Day 4; The #PlayOutside Challenge

Controversial Views on Yoga

 I'm gonna say it;

I don't think I like yoga.

I love learning new things about myself and yesterday I found out that yoga isn't my thing.

I've done yoga before; a beautiful friend of mine, Rosie, teaches yoga and we've had many a session with her. I always loved the post yoga breathing, the relaxation techniques at the end of each session and gaining that feeling that I was doing something good; something that connected me, spiritually, to my inner self and the earth, but personally, I always feel more at peace with myself and with nature when I'm standing on a hilltop overlooking a valley or when fully immersed in the sea.

 I feel like paying for yoga is like paying for someone to tell me to do things with my body that I have the full capability of doing by yourself at home. Kind of like paying to use the treadmill at the gym; you have the full capability to run wherever you like in this world.

If on average you run 3 miles a day, just think about all the landscape your eyes would ingest if you ran outside.

It's easier and cheaper to do an online yoga tutorial or even make up your own.

 I do quite like finding out that my body can do shapes and bend in ways that I didn't know it could do previously, and that's about as much joy as I get from yoga.

I think the problem is that I'm not patient enough.

It doesn't relax me in the way that it's intended.

I did however like the part where you cross your legs, put them straight above your head, grab your feet and rock up into sitting-up cross-legged.

Now that's more like it.

 When I'm doing yoga, I find myself feeling as though I'm trying to calm myself and move in slow motions, but a voice inside me is screaming to just shake all my limbs and go mad.

Kind of like when trying to relax in a really hot bath.

Relaxed, but so tense.

A mixture of - should I stay? - or - should I get the hell out of here? -

Perhaps I am more suited to a more upbeat kind of yoga.

This 'hatha yoga' that people talk about.

 Today, my tummy hurts, so I know it worked.

My muscles are tight and it feels good to laugh.

It's good to know I pushed my body during the session, even if I decide to never bother again.

Day 1; The #PlayOutside Challenge

 Meet Barbara and Unice.

 Today is day one of the Dirtbag Darling #PlayOutside challenge on Instagram, and I embraced it with both arms open, literally, whilst meeting Barbara and Unice, new members of our family.

 Considering I'm born and bred in Wales, the land of the sheep, it's quite funny to think my first experience of feeding a full sized sheep (I've bottle fed lambs before), happened in a small paddock in Hampshire!

 The Dennis family recently adopted these two lovely ladies to keep their paddock in tip top shape, and so far they're doing an excellent job. Occasionally, we go out to their paddock to feed them, just to top up their diet and keep them happy and friendly. Barbara was getting a little too familiar - she let me stroke under her chin! - but I think Unice is warming up. They've both currently got runny noses, bless them.

 I've never fully understood how farmers could separate emotion from their livestock. Being a farmer seems like such a heartless job. When I visited my friends Sioned and Lisa's farms last Christmas, I expected nothing less than frolicking through the hay bales collecting newly hatched eggs and stroking baby lambs; the reality is much different and much crueler. Don't get me wrong, I am a meat eater and will continue to be so. This past year I cut down majorly on meat since my housemate is a vegetarian and I began to embrace her way of life, that was until I tried to give blood and was told my iron was too low. I went home that night picking up some burgers on the way, washing them down with a pint of Guinness to top up my iron levels. I am a universal blood type and the thought of not being able to give healthy blood to people in need seems far more important to me than not eating meat. I do also feel we have canines for a reason; this dates back to our neolithic roots. As we grow older and get to know our bodies and what it needs, and as I've become more in tuned with my own body, with age, and become more familiar with its needs, often, it seems, my body send itself subtle reminders that it requires a steak. Rare, please.

The reality is that none of us actually want to see animals being slaughtered, even if they do end up on our dinner plates and in our bellies. I could never fully acquaint myself with the lambs I'd met because I knew what their fate would be. However, since Unice and Barbara aren't sheep for the slaughter, and merely pets for the paddock, meeting these Jacob sheep was quite a lovely experience and hopefully a lesson that we should treat all animals with love and compassion, even if they are only sheep.

8 Blogs to Inspire Female Outdoor Adventurers

 Needless to say, number one on my list has to be Dirtbag Darling.

 Johnie Gall has done an insane job of inspiring women to get outside, get active and embrace the natural world. Her "Play Outside" challenge, is nothing short of genius. Her blog features journal entries with reflections on her own life and adventures, outdoor gear reviews, field notes on land, snow and sea activities, travel entries, life hacks, monthly features on inspirational women, from fly-fishers to 'lady tramps' and even an online shop to cash in on some of her favourite camping, hiking and surfing gear. Her blog was recently featured in Marie Claire's 2015 "Change Your Life" issue and Cooler mag's "7 Stylish Blogs Every Adventurous Woman Should Read". Dirtbag Darling is all about encouraging women to get muddy, salty and sweaty, leaving behind what it means to be 'cool' and enjoying life and nature for what it is.
In Johnie's own words..

 "It’s a celebration of owning less, doing more, and having simple, authentic experiences worth writing about. 

And getting dirty. Obviously".

