Yoga Journaling Assignment II

The theme for this week (Week 5) in the Rodney Yi book is Facing the Unknown. It's interesting, because I am not often afraid of change, and, in fact, embrace it for the most part. I'm an adrenaline junkie in a different way than most, I suppose. While I enjoy things like rock climbing and roller coasters, and I would love to try sky diving or bungee jumping one day, the real adrenaline rush I get is with change. The unknown is something I embrace. I move a lot because I like to discover new things, meet new people, and make new friends.

I don't think my experience with yoga is any different. I love trying new asanas, and learning all of the layers upon layers of things to know about yoga. I'm excited to work on my inversions, but I've found that I do have a fear of handstand, sort of. Practicing on my own, or even at training where I am comfortable enough, I enjoy trying going upside down. However, in classes where I am new or where I don't feel comfortable yet, I get nervous about kicking up in to handstand or pushing up into headstand or anything really where I could mess up and fall or kick someone..... I tried a headstand in the middle of the room at a class I went to last week and fell over and almost kicked the person in front of me! Actually, it was the person off to my right in front of me....which isn't any better. Ha!

Yoga Journaling Assignment I

Being present was our theme this week (well, last weekend and the following two weeks, of which are almost ending already!). I've noticed it being a theme or sub-theme of the yoga classes I've been attending lately as well. It seems everyone is focusing more on being right where they are and accepting it.

I just moved to Austin, what will be almost 3 weeks ago now. It feels like both a longer and shorter time ago, depending on what kind of mood I am in. Although, for the sake of staying with the theme, at the present moment it feels like an eternity ago that I moved here. It already feels like my city. However, with more to do comes more distraction and I've found that staying present here is more difficult than it was in the small town that I moved from. Not just in my yoga practice, although I have noticed that as well.

I've got two jobs now, which is great after being unemployed for almost a month! I've been overlapping trainings some, and it gets a little confusing because it's easy for me to confuse the information I'm learning at the two places. This is a time when I have found it extremely important for me to stay present where I am in those moments. I give better customer service when I'm not thinking about all of the other things I have to do when I get off of work.

The same goes for my yoga practice. The classes are so much bigger than I am used to, and it's easy for me to get distracted by looking around at all the other students. I'm not judging them or myself really, just being curious. I had a great teacher named Jenn at Yoga Yoga North, and I am hoping she'll let me observe one of her classes soon! Out of all of the studios I have gone to so far in Austin, Yoga Yoga is one of my favorite AND closest to where I live.....although I still have a lot of places to check out!

All of these options, not just with yoga studios but with everything now that I am living in the city, is great practice at staying present for me. I get so easily distracted and overwhelmed by all that i COULD or feel like I SHOULD be doing, that it is important for me to be grateful and blessed by all that I've accomplished so far, and stay present in every moment that I am given.

it's a new day

i woke up this morning thinking, so.....off on day 3 of looking for jobs i guess, eh? i'm getting worn out and discouraged that i'm not going to find a job here. and then i read an article about the wonderful lady who is going to be teaching my yoga training beginning this weekend, and i got excited. but there was a little stanza in there about how austin has the largest teacher-to-student ratio in austin over any other city! great, is what i thought to myself. i'm never going to get a job teaching here, and i don't want to leave in december already, i just got here!

my days have been exhausting so far..... i moved in sunday evening and stayed up for a while with my new roommates and one of them's brother and dad who were staying over for a few days due to the fires....they had to evacuate. luckily their homes are both ok. but it was a full house for a little bit there!

on monday i got up early and did an 8am bikram yoga class in celebration of free day of yoga. it was wonderful, but bikram yoga really just isn't for me. i don't like being so hot! and it seems unnecessary when it's already 111 degrees outside!

i then went on the job hunt, and found a great little cafe where i think i would fit in perfectly! i had an interview with one of the managers and she liked me, so she scheduled me for another interview with another manager the following afternoon. i was excited, and figured that it was a sign that's the job i was going to get, so i pretty much quit my job search for the day, went to one more yoga class that afternoon, then went home to do some bonding with my new roomies.

i slept in and just hung out the next morning because i was so sure i was going to get that cafe job. however, even though i left almost 30 minutes earlier than i needed to, i got lost and was late. the manager was already gone and i was so discouraged. =( luckily, they rescheduled the interview for thursday afternoon, but now that means i've got another full day of job searching ahead of me..... i feel lucky for my options, but honestly i hate having so many choices. i pride myself on following my gut instinct on things, and it's starting to get foggy because i'm such a desperate state for a job.....

after missing out on that opportunity i figured it was time to put in a few more applications places..... then came home to relax after what felt like another long and exhausting day. i wouldn't call myself a person who gets homesick very much any more, although i used to BAD when i was little. but i have a friend who lives in austin who i keep trying to meet up with and it just doesn't work out. more than anything i just want to see the face of someone that i know in this city full of strangers.

i did get to talk to some friends from back home (which now includes fredericksburg, apparently) and it was absolutely lovely to hear her voice, and hear about what they're all up to. it makes me smile to know that they're thinking of me too.

but like i said, i woke up this morning feeling exhausted just thinking about the day ahead of me. i have no plans.....just a job to find. i was already starting to get discouraged thinking of driving all over this city again.....but two of my lovely sisters wrote on my fb wall this morning, and without knowing how discouraged and tired and missing my friends i have been up and down on this roller coaster of emotions (jeez) it was so wonderful to hear from them, and that for just that minute, or maybe many minutes during the day, they were thinking of me.

it's those little things that are going to help me get through this rough transition period.....i have faith that i'm making the right decisions, so now i just gotta get my ass out there and go make them...