Yogi Christmas Gift Guide

I announced last week that I am going to be starting my 200 hour yoga teacher training in January. Now that I am all signed up and accepted, I need a few things. I put together a Christmas wish list of sorts that I am looking for this year, and in return I hope it helps you shop for the yogi in your life.

For me, I am all about learning and training, as I will be spending a lot of time on my mat over the next 4 months. I added things to my list that would be useful and handy for my training. I threw in a few fun items too, just because.

Yogi Student Wishlist

1. Yoga wheel: I am not very flexible in my back. I have seen the wheel being used to help with back bends and other poses that require some flexibility. This would be a real blessing to anyone in my boat with the flexibility issue.

2. Blanket: I don't know about you, but when I start my savasana, I get really cold. My body relaxes and my body temperature goes down. Having a nice blanket to carry with me would be helpful.

3. Ombre leggings: I just really like these. I was at a point where all I wore was black leggings. They aren't fun. If I am going to be living in leggings more often, I might as well make them fun to look at!

4. Yoga mat: I have a mat currently, but just like everything else, mats do need to be replaced. Mats can be as simple or as fancy as you'd like them to be. For me, as long as I don't slide and it's not paper thin, it will be sufficient.

5. Sweatshirt: I am going to be training through the whole winter. It will be cold. Having a fun sweatshirt always makes it better. When you look forward to wearing youe winter wear, it doesn't seem like such a chore to go out.

6. Tank top: Just as much as getting cold can happen during your practice, so can getting warm. Having fun tank tops to practice in are always a good time. Plus I am going to miss pigging out on things like tacos..

7. No slip socks: I rarely ever wear socks when practicing, but again it will be winter and it will be a long day. I am going to want something I can put on my feet that won't cause me to slide on the mat.

8. Mesh leggings: Again these are just fun. Yoga can be as fashionable as you want. Sometimes it will be fun to put on something different to practice in.

9. Yoga block: Props are so important as I mentioned with the yoga wheel. We all need a little help sometimes to learn new poses. Having a nice cork block can make all those challenging poses a little easier.

10. Bag: Finally, you need something to carry all of these things in back and forth from classes. I really like this one because it fits everything and your mat has a place to go. This is probably what I'm hoping for the most this year!

So there is my wish list/gift guide. Is there anything I missed? Are you a yogi looking for some new stuff for Christmas? Let me know in the comments what you are in need of!


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Christmas in the Bahamas

Sometimes you have to love Facebook memories. Today a photo popped up reminding me that 6 years ago I was in the Bahamas. It was a beautiful photo of the ocean and blue skies. It had me thinking about how great it was to spend a week on a tropical island so close to Christmas.


We (my brother and roommate at the time) were in Nassau. It never dawned on me when we booked the trip that we would be there a week before Christmas. I was so excited to see the island all decked out for the holidays. The tree above had all kinds of shells as ornaments. It was super pretty with the pink building in the background.


We spend our days exploring the island and getting to know the locals. The weather was chilly for the locals (only 60 degrees on some days), but that didn't keep us northerners from swimming in the ocean and running around in only cardigans to keep warm.

 
The scenery was breathtaking, and the rum was a plenty. We took one guided tour of the island which provided all you could drink rum punch. It was pretty amazing. As you see in the above picture, Bacardi was pretty big there..

The island was pretty busy, and the shopping was insane. I am convinced if you couldn't find it on this island, it doesn't exist. The main shopping area of Nassau, which is conveniently located down by where the cruise ships come in, range from small boutiques, to high end stores. Everyone was Christmas shopping while we were there and it was so hard to navigate through the sidewalks.


 We only went down to the main shopping areas 2 days of the 7 we were there. It was so overwhelming. We instead stayed on our own private beach (we stayed at a small place that wasn't as resorty and enjoyed the beach to ourselves most days).


Having the opportunity to spend a week away before Christmas on an island who was also deep in the holiday spirit was amazing. I really enjoyed having that opportunity and I recommend everyone to do it at least once.

