Marcia's Musings: Fun in Bed (and Other Household Stories)
/By Marcia Appel — Last Updated: December 8, 2025
Crossing Your Fingers Helps Stabilize You!
Here we stand on the precipice of another new year. Before this one fades into the next, it’s tempting to offer a recap of 2025, just as most series streamed into our homes do, whether a comedy or drama. Let’s agree to press “Skip Recap” and move ahead into 2026 unfettered by rehashing the last 12 months, which so often tested our ability to re-regulate our overtaxed central nervous systems.
Decades ago, the last two weeks of any year would find us setting hard-and-fast resolutions, the concept being that we must find ways to improve ourselves. This involved a great deal of judgment and self-recrimination, which almost always guarantees disappointment or, worse yet, feelings of utter failure. We then have to add these results to the betterment list for the following revolution around the sun.
At some point, we moved away from the resolute nature of resolutions and toward the kinder language of intentions. I attribute this shift, as I do most positive changes, to the advent of yoga and mindfulness in the United States. An intention indicates a longer, gentler arc and an ability to begin again rather than crossing the line of demarcation into failure. The fallacy of the old system can be found in this one example: Why set a resolution to lose 20 pounds in the first two months of a new year just after consuming dozens of cookies, plowing through many meals of overly rich foods, and imbibing cocktails and mocktails during the ubiquitous “holiday season?” How much wiser and possible to create an intention to practice moderation next time and save us from the torture of denial and recrimination once the next January arrives?
Recently, I found a stash of decades-old magazines as I cleaned out another closet. I read some of the doozy headlines from holiday seasons past that not only pushed dangerous weight-loss schemes “for swimsuit weather”, how to sculpt a six-pack torso in “just four short weeks” (the story reads like torture), and proclamations about “simplifying your home” right after opening and storing massive numbers of gifts (regifting, anyone?).
It got me thinking about how much I simply want to move my body more in 2026 and where I can establish new ways of doing so that support better health. I started close to home – well, inside my home – and I want to share what I learned so you can incorporate this knowledge into your exercise plans to support your intentions, whatever they are.
Rigorous Bed-Making
One week this year, in a flash of awareness, I found myself thinking about how many steps it takes to strip the sheets and pillowcases from a king-size bed, wash and dry them, and remake a mattress that rivals a pontoon boat in dimension. I kept meticulous records and calculated that on average you can log between 275 to 300 steps accomplishing this task. Keep in mind that this is just one bed. If you are doing two beds weekly, it’s easy to rack up 550 to 600 steps, depending on how committed you are to showcasing a wrinkle-free work of art in which to slumber.
I discovered how to extend this workout in these fun and interesting ways:
Rather than walking around the bed so many times, bonus points are awarded for crawling across the top of it once or twice to get from one side to the other, pausing halfway to do five to ten Cat/Cow Tilts, flowing three times from Tabletop to Down Dog (a terrific core strengthener), and holding a High Plank for 60 seconds. While you will get in fewer steps this way, you will expend more energy and get a more complete workout.
If one of your bedrooms is located on another floor, you will receive bonus points because for going up and down the stairs a minimum of two to three times (more if you realize you left the pillowcases in the dryer as I often do). Add ankle weights and earn even more points.
Additional points accumulate if you remake the bed alone. It is common knowledge that tugging the fitted sheet over the mattress miraculously builds the biceps and triceps (take care not to break a fingernail or rip the corners of the material).
Creative Dishwasher Emptying
When I teach the meditation unit of our 200-hour teacher-training program, students select a mundane household task, preferably one they do not enjoy, and set an intention to practice it for one month with moment-by-moment awareness. One of the most loathsome tasks for many students over the years is emptying the dishwasher and restocking the cabinets and drawers.
Turn this maligned job into a spine-extension and core workout. Here’s how:
Exhale to fold forward with bent knees until your hands feel the plates. Reach for several of them and hold them evenly in both hands. Inhale to Halfway Lift and pull the navel to the spine, thereby extending it and engaging your core muscles, and exhale in place. Then, inhale to stand and place the plates on the counter in front of you. Once all the plates and other items in the lower rack are on the counter, count your steps to each cabinet or drawer and add to your daily total.
Return to the dishwasher to empty the upper rack of glassware and other small items. Begin by sitting in Chair Pose, thighs squeezing together and weight in heels. Hold this position while you place the small objects on the counter. Set an intention to hold it for the duration. When the rack is empty, inhale and straighten your legs. Again, count your steps as you place the items on their shelves.
Eye and Arm Exercises
Make a list of compelling books from the Best of 2025 Lists you saved from year-end reviews. For one hour daily, sit on the edge of a firm chair directly on your sitting bones and reach the crown of your head high. Hold an open book in your hands. Tuck your chin slightly and gaze down at the pages. Slowly and deliberately read each word, moving your eyes steadily. At the end of each paragraph, circle your eyeballs in one direction and then the other before moving to the next paragraph. Each time you need to turn a page, raise and lower the book five times to enhance shoulder mobility and develop powerful arms.
I recommend the following books to get you started:
Mona’s Eyes by Thomas Schlesser, his American debut and named by Barnes & Noble as its best book of 2025. Tender, beautiful, and art-filled, this story of Mona and her grandfather delights. I will read it again.
The True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine and named the National Book Award winner for fiction. A schoolteacher and his mother sparkle with love for each other (in the end) over decades of pushing each other’s boundaries and buttons. (All of us know something about that.)
This partially tongue-in-cheek exercise list invites experimentation because household tasks done with body awareness can create strength and feelings of accomplishment. believe me, holding a High Plank or Down Dog for a minute on a cushy mattress sculpts muscles. My 2026 intention for all of us is to move our bodies, minds, and spirits on the mat at Green Lotus as we build community, confidence, insight, and pleasure (even in everyday tasks). Happy New Year, everyone!
“My 2026 intention for all of us is to move our bodies, minds, and spirits on the mat at Green Lotus.”
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