A One Word Resolution 2013

Happy New Year!!!  

I say that with much excitement because 13 is the new lucky number and here we are again at the start of a new year with new beginnings, adventures, and discoveries.  As I reflect on 2012, I feel very lucky to have experienced the ride the word FREEDOM took me on.  

From last year:

“…How will I be more free in 2012?  Mmm.. let me count the ways:  giving myself space to just let go of control, stop trying to control outcomes, letting go of fears (yes there’s more of them), being in flow and flux with more ease and faith, ohhh faith.. that’s a good one, inviting faith into my life, freeing myself from guilt… practicing forgiveness (of others and especially of myself), giving others freedom by allowing others to be just as they are (this is a good one!), freeing my psyche of past debris and repetitive thoughts, living and loving in the moment.. let’s repeat that one, living and loving in the moment.”

This definitely sums up the roller coaster I was on last year.   This year my one word resolution came to me without hesitation but I decided to let it be for a few days just to make sure it was the word that I wanted to guide this year’s journey.  The first word that came to mind was BALANCE.  After letting this word marinate in my being for a while, I’ve decided that it’s the word.  I should’ve known that the first intuition is always correct  

BALANCE:  how I will I let you lead my year?  The first thing that comes to mind is finding the balance between studio life, home life, family and self, personal practice, learning new skills and sharing the ones I’ve learned, giving and also receiving… ahhh receiving — this is a good one.  I will let others give and help when they offer.  Other things that come to mind is finding the balance with effort and ease not only on the mat but also in everything else I do.  How about balancing the check book.. yikes!  that’s also another good one.  Mostly I’m leaning towards balancing between fun and work.  It’s a challenge when you love the work you do because work becomes fun.  I guess the balance lies in finding fun outside of work.  :)  It’s gonna be a balanced year

Do you choose a word?  What do you do to invite the new year?  

Here’s a recap of some of the memorable events and the things I’ve learned:

January:  Yoga Hurts or Heals?

February: Naked Yoga

March:  Adults are Obsolete Children

April:  was a “Life’s a Beach” series and my favorite one is here.   The whole series is here.

May: It’s a tie between Do you want to be a popular yoga teacher? and How Yoga Really Works.

June:  was a fabulous birthday month.  I can’t just choose one.  June was the month of ashtanga adventures for me. Check it out here. 

July: Do your practice and all is coming.

August: Child’s Pose is for Losers and Top 10 Things To Do Once in  a Blue Moon

September:  There is Only Now

October: 10/11/12

November:  oops.. was MIA

December:  The Twelve Days of Yoga Series

A One Word Resolution

Happy New Year!  I’m back on the grid and ready for lots of blogging and sharing this year…

image: weheartit.com

2011 was surely a roller coaster ride with lots of love and broken hearts, successes and failures, proud moments and disappointments, new friends and old friends rekindled but mainly lessons galore. I can’t keep track of the number of lessons I’ve encountered (some still in progress of being learned).  All this was driven by one word I choose to live by in 2011.. that word was “risk.”  Some notable risky things I did (risky meaning out of my comfort zone with no excuses and facing my fears, especially the silly ones):  hitched a ride from a total stranger in Wisconsin,  left the U.S. for the very first time by myself, learned how to swim by trying to drown myself, putting myself up on youtube (gah!), conquering my fear of handstands (yay! I can do it without touching the wall.. now gotta trick my mind to go away from the wall), looked love right in the heart even if it meant breaking out of it’s shell, stood up for myself even though I was rubbing people’s feather’s the wrong way and mostly challenging my own way of doing things the same ‘ol way.  

As I dragged my feet through the holiday’s, I could not come up with a new word for 2012.  I thought and thought.  Tried and tried.  Until one morning, I was hiking at my favorite spot with a friend and we were talking about what we wanted to accomplish in 2012.  I said, “I’ve been thinking about my word and I can’t seem to nail it.”  As we walked up the hill, I could hear my breath heaving and it occurred to me that I try too hard!  And I swear to you, I heard a whisper and the voice said “freedom.”  

The view at Castlerock near the end of the hike. I wanna feel free like that climber.

