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Monday, March 28, 2016

Do the Surya Namaskara! Full Body Exercise in 10 Minutes


Happy Easter, friends!

This week was a busy one for me. I've been doing really well in the Random Act of Kindness Challenge. I did a couple of big favours for my mom and her friend and seeing the grattitute and happiness on their faces when I was done was priceless! Well worth the few hours of sleep I had to sacrifice to get things done J


Despite being busy, I took my time to try and make some gorgeous Easter eggs, coloured with all natural dyes. The result was unexpected, and not in a good way. You can read about my Bad Luck Brian moment and how I tried to save it in my previous post.

Another project that also did not turn out perfect on the first try, were these cute lil' crochet chicks. After a few tries they finally started to resemble something and the end result was positively adorable! I love the huge pom-poms!

Cute lil' crochet chicks are the perfect Easter gift for kids. They are very simple to make using an amigurumi technique. Source: Martina at TalkHappyByMartina.blogspot.com
Cute lil' crochet chicks are the perfect Easter gift for kids. They are very simple to make using an amigurumi technique. Source: Martina at TalkHappyByMartina.blogspot.com

(If you wanna make your own crochet chick, contact me at talkhappybymartina@gmail.com and I will provide you with a pattern. Please, feel free to show off your work, but make sure to credit Martina at TalkHappyByMartina.blogspot.com for the pattern.)

Almost all of the projects I did this week required me sitting down for longer periods of time. After a while I started experienced something that should not be happening to a person of my age.

I'm only 23 but, when I get up from a couple of hours of sitting in a chair, I have to waddle around awkwardly like an old lady for a few seconds to release the ache in my back and straighten my legs. My physical fitness is next to none. Sure, I walk almost every morning to the train station, but a 15 minute daily walk is not nearly enough to counter all the sitting I'm doing.

I'm not really big on long, strenuous exercises or spending hours at the gym, but I still want to do something to stretch myself and strengthen my muscles a bit. After a bit of research I found this: The Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutations.

The Surya Namaskara are perfect for increasing agility and strength! Source: Pinterest
The Surya Namaskara are perfect for increasing agility and strength! Source: Pinterest

The Sun Salutations are a cycle of different yoga poses which help to stretch the whole body and also provide some light muscle exercise. I have already done them today and I LOVE the way I feel after completing three of the cycles. All the musche tension in my body is just gone (like that, poof!), my mind is clear and calm, whereas before I was feeling anxious about having a lot of stuff to do today. So, the Sun Salutations help not only with exercising the body, but also calming the mind.

And the whole thing only took me about ten minutes!

So, there is really no reason for you to not try it for yourself. If you don't like it, you'll only have wasted a few minutes. But I guarantee you that you will.

The Surya Namaskar is meant to be done at sunrise, as its name literally means »sun salutations«, but you can squeeze them in anytime you want – to calm yourself before bed, to wake up after getting up, to stretch during a study or work break ... Really, anytime. You. Want. You only need your body and a floor (yoga mat optional).

This cloudy, foggy Monday afternoon is so perfect to try something new, isn't it? Last week, I challenged you (and myself) to do the Random Act of Kindness challenge (You can still do it! Kindness never gets old!) but this week, I'm challenging you to do the Surya Namaskar with me.

We'll start slowly, with three repetitions, and then we'll gradually increase the number of repetitions to ten in one week. Do three today, four tomorrow, and so on, until, on Sunday, we'll be doing ten Surya Namaskar cycles in one go.

Can't wait to hear how you're finding it!

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