Helping others and ignoring the inner critic

Chances to give

A lot of people are spending (pun intended) today shopping. If instead you want to give to other people, here are two ways you can help:

• 266 has a giveaway set up so that you can earn $1 toward food for the needy -- all you have to do is comment on the giveaway post. Plus, two other commenters have volunteered to do a dollar-for-dollar match for each dollar's worth of comments that you leave.


• If you'd like to help someone directly, one on one, you can contribute to help Ari 1965 so that she can make her car and mortgage payments this month. (There's a Donate button on her blog.) She's been out of work for over a year. Reading her blog is a sober reminder that a lot of us don't have much of a safety net, especially those of us who live alone.

Being flexible and turning the tables on the inner critic

Today I'm being flexible, in both senses of the word. I was originally scheduled to do a nice three mile walk, but my shins are still complaining. I know from past experience that if I ignore their warnings, I'll be in trouble.

So instead I turned to the yoga DVD. I have to say, it does help. At least, I had no idea how stiff my calves were until I went into the first downward dog pose. So doing yoga does make you aware of your body. I figure the body probably appreciates the attention once in awhile.

You know the negative little voice that hangs out in the back of your mind and criticizes you? This time, the sneaky little devil was crafty enough to put on a yoga outfit and pose as a yoga expert. While I was doing the poses, listening to the instructor's calm, soothing voice, I could hear this little voice in the back of my mind "You're doing that wrong!" "Honestly, anybody could do that pose." "Do you suppose you could at least try to do a good job here?"

At first I treated the voice as if it were another instructor, then the absurdity of it struck me. I can't imagine any yoga instructor worth listening to who would be so constantly negative. I turned tables on the little voice and started chiding it for doing such an obviously clumsy job of criticism. That shut it up. Didn't hear from it for the rest of the DVD.

Exercise du jour: 30 minutes am/pm yoga DVD.
Done!