I blurted it out loud, “FREEDOM.”  A sense of ease swept over me.  I was trying so hard to come up with the perfect word and now the perfect word chose me.  How will I be more free in 2012?  Mmm.. let me count the ways:  giving myself space to just let go of control, stop trying to control outcomes, letting go of fears (yes there’s more of them), being in flow and flux with more ease and faith, ohhh faith.. that’s a good one, inviting faith into my life, freeing myself from guilt… practicing forgiveness (of others and especially of myself), giving others freedom by allowing others to be just as they are (this is a good one!), freeing my psyche of past debris and repetitive thoughts, living and loving in the moment.. let’s repeat that one, living and loving in the moment. 

I’m exicted to have FREEDOM guide me in 2012.  Do you choose a word?  What are your resolutions?

Here’s a recap of my favorite posts from 2011:

Jan:  Would You Laugh If

Feb: I Get To

Mar: Condoms, Duct Tape and Rope

Apr: Touch Me, Squeeze Me, Hug Me

May: Triumph

June: Thank Goodness It’s Monday

July: Another Year Older and Happier

Aug: Life Right Now

Sept: Leading With Your Heart

Oct: Lessons Learned

Nov: Shit Happens, Regardless

Dec: The Space Between

Feeling much gratitude for you for reading, sharing of yourself here, and walking this journey with me!!!  

Missing in Action

Has a week really passed since my last post?  Uh ok.. missing in action for good reasons!  Well I could say I didn’t blog cause sitting down to type was painful as my left bum was still pretty sore for several days after being dropped in acro class.  There’s some truth to that but of course I was really too busy having fun and planning fun things the entire week.  Here’s the scoop:

Planning this summer’s camping and yoga retreat weekend with some amazing people!  Stay tuned for this one..

Flying lessons.  The best thing for a sore bum is to not sit on it so go fly.  We practiced a little bit on our own cause bimonthly classes is not feeding my addiction to this practice.  New poses learned:  The walnut.  Check it out:

Friday night – San Francisco Yoga Journal conference with Seane Corn and Michael Franti.  Another item checked off my bucketlist.  For the past year, I’ve wanted to go see Michael Franti live but everytime he had a concert, I was unable to attend (hmm it was prolly some excuse I had).  Not this time! It was a fun night of yoga, music and running around in spirals like crazy kids.  Imagine a huge room full of adults (prolly 100+) holding hands.  One end of the line starts running towards the center of the room and then everyone follows.  A spiral starts to form in the center as the line coils in.  Imagine some parts of the line running fast and some parts slowing down.  Wheeeeeee!  It was like a human roller coaster.  I never had so much fun doing such a silly and simple act of running.  And yes I need to work on my cardio and also find a bunch of friends so we could do this outside on the lawn!

There is a fun truth to random acts of sillyness or even funny looking pants (or fun pants to wear? NOT!).

Doing the block walk

Here’s one of which Niko had this week.  An hour of fun with some plain’ol yoga blocks: It takes skill, concentration, and balance to walk through this maze of yoga blocks!

The nugget for this past week I walk away with is how can I serve my community.  Seane Corn challenged us.  How can I serve?  How can I take my practice beyond my mat?  During the class, she asked us to set an intention and take a 40 day challenge to service.  I could not find an intention to set… one that would resonante with me deeply and one that would be a honest act of service.  One that I wanted to do and didn’t feel like I was forced to do it.  I’ve thought about this for several days now and have still yet to set an intention.  I am feeling the feeling of wanting to resurrect YogaRiffic Kids again.  I’m not sure if teaching group classes is my intention, but I am feeling an overwhelming sense of joy from what I am learning about living like a kid.  Running like mad in a circle and walking on yoga blocks was the highlight of my week.  Gotta be something in that right?  Well I got 40 days to figure this out and do something really meaningful. Michael pointed out some resolutions that people usually make.  It’s the usual list we make over and over and over to lose weight, eat healthier, quit smoking, yadah ya.  He says it doesn’t work cause we don’t have an action plan and when we do, it’s unrealistic to follow.  A facebook friend posted this week that we spend more time planning a vacation than we do planning our life goals.  Some of us don’t even have goals.  Hmm you wonder why you feel stuck.  Lately I’ve found myself saying, “Same ‘ol stuff, different day” quite a bit.  I have a list of things I want to accomplish, but they usually get thrown out the door because I don’t have time or the money or this or that to accomplish it.  Well in the next 40 days, I will set some intentions for my life around service, career, health, finance, and FUN!  No more excuses because we are our own bus drivers!  Oh I will have an official buckelist too.  These bucklist things have been floating in my head and it needs to be declared!

