I'm not super into yoga, but being in Savasana while someone hits a gong will melt your mind (in a good way!)
May I recommend
Lying on the ground while someone whacks a gong in your vicinity.
Yoga feels good. You stretch out the scrunched up bits and strengthen the mushy bits. You’re in elasticized clothing. If you’ve got a good class, you don’t feel judgment, but rather the sense that you’re all trying to do this vaguely ridiculous thing together.
The best part, obviously is the nap at the end. Yes, the nap is given a fancy name, “savasana” but it’s also called the “corpse pose”, so… If you’ve never lain in a dimly lit room, surrounded by a bunch of other prone adults, and snoozed away until someone gently tells you to “start by wiggling your fingers and toes” and then had to surreptitiously wipe a thin line of drool from your mouth, then you have never truly yoga’d.
Savasana on its own (plain) is great, but the all dressed version is even better. That’s where you throw in a gong. Every now and then I get myself to my local yoga studio for their Sunday night Yin with a Gong class and it’s the BEST. (Why don’t I go more often? I don’t know!)
The class is led by a sturdy French Canadian man named Stéphan, who takes us through a bunch of chilled out poses until finally it’s time for the “most important pose of them all” - Savasana. We lie on our backs, and Stéphan starts wailing on that gong.
That’s not true, he begins super softly, so you’re lying there and the sound reaches your ears and those vibrations sort of wash over you like a physical ripple and it’s the most soothing and lovely thing. I’ve heard it called a “sound bath” and that is what it feels like… You’re being bathed in wobbly waves pulsating out from the gong. Your brain feels cooled and supported and floaty. It’s weird, and deeply relaxing. Have I returned to the womb? Maybe!
Have you ever banged a gong? Comment below!
P.S. Here’s my alternate headline for this post (not produced by AI — I’ve stopped that! ): “Want to make lying in a warm room surrounded by farty strangers wearing Lululemon even better? Add a gong, baby!”
Article Roundup!
I am staring down the barrel of fifty and I definitely eat too much salt. I need to get my diet under CONTROL. The big problem is, of course, that salt makes everything delicious. According to this article bread is a big culprit! Ugh. Why?
The Truth About Salt: How to Avoid One of the World’s Biggest Killers
Speaking of fifty — I like this list. I do some of them (the easier ones)— Read before bed; read the actual physical newspaper (only on Saturday); we don’t manage family dinner every night but definitely a couple times a week, we are all around that table, staring at each other; I also almost always go for a lunchtime walk (though am usually listening to an audio book or podcast so maybe it doesn’t count)…
I want to up my Connections. The idea of calling a friend unannounced (let alone just dropping in) makes my stomach hurt, but I should start doing that, right? It’s all about connection. Eep.
Also, the club joining — I’m actively looking to join an in-person book club. If you have a book club and want a new person, can you let me know? I want to go to someone’s house (not a murderer) and talk about books with other people!
Okay, this is a beast of a list, but I have to say, some of my favourite reading experience have been when I’ve read a book in the place where I currently am. I reread A Room With a View in Florence and man, that was wonderful.
I also read this random book I found in our Airbnb that was set in Kalk Bay, South Africa whilst in Kalk Bay, South Africa and that deeply enhanced my experience of the place. The book (I can’t remember the name — I’ve been Googling!) was set in winter and we were there in winter and the author perfectly captured the feeling of a beach community in the low season and reading it gave me all this lovely insight into the place we were touristing.
Oh the Places You’ll Go! 144 Summer Reading Recommendations By Setting
Hey, if you read any of these based on the list, come back and let us know — I am curious about others’ experience of “reading” a place
Also, shout out to the wonderful Strong Sense of Place for sharing the above link!
Reels!
(Warning: you’ll be taken to Instagram when you click)
Quite enjoy this bit of urban planning passive aggressiveness
Absolutely not
Book Stuff
This is happening on Monday, June 9th in Toronto… If you’re in the area, come on by. A whole WHACK of Amazing Canadian authors will be in attendance, including Nita Prose (The Maid Series), Samantha M Bailey (Hello, Juliet), Uzma Jalaluddin (Detective Aunty), Sue Hincenbergs (The Retirement Plan), Elizabeth Renzetti and Kate Hilton (Widows and Orphans) and Farah Heron (Meet Me on Love Street),
If you do come, please make sure to find me and sat “hi”! I want to meet Méli-Mélo-ers! I look just like my author photo, except frizzier!
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Nope, never banged a gong ... and time’s running out.
Some of my favorite 'place' books are old school - but H. V. Morton's travel books are consistently delightful. I used some (London and Rome) as literal guidebooks and experienced both cities in a way I never would have otherwise (a good way). I've read his Scotland and Ireland books and just ordered an old copy of his Southern Italy book.