(source – and seriously have you seen this?  What a beautiful combination of awesome and terrifying!!)

I haven’t posted much at all over the last week and a half.  I haven’t really been reading many blogs (I’ve shaved my Google Reader list down considerably) and I certainly haven’t been commenting.

I think my reasons for both reading and writing blogs are changing.  When I first started blogging over on LiveJournal back in 2005 it was never really meant for anyone else to read.  Just a few of my close friends in that strange clique-y locked down world that was LiveJournal.  I started a public blog on Blogger in March 2008 to make myself accountable in the whole giving-up-work-to-teach-yoga situation.

And a lot has changed since then.  I’m not convinced anymore about the public platform of blogs and social media.  Sometimes we say too much, give ourselves away a bit more than we should.  Sometimes we don’t say enough, give a false impression that life is all hunky-dory, when the reality is far removed from that.

Then there’s the time thing. I have a business to run.  It’s a realtime, face-to-face business that needs me to be somewhere far away from a computer. It takes up a lot of my time. I genuinely don’t have the time to blog like I used to and when I do I’m trying to create good content for my other website.

It’s always amazed me how much things change over time, our wants and needs, our ambitions.  Right now my day-to-day is so different to how I thought it would turn out, but I’m OK with that.

I’m not going anywhere, I just might not be here so often. I’m just trying to make things simpler for myself, especially in light of that whole Release thing.

February Intentions

1.  Write a gratitude list every day.
2. Find venue and design advertisement for Foundation Course.
3. Read 3 novels (very do-able considering we’re off to the Yorkshire Dales to do nothing for a week!).
4. Finish current knitting project.
5. Massage/Cranio-sacral/Pedicure/Eyebrow wax
6. 4x Pilates classes

January in Review

1. Floss twice a day. (DONE)
2. Up and dressed by 8.30am even on weekends. I am sick and tired of being a sluggabed! (I’m giving myself a one day a week reprieve on this one in the interest of Release!) (DONE! Except on Saturdays when it’s been more like 9.30)
3. Keep within the new household monthly budget for food shopping (which also means stricter meal planning). (DONE – really enjoying getting back into meal planning)
4. Pedicure/eyebrow wax/reflexology appointments. (DONE)
5. Do my physiotherapy exercises every day (having neck problems – nothing to worry about, it’s all par for the course!). (DONE)

(source)

January Intentions

1. Floss twice a day.
2. Up and dressed by 8.30am even on weekends. I am sick and tired of being a sluggabed! (I’m giving myself a one day a week reprieve on this one in the interest of Release!)
3. Keep within the new household monthly budget for food shopping (which also means stricter meal planning).
4. Pedicure/eyebrow wax/reflexology appointments.
5. Do my physiotherapy exercises every day (having neck problems – nothing to worry about, it’s all par for the course!).

December in Review

1.  Write and post the Christmas cards by 10th December DONE
2. Work the Mill Road Winter Fair – I’ll be opening the clinic for free massage tasters and wearing tinsel in my hair. What more do you want? DONE (and what a successful day it was!!)
3. Make the mincemeat by 5th December DONE
4. Get the Christmas cards/gift vouchers for clients written and posted by 16th December (which is also the date of the annual Christmas trip to see the best band in the world). DONE
5. Make stollen and gingerbread by 20th December (there will be updates on this as this year I try to make them wheat free). DONE but wheat free didn’t really work – I gave myself a break over Christmas!
6. Master the art of the Yule Log for New Year. NOT DONE.  After reading the recipe several times I decided I just couldn’t face it and made a big yummy wheat-free chocolate cake instead!

Do you make resolutions?  I used to.**

I don’t know about you but I have always been notoriously bad at keeping them.  I think it’s something to do with the pressure we put on ourselves to do so much on 1st January every year.  Years ago, when I used to smoke, I always resolved to give up smoking on 1st January every year.  I think the longest I ever went without a visit to the newsagent for a new packet of cigarettes was 5th January!  Then one autumn day several years ago I just stopped.  Life’s like that sometimes!

In 2011 that word was JOY.  And opening my business has brought more joy than I ever thought possible.  A lot of headaches and panic attacks too, but mostly joy!

(source)

In 2012 my word is going to be RELEASE.  Releasing expectations, comparisions, judgement, procrastination, scarcity mentality, poor health, credit card debt, the eternal straightening of my hair.

I wonder what adventures 2012 has in store for us all?

I’ll ride the wave
Where it takes me
I’ll hold the pain
Release me.
– Release, Pearl Jam

~~~~

**although I really need to drink more water, get more sleep and remember to floss twice a day!