I forgot to include my trusty phone, not pictured above b/c it was charging at time of photo shoot
Finally it’s the weekend! AKG will be officially finished with his first week of finals in graduate school. Everyone give him a cyber-hug. This weekend we’ll be hot-potting, sleeping in (except Sunday–darn 9AM church!), and watching the Hobbit!! And hopefully mailing out Christmas greeting cards.
Monday morning I read an article on the Huffington Post, and I’ve been thinking about it all week long: Why Your Purse Is Giving You Back Pain….And 11 Ways To Fix It. After reading it, I realized many things; I carry way too much in my purse (see pic above–I usually have a book in my bag as well), and I have horrible posture while carrying it! The author had some great suggestions to remedy the shoulder/back/neck pain that comes from carrying heavy bags, like don’t text while carrying a purse, “Sometimes it’s the double-duty of texting and looking down that causes the curve in your neck to get lost and get flat.” Another tip is to make sure your bag isn’t too long or too short, “You want to be able to swing your hips and your shoulders freely without being bumped by the bag.” <– This one sounds like a no brainer, but it makes a huge difference. I noticed that when I carry a purse, usually the arm not carrying the purse will swing, but not both. So I tried consciously swinging both arms and it really made a difference for my back! Switching up which shoulder carries the bag is a tip I already knew about, but something I don’t do often enough; it’s almost always over my right shoulder.
How heavy is your bag? What do you carry, that you think you don’t need in there? I’ve stopped carrying my book, and I need to do more dump-out-the-contents-of-my-purse-to-see-whats-in-there type of inspection, so I can find surprises like that blush colored Stila nail polish^^ I’ve been looking everywhere for (of course it would be in my purse). Hope that article will help lighten your load, as it (literally) did for me. Have a great weekend!
hugs, hanalei