It’s over.

Beautiful Readers,

…my fast, that is. Over before it really began (see previous post about fasting).

• 8am    Whipped up a batch of lemonade with maple syrupy goodness and a dash of cayenne. Drank some.
• 8:15-9:15   Felt virtuously ’cleansed’ .
• 9:15-9-45  Felt quite hungry and obsessed with things I was not eating.
• 9:45 – 10:15  Caught myself  thinking thoughts like, ‘cool, even though I am feeling famished and exhausted I still have enough energy to walk up the stairs to the second floor of my apartment!’
• 10:15 – 10:30Realized this was assinine. Quickly microwaved a small plate of  Organic Blue Corn Chips with colby cheese. Ate a little chocolate. And some pudding. And, just now, cooked up a nice steaming cup of Chai. Totalling, maybe 1100 calories.

Fasting is for someone else I think. I was turned on to it because it was so gratifying to fast when we were in Egypt this past Ramadan. It felt like the polite thing to do and was also thrilling as a culturally significant communal show of strength and discipline, but fasting for no other reason than wanting to fit into even tighter jeans–I’m just not into. If I had medical reasons to lose weight I’d feel completely differently. So that’s all folks. I’m unlinkely to try that particular experiment again.

Overall, my favorite diet secret is very French really (or at least how the French women I have known deal with these things). If I eat a lot one day, I eat less the next, and maybe exerise a little more. I keep track of the numbers on the scale and measure my fat percentage from time to time. If I gain some weight. I lose some weight at my soonest convenience. Some days I allow myself to feel hungry. Most days I eat only the amount of food I need to not feel hungry-rarely more. My family does not have institutionalized dessert. I can count the times I have baked with white flour (kid’s stuff sometimes). My family eats only whole wheat bread and pasta. We eat out infrequently. We order in even less. I cook daily. And Voila! A functional, non self-punishing, approach to normal weight management!

Though my strategy would be very different if I were eager to lose larger amounts of weight.  Having seen clients that were both successful and unsuccessful at doing this–I would first have to admit to myself that significant (anything over 15 lbs) weight loss is very very difficult and would likely have to become the focus of my life for awhile (underestimating ((or just begrudging)) the difficulty of major weight loss is the number one reason I have seen clients fail to lose weight).

I would spend money in advance to line up all the professional support and tools I think might help me, recruit the assistance of any friends and family I could trust not to sabotage my efforts, lay out a whole course of non-eating treats and indulgences to get me through the intense feelings of deprivation that merely not eating can bring. Overall, it is not the physical reality of weight loss that causes most people to fail–it is the psychological burden and the frequent surprise at how terrible merely not-eating can feel. It takes real fortitude to lose a lot of weight, but the health risks associated with obesity certainly can make a full campaign worthwhile.

Thanks for reading,

Alix Florio;     President

Beautiful Fitness

Playing Fast and Loose with Fasting

Beautiful Readers,

For several years I have been following the recent fascination with fasting. There are all kind of ’systems’ on the market that claim to offer toxin removal, energy-enhancement, and overall purifying benefits. Some popular ones are  Master Cleanse which features a lemonade and cayenne pepper concoction and very little else for as long as you can stand it , something called  Blueprint Cleanse which will deliver new juice to your door every day of the week depending on how long you plan to partake in their juice-only program, or The David Kirsh Systems that offer every variety of healing through specialized eating (or not eating) that you could possibly imagine David Kirsch 5 Day Detox Kit  offers pro-biotic solution (probably not a bad idea for someone who won’t be eating), protein drinks, some fizzy vitamin stuff with tea extract, and pretty much the same lemonade as in the Master Cleanse variety.

A few things come to mind. First, the last place I heard this much language about needing to purify, cleanse, and remove toxinsthat might be within us was in a New England Catholic church with my grandmother many years ago. Coincidence? I don’t think so. It seems pretty safe to presume that humans may have a pesky, irrational, tendency to think that there might be something ‘impure’ about them that maybe needs to be fixed.

