So I know I say this all the time, but time flies. I suppose you can also say that perhaps I have a lot of fun in my life. But all reality is that I have way more than I can chew on my plate currently. I need a week of sleep and twenty-five million dollars, yesterday.  Yep, that’s how im feeling. Very thin.

40 days was a fantastic experience, and the last two-weeks flew by.  I am so grateful to have done it, but it finished just in the nick of time. Don’t get me wrong, I am starting to miss it very much. I was probably the one thing that kept me grounded for almost 2 months. Since March 1st, I haven’t had a day of self-care. Every day has been filled with something, I selfishly want to unplug for a week and let no one find me. Again don’t get me wrong; this is self-doing in a sense, but I must have some social interaction. At the same time, I blame the anxiety and stress of moving on this. Never mind the constant reminders of needing help and not being able to get any.  I blame my childhood for the anxiety I have with moving. We moved probably way too much for not being a military family. This time around is way worse. I really just want to cry every time I walk into my apartment. All I see, are a million things that need to get done.

This is where that multi-million bank account would come in handy. Let someone else do the planning, packing, dismantling, and put it all back together. Let’s not mention the fact that I almost fell down the stairs getting the large boxes up the stairs. Then I start thinking, how am I going to take my curtains down!?! or put them back up! Oh, yea this girl has no drill, my dad was the one that came over and hung up everything. I am thankful that I do have help taking everything over to the new place. I have an extremely short window to do everything, which is adding to the chaos, a whole 48 hours. Yep, that’s right – get keys, move, clean.

The pressure is definitely on, and I am feeling it.  So if anyone I know that reads this will like to come help, it is received with open arms. Ok, I’ll stop ranting, and feeling sorry for myself now. I am more than blessed to be getting a more prominent place to live, and I need to remember this.

XOXO

Ana

So this was a bit of a perfect storm kind of week. I have been super busy, yet everything has fallen into place just at the right time. With work stuff, and social commitments, and oh yea Valentines day. I had a full schedule, with the added “mom week” hat. Which I must say, I am glad that I celebrated last weekend, less stress and I still got flowers delivered. Since nothing is official, he did it the day before and sent them by PrimeNow. Which is fine it is the thought that counts anyway. I also got a mini Berry Chantilly cake, which I highly recommend from whole foods, best cake for anything. We had a women’s outing at work on Friday to the Rustic Brush which was fun. It is just lovely to be able to leave early on a Friday to do something fun.

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I couldn’t be happier with my yoga life. I also can’t even believe that I have made it this far, nevermind how good I generally feel. I am not the best at posses all the time or having speed and what not during class, but I am being present and following thru, which is half the battle. The theme this week is restoration, and the lesson was to make a plan to build structures to your life that align with what you want to accomplish. So let me explain, so just because you have a goal, you need to follow it up with a physical component. A calendar invite, a post-it note, or something to that effect. But that starts the commitment to the goal. I went to two social events with people that I practice with. One was to the MFAH happy hour on Thursday, it was an excellent excuse to not stay home on VD. This was a lot of fun, and I got to meet some really great people. Afterward, my kid and I went to Shake Shack, which is always good. Friday, I had after practice snack with one of my team members and his kids which was a great way to unwind. And to top things off, when I walked in to practice on Saturday, I ran into one of my favorite people on earth. 

Overall, I had some good day and some bad days this week, but mostly good. I have to remember to keep to positive and the happy in mind. Even if I have just negative-nancys around, is so much to be thankful for. 

XOXO

Ana

LOTS of things going on in life. I had a date on Tuesday with a pretty great guy, but he travels a lot, so the verdict is still out on him. Friday night I got a pre-valentines day staycation with this guy I’ve seen for a minute. He is super sweet so I cannot complain. He booked a room at the Hotel Alessandra. I had been there a while ago with #frontrow for their opening but had never stayed there. I had a preview of how beautiful its lobby and details were, but I was blown away. I highly recommend it, it was such a beautiful and well-done room, absolutely floored. I should have taken more pictures of the room. Dinner was at the fabulous Vic and Anthony’s downtown, which the hotel graciously drove us to in their Maserati. Dinner was amazing. The food and service were excellent, this is probably my new favorite steak house in town. Which left me with the contemplation on why I had never been there before. Seriously, finger licking if that was an appropriate thing to do. Went back to BB Lemon for lunch, but this time it was a bit disappointing, and truthfully it was their cream of corn. I love cream of corn and this didn’t have cream.  Saturday night I went over to the warehouse district to a gallery opening. It is called The Whimsy World. It is open to the public until the end of the month and worth checking out. And let mention the bathroom, its called the Beyonce bathroom. Oh and I cannot forget to mention the very gracious goody bad we received, I mean we got Kendra Scott.

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As far as my yoga challenge. I am not going to lie, this last week was a hard one to surpass.  Just feeling extra heavy, like I was pulling a boulder up a hill. But I made it thru to week 4. It is always great to know that other people are feeling what you’re feeling, being on the same boat. Not just instructors but other participants said the same. Which is great! I am not the only one muddling thru it. The primary thing that stood out was my group meeting. The group meeting is a small dose of group therapy without professional help but a soundboard. This week was all about taking a stand and sharing the stand you are making with the people in your life. These are mine:

• I take the stand of being at peace with myself.
• I take the stand for others, by being courteous and listening.
• I take a stand for the world by being part of the solution and not the problem.

The below came from the teachings in the group meeting, and it was the inspiration to what we were making a stand to, I felt I had to share it inspire others.

“Many social justice or social activist movements have been rooted in a position. A position is usually against something. Any position will call up its opposition. If I say up, it generates down. If I say right, it really creates left. If I say good, it creates bad. So a position creates its opposition. A stand is something quite distinct from that. There are synonyms for “stand” such as “declaration” or “commitment,” but let me talk for just a few moments about the power of a stand. A stand comes from the heart, from the soul. A stand is always life-affirming. A stand is always trustworthy. A stand is natural to who you are. When we use the phrase “take a stand” I’m really inviting you to uncover, or unconceal, or recognize, or affirm, or claim the stand that you already are. Stand-takers are the people who actually change the course of history and are the source of causing an idea’s time to come. Mahatma Gandhi was a stand-taker. He took a stand so powerful that it mobilized millions of people in a way that the completely unpredictable outcome of the British walking out of India did happen. And India became an independent nation. The stand that he took… or the stand that Martin Luther King, Jr. took or the stand that Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony took for women’s rights—those stands changed our lives today. The changes that have taken place in history as a result of the stand-takers are permanent changes, not temporary changes. The women in this room vote because those women took so powerful a stand that it moved the world. And so the opportunity here is for us to claim the stand that we already are, not take a position against the macroeconomic system, or a position against this administration, although some of you may have those feelings. What’s way more powerful than that is taking a stand, which includes all positions, which allows all positions to be heard and reconsidered, and to begin to dissolve. When you take a stand, it actually does shift the whole universe, and unexpected, unpredictable things happen.”

Lynne Twist

XOXO

Ana