Yoga is SooooOOOOOooo relaxing

I carry a lot of stress.  Like a lot of people, I am a busy working mom, running around all over and trying to balance it all. A typical day for me starts before 5:00 AM, includes making breakfast and lunches for five, getting ready for work, dropping off the kids, then rushing off to work.  I typically work through any breaks or lunch, then pick up the kids, come home, make dinner, send emails, prepare for work the next day, etc. etc. etc.  My husband is a principal at a very high need school, so he helps, but he works a LOT.  So, clearly I need to slow down and take some time for me.

Enter yoga.

Since I have three kids and have already mentioned I am busy, I had a brilliant Idea.  (I could totally use a sarcasm font here in case you were wondering).  I can do yoga at home!  There’s an app for that!  So I downloaded this lovely little app, dusted off my yoga mat and settled in to breathe and relax.

Here is a recap of my 30 minute yoga routine:

I sit down on my yoga and slip off my Ugg boots and prepare to relax.  My seven year old comes over and slips on my boots and begins to walk in circles around the mat over and over and over.  And over.  She intersperses loving and encouraging comments, such as, “you look weird,” “how is that even exercise?  You’re just lying on the ground,” and “I can see your butt crack.”

Next, my 12 year old begins practicing his trumpet (this is not a passionate enterprise.  He sounds like a dying elephant giving some kind of half-assed attempt to let the world know he is dying in between watching Minecraft videos on YouTube).  Some people like to listen to peaceful ocean sounds as they do yoga.  Not me.  I prefer the sounds of suffering animals.

My 17 year old keeps trying to sneak blueberry muffins from the kitchen (no one is paying attention, so he can eat them all, right?)  My husband is watching some sort of news thing (Nightline? 60 Minutes?) on too high of a volume.  The show is entirely focused on the gun control debate.  Always a relaxing, centering topic.

But I keep plowing through.  And I do a whole 30 minutes of this.  Eventually, the 7 year old gets dizzy and bored, trumpet “practice” is over, the blueberry muffins are gone, and the gun control debate is solved (well, over).  Everyone wanders off for a few minutes and I actually had ten minutes of peaceful-ish yoga.

And then someone screams, “MommmMMMMMMYYY!!!!”

Namaste.