Resolutions

I've never really been big on making New Years resolutions. However, I am in favor of living life to the fullest no matter what time of year it is, so here are some things that inspire me. First a quote from Christian D. Larson:

promise yourself.

to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

to talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.

to make all your friends feel that there is something wonderful in them.

to look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.

to think only of the best, to work only for the best, & to expect only the best.

to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.

to forget the mistakes of the past & press on to the greater achievements of the future.

to wear a cheerful countenance at all times & give every living creature you meet a smile.

to give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.

live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as your are true to the best in you! 

Second, check out this article called 30 Things to Stop Doing. Here are some of my favorites from the list:
#4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner.
It's true - you can't help other people if you are a mess yourself!
#10 Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness.
If your happiness is dependent upon others, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. (BTW, the book they suggest Stumbling on Happiness is definitely worth reading!)
25. Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn't.
This is a big one for me - I've always been good at putting on a happy face and now I'm learning how to feel safe while expressing my feelings. It's a work in progress...

Third is another article - this one summarizes the Top 5 Regrets of the Dying 
#1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. 
Living in Bali for a month was definitely unexpected, and amazing in every possible way! While I missed everyone at home, I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be. I'm not sure what lies ahead for me, but I know it will involve more traveling.
#3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
Ah man, it's on this list too??? Okay universe, I hear ya!

Finally, if you are looking for a great book, check out The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. It's a narrative about her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. I swear it's not a self-help type book; it really is good!

Okay I lied...one more thing...but this one is a video, yay! Take a break from reading all my ramblings and spend 8 minutes watching this video letting go. I know 8 minutes may sound like a long time, but don't let "not having time" be an excuse...remember we're practicing making our needs a priority :)

Here are some photos from New Years:

Holiday buzz

This week was jam packed with holiday fun! We had seven parties over the course of three days and it was wonderful to catch up with friends and family!

One of my favorite parts was getting to spends time with my niece (who will be four in March). She is full of energy and has a great imagination - so cute. We had a non-stop dance party going which mostly consisted of twirling and jumping. Every time I would stop she would say "no, jump!" Ha ha, easy for her to say, she wasn't in high heels. My feet and legs were hurting in the end but it was well worth it.

Oh and now I have an excuse to go back to Bali...my niece told me that she liked my dress and then said "can you get me one?" I tried to explain that I got it in Bali so I couldn't just go buy it at the store, but I don't think she understood. She seemed pretty set on the idea of having a matching dress.

For her Christmas present, I'm going to take her up skiing for the first time. I'm so excited! If this rain would just hurry up and turn to snow...

I don't have any pictures from the weekend but here is one with Marc at a surprise party for my co-worker's 40th birthday!

Tis the season

Every year the Sheraton Hotel in Seattle has an amazing gingerbread village display. This year the theme is train-stations from around the world and it's definitely worth checking out! Here are some of the masterpieces:

my favorite is the Abominable snowman here:

followed by this guy in the background here, ha ha:

Catching up

I know, I know, I've been a bad blogger the past couple weeks! So here's a recap of what has been going on recently.

My parents came over to Seattle (from Spokane) for Thanksgiving weekend which was nice. My mom and I went to a Thanksgiving morning yoga class and it was packed:132 people lined up mat-to-mat. Incredible energy! Other than that, we went to a UW basketball game and to the Apple Cup (football game) - both of which the Huskies won! Oh and we saw the Muppet movie which was hilarious - loved it.

In December, I've had lots of holiday parties between work, friends, family and Marc's school group. All fun stuff, but sadly it's interfered with being able to go skiing. I haven't been up a single day yet this season...which is probably why I haven't blogged at all because I haven't felt like I've done anything interesting worth talking about. This is my first year (ever that I can remember) without having a season's pass. I've officially turned into a weekend warrior, boo! I swore up and down that would never happen, but I think I finally came to grips with it. The only redeeming thing about not having a pass is that now I'll be able to go to more mountains - when I have a pass, I always feel like I'm wasting money to go somewhere else when I could be skiing for free. I have friends that ski at different mountains, so now I can go wherever because it will cost money either way. Plus, I have friends in Tahoe, Salt Lake & Colorado that I want to visit!

