Tag Archives: meditation

2014 Major Celebrations: Mind, Body & Spirit

Posted on by by Lisa Pozzoni

….and My Story Runs On….

It’s been a few years that I’ve decided not to make New Year Resolutions anymore. There are all sorts of statistics about the % of people who make them and who keep them.

I do believe that this is a great time to reflect on last year and set new intentions for the upcoming year.  I’m combining this all together over 3 blogs posts. My hope is to inspire you to do the same. Today I’m reflecting on my major accomplishments in 2014.  My word of the year was Celebration and my song for this year is Pitbull/Cristina Aguilera’s Feel This Moment (see more in Vision Board section below) When I look back, I like to focus on what I accomplished…maybe a better word is what I CELEBRATED. In the next few days, I’ll write about my major lessons learned in 2014.  I’ll focus on my intentions after taking my next Vision Board class with Sacred Harts.

“If you nurture your mind, body, and spirit, your time will expand. You will gain a new perspective that will allow you to accomplish much more.”
Brian Koslow


2014 Accomplishments
Mind

  • Completed my Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM). This was huge for me because I’ve been working on it for the last 10 years.  I know people that have completed it in 2 years but that’s one of things I love about Toastmasters is that you can move at your own pace. I can’t say enough about this organization.  I’ve been meaning to write a blog about the similarities of Toastmasters and running 😉  coming soon….
  • Completed my Corrective Exercise certification.  I didn’t need to do my CEUs for my fitness training certification yet so I was happy to get ahead of the game.  This was a challenge for me as it’s been awhile since I’ve immersed myself back into studying anatomy.
  • Completed 23 blogs posts. This has been a tough one for me but I’ll be working more on this in 2015.

Body

Spirit

Before I tackle spirit, let me tell you what this means to me. I’ve probably had my biggest growth happen in the last year in this area. This picture sums it up:

We all have a purpose in this world. When I have experiences that bring me true happiness, I know I'm getting closer to my true self and soul.

We all have a purpose in this world. When I have experiences that bring me true happiness, I know I’m getting closer to my true self and soul.

  • Completed three 21-Day Meditation series from Deepak Chopra. These are free and I love them.  I started doing these in May of 2012 and this probably the #1 thing that has changed my life in so many ways. I have 67 pages of journaling from this process. This year I completed the following series: Find Your Flow, Expanding Your Happiness and Energy of Attraction. I can’t recommend these enough.  Find out more on their website and facebook page.
  • Completed my first Vision Board in January 2014.  I’ve always wanted to do these but never got around to it.  I can’t say enough about the workshop I took with Lisa Hecke from Sacred Harts (as a matter of fact, I’m signed up for her next one on 1/11).  I’m a big believer in setting intentions because I’ve manifested amazing things in my life through this process….so I’m interested in anything that will deepen it.  Here is a picture of 2014 Vision Board.  I have this hanging right in front of my computer so I see it every single day.  I even took a picture of it on my phone so I had it handy when I wanted to focus on it.  There were mornings that I would get in my car, look at the photo and blast my song.  As I was doing this, I really stayed present and focused on my vision board intentions.  When I look at all my celebrations for this year, a lot of it was right here in my vision board.  Here is a picture of it:

    visionboard

    Left half is my personal life and right half is my business life

  • Niched my business from general fitness (Easy Fitness Solutions) to The Running University.  I realized that my passion was to see people cross finish lines and accomplish goals they never thought possible whether walking or running. This included a new website, my free ebook 15 Simple Steps for the Beginner Beginner™ Runner, new facebook, twitter and You Tube page.  Running has changed my life in ways I can’t list here right now and I know it can do the same for others (I know all my friends that were non runners would say the same exact thing)
  • Became a ChiRunning/ChiWalking Master Instructor.  I remember when I first became certified to teach and NEVER thought that I would want to or could be one.  I assisted/stalked Danny Dreyer, the founder of ChiRunning by assisting him with several classes in the last few years. I was/am a sponge and who better to learn from than the guru himself. I say that running has changed my life but it’s really ChiRunning.  There are the obvious benefits of decreased chance of injury and learning to make running effortless but it’s really about a lifestyle choice of living intentionally and mindfully.

I’ve been working on this post for 3 hours!  I’m not saying you have to take this long (although it’s leaving me with a great feeling of accomplishment to look back) but maybe take a few moments and look back at 2014.  You can categorize them this same way (Mind, Body Spirit) or however your heart desires.  Whatever way you do it, write it down so you can see just how much you accomplished and celebrated this year!

PLEASE share any of your accomplishments or celebrations in the comments!

