Miracle Year and taking some time to sit still…

It’s been a busy month…oh and it’s freezing (low of 12 degrees, high of 25 today, but bundling up is sort of fun)…holidays…get togethers, yoga class every Saturday, and it seems that my workload has increased a bit at school (those sneaky…). I’ve also been trying to read more and really work on a couple things:

“taking 1 small action daily instead of asking the too big questions”

and

living abundantly.

by spending on things that really make me happy instead of stupid unnecessary buys like that 15th cheap tshirt i don’t need. it’s been so hard to balance this here, as i’ve tried to save, i’ve found myself in deprivation mode…which hellllo leads to binging! binging on shopping (still cheap here, a “binge” can just be $15, but still!), or saying “what the hell” and spending too much on foreign groceries like $20 cheese after one too many tofu/veggie stirfry nights. there’s gotta be a balance to strike. and i’m going for it…

like… what can i do today to make myself feel good? and today that happened to be a $3 glass of wine accompanied by some journaling at the local cafe after work. last night it was an hour of yoga self-practice and meditation/list-making in my head. small things. good stuff.

what else is going on in seoul?

“yoga minis”, an awesome concept created by an amiga, Dawn, to get some of us yoga students together each week to take turns teaching each other. I also just got word that I’ll be subbing a yoga class at the local muay thai gym 3x/week for a couple months till i leave. Busyyyyy!

Christmas vacay is coming up…1 week off. Nope, not jetting off to a tropical island (though I was tempted to book a flight back to Thailand), but rather, going to sit still, for once. It may be freezing, but it’s going to be nice to have a week to chill out in Seoul.
to do list:
relax, spring for a massage (or three), visit the jiljilbang/bathhouse…spend time with amigas who are staying in town…ice skate…take myself out to breakfast/lunch/dinner…hike Namsan…go for winter runs…skype midweek with my nearest and dearest in CA…drink some vino…sleep… bust some yoga moves…indulge in acupuncture (hey, it’s covered by K-health insurance), eat…repeat for 7 days. woman of leisure what what.
oh and boring but necessary~make a few preparations for going home like cleaning out closet and mailing my summer clothes home.
speaking of prepping for homecoming…i got my flight. march 1. 9 weeks from now. arrive LAX 9:50am. this makes me happy, yet i know it will be hard, bittersweet, to leave. it’s going by so fast, too fast. anyways, saving all that for a future post. for now, just trying to enjoy it–the little ones, the friends, the apartment, the fresh tofu available on every street corner…

In other news, my friend Katie in Santa Monica, a true inspiration, had deemed 2010 “Miracle Year” at the end of 2009. In honor of “miracle year”, she’s creating a website all of us can honor miracles that took place each month of 2010. What an awesome concept Miracle Year was. So, I’m trying to compile AT LEAST 12 miracles of my own to contribute. Looking back, there’s been tons of ups and downs, even a point at which my spirit, I hate to say it, was pretty dulled. But out of that, there have been so many positives, so much growth, and I’m grateful for this opportunity to reflect on 2010.

Katie’s “hope is that through PROJECT MIRACLE YEAR, we can inspire each other to pat ourselves on the back, recognize our potential, and spark an even brighter flame going into 2011: ACTION YEAR“
(if you wanna contribute, send by DEC 30 to projectmiracleyear@gmail.com; all posts are anonymous and you can send pics along with your entries)

So here goes my first entry:

January 1, 2010:

New Year’s Day.

Woke up to my usual cup of Yogi tea after an eventful New Year’s Eve (Super Green Tea Antioxidant was SUPER needed .

The saying that morning just happened to be,

“travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light”.

That afternoon I found myself rummaging through storage and reading through my old study abroad travel journals.

I took it all as a sign, and a week later I’d quit my job in California and had put my resume in with a friend in Asia.

And here I am a year later, getting ready to return to US in a matter of weeks. Looking back, I’ve grown so much, learned so much, discovered and solidified passions, realized how hard it is to be truly on my own away from family, and most importantly, that happiness is wherever you wish to make it. I’ve still got lots of work to do…My backpacker’s backpack still tends to be on the overweight side (travel light), I still have to remind myself to think positively (live light), I’ve found I’m inspired when other tell me I’ve inspired them (my reaction: really?!)..(spread the light), and most of all, I’d really just like to be the light, which I have had glimmers of…but greedy human i am…I just want to be the light all the time. I guess time will tell if that’s possible. What a start to Miracle Year was that Yogi tea bag?!

The site will launch on New Year’s Eve 2010…I’ll def be posting the link