Winter 2013: The music edition

Every few months I make up a new playlist on my iPod. The one that I made for January 2013 I've been listening to nonstop. Working, running, driving, cleaning toilets. A lot of the songs carry over from other time periods - I've got some Simon and Garfunkle that brings back some happy memories from the 1990s - but some songs will always remind me of this particular stretch of time. These are the songs that got me through.

I've never been a big Les Mis fan - Shane and I loved the Les Mis movie with Liam Neeson and Claire Daines but I've never really known the music. This is one of my faves.

I've been loving on Florence + the Machine. She has such amazing lyrics. She reminds me a lot of Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes was every bit as raw as anything Florence does. Her songs kind of creep up on me - I'll notice a new one every few months, despite the fact I've had both Lungs and Ceremonials for over a year. Shrug.

I love that this song is all about the inadequacies of language. It satisfies the english geek in me. (No intentional reference to my sister, ha ha.)

This song is a carry over from the fall. I love the line "I think I need a sunrise - I'm tired of the sunset." I love running to this song.

Likewise this song. Bono and his lyrics make me swoon.

What songs are getting you through?

Meditation

I've done yoga off and on for the past 10 years. Shane and I took a class together once - six or so weeks of classes in the auditorium of his high school (it would have freaked me out to no end to be in my high school auditorium, but the guy took it all in stride.) Melanie and I attended a class in Sugarhouse which was not only an amazing class but had a super hott instructor named Peter. I used to take an awesome power yoga class at the local rec center. And last year I went to bikram yoga twice in a week. My favorite part of any yoga class was always the end, where you lay in shivasana (or "corpse pose"), breathing and relaxing and quieting the mind. I couldn't pin down exactly what I liked about shivasana - I just knew I liked it.

Three weeks ago Rebecca told me about a 21-day meditation challenge that Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra were doing. It was free and I figured I could use a little quiet time in my life, so I started doing it. It only took one session for me to love it.

Each session is 15-16 minutes long. Oprah introduces the subject for the day and then Deepak Chopra discusses the topic further. The challenge is on health - on realizing that our bodies are our greatest gifts and that the thoughts and feelings we have about our bodies affect our overall health. Each meditation lasts about 10 minutes and begins and ends with a bell. It was a little hard for me at first to regulate my breathing and repeating the mantra in my head (why would silently repeating Sanskrit words in my head make me breathless? I don't know. But it did.) but I worked it out through time. I started to realize that I was making my back injury worse by punishing my body for being injured. I realized that I attempt to control things around me which only leads to not just my frustration but to others around me as well. What a concept - to not control things around me. To accept things as they are. (I'm still not perfect at this. Not even close. But I have allowed my children to push the grocery cart at Sam's Club in the past week. And I didn't even complain at them the whole time. Win!)

I like how I feel afterwards. I like how I feel less anxious. Some days I feel energized, other days I feel grateful. After each session, there are 3 questions to answer that deal with the topic for the day. It is satisfying to put into words my hopes for being a better mom, wife, friend, person. My family thinks I am kind of looney, and part of me agrees with them. But being alone in my living room, listening to calming music, thinking of nothing, letting go - it makes me happy. It makes me realize why I've always enjoyed shivasana so much.

I read a quote - "Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God." I don't know that it's exactly my experience, but it makes a whole lot of sense. Opening our hearts, accepting our bodies, setting aside our worries - I don't think God would have a problem with us doing that.

So. Do you meditate? I'm getting worried - the 21-day challenge and it's links will be gone soon and I'm going to need new material. If you have something that works for you, let me know what it is.

Namaste! (Eye roll.)