Hello everyone!! I wanted to pop in and share a little wrap up post for August 2022. This weekend had me feeling so grateful for everything that has happened over the past 4 months with many changes in my life. I was reflecting on this after a special get together with my Portugal yogis. The leaders planned a little reunion for us and we met up on Saturday. We caught up with everyone, did a little meditation together and shared what we are grateful for and an update on life. While there are always highs and lows in life, there have been many highs for me lately. These highs have not come without their own challenges, but I am very grateful for so many things right now.
When asked what I was grateful for, my list could go on and on. The first thing that came to mind was my new job. The job certainly has challenges, doing things I have not done before and learning so much. There are times when I wonder am I doing this correctly because I have little experience with the company’s process, but there are many changes within the company right now as well. This also has its own challenges. We are all in a learning phase, but we are also behind when it comes to deadlines and for my usually type A self, it’s hard to gauge when I should have certain pieces together. However, I can say that 3 months into the job, I can see all that I am learning. While I feel there are still so many questions I can not answer, there are now some that I can confidently answer and I’m happy to see that progress with what I have done over the past 3 months. I feel like I can really grow in my career and by learning new things, it keeps things more exciting for me. If there is one thing I have learned over my 10 years of work experience, it’s that I like to help others as best as I can and I like to learn new things. These go hand in hand as I learn more, I can help others more.
Next, I’m grateful for my apartment because the location really can’t be beat. When I first looked at the apartment, I thought it was so small, but really it’s perfect for one. Brian visits when he can, but with a studio apartment, if we were to fully live together, we would drive each other crazy unless we had the same schedule. Think about how you turn on one light and that pretty much lights up the whole apartment. I still like our plan with this studio apartment for the year and hopefully getting a house next summer.
I love my gym, especially the outdoor 50m pool. I don’t think I have swam regularly like this ever! Back in 2012/2013, I used to swim 2x a week, but now I’m swimming 2-3x a week and farther distance than ever before. Sunday I swam 3500m, my longest swim yet!
There are very little breaks with this swimming. I may stop 2-3 times for like 10 seconds for a sip of my water or to clear my goggles as they fog, but that’s about it. My goal is swim 3x a week, weights 2x a week and then yoga classes when I get to them. If I don’t go to a yoga class, I’ll do stretching, foam rolling and some sort of light yoga at home. I’ve also been taking more yoga photos outside again, which is fun.
I think back and it may sound dramatic but my life was changed the moment I left for the yoga retreat in April.
There were decisions to be made and it was hard, but I was surrounded by such a lovely group of people and felt so welcomed immediately. I thank them for helping me move, as I stayed with one of the wonderful ladies before getting an apartment. I join some of them for yoga classes or just to pick some wild flowers and then buy a matching sweater (a story of its own).
In all the changes, I feel like I am where I’m meant to be. It wasn’t a smooth road to get here. There was a lot of frustration and tough days searching for a job over the course of 12+ months. Then once I accepted, there were so many questions, but we have made this transition work for us.
Occasionally I have to remind myself to slow down. There is so much activity here and I love to move my body whether it be 4 mile walks, 2 mile swims, Pure Barre class, yoga class, weight lifting….I can get ahead of myself. I noticed my left eye twitch coming back and I have learned that’s a sign of stress. We often forget that exercising is a stress on our bodies and too much of it, isn’t good. I had to learn to eat more to fuel my swimming and also know when to slow down and take a full rest day. I have to listen to my body. Sometimes the stress can’t be helped because life is stressful. Nearly my whole last semester of my MBA, I had that eye twitch because school was stressful and there were certain items at work that were stressful. I tried to do more yoga, change up my workouts and take a relaxing bath. We can’t always control things in our lives, but we can always change our perspective on things and think about what you are grateful for. There is always something to be grateful for.
Just the other day, I was working from home and my building shut my water off. It was inconvenient for sure, but I did have my giant water bottle and water pitcher filled up. I was happy when I tried the faucet a few hours later and water flowed out and I could wash my dishes from lunch. It’s little things you don’t often think about, but not every person across the world has running water.
I challenge you today, think about what you are grateful for.
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I’m so glad things are working out so well for you! Particularly the apartment, and finding your “tribe”. That yoga retreat was quite serendipitous in its timing and the opportunity it gave you to really focus in on what was right for you.