Last week Steve Job’s passed away. His 2005 Stanford University Commence Speech video viraled quickly across the Internet. It viraled so fast because his words were profound and applied to each and everyone of us.

Finding myself at a major juncture in my life I began to look at all my life choices, the projects I am involved in and what I am passionate about. Where do I want to expend my energy? What brings me the most joy?

A year and a half ago I decided to add the Lucky Yogini to my life. I didn’t add her out of passion. I added her because I was seeking external validation and acceptance.  I have finally accepted it is time to let her go and follow my true passion, contesting, as the Contest Queen (@ContestQueen), giving her all of my attention and energy. The Queen’s path is my life’s purpose, to teach others how to have more fun in their lives.

On this journey I was lucky enough to discover a love for yoga. I will continue to get on the mat. Sometimes home-based. Sometimes in studio. Not everyday. It’s not my path to lead others to their breath. That is for those for whom it is their passion.

For the Lucky Yogini it’s time, for Savasana.

This blog will officially go offline at the end of October.

I am here.

Not on my mat.

Attempting to find my balance.

Not much different than Vrksasana or Natarajasana.

After being on my mat every day for seven months, I had to stop my studio practice.  I began a home practice, but my heart wasn’t in it.  So I stopped.  It was almost six months before I got on my mat again.  Since then, I can count on one hand the number of times my mat has been rolled out.

What happened?

The past year has been a whirlwind.  After seeking employment for 20 months, I am now employed as the Marketing Coordinator for Global Financial.  Because the Universe has a sense of humour, at the same time, after being dormant for months, my promotional consulting business began to take off. 

The whirlwind and the LUCKY both come from my alter ego The Contest Queen. (If you haven’t met her yet, check out her website; ContestQueen).  This is where most of the imbalance began as crazy “CQ” adventures. In 2011, I have been on 20/20, Good Morning America -twice- and in a reality television show that aired on TLC; High Stakes Sweepers.

My day is quite full between being a mom, working full-time day job, working part-time at my home-based, contesting and somewhere in there is a mat collecting dust.

So here I am.

Wobbling.

And soon I’ll find my balance.

Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free samples of these products to review, and I was under no obligation to review them if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free products.

It’s been a long while since I did a review and giveaway of the Tropical Traditions (@TropTraditions) organic coconut oil products (September 26, 2010!), so I thought it was high time.  This time I checked out their body products: Moisturizing Lotion in Citrus and Coconut Oil Soap in three “flavours”: Lavender, Tea Tree and Unscented.

Apparently, an aversion to the texture of coconut doesn’t mean one doesn’t like other coconut products.  No sooner than I had opened the sample box when my daughter Nicole claimed the Lavender soap and my husband Craig claimed the Tea Tree Oil soap.  At least I had the unscented soap and lotion to try.

Similar to a pure olive oil soap, coconut oil soap is soft, lathers quickly and can melt away if left in a spot where the shower head sprays consistently on it.  It also makes one skin very soft when used on a daily basis.  Nicole, who has very dry skin, really benefited from adding a coconut oil based soap to her tri-weekly shower routine.  The back of Craig’s arms had become very smooth after using the Tea Tree Oil soap for a week.  I liked the unscented soap, but wished I had been faster to garner the benefit of scent.

Since I had tried the Tropical Traditions Organic Virgin Coconut Oil directly on my skin during the last product test, I was really interested to see how their lotion compared.  It was great.  It wasn’t greasy as I had expected it to be.  It absorbed quickly into my skin.  It smelled lovely.  Ahh… the benefit of scent.  (I think I’ll get the Baby Silk scent the next time.  Apparently, it’s their most popular fragrance.)

The only negative comment about the Tropical Traditions product testing came from Craig. He loved the Tea Tree Oil soap so much he wanted to run out an buy more. When I told him it was only sold online, he was not impressed.

Now it’s your turn to get sudsy and soft by winning a set for yourself!
The contest is open to all residents of Canada and the U.S., and runs until 11:59pm on Monday June 27th.  There are several ways to gain entries. (Listen to my interview with Valerie (@valerie2350) of Sweeps 4 Bloggers to better understand how to enter blog contests if you are new to this method of entering.)

For your first entry (required):
1. check out the Tropical Traditions website and leave a comment (on this post) on what other healthy, natural or organic product they carry that you consider a “must have/use” item.  (NOTE: If you are not a blogger or if your email address is not publicly available when you comment, please post it in your entry so that I may contact you if you win. eg. carolyn at luckyyogini dot com)

For extra entries, do the following, then come back to this blog  and post an additional comment for each action you took:  (NOTE: If you already do any of the following, leave a comment saying you do so.)

