Happy & Healthy 2019

It's that time of year again. A time of new beginnings and fresh starts. Shiny resolutions and crisp, juicy goals, ripe for the picking. And oh man, am I on the band wagon. My 2018 was a rough one (which you can read about here if you like). Thus, I am more than ready to leave the old year behind and start anew. A clean slate, a fresh page, a new me.

As part of the new year, I always pick a word or theme for the year. This year I've chosen 2019 to be the year of "happy and healthy". Yeah, it's perhaps not as eloquent or clever as some of my previous themes, but it gets right to the point. Happy and healthy: that's exactly what I want for 2019. No more struggles, no more sadness. No more fears or resentments. Rather, feeling joyful, grateful, and excited for what's ahead. Waking up energized and looking forward to what the day will bring. That's what I want to embody in the year ahead.

Once I pick my theme for the year, I always pick what my goals are going to be that support that theme (as well as goals that align back to my overall core values, which remain consistent year to year). Thus for 2019, my main goals are:

1. Participate in and complete the Love Sweat Fitness 5-Day Detox and 21-Day Challenge.
2. Vacation with Ketanga Fitness for a fitness retreat in Barbados, followed by a week exploring the island of the Dominican Republic.
3. Join Bozenka for her belly dance retreat on the island of Crete in September.
4. Try out water-skiing for the first time
5. Compete in the La Dance Orientale belly dance competition
6. Try the Daily OM 21-Day Goddess Workout
7. Take a tap dance class
8. Join The Community run by Maxie McCoy
9. Stay at the Orondo Earth House B&B

Overall, I want to focus on optimizing wellness, prioritizing self-care, exploring my passions, and just generally having fun.

2019, I'm ready, let's do this!

Photo by Eric Green

Manifest Magic

Hello 2018! And I do sincerely mean that, because I love the feeling of a fresh start, and there's practically nothing I like more than setting new goals and intentions and working out the action steps on how to achieve them.

Thus, I always start the first post of the new year off with a little look into my over-arching theme, goals, and dreams for the new year.

My theme for 2018 is Manifest Magic. To me this really signifies tapping into the energy of the Universe and the connected nature of all life, as well as my own intuition and guiding light. It means harnessing the power of the lunar energy and my spirit guides to make conscious decisions, claiming my own personal power, and crafting goals and dreams that align with my highest calling. And to execute those goals like a boss.

I've been working with manifesting on the monthly New Moon for some time now, so it's definitely a practice I plan to continue with. For me personally, I both believe and have experienced the incredible power of putting what you out into the Universe, and watching the Universe conspire to make it so, assuming you follow it up with action. That's key: you also have to put the work in. But you can really maximize your results when you take the time to set the right intentions and lay the best possible foundation for your endeavors to flourish from.

I've also been working with the power of crystals. Full disclosure: I sleep with a rose quartz and a moonstone under my pillow every night and have definitely seen the changes it's brought into my life. And I have a collection of other crystals at home. Additionally, I've been reading my tarot cards for probably over a decade now and using their insights to make empowered decisions.

But I'm ready to step all of that up. So here's my 2018 looks like to me:

1. Step up my new moon manifesting by connecting with a like-minded tribe of women each month. I'm looking into doing this with the Numinous Moon Club. 
2. Further explore the power of crystals, as well as the association between tarot and astrology, especially in the context of the Major Arcana. One resource I will be using for is the book Crystal Muse. By the way, I'm feeling it's time to start working with a new tarot deck. If anyone has suggestions on decks they like, please let me know! 
3. Find an agent and a publisher for my recently completed novel, because I do firmly believe that being an author is my purpose in life and my highest calling.

I know, I know, for some that might all sound very woo-woo. But hey, it works for me. It's what's lighting me up right now and calling my name, so I'm going to get after it. To each her own. 

In addition to my directly Manifest Magic related goals, I also have a few other projects for the year that I want to bring to fruition. They are:

1. Learn to belly dance on goblets
2. Head to Austin to visit a close friend and check out the SXSW scene
3. Complete the Tone It Up 5-Day Detox
4. Compete in a belly dance competiion
5. Read a poem at a poetry slam (frightening!) 
6. Work on my splits with Action Jacquelyn
7. Complete the Kayla Itsines Bikini Body Challenge
8. Make a unicorn headdress
9. Do some fun, crazy photo shoots (can you say Vikings on horseback?!)
10. Get out in nature with some combination of glamping and/or backpacking

Well, those are the highlights. I'm definitely amped up for the new year. I'm ready to create some magic, light it on fire, and watch that shit sparkle.

