A Little MS with a Little MSW

The mid-point of 2025 is upon us already! Whew…how’s everyone feeling?

That good, huh? Haha…

I can only speak for myself, of course, but it’s been a little bumpy out here! And hot. And wet. God Bless America…it’s been raining for two months in the TN valley. And this heat wave that I’m finding myself in this week is not doing much for my training runs.

Training runs? What’s that I say? Yep. I have indeed set my sights on a 10k – my first ever. I have completed one half marathon and several 5ks, so it is time to diversify my lived racing experience a little more!

I’m also finding my zen, y’all. I have taken a deep dive into yoga with the pursuit of a 300-YT certification. I am about a third of the way through, and mostly it’s been alright, but there have admittedly been more than a few moments where I have wanted to balance all that meditation with some menopausal rage.

Ok, full transparency – there HAS been a healthy balance of zen and menopausal rage, lol. I’m trying. I really am. One of my visions for myself in old age is as a yoga instructor in a little seaside studio. Ask anyone who knows me and they would be like. . .

. . .

…What?

Haha. It is weird, even to me. I don’t know where it came from, but I would say I started envisioning my post-retirement gray-haired self in that setting 5-10 years ago. Why is it weird? Because I can honestly say that I never had an interest in yoga until my initial onset of MS symptoms 3 years ago. I thought the practice strange and much too meditative for my spastic, scatterbrained self.

So. My 6-month check-in finds me in a place of continuing to settle into a new state and a new community, on the precipice of starting two new counseling jobs, and about a third of the way into a yoga certification. The emotions that are coming up for me are no doubt coming from a place of estrogen deprivation, but they are valid, nonetheless.

If I had to pick one feeling to sum up where I am at the midpoint of this year, it would be lackadaisical. I’ve lost my enthusiasm. Maybe that’s why yoga speaks to me now more than other high energy options, I don’t know. I am at the point in my yoga training where I have to begin recording myself doing trainings. At least the second half of the year will prove entertaining, if nothing else!

So, how’s everyone else feeling about 2025?