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!



Mid-Year Goal Check-In, Part Two

Just like the rest of life, dreams and goals are constantly evolving and changing. So while I'm pretty on track with my "Celebrate and Sparkle" goals that I set back in January, since then I've accomplished some new ambitions, added some new aspirations, and also identified some elements that need eliminating from my life.

As I've progressed down my "Celebrate and Sparkle" path, there have been a couple of ambitions that came up that I've actually already been able to check off my list:

1. Take an aerial silks class.  I did this in May through Cabiri and it was amazing! The first class was a bit rough, as I felt like the body mechanics weren't clicking for me and my old shoulder injury was flaring up. Walking out of my class, that Negative Nellie in the back of mind was whispering demoralizing things like "Maybe you're just too old" and "Wow, you're really out of shape since your gymnastics days." After a short lived pity party, I'd had about enough of that, told negative Nellie to piss off, and was back at class the next week. And I was much improved! By week three I was having visions of performances and stunning feats of acrobatics.  I'm currently on hiatus due to scheduling conflicts, but you can certainly bet that I'll be back at it again this fall. Health bonus: taking the class actually ended up helping my shoulder, as I learned to engage properly through the rhomboids and stop hanging by my rotator cuff.
2. Become a subscriber at the 5th Avenue. The 5th Avenue Theater has a spectacular season coming up and I'm now officially a subscriber, which is head over heels cheaper than buying individual tickets. For the price of $33 per ticket, over the next year I'll be sitting in row 7 (yes, as in seven rows back from the stage) smack-dab in the middle while I eat my heart out watching Rent(!), Les Miserables(!!), Damn Yankees, Oklahoma!, and Cinderella.

Looking forward to summer and out through the rest of my year, my new aspirations now include:

1. Reading. Lots and lots of reading. Some of my happiest memories from childhood were the weekly summertime visit to the library to stock up on novels and then racing home to dive right into my new finds. Even now, walking into a library or bookstore gives me a great sense of peace. Each book a miniature door into possibility and imagination. The titles whispering to me to peer inside. Exotic worlds just waiting to be discovered. With those memories swimming around through the back of my head, I have a deep desire to spend a good majority of summer lazing about outside with a book in hand.
2.  Sleep more.  The health and beauty benefits of sleep are countless.  So instead of rushing out to spend big bucks on the latest beauty revolution, I've decided why not just sleep more. For free. Seems like a no-brainer. I'm pretty good about always getting a minimum of seven hours, but my body tells me that I'd really prefer to be getting at least an half hour to an hour more per night.  There will always be more dishes to dry and more status updates to read on Facebook, so instead of doing that one last thing before bed, I'm going to just skip it and go to bed. 

And some things I need to remove, smite, magically aspirate, or otherwise eliminate from my life:

1. Car problems! What is with my bad car luck?! Last year, I had my car broken into while on vacation, which was then subsequently damaged by the repair shop while they were repairing it. After having it back for a few weeks, I was then in an accident when another driver failed to yield. I thought my luck had changed this year, until I had to have it towed to the dealership for repairs in May. Which I again thought were fixed and behind me, until less than a month later, the problem started again and I had to have my insurance send out someone to give me a jump start and then drop the car off for more repairs. I am in desperate need of some kind of car karma cleansing! On a positive note, at least I'm getting my money's worth out of my roadside assistance policy.
2. Time stealers. I think we all have them - certain activities that suck the hours right out of your day. I don't really watch TV, so that's not one for me. But compulsively checking email sure is (iPhone, I love you, but this obsessive relationship needs to stop), as well as taking too long to get ready (either for work or for bed). Both can easily take me an hour or more. I don't know how. My bathroom's not even that big. I don't particularly enjoy spending time in there. Which leads me to the conclusion that there must be some time of peculiar time wrap isolated to that one room of my apartment.

How about you goddesses? How are your goals coming along for the year? What's working for you and what isn't?