Happy New Year everyone! Remember, what you seek is seeing you, so go get it. 

Au Revoir 2016!

This time of year I always like to take a moment to reflect on the year and what has transpired. I'm a big believer in goal-setting, and I think it's vitally important to regularly reflect on progress toward goals; assessing what went well, what still needs work, and what just needs to be celebrated.

Looking back on 2017, it was in short, a pretty epic year for me.

The year started with me joining Lunaria Dance Theatre as a company member. It's been amazing and inspiring to work with this group of talented women, as we perfect our acts. Throughout this year we've been working on choreographing and producing our own full-length cabaret show, which will debut on March 11, 2017 at Hale's Palladium in Seattle.  If you're interested, tickets can be purchased here.

This year also proved to be the year that my husband and I finally bought a house! The Seattle housing market has been skyrocketing over the past few years, with demand greatly outpacing supply. It took us two years and five offers, but we finally were able to close on a home that we love.

During the summer of 2016, I also had the opportunity to attend Aziza's Dream Camp in Canada. Aziza and the guest instructor, Mercedes Nieto, were superb. You can read more about my experience at camp in this post. 

I also was blessed with being able to spend three weeks overseas in Austria and Switzerland. In these countries it seemed that around every corner was yet more beautiful countryside, stunning architecture, and cities blossoming with history and culture; it was a fabulous trip. You can see additional pictures from my adventures here. 

Some other fun highlights of the year were getting my picture taken as a mermaid, going overnight backpacking for the first time, completing a Wanderlust triathlon, spending the weekend inside a converted railroad car at the Red Caboose Getaway, dying my hair purple, and as always, lots of costumes.

With everything that happened during 2016, the one goal of mine that really got put on the back burner was finishing a draft of my novel. I started the year with 38,000 words written, and ended the year with 48,500. So progress, but not all the way to my intended 65,000 words. 

Well, that's a wrap I think. After all that activity, I plan to spend these last few weeks of 2016 being as tranquil and low-key as possible! Wishing you a very merry holiday season, and hoping you saw some of your dreams actualized this year as well. Let it sparkle!

The Power of Positivity

I recently finished reading the book The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor and I was really blown away by some of the studies and principles shared in this book. At its simplest, the message of this book is that happiness fuels success, and not the other way around. While that might not sound like a ground-breaking or life-changing statement at the outset, when you get in examine the implications of this, it actually is rather revolutionary. This statement is scientifically supported by mountains of evidence from the fields of positive psychology and neuroscience. While I highly recommend you read the entire book, I wanted to share on one principle that I thought applied to the realm of dance and performance.

One of the chapters I found most fascinating was the chapter called Falling Up. In short, this chapter discusses how, when faced with obstacles or failure, succumbing to helplessness keeps us down on the mat, while positive thinking, lifts us up. I'm sure we've all heard that one before, phrased in various ways. Think positive. Look on the bright side. The glass is half full. And so, on. But let's break it down even further. I want to share the same example that the author shared:

Imagine a scenario where you walk into a bank. You are one of 50 people in the bank. A team of bank robbers comes into the building. You are one of two people who gets shot. You are shot in the arm. The question is: Are you lucky or unlucky?

Some people might say that they are unlucky because they got shot while 48 other people did not. Some might say you are lucky because you didn't suffer a more serious injury, or perhaps even die. Regardless of which answer you came to, the point is that you invented a counterfact. You invented either a counterfact where you did not get shot or you invented a counterfact where you were more severely injured. As the author explains a "counterfact is an alternate scenario our brains create to help us evaluate and make sense of what really happened....Here is the crucial part: Both of the counterfacts are completely hypothetical. Because it's invented, we actually have the power in any given situation to consciously select a counterfact that makes us feel fortunate rather than helpless. And choosing a positive counterfact, besides simply making us feel better, sets ourselves up for the whole host of benefits to motivation and performance we now know accompanies a positive mindset."

