Bringing Meditation into my life

I'm a huge fan of yoga. I started doing it through a work sponsored event over ten years ago and immediately experienced results. The physical assertion of a yoga practice creates a stronger body and may lead to health benefits. However, the aspect of yoga which really affected me is the mental component. Yoga allows calmness to overwhelm me through specific concentration. I always feel stronger after a yoga class, physically and mentally.

Everyone knows about meditation. How you perceive it is directly related to whomever you know who does a meditation practice. Personally, I never thought I needed meditation. I do yoga fairly regularly now and am grateful for the mental strength it gives me. However, a few people have recently asked me if I mediated. One was going to do a Oprah/Deepak Chopra 21 day meditation challenge in August. She, a person whom I once dragged to yoga and subsequently hated it, had done a similar meditation challenge earlier this year. She claimed it helped her immensely. The only reason this intrigued me was because she hated yoga. How is meditation really different from yoga? The obvious answer is the physical actions of yoga differ from the physical relaxation of meditation. Knowing my friend is an active person by nature, I was even more curious.

So I started to meditate. I used the Oprah and Deepak Chopra 21 day meditation challenge as a guide mostly because I started after August 5th. Well, I should say I tried to start meditating. The more I learned about meditation, the more I realized it is quite naive to do it without a teacher. Yet even without guidance, I felt myself, for a lack of a better word and believe me I thought it, enlightened. If yoga makes me calm, then meditation makes me purposeful. I really can't explain any other way.

I recently read a GQ article about transcendental meditation. The article inspired me to try other types of meditation and to write this post. Meditating requires 2 sessions of 20 minutes every day. Some days, this also happens to the writer of the GQ article, meditation is easy and other days it is hard. Some days I completely forget to do it and other days I can't wait to meditate. I encourage everyone to try it because everyone should experience meditation. Overall, I'm glad to have started something that will only benefit me in this existence called life.

My Dillon Panthers

My fantasy football team name is Dillon Panthers. This is a tribute to Friday Night Lights, the tv series (I haven't watched the movie which lead to the tv series). Though I do like tv, I'm not into serious tv. This means I haven't watched The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men, or Breaking Bad. I know, I know...what can I say? I've never had HBO and for awhile, I didn't even have cable. I've seen every single episode of Sex and the City because I bought my sister the Sex and the City collector's edition for her birthday one year (her request). I eventually made it through the entire series.

The only reason I've seen Friday Night Lights is because my oldest friend became obsessed with it. She then got our other best friend (we've known her since second grade) into it and then it was just peer pressure. They encouraged me to watch it (all five seasons which just sounded like a huge time commitment) because I like football, it is well made, and the story-lines were superb. Also between the two of them, they had all five seasons.

Friday Night Lights is a tv series about football, but really about family. Every Friday night, the people of Dillon, Texas are bonded by football to become family. The core family is the Taylor family which is comprised of Coach Taylor, his wife Tami Taylor, and their daughters. The best part of Friday Night Lights is they took a risk with Coach Taylor and Mrs. Taylor as a couple with a strong marriage who genuinely care for each other. Everyone I know who has watched the series, admires the Taylors. Individually, the Taylors are strong. I often think all NFL coaches would be better if they tried to emulate Coach Taylor. Once I told a friend I was 90% sure I could coach better than Norv Turner just because I had watched every single episode of Friday Night Lights. I also know there is huge following of women who live by "wwttd" which stands for "what would Tami Taylor do" when faced with a huge decision. She is one of the strongest female characters ever written. The fact they are a married couple who lean on each other out of respect and love would make anyone envious if they weren't so admirable. The drama from the series mostly stems from the high school players who see football as glory, a way out of poverty, an alternative to a prison life, or even a replacement for the family they never really had.

With the end of Breaking Bad near, everyone has been talking about tv series that ended well. I can personally attest that Friday Night Lights has a pretty perfect ending. You will feel warm-hearted by the end. You may also want to move to Texas. So you won't be disappointed once you make it through all five seasons. Though season 2 is weird and cut short by the last writers' strike. Friday Night Lights changed the way I live my life. How could it not when the most pivotal words from the series  is Coach Taylor's favorite saying of "clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!"

