me = yogi!

If yoga is my word, then a yogi I shall be!

One of the benefits of this past month's debacles was that it all gave me a big kick in the behind to shake things up even further. In the midst of my shaking, I finally decided to commit to my love of yoga by signing up for a teacher certification program. Starting October 19, 2010, I will be neck deep in yoga for four solid months. But I figure, why wait until October and why only four months? If I truly am as passionate about yoga as I claim, I should really, truly, really commit to it.

So.... starting tomorrow, September 1st, 2010, I am hereby committing to six months of yoga. Every. Single. Day. Now let's be realistic here - I'm in the midst of planning a wedding and I do have a few other things going on in my life (perhaps a few too many) - so it is essential that the "rules" allow for flexibility. Luckily, that's one of the beauties of yoga - no pun intended! I can take a class, practice at home from a video, or just run through a few sun salutations. But it must be some form of yoga, at least once a day until March 1, 2011 (and beyond!)

So here we go folks. Let's see how this one turns out! :)

mxo

september: LEARNING

With the first month almost up, it's time to reset and keep trucking along!


This September is going to be my second year not starting school and - even though I risk revealing all of my nerddom with this statement - I have to admit, it makes me quite sad. I have always loved the thrill of back-to-school - all of the new pencils, binders and fresh lined paper; sitting in the first class anticipating what the next eight months would bring; the crisp white syllabi which outlined all of the important things I would quickly ram into my head (and then quickly forget). It was all so magical.

Me. Age 6. Day one of grade one. Beaming.

While I know I will eventually go back to school - maybe for a Masters, a Doctorate, or some sort of certificate - this September doesn't hold that in the cards for me. But just because I'm not officially registered in any classes doesn't mean I have to give up the magic of back-to-school. So for my second month, it's only fitting that I focus on what I love so much about this time of year: learning.


In no particular order, this month I commit to adding* the following resolutions to my list:

• Learn more about yoga.
• Learn to speak Spanish.
• Learn about wine.
• Learn about potential grad programs (and possibly applying).
• Learn to rest.
• Reading smart books.

Let's see how well I do this month! ;)
mxo




* A quick note on "adding": I am sticking true to Rubin's original happiness project design in which each month she added new resolutions but didn't replace any (unless they truly weren't working). I'm going to attempt the same - small increments, small daily steps to getting better and better and better.

august, in conclusion...

With the first month of my happy, healthy year almost at its end, it's time to look back and assess.

Here's what I committed to just a few short weeks ago:

• eat stop eat
• 100km cumulative run
• early morning dates with Jillian
• breakup with energy squashers
• act more energetic

And here's what I accomplished: almost none of it!

I only managed to fast once before the never-ending antibiotic train began. I had only two Jillian dates (that's two sessions with Jillian Michael's workout DVD, for those of you who don't know Jillian on a first name basis). I gossiped more than I wanted, watched way too much TV, and let the clutter build up a few times (not too many times!) Some days it took everything in me to get out of bed; those days I wasn't acting very energetic at all. Life had other lessons in mind for me this past month, ones I couldn't predict back in July.

BUT (a big but!)...

There was one small victory which has had monumental effects. In just the fourteen days that I was actually keep track, I ran/ walked 113.78km, which means that I easily covered over 200km in all of August! It is an accomplishment that crept up from nowhere, when I was feeling quite down after a less than stellar month, and erased all of the bad. As I kept track of the kilometres everyday, I stumbled upon some age-old wisdom. Happiness and health are not about accomplishing some prescribed task or reaching some arbitrary destination. It may be a cliché, but it's worth repeating over and over and over and over again: happiness is about the journey and you have to pay attention at every step along the way. When I look back at how much I didn't do this past month, or focus on how much I have to do next month, I fall out of sync. But when I pay attention to the small things every day, like 2km here and 9 there, they build and build until one day I realize I've reached this incredible milestone and I'm much happier than I first began.

mxo

tidbits on a rainy sunday

Hello!

Mother nature put a damper on my weekend plans and so, when my schedule cleared up yesterday, I decided to take advantage and have a much-needed "Maya Day" - a day dedicated to hanging out with myself and doing only what I wanted to do. I got a lovely haircut, used my entire gift certificate at Lululemon, walked especially out of the way to Whole Foods for a delicious almond milk latte, and finally, I treated myself to a movie - Eat Pray Love.