Just let that sink in for a second. How powerful is that! Each and every day, each activity we engage in, each encounter we have, we have the power to decide if it's positive or negative, regardless of what actually happened. We are literally building and designing our own reality.

So how does this apply to dance? Anyone who's been a dancer or performer for any length of time has experienced ups and downs. Sometimes we get negative reviews, have a bad performance, don't land the gig we wanted, and so on. We can take those occurrences and let the negative mindset win over. We can tell ourselves, we aren't good enough, experienced enough, talented enough, or pretty enough. Or we can rewrite our message and our reality. Turn it around and be thankful for the performance opportunity, the learning experience, or that we are one step closer to our end goal.

Changing our internal dialogue is what the author calls "explanatory style". The author explains that, "Decades of subsequent study have since shown that explanatory style - how we choose to explain the nature of past events - has a crucial impact on our happiness and future success. People with an optimistic explanatory style interpret adversity as being local and temporary, while those with a pessimistic explanatory style see these events as more global and permanent. Their beliefs then directly affect their actions; the ones who believe the latter statement sink into helplessness and stop trying, while the ones who believe the former are spurred on to higher performance."

In other words, if you believe that your bad performance in which you slipped and fell was a learning experience and has put you one step closer to being a professional dancer, then you literally are one step closer to being a professional dancer. I know this can sound like pollyanna-ish euphemisms, But the effect of having a positive explanatory style has been measured in numerous studies and business results. In a study at MetLife, salespeople with optimistic explanatory style sold 88% more insurance then those with pessimistic explanatory style!

As mentioned, I highly recommend reading this book cover to cover, because the author has so many more interesting scientifically-based facts and tips that you can incorporate into your life and mindset. You have the power to shape your future and your success, and it starts with your thoughts. Change your internal monologue to open new doors of opportunity and happiness.

The Sovereign State

Well hello 2016! I blinked and we are already a month in!

As an old year comes to a close and a new one unfolds, I always like to take some time away from belly dance topics to reflect on the year that has passed and set some goals and intentions for the upcoming round of seasons, including picking my one-word theme for the year.

My theme for 2016 is sovereign. Might seem like an odd choice at initial glance. But as I was working with a health coach and healer in 2015, this word came into our conversation and instantly I knew it was my word for the new year.

To me, sovereign means the state of mind and being where one is independent and free to make the choices that resonate most truthfully and authentically with their being. It's a state that's free of worry about others opinions or the "should" dos. It's a state where you are the sovereign and CEO of your own life. You choose what comes into your life and you choose what goes. It's being unfettered to sing your own tune at the top of your lungs. It's a state of harmony with your own internal compass. It's accepting the crown and the responsibility to be the ruler of your own life. It's a position of power.  Thus to me, a sovereign 2016 is the year I focus on discarding old ideas and fears that no longer serve me, and instead come more fully into my own authenticity.

Getting into a few more specifics on what 2016 looks like to me. I want to join a new dance troupe. And actually, this has already happened for me. Just last week I started dancing with Lunaria Dance Theatre and I am thrilled and excited to be joining this group of amazing and talented ladies.

Another belly dance goal on the horizon is that I will be studying with Aziza at her Dream Camp in June! I can't wait to study with one of my long-time belly dance idols!

I also hope to finally finish writing my novel. This goal continues to be a repeat. But I have made progress. To date I've written 38,000 words. Just another 38,000 or so to go!

As a devoted explorer of the world, each year I always try to take a trip overseas. This year I'm headed to Austria and Switzerland in August.

My intended pursuits for the year also include a focus on fun. Because what's the point of life if you can't enjoy it, right? In July, I'll be having pictures taken as a Mermaid as part of the Project Mermaids beach conservation campaign. I also want to try the newest craze and hit up and morning dance and yoga party with The Wake. And Wanderlust's unique take on a triathlon is coming to Seattle. I've already signed up to run, yoga, and meditate my way to Om with this event in May.

And lastly, I'm also planning on pushing out of my comfort zone and doing an overnight backpacking trip. While I love to hike and be in nature, this dancer prefers some amenities at the end of the day, so we'll see how this goes!