Y WRRY

So I’ve missed two blog posts… isn’t this when people’s New Year’s resolution begins to wane?  It is mid January.  Ok that’s a lame excuse.  But isn’t that the story of our lives?  We use whatever excuse we can to justify our point of view a.k.a. belief system aka. B.S!  But deep down inside when we don’t meet our own expectations, we feel guilt or less than successful.  I was starting to feel the way I feel when I don’t check off everything off my “to do” list for the day until I saw this license plate while driving home:  Y WRRY.  Ok I get it, universe!  So I’m blaming the universe for my blogging absence

Truth is I didn’t make this blog a priority the last two days. This is the reason why resolutions don’t work.  Our priority changes to suit our present situation whether that is plain lazyiness, lack of motivation, or other things came up.  Ok so kudos for living in the present.  Cool thing is there is great power in the present moment.  When we are present, we are able to adapt to change with much more grace and less attachment to our B.S. Tomorrow, I will set an intention, sort of a mini resolution for my day (one of which will include blogging) and adjust to whatever surprises tuesday will throw at me.

Blogging and New Years Resolution

It’s already January 9th and people are still talking about their new year’s resolution when I still have not made any.  For the first time I did not fuss about making one.  Each year I feel forced to find something to improve on or something to accomplish.  I’m not perfect in any sense, but it’s too much pressure to make a firm resolution to do anything for the entire year!  My yoga practice has taught me that the power of intention lies in the NOW.  So why would I committ myself to a year long resolution?

Saturday afternoon at the library with the kiddos will inspire my resolution.  My 3 yr old finds a book, Wallace’s List by Barbara Bottner and insists that we read it right there at that moment. It’s a story about Wallace who is a very cute little mouse that lives his life through lists.  He has a list for everything and anything that he does.  One day a new neighbor, Albert, moves in.  Wallace wants to greet Albert but he can’t because it’s not on his to-do list for that day.  So the next day his to-do list includes greeting Albert.  Albert who is a light-hearted go with the moment kinda’ fellow invites Wallace to go on an adventurous trip to Glockamorra. Wallace lists all the things he hates and the possibility of these things occurring on the trip. He gets overwhelmed with all that could go wrong.  Albert goes without him.  The weather proves to be terrible and Wallace gets worried about his friend and goes to warn him about the storm coming in.  The journey to get to the airport becomes an adventure for Wallace and he realizes that surrendering to the uncertain proved to be fun and exciting.

That night I sit down to browse through february’s issue of Yoga Journal… Note that I haven’t read the last 6 issues of my magazine.  There’s an article in there about “Climbing Ev’ry Mountain” and bringing adventure to your life.  Hmmmm WTF are you trying to tell me universe?  Ok I get it.  My life is boring.  It’s mundane.  But what’s a mother of a 6yr and 3yr old gonna do when being five minutes late to anything is actually 10 minutes early?  Everyday is a constant struggle against time to get things done and stay on schedule… from being a chauffer to two different schools, swimming, art class, groceries, juicing (that’s another blog!), cooking, yaddah yadda ya.  Who has time for adventure when I’m up at 6am til midnight each day and still don’t check things off my list?

The article gets better cause adventure is not trying to climb every mountain or biking that 60 mile road trip.  Aaaahhhh!  Adventure is taking the mundane out of the daily routine.  I was relieved to read that talking to a stranger and taking a yoga class from a different teacher is adventurous.  I can do that!

So that’s why this blog has been started.  I resolve to bring a sense of adventure to my life on a daily basis… shifting my perspective, bringing passion to my daily routine, and mostly surrendering to the unknown.  As Albert said, “Changing my mind is an adventure.  An adventure can be anything.  Anything that isn’t planned for.  Maps aren’t needed because wherever I go, there I am!” Thanks Albert!  I can make a resolution or two and change my mind about it whenever I want to!

Now how am I gonna find the time to blog everyday?  I dunno!  But it’ll be an adventure!