Also, there is no actual science to suggest that there is anything that needs to be cleaned inside us that our internal organs don’t do a mighty fine job cleaning themselves. That’s kind of what our body does– take things apart and make them usable, fix them up, and put them in the right places. And this notion that I have sometimes heard that our organs need a ‘break’ is just silly. Our organs don’t need a vacation anymore than our kitchen sponge does.  Here’s what a Gastroenterologist from the Mayo Clinic has to say about detox diets.

Now here is where things get complicated. All the stuff you hear about sugars, fats, and chemical additives being bad for you (and your internal organs) is resoundingly true. Sugar (and that’s carbohydrates of certain kinds too), in too large a quantity, over time, can literally start breaking down the linings of internal organs leaving them available for infection, and literally changing how our hormones behave. In this way, our internal organs do, in fact, want a ‘break’ but the break they want is long term and spans years of dietary improvement. Not nearly so exciting as a little lightheadedness and a bottle of lemonade.

For the record  I think fasting is ok. Short term and with the right conditions (well hydrated-not too much exertion) and please don’t include any form of speed with the suffix ’-ine’ to ‘boost’ your metabolism. Just simply not eating for a couple of days, maybe drinking a fair bit of green tea (which I am convinced has had me lose more weight in the past)  is an acceptable way to gain control over your eating habits, drop a few pounds, and decrease your hunger overall. Also, fasting, can bring into very fine focus (mostly due to that emergency-like starving feeling) your relationship to your body.

The kids are away and the bf is at a weekend workshop..so for the next two days, as the perennial guinea pig (a very svelte guinea pig), I’m going to try living on only a lemonade recipe with cayenne pepper and maple syrup (ingredients of the two above recipes) to see what it’s like…and I’ll let you know how it went when it’s over.

Thanks for reading,

Alix Florio

President Beautiful Fitness

Wear Totally the Wrong Shoes for a Happier, More Meaningful, Life!

Beautiful Readers,

What the hell happens to us as we start getting more of what we want?
How did a mere six block trip to the gym in a giant, wildly beautiful, snowstorm turn into an hour of hunting for a certain pair of Gortex lined boots? What is going on here? For more than an hour this afternoon, I drifted, unthinkingly, through my apartment, trance-like, rythmically turning over every boot I own in an effort to find the ones that I had bought for a snowy occasion just like this. Two hours later I still have not left.

I mean, after all, if my feet get cold on the way to the gym then it might take awhile for the them to warm up while I work out…and that might be uncomfortable. Oh wait, I know, maybe if I wear wool socks and then change once I get there…oh but then I need a locker because what if  my fancy boots get stolen, I mean they’re pretty nice after all– and where are the wool socks? Maybe with the ski stuff? Hmm, and I should wear a hat, but I really don’t like hats, and I think I might even be slightly allergic to the fur inside the one I have been wearing.

 Now, I’m not sure how this all seems to those of you reading. Boring I’m guessing. But from this end it’s more than that. It’s a warning. A warning that if I don’t put an end to this kind of micro-focused self-coddling nonsense right away my life could quickly turn into an existential nightmare a la the unbearably twee parents in some 80’s brat pack film.  This kind of natural smallness, folks, may be my greatest fear, and it should be yours too. It’s much more likely to take you out than anything more exciting. It is the darkness that is always at the door of a  safe and stable world. And it is not benign.

I am convinced that personal smallness and cumulative petty fears  are perhaps the greatest contributors to aging and depression and age-related depression. Smallness and tightness and meanness and boredom are much more common enemies in life than anything more dramatic. Wouldn’t it be great if the thing you should fear most wore black, dripped with blood, and taunted you with fire? It would be so much easier if your soul was jeopardized most by some kind of fearsome Beelzebub just seething with action-packed torment!

