This spring, after a couple years of the pandemic, I recommitted to my four to five days a week of working out with my husband. I’ve been doing it on and off for 25 years now and when I’m on, it just works so well for me, he’s good motivation (I need someone to push me). I usually wear just comfortable go-tos when I work out, like Lululemon, but recently I wanted to spice up my workout clothes so I got some things from the Girlfriend Collective and some casual things from this brand called Prismsport. I also love time in my hot tub for some muscle relaxation, after a workout. I have a hot tub that I’ve had for about four years. I love it. I also love sauna-ing. I’m currently in the process of purchasing my own indoor infrared sauna, but in the meantime there’s this infrared sauna blanket by HigherDose that is a 10 out of 10, that I use wherever I am. You just get in it and you sweat. You can be on your phone, or you can put your arms underneath, which is what you’re really supposed to do, and just chill, meditate, or listen to a podcast. Podcasting is a really good way to get through the 20 to 30 minutes. I’ve been listening to very varied stuff recently: Lifespan with David Sinclair. I also love Business Wars and Song Exploder. They break down how people made different songs, what was going on in their lives, what the baseline was, how they put it together—I love Song Exploder.

Aside from working out, I walk. A long walk outside is my stress release, and it’s so good for the body. I really think that walking brings the body and the soul together. It’s something my husband and I started doing about three years ago. Ironically I got Jim started on the walking. He was more of a runner, but now enjoys our walks as much as I do. And since we started our walking practice—60 to 90 minutes is usually the goal—it saved us through COVID. We have a few set walks—there is a lot of hiking trails near our house in Alpine, NJ—and two specific walks we do quite often. And then sometimes we’ll drive into the city (NYC), and just see what happens.

Which leads me to meditation. As some of you already know, I’ve been trying to find ways to get back to my body. I really believe that if you get back to your body then that’s when you start to heal and that’s when you start to really feel what’s wrong; things start to bubble up. So I try to meditate, even if it’s only for two minutes, or even if it’s just awareness of breath for a few minutes. I can’t say enough about how much conscious breathing has changed my life. I had always tried it out, but I was definitely one of those people who was like, “I can’t do this; I don’t have time.” But during the pandemic, I learned about Transcendental Meditation (TM) and now I’m trying to get my husband into it. There are so many ways to do it, and especially for people who do it for two seconds, that’s OK, too. My normal meditation is TM, but if I’m having a lot of anxiety I might do a different practice that really focuses on breathing, or I’ll do box breathing, which is when you inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds. It’s the quickest way to synchronize your mind and your body.