2. subscribe to the Tropical Traditions Newsletter,
3. LIKE Tropical Traditions on Facebook,
4. follow Tropical Traditions on Twitter,
5. subscribe to the Tropical Tradtions YouTube channel,
5. subscribe to the Lucky Yogini either by RSS feed or email,
6. follow me on Twitter as the Lucky Yogini,
7. connect with me on LinkedIn,
8. be friends with me on Facebook,
9. subscribe to From The Contest Queen either by RSS feed or email,
10. follow me on Twitter as the Contest Queen,
11. tweet about this contest.

SAMPLE TWEET:

#WIN from @Lucky_Yogini & @TropTraditions to get clean & soft http://wp.me/p12gAk-5f  CAN & US, ends JUN 27, pls RT

If you do one of each action, you will have 11 entries into the drawing.  Potential winners will have 24 hours to respond to an email notification. If no response is received, another potential winner will be drawn.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!

P.S. You can get a free Virgin Coconut Oil Book full of stories, tips and recipes by using this Referred By User ID #6501288 upon placing your first order (more information here).

This a wonderful excerpt from Rolf Gates’ book Meditation from the Mat.

“The transitions between postures are postures in their own right. The breath and the meditation are unbroken…. it is our tendency to pay attention to the postures themselves, but not to the spaces in between. So it is in life. We leave one relationship or job and set our sights on the next. We cross one item off the to-do list and dive into the next chore. The illusion is that the posture ends. The reality is that the posture never ends, it just shifts from one form to the next, one lesson to the next, one opportunity to the next. We remain life’s students whether we are inhaling or exhaling, in a relationship or out of one, saving the world or looking for a temp job. The posture never ends. I am in the posture when I look into my wife’s eyes, and I am in the posture when I look into my waiter’s eyes. Both are holy interactions, The illusion is that there is separation, levels of importance, beginnings and endings. Yoga brings us to the understanding that the posture never ends.” pg. 47

The season finale of The Defenders finds characters Nick Morelli and Pete Kaczmarek defending a couple accused of murdering a high profile instructor in their yoga studio.  They had a dispute over the franchising his name and yoga technique and the next day he turned up dead on the studio floor.  Coincidentally, the couple had planed to leave on a business trip to India making them look very suspicious.  The lawyers argue about the defence strategy, split up and go head-to-head each defending one spouse.  No spoilers here.  Let’s just say love hath no fury than a woman scorned.

It is really interesting to see Hollywood cast a shadow of darkness over the lightness of yoga.  Yoga, once brought into the studio, becomes a business and like all businesses, it is subject to the obstacles and challenges every business could face.

I would also like to know why the common perception of a yogi is he’s the new age version of James Bond?

“These yoga guys make out like bandits.”
Nick Morelli

OK, one spoiler: I love the scene where Nick inadvertently ends up having a meal at a vegan restaurant.  Too funny!

Yesterday we took our daughter and her friend to Toronto’s Kids-Fest.  All I wanted to do when we got home was plunk myself  in front of the TV, warm myself by the fire and drink tea.

Ahhh…. a chick flick!  Kate & Leopold was just starting.  Even though I had seen it before, I decided watching it was the perfect way to spend the next two hours.

I had completely forgotten about a short yoga scene in the movie (the 45 minute mark) until I saw Kate in Upward Dog, following a yoga CD or DVD, reading a corporate document, then flowing into Downward Dog.  A smoke alarm goes off in the apartment above as she flows into High Plank and Side Plank.  She gives up, flops on the mat, and goes upstairs to find out what all the commotion in about.

What is your work-yoga balance?  Just because you’re not reading a corporate document while in Reclining Pigeon, or chatting on your cellphone in Warrior I, doesn’t mean your mind isn’t replaying the last office meeting, or writing your next report.

Where ever you are, be present.  Focus on your breath, now, and you will find the work-yoga balance you may be seeking.

Yesterday morning we awoke to find my husband had written I love you in 70 different languages all over my daughter’s bathroom mirror.  He even added a frame in the center with the words, “mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the prettiest…”.  WOW!

UPDATE: The winner was Wanda from Winnipeg, MB. CONGRATULATIONS!

Disclaimer: Michele Howe provided me with a free sample of their book to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a giveaway in return for the free product.