But really it’s Gortex lined boots that you should fear most. Or always needing skim milk in your latte, or being afraid of rain or snow. Or being afraid to look bad. Or doing the wrong thing. Or being a terrible dancer. Or picking the wrong person. Or what your neighbors think of anything.  Or whether or not to return that hat you bought. Or feeling upset you burned the sausage and filled the house with smoke.

I’ve gotta go now–out into the blizzard.

Thanks for reading!

Alix

President; Beautiful Fitness

Van-i-ty is such a lonely word.

Beautiful Readers,

 You’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little confused about the whole vanity thing. On the one hand it seems to me that it’s natural to feel uneasy spending time, energy, and God forbid, money on how you look, instead of, let’s say, helping the old lady down the hall figure out how to use Microsoft Office, teaching your kids Urdu, or writing checks to charities. Vanity is a sin, right?

 But then if you leave your house, ignoring that dollop of shaving cream on your face you’ll feel embarrassed. Or if you go out wearing your pajamas, with coffee on your shirt, or with yogurt or toothpaste visible anywhere on your body– someone is likely to notice you, and not in a good way.

The way you look gives a certain impression to people who see you, and whether we like it or not (mostly, not, frankly) it affects, in no small way, how we are handled by strangers and acquaintances (though hopefully not so much by friends). It is not a secret that overweight people are often treated poorly, taller men get better jobs, people  act dismissively with people who look ‘old’ to them, and cute girls get a lot of perks overall.

And then, just to keep things interesting, there are totally different levels of social expectation for appearance depending on where you are and who you are percieved  to be-that’s right, powerful stereotypes, whatever you may think of that.

Who wants to be the only schlumpy gay man in midtown ? And yes, I see all five un-coiffed gay men raising your hands to tell me I’m wrong–well you can just tuck that Barneys tag back into your distressed sweatpants and admit that you’d be waiting a long time on 57th street before you saw one gay male who shops at Target.

And isn’t it great to be a mom in Park Slope, Brooklyn (my delightfully un-glamerous, family oriented, neighborhood)  and to still be wearing your favorite Lands End jeans 10 years later,  knowing that there are women just on the other side of the bridge who have been pondering how back pocket embellishments visibly affect tush shape? And while the Park Slope mom’s beauty ritual may involve wrestling her hair into a ponytail in the morning–not three miles away, some must have a perpetual blow-out, as if their hair naturally grew an inch away from their scalp before submitting to gravity.

The trouble with appearances is that you can’t hide ‘em, and our deep (and totally natural) need to create order in a very complicated world means your appearance can make decisions for you. Why are yoga instructors, on the whole, a fair bit better looking than your average citizen in ways that have very little to do with yoga? 

I’m guessing it’s because ‘Yoga Teacher’ has become a social signifier in our heads, like ‘Gay man in midtown’  and suggests a look we all expect. I strongly suspect that less attractive people with an interest in yoga are not getting certified because they don’t feel they look enough like the ‘yoga instructor’ in their mind. Which is a pity. But I’m pretty sure it’s true.

 As you can imagine, the complexity of emotions surrounding the looking-good/feeling-good continuum within the fitness and health world is enormous. To say the least. And it’s no wonder, because at the core of the ‘it’s all about how you feel, take care of your health’ wellness industry is this one very dirty little secret: Living an optimally ‘well’ life makes you look great. 

In fact all the things we think of as ‘beautiful or handsome’ are just signs of superior health and metabolic youthfulness. Shiny hair? Nutritive rich diet plus relaxed lifestyle;  Smaller waist? Enough sleep, less fat on your organs. Glowing skin? Nutritive rich diet, adequate exercise, less stress. You see where this is going. There is not one thing that people try to do to themselves cosmetically that does not have it roots in superior health. And who doesn’t want people to percieve them as healthy? No one doesn’t, whatever they may tell you.

