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Recharging the Batteries (So to Speak)

September 23, 2008 •

This sum­mer I was too busy bal­anc­ing work with leisure activ­i­ties to have time for blog­ging. Instead I enjoyed yoga, sail­ing, kayak­ing, tan­dem bik­ing, some great books and movies — and social­iz­ing with peo­ple I care about.

Per­haps it’s a char­ac­ter­is­tic of Boomer women — we’d rather inter­act with friends and fam­ily in the real world than spend all our time online. (I’ve heard this from many of my Boomer friends.)

This sum­mer it was cer­tainly true for me: when not work­ing, I spent lots of time with old friends, new friends, and fam­ily. In Wash­ing­ton State, New Eng­land and Provence.

Not to men­tion the Toronto area, where new friends and cur­rent clients are located.

Just imag­ine: yoga in a gor­geous medieval hill­top vil­lage in south­ern France…

Yoga in Provence

I was lucky enough to expe­ri­ence my first-ever yoga retreat — in Provence, of all places — with some girl­friends from Apple. (We worked together at Apple 20 years ago, on the early Mac mar­ket­ing team.) Five hours a day of yoga, for one week… I did­n’t know what I was in for.

We were joined by their friends from a Bay Area yoga stu­dio, their favorite Anusara yoga teacher, and some adven­tur­ous Euro­peans who found the web site pro­mot­ing Jane’s yoga retreat in Provence.

Here we are, for­mer Apple mar­keters, posed beneath a stone entrance to the medieval hill­top vil­lage of Vai­son-La-Romaine in south­ern France. (Let’s not talk about the chal­lenge of dri­ving a can­tan­ker­ous French SUV up the nar­row hill­top streets or through por­tals orig­i­nally designed for pedes­tri­ans, horses and small carts…)

My friend Jane orga­nized the yoga retreat and our won­der­ful lodg­ings and group meals. (She’s also a gourmet cook and fran­cophile, so she researched all the best places to eat, with some­thing to please every bud­get.) Jane was the brave per­son who wres­tled our SUV through this por­tal — with­out scrap­ing any walls in the process.

Heading out to dinner with old friends from Apple

Our yoga stu­dio was a mile away, down the hill and along a river — quite a trek in the sum­mer heat and intense sun­shine of June in Provence. We made that trek twice a day, for a week.

It was June, so the laven­der fields were in bloom. And it was incred­i­bly hot the whole time we were there, with tem­per­a­tures well into the 90s. The down­side to stay­ing in these charm­ing, pic­turesque stone vil­lages is that they don’t cool down at night…Lavender field in bloom by hilltop French town

Anusara Yoga — A Treat for Boomers

The par­tic­u­lar style of yoga that was taught at our retreat was Anusara yoga. Anusara bal­ances core val­ues from the yoga spir­i­tual tra­di­tions (such as open­ness and the light within) with a real focus on align­ment prin­ci­ples.

It cel­e­brates the heart, and wel­comes peo­ple of all abil­i­ties. Even begin­ners like me. (Some­day my asanas will be as grace­ful and pow­er­ful as the woman in this photo.)

Yoga Pose Warrior 1

One rea­son why Anusara is great for Boomer bod­ies is that its focus on align­ment is poten­tially less dan­ger­ous than yoga vari­ants that empha­size the flow between the poses. As our instruc­tor pointed out, most of the injuries occur dur­ing tran­si­tions into and out of poses…

Now that I’m back in Seat­tle, I’ve signed up for some local Anusara classes, in hopes of find­ing and nur­tur­ing that bal­ance within.

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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