jewelry has pretty much been my entire life for the past few years and recently I decided I needed to find more balance. In January I started teaching yoga which has been amazing. I've had a fairly flexible rotating schedule with a few other wonderful teachers. And at some point during the spring I started running before class.  I'm not exactly sure what led me to this... The weather I'm sure helped - spring time just makes everyone want to be outside! And I had gotten some new shoes. I hadn't gotten them to be running shoes, but once I wore them - they made me want to run! Although, it was about

Here they are if you want to check them out - Merrell Barefoot Pace Glove

And this is where I get to run whenever I want! (I'm actually headed there in a few minutes) 3 days a week I practice yoga right after I run in that sweet little yurt. The path I run on is around a huge field, which you can see a little of off to the right.

I remember loving to run when I was younger - then it became a chore in high school. Why they decide to make running a punishment is beyond me. Such a horrible thing to teach our kids! Maybe they don't do that anymore...


I used to do a bit of trail running at the botanical gardens but not regularly. And then it started bothering my knees. Not terribly and I wasn't so in to it I was going to continue to injure myself, so I pretty much stopped.


The idea of minimalist running was very appealing to me. I'd read a few articles and tried the Five Fingers - which were fun to start, but then found out my toes weren't quite perfect enough and the shoes rubbed my little toe in a not so great a way... I did love how I could feel the earth beneath my feet though - and the Merrell's did just that while letting my toes wiggle around.
After I got them, a friend and I were talking about running and she told me to go run from one end of my house to the other and notice how I ran and to translate that in to running outside (or, you know, where ever I was running). It wasn't for several more months that I actually started running, but her comment really stuck with me. After having a serious yoga practice for so many years, it was easy to approach running from a very mindful angle. Noticing my breath, my stride, how my feet landed, what happened if I changed where my foot landed or how I took off, what happened on an uphill or downhill, every aspect has been easier for me to notice because of how engrained my yogic perspective is.

My yoga teacher actually recommended Chi Running - and I mean, really, the title says it all "A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running". Who doesn't want to run injury free? I'm about half way through and find it to be great. I don't know that it is that much different than what I've been doing already, but nice to have a little bit of instruction and guidance. The author makes a comment about the stretches he recommends as being "amazingly similar to yoga" or something like that... and I just had to laugh. Why not just call it what it is and do some yoga? I never run without doing a hatha practice afterwards. I don't consider myself a runner and not sure if I ever will. I am a yogi (or yogini if you prefer) and consider my running as just another asana. I treat my running the way I do my hatha practice, being mindful and not pushing myself to the point I may cause an injury. Because, after all, aren't I doing this for my health? And as much as I love yoga, it won't help me run from zombies if the zombie apocalypse ever comes... running will help me and yoga will keep me from being that girl that trips and can't get back up... see, the perfect combination :)


So... that's what I have going on that is new and exciting. Other than that... I make rings all day every day. Sometimes I kind of feel stuck in a factory of my own making. Creating a more balanced life has helped me to enjoy the creating and relax.

Check out the other participants this month and see what they're up to! 

Laney - http://silentgoddess.blogspot.com
Evelyn - http://markasky.blogspot.com/
victoria takahashi - http://vtakahashi.blogspot.com/
Miranda - http://gracebourne.blogspot.ca/
Rebecca Bogan - http://AdobeSol.wordpress.com
Anne Walker - http://www.creativeinclinations.blogspot.com
Erin Austin - http://metalmusing.blogspot.com/
Danielle Miller - http://daniellemillerjewelry.blogspot.com/
Nodeform - http://nodeform.blogspot.com/