LiveLoveLaughRA

It already half way thru this month! I feel like new years day was yesterday. A lot of big things this year! I’m graduating in May from my master’s program, getting married in August, hopefully going to Hawaii for our honeymoon and *maybe* trying for a baby. Thats just a few of the exciting things I’m facing, but the “good-things” ball keeps rolling for my friends and family as well, my dad is engaged, a friend with RA is due in September with her first baby after her and her husband have been trying for over a year, another friend who lost her first baby late last year is trying again with new hopes due to medication to make her pregnancy stay and other friend got engaged and moved into her new home yesterday! Again, thats just to name a few. These are a lot of good things. I’m working hard to stay focused on the present though because I feel myself getting overwhelmed thinking of whats to come.

I’ve just completed my first week of the 6-week program at my yoga studio; Baron Baptiste’s 40-days to personal revolution. This program was offered in the fall but I wasn’t able to get the time to do it. This time when she opened it up again I knew I had to sign up. There are always a bunch of excuses I can find, especially with work and school. But I committed myself to this program and personal revolution. During the 6-weeks (40-days), we have to meditate twice a day, starting at 5 mins the first week and building up to 30 mins the final week; also we have to practice yoga for at least 20 mins 6 days a week. We complete readings in Baron’s book each week, journal our thoughts and feelings and anything else, complete questions from the book about ourselves (an example from this week is question 5: when in your life do you flirt with danger?), also we are buddied-up with another person in the class that we don’t really know and we have to each call the other at least once a week (texting and emailing not included). There is also a diet part to this and what makes it even greater is that it is not strict and super structured. During the 4th week we will complete a 3-day fruit fast, but thats it besides figuring out our “temperature” (hot or cold) and either adjust our eating or make changes were needed. Of course it is recommended (and I am participating in this aspect wholeheartedly) that we avoid CATS: caffeine, Alcohol, tobacco, and Sugar. We meet as a group monday nights after a yoga practice for about 1-2 hours. Tonight will be our second class.

I swear I have been searching for a class or something of this nature for years and it was like a dream that it was dropped in my lap almost and at the best time. Seriously, what better time to participate in something so great? I’m not sure what will happen over the next 5 weeks but I have a great feeling about it. I actually walked in to work smiling a few times last week. I get up and feel a lightness to my body. The meditation this week was focused on staying present; something I really didn’t think I would have a problem with. Turns out I rarely live in the present at all. And when I thought I was, it was the unconscious presence where I am zoned out on the couch watching crappy TV and usually eating nutrition-lacking snacks. I am always thinking of the future (of course thats not always a bad thing) but I realized that is stopping me from enjoying my life, my friends, my family, my job, my home, my everything in the here and now and thinking of what I have to do tomorrow, the next week or even in the hour after I am out with someone else.

My yoga teacher always reminds us that this is our only moment. Right here, right now. As soon as it passes we won’t ever get it back. This is so true and I really have been working on making myself live this way. It’s an amazing time in my life and how can I miss it by thinking about what may or may not be coming next year, in the next month or tomorrow?