On the yoga front, I'm really excited about setting up a regular teaching schedule. In January, I'm going to teach yoga every-other Wednesday for Yogis at UW. It will be fun to build a relationship with the students and watch them progress over time, since that's something I miss when I teach one-off classes. Speaking of which, I taught a holiday themed yoga class at Urban Yoga Spa this past Sunday afternoon focused on giving and gratitude. I volunteered to teach for free and asked everyone to bring food items to donate to the food bank! We had a small group - 14 of us - which wasn't surprising because of all the holiday parties happening over the weekend. It was perfect though because having a small class provided an opportunity to give individual attention which is always a bonus. I incorporated the idea of gratitude into some of the more difficult poses we did- a reminder that it's easy to feel grateful when things are going our way and when we are feeling good...but how can we continue to cultivate gratitude when life is challenging? 

I used all holiday music and a few people asked what some of the songs were, so here is the full playlist.
Winter Song - Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson (love this one)
The Heartache Can Wait - Brandi Carlile
Silver Bells - Alice Smith
All My Bells Are Ringing - Lenka
Carol of the Bells - The Bird & The Bee
Jingle Bells - Diana Krall
Sleigh Ride - KT Tunstall
Frosty the Snowman - Fiona Apple
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Jack Johnson (best version ever)
Peace is Here (acoustic version) - Jars of Clay
Very Merry Christmas - Dave Barnes
Mistletoe - Justin Bieber (I know...insert joke here)
Let it Snow - A Fine Frenzy
Winter Wonderland - Kate Havnevik
White Christmas - Katy Perry (yep, more teen pop stars...)
The Christmas Song - Catherine Feeny
Mistletoe - Colbie Caillat
I'll be Home for Christmas - Holly Conlan
Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas - Hem
There is a Star That Shines Tonight - Sheryl Crow
Silent Night - Priscilla Ahn (my favorite if you're only going to check out one)

Some like it hot

I taught my first hot yoga class on Sunday! Urban Yoga Spa (where I attend classes) graciously allowed me to use their studio to host a free private class for my friends and family.

I had twenty students which was a nice size, and they had all different experience levels which made it really fun. Two of my coworkers came - one for his first yoga class ever (awesome!), and the other who just got back from maternity leave (rock on hot mama!). Plus a former coworker who I used to do yoga with at lunch (yay reunion!). A couple people had done Bikram yoga before but this was their first time doing Vinyasa (which is a completely different style). Most everyone else does yoga on a regular basis, including three of my favorite yoga instructors (love you guys!). One friend who is moving to Vail this week (so cool! but I will miss her), and another friend in town from San Francisco which made the day extra special! And of course all my Bali yogis were with me in spirit! 

It was my first time using a headset microphone so it was funny to hear my voice over the speakers. I felt like Madonna or Britney when I saw myself in the mirror before class - all that was missing were my backup dancers, ha ha! The only glitch was that the display screen for the sound system wasn't showing my music playlist, so I had to do a little bit of last minute scrambling to get it working. Once that was squared away, everything was smooth sailing. Well, unless you ask the two people who overlooked the line in the invitation stating it would be a hot yoga class - surprise! They survived though and everyone left class smiling.

This morning the studio manager said she heard really good things about the class and she invited me to teach again, woo hoo! I don't know the exact date yet but I'm thinking of doing a class focused on giving and gratitude. Perfect for the holidays...I might even throw in some Christmas music...

Speaking of holidays, here are some cute gingerbread yogis :)

Class #1

I taught my first official yoga class this week - woo hoo! It was for Yogis at University of Washington which is an awesome non-profit that provides free yoga classes to college students! I didn't even know what yoga was when I was at the UW so these students are already miles ahead of where I was at their age. I'm super excited to volunteer my time teaching classes for them because I know yoga will help with their studies, relationships, decisions, health, happiness and more!

I had no idea what to expect when I showed up for class. I thought there would maybe be 10 people there...or less because it was pouring rain. I was shocked when people kept coming and coming - pretty soon we were moving mats to make more space and add more rows. I ended up with nearly 40 students - fantastic! I was thrilled that so many people came - plus they were very welcoming and eager to learn.

