Welp, I finally did it!! I’ve been wanting to start a blog for YEARSSSSSS, but negative thoughts always creeped in my head! I always thought:
- I’m not good enough!
- What a stupid idea!
- I have no clue what topic to do it on!
I have so many passions and loves, I could never cement what I truly wanted to do it on.
Fast forward to two weeks ago. I started listening to a podcast by Candace Moore from Yoga by Candace, since I have been bored for a while driving to work just listening to music, so I figured this was a great idea! Honestly, it’s my first podcast because I have always thought that if I listen to a podcast while driving, I would crash! See, I get super focused on what I do, so I thought listening to it, I would run right off the road because I was only focused on listening!! LOL! Come to find out, no I didn’t! I successfully listened to my first podcast, and not only did I NOT crash, I became awesomely inspired.
As I’m driving, listening to Candace Moore talk about starting a blog and business, ideas start swimming in my head! I finally settled on two topics, yoga and crochet!!!
For my first passion, I have been on a wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) yoga journey that I would love to share to whomever wants to listen. I have done yoga on and off for the past 20 years, but I’ve never truly committed to learning it! Last year, in April 2019, I started practicing yoga daily. It was definitely a struggle because I was out of shape, but I continued anyways (be it with a lot of cussing!!). I slowly started improving.
I first started when I was in college (1997). This is where I first got a taste of yoga by doing the Denise Austin Fat Blasting yoga DVD. I know, I know, it’s cheesy, but hey!…..gotta start somewhere!! I learned Sun Salutations and the names of basic poses. So, it wasn’t all that bad. 🙂 I also attended a couple of yoga classes, which I loved. However, life got in the way (meaning I got married and had kids….LOL).
Fast forward to 2013, I started using the Yoga Studio app by Gaiam. Back then, before the app became a subscription service, it had the option to pay $4.99 and you would get all of the content. This is how I first started getting back into yoga on and off, after having kids. I did the basic vinyasa flows that were on the app and slowly learned new names and poses. The Yoga Studio app was great, and honestly, I did everything at home on the rug.
I loved it, but as always, life got in the way (again). You see, we had recently moved to Texas, and I was trying to figure out what to do. I quickly got certified in bilingual teaching, and in the fall of 2014, I got hired to teach 4th grade bilingual. If you’ve ever taught, you’ll know that you have ZERO time for anything else, especially if you have kids of your own. After 5 years of job stress, anxiety, and honestly, just being unhappy, I finally decided to be selfish and focus on Me!! Yes, I stopped feeling guilty and did what makes ME happy! I was at a point that I was always feeling tired, sick, and my sciatica was constantly bothering me. I started doing yoga slowly (and let me tell ya, it did NOT feel good initially….it was as though my body was trying to fight my effort to make it strong) with simple and short sequences using the same Yoga Studio app. However, I got to a point that I was bored and needed more! So, I found the Lotus Yoga app. To get the full content, I paid $49.99 the summer of 2019 and started doing their tougher vinyasa flows. I liked it, but I felt that I was missing direction. I’m not a yoga teacher or expert, so I was randomly doing videos on the app. I was fine with this until the fall of the same year, I thought of looking on YouTube for free yoga videos. The first one I did (I honestly don’t remember who it was) was just ok. Another time, I tried a video by a girl called Candace Moore and it was great! I started following her (Yoga by Candace) on YouTube and got excited to try her tutorials and classes! She has TONS of videos from power vinyasa flows to restorative/yin yoga. This is where my journey has led me to. I have improved soooo much by following her videos.
Eventually, I bought her book Namaslay (which is amazing! She shows you every pose with arrows pointing to the different parts of the body you should focus on) and subscribed to her “exclusive” content on her app in which she posts workout videos, tips, and yoga programs (and a lot of other wellness tips). As I slowly improve and get stronger, I thought of sharing my journey!
Now to my other passion…..crochet!! I have always wanted to learn, but had no clue where to start. My sister would crochet baby booties and hats, so I asked her how she started. She told me that she learned from YouTube! So……in 2015, I finally decided to learn! I started looking at videos, but they were hard to follow and some were so dark I could barely see what they were doing. Eventually, I ran into this cool picture on Pinterest of a Chesire Cat costume for Halloween done by Nadia Fuad of Yarnutopia! She is an amazing teacher! Her calm and quirky voice and AWESOME teaching slowly helped me to learn. I quickly decided to start with the gloves, since they were a little easier and then moved on to the hat.
The pictures above were my first projects. I’m laughing as I write this because my hat ended up being slanted! It’s supposed to look like a rectangle when folded in half, but ended up looking more like a rhombus!! I just couldn’t understand how the stitches were supposed to look like. I mean, seriously, which stitch am I supposed to put my hook through! LOL
Initially, I started off by only being able to crochet by watching YouTube videos and stopping them while I was doing the different steps. I had NO CLUE on how to read patterns (or be able to read visual ones). However, I am a lover of learning….so I figured it out! I started researching meanings of pattern abbreviations (who knew the UK had different terms) and was finally able to do my first crochet project from a written pattern.
Since then, I have done countless of projects which I would love to share with you!
So…..going back to the beginning of the blog. Why am I doing this? Simple!! I would love to share my journey of both passions and how I’ve been slowly improving. I have set goals for myself and would like to share how I’m hoping to achieve them. Maybe it might inspire someone to start their own journey. All you need is drive and zero excuses. Please join me!!
My goal is to post weekly! Stay tuned for my next post. I would love to share the goals I’ve set for both crochet & yoga.
I have soooo many ideas in my head. Any suggestions are tooootally appreciated!
Thank you for reading!!
Grounding Fitness, LLC 