P.S. This deal is only good through 12/31.  I recently discovered Flip’n Fit.  Basically you pay a monthly membership fee and have access to 35 different studios from RealRyder Spinning to Pilates to Yoga and now to some of my group classes! They are offering a special deal to my peeps…you need a facebook account though 😉  Pay for one month ($99) and get the next month FREE.  $50 for each month with access to up to 200 classes a day!  Here is the deal:

1) Share this post about Flip’n Fit on your page
2) Like their Facebook page
3) Purchase on or before 12/31 to get your second month FREE! (membership is $99)

I’ve been using them for the last month and love it…I’m now doing RealRyder spin classes 2-3x a week and tried Dahn Yoga which I’d never done before…excited about Barre and Pilates in January too!

From My Running Story to Yours….
(if you feel inspired to share your comments, do so below…I want to hear your story too!)

Now go out and play!

Posted on by by Lisa Pozzoni

….and My Story Runs On….

Have you ever had obvious signs from the Universe about a message that you just couldn’t ignore?  I mean, relentless things that just make you say “OK Universe, I get it!  I need to focus on _____ today”

Well, that happened to me yesterday.  I wanted to blog about it but the message was that intense that I couldn’t even get myself to do any work at all.  Why?  Because the message was:  innerchild

PLAY!

Before I share my personal story about how this transpired yesterday (which is probably way more fascinating to me and no one else, let me tell you why I felt compelled to share this first)

When is the last time that you played?  I’m not talking games or playground play but just truly listened to your heart and did something just because it made you feel like a kid again.

“Play is often described as a time when we feel most alive, yet we often take it for granted and may completely forget about it. But play isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. Play is as important to our physical and mental health as getting enough sleep, eating well, and exercising. Play teaches us how to manage and transform our “negative” emotions and experiences. It supercharges learning, helps us relieve stress, and connects us to others and the world around us. ” Source:  Play, Creativity and Lifelong Learning

adultsvschildren

So my main message to you is to GO PLAY!  We get so caught up in the our priorities, life, work and the stuff we have to do that we don’t allow our inner child to come out and play.  So I dare to you go for it!  If you don’t know how to play because it’s been so long, maybe these questions will help:

  1. How do you like to play?
  2. What are the activities that are fun and exciting for you? How do they make you feel? Perhaps there is something fun and exciting that you have been longing to try….
  3. What do you enjoy doing so much that you lose track of time?

Now let go of your responsibilities (schedule play time if you have too) and make some time to play. Trust me, your mind, body and soul will thank you for it!

Now back to my story.  I consider myself a spiritual person so when I get message from the Universe, I get super excited, especially when I understand the message!

First of all, I have a natural tendency to feel guilty when I take too much time off work. This is still a struggle for me and even harder as a business owner.   I love what I do so much that work and play are almost synonymous.  I spent quite a bit of time with family and friends this weekend when I had a few projects that I really wanted to get done…..so I woke up on Sunday morning and decided to meditate…and this is when the signs started:

  • I’m doing Deepak Chopra’s 21 Day Meditation Challenge and I’m a few days behind so I was catching up (by the way, I highly recommend these.  Meditation has changed my life!).  What was the message of that meditation?

deepak

  • Then I decided last minute to go do a trail run with a friend.  I just signed up for my first Ultra and I need to start doing back to back runs on the weekend.  I ran 15 on Saturday and felt really good on Sunday so I hit the trails…this is when the “message” became clear:
  1. Tried turning my GPS on to track mileage and it wouldn’t work. Battery was not dead but tried for 15 minutes and gave up..
  2. Tried using my Charity Miles App to track mileage but for some reason, the app kept saying “looking for updates”….
  3. My friend Tamika uses RunKeeper so she was going to track our mileage…..only when we got back to the car after the trail run, it only counted the first 15 minutes of our run….
  4. so lo and behold, I guess I was not supposed to be concerned about my mileage but just needed to enjoy the run…this is when I realized the Universe was talking to me….
  • I find trail running in itself very playful. It’s more technical but there is something so fun about it, especially when you are going down a nice hill….totally feel like a kid again!  One of my friends described downhills like being on a roller coaster….Trail running has for sure taught me to play more…
  • Then I got home and for some crazy reason was craving a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich which I haven’t had in awhile and totally reminds me of being a kid…
  • Other things happened throughout the day to reinforce this message but the very last thing, which was the icing on the cake was an episode of Criminal Minds.  We were watching a few reruns from the website and the last words in that last episode I watched were “Let’s Play”.  I couldn’t believe it!

So for those of you that are “open” to these message from the Universe (or God, or your Higher Self, etc), my advice is to pay attention and honor the message.  I’m so glad I did because I had a fabulous day (and weekend) because I allowed myself to play.

Regardless, take the time or make the time to add some PLAY into your life…it’s amazing how much your soul will appreciate it!

So how do you like to play?  What play time will you schedule this week?