When I look at this list, I'm pretty excited about the year ahead. Many magical events in the works.

What's in store for you in 2016? Dream it, plan it, reach for it, and achieve it. Wishing you many blessings in all your endeavors.

P.S. I've been blogging twice a month for many years now.  While I love this blog and the community that has grown around it, after careful consideration, I've decided I needed to scale back to allow myself more time to focus on other endeavors and passion projects. Thus I've decided that I will only be blogging once per month in 2016. Posts will go up around the first of the month. Thanks for being a reader and see you back next month!

Photo Credit: Pixie Vision, dancer unknown

New Year Alchemy

It's that time of year again: a calendar of fresh canvas, dripping with possibility is laid out before us. The beginning of a new year is when I always take a time-out to reset and draft my dreams for the year.

 

As part of this process I always pick a theme for the year, and my theme for 2015 is Alchemy. After having a very challenging year in 2014 due to health issues, I'm ready to craft magic in my new year, turning the base elements of life into precious moments and memories. Getting down to specifics, generating Alchemy in 2015 looks like for me:

 

1. Cultivating my joy and passion for belly dance by exploring new topics and new teachers. In particular, I want to do this by taking weekend intensives with Sadie, Bozenka, and Sahra C. Kent. I've already registered for all three, and in fact, already took the Sadie one and blogged about it last month.

2. Expanding my realm of dance by babbling in ballet, which I'm doing by taking weekly ballet classes at the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

3. Gaining further insights into tarot and astrology. I started already by taking a 7-hour tarot workshop in January. For readers in the Seattle area who have an interest in this topic, I highly recommend my instructor Beth Schermer.

4. Engaging in some fun, unique events that I've never done before, like the Luminata Autumn Equinox Festival at Green Lake, Steamposium Convention, and a medieval festival at Camlann Medieval Village, Bastille Bash in Madison Valley, and attending Super Bowl 49!

5. Focusing on friendships. Last year, my health took center stage, at times frequently crowding out my social life. This year I'm ready to get back into the swing of things and focus on building new friendships and cementing old ones.

6. Writing my novel already. I wrote approximately half of a nonfiction book last year and then gained the clarity that I was writing the wrong book. I feel that I'm back on track now as I work on drafting a young adult fiction book.

7. Advancing my artistic side through aerial silks. I took an aerial silks class a few years ago, enjoyed it immensely and then never came back to it. I'm hoping that 2015 proves to be the year I take some classes again and graduate to doing a student performance.

8. Enjoying an overseas adventure. Besides dance and writing, travel is my other big passion in life. On the slate for 2015 is a trip to Costa Rica scheduled for March. Stay tuned for pictures later in the year!

 

What goals and projects are ready to be manifested, created, and birthed into existence in the new year, in your new beginning? Reflect and project forward. Your dreams are yours for the taking. But only if you make it so.  Hello 2015!

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!



Triple G: Grit, Gratitude, and Giving

Last year is one for the books. It's been released and bid adieu to, and now I am ready to open my arms to 2014.  I always like to share a little preview of my goals for the year ahead, as I think declaring your intentions and aspirations to the Universe is a very powerful first step to seeing them fulfilled.

My goal-setting process always begins by picking a theme for the year. My theme for 2014 is Triple G, with the "G" standing for grit, gratitude and giving.

Due to reflecting on gratitude back in November for this post, I really got inspired to work on my gratitude skills and thus gratitude has become a pillar for my 2014.  I've started a daily gratitude journal, where each night I jot down a few sentences about what I'm thankful for that day. Already this practice is helping me to focus on gratitude all day long, as I throughout the day I start thinking ahead about what I'm going to write down that evening.

And because I'm feeling so much gratitude for life right now, I want to expand that and pay it forward by focusing more on community service.  This service is manifesting in my life in a couple of different ways. Due to my credentials as a CPA, I've been asked to serve on the Board of Directors and Finance Committee for Humanities Washington, which is Washington State's non-profit humanities chapter. I'm very honored to have been asked and have accepted.  Additionally, I've applied to be a Girls on the Run coach for their spring program. Growing up, I played a lot of sports, including swimming, gymnastics, running, and to a lesser extent diving and tennis. In addition to being active and boosting my health, sports taught me many great life skills: how to work as a member of a team, self-confidence and positive body image, perseverance when times are tough, determination to succeed, and the ability to push yourself to your edge.  I want to help pass these skills onto other young girls. I should receive my coaching assignment in about a month!

