Life is an Adventure | Finding My Voice




I stayed pretty quiet in 2020. Not because I had nothing to say, but because I needed time to sort some things out. Nothing is ever as it seems and remembering to honor that is important. Looking at my last post in September, I can tell I am on the right path. This will be a sort of follow up. 

I am going to ramble on for a few minutes here, so bear with me.

I have thought about all of the things I have done with my life up until now. I wouldn't call my life boring for the most part, I would mostly call it growth. 

When I started blogging in 2014, the blogging space was very different. I started to blog because it was a fun way to connect with people and share glimpses of my, at the time, very mundane life. It worked though. I had a lot to say and it was a lot of fun.

By doing so, I have been able to pinpoint what was going on in my life by looking back to my blog. I noticed that even when I slowed down posting here, I always came back when I needed to say something important. 

I now realize, that this space is how I used my voice. I shared glimpses of my life: my struggles and my happiness, here, for the world to read if they should choose to. 

Over the years, many people have read my blog. I used to fly under the radar with people I knew. I didn't really want them to read my words, but I learned several times, that isn't realistic. I have been found by people who know me. I have made people angry. I have helped people though hard stuff. 

I had a blog post once go viral on Reddit. People I didn't know made fun of a post of mine. It was crazy, scary, and exciting all at the same time. So many interesting twists and turns happen when you are blogging, that's for sure.  

The landscape has changed a whole lot since I began, but I still come back here when I have something to say. While I have been quiet, I have learned a whole lot about myself and why this blog will always be an instrumental part of my life. 

I have a feeling this blog is about to come back to life fulltime. There has always been a reason I didn't let this space go. I had plans. I knew this. 

I am working out a content plan, but I have lots I want to share. I think I will be back to the 2-3 times a week schedule by May. 

I will be talking about my new adventures in entrepreneurship, my new journey to becoming a spiritual life coach, and life sprinkled in. 

I'm excited to be back and I can't wait to connect again. 

Namaste and love, 
Trish List signature


Being Relatable with a Twist


They say to be successful you need to be relatable. I say be relatable with a twist. Finding your "thing" or purpose and matching it with your people is key.

Being relatable doesn't mean being duplicatible. We aren't all the same.  We can take duplicatible actions and apply them to our own unique style and make it our own.

I have really thought about my purpose during quarantine and what I really l want to be doing with my life.

I know I want to be successful but I also know I want to make an impact. I want to know that I made a positive life changing impact on those I work with.

I also know I NEVER want to be in competition with others. That has always felt icky to me. I think we all have a purpose, we just relate to different people. That has taken me a long time to realize.

A favorite quote that reminds me of this every day is "When the teacher is ready the students will appear..". It can also go the other way, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear".

I have heard these quotes so much in the last 4 months in several different situations. When you show up, others will too. Mindset is everything.

If you read my last post, you know I've been working pretty hard on myself and where I'm heading. I have taken steps to educate myself on the next steps.

I am that much closer to revealing my new adventure, but I wanted to remind all of you that you are a beautiful unique being. Be you. Shine your own light. The right people will show up.

More on the way soon. New direction. New look. New content.

Namaste.
Trish List signature

Pandemic Musings of Self Discovery



What does self discovery mean to you? For me, it means challenges, darkness, and sometimes pain. That doesn't sound so fun does it?

 

Change is messy. Life is messy. The "self" is messy.

 

Some of you may know this already, but I have been on a path of self discovery for quite a few years now. I may not of said it out loud, but you could probably tell by my blogging patterns or style changes. Maybe you didn't notice at all. That just means, I am so good at hiding it, you had no idea.

 

Either way, this morning I saw that quote up there and realized how much I have changed in the past couple of years and that this pandemic has really helped me see some of that.

 

Sometimes we don't know why we started on the path to self discovery, and sometimes we get those 'ah ha' moments along the way. For me, I realized I was looking for something to heal trauma from an abusive relationship. At the time I lived in a city where I knew barely anyone and because of that, I found a yoga studio who was just starting out who accepted me. 


This studio started me on my journey to heal myself. I took many classes and workshops there for a few years and then decided to become a teacher myself. Going through a yoga teacher training changes you. You work a lot on yourself without even realizing it at first. Some people go through the training for themselves and never intend to go on to be a teacher. I was that person. I never thought I would want to teach.


What most people don't realize about these types of journey's is they can often be dark, challenging, and lonely. Some of these lessons I have learned along the way have been some of the hardest moments of my life.

 

I graduated the program a different person and knew I needed to keep on the path of this journey. I decided I wanted to teach. Help others along the way. Shortly after getting my first teaching job, I found out I was pregnant with my first child. I became dis-interested in teaching and stopped all together. No biggie. 

 

Fast forward to 5 months after I had my son.  I quit my job. I declared breastfeeding wasn't for me and quit. My cat disappeared. All in the same week. I was beyond devastated and emotional. It was all a part of my self discovery journey. I didn't see that then, but I can see it now. It brought me back on the path.

 

I started practicing yoga again little by little. It had been a year since I last tried. I became certified in Reiki because I loved working with energy. In this time we started looking to buy a house. We bought the first house we looked at (We did look at 3 total) and moved in a year ago. I feel like I manifested this house. That is a story for another day. I live in a log cabin. A real one. It is all wood and I have never felt so grounded in a space. I realized this past fall that I had the best space for a small home yoga studio.

