Yoga, Not Running, and Lessons for a Minimalist

This is a great one for those of you looking for something to mock. I'm not sure what this has to do with becoming a minimalist, but I will try and figure that out as I go along.

Besides trying to minimize my life, I am trying to be fit and healthy. As such, I have developed a love for trail running. That's minimal fitness, right? You just need a trail. In fact, I run in New Balance Minimus trail shoes, and love the whole minimal/barefoot movement in running.

Which brings me to what happened this morning...

For a few weeks now I have been increasing my trail running pace to get ready for the Coastal Trail Runs race tomorrow at Stinson Beach. The race is called Steep Ravine and has 1,800 feet elevation gain the first three miles, followed by four miles of downhill back to the beach.

I was all set, feeling great after my last training run yesterday. So today, Kate and I went to a "gentle yoga class" she'd bought through Groupon. About five minutes into the class I feel some pain in my lower back so I did what any other guy would do...tough it out till the hour long class was over. Now, I can't stand up straight and may not be able to run tomorrow. Ah the vanity of dudeness. Three weeks of hard training probably down the tube because I don't want to quit a yoga class early. Ridiculous.

So, as a wannabe minimalist, I have to wonder, was this the universe telling me to let go of my need to achieve in races? Or was it just forgetting that as an older guy, just because you can go run a few miles, does not mean that other muscles and joints are not out of shape?

I guess this is the lesson: Just because you can do one thing fairly well, it doesn't mean that it will translate to another thing or activity.

If you want to run well, you have to run. If you want to do yoga well, you have to do yoga. If you want to learn to minimize the stuff in your life, well, you have to practice the skill of minimizing.

There, I managed to bring the blog back to minimizing, although all I am currently doing is sitting in a chair with a hot rice pack on my lower back and feeling like an idiot.

Minimizing Paper and Doing Yoga - The Result

This is what I started with today. When I finished going through this batch of papers and stuff, I brought more in. In between every box I did some yoga and stretching.

And below is what I ended up with... two big bags of paper and junk for the recycling and trash bins. As I expected, most of the papers in the first few boxes of stuff from the office was junk mail, old receipts, and hard copy bills and statements, etc...

That said, in among the old catalogs, power bill statements, drafts of school papers and whatnot, I also found my marriage license, some stamps, and a few other items that I think need to be kept or followed up on.

So now, these pieces of paper are in some file boxes I already had in the office that can be taken down and gone through. The files have labels on the front: Action, File, Bills, Reading, and Follow up. I probably will go through these files again and cut them down to Action, File, and Reading in the next couple of days. Eventually, I would like to minimize and simplify to the point where even these bins are unnecessary.

And as far as the yoga, it went alright. I am a bit sore from my eight mile trail run yesterday, and my flexibility makes me think I have early onset rigor mortis, but you have to start somewhere.

Now it's off to the airport to pick up my wife who is returning from a week of work in Hawaii (I know, tough job site). I started this whole minimalism thing while she was away. She's given her blessing, though, and has even offered to guest blog.

Hopefully I didn't toss anything she "really needed". That would be bad.

How to Get a Workout and Minimize Paper

If you have been following this blog then you know that I am on a quest to become a minimalist and to transform my life. For me, minimizing clothes, shoes, and basic household goods like pots and pans does not feel like it will be hard. At east that is the way it feels. But, as I noted previously, there are two things I feel as if I am drowning in:

Books...and extraneous paper. Books are a separate issue altogether. I mean, I love books, and minimizing books is going to be a real challenge, so like any high-functioning guy, I plan to put that issue off to the absolute last minute.

That leaves us with paper as the challenge for today. Since my wife (of almost 3 months) is returning from a week long work trip to Hawaii tonight at 10:00 p.m. I feel the need to straighten up the house some. I don't have a lot of time to work on minimizing paper, so I won't try to do it all, but I can do something. Like we say in trail running, just keep forward momentum.

Okay, where to begin?

When I cleaned up and minimized the office I gathered all the paper I could in some boxes. This is what I ended up with...

Not too bad, right? But I suspect that almost none of this is stuff we need. And if there are important papers in these boxes, we'd never know. So, what's the best way to tackle this? One box at a time is my answer.

Simple steps. Move a reasonable amount of paper into the now clean kitchen so it can be quickly looked through and decisions can be made...

Now, bring in 4 bins or label 4 spots as:

• Action (needs to be dealt with - includes bills)
• File (needs to be kept)
• Trash/recycle
• Reading (magazines, papers and stuff Kate might want to look at)
• Shred (receipts or things with personal data)

The rules on the sort:

• Pick up one piece of paper at a time.
• See what it is and decide quickly what to do with it.
• Don't slow down.
• Do yoga after every box (I added this one so I get some kind of workout in today.)

If you look online there are numerous methods of sorting paper and getting organized, but in the end it comes down to knowing what things are. Many of us are stackers. We pick things up, say the mail for instance, carry it around and stack it someplace. Eventually, we forget what is in the stack and then the stack gets moved wholesale and more stuff comes in and gets stacked on the stack. Truthfully, it is just clutter and it is weighing us down... weighing me down.

Here's the yoga mat setup for the advanced minimizing-yoga-practitioner...

Nothing complicated in all this, and my plan for the day is to work on the paper sort, do yoga, and then clean the house up a bit before heading to the airport.

I will report back the results at the end of the day. And don't forget to sign up as a member and get a chance at winning The Power of Less.