IT’S AN UNFORTUNATE reality that for the better part of the last two years, I’ve spent a large portion of most every day sitting on my bum, working at my computer. For good reason, nearly all of it, as with the publishing of my book there has been round after round of manuscript edits, an endless stream of emails to be written or responded to, one hundred thousand book tour details to be overseen. And that’s not to mention the social media (develop/deploy/follow up on) and on and on—well, you get the picture. All great and important and genuinely joyful work, but nearly all completed while sitting in the manner of Ebenezer Scrooge hunched over his dusty logbooks.

My posture and flexibility have suffered, is the point I mean to make. And this is not a good thing when you are a woman of a certain age and every day offers some new inexplicable pain or stiffness in a part of your body you didn’t know could ache.

I needed to carve out time in the morning for exercise, this I knew. I needed to commit to a regimen that would again get me moving. All that was required was DECIDING what that workout program would be. Well, the deciding, then the doing, which involved (1) the dressing for the exercise, (2) the doing of the exercise, (3) the showering after the exercise, (4) the washing/drying/styling of the hair after the shower after the exercise (I know. I KNOW, but think Roseanne Roseannadanna were I not to do this), and finally (5) the dressing for the day. And I may as well go ahead and add the preparing of the lunch and the eating of the lunch (#6 and #7) because by then, that’s what it would be time for, LOL.

LATE LAST WEEK though, as I was fixing supper, I was listening to Kendra Adachi’s The Lazy Genius podcast and she reminded listeners how, when there’s some project you can’t seem to take on or overwhelm you can’t manage, simply START SMALL. It’s a concept I believe in, and the thought came back yesterday as I swung my legs over the side of the bed and got up to get dressed. “Start small, Cathy. Tiny bits. Something that’s impossible to say no to.” I remembered an online yoga link I’d saved what seemed like a thousand years ago, and sure enough, there she was, the lovely, gentle Kassandra, right there waiting for me on YouTube. Like a Christmas miracle, Kassandra presented to me the option of a 30-Day Morning YOGALATES challenge (yoga + pilates how great is that?) that’s both free and served up in daily bites only 10-15 minutes long. YES! I thought, I CAN DO THIS! And I changed from my PJs to stretchy pants and a tush-covering top and right then and there I rolled out my yoga mat at the foot of the bed.

How good it felt to stretch! How restoring! Plus there was Kassandra’s calm, encouraging voice to help me begin my day grounded and with intention. I was already thinking what a great start this was for me, how important, when class ended and Kassandra leaned over to pull a small card from a small box. Before she read what was on the card, she said, “This is from my I RADIATE JOY Affirmation Deck.”

(The collection is called “I RADIATE JOY,” I kid you not.)

Here’s what the Day 1 affirmation card said:

I am always connected to my heart.

Am I always connected to my heart? I wondered about this question that I’d never even considered. But how beautiful it would be to live with such an intention. How helpful it would be, in times of stress or controversy or adversity or conflict, to take a moment to check in—to see that the connection is there—before reacting, deciding, acting, commenting. How holy, even.

I am always connected to my heart.

It’s a gorgeous mantra for Advent, I believe. And for the holidays. And for a lifetime.

XX00

30 Days of Joy

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