Holidays Lights Spread Joy

 

The days are getting shorter and shorter but holiday lights are getting brighter and more festive, especially this year! Is it just me or do you think that in many neighborhoods, homes look like gingerbread houses? Is it possible that after nine months of the pandemic our fatigue is real and we look forward to our beloved holiday season? I want to believe that there is still hope for holiday cheer. Our spirits are bright and we are staying optimistic.  

Unpredictable 2020 Holiday Season

One thing that we can all agree on is that the 2020 holiday season will be different from our regular tradition. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all people throughout the world. It took the lives of million and changed others’ lives significantly. The holiday celebration will be marked by a measure of grief and will not be the same as usual. As life keeps moving forward, the holidays will still happen, and joy will be possible with a creation of new traditions that capture the spirit of the season. There will be many dinners conducted over Zoom, and small gatherings held outdoors on porches with heated lamps, or in backyards around fire pits. The one holiday wish we all share is the hope that very soon we will be able go back to our normal lives, spending time together without any considerations of possible complications, and without having to worry about masks or social distancing. 

Maintaining Mental Health 

Loneliness has become a defining characteristic of 2020. It is even more prevalent over the holidays. It is important to remember that we are in this together. Although some are smiling outwardly, many still experience melancholy feelings, especially around the holidays. Staying connected with family and friends is important, even with a brief phone call, video chat, or short text message. It is also normal to share your feelings of sadness with your close family members and friends.  Conversations with loved ones will make you feel better and will give you joy and peace.  

While some of us are spending most of our time at home, let’s take advantage of this and develop a regular sleeping pattern that involves going to bed at the same time every day. A good night of sleep can improve our mood. Nothing is better than waking up feeling rested and recharged. A good night of sleep will provide enough energy for the day ahead and even help to increase our daily productivity. 

Sleep can boost our immune system, which is very important during the winter. Sleep can also improve exercise performance, hand-eye coordination, reaction time, muscle recovery, and heart health. 

If it is safe and permissible in your area to meet up with a friend somewhere outside, you can get together in the neighborhood or local park and take a walk together. Spending time outdoors reduces stress levels, helps to enhance clarity, and rejuvenates the mind and body. 

Christmas Lights Bring Cheer

On December 1st, I was not ready for the holidays. I felt guilty to celebrate Christmas during the events of the past year. I delayed my Christmas card project, the decoration of the Christmas tree, and holiday shopping. I was down and blue. All my thoughts were about upcoming school projects and daily problems. Around 4 pm, I was driving home and it was getting dark already. I turned to a side road and suddenly holiday lights popped up in my neighborhood! Each house was brighter and brighter and the words, “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go…” were playing on the radio. For the first time this season, I felt the spirit of Christmas. That evening, a Christmas tree appeared in our living room and new candles in our windows helped us create our own gingerbread house for our neighbors to see.

In the End 

This holiday season we have the right to feel melancholy and blue from time to time, but we still have the power to create a festive mood and spread holiday cheer to our family and friends. COVID-19 may affect our lives, but it doesn’t have to affect our spirits. If there is still hope for holiday magic and outdoor Christmas lights can spread holiday cheer, all the promises and wishes of the season can still come true for all of us!

Wishing all of you a joyful holiday season with sparkling light in your heart, and a good night of sleep under a warm blanket on these cold days! 

 

Health, Happiness, and Harmony,

Kay 

If you liked this article (or even if you did not like it), please leave a comment below to share your thoughts!

Exercise Demonstration: A Sumo Squat with Arnold Press

    Compound exercises engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously or combine two exercises into one movement to target even more muscles. 

A Sumo Squat with Arnold Press is a good example of a compound exercise. It works the lower body muscles such as the glutes, quads, hamstrings, hip flexors, and calves, and the upper body muscles, to include all three sections of deltoids. The Sumo Squat with Arnold Press exercise can be a perfect addition to a full body workout. 

 

Health, Happiness, and Harmony

Kay

Exercise Demonstration: The Lateral Lunge with Triceps Extension

Many of our day-to-day movements are in one plane of motion: the sagittal plane. Incorporating other planes of movement into our workout will help us to stay mobile and healthy. Lateral lunges train the body to move into frontal plane of motion. It is a nice change which will take the workout to the next level.

Health, Happiness, and Harmony

Kay 

Thoughts During My Afternoon Walk

Growing up, I loved to spend summers with my grandparents in our country house. I remember the feeling of freedom I felt there. I could eat berries and apples from trees and I didn’t need to worry about washing my hands. I drank the coldest and cleanest water from the spring and didn’t get a sore throat after that. My favorite part was running up and down hills. I felt the gentle touch of the long grass on my knees, the wind on my cheeks, and a deep breath of fresh air at the top of a hill. I loved to collect different field flowers and make a wreath from them. 

