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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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What is your purpose?

My purpose Venn diagram

There is a concept in Japanese culture that research suggests may contribute to happiness and longevity.  They call it ikigai.  We don’t have an exact translation in English, but in a nutshell it’s basically your life’s purpose.  As westerners we’d generally think of your life’s purpose as something big and lofty.  Ikigai is more about your daily purpose.  What is your purpose? What you do with each day?  How you live each day well? Why do you get up in the morning?

It can be a lofty goal or it can be small.  It can be your work, watching your grandkids, dancing with friends, gardening, walking, playing golf, or doing the crossword.  Once you know your ikigai you have to live it.  Knowing your purpose isn’t enough.  You must take action to bring your purpose to life.

I found a couple resources for how to determine your ikigai.  One suggested making something like a triple Venn diagram using three circles instead of two.  Each circle represents one of the following: what you value, what you enjoy, what you are good at.  What overlaps is your ikigai.

When I made mine […]

What is your purpose?2018-02-14T16:16:09-05:00

Improve turnout for ballerinas, Irish step dancers and everyone alive

Most dancers crave a solid turnout.  That’s when your hips, knees and feet laterally rotate (or turn out) instead of being parallel with each other.  Every foot position in ballet is done in turnout.  What changes is how wide the stance is or where your feet are lined up in relation to each other, but the feet, knees and hips are always in turnout.  The motion should come from the lateral rotators of the hip, but not everyone is born with a natural turnout and some people really struggle to increase turnout.

To try and mask a poor turnout, people often torque their feet to make it look like they have a turnout.  This can create the appearance of turnout, but it’s fake.  And the problem is that a fake turnout weakens the ankle and foot, a problem if you are a ballerina or Irish step dancer because foot and ankle strength are vital for dancers.

So how do you actually develop a strong turnout from the hip using the proper muscles?

One simple exercise is known as the clam. 

It’s fairly easy, but be careful.  A common mistake it to move the entire pelvis, not just the leg.  Moving the leg might […]

Improve turnout for ballerinas, Irish step dancers and everyone alive2018-02-14T16:10:12-05:00

Failure is the mother of success

Plank at sunset on Kili

While I can’t say I’m not bothered by failure, I can at least recognize that very often I get some of my best stories out of failures or at least times when things didn’t go as expected.

Still, failing is hard.  It’s hard to accept.  It’s hard to admit.  It’s embarrassing.  When I failed to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro those were a mixture of the emotions I experienced—embarrassment, frustration, sadness, disappointment, but also understanding and acceptance.

The moment I realized I wasn’t going to reach the top I started crying.  I don’t cry that often so I’m not really used to it.  And, normally if I need to cry in public I try not to.  There was no holding back these tears.  They just came.  I’d exerted too much energy getting this far to utilize any effort holding back tears now.  I’d lost control of my body, physically and emotionally.  I basically cried myself down that mountain, doing the walk of shame as everyone heading up stepped aside to let me down.

They were letting me pass, but I had let myself down.

Failure is the mother of success2018-02-14T16:12:52-05:00

Move More

Just me trying to get my feet behind my head and stay relaxed at the same time.

I love to move. I’m always looking for ways to move more throughout the day.  This month on a whim I’ve been doing an Instagram challenge to try a different, assigned yoga pose every day.  Some of the moves feel great.  Other days I look at the way I’m supposed to contort myself and I just laugh.  I haven’t been able to get my feet behind my head since I was six months old.

Most days I play with movement.  I have some monkey bars and I experiment with what I can do with them.  I try to feel what my clients say they feel on certain exercises.  While taking a walk, I check to see if my butt is involved in each step.  When I breathe, I experiment with where I can send my breath.  When watching television, I roll around on Yoga Tune Up balls.  Movement is a game for me.  Discovering what, where and when can I fit movement into my day makes me happy.  I enjoy the challenge.

To some degree this […]

Move More2018-05-04T09:57:18-04:00

Menstrual cramps or gas

This is my mom. The woman who created the chicken walk.

If you ever asked me if I knew the difference between menstrual cramps or gas, I would have definitively said, “Yes.”  With that opening line, you probably realize that this blog may come with a little TMI.  I’m going to talk about my bowels more than you may care to know about.  I’ll try to make the process at least mildly entertaining.  But if you don’t have any menstrual or bowel trouble you’ve been trying to sort out, you can feel free to skip this one.  However, if you have ever confused menstrual cramps for gas, keep reading.

Menstrual Cramps or Gas

I’m familiar with gas pain.  As a kid if you had gas pain in our house my mom would make you get up and move.  She called it the chicken walk.  You would make big, exaggerated movements and get your knees up really high, practically pulling one knee up toward one shoulder and then repeating on the other side as you strutted around the room. If you weren’t doubled over in pain from gas cramps it would have been […]

Menstrual cramps or gas2019-07-31T20:45:46-04:00
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