Candles, Music, & Yoga- Bliss

Does anyone else here do yoga? Meditate? Stretches? Something peaceful each day?

Over the past few weeks, I've been making slow but steady changes in my life in an attempt to improve the overall quality of my life- the way I feel, the way I think, the way I perceive things- every aspect down to the physical and mental components of my life. I've broken it all down to numbers, thoughts, processes- and simply life itself.

Part of this has lead me to incorporate Yoga into my life, and... it's been a wonderful experience. Before, I would have the most restless legs that would keep me up until the early hours of morning... and I would suffer the next day as a result. It didn't matter what I did, nothing worked. The chiropractor I started seeing for my back lead me to some basic stretches to improve mobility in my back, and as I started doing those more- it gave me the idea to look into Yoga.

So I purchased a yoga mat and put my relaxation music on ITunes to work. It's been slow progress, but each day I'm getting better and better at yoga. I listen to peaceful music and light a candle- some days I'll close my eyes, breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth- and let my imagination soar. With certain candles, music, and focus- I can imagine myself amongst a pine forest surrounded by nature- my favorite place to be. Other candles and music I can just imagine a peaceful surrounding, almost like a lake surrounded by rich soil.

What do you do to combat stress in your life? To find peace? Balance your lifestyle?

Over the years, I've ranged from full on hippy meditating in a tree for hours a day, to broken fool who forgot how to access the peace, and all the way back time and again. I've also had a range of feelings on how meaningful any of the spirituality behind the practice is, regardless of how useful the practice itself may be.

Right now I'm trying to reincorporate mediation back into my routine, and a friend of mine is teaching me some yoga too, which a new one for me. I really want to take up Tai Chi, but I despite living in China, finding a way to access that knowledge is difficult.

I love candles and incense, but my apartment is so full of electronics, I don't want to wreck any of them with incense smoke. Still trying to figure out a solution on that front. May be better once I set up all my remote controls and have the actual vital systems on the other side of the room. Then it would just be the controls, and they have fewer vents and things that would be sucking in smoke.

But seriously, one of the best feelings I ever had, was back when I used to meditate with incense burning and music playing. I prepped me for some of the best writing I've ever done, too.