Releasing the Year 2014

 

 

 

Happy New Year! It's that time of year again when I like to hit pause on the belly dance topics and focus on reviewing and releasing the year that has come to a close. I love the opportunity that the ending of one year and the impending start of the new year provides for taking time out for reflection and checking in with our own internal compass. It's an opportunity to see what worked well, and what didn't. It's a chance to wrap up the lessons that were learned and head into the promise of new beginnings and new opportunities. Yes, it's a magical time of year.

I started 2014, with this post about my goals for the year, which focused on my theme of "Triple G", with the "G" standing for grit, gratitude, and giving. Reflecting on the year, how did I do?

I was pretty gritty this year if I do say so myself. I completed my first half marathon, the Lululemon Seawheeze, and my first obstacle/mud run, the Warrior Dash.  I'm pretty proud and pleased to say that I smashed my own expectation of what I thought I could accomplish and finished my half marathon in under two hours!

 

I also worked hard on my giving goal. I had originally hoped to be a Girls on the Run Coach, but there ended up being too much time required during work hours that I couldn't participate. But instead I ended up joining the Board of Directors or Finance Committee for the non-profit organizations of Humanities Washington, Sixth Day Dance, and Fremont Abbey Arts. I'm honored to be working in this capacity for these organizations and loving all the opportunities this allows me to give back to my local community.

 

And finally, gratitude. I've been keeping a daily gratitude journal wherein I write two to three items specific to the day that I feel grateful for. This is a daily ritual I've come to love because it really puts me in a positive frame of mind and helps me focus on the blessings in my life.  This in turn puts me in a position to manifest and achieve my best possible life. Easy practice, powerful stuff.

 

My gratitude practice has been especially important to me this year, as I've had a really difficult year in some respects as well. I've been dealing with chronic health issues, as I discussed in this post. I am continuing to work toward a solution, and I am beyond ready to put these issues behind me and move forward into a year of radiant, vibrant health.

 

In regards to other things that occurred this year, I've also gotten back into ballet, as I blogged about in this post. And I got my first ever tattoo, which you can glimpse above! My tattoo is in Farsi and says "Dance when you're perfectly free", which is a line from a Rumi poem.

 

Our lives are ever-evolving and changing, and thus what receives our focus and energy is always shifting.  This dynamic energy was a factor in my life this year, as some of my originally intended goals didn't get my attention at all, and other goals ended up modified as the year went on.  I wrote approximately 50% of my intended non-fiction book, including the proposal, before deciding to table that project and write a novel instead. I'm already on the third chapter of the novel and have hopes to finish it by the end of 2015. I find that there's great peace of mind that comes from doing something that your heart knows you were meant to do, and I'm finding that spirit encompass my effort as I work on this novel.

 

I also didn't make it to Costa Rica this year, but the plane tickets are booked for March 2015.  Pure vida here I come! Instead my husband and I headed to Hawaii's Big Island where we scuba dived, hiked, kayaked, zip lined, swam and laid on the beach. The picture on the beach above is of myself and a sea turtle at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park.  My husband and I also did numerous weekend trips throughout the summer, including a lovely B&B in Walla Walla for wine tasting, and a stay in a treehouse in Fall City for our one-year wedding anniversary, the site of our wedding ceremony.

I also ended up reading a lot this year. I've always been an avid reader, but I really turned to books this year for solace and comfort on days when I wasn't feeling well.  My favorite fiction books that I read this year were Amy Tan's Valley of Amazement, Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, and Paula McLain's The Paris Wife.  For non-fiction books, I would recommend Barbara Sher's Refuse to Choose and Caroline Miller and Michael Frisch's Creating Your Best Life: The Ultimate Life List Guide.

And as one final comment on the year, it turned out to be an epic year for concerts. I saw a total of 27 different bands, including Tool, The Pixies, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Alt-J, Bastille, MGMT, Weezer and Imagine Dragons. Holy moly, lucky me!

 

It's been a year of both triumph and hardship. In many ways, not the year I was expecting to have when it first started, but that's just the nature of life. As always, I encourage everyone to take time out for themselves to release and renew at this time of year. Tie your bow on the year and let it go. Goodbye 2014!



Farewell to 2013!

 

As many of you know, I'm big into goal-setting. And if you've been reading the blog for a few years now, you know that at the end of each year, I take time out to process my year, digging into what went well, and what went not so well. Essentially tying a ribbon around the year, releasing it, and preparing to move into the new year with a bang. And today, on this eve of our new year, it seemed like the perfect time to reflect on all that transpired in 2013.

Back at the beginning of this year I wrote a post called Ignite, my theme for the year, outlining my big three for the year - getting married and honeymooning in Paris, writing a book, and competing in Belly Dancer USA. So how did it go?

