My recent happy making travel idea. Tested and confirmed, it’s good!

So we went on a road trip last weekend.  Five hours in the car with our kids down to see friends in Eugene, Oregon for the weekend.  Don’t worry that part of it was great, because we started our trip at bedtime which made for sleeping kids and happy mommy and daddy adult time.  Oh what a luxury to have hours of uninterrupted conversations and moments of silence alternately.  I happily knitted under the light of the car visor mirror light and my husband and I chatted and filled no requests other than our own, for hours.

So the night knitting to the light was cool, as was the leaving at bedtime, but the best thing I did for myself was a different thing entirely.

Let me say first, that one of the original thoughts for the weekend was that my husband take the kids and I get the weekend to myself.  (Something I haven’t experienced in more than 4 years.)  However, when I realized that a weekend of solitude was not in my (immediate) future I had another brainstorm instead.

I asked myself what I could do for myself while I was there to give myself a tiny piece of the flavor I wasn’t going to get with the whole family in tow.  And in answer, when I arrived, I looked up the local yoga studios, perused the classes and found one that suited my relaxation goal and skill level: EASY.  And I made it happen.  Both days!

I rarely do yoga.  I love it when I do, but I’m more of a cardio girl.  If I can only fit in one thing (which I barely can) it’s a sweaty work out, one that pumps out all the excess thoughts enthusiastically, not stretches them out slowly like yoga does.  Still I love what yoga does to my mind chatter too: silences it.  And how it makes my body feel: relaxed and nimble.

So this is what I did for myself.  Two days in a row of yoga, in a new town, in a new place, in the same old body.  I felt especially proud of myself because the classes were at noon.  It was a bummer that they were in the middle of the day, but I didn’t cave and let alternative scheduling demands take away the precious hour I carved out for myself.  I stuck to it and gave myself that gift.

What an easy thing to do: Yoga in any town you go to!  Why did I never think of it before? Apparently I didn’t need it.  But let me tell you I’ll be thinking of it next trip and maybe you will too.  Namaste yo!