 

The months leading up to the pandemic I was doing some deep self work with a coach. He helped me realize the yoga space and had me face a lot of truths. I began working on my relationships as well. Looking at my own interactions with those around me. Came to the realization I was not happy in my job. 

 

I started a plan of what I wanted to do next. This was years in the making. I had ideas and dreams and it all seemed to be coming in at the same time. I started teaching small classes in my home. I was offering free/donation classes to moms who needed a break. It was an amazing feeling. It was happening.

 

Enter Covid-19.

 

"You need to go home and work there. We can't work in the building. "You can't teach yoga, you can't even be near people." "This is only going to be a few weeks, you can teach again soon." "People are dying, you can't live out your dream anymore, sorry."

 

Everything came to a screeching halt. Wait what? I can't do this anymore? I was just getting started! NOOOO! Now what?

 

This is how journey's go. You never know what is going to happen next. You are never 100% prepared for the road blocks, but you are prepared to deal with them.

 

This is just the roadmap. You never know what you will come up against on the road. I will be writing more about what I have learned and what I am doing now to keep going with what I am after. My dream.


I will say, even with all of the crazy going on, I am proud of myself for doing the work. I am so happy I get to share it with all of you. This got long pretty quick, so stay tuned for more of what I learned and what I am working on next on my journey.

 

I appreciate you reading.


Namaste.

Trish List signature


My Yoga Space

Everything right now is pretty virtual. We are adapting to what is available to us to keep our businesses and our sanity alive. One thing that has exploded in the past weeks is online fitness classes. Yoga is included in those classes.

Last year we bought a house. Before we really started seriously looking I joked it had to have a space for a yoga studio. My husband always just laughed at me. I think he knew deep down I was serious, but he humored me anyways.

When we got down to it, I forgot about the yoga thing because we needed to find a house. We told our landlords we would not be renewing our lease. We looked a several houses and put in an offer pretty quickly. We got that house. We moved in over the summer of 2019.

One evening in October it hit me. This house has a yoga studio! The house has a finished basement that has exits into our garage. There is an entrance to the outside world. This could work.

The basement before we moved in
Over the past several months I have worked on building it up as a space that works. I was inspired by a paint color called Mosque Blue. I painted one wall. I cleaned out all the clutter and agreed that the space could be a multi-use space. It is my yoga studio and a family room. It has been working out  pretty well.

After we moved in. Not too bad, but cluttered. 
I taught a couple of classes in the space before Coronavirus took us by storm. Now I look at my hard work and wonder what to do now. It is time to join the world and offer virtual online classes. It had always been a plan of mine to do. I have lots of friends and family all over the world who want to take my classes. This situation pushes that plan quicker then I thought, but not out of the question.

The mostly finished space.
Below is the entry way with places to hang coats and the entry way into the room 


I am currently working on streaming classes to my Facebook group: Refresh. If you want to join in please send a request to join. It is a space just for women where we can support one another in wellness, mental health and overall support in this challenging time.

I was struggling to keep up with everything I had planned, but this week I was furloughed from my job so I will have more time. I did take on doing another 200 hour yoga training this week. It is virtual and with the same studio I took my in person 200 teacher training back in 2017. This training is a great refresher and is focusing on some virtual training tips which is great for the current situation.

That being said, I am proud of the space I built and I hope you enjoy the photos and will join me in some classes in the group. Maybe give some inspiration to turn a room into some form of multi-purpose space that works for you and your family.

Have a wonderful day! Namaste.
Trish List signature

Pine Tree Tea and Vitamin C

Vitamin C is a hot topic these days. Many people look to vitamin C to keep them healthy during the cold and flu season. What is your go to source to get your vitamin C?


I used to be a huge Emergen-C drinker many years ago. I stocked it like crazy, and it actually seemed to help me not get sick. One of the first things I asked my husband to get when everyone was panic shopping was a box of it because I left mine at work and didn't know when I would be back to get it. It actually took him a few stores to find it. 

While I was waiting for Emergen-C to be found, I started eating oranges. There was one lone bag left at the grocery store, so I figured I might as well go straight to the source. I found I loved the orange but also forgot that citrus can give me little breakouts around my mouth. Not my favorite thing to deal with.

That's when I remembered another natural source of vitamin C. Pine needles. Did you know that some pine needles have 5X more vitamin c than an orange? It is also full of vitamin A. I use White Pine in my tea, but many pine species are good to use. Do your own research on your pine before doing this as there are a few variations of pine that are poisonous. Pine needles are not recommended for women who are pregnant.



So how do you make this tea? It is SUPER simple. All you need is a handful of needles pulled form the branch and boiling water.  You chop the needles up into smaller chunks and pour the boiling water over them. Let them steep for 20 minutes covered. I place a bowl over my cup to keep the steam in. Using a mason jar with a lid is also useful.

Once your tea is brewed you can drink it as is, or add some raw honey. I drink it both ways depending how I feel, but the honey does seem to enhance the pine flavor, so be aware of that.



I drink at least one cup of this everyday. It makes me feel good. It is a little weird at first, but it is for your health right? Let me know if you try this out and what your thoughts are!

Namaste!

Trish List signature