Tag Archives: yoga

SERENITY OF YOGA AND WATER

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Good Morning Thursday, I wish everyone a beautiful day today. I am drinking extra strong coffee this morning, the Siamese nightly wake ups were much more frequent last night. I am about to call Jackson Galaxy from My Cat From Hell, he would be able to fix my issue. Funny, all night long in between the cats being rowdy I dreamed about Stormy, our beloved Tabby who we lost to renal failure last January. We will always miss her, so naturally I feel a bit melancholic this morning. Here she is doing her best downward dog, she was the mascot for the yoga event I planned in Griffith Park for Kitt Crusaders, it was called Downward Dog For Cats.


Yoga was fantastic, as is Nicole my teacher. We did a lot of emphasis on hips and quad stretches. We were working on pigeon pose, and she taught us how to take our mat to the wall and do the pose up against the wall. It is a fabulous albeit hard stretch to do, but I can see how this is going to improve pigeon pose and our quad flexibility. I am so happy that my old flexibility is returning. I guess it is true that you have muscle memory. My Change For A Ten is working for me because of all the time I am putting in working out and doing yoga etc. I believe I would not feel this fabulous if I did not work out.  It takes the balance of diet and exercise to really see a difference in my body. I am so motivated to go forward and I really am enjoying the process as well as the results.

Richard Simmons will be traveling for the next few weeks so I will miss his high energy inspiration. I can still go to Slimmons for the class, but I think tonight I am going to go to the gym or take a class, or something to do with water. I love being in water, always have. It makes me feel completely alive and serene at the same time. I was a lifeguard in my twenties, I felt compelled to learn how to save a person from drowning. 

Here is a poem I wrote years ago about my love of being in the water and swimming, written in 2005.  I actually spent the afternoon swimming, then I took a shower and glanced out the window at the pool with the sun shining through the trees and the poem came to me right then and there. I had to have my husband write it down for me since I was in the shower, lol. Sometimes inspiration hits at the least convenient time, but I am always happy when it does.
Wishing you sunshine and serenity.
Namaste’
Rose

LOVE OF WATER 

I dive in a pool of crystal clear waters,

My worries float away.

I gaze at the sapphire sky, the sun

Blazes brightly above me.

Clouds drift aimlessly

Making a myriad of shapes and sizes.

My wistful spirit is baptized,

I am consumed by this show of

Sky high fireworks;

Warming my soul and body.

Trees pirouette in the wind, a minuet


For weary eyes; I am taken away.

(c) Rose Bruno Bailey

GETTING STRONGER BY THE DAY

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On Tuesday’s I weigh in, and I work out with Mike my trainer and friend. I lost two more pounds this week bringing my total to 190 LBS. This made me so happy, I have been really working hard and sticking to everything I say I will do, and to see the scale go down seven pounds is such a wonderful reward. I know I have a long way to go but to know this is all working motivates me even more. I am almost to the ten pound mark, and a few weeks after I lose the first ten is when I will be volunteering with The Monday Night Mission. Of course all the time I will be working on my twenty pound loss, this is a lifestyle change and I choose to make being healthy and fit a part of my life.

My workout with Mike at the park was wonderful, I can see and feel I am stronger than I was when we began a little over a month ago. Some of the exercises are not as awkward as they once were, and my strength and balance are improving.  I can feel my once dancer’s flexibility coming back, which made me elated. He truly is a great trainer/teacher and I am grateful to him for the time he puts in. I know I am a work in progress but it is all starting to feel quite natural to me. Tuesdays are the day I measure my true progress.

We did something I would have never dreamed of doing, he brought boxing gloves and I practiced punching the targets he wore on this hands and  then he had me alternate arms and do all these boxing moves. It was fun, of course I hit like a girl but I got better and I will get better. I do have this competitive side with myself and I do not give up. We plan on doing it again, it was fun and I can totally feel the effects on my body this morning. I am sore but it a good way. The jogging felt easier for me, especially when I discovered to try to stay on the heals of my feet and not on the ball of my feet. I tend to naturally do everything on my toes.  

Today after work is my one hour walk and my yoga practice. I love the way yoga makes me feel, totally zen inside and out. If I could find a way to practice five days a week I would, it truly makes me feel peaceful inside. I wish all of you love and light and a beautiful Wednesday. full of peace and joy.
Namaste’
Rose






SORE LOSER

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I woke up on Wednesday so sore from my workout with Mike. I have never experienced that type of all body soreness. I am not complaining, I feel like whatever we are doing is changing my body, and I am getting through the initial soreness. It does go away right? So yesterday I took my first yoga class with Nicole, and even though it has been a year I felt fine. She said I looked strong and could not tell I had been away that long. It really felt amazing, and I forgot how much you sweat in a yoga class. My body definitely needs yoga as a companion exercise to everything else I am doing, at least two to three times a week. Ballet classes I have decided will come later in mid fall. I am losing weight, and changing my body with fitness and helping people.  I can put up with the soreness, I guess I am just a sore loser.