Another favourite of mine is Range. 
Founded by Jeanine Pesce; Range is an active, sports and lifestyle agency and magazine that features awesome daily articles on all things active and outdoors in a more modern, groomed and tech-savy kind of way.
Read one of their latest pieces on outdoor therapy to see what I mean.

 Captain Liz Clark is a surfer, sailor, environmentalist and National Geographic's 2015 Adventurer of the year. 
She reflects on love, forgiveness and compassion whilst sailing Swell, her 1963 Cal-40 sailboat, alongside her tropicat, Amelia.
If you want to learn more about being environmentally friendly and how to eat consciously, consider Liz your master and check out her teachings. 

 She Explores represents all novel outdoors women with an appetite for adventure.
Founder, Gale Straub, set out to write about her own endeavours treking North America with her partner in a Dodge Sprinter van, along the way, interviewing other inspirational women on the road. It'll surprise you how many women are living alternatively out of campervans and caravans, positively redefining societies expectations of the traditional housewife way of life by living nomadically and travelling alone.

WARNING: This may leave you wanting to quit your job, ditch your life, move out, buy a campervan and live on the road. 

 Love living a salty life? You'll love The Drifter.
Photographer Ming Nomchong founded The Drifter, through a love of surfing, travelling and living by the sea. Bursting with talented surf photography; drown in a sea of blue whilst scrolling through her work. Beautiful photographs of fearless female surfers chasing waves will make you want to grab your log and head out for a sunset session with your girl friends. 

 Another surf blog; Ladyslider creator Tara is more than inspired by surfing and spends most of her days mastering her cross step. 
She eats, breathes and sleeps surfing, as expressed by her blog. She represents the original Hawaiian surf goddess, living in paradise, communicating her way of life through visual content, i.e. bloody awesome photographs of her and friends getting some decent sized waves on all kinds of equipment.
Be prepared to have serious surfboard envy.

 Empowering female travellers, Adventurous Kate writes all about being a woman travelling solo. 
At 26 she quit her job and now travels full time with one aim; to show you how it's done.
Her top 3 posts include her adventures in Shetland, being shipwrecked in Indonesia and being naked in public.
Planning to go backpacking alone? Worried about feeling vulnerable or unsafe?
Read Kate's articles on female solo travel and learn about keeping safe and whether or not you should lie about being married whilst travelling alone. The impressive number of destinations she has visited alone makes her advice real, believable and reliable.
Let her mistakes teach you a lesson, and let her lessons teach you to make your own mistakes. 

 A lot less girlier than the rest, Adventure Journal is an online magazine founded in 2008 by Steve Casimiro. 
Articles contain posts on outdoor gear, historical badass', outdoors vans and landrovers, biking, cabins and elegant landscape photography. Personal essays reflect on cairn building, cliff jumping and why there are so little female adventure movies (yeah why is that?!). This online magazine is what I'd consider to be gender neutral, however, doesn't ignore the fact that women are underrepresented when it comes to the outdoors. Read one of my favourite posts "When Women Wear Bruises To Work" celebrating female mountain bikers and the scrapes and bruises then adorn.
If you do nothing, at least check out The Weekend Cabin; features on the worlds most unbelievable cabins, only ever adored on Pinterest.

Dirtbag Darling; The #PlayOutside Challenge

 If you're not already familiar with 'Dirtbag Darling', this blog was created by Johnie Gall, a woman with a passion for writing and inspiring women to get outdoors. She is positively redefining the masculine consideration of the outdoor world that the likes of Bear Grylls have created by venturing out into the wilderness and featuring other women who also embrace this gritty way of life. She covers everything outdoorsy, from how to road-trip proof your car (she travels and lives out of her van) and how to get your dog onto your surfboard, to what outdoor camping gear you should buy. If you're a lady with an appetite for getting muddy, salty and sweaty, you'll probably want Johnie to be your friend as much as I do.

 This coming week, Johnie and friends are motivating women from around the world to roam outside for thirty minutes every day starting tomorrow, from August 17th - 24th. Everyday, an Instagram post will contain a themed challenge for you to creatively interpret. Enter Instagram photographs of your daily adventure using the correct hashtags and get the chance to win prizes from Seea (my all time favourite swimwear company), Designer Protein, and a bunch of other amazing outdoor inspired companies.

 Whether you already embrace the outdoors daily and you're looking for a new challenge or merely a chance to grab some goodies, or you work a nine 'til five desk job in the city and stepping way out of your comfort zone, this challenge is exactly the thing you need this week. We all know the science behind the benefits of being in the outdoors and what a little exercise can do for our mental health (check out my blog post on how stand up paddleboarding helped cure my anxiety) and this may step you onto the road of creating a positive change in your life (even if you embrace it only for this week). This challenge is a great opportunity to appreciate the natural world around you, breathe some fresh air into your lungs and possibly become a tad healthier as a consequence. 

 So get your hiking boots ready and listen out for the first challenge starting tomorrow. Anyone needing motivation, I will be venturing out everyday to complete each challenge and keeping an online journal and posting instagram posts (@truelovestravels) of my daily adventures to keep you updated and (hopefully) motivated. Good luck!

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