What an unusual book! I was expecting a book full of self-help advice. What makes this book really unique is how the advice is divided up and presented.  Firstly, look at the Table of Contents:

Meeting Life’s Challenges with Strength (and Soul)
Table of Contents

Personal Life Challenges
1. Waiting: Choosing Calm Over Control
2. Uncertainty: Defuse Your Anxiety by Looking Out for Others
3. Discouragement: Identifying Obstacles and Implementing Solutions
4. Loss: Deciding What’s Worth Losing and What’s Worth Keeping
5. Depression: Evaluate, Then Make Changes
6. Exhaustion: Decoding Your Body’s Messages and Finding a Healthy Balance
7. Sorrow: Facing Difficult Situations with Courage, Strength, and Fearlessness
8. Giving Up: Words that Provide Emotional Strength to Keep Going
9. Hopeless: How Today’s Difficulties Equip Us for Tomorrow
10. Confined: Making Decisions That Offer the Best Types of Freedom
11. Regret: When We Pay Attention to the Wrong Things
12. Disappointment: Putting Expectations in their Place
13. Broken Dreams: Being Tough Enough to Stay Tender
14. Doubt: Knowing Who and What to Trust
15. Failure: Finding Success One Single Step at a Time

Situational Life Challenges
16. Workplace Community: How Our Talents Benefit Others Personally and Professionally
17. Care-Giving: Proactive Planning Takes Care of You Both
18. Parenting Responsibilities: What We Believe Shouts
19. Financial Setbacks: How Material Wealth Insulates Us from What Matters Most
20. Relocation: Moving for the Right Reasons
21. Divorce and Widowhood: When Friends Secure the Gap
22. Retirement: Kindness is Age-Resistant
23. Career Choices – How People Factor into a Satisfactory Workplace
24. Physical Illness: How Your Social Environmental Can Make You Sick
25. Relational Stress: How our Pain Levels Us
26. Aging:  Making Good Choices, Lifelong Good Habits
27. Ongoing Childrearing Responsibilities: When Parents Pass on the Torch of Responsibility
28. Relationships Over the Distance: Meeting Practical Needs Up Close and From Afar
29. House and Home: Setting Boundaries that Make Everyone Feel Safe
30. The Taskmaster of Time: No Time Like the Present to Change

The advice is divided up between emotions and feelings one may be dealing with and trials and tribulations one may be dealing with.

Secondly, the mental and emotional self-help advice is followed by physical advice.  Co-author Dr. Christopher Foetisch, an orthopedic surgeon, who ties in weight-bearing exercises that dove-tail Michele’s words of wisdom.

As I read each chapter, I was fascinated by how each burden was explained and advised through two perspectives both designed to give you the insight to overcome your life’s challenge with both mental and physical strength.  I have read, probably hundreds, of self-help books over the past 20 years and I have never read one quite like this.  I must admit, I was thrown off balance by the book’s style, but I found the more I read, the more I liked it.  As they say, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.

To Win a Copy of Burdens Do a Body Good, Leave a Comment

The contest is open to all residents of Canada and the U.S., and runs until 11:59pm on Sunday January 2nd. There are several ways to gain entries. (Listen to my interview with Valerie (@valerie2350) of Sweeps 4 Bloggers to better understand how to enter blog contests if you are new to this method of entering.)

For your first entry (required):
1. go to Amazon, Look Inside, and leave a comment (on this post) on what you learned by reading the First Pages. (NOTE: If you are not a blogger or if your email address is not publicly available when you comment, please post it in your entry so that I may contact you if you win. eg. carolyn at luckyyogini dot com)

For extra entries, do the following, then come back to this blog and post an additional comment for each action you took:
(NOTE: If you already do any of the following, leave a comment saying you do so.)

2. subscribe to the Burdens Do a Body Good blog by RSS feed or email,
3. LIKE Michele Howe on Facebook and tell her the Contest Queen referred you,
4. LIKE Burdens Do a Body Good on Facebook and tell them the Contest Queen referred you,
5. follow Michele Howe on Twitter and tell her the Contest Queen referred you,
6. subscribe to the Lucky Yogini either by RSS feed, email or Networked Blogs,
7. follow me on Twitter as the Lucky Yogini,
8. publicly follow me (on the Lucky Yogini) on Google Friend Connect,
9. subscribe to From The Contest Queen either by RSS feed, email or Networked Blogs,
10. subscribe to The Winning EDGE,
11. follow me on Twitter as the Contest Queen,
12. publicly follow me (on the Contest Queen) on Google Friend Connect,
13. connect with me on LinkedIn,
14. be friends with me on Facebook,
15. tweet about this contest. (You can do step 15 every day and leave a comment for every extra tweet to garner extra entries.)

