Four Things

Four things a man must learn to do 

If he would make his record true: 

To think without confusion clearly;

To love his fellow men sincerely;

To act from honest motives purely;

To trust in God and heaven securely.

   ~Henry van Dyke  

Great words of wisdom to live by. I have about a week until my internship starts…I can’t believe we are already almost into July! This past month has flown by with teaching yoga classes, going to dance classes, hanging out with friends from time to time and doing absolutely nothing (which makes me want to do more). July 1st also marks the day I need to decide if I’m staying in Pittsburgh or leaving, but the good thing is, is that after August it is a month to month lease. Which made me a whole lot less stressed out once I found that out. The only thing that stinks is I would feel obligated to tell my roommate in a good amount ahead of time if I was leaving so she could find another roommate. 

BLAH my mind is racing with things that I could do in my future. Still, I am feeling a bit confused on things….should I go back to school to be a nurse? should I move back to Texas? Should I keep dancing? I want to keep dancing but I also want a ‘real’ job that I know I could support myself. I feel extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to go to college and have that experience as well as get a degree and I also feel fortunate to continue to be able to have opportunities to truly do what I want. I just need to figure out what it is I really want. Once I get into the groove of my internship I feel like my racing thoughts will subside for the time being and hopefully the internship will maybe sprout new/current passions and show me which direction to go. But for now, I’m putting all my trust and faith in God. I’m handing my worries, concerns and fears over to Him and I’m sticking to Max Ehrmann’s thought that “the universe is unfolding as it should…therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.” 

 Four things to focus on this week:

1. Getting out of the typical routine/groove….go to work a different route, do something different such as take a walk in the morning, turn off the radio in the car & listen to your thoughts, brush your teeth with your left hand 

2. Think positively about someone else, instead of focusing on their ‘negative’ qualities (Also about yourself….)

3. Meditate….at least once this week for only five minutes 

4. Relax, enjoy life

….do it, do it, DO IT. right now.

🙂

home is where the heat is

I can’t wait to be in the arms of the people I love.

That’s what life amounts to–at least in my eyes. Back to the great state of Texas. Back to the heat and the humidity which NO ONE understands here. “It’s so humid outside!!!” I’m all like–oh realllllly? come visit me for a day. It’s a walk in an oven. But it’s more than the heat. It’s the warm love from home, the home cooked meals (well green smoothies), the yoga classes I get to take with my mom, the time I get to spend listening to my dad talk on the phone and grill me on my future, the time I get to be completely comfortable and completely myself. I get to spend time with all the people I love-my family and Aaron and his family. Going home reminds me just how lucky I am to have these wonderful people. It also reminds me of the importance of life and how awesome it is.

Can’t wait to be sweating and smiling in H-town by 10:30am tomorrow morning!

Yoga Doga

This is what happens anytime I try to put together a yoga class in my apartment:

KeeLee always feels the need to plop down right next to me while I’m in my yoga poses. She’s just a dog who likes to do doga (dog yoga) while I’m doing yoga. Any time I get into downward facing dog she’s right there next to me, well under me and jumping around, all excited. And if I’m doing a spinal twist on the floor, like in the picture above, she must lay right next to my arm. Silly dog, yoga is for humans…she’s quite unique though. Unlike most dogs who stretch in a down dog pose, she always has one leg lifted while stretching. I always say, streeeetttch in that down dog split! I’ve never seen a dog so talented. So maybe she’s a doga master after all and feels the need to assist me in my practice.

Anyways, this is how I spend most of my lazy afternoons and mornings trying to figure out what to do next in each class (*note: not long after this picture was taken I accidentally dropped my coffee and it went down those slats into my neighbors balcony–thank the Lord they weren’t sitting under there…Lindsay couldn’t control her laughter). I’ve never had a lot of respect for Bikram yoga teachers because, from what I’ve heard they just teach the same class over and over again. Other yoga teachers must be creative, producing a different flow and practice each class. I must say, I feel as if I’ve hit a creative rut lately-probably due to the fact I haven’t had much time for a practice of my own. Taking other people’s classes always inspires me. I feel like I can always take away something from the class whether I liked it or not. I’m looking forward to taking a free yoga class on Monday nights from this girl at a gym I teach at (Amerifit) on Tuesday nights. Teaching at these two gyms has been a bit of a challenge, more so at Platinum Fitness because I have all ages (20’s-70’s) and that is very hard to find a balance for everyone. It’s all great experience though and I’m learning each class new things-especially about myself as a teacher.

I find after every class me telling myself it was an okay class or a horrible one that I just taught. In all reality I know it was just a fine class, but I’ve always been extremely hard on myself. I’m changing this way of thinking and accepting each class that I teach as a good one as long as I stay committed to my student through the entire 60 minutes. Continuously feeling these negative thoughts about my teaching  is only going to drain my love and passion for both teaching and for yoga. I need to have a little more self love and appreciation for my teaching because the truth is I know I am a hell of a good teacher. I know not everyone is going to love my classes, I’ve accepted that already but it’s time for me to start feeling good about what I’m giving out to people. This can of course translate into any situation in life. You just have to have confidence in yourself and know that you are worth it (*enter cheesy, inspirational music here). After all I know of one person, well doggie, who likes my yoga 🙂

now i KNOW about you…

     you’ve felt 22.