Of course, in absolute terms of goodlookingness, there’s genetics too–things like height, hair type, and body part proportions, are pretty much unaffected by lifestyle, and aging does bring certain inevitable realities that take a toll on most superficial kinds of beauty. But all the rest is just health.

So who can resist  boosting their appearance of health some in order to reap the benefits unfairly distributed to those fortunate enough to live, since birth, in an atmosphere  that  is stress free, nutritiously catered, with plenty of time for regular exercise, water drinking, and sleep! So maybe a certain essential vanity is OK (you decide how much that is based on your lifestyle or social group) as long as it doesn’t preoccupy you when you are getting on with things, and doesn’t take time away from things that affect the quality of your life more.

Having said all this about vanity– I’ve done very little about mine lately, and spring is a time of year when I naturally tend to think more about how I look. Look out for honest reviews of services and products you may, or may not, want to try!

Lucky Readers!: Beautiful Fitness will be offering Fitness Tours for visitors to New York City starting in May!

 Look out for upcoming details of our, benefit-packed, BFNYC Fitness Tours and get to know the city like a wellness insider. Enjoy some great exercise (we’re thinking 6 miles of walking) through some of the most famous parts of the city with knowledgeable Beautiful Fitness staff, get some terrific free loot,  tuck into a great healthy lunch with us, and learn about New York as you enjoy a chance to visit some of the best studios and wellness spas the city has to offer! Bring your sneakers! Bring your camera! Bring your desire to get (or stay) fit in NYC!

Thanks for reading!,

Alix Florio;  President, Beautiful Fitness

www.beautifulfitness.com

In Ambitious Pursuit of a Type B Personality

Beautiful Readers,

So it struck me like a bolt of lightening the other day in yoga class that I have no problem doing all the things I was taught to do as I came of age in the Reagan-era souped-up rat-race that was New York City of the 1980s. I dream big dreams, I head fearlessly towards my goals, I pursue the things I want, I speak out when I feel I should. What I can not do, however, is, um, shut up and take a back seat, even when maybe I ought to.

Newsflash: Passivity and submission are worthwhile skills when appropriate. Powerful even. So if I believe in the power of passivity then why do I feel afraid I’m owed a wedgie from Gloria Steinem as I write?

Seriously though. As I work actively on meditation and relaxation techniques these days, I can’t help but notice what a bad attitude my subconscious has about letting go of control. Of anything. Of breathing. Of how far my hands should be from my body when I lie in corpse pose after yoga class (aka Savasana-the yoga pose of total relaxation where you lie on your back, with your palms turned upwards)

 In the past, when I saw personal training clients, I used to be amazed by how many of our, typically, rather professionally successful clients, really had a hard time lying in a relaxed Savasana position for a mere three minutes after they had worked out. It was kind of adorable really, Masters and Mistresses of the Universe, nervously fidgeting on the floor after only 30 seconds, blinking their eyes open and closed as every minute went by, to ask me if their three minutes was over yet. Once you believe that the sun has risen upon you and that you should seize every moment–it can be really hard to stop seizing and let a couple of those minutes get away free.

I mean, I understand why passivity is not more popular. After all, it’s a very hard sell. The rewards of passivity are not so obvious–mostly because a passive postion is all about what it is not. And in the fast paced and flashy world of thrill-a-minute, subtlety-less, fast-is-sexy, bold-is-beautiful– making a case for the absence of stuff, well,  just seems kind of boring. And all those things you may have heard about how ”there is no light without the dark”, “there is no form without emptiness”, just seem like fancy language used to impress college kids, or worse, by power mongers trying to get over on someone. 

But I would like to propose that being able to be electively passive is just as powerful as being supurbly active. It is the thing that can take you from sprint to marathon–or from sprint to really long sprint if sprinting is your thing. It can also mean the difference between having an ordinary successful life or a deeper capital-S Successful life.

