#movewithmagic

[trascapades]

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✊🏿🎶🖤 #ArtIsAWeapon #BlackLivesMatter #Pose + #Prose #Protest + #Art + #HouseMusic 🙌🏿 YES LYNNETTE!! 🧘🏿‍♀️: @lynnette.joy 🗣 "I Have A Dream," Dr. Martin Luther King 🎶: "Can You Feel It," #LarryHeard #MrFingers Reposted from @lynnette.joy LET FREEDOM RING! From every street corner From the hilltops From the mountains From the valleys SO WE CAN TRULY BE FREE AT LAST! Excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech. 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🎥by @linda_rosenblatt & @jamqueens Thank you to my tribe for making this moment happen.🤜🏾🤛🏾 ✊🏾 #IhaveADream #freedom #blackluvyogis #yogainthecity #LyNJoY #DrMartinLutherKingJr #loclivin #yoga #movewithmagic #yogaheadstands #pinchamayurasana #fortheancestors #fortheculture #SAYTHEIRNAMES #endpolicebrutality #justiceforgeorgefloyd #justiceforbreonnataylor #justiceforrayshardbrooks #blacklivesmattermural #TraScapades #ArtIsAWeapon #BlackGirlArtGeeks🤓 https://www.instagram.com/p/CB-3v8UgONg/?igshid=25bu5cupb0ml

[movewithmags-blog]

sunday chill :)

[lindablatt]

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I'm am forever grateful for my tribe of women, near and far. When a friend has a vision and asks you to help, you say YES first and what second. Today was all the feels. . We see you @lynnette.joy🖤 . #AmplifiedMelanatedVoices #DefendAllBlackLife . . #Repost @lynnette.joy (@get_repost) ・・・ LET FREEDOM RING! From every street corner From the hilltops From the mountains From the valleys SO WE CAN TRULY BE FREE AT LAST! Excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech. 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🎥by @linda_rosenblatt & @jamqueens Thank you to my tribe for making this moment happen.🤜🏾🤛🏾 #✊🏾 #IhaveADream #freedom #blacklivesmatter #blm #blackluvyogis #yogainthecity #DrMartinLutherKingJr #loclivin #yoga #movewithmagic #blackgirlmagic #yogaheadstands #pinchamayurasana #fortheancestors #fortheculture #SAYTHEIRNAMES #endpolicebrutality #justiceforgeorgefloyd #justiceforbreonnataylor #justiceforrayshardbrooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CBhjGCShow_/?igshid=nh2gpn3ivg66

[movewithmags-blog]

WALKING PLANK

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Pretty simple – make sure hips stay as locked in as possible, and your movements are slow and controlled. Hips and shoulders should be parallel to the ground most of the time.

[movewithmags-blog]

no matter what happens, the sun will rise in the morning (at Matangi Private Island Resort FIJI)

[movewithmags-blog]

5 tips for when you’re down for the count

Hey. Mags here.

I’m actually incredibly bad at this ‘regular post’ thing. But the contents of this post has been extremely relevant to me - I’ve been down with the flu for the past few days :’(

BUT I feel like I’m getting better, and these few tips are some things that have helped me feel better, and not feel like I’m wasting away inside the dark hole that is my room:

1) Pick out your ‘me’ outfit.

What I call my ‘me’ outfit is just a collection of my comfiest clothes that I can easily layer, and wear without feeling like a freaking snowball. This way, when I suddenly get those horrible chills I’m well prepared; when I get unbearably hot in a very unreasonable short span of time I can strip until I’m comfortable again. Oh, and onesies are a great base layer.

2) Pick a cuddle bud!

Maybe not another human being - you don’t want to get your germs all over them and subject them to the misery you’re currently going through. Or another animal even, because no matter how much they love you they will want to move eventually and leave you feeling sad and empty (I tried this with my cats - the longest they’ve endured me is about 37 minutes. Pick up a super fuzzy pillow, or even a fuzzy blanket, so you can just hold onto so you don’t feel like you’re absolutely alone in the hell that is sickness.

3) Get your flow on.

I’m not suggesting you go to a yoga class and spread your nastiness to others, but don’t just sit in bed all day and stew in your misery either. Do some light stretching, or even go on a walk to get out of your room - you might just need a change of scenery. For stretching, I love to use ROMWOD.  ROMWOD makes you get reeeaaaal deep into the stretch and hold it to get into that stubborn fascia. It’s painful, but it’s great. Really.

4) Grab your daily (or hourly) cuppa

I don’t know about you, but hot drinks when I’m under the weather just. Hits. The. Spot. Not talking about your daily cup o’ Joe here, when you’re sick I try to avoid stimulants such as caffeine. I absolutely love fruity infusions and herbal blends (chamomile or chrysanthemum are my fave). Even hot chocolate is amazing too. There’s something healing about hot drinks, they just work. It’s also a great way to stay hydrated, which is v important when you’re sick. I’ve also been doing this blend of apple cider vinegar, honey and hot water for my sore throat, and not only is it DELICIOUS, I think it’s really helped with the soreness too. I usually do this drink with lemon, honey and hot water but as I had no lemons at home I had to improvise ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Another remedy that you could try too is something my roommate used to make for me when I was sick - whisky and hot water. Although we would usually use bourbon (what we had in the house), it really felt like it helped to burn out the nasties. Hey, if it helps I’d say go for it!

5) Be productive.