And finally grit. I'm going to do something this year I said I would never do: run a half-marathon. In addition to dance, I'm very active each week, doing a mix of running, interval training, barre, and indoor cycling. And I'm ready to take my physical stamina to the next level by running (and finishing!) the Lululemon Seawheeze half marathon in August. Additionally, I've also already signed up to do the Warrior Dash in July, which is an obstacle-coursed based 5k run.  This will be another great test of grit.

Those are my big focuses for the year, but of course, I always have a slew of smaller fun goals in mind as well. These include getting back into ballet, which I quit just about a decade ago after just starting pointe. Playing my violin in a community orchestra again. I played regularly through high school, and since then it's been a bit more hit and miss, but lately my soul is just itching to make music again. I also think this is the year I finally get a tattoo. I've wanted one for almost 20 years now, but have had a hard time deciding what I wanted. Now that I've finally wanted the same design for a number of years now, I think it's time to make it permanent.  Time and money allowing, I always try to take an annual international vacation.  After so much time spent recently around the Mediterranean, I think it's time to switch things up a bit and head somewhere tropical. A Costa Rica vacation with surfing and scuba diving is currently topping the list. And lastly, I believe I've caught the Katniss / Merida / elves from the Hobbit craze, because I put down taking an archery class on my list for the year as well.

And finally I have a rollover goal from last year: to write a book on pursuing your passions while working a 9-to-5. I've already started writing this and am pleased as punch to say the words are just flowing from me. 

So that's my vision for the year ahead. It will be definitely be busy, but I'm feeling jazzed and energized about it. The ball is already rolling on a number of these and I'm excited to see how the year plays out. To bring it all together, I made the vision board pictured above as a daily reminder of what I want to embody for the year.

Your turn. What big, life-affirming goals do you have planned for the year? I'd love to hear all about it!

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.

Thirty and Thriving

I'm going to take a bit of a break from belly dance this week and focus on goal-setting. If that's not your thing and you want to stop reading now, no sweat, just join me again in February, as I have a BIG interview currently in the works.

For those of you still reading, let's dig in!

I'm a big believer in goal-setting and I think the end of the year is the perfect season to buy out some time to reflect on how the last year went. It's a multi-day process for me that first starts out with reviewing and releasing the year that's just transpired.

Thirty and thriving. That was my theme for 2012. Each year I always pick a word or short phrase as my defining mantra for the year. For 2012, it was about starting out this new decade of my life with vibrance. Looking back, 2011 had been a year filled with external, measurable accomplishments.  In contrast, 2012 was about the internal. Sitting back and enjoying the culminating fruits of a number of years of hard work.

Reading through my goals I set in January 2012 compared to the actuality of the year, here are some highlights of how it all played out:

Professional & Personal Development - Twenty-twelve ended up being the year of certifications. I attended a week-long, Tamalyn Dallal belly dance retreat. A picture of me and the amazing group of ladies who attended the retreat is included above. At the end of the retreat, in addition to a wealth of new knowledge, I walked away with a new belly dance certification. I also got certified to scuba dive, which was a check off the bucket list. And finally, in pursuit of one of my life-long passion of holisitic health and wellness, I obtained my nutritionist certification.

Health - Speaking of nutrition, focusing on health was a big part of my year. I experimented with various eating regimes, including temporarily giving up alcohol and going gluten-free in the quest to improve my overall well-being and energy levels. In fact, my new year's resolution was to start a habit of actually taking a lunch break at work, which I now do more often than not. I also really focused on pushing myself in my workouts, which included making sure I competed in some type of athletic-based competition. In September, I ran the Athleta Iron Girl 5K and ended up finishing 44th of our 1,675 participants. Not too shabby for a non-runner! And probably most importantly, after having somewhat of a potential cancer scare from early diagnostics, I have been declared to be, at least currently, cancer-free.