The garden variety successful life would be an existance where you actively hit all the societal “marks” for success adequately, work, family, home…etc. without really knowing why you are doing these things and whether or not they are increasing your contentment overall. The capital S Successful life, in contrast would be one that embraces taking the time to retreat from time to time into yourself, feel your properly humble and grateful place in the universe,  to make sure you are hitting your own marks adequately–with the goal being contentment–society, and your learned expectations, be damned.

Now, before you quit your job, leave your spouse, and send the kids to boarding school–there does seem to be a correlation between conventional kinds of success, and real happiness, for most people. We’re social animals, and that’s OK–but with a little passive (read: judgementless) reflection on your day to day package–a little stepping back and seeing things as they really are as opposed to the way we project them to be–couldn’t life be richer?

Thanks for reading!

Alix Florio CEO Beautiful Fitness

www.beautifulfitness.com

And The Beat Goes On…

Beautiful Readers,

After years of exercising and thinking about exercise, I am increasingly sure that any fitness challenge goes off much easier with good music on your ipod. And it just so happens that almost every fitness professional I know thinks so too.

Long before I became the fitness maven that I am today I used to carry my walkman around in my hand when I enjoyed my occasional .3 mile run in the park (yes, that’s a decimal point before the 3– I was much more nerd than jock) but way back then I really didn’t understand the power of music in making sure exercise stays a regular, evolving, part of life.

The right playlist can be the magic ingredient that makes intolerable workouts, tolerable, gets you up and out of the house on dreary days, helps you get through 40 minutes of cardio when you’d rather spend 4 minutes on cardio, and adds sexiness to even the most uninspiring workout environments.

I have been known to turn around and go home to get my i-pod when I forget to bring it to the gym.  I definitely can’t imagine going running without one (unless you have a great coach full of helpful advice (www.beautifulfitness.com ), and working out at home with only the sound of street noise, or my kids fighting over the t.v. remote for ambiance—is inconceivable.

There’s so much great music to choose from too. But be aware that even objectively awesome music is not all equal when you are using it for fitness purposes. Here are some tips on successfully using music to keep your workouts grooving:

***Rock is king. I love classical music, and have occasionally tried working out to jazz, and while you might think mellower music would keep you cool while you sweat—most people who have tried it seem to find quieter music more pacifying than motivating. Stick with rock. The driving beat really helps.

***Although, after many years of wrinkling my nose at most music played in most gyms, I have come to accept that even a pop beat I don’t love can equal a fun, pumped-up, cardio workout. Having said that, why listen to bad music when good music can offer such great motivation? Don’t listen to music you don’t like just because it has “cardio workout” written all over it.  Keep shopping long enough to find upbeat music that gets your heart rate up while it thrills you with its brilliance.

***Experiment. I have discovered that there is certain music I particularly love to work-out to, that I don’t normally listen to at home. For me, classic rock, seems perfect for exercise, but is generally a little ‘deep’ for regular background listening at home. I also really like to work-out to certain techno tracks to which I would never subject my family.

***If you have a family (or roommates) to whom you must cater your music tastes while at home, it can be really fun to listen to something more raucous with a lot of swear words in it when it’s just you and your i-pod.

I hope you are all looking forward to a bright and exciting 2010. A lot of change is coming this year. I promise. Some bad things will happen and some good things will happen too. And I bet if you look back, honestly, on 2009, you’ll find the same was true. Everything changes. And the more things change, the more they stay the same, as they say. So stay focused, healthy and sane in the New Year! and get ready for whatever is coming your way.

Happy New Year everyone, and thanks for reading,

Alix Florio               president; Beautiful Fitness

Beautiful Fitness’ Best of 2009

Beautiful Readers,

What a spectacular year! There have been ups and downs, but then, isn’t every year just like that! After much deliberation, Beautiful Fitness would like to share with you what it considers to be the best of all things fitness and wellness 2009!