From My Running Story to Yours….
(if you feel inspired to share your comments, do so below…I want to hear your story too!)

3 Ways to Change a Bad Attitude on a Run

Posted on by by Lisa Pozzoni

….and My Story Runs On….

I always make it a point to run when I’m in a different place.  This was my 2nd trip to Lake Havasu (for Toastmaster duties) and I was REALLY looking forward to running along the Lake and channel.   Continue Reading →


Resistance is futile!

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Reply

….and My Story Runs On….

Do you ever have one of those days (or runs) where it seems nothing goes right?  I had one of those yesterday morning as I was teaching a ChiRunning workshop. As a matter of fact, one of the participants, sent me this email after class:

“Lisa,
Thank you for a great class today….watching you respond from all of your negative chi this morning was entertaining, you handled every situation with ease and I look forward to using your principles from your chirunning class this morning to achieve my goal on December 8th so that I will finish my first marathon with my daughter! So you know, my first phone call after your class was to my daughter telling her about my positive experience at your class this morning.” Kris W
It started out with me forgetting my “connector thingy” that I use to show the video analysis from my IPad to my flat screen TV.  Then, we were interrupted and all 10 people had to move from one classroom to another one….then, we almost got ran over in the parking lot…then we got interrupted again because my class was running late…..
What did I learn from my meditation practice and ChiRunning that I could apply here?
You got it:  Resistance is Futile!
Resistance, negative energy, friction,  whatever you want to call it, can mess up your day or run.  By being self-aware of these when they are happening to you, you can make a choice on how to handle it.  I used to quickly react to things when they happened to me which made the situation even worst.  Now, I think about it and make a choice to roll with the punches…responding vs reacting….which is what I did yesterday…..
When I realized I forgot my connector thingy, I just had all 10 people circle around me as I showed them their video analysis.  (thankfully I have an awesome boyfriend who brought it to me so I could do the last video taping the proper way)….when we were interrupted the first time, I just said “No worries, let’s all grab our stuff and move”….etc
I found this to be a great way to lead by example and teach my class participants how to apply some of the ChiLiving principles to every day life.  I could’ve been frazzled and freaking out (the old me would’ve been!) but I didn’t realize how well I handled it until I received Kris’s email.

From My Running Story to Yours….

Have you ever had a bad run or bad day and handled it well?  What did you do?

(if you feel inspired to share your comments, do so below…I want to hear your story too!)

Keep Calm Resistance is Futile

Curing a broken heart with running?

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Reply

….and My Story Runs On….

This past weekend, I received an email from someone interested in ChiRunning.  I always ask people if they have any current injuries so I have an idea of how I can help them run without pain.  I’ve been teaching for 3 years now and this is the first time someone responded to me with “nothing other than a broken heart.”

This got me thinking….when was the last time I had a broken heart?  My last 10-year relationship ended 2 years ago and my heart was broken.   Although I was running then, I started meditating as a way to heal.  As I focused on this daily practice, I realized how much meditation was in sync with my ChiRunning practice.  One of the many unique aspects of ChiRunning is the mind/body connection that you develop through your running practice.  I believe both of these cured my broken heart.

What was my biggest learning lessons that I applied to life AND running as soon as I learned them?

Present moment awareness.  What does this mean exactly?  Don’t live in the past and don’t stress about the future (especially if you have no control over the situation).  Once the past is over, there is nothing you can do to change it, so focus on detaching from the situation and letting go.  This is the same for a run!  If you have a “bad” run, just let it go and try to learn from the experience instead of stressing or beating yourself up about it.  LET IT GO!  We can rarely control our future so do the best you can but don’t stress about circumstances you can’t control.  Next time you go on a run, try not having any expectations about that run and see what happens.

Being in the present moment can be so relaxing.  So next time you go out on a run, focus on the present moment:  scenery, your breathing, what your body is doing and leave your mind (ego) at home…no judgement, no beating yourself up….

I found this response from Deepak Chopra (my primary source of meditations) on why it’s important to live in the present:

“Being fully present in the moment is valuable, not because you will remember it as a significant event, but because the present is the only place where you really live life. If you are imagining your future, then you aren’t here now, living life, making choices. Your attention is in the future where no choices can be made. If you are afraid or angry, then you are in the past, remembering old hurts and injustices. But to heal the past you need to bring your attention to the present, otherwise you are just reinforcing the old pain. There is nothing special to do or acknowledge in order to be present. It a matter of simply Being.”

From My Running Story to Yours….
(if you feel inspired to share your comments, do so below…I want to hear your story too!)

How have you cured a broken heart?

Broken Heart

PS. Deepak and Oprah just started a free 21-Day meditation challenge that started yesterday.  This was how I originally started meditating a few years ago…I love these!