They earned points with me right away when they asked if I was also a student at UW...and then were surprised when I laughed and said "yeah, but it was 10 years ago." The class itself went really well - this was my first time teaching an entire hour (our "final exam" during training was only 17 minutes). I decided not to plan out an exact sequence ahead of time...I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or just plain crazy, but it ended up working out! I felt like if I had a memorized sequence, I would be focused on "getting it right" rather than just teaching. I think I was able to feel the room better this way, and speak from my heart rather than from a script. I was worried I would either run out of time and feel rushed to finish, or I run out of things to do and leave them laying in Savasana for 20 minutes. Miraculously the timing went smoothly and I ended right on schedule!

I had quite a few people come up after class and say how much they enjoyed it so that made me very happy. They also liked my music - phew! because I seriously spent forever debating over the playlist, ha ha. I left on a complete high - it was crazy how much energy it gave me! I offered to teach twice a month for them so hopefully they will take me up on it :)

This Sunday I'm hosting a free class for friends & family at Urban Yoga Spa (where I attend classes). They generously allowed me to use their studio - love them! So far around 20 people have RSVPd so I'm excited! I also started teaching in my office once a week for two of my coworkers. A couple other people found out and started asking questions about it, so hopefully they will join us!

Integration

I've been back in the states for three weeks now so I'm integrating back into regular life. It's been easy in some ways and challenging in others, which is no surprise. What I find interesting is that some of the things that I thought might pose a problem have gone smoothly, while I have been triggered by other things that never occurred to me.

For instance, I thought I was crazy for booking the Las Vegas conference but it ended up being great! I didn't experience any jet lag - I think having the adrenaline from speaking at the conference actually helped give me energy so I easily adjusted to the time change.

Once I was back in Seattle, one of the first things I did was go grocery shopping. While that seems innocuous enough, it turned out to be really overwhelming. I was in the produce section trying to decide what to get and all of a sudden I started feeling really emotional and I didn't know why. I stood there looking at all of the choices and I just totally froze. I realized afterwards that I hadn't made any decisions for myself in six weeks - in Philly, Bali & Vegas I had a schedule laid out for me that in addition to all my activities, it included when, where and what I ate. It was fantastic to have all those details taken care of, don't get me wrong, I just hadn't realized how accustomed I had become to following what was decided for me rather than making decisions for myself.

My first day back in the office turned out to be an emotional day. I was really happy to see all my coworkers - I am very lucky to work with wonderful friends! However, even though I work with forty people, our office is divided into sections so there aren't a lot of people around me. This is the opposite of Bali where I was constantly with other people - we ate together, had classes together, worked on projects together, lived together, etc. There was rarely a time when I was alone - even on the days of silence, we weren't speaking but we were with each other. Anyway, my first few days back at the office brought up a lot of emotions for me because I was feeling really isolated and lonely. It helps to leave my desk periodically and walk around to chat with people, so now I incorporate that into my day and it provides a better sense of community.

The second thing I noticed about being back at work was that it was hard for me to be inside all day. In Bali we were always outside - even when we were inside, it felt like we were outside because the buildings had open walls. We were in the middle of the jungle so we were surrounded by lush green trees and vibrantly colored flowers, we were constantly breathing in fresh clean air, and I was barefoot the whole time (flip-flops were the closest I ever came to shoes). It is a huge difference to now be inside all day, with circulated air, wearing jeans & shoes. Also, the tallest building at Anahata was two stories so I felt very connected to the earth the whole time I was in Bali. My office is on the 29th floor and my condo is on the 33rd floor, so in Seattle I spend most of my life up in the air. I never thought about it before because it was what I was used to, but after being grounded for a month it felt very strange to be back in skyscrapers. I can help both of those issues by remembering to take breaks outside. Even if it's just for a few minutes, it makes a big difference in my day.

Anyway, I'm feeling settled in now and things are back to normal...well, as normal as they will ever be. I will always have Bali with me and my life will forever be changed :)