Nerd in Another City

Merida is easily one of the fittest princesses Disney has in cannon. She rides a horse and shoots a bow and is just generally on the move throughout the entirety of her movie, ‘Brave.’ That’s why the life of a royal doesn’t appeal to her. She has no interest in quietly sitting and weaving a tapestry. Not when there are archery competitions to enter and wide open spaces to ride through. No, for Merida, life is about moving and seeing and doing!

So this week…just keep moving. Keep Merida in your mind’s eye and pick up a new activity when you have some down time. It doesn’t have to be a horseback ride through the Scottish Highlands. Most of us don’t have easy access to horses all the time, at least I don’t. But use what you have around you to support your fitness. Yoga doesn’t require any equipment at all, neither does running.

But if you do want to try those activities that Merida might have partaken in, here’s a look at what you can do:

Archery

It’s not as simple as point and shoot. Archery is a skill. One that, to be honest, I am not good at quite yet. The couple of times I’ve done archery, including for Merida Week and for Hawkeye week when I was an #AvengerinTraining, hasn’t quite been enough to provide proficiency, but it’s an activity I really love doing. Lining up the target, pulling back the bow and letting the arrow fly (far, far, far away from not only the bullseye, but the target itself) is a great feeling. If you’ve never tried archery, you should!

Horseback Riding

Horseback riding is an activity that has a lot of different levels. You can go for a jaunty trail ride, which isn’t very challenging and doesn’t really take skill. Or you can learn how to horseback ride, which takes a lot more skill and does challenge you. Any level of horseback riding is a great activity for Merida week, but it’s the actual skill that I wanted to focus on. Though this is something that you cannot obtain after one session. It really requires a lot more dedication and practice. But an intro class to horseback riding is so much fun! And if you have a place near you that is decently priced, do it!

Scottish Dancing

Ok, this one isn’t really something we see Merida do in Brave, but as I was flipping through the Sunday paper this week, my eye caught a posting for local Scottish Dancing and hello…I had to try it. This is definitely something that could be hard to come by based on where you are located. But always try your local paper or anywhere that might post local events. You never know what treasures await you!