Rue La La has figured me out

Since I do like fashion, I subscribe to all sorts of fashion email lists. I don't open every one of them. However, there are pockets of time where I just want to look at pretty things. I've always enjoying the physical act of shopping: going into stores, walking around, browsing, searching for deals, and getting cute bags with your purchase. As I get older and perhaps becoming better at internet shopping, I am buying more things on-line. Sometimes, it is just easier. Sometimes, there are good sales. Sometimes, a shopping website knows you so well...rewarding them with a purchase just seems like the right thing to do.

Rue La La understands me, at the shopping version of me. I subscribed to Rue La La through a friend's link. If I bought something from Rue La La, she would have gotten a $10 credit. However, I never bought anything off the site. Rue La La has nice things, many times I have been tempted. I just never clicked the "complete order" tab. I'm not a person who "needs" things and I usually forget stuff I didn't buy. I do like a good deal and this is where Rue La La gets me. Instead of offering discount codes, Rue La La gives credit. It happened after I had subscribed to Rue La La emails for about 4 months without buying anything. I got a friendly email from the CEO of Rue La La who said he "noticed" I hadn't bought anything. He thought I would really like their company if I would give them a chance, and offered me a $30 credit. Basically free money I could spend on anything. How could I not spend free money? I ended up getting a BCBG purse which cost $30 and I only had to pay for shipping. Since one of my internet pet peeves is paying for shipping, what Rue La La does for shipping is kinda marvelous: you pay $9.95 once and everything you buy for the next month is shipped for free. Seriously, Rue La La just gets me. I didn't order anything else after buying the BCBG purse but the free shipping was very tempting.

This leads us to last week, where I got another email from the Rue La La CEO commenting on my lack of purchases. He wished I liked their company more (I do like their company!) and offered me a free $25 credit towards my next purchase. More free credit? Because I haven't bought anything? Well if you insist. So of course the last couple of days, I've been trolling the Rue La La site. I'll probably use the credit for something (I keep looking at shoes....) and will be completely happy with my purchase. Of course I will be tempted again by free shipping the month after I make my purchase.

So Rue La La has done enough to win my allegiance. I'm obviously not their ideal customer, but I do appreciate their attempts at trying to win me over. And it is working! At least well enough for me to write a glowing post about them.

Nothing like a mini-heat wave to make you anticipate fall

Last Friday, it was so hot...I didn't eat anything until dinner. The whole day I just consumed liquids. Water, juice, water, iced coffee, and more water. Presently the daytime is still warm (low to mid-80s), but definitely manageable. I'm back to normal eating though I did have ice cream for dinner.

Today is Labor Day which signals the end of summer. This means fall, my favorite fashion season, is upon us. I mean who doesn't like sweaters, tights, and boots! Then fall has my favorite hues. I would say about 70% of my wardrobe is composed of blue and grey. I'm getting excited just thinking about it. 

Of course fall brings back my favorite tv shows. What am I most excited about? New Girl (15 days away!), Scandal (Scott Foley is now a regular!), How I met your Mother (cautiously optimistic), and other shows I can't remember because it has been too long. 

Then there is football. All predictions suggest the Chargers will be terrible this year. I begrudgingly agree because there is no evidence to suggest otherwise. However, I'm hopeful they will at least be watchable. After enjoying the Super Bowl last year (a superb football game where two brothers coached against each other using an impressive amount of psychological warfare), it made everyone wish great football games could happen every week. That will never occur, but the possibility makes the return of football most welcome. 

Finally, I have a couple of trips planned. The first is going to Las Vegas for Life is Beautiful Festival. My favorite band is The Killers and I've always dreamed of seeing them in Las Vegas. Throw in Imagine Dragons (whose song Demons is currently my favorite song) and Capital Cities it becomes the perfect 2013 festival lineup. It may also be a grand foodie experience with its culinary village. The festival is in downtown Las Vegas which I've never experienced. This will probably be the best way to enjoy Fremont Street. My second trip will be to NYC to visit my oldest friend. We met in kindergarten and need to celebrate 30 years of being friends...one year late. I haven't bought that ticket yet, but I will definitely fly out to see her this fall. We'll toast 30 years of friendship over some wine and delicious food. Maybe even a cronut or two.