Last night when I got home from yoga, I felt all stretched and limber but still sore, so I decided to take a hot bath and use my favorite product for the skin, Trader Joe’s lavender sea salt scrub. It is made with essential oils, all natural and makes you smell delicious. How delicious? Well, I swore I smelled like fruit loops last night. Maybe I was just hungry but this stuff is amazing. You should definitely try it. I usually only wear coconut fragrances and lotions but I love the smell of natural lavender before bed. This scrub is so soothing especially after working out.

Tonight is Richard Simmons aerobic class, and of course I always look forward to it. I am hoping some of the new friends I met will be there. I always keep a food journal for Weight Watchers, but I am going to keep a more detailed one now because Mike would like to see what it is I am eating. Weight Watchers only weighs you in, they do not look at your food journal. This is extra motivation to be on my toes about my diet. I will show it to him next Tuesday, and it will be completely accurate, no cheating. 

Wishing everyone a beautiful Thursday 
Namaste Love, and Light
Rose

SATURDAY YOGI MINDSET

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Good morning and Happy Saturday to all. I am enjoying a quiet morning with my cats and my sleeping husband. Just me, my thoughts and some delicious coffee to begin the day. I think I am in good company. Richard Simmons is having a theme class today, he is going to play all Beatles music. I wish I could go since I love the Beatles, but I feel I needed at least one morning at home to decompress and gather my thoughts from the week. I will do my cardio later in the day. My ankle still feels slightly tender but I am not going full speed so it will be as good as new by Monday or Tuesday. 

I love exercise, and I absolutely love Yoga.  Yoga gives me much of what I remember from ballet class. A true mind and body connection. I plan on taking ballet classes at Align Ballet Method here in West Hollywood as soon as I feel comfortable enough to put on a leotard. I have not taken a formal yoga class in over one year, but I have been meaning to add it to my regimen. Tomorrow is the day I do so. 

My favorite local yoga teacher teaches right by my house three days a week, and today I am calling to see if you can drop in on her yoga classes. If so, I am taking class with her Sundays at 11:00 am. Her name is Nicole and I will include a photo of her at a future date. She has the quality that every yoga teacher I know has, that serene nurturing quality. I am totally happy I may be able to take classes with her again. She also has a company called Honu Yoga and she makes yoga shirts for men, women, and children. She made me one last year when I hosted Downward Dog For Cats. Tomorrow at class I will be picking up my very own bright orange Honu Yoga tee with My Change For A Ten on it. She is so lovely and I really look forward to practicing with her again.

http://www.honuyoga.com/learn_more.php


Last Autumn I contributed three poems to the wonderful website Lightworkers World. They also have a Facebook Page by the same name. These poems are all about inspiration, light and are related to the yogi mindset.  Here is the link if you would like to read three of my poems featured at Lightworkers World. I hope you enjoy them and I wish you a beautiful Saturday full of love and light.
 Namaste’
Rose
http://www.lightworkersworld.com/2012/10/inspiring-poetry-by-rose-bruno-bailey-love-light-namaste/

LIFE THROWS YOU CURVEBALLS

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I have been preparing for my journey to get to my first ten pound goal so I can sponsor my first charity, The Monday Night Mission.  This is not a lose weight quick scheme but a way to finally get fit, healthy and strong, and to lose weight in the process. I plan to do this the healthy way. I am so up for the challenge, except I did not expect to be playing dodge ball with one of life’s cruel little ways of telling you not so fast kid. The dreaded sick curveball has hit me directly in the face with a somewhat subtle reminder on how important the health aspect of my journey is. Without your health you have nothing. The reminder of the importance of good health  has been stalking me since I found out a dear friend of mine was succumbing to cancer, and I am saddened to say is in his final hours. We  move so quickly through our days, running mundane marathons to empty destinations, often forgetting how fragile life is. Sometimes it takes a harsh reminder to wake us up to the fact we are only as good as our health, and everything else is just the icing on the cake; birthday cakes that is.

My sickness thank goodness is a minor one, some sort of infection. My sinuses are making it difficult to breathe and my lymph node under my right ear is so swollen I can hardly speak or make a sudden move. That little sucker hurts. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow, and I took  today off work so I can sleep it off. Needless to say, my first workout will not be today, neither will I be eating much since I do not have an appetite at all. The plan will have to wait a day or two until I am in the right frame of health to tackle my challenge. Just a minor league curveball if you ask me.

When I wake up from my most needed slumber, I plan to do a yoga sequence to also wake up my muscles. I am in contact with Yogaworks and I am joining this week, but since I am sick and at home I will do what I always do when I am at home; I follow my best friend’s amazing videos. Today I will be doing a 25 minute yoga flow. You can access her fitness blog here. http://www.benderfitness.com/2013/06/25-minute-home-yoga-flow.html
She is not only my best friend but one of my life’s inspirations. 

So to wrap it up I got sick. If anyone knows me I avoid doctors like I avoid sharks in shallow waters, and I always put off going. Tomorrow I promise to go, and most likely get some needed antibiotics that will send me speed walking down the pavement to better health and fitness. Then the real hard work can begin, when I am healthy and physically up for the challenge. In the meantime, rest, fluids, a good book and an easy yoga flow is on today’s to do list.  Namaste’ and good health to all.
Rose