Eat Pray Love is based on my favourite book of all time by Elizabeth Gilbert. The story is an autobiographical account of Gilbert's quest to recover from her rather nasty divorce and to regroup. Her deeply personal and honest words have since resonated with millions of readers across the globe. I was happily "forced" to read some of Gilbert's other work in one of my classes some years ago and instantly fell in love. When Eat Pray Love came out, long before it became an Oprah phenomenon, I read it cover to cover, about six times in a row. I cried and cried, longing for my own year-long journey around the world. I guess at that point in my life I absolutely needed an escape.

I went into the theatre yesterday excepting to cry for all of the same reasons and walk away with the same longing feeling. Shockingly, I completely surprised myself with my reaction to the story I know so well. Sure, I still want to see Italy desperately, travel to India to further my spiritual path, and vacation in Bali just for the sake of it. Sure, I'm still not sure whether the conventional shoe, predetermined for me by society, actually fits. But it's no longer a matter of desperation. What I realized yesterday is that if my own path is analogous to Eat Pray Love, I've already made it through two-thirds of the story! What I need to work on now is the final piece of the puzzle: balance. Gilbert learns that her happy place, where she feels most balanced and at peace, lies somewhere between lethargy and overexertion, gluttony and abstinence, and between everything she learned along her path.

The first month of my happy, healthy year has been a struggle between my fanatic attempt to straighten out my life and throwing in the towel completely. I've either fasted or stuffed my face, run 10km a day or collapsed in heaps on the couch for hours. I pushed myself so hard that I got sick and couldn't do anything. It has all taught me that the absolute core of my vitality, my strength and well-being, and most of all, my happiness, lies in being able to balance everything harmoniously. I'm still learning, no doubt, and I hope to share that with you over this year-long journey.

For now, however, I end with another tidbit from my favourite story. Gilbert picks attraversiamo as "her word" - the word the best describes who she is, what's she's experiencing, what she needs, etc. This past month has helped me discover my word (for now): yoga - to unite, to yoke, to join everything I have learned into a harmonious union.

Thanks for stopping by!

mxo

fresh decisions...

You know you've made the right decision when your heart sings and you tingle all over after. Details to come soon. :)

Today's favourite thing: brunch at Fresh! I have loved Fresh for many, many years but only today discovered their lovely brunch menu. If you're in the mood for something uber healthy and delicious, definitely check is out. My tummy is still singing after the scrumptious rice milk latte. I might need to get another one tomorrow!

Hope you're all having a wonderful Saturday.

mxo

rest like you mean it

I can proudly say that on most days, I can walk confidently by the magazine rack without indulging. I can usually find better ways to spend $5.75CDN (plus HST!) than on 100 glossy pages of ads.. but not today. Today, the mass marketing machine worked brilliantly and I couldn't help but pick up the newest O Magazine. On the cover is a newly coiffed Oprah (apparently only a wig) with a splashy green banner that reads, boldly, "The Makeover Issue: Transform Your Look, Luck, Life". A quick flip through and the magazine came home with me. Here's why.

The first month of my happy, healthy project has been, bluntly put, a disaster. It started out well, but I got sick, and then quite a bit sicker. After ten days of barely functioning, I can just now make it to work with feeling completely winded and food is barely, barely staying down. It started so well, and then went so horribly wrong. So yes, the tag line about transformation was a little appealing.

A few articles in and I felt even more justified in my purchase. In her monthly column, this month titled "Lying Low", Martha Beck writes,

When things fall apart, your urge is to do something - anything - to put them back together. But what if you can't do that right now?

The answer, quite poetically:

Until things improve and something starts to work, let's lie down in the shady valley... and rest like we mean it.

I can't help but think that my purchase of this mag was a bit serendipitous. My instinct is always to add more, schedule more, and demand more of myself, and then to beat myself up when I can't keep up with my own expectations. While I still think vitality was the perfect place to start, after the last two weeks I've had, and those brief few words of wisdom from Beck, I now can't help but think that my approach was all wrong. I don't need to do more to feel vital, I need to do less, quite a bit less. I need to breathe, to sleep, to slow down, to putter around, to be lazy, to eat ice cream (coconut milk ice cream of course), to enjoy soy lattes and skip my runs to sit by the lake. I need to do nothing for awhile. I've been ignored all of this for a bit too long and I fell apart at the seams. Perhaps it was all meant to happen so that I could stumble upon the following little nugget of wisdom: I need to rest like I mean.

This is Charlie. She's a pro at resting.

mxo