Boy did I ever turn OFF this holiday season!
I have been disconnected and loving it. But I'm now refreshed and ready to be back! And best of all, I am armed with new inspiration and lots of stories to tell!
There are no more holidays in my near future, but still lots of celebrations left! I consider fall to be my celebration season and this year I'm excited to kick it off with my 1 year wedding anniversary to my husband and best friend! And best of all it is now less then a week away!
Fall to me has always been the time of year that is the beginning of something new, something like my own personal New Years! Even though I have been out of school for nearly a decade I have not been able to shake it!
So it's always neat for me to look at my year since, since I'm often filled with seated enjoyment thinking about the past moments and the setting of my future goals. But it is what I feel at this moment in the year that make it special, I am simply sitting between an end and a beginning, a past and a future. That leaves me in the present!
Taking snapshot highlights, the pretty and the not so, starting around now, this is my year in review:
1. Big deal, I got married! Yeah, perhaps a little ground crashing! I won't get into it, (you can read enough stories on the internet!) but I will say this: Hosting a wedding was the most rewarding, most stressful, most surprising thing that I have ever done and experienced. To come from a home that is rather broken and conventionally different, to feel people around me, people I wouldn't expect, to come up and help and be there and show me such love was so amazing and shocking all at once. At times it felt so unreal, I couldn't believe it was true. And it was here that I began to understand some of the true essence of what it means to live in a yogic life. Even if you aren't a "yogi".
2. I came to realize and accept that I suffer from SADs and it hits me hard in October and November, and it can be the most debilitating experience. This coming year armed with this acceptance, I am making it my mission to not let SADs take over my life for 2.5 months. And with the start of September I will be beginning a daily dose of Vitamin D. That and teaching yoga and having a direction with focus will help keep the spiral in check! Maybe even through in a little R&R retreat or meditation retreat and I think I will be rocking this West Coast!
3. Although this is old news for me, Christmas can do wonders for my spirit, probably because it is my favourite holiday! So December is when I snapped myself out of my slump, started practicing yoga and began making plans to jump start my career as a yoga teacher.
4. Okay things are rolling, doing a little number crunching, financially survived christmas, mmm I always wanted to go to Wanderlust in California! Baby, here I come, this is happening, chocolate chip cookies, yoga donations, cupcakes and selling my couch. Oh wait, Wanderlust is coming to Whistler?
5. I technically got hired at a yoga studio. Which, although I never worked a class there, was a huge ego boost!
6. Starting in January for 6 months straight I taught two yoga classes a week, which was so much fun and so rewarding to build that kind of relationship, and to really experience how much your students can actually teach you! And I always thought it was funny when people told me that I have a "yoga voice"at work. People new I was happy and calm then!
7. I enrolled in my first ever month long yoga intensive class. It was so great to go to the same teacher (someone I have a lot of respect for and have studied with previously) twice a week and to get to do a book project... It was nice to feel like I was part of a kula again, even if only for a month.
8. Passed my "L" Driving, although I still have a fair share of restrictions on my driving, I can now drive by myself! I'm 28 and I can finally legally drive!
9. Off to Wanderlust California (thank goodness I passed my test, not sure I would have made it!). 6 months of hard work, great saving skills, and a friend to join me for the ride, and a very long 2 days of driving I have arrived in Squaw Valley/ Lake Tahoe region. And there are no showers. Next to these perfect yogis I felt so dirty! Being stuck in a car for two days with some really messed up sleeping and coming to this pristine and perfect experience I felt dirty! Blah! After 5 days of feeling this way I finally muster the energy to spend some time at highcamp (that is over 8,000 ft!) and chill in the hot tub and get me spic and span!
10. Over these two week I manage to have my mind blown over and over and over again. California, the coast, and the Oregon coast are magical! There will be more on this later!
12. Worst mistake ever, come back to work for three days between holidays. So unfocused and excited to not be there! Hah, I do love my day job!
13. Family.... the good the bad the ugly. But still worth every minute of it. My Aunt and Uncle are the greatest people ever and I know they will always be there!
14. Happy to be back at work. Happy to have a schedule. Happy to have responsibility. Oh wait, I'm going to Whistler in a week! Yay!
15. Wanderlust Whistler, lets see what you can do in Canada! Volunteering for Wanderlust Whistler was the best way to experience the festival, especially when you no longer have any savings. And a possible highlight has getting to hang with two fabulous and fat cats!
16. Oh yeah! My teaching is going public! Remember when I got hired at a studio 6 months ago? Well they gave me a class to teach starting in September and I'm getting trained to work the space! I couldn't be in a better spot, I have had a summer of inspiration and a year of real experience!
17. And look at that, here we are, moving into my full circle of a year! I knew this year was great, but I could never have said it was going to be like this! And to think I have another year ahead of me with lessons learned, new experiences and a career in yoga that is really beginning. I can't wait to jump back and get started again! Just two weeks to go!