 

Childhood years passed by, a school graduation, university academics, and my city life was busy. But even when I was a student in Moscow, I tried to find time to go for a walk and be outside. I used to take a long walk from Universitet (Moscow Metro) all the way to Kytai-Gorod (Moscow Metro). I enjoyed walking in the city alone in a large crowd. 

 

For some years, I lost my connection with nature. I remember spring, 2015. I was driving to a prenatal yoga class through green trees along the Fairfax County Parkway, and feeling the fresh air and spring beauty. It might have been my pregnancy hormones or the feeling that I was carrying something very precious inside, that made me rediscover the connection with nature. I started looking for answers in the world around me for guidance. 

 

Today during my afternoon walk, I saw two geese, one was sleeping and one was watching over the other... It was a very peaceful moment. It reminds me the first months of my son’s life, when I used to look at his sleeping face and try to imagine what his first words and steps would be. It reminds me of the time when my husband and I were in a long-distance relationship before our wedding. We used to write love letters every day for 14 months. Even though physically we were apart, our thoughts, hearts and souls were together. 

Parents watch over your children, spouses watch over your partners, because we are all in this together. Somebody is always watching over us...

Health, Happiness, and Harmony, 

Kay 

If you liked this article (or even if you did not like it), please leave a comment below to share your thoughts!

The Dumbbell Plank Row Builds a Strong Core without Crunches

Most of us sit behind a desk for eight hours, at least five days per week. Being in a seated position for a long time leads to weak and tight muscles, which can cause pain and discomfort. A lower back pain is a common condition. The strong core takes stress of the lower back and prevents a lower back pain. The Dumbbell Plank Row builds a strong core without crunches.  

Stay Safe and Healthy

       

        This is a very challenging time for the entire world, as we are all suffering from the Coronavirus pandemic. Every day, more cases appear around the globe. Watching news brings fearfulness. Our daily life is changed and we don’t know when it will end. The beginning of the COVID-19 was different for all of us. It seemed far away until it directly impacted our country, states, cities, and our daily life. 

On Saturday, February 29^th, I heard about the first case in the USA. Monday is my usual grocery shopping day and on March 2nd I saw empty shelves of hand sanitizer, antibacterial soap, and cold medicine. It felt very strange to not be able to purchase these necessary items in a major grocery store, in a suburb of Washington D.C. As a child growing up in the Soviet Union, I experienced empty shelves at stores. It is one of my childhood nightmares, which I will never be able to forget. I was always ashamed of the sarcastic American joke that there was no toilet paper in the Soviet Union. Right now, there is no toilet paper in the American stores, as well. It is not a joke anymore; rather, it is the reality of a chaotic response to a pandemic. 

I felt even more confused when I wasn’t able to place an order online, because hand sanitizer was completely out of stock. One of my thoughts was, what would the next few weeks look like? Would it be all over soon? Would we feel in hindsight that we had overreacted because we started to panic too soon, or was it just the beginning of something we did not understand? 

Realistically, I did not have time to answer these questions. My daily routine of being a mother, wife, student, and intern was my focus.

On March 9th, it was my first day of my spring break and our family road trip. The day was sunny and warm. Spring was in the air. I could not be happier to spend the next 5 days with my family without worries of homework and assignment deadlines! 

On March 14th, we returned home in the evening. In our front yard, I noticed right away some blooming daffodils, which were glowing in the darkness like a nightlight. The next morning, I noticed a new surprise. Two trees in our back yard were blooming. I thought we were back home sweet home. After the trip, the refrigerator was empty and I did not have a lot of choices for breakfast and decided to make Russian pancakes as one of my options with the ingredients at hand. My son was my helper in the kitchen. He was so excited with the cooking process that he accidentally spilled half of the batter. I tried to be creative and mixed the rest of batter with water, because we were out of milk and eggs. The pancakes were saved and we got ready to go to the grocery store. 

I was not prepared to see empty shelves throughout the store. In the past, I had occasionally seen empty shelves during weather emergencies, such as tornados in Georgia, snow storms in Massachusetts, and flooding in North Carolina. The biggest difference was that shortages were temporary, but a pandemic is a different story...

Closing schools and businesses, extending spring break, distance learning and teleworking, travel cancellation, and other measures mean that everyone is forced to put their lives on hold and stay at home. This is our new reality for the time being.  There is only one thing that remains unchanged. Spring is still in the air! The flowers are blooming, leaves are appearing on trees, birds are singing, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and a warm wind is blowing. 

We will get through this challenge together once we realize that our planet is not that big, and that we are all connected. The coronavirus is invisible to human eye. What we see is its effect on our health, our life and our reactions in this critical situation. If the fear, anger, frustration, blame (be it the Chinese, Russians, or Trump) increase during this quarantine period, it will destroy us emotionally and physically. Cooperation and respect are values that endure, even during a crisis.

Please stay safe and healthy, follow guidelines, and remember about our connectedness to nature that we all share!

Prayers and Blessings to All of You, 

Kay