SAMPLE TWEET:

#WIN a Copy of Burdens Do a Body Good by @reviewermom http://bit.ly/hPIBvJ CAN & US, ends JAN 2 #giveaway #contest

If you do one of each action, you will have 15 entries into the drawing. Potential winners will have 24 hours to respond to an email notification. If no response is received, another potential winner will be drawn.

ENJOY, GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!

Disclaimer: Gaiam provided me with a free sample mat to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review in return for the free product.

My first introduction to Gaiam was about 10 years ago.  At the time I was doing aerobic exercise, almost on a daily basis, at home.  I wanted to add yoga into my weekly routine.  I discovered a Yoga For Beginners Kit by Gaiam at Costco.  Perfect!  For 10 years I practiced off and on at home with various Gaiam yoga DVDs.  Over time my mat became worn and when I washed it, it took a long time to dry.  Sadly, yoga mats don’t last forever.

In January of this year, my doctor advised me to begin to exercise aerobically everyday.  (I was diagnosed as being anemic and borderline glucose intolerant.)  I didn’t have the energy to bounce around on a step.  I decided the best way to balance my body would be to get on the mat everyday.  My husband went out and bought us each a BAM (Big Ass Mat – 7.0 lbs; 71″ long; 26″ wide; 1/4″ thick).  The BAMs are so big we had to buy double mat bags to carry them!

We live in a suburb of Toronto.  There wasn’t a studio in our area that offered a full-day yoga schedule.  I did yoga as often as I could.  In April Moksha Yoga opened up a studio 15 minutes from our home.  They offered the first week free and the first month for $40.  I thought, “I wonder what would happen if I did yoga everyday for 5 weeks?”

By the end of the 5 weeks I was stronger than I had ever been and I had also decided to attend Yoga Teacher Training.  (To-date the training hasn’t happened, but my daily practice has continued.  However, I did create this blog to connect with other like-minded souls and share my journey.)

Part of my connecting with the community was to combine my alter ego‘s speciality of promotions and marketing with yoga, health and wellness.  It resulted in my connecting with various companies to review products (and sometimes hold giveaways – hence the lucky!).  I was lucky enough to connect with Gaiam to test one of their yoga mats.

The main reason my husband had purchased me the BAM was because in some poses, on a thinner mat, my bones would press hard against the floor and hurt.  I definitely didn’t have that problem on the BAM.  As part of the product review, Gaiam let me chose the mat I was going to test.  How to choose, how to choose!

Did I want go with a pretty mat or a practical mat?  (Spoiler Alert: practical won out in the end.)

I went to Gaiam’s online store and selected View All.  My first two picks were the Chakra Yoga Mat and the Zen Garden Yoga Mat.

I kept reading the description of the mats and they were both 24”W x 68”L x 3mm.  I was afraid my knees and hips would hurt using such a “thin” mat.  I used Gaiam’s Yoga Mat Comparison Guide and the practical Capricorn in me won out.  I selected the Reversible Yoga Mat in purple.  (I liked the orange yoga mat color, but the regalness of my alter ego, the Contest Queen, also won out.) When it finally arrived I was very excited!

Thankfully, as I have a daily yoga practice, I didn’t have to wait very long to try it out.

It was very “thin” and light compared to the mat I am used to carrying around.  A real treat as I headed off to the yoga studio.  I discovered I should have rolled it out and let it sit for a day or two first as I had to flip it over so it wouldn’t keep curling up on me.  (That was only because it was brand new.  It hasn’t done it since.)  The first thing I noticed, and this is important as I do hot yoga everyday, is that the Gaiam yoga mat is very grippy.  My hands and feet didn’t slip as much as when I use my regular mat.  Now, it is hot yoga and no mat will grip 100% when one is all sweaty.  It was grippy enough to impress me.  The only position that posed a problem was Locust Pose as my hip bones dug into the floor.  (Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun.)

The second day I planned to test the mat I was running late and the corner got caught in my front door.  It got a wee bit crimped. The mat is usable, but now there is a crease in the corner.  I feel there is a metaphor about life in there somewhere, but I am not sure what it is just yet.

I tested the mat again, but this time I used my yoga towel as I normally would as it catches sweat and provides greater traction.  That worked a bit better for me during the floor poses as it gave just that much more cushion.

I really like the yoga mat I was given to test.  I would recommend Gaiam yoga mats.  The nice thing is, if you are not comfortable buying online, Gaiam sells their products through many retailers.  Now I just have to use my skills as the Contest Queen and win myself a new yoga mat bag!

This was in my email inbox today.  Far too funny to keep to myself.  I had to share.