Easier said that done right? I’m the absolute worst when I need to do work. Procrastination shouldn’t even my middle name, it probably should be my first. That’s how unproductive I am irl. But this time, by productive, I mean productive as in ‘not wallowing in self-pity’ productive. I.e., read a book. Aim to finish said book. Listen to a podcast - maybe one titled “How to be productive” (is there a podcast like this out there? please let me know). Watch a movie, or even just research some topics that you’ve found interesting. Anything that isn’t really social media that can make you feel accomplished, even if at the end of the day you did not get any of your pay-the-bills work done. You’re sick, I’d say you get a free pass.

So you made it to this part of the post. I’d say congratulations are in order! Excuse my rambling, just trying to be ‘productive’ with all this extra time I have. There you have it, some things that I tend to do when I’m sick, which thankfully isn’t very often :) Eat your fruits and veggies kids!

[movewithmags-blog]

SCAPULAR WALL SLIDES W/ FLIP

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I said it’s great for endurance in the video, but that’s only applied if you are using these in a burnout set. Try to keep your entire spine in contact with the wall, but your shoulder blades retracting might make your upper back come off the wall a little bit. That’s fine, as long as you keep drawing your core in and tensed. Try and press your hands as high as possible so you feel the tension in your shoulder blades and traps, then bring back down and flip your hands forward when you get to 90 degrees. If you are doing a burnout set, then make sure you do these until you can’t maintain good form anymore, and only then have you finished your set 😁

[movewithmags-blog]

*locating my chill* #shanghaisummers (at Shanghai Art District M50)

[movewithmags-blog]

HAMSTRING CURL W/ YOGA BALL

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This is deceivingly tough. It might take a few tries to get used to the instability of the ball. Lie on the ground with your calves on the yoga ball. Place your arms in a T formation for more balance (should not be used as part of the movement). Raising your hips first, curl the yoga ball in, or imagine bringing your heels closer to your butt. Your hamstrings and butt should maintain a straight line.

[movewithmags-blog]

Hello, it me

So. Restart of this blog. I've had the idea of writing a blog/journal/ramble page for quite some time, and I never really sat down and actually decided to start writing. Well obviously I have started a bit, but I never continued it with regular posts. I used to love writing - short stories, poems, my daily happenings, anything just to get a pen to page (or fingers to keys?). I want another outlet to life because I feel like it'll give me some type of way to get my thoughts and life in order. So I guess I have to introduce myself right? Here's the pivotal moment of a blog: defining myself. I've never had to articulate exactly who I am as a person, and what my goals and ambitions are. So here goes. 

 I am currently an undergrad student at NYU studying Psychology, hopefully minoring in Public Health and Nutrition. Ambitious of me, but I found my passion later on in my college career than I wanted. I went into college thinking about Biology and Pre-Med, took 2 weeks of Organic Chem and rethought my life. Anyways. I have a little bit of of culture identity crisis; I was born in the small town of Westport, CT, moved halfway across the world to Hong Kong, and then lived my life from the age of 8 in Shanghai, China. My mom's Shanghainese, and my dad's from a southern province in China called Fujian. They both went to college in the States so we're a pretty westernized family, but we are quintessentially Chinese to the bone. I consider myself American, but I always thought I wasn't truly American - and a friend put it into words for me last summer: "Maggi, you are literally the most Chinese Chinese-American." Yup, that's how I'd put it. I'm comfortable going about my life in China, and I'm comfortable going about my life in New York. I also have been an international student my entire school career so I've been exposed to some pretty effing cool people and cultures. I'm lucky, this way whatever situation I'm in in terms of culture, I'm pretty sure I'll come out of it just fine. So that's one of the constant struggles inside my head I'm grappling with. I'm also considered pretty buff for a small Asian chick. It runs in the family - my sister is jacked too. My brother has a little way to catch up, but I'm confident he'll get there. So whenever I'm back in Shanghai, everyone will look at me and automatically think "foreigner." Because what native Chinese girl is going to willingly put on mass and bulk up? It took me a while to come to terms with this, but I can now for certain say this: I don't care what the locals think. I think it didn't help that my own family was a little freaked out by how quickly I'd put on muscle, as I was the first one in my family to get into working out. Even just playing sports in school, coaches would look at me and just go "mmhmm this girl plays sport, we'll invite her to trials." I've only been seriously working out for about 2 years now, but I freaking love the feeling of being strong. When I was little, I was the token Asian girl - loved maths, science and went through a book a day. I played piano, went to Kumon, and the most sport I did was the swimming classes my parents took me to every week. I was that girl who would get terrible marks in PE. But then I started school at a British International school in Shanghai - and I found Netball. It was this strange new thing, and all the cool girls were playing it, so in a desperate bid to be cool I would try to keep up with the other girls. Nope. I continued to get C's and D's in PE, but would get A* for effort (how demoralizing is that). Long story short, I hated that C on my report card and drove myself to get that A - by 7th grade, I was making the Division 1 teams in every sport I tried out in, and was named Sport Prefect in Year 12 (11th grade). And throughout my time playing sport, Netball was my strong suit. When I moved to the States, I found out that the national netball association (Netball America) was holding trials for the USA University Netball Team, and two years later I went with Team USA to the World University Netball Championships and took on 7 other countries. I also broke my foot last year so I decided to take a year off after the championships to try and rehab my foot, so hopefully when I go back to the States in Fall 2017 I can be ready to go again with my netball girls. Oh and I'm back in Shanghai to work on my charity called Noughts & Hearts, that I started when I was still in high school. We do cool stuff, like hold video chat classes with my students in Inner Mongolia, summer camps, and bike expeditions. Check us out here. So yup, that is me. Phew that's long. Thank goodness no one actually has the time or patience or interest to actually read through all of that. But if you did, hey, you made it! I promise I don't actually talk a lot about myself so this whole thing was kind of like word vomit. Lovely imagery, I know. See you in the next post :)