Life in Green
A green structure spotted on a walk. Follow me on Instagram for more photographs from my life in L.A.
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Filtering by Tag: EXERCISE
The Rider
6 Likes, 0 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "Post-horseback riding selfie 🐴"
A post-horseback riding selfie from my Instagram feed.
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Pilates Is Great
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Walkabout
14 Likes, 1 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "🍂"
Recently, I’ve started walking again for several reasons. I gained some weight. It helps with anxiety. When I’m walking, I feel like I’m in control of something, even if it’s that my body is moving forward. Most of the time, I think about something related to work. On walks is a place where mental organization and sometimes epiphanies take place. Possibly, it’s also a situation that makes me feel small. In the world, you are tiny. At home, you are big. So far, it’s going pretty good. My brain is settling, relaxing, easing. Writing is a lot like walking. Just keep going.
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More of This
I've been doing more pilates lately. It seems to do all good things. I'm standing up straighter. My muscles are longer. And I'm working on getting my alignment realigned. It's certainly a curious practice, and I can't say I understand how it works, but you might want to try it if you haven't. You can start by going to a mat pilates class. It will tone up your core in no time flat. Promise.
What You Don't Do Means More Than What You Do Do
Watching a Muay Thai class after mine today, it occurred to me that sometimes it's not about what you do do, but what you don't do. The best guy in the class had a lot of don'ts. He didn't have a conditioning problem. He didn't lose focus. He didn't deviate from his intensity. He didn't wait a second to start the next thing. He didn't half-ass what he did. He didn't have an attitude. He didn't squander himself. Unburdened, he was the best.
Girls who Box
See this Instagram photo by @susannahbreslin * 13 likes
I've taken up Muai Thai boxing and really love it. Here's why.
It's all about aggression
I think as a woman sometimes it's not OK to be aggressive. Even if you're six-foot-plus. Or maybe especially if you're six-foot-plus. In a way, Muay Thai boxing is all about aggression. But it's not about being angry. It's about focusing intensity for maximum effect.
It's a great workout
My sit-ups and jumping jacks aren't too bad, but, my god, my pushups are an exercise in humiliation. Apparently, I have no upper body strength. Muay Thai boxing is great for being long and lean, for losing fat, and for building muscle. All good things.
It's fun
I would probably be at a total loss if I hadn't done karate several decades ago. Because I did, I get some of the basics. And I'm not too twitchy about striking someone. At the same time, there are some things I learned that I'm now having to unlearn. That's the hard part.
I Am Fat
Image via Xpresso Fix
Somewhere along the way, I gained ten pounds. Here's what I'm doing about that.
More yoga: I'm a Gordian knot.
More walking: I'm a flaneur.
More exercises: I'm a machine.
Walking Is Like Meditating
"Walk"
"Flogging the Freelancer" is a blog post a day on freelancing in the gig economy. Browse the archives here.
I went for a walk today because I try and do a walk almost every day and many days I fail but I keep trying. On Friday and Saturday I got a lot of work done on this book proposal I'm working on and Sunday I had a headache so bad that I spent the day in bed. By Monday the headache was lingering around the edges and then leaving.
Today was the first time that my head didn't feel like splitting open like Zeus birthing Athena straight from his skull which must've been painful for him but thankfully Hephaestus was there to help him and I almost had like a hangover from the headache.
Eventually I decided to go for a walk where there were clouds and trees and some otters that barked and hissed at me from under a bridge while I half-dangled myself over it to watch them.
I get some of my best thinking done when I am walking, I think. At this point I was able to go through the part of the book proposal I'd done piece by piece and put it together like a quilt and better visualize how it works as a totality.
I wondered while I walked home if you can think more clearly in this situation because everything shifts in perspective and you are not the god in front of the machine but the tiny figure moving through the world which is so very very big.
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