 Well it snuck up on me: my 100th blog post. Oh, this isn't it. This is actually #103. (It really did sneak up on me.) My actual 100th post was about salsa. Which, in hindsight, is perfect because I do really love salsa. Oh well. Anyway, I do think that passing the 100th post is quite a milestone. It means that I've given time, effort, and haven't quit something that is challenging.
To celebrate, I wrote about it. This post is for all of you creative souls out there. This post is not merely about blogging. Most of this post is applicable to other adventures as well, and just life in general. It's more about life lessons that I've learned from doing something creative. Read on for more...
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 Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress. That quote has inspired me many times. This bit of writing is me sincerely trying to give you motivation if you are this person: you know you need to be more active, but always come up with reasons why it's not the right time. I love helping people on their fitness journey but I can't help people who aren't ready to help themselves. Believe me, I have tried. It only wastes their time and frustrates me. At the end of the day, it's your life and it's all up to you what you do with it. You are responsible for you. But maybe you're not too far gone... wink, wink. If you keep having that nagging feeling that you shouldn't be putting off exercise and healthy living any longer, read on for inspiration to GET OFF YOUR BUM and start moving, already! NOW is the perfect time to start. Read on for why.  I'm sure you've heard of fasting. Most of the time, fasting is referring to refraining from food and drink as a religious observance, or as a health benefit. People all over the world fast for those reasons. But this post is about what I like to call mental fasting.
Mental fasting refers to putting a halt to unhealthy thought patterns for your own well being. If your head is always full of the wrong kind of thoughts, then there's not enough time or energy to devote towards the good stuff in your life. You'll not only be more anxious, but you'll also miss out on so many good moments in your day. Read on for more... 
I look forward to this post every year! Here, you'll find gift ideas for a wide variety of interests and in a wide variety of price ranges. These are items that I personally own, enjoy, and recommend. {For more inspiration, here are links to my gift guide from 2018 and also my gift guide from 2017.}
BUT... remember, stuff is just stuff. The best gift you can give someone you love is your TIME and attention. A great gift would be an activity together and putting your phone away for it. A gift doesn't have to cost money. Don't sweat the small stuff this holiday season! Spend time with your loved ones and have a healthy dose of gratitude. Xoxo, Merry Christmas, & Happy Everything. :)  We lost our beloved Labrador Retriever, Layla, over three months ago. It hurts. It hurts so much that I haven't even told a lot of my closest friends that she died. I don't want to talk about it yet. (And that's ok.) It's too painful for me to face the whole reveal of telling my friends and speaking it out loud. Somehow writing about it is healing to me, so here I am, writing about her. This kind of post is out of my normal range of topics, but I know that many of you are also animal lovers, so I think just maybe... it would be nice to talk about her to you.
 For the past two years, on my teaching anniversary, I've written about wisdom gained as a yoga instructor during that particular year. [If you're interested, you can find my fifth anniversary post here, and what I learned during my sixth year of teaching here.]
This year, I've continued to learn a lot about control (and lack thereof) and of being open to whatever happens, which are kind of the same thing. Knowing what I can and can't control and accepting what the moment brings helps me live with less stress. Even though I'm writing from a yoga instructor's perspective, the wisdom is for all of us. The more I learn it, the more fulfilling my days are. Seriously. If you find yourself often frustrated at events in your day, keep reading...  I can't begin to tell you how helpful it is to do a little reflecting on your life at the beginning of fall. Last week, I blogged about the Fall Equinox and some of the symbolism we can take from nature to learn more about ourselves. Each year, the fall equinox not only welcomes the first day of fall, but also is really neat because it's one of only two days in the entire year where day and night are in balance. It brings up two really important questions that I encourage you to ask yourself: 1) day and night are in balance, are you? and 2) since fall is associated with harvest time, what are you harvesting in your life? What seeds did you plant in the spring to give life to over the summer? What did you dream of and work on this year and what do you have to show for it now, at harvest?
Those are deep questions, but ones worth asking if you're on a journey of self discovery. If you'd like to hear more about diving into those (very personal) questions, read my post from last week Fall Equinox: What's Your Harvest? Life /goals / dreams / resolutions rarely turn out how we think they will, so if you need a little encouragement, keep reading to hear about my own harvest this year.  The Fall Equinox is just around the corner, marking the first day of fall and passage into a new season. It's also one of only two days in the entire year where day and night are in balance. And while I— like many females— am very excited for cooler temperatures, Ugg boots (don't fight it, they're comfy), and pumpkin spice lattes (don't fight it, they're delicious), this post is about much deeper stuff.
Lots and lots of symbolism can be drawn from nature at the equinox to apply to your life. In fact, when any of the seasons shift, it's the perfect time to look inward in introspection. With the Fall Equinox, it brings up (at least) two important questions: 1) day and night are in balance, are you? (more on that in Lessons From The Fall Equinox) and 2) what are you harvesting? I live on a farm and get to see this beautiful cycle every year. Fall is a time when farmers who have worked hard all year on their crops start to gather and harvest the fruits of their labor. What did you work on all year and what do you have to show for it now, at harvest time? Read on for what the Fall Equinox can teach us if we're willing to take an honest look at how we are living our lives.  Last week contained the summer solstice: the first day of summer and longest day of the year. I really, really enjoy when dates like this roll around because I think it's a great time to reflect. The summer solstice is a very appropriate time halfway through the year to stop and take notice of how life is going.
 If you think about it, eating in season -- though trendy -- is not new at all. It's really the original way to eat. Our generation is used to having access to all kinds of foods at our grocery stores these days, but it hasn't always been this way. For many people, eating seasonally IS a new way of eating.
I try to eat seasonally as much as possible. Here are 5 reasons to give it a try. |