Best small space total workout: Boxing -If you think about it it makes sense that boxing would be such awesome indoor exercise. Boxers work with very little equipment, often in small spaces, and in order not to get walloped in the ring they have to be firm and fast. That means premium cardio, flexibility, balance and strength. Try it for yourself at home (or with a friend) with one of our Golden Gloves instructors (really!) You’ll be in fighting shape in no time.

Best healthy snack: Nuts in their shells - High in calories you say! True enough, but really, how many of these guys can you eat in one sitting without tiring of all the cracking?. The reason we love them? All the right kind of fat. Plus, nuts that need to be extracted from their shells, will put you in touch with your food in a great, mindful, way. Loads of protein too. Yet not so sexy that you’ll be tempted to eat a bowlful (unless you are really really hungry, in which case maybe you should! Just this once.) Good for guests. Pretty in the bowl.

Best outdoor group exercise: Frisbee – Why Frisbee? Who even owns a Frisbee anymore? We do. and we love it for many good reasons. Frisbee is a game that everyone can play (sure, people, claimthat they can’t-but they can), it offers a great non-competitive group dynamic, which is particularly helpful if you are playing with a mix of ages. Frisbee can involve a lot (or a little) running around, Frisbees are cheap, lightweight, and portable. Frisbee can be played in any weather and with any number of people. Perfect.

Best fast food: Subway – This one was easy. Unless you live on the west coast where you can buy freshly made tacos (perhaps the finest fast food on the planet ) Subway is the best place to buy cheap, reasonably wholesome (skip the chips and soda) grub that tastes good and is good enough for you. All the doctors from the hospital near where I live eat there and so do I. Not only do they have a simple yet elegant formula of, deli meat and cheese, lettuce and tomato, and a few delightfully familiar choices of condiments, but they also have hot peppers, green peppers, onions, and whole wheat hero rolls. And they’ll heat your sandwich up if you ask. Plus they make a much better salad than most fancy restarants for only 5 dollars. What a deal!

Best way to relax: Sleep – this may seem obvious, but for many of us, it’s not. You have no idea how many clients who think they need help with relaxation, find themselves instantly more relaxed with brighter outlooks, once they start getting enough sleep. Now if only we could charge them for that…

Second best way to relax: Yoga- For people who’s  bodies are calling out for exercise–but are also looking for a time to connect with their deeper selves-yoga, (as opposed to meditation) is still the best option. Yoga done right offers a perfect blend of mindfulness, healing, positive self-focus, and just the right amount of exercise to help you get in shape and get you out of your head.

Best fitness magazine: Men’s Health – Darn it. For years they’ve been the best. And it kills me. Why on earth is the only truly perfect combination of candy-like popular magazine copy (How to Make All Women Fall in Love With You) plus actually worthwhile advice, plus truly well researched fitness tips and techniques, plus a good looking easy to read layout, in a men’s magazine? Harrumph.

Best at-home fitness device: Fitness Ball – Ask what you can do with one of those over-sized inflated balls? Tell me what you can’t do with them! Fitness balls do double duty as benches for weight training, they offer great options for all kinds of stability work (you can imagine, right?), they are the perfect platform for sit-ups, and with just a little rolling around-they can offer a superb variety of flexibility exercises. Strong enough for larger people and the varieties filled with sand can help folks who need a little extra help with balance.

Best sports drink: Coconut water – Perhaps the best beverage on earth. Full of electrolytes, low in calories, sweet and appealing taste with minimal sugar content. Coconut water also has fantastic sex appeal and reminds us of going to the beach even in the dead of winter.

I could go on….there are so many fabulous fitness-y things out there. What’s on your list?

All the best,

Alix Florio; President Beautiful Fitness

Breathe, rejoice, and repeat.

Beautiful Readers,

Lately I have become totally preoccupied with meditation and Buddhist philosophy. It began a few weeks ago with a visit to a meditation center near my house in Brooklyn after interviewing instructors for Beautiful Fitness. I went to the Buddhist center nearby instead of signing up for a less philosophical meditation class or hiring one of the instructors I had met with, because, when I googled meditation in my neighborhood, it just happened to be the first place to come up.  And now I am hooked.