I sure do miss waking up to this every morning.. We had a balcony and it was glorious.


 Have you ever spend the holidays in a tropical setting? What about in a place opposite than you currently live? IE saw snow for the first time?

Let me know below!

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Whatcha Up To?

Happy Thursday!

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I am planning a break this month into January to prep for my yoga teaching certification as well as time to do things that I love in hopes to bring the stress level down a bit. I am deep into entering every single 12 Days of Christmas giveaways. I swear almost every company on Facebook is hosting something.

Fingers crossed that I win something this year!

I just wanted to give a little glimpse into what's been going on in my world lately.

I am just over a month into treatment for GERD. For those of you not familiar with it, it stands for Gastoesophageal Reflux Disease. I have had suspect for over a year that I had acid reflux issues. It really came into play around the end of October where I had extreme heartburn all the time. Nothing I did made it better.

I went on meds that made no difference at first. I saw a new doctor and we have a plan in order. I am starting to feel better, but let me tell you.. acid reflux and heartburn are no joke. If you have even the slightest feeling you may have it, please get seen. It can cause a lot of damage if not treated.

I am still on the fence on if I want to tell my story here as to why I have been under extreme stress for the second part of the year. I have been working on a post for a long time, and I just never feel ready. I also know I in no way have any obligation to talk about my struggles here, but I feel some days like I owe an explanation of my vague complaining and why I am always stressed out.

I am hoping that taking this break and starting with the yoga next month will really help me heal. Maybe then I will have the strength to write about everything that has happened.

I can be honest about one thing, and that is, this blog became very uncomfortable to me at one point last year. Sometimes when we put ourselves out there, we have bad days. We write things that bother others. These things happen all the time, and it has happened to me. I have never quite recovered from that one incident.

I am working on moving past how that incident made me feel. I am working on making this space comfortable again. I am also reminding myself that not every person will love what I write, but I know in my heart that I write from the heart and truth within myself. I accept that not everyone will love me and my writing, but I can't control that, and that's okay.

So tell me. Whatcha been up to?



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I have an announcement

Soooo I totally dropped the ball on posting yesterday. I really had every intention of starting the week off on the right foot, yet here we are.

I have some really exciting news to share as well as an announcement about this blog.

As we all know, life happens. It has some unexpected twists and adventures that it likes to take us on. I have had a whirlwind of twists this year, and I am ready to slow down the whirlwind and do something for me.

I took a risk and decided to apply for my 200 hour yoga teaching certification. I am happy to announce I was accepted into the program I wanted last week and will officially start training in January. I plan to graduate in May with no real idea on what I will do with it yet. For now I am super excited, and ready to finally do something that is soley for me.

Now as far as this blog goes.. I have decided to take a small hiatus for the rest of December and possibly into January. I have to see how things go with the training. I want to use this month to to my advantage and get lots of reading and relaxing in. Lord knows my body is going to need it once training starts.

I am not planning to completely quit blogging, but I also don't know what my life will look like between January and May. I have thought about sharing my journey and hoping it is found useful to someone out there. I also have some posts already planned out that I will be sharing throughout the rest of this month and into January.

I didn't want to go completely rogue, and also didn't want anyone thinking I stopped reading their blogs. I am still reading as much as I can. I am not commenting much, and I am sorry for that. I am going to try to set one day aside to read and comment. I enjoy keeping up with a lot of you.

2016 has been one of the craziest years to date for me. I sometimes wonder how I survived it in one piece. This is why I know the yoga path is the path for me. I'm ready to heal and reconnect with myself.

I hope you will all stay with me and check in from time to time. This isn't goodbye, but until I see you again.

Happy December. May it treat you well as we transition into 2017

<3



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Friday

Nothing to exciting today. Event planning this morning and a half day to do whatever I please.

It's been a long week, and I'll get more into that next week. Make sure to stop by on Monday as I have a few announcements to make.

Pop around the blog if you're new. Lots of stuff to discover.

Have a wonderfull weekend!

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