Marriage? Yes, yes, and more yes! I am blessed to have married my best friend and love of my life. Feel free to peruse my wedding pictures and honeymoon pictures. Our wedding was intimate and romantic. I could not have been more pleased with the day. And France was simply divine. My new favorite foreign destination.

I did compete in Belly Dancer USA. I didn't place, and I won't lie; I wish I had.  But I still had a valuable learning experience, which I share all about in this post.

And I did write and publish a book. Not the book I was originally intending to write, but that was the way the creative winds took me. My book, designed to jump start your goal-setting and to be a practice companion and journal can be purchased on Lulu.com.  It will soon also be available on Amazon.com.

A few other highlights of the year that weren't part of my "Big Three", was going to an all-women's weekend surf camp in Oregon. The company I learned with was NW Women's Surf Camp, whom I highly recommend.  I also went to the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire for the first time and absolutely loved it. Not a far stretch that a belly dancer loved a festival based on costumes and history sprinkled with a good dose of fantasy, huh? And I also became the newest belly dance instructor through the University of Washington's Experimental College. Shameless self-promotion time: the new series of classes starts February 2nd and registration is now open.

As far as things that didn't go so well. I didn't do nearly as much performing this year as I have in previous years. Between my two major life events (getting married as previously discussed, plus I also changing my day job and leaving the industry I'd been in for eight years), my performance schedule got pushed to the side. Trying to fit in any additional dancing, was starting to feel like major burnout, rather than the joy that sharing a creative passion should be bringing. Thus, I'm hoping with recharged batteries, to pick it back up to full speed in the new year.

And that book I was originally intending to write? Definitely hoping to get it under way in the new year as well. The working title is CPA by Day, Belly Dancer by Night. And with that little reveal, I will say no more. Stay tuned!

How about you? What worked well for you? What are you ready to embrace for next year? And what are you ready to release? Now is the perfect time of year for reflection. So grab a glass of bubbly, a journal, and a pencil and buy out some time for yourself before the countdown to midnight begins.

Have a wonderful, festive, and safe New Year's Eve!  May your 2014 be filled with love, light, and laughter, mixed together with a glittering handful of magic. Blessings to you in the new year.

Ignite

As promised, we are onto part two of the annual goal review and setting process. The last post reviewed my ups and downs of 2012, and now, with last year released, we are moving full-steam ahead into 2013. 

Each year I always set a one-word or short phrase theme for the year. Last year's theme was Thirty and Thriving.  After much debating, pondering, and rolling words around in my head, my theme for 2013 is, drumrolll....IGNITE! After defining my top three goals for the year, I noticed that they were all things that have been on my shiny dream radar for some time now.  I've decided that now is the time to grab those dreams out of fuzzy realm of someday and turn them into realities.  It's time to start the motors, gather the energy, and light the fires of taking action. Thus ignite seemed like the best word to pull them all this action together. This is the word that really describes exactly how I wanted to approach these tasks at hand; how I want to feel this year as I embark on these adventures.  

Which leads me to my actual goals for the year.  There's some smaller items swimming around as well, but I want to highlight just my top big three goals for 2013.

1. Get married to the love of my life. In Paris.
After what will be six and half years together, we are finally tying the knot. And in the city of love nonetheless.  Which will be followed by a two-week honeymoon in France.We have our plane tickets booked, the time off of work, and shortly will begin working out all the details. Do I want that fire element present in my marriage? You better believe it.

2. Write my book already.
Since I was a child I've always known that I have a book in me.  And since I was a child I've been waiting for the right time to materialize to sit down and write it.  Well, we all know the time will never materialize, so this is going to be the year I make time.  I know what I want to write about and I've blocked out a minimum of one-hour per week to put pen to paper.  Get ready for some blazing pages as the creative process starts churning.

3. Compete in the Belly Dancer USA competition in Cayonville, Oregon in June.
Some igniting needed for this one? Oh yes, you better be on fire in a competition! I've mapped out my preparation timeline, have my next private lesson on the calendar, and have coerced my fiance into doing the drive with me (although, I haven't yet made full disclosure of the fact that it's a six hour drive down there, but we'll get to that one later....).

So those are my three main focuses for the year. It's going to take energy, spark, and dedication. There's going to be some hard work involved and hours clocked. But it's going to be big, it's going to be juicy, and it's going to be rewarding at a deep, soul-quenching level when it's all said and done.

And you? Now that you've survived the holidays and the Mayan Apocalypse, have you outlined your 2013 goals?  If not, I strongly encourage you to give yourself the gift of time and space to do some searching and brainstorming so you can really manifest your desires in this new year.