Relationships - Being engaged, I had hoped to get married this year, but given a number of different factors, this has been postponed until next year. On the plus side, after waiting literally a year for the two bedroom apartment we wanted, it became available in December and we just moved in last weekend. I have to be honest and say I had some reservations about sharing my space after living alone for 7.5 years, but so far I'm just blissed out about it. Twenty-twelve was also a year for making some great new friendships, as well as reconnecting with old friends. Which I am so grateful for, as these really helped to fill some of the void left behind by severed family relationships stemming from religious differences. Most definitely a sad and low point for 2012 that required its own grieving process. But then sometimes true family isn't the family we are born into.

Finances - I knew that for 2012 I would have quite a bit of disposable income. And I also knew that in the near future I will have quite a few expenses (hello wedding and house down payment!), so I wanted to make sure that I was utilizing this reprieve from bills to stockpile for the future. In that light, I was able to save approximately 25% of my pay from my day job. I was also able to really grow my belly dancing business. My final numbers aren't quite in yet, but I'm projecting that I had a 190% increase in my belly dance revenue.

Vacation - The past three years have been big for vacations. Big as in Italy, Greece, and Egypt big. International travel wasn't in the cards this year, but instead I set the goal of going on a retreat. I ended up doing this in October when I attended a Kimberly Wilson yoga retreat in West Virginia, followed by a few days in NYC. For pictorial highlights, check out the blog post.

Overall, in going though this download, I'm feeling pretty content with 2012. The one goal that I had originally set out to accomplish that didn't occur, was write a book. In part because it was later replaced by the pursuit of my three new certifcations already discussed. So I'm at peace with that. But you better believe it's being recycled to 2013!

But enough about me. The point of sharing all of this publicly is hopefully to encourage readers to do their own goal review and planning. So your turn! How was 2012? What worked and what didn't? What are you ready to celebrate and what are you ready to shake off?

And stay tuned for the next post as I map out my 2013 goals. Happy New Year!

My Bucket List

We all need dreams and aspirations, and writing them down and sharing them is the first step to making our dreams a reality. Penning them transforms our desires from the realm of possibility to the realm of actuality, and by sharing them we create accountability. So with that in mind, I am sharing with all of you my bucket list.

I finally formalized my list that's been swimming around in my head for many years now. It includes my belly dance related goals, as well as what I hope to accomplish in the other aspects of my life. My list is 101 items long, 32 of which I have already completed, and four more of which I hope to be able to check-off by the end of the year. Be sure to see the end of the post for some photo documentation of some of the items I've been able to proudly say I've done. So without further ado...

Belly Dance

1. Teach a weekly belly dance class, started teaching weekly classes at LA Fitness back in 2010
2. Become a regular house dancer at a local restaurant, became a regular dance at Spiro's as of 2012
3. Launch my own business as a professional belly dancer, business launched in 2010
4. Win a national belly dance title
5. Own a Bella costume
6. Attend MECDA's Professional Dance Conference & Retreat
7. Complete Tamalyn Dallal's week-long teacher training intensive, completed in 2012
8. Attend GoddessLife belly dance training in Greece, done in 2010
9. Study belly dancing in Egypt, such as Ahlan Wa Shalan or other festival/study program
10. Start a belly dance blog, started Sequins & Shimmies in 2010
11. Audition for So You Think You Can Dance
12. Join a professional belly dance troupe
13. Go on a Tamalyn Dallal retreat in Zanzibar
14. Become Suhaila Salimpour certified

