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About Maggie Downie

Thank you for giving your time to stop and read my blog. I hope it encourages you to keep moving. Move and the body will be happier. And when you're moving you can hike, run, swim in Jell-O, race over non-Newtonian fluids, travel the world or build igloos--if that's your thing. If not, you can watch me do it. This is just a spot to try and feel good about life.
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How to feel better

If you have been feeling a tad tense, you are not alone.  It’s a strange world we are living in.  It’s helpful to find ways to boost your spirits and give yourself a pick me up.  When you aren’t at your best, how do you turn that frown upside down?  Here are some tips that work for the team at Personal Euphoria for how to feel better when life keeps throwing curve balls.

I hope they make you smile.  Simply reading them brought a smile to my face.  I’d made my list first and found myself reading our instructors’ lists afterward and thinking, “yes, that’s a good one too!”

How to Feel Better (Maggie’s Version)

For me I turn to movement, showtunes, walks with friends, and a gratitude journal.  I’ve always kept a gratitude journal on and off for enjoyment, but for the first time in my life I found myself needing to make a ritual out of it.  I needed to list the good parts of my day and end with positive thoughts.

How to Feel Better (the PE Team’s Version)

Other members of our team, take different tactics.  When Angie needs a pick me up she drinks carrot juice, takes a nap, or […]

How to feel better2020-06-19T12:19:45-04:00

Beautiful Walks

Another perk of the pandemic is that I’ve found new and beautiful places to walk locally. It’s amazing how many places are available to us that we usually don’t take advantage of in the hustle and bustle of daily life. The Governor recently mentioned that everyone in Connecticut lives 15 minutes from a state park. That’s pretty spectacular. We sure do have a beautiful state filled with beautiful walks.

Here are some of the locations I would recommend for beautiful walks. Please feel free to add to them in the comments.

List of Beautiful Walks

My New FAVORITE: Dividend Park, Rocky Hill

This place has a little bit of everything: scenic views, unique landscapes, and history. You’ll find a waterfall, a couple nice ponds, some historic ruins, and in the center of it all are these random sand dunes. Most of the trail is pretty easy, to get to the sand dunes is a bit up, but you can also skip that part. There are also a number of trees beavers have felled and that is just cool to see.

My Old Favorite: Old Wethersfield, Wethersfield

I’ll never tire of walking around my neighborhood. I know I […]

Beautiful Walks2020-06-08T18:06:59-04:00

Activities for Kids

Maggies nephew out for a stroll

We’ve all been cooped up in our houses for months. Maybe the kids are going stir crazy. Maybe you are going a little stir crazy. So what are some fun activities for kids that will help them burn off all that energy?

The possibilities for moves with kids are endless. But one trick is to try and find moves that kids think are fun and make movement playful. Movement should be a little playful, but it’s an aspect of movement we sometimes lose when we grow up. You may find that coming up with fun moves with your kids may help rekindle a little joy of moving for you too.

Activities for Kids

Start there: what type of movement did you enjoy when you were a kid? Did you play tag? Maybe you liked walking. Did you just move around and be silly? Maybe just tell your kids you’ll mimic any moves they do and then try to follow them (good luck)! Did you and your siblings have wheel barrow races or piggy back races?

Keep it Simple

Also, remember you can be simple. You don’t have to come up […]

Activities for Kids2020-05-28T13:08:09-04:00

Stress Relief

In the last month have you found it hard to make a decision or have you wanted to curl up and stay in bed all day and imagine COVID-19 doesn’t exist? Maybe you’ve had a sense of drive and told yourself multiple times that you are okay even though you haven’t had a great night’s sleep in weeks. If you’ve had any of those experiences you are totally normal and having a very natural stress response.  But what can you do to get stress relief?

Under Pressure & in Need of Stress Relief

Most people I know put a lot of pressure on themselves. We can push ourselves at work, as parents, as partners. Sometimes we feel like we are not doing enough even though the day is full. Now add quarantine to the to-do list when no one has the answers and somehow there is just more pressure to do more and be more. We tell ourselves we need to learn to slow down at this is the time, but in reality everyone is learning how to homeschool and trying to save the careers we spent a lifetime working toward.

As I saw […]

Stress Relief2020-05-11T16:20:42-04:00

Better Balance Exercises

What a piece of work is Maggie. Can you see where I’m unbalanced?

Research shows that balance training improves balance and strength. It is definitely worth incorporating balance exercises into your regular workout routine.

Better Balance Study:

A study tested a specific routine and found participants had improved balance and strength when performing a 50-minutes workout that included a warm-up, 13 exercises stations (each repeated twice for 1 minute), and a cool down. The study did not fully explain each exercise, but I tried to piece it together as best I could.

I suspect there are a lot of moves you could do to improve balance, but what I like about this particular study is the variety it included. It challenged people to walk in different ways, balance on one foot, and balance on one foot while moving the rest of your body. Additionally, they incorporated some eye exercises. That was interesting because vision plays a big role in balance, but I also don’t think we often think of exercising our eyeballs. It feels pretty good.

If you’d like to try it I put together my best attempt at what I think their workout might […]

Better Balance Exercises2020-04-06T17:42:33-04:00
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