You’ve been there. My girl T-Swift acts like she’s the only one who has been “happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time.” And seriously with that music video…? I’m pretty sure my 22-year old life doesn’t consist of dancing around at my Malibu beach house and going to parties with cat ears on (well, maybe the cat ears part is accurate). No more hating on Taylor because I do actually love her.

But for most twenty-two year old kids their life is in a state of flux, most of us freak out about it because most humans fear change and uncertainty. Then there are a few who find this exciting. Of course I’m like most, a little fearful of uncertainty with my future plans and goals. But I know for a fact that I have a wonderful life and wonderful people who are in it. I just gotta keep going in the direction I’m headed, keep breathing and enjoying life.

So, spot on with the lyrics tswift…most 22 year old kids are “happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time,” but maybe you should have looked a little less relaxed and more like OMG WHAT’S NEXT IN LIFE while also eating Ramen noodles in your music video. Just a thought.

this feels more like it:

“It’s miserable and magical at the same time”

Stephen King kind of night

So my roommate has this job where she helps blow up those big bouncy houses that kids jump around in. Anytime someone asks her she gets really embarrassed about it and talks her job down. To me, I think it’s way better than being like oh yeah, I work at Olive Garden…yeah…I serve people food and make money. If I was her I’d be like oh yeah man I blow up big bouncy houses all day and work at these awesome events where kids run around and go crazy.

Anyway, point to this story is that she has weird hours and has been working the past weekend at night as well as this one. The only friends that I have left in Pittsburgh are Bill, who is at a wedding tonight, and Celina who works as well tonight. This leaves me sitting on my couch on a Saturday night next to KeeLee, the fluffy dog who sleeps and would do anything to be walked 24/7.

What better to do than read some Stephen King and drink some wine. When I buy wine I look for two things 1) have I heard of your name before 2) are you under 8 dollars. So I ended up with a nice red Sutter House wine, the kind Renee and I always got (back in the ‘college days’). Yes, I’m cheap. That’s the life of a college graduate where money is so precious. And yes, this has been my crazy interesting life these days.

My plan tomorrow is to find a Catholic church because last Sunday I made the mistake of attending a Baptist church. Which you know I’m all for Baptist churches but this one was just a little too intense for me. Not to mention they stalked me (well I stupidly wrote down where I live on the guest welcome card I had to fill out) and left cookies on my doorstep! Basically to be like COME BACK AND PRAISE THE LORD WITH US NEXT SUNDAY! I’m sorry, the entire experience was a little to intense for me. I felt like the poor girl from the movie ‘Saved’, when she gets attacked by the religious psycho played by Mandy Moore. YOU MUST BOW YOUR HEAD AND GIVE THANKS! Yes, I know. Now back off bro.

Now back to being lost in a Steven King novel of a girl lost in the woods…

soccer moms are more cool than I thought

I am incredibly grateful for the car my parents got me because without it I would be hiking up a bunch of hills and would not be able to get to half the places I get to now such as work or dance classes. But…I can fit seven people in this beast of a car. Eight including myself. Therefore, this car was obviously meant for those “soccer moms” who spend their afternoons and weekends cutting up slices of oranges and busing around those annoying kids with their shin guards and uniforms. But only after a few rides with this car, I have to give those moms credit because I cannot for the life of me park this thing. How do you get it properly between the lines??? Well, I already received my first warning from a parking garage which these peeps take their job way too seriously because I know I wasn’t THAT much off from the lines.

So PROPS to all you soccer moms out there who can properly park your vans while ALSO dealing with distracting kids. You are way more cool than I was lead to believe.

Here are some apartment pictures (this was when we first moved in so things are a little out of place)

Me & my new best friend…Lindsay’s newly adopted dog, KeeLee.

 

I just graduated.

I just graduated so I did the most logic thing any kid my age would do when they have a question. Resort to google. I just graduated WHAT DO I DO NOW? A few silly things came up such as relax, travel, enjoy life, get a goldfish. Yeah, you know just the typical things. A couple serious things came up as well such as create a linked in profile and start a blog. So with me being on the more serious side, I decided to create my own linked in page….which all new linked in users should know: any profile page you look at, that person gets a notification saying you’ve viewed their profile. I found this out a little too late after I stalked everyone I’ve known since pre-k….AWKWARD. Thanks LinkedIn for the heads up. And then finally I decided to create this blog since so many people are interested in my oh so interesting life. But really, I enjoy writing and already own a journal filled with a couple things I wouldn’t even tell Oprah Winfrey about, so I thought this would be a good place to just cover the basics.

So I just graduated (that’s me getting my piece of paper that cost way too much , and me wearing my attractive hat and Harry Potter cape) and I moved into a new apartment in Pittsburgh with Lindsay, whom I’ve known since freshman year of college. I’ve currently got two yoga jobs at two different gyms and will have another one at a dance studio this coming month. I’ve also got an internship lined up for July-August working with little kids and dance. And my lease ends in three months…not sure what I’m doing then.

These are some of my amazing friends on graduation day.

These people turned into my family and I am forever grateful to have found them because they made being away from home so much easier and they made my college experience an unforgettable one