Foreign Travel

15.  See the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, spent 3 weeks in Egypt in 2009

16.  Visit the Hagia Sophia in Turkey

17.  Climb Machu Picchu, Peru

18.  Stand on the shores of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, spent 2 weeks in Bolivia in 2000

19.  Walk through the Acropolis in Greece, spent 1 month in Greece in 2010

20.  Visit the Vatican in Italy, spent 3 weeks in Italy in 2011

21.  Walk along the Great Wall of China, spent 3 weeks in China/Hong Kong in 2004

22.  See the Alhambra and the Sagrada Familia in Spain, spent 1 month in Spain/Portugal in 2002

23.  Be transported back in time in Sintra, Portugal, spent 1 month in Spain/Portugal in 2002

24.  See the Taj Mahal in India

25.  Ride the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower in France

26.  Visit Stonehenge in England

27.  Explore the beautiful countryside of Ireland

28.  Visit a temple in Thailand

29.  See an opera in the Sydney Opera House, Australia

30.  Explore the Mayan ruins in Yucatan Peninsula

31.  Go on a safari in Tanzania

32.  Meander through Croatia

33.  Ride the Star Ferry in Hong Kong Harbor, spent 3 weeks in China/Hong Kong in 2004

34.  Drink beer at Ocktoberfest in Germany

35.  See Petra in Jordan

36.  Dance at carnival in Brazil

37.  See Mount Fuji in Japan

38.  Ride a camel in Morocco

39.  See Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe

40.  Pretend to be a princess at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland

41.  Discover Swayambhunath in Nepal and Paro Valley, Bhutan

42.  Surf in Costa Rica

43.  Scuba dive in Belize

44.  Stay in an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora

45.  Visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia

Education, Certifications, & Non-Belly Dance Career

46.  Get awarded an academic scholarship, was awarded over $19,000 of academic scholarships in 2000 to 2002

47.  Graduate magna cum laud with my Bachelor's degree, graduated with a 3.8 GPA in 2005

48.  Obtain my CPA license, passed on my first try, certified in 2007

49.  Get promoted to audit manager in public accounting, promoted in 2011

50.  Make 40 Under 40

51.  Obtain my nutritionist certification

52.  Start my own nutrition and wellness coaching business

53.  Save $2.6 million for retirement

54.  Get TEFL certification

55.  Obtain yoga certification or personal trainer certification

Adventures & Experiences

56.  Go sky diving

57.  Witness a solar eclipse

58.  Watch the Olympics in person

59.  See Tool in concert

60.  Watch a UFC fight at the MGM Grand

61.  Go to a paint dancing party

62.  Get a tattoo

63.  Walk down Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday of Mardi Gras, went to Mardi Gras in 2000

64.  Get scuba diving certification

65.  Swim with dolphins

66.  Go to Las Olas Surf Camp in Sayulita, Mexico, attended in 2008

67.  Live overseas for a minimum of three months

68.  Ride in a hot air balloon

69.  Walk on fire

70.  Water ski

71.  Spend a night on board the Venice Simpton Orient Express

U.S Travel

72.  Visit the Harry Potter theme park

73.  See a musical on Broadway, done in 2010

74.  Drive the road to Hana in Hawaii, done in 2007, visited both Maui and Oahu

75.  Visit the Smithsonian museums, done in two separate trips in 2005 and 2006

76.  See the Grand Canyon

Physical Abilities

77.  Compete in a triathlon, competed in the Danskin Triathlon in 2004

78.  Finish the Escape from Alcatraz swim

79.  Do the standing splits

80.  Qualify to be a State Championship swimmer, qualified in 1999 and also broke high school swimming record

Spirituality & Volunteering

81.  Hear the Dalai Lama speak

82.  Go on a silent meditation retreat for New Year's

83.  Find my true religion, done throughout 1999 to ~ 2006, learned that not having a religion is my true religion

84.  Get an energy or chakra reading

85.  Meditate for 10 minutes every day for 1 year, done in 2010, still doing to date

86.  Volunteer in a foreign country for a minimum of two weeks

87.  Serve on a non-profit board, served on Village Volunteers board 2009 - 2010

Creativity & Artistic Exploration

88.  Learn to hoop dance

89.  Take an aerial silks class, took class in 2011

90.  Try the flying trapeze, did twice in 2011

91.  Go on a Kimberly Wilson retreat

Intellectual

92.  Be a contestant on Jeopardy

93.  Learn to play the violin, done, started playing at age 10 and have played in multiple school and community orchestras

94.  Be conversationally fluent in a foreign language

95.  Qualify to join Mensa

96.  Write and publish a book

97.  Read a poem at a poetry slam

Family & Home

98.  Marry my life partner in an authentic ceremony using our own vows

99.  Own my own home with French doors that open onto a balcony

100. Adopt a dog

101.Garden in the Queen Pea p-patch, had a patch in 2010

Professional belly dancer performing at a private party

Riding camels in front of the pyramids of Giza

 Attending the GoddessLife belly dance training in Greece

 In front of St. Peters's in Vatican City.

 In the Acropolis in Greece