I can’t say that I accept Buddhist teachings in their entirety (though, believe me, I want to drink this particular Kool Aid). There’s the usual set of seeming inconsistencies that I have trouble getting past, plus a healthy dose of my natural skepticism– but there is no denying the almost inherent appeal of Buddhist philosophy.  I am deeply moved by its unique combination of healthily un-uptight self-discipline and impulsive kindness. And if it were not for the vastly inequitable treatment of Buddhist nuns versus priests in so many countries, which rightly, or wrongly, I hold Buddhism accountable for, I swear, I really would be inclined to start identifying myself as a Buddhist right now. Learn the secret handshake, carry the card, and wear the t-shirt.

Learning to meditate is amazing. Meditation is very profound (does that sound stupidly obvious?). I have really only succeeded in finding my way into that blissful meditative space a couple of times now, but boy, the experience feels as close to something supernatural as anything I have ever done. I mean, I had been told for years that meditation was great, but I had no idea that it was great in so many ways.

Afterall, what’s not to like? Pulse slows down. Freedom from anxiety. Resetting your brain by forgetting about everything for a little while. Sounds great, right? But it gets even better– no one ever explained the psychadelic part of meditating. The part that’s like the early posters for Hair, or something from a classic rock album cover. The flood of images and ideas before you reach the meditative state is intense. The awesome problem solving ability just prior to getting there is astounding. It’s like ’sleeping on something’ and then waking up with the perfect answer, but it’s way faster, and the process is a lot more dynamic than sleeping.

So in an effort to pursuade you to try it yourself, here are some tips that have helped me, a total novice meditator, with no special ability, to enjoy the fruits of this remarkable art:

Sit comfortably with your back straight. If you are new to this, I advise you get comfortable on a chair with your feet on the ground, or sitting on a cushion, or towel on the floor with your legs crossed.

Now, close your eyes, and take a moment to soften your face, be sure your jaw is not clenched (your teeth will likely be slightly apart in your closed mouth), and that your eyes are softly closed, not squeezed.

Begin to focus on the feeling of your breath leaving your nostrils and returning. At this point I like to try to elongate the breaths slightly so that I can become aware of the pause at the end of the inhale and the beginning of the exhale. But maybe that’s just me. It helps me gain focus.

It is likely that once you have relaxed with your eyes closed that you will start to think of things other than your breathing…sounds in the room will seem loud, thoughts about what you did today will distract you…how you are feeling physcially may take your attention….all kinds of things will enter your mind. For me, the hardest thoughts to move away from are the self-conscious awareness of the experience of meditating. ”Look at me meditating-isn’t this cool.” and ”I wonder if I’m going to be able to meditate properly.” are the things that tend to distract me most. The object now is to try to label everything and I mean everything in the biggest way possible, as just superfluous noise for the time while you choose to meditate, and to remain interested only in the feeling of the breath in and out of your nostrils.

If you do happen to be distracted, be easy on yourself, try not to think ”damn. I screwed up meditating”, just accept that your gently bringing your focus back to your breath again and again is part of the process. If you do however think “damn. I screwed up meditating.”, just accept that ex[eriencing some level of self-criticism  is fine too, and then let that go as well. You may find yourself flooded with all kinds of mixed up emotions while you go through this process. All totally normal. All totally fine. Blissed out is just how it looks on the outside at first–blissed out on the inside takes some practice.

It sounds simple enough, I know, and in a certain way, it kind of is. But I guarantee you that if you can succeed in really doing it for any amount of time you will find that you have enjoyed some combination of the worlds best power nap, and an experience that could only be had otherwise on narcotics.

Enjoy the holidays however you want to!

All the best,

Alix Florio                   CEO; Beautiful Fitness