Diana Antholis

2019 mantra: Wholeness. Art. Clarity. Reconnection.

To create your own mantra, answer these 2 questions:

1. How do you want to feel?

2. What do you want more of?

2020: Healing

Diana Antholis — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 04:29:38 +0000

2020: Healing.

Have the hard conversations.

Feel deeply.

Release when I’m ready.

Be compassionate if I’m not ready.

Prioritize my well-being.

2019 RECAP

We started the year in Paris, wickedly jet lagged from our trip to Oregon and Seattle. It literally took Ophelia two weeks to get back to normal. I will never forget her going through my spice cabinet at 2am or playing with legos until 7am.

February, we visited Kuala Lumpur for the first time. Only our families and close friends knew why. It was to make the big decision: is this our next residence? My husband’s company sent us for a week. Verdict, we liked it.

Onward! In March, Ophelia and I flew to New Jersey and NYC to visit family and friends before our grand depart. We traveled around France to visit my husband’s family: Normandie, La Rochelle, Île d’Oléron. We made our rounds in Paris with our best friends, playing as much as we could. We lived in Paris for five years and built quite a life, even though we were ready for the next step. Leaving my best friends there was so incredibly difficult.

April 23, 2019: we arrived in KL. We celebrated my birthday there and lived in a hotel for six weeks. We set up Ophelia in school and found a great apartment. We also found doctors pretty fast as moving to a new place means you’re going to get sick.

In June, we accompanied my husband on his work trip to Brisbane, and fell in love. That was hard emotionally because we were told that Brisbane could be a possibility to live until they decided KL was the final destination. It’s okay, we worked through it and knew KL was in line with our future goals. We took some time on the Sunshine Coast, specifically in Noosa, and fell even more in love. It was magic.

In July and August, my husband’s brother came to visit us so we spent time in KL and on the beach in Kuantan, the east coast of Malaysia.

August: what a month. Ophelia turned three years old. And the next day she had her first day of PreK-3. Holy moly, what ride. The true fighter she is, she made it known she did NOT want to go there. After about a month of horrid drop-offs, she finally decided she liked school. Now she loves school. SO HAPPY. She loves her teachers and has best friends. This is all I can ask for.

September brought us haze. Haze isn’t the right word, it’s basically just smoke from the fires burning mostly in Indonesia. This forced us to stay inside mostly, as school closed a number of days and we bough special masks for the walk to school on days it was open. Weeks of this had us stir-crazy and sick.

We escaped in October back to Brisbane and had a wonderful time there, doing all of our favorite things. Then we took our first family vacation to Lombok, Indonesia (island next to Bali) for Ophelia’s October school break. Pure relaxation, gorgeous beach, and luxurious villas had us in great spirits.

Ophelia’s school celebrated Deepavali, Global Village Day, and Halloween in the span of two weeks and all of the events were spectacular. The kids danced, dressed up, and celebrated their heritages. We love being part of an international school.

November brought my parents here from the other side of the world. It’s been wonderful having them here, and the extra help is amazing.

December was filled holiday craziness with school and life. I am the class parent, which is a whole other beast, but the teachers received super gifts and our Christmas party was the best.

We flew to Langkawi island, in Malaysia, at the start of the winter break, and it was fabulous. We paddled, kayaked, happy hour-ed, ate, rested, and enjoyed a family vacation. My brother met us there as well.

The last two weeks of December were a bit crazy, entertaining family and cooking for Christmas. We had our neighbors over for Christmas Eve and celebrated Christmas at home as well, cozy and relaxed. NYE was our anniversary also, and we watched the fireworks across KL from our rooftop. A January 1 poolside BBQ was such a fun way to start the year, with family and more neighbors.

Unfortunately now, Ophelia and I are sick. So we’ve been in bed for a few days. It’s par for the course when you move to a new place, and are inundated with stress and some drama around the holidays. I’ve been sick more in the last six months than I have been in my adult life.

2020: Healing. Healing emotionally. Healing physically. It’s time to get back on the ground.

I love re-reading my previous mantras. Go back into yours and see how you’ve evolved over the years.

2018 mantra: Power

To create your own mantra, answer these 2 questions:

1. How do you want to feel?

2. What do you want more of?

2019: Wholeness. Art. Clarity. Reconnection.

Diana Antholis — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 22:03:09 +0000

Be whole.
Clear the mind.
Heal the unresolved.
Reconnect to my purpose.
Make art.

I want to feel whole more than I want to feel happy. I want to have a sense of ME.

Fierce belief in who I am, what I can do, and what I know I’m capable of. Explore my artistic expression and allow my creativity to run wild. Heal the unresolved and detach from anything or anyone who doesn’t support my core beliefs.

2018 brought high and low extremes. I’m craving balance. I’m ready to move forward and be limitless in my potential.

2018:

We travelled to Faro Portugal, Bamboo Island Palawan Philippines, Manila, Hong Kong, Cap Ferret, NJ, NYC, DC, VA, Disneyland Paris, GREECE, and Seattle and Hood River Oregon. Travel is necessary for growth and heart. My daughter leaps in her development every time we travel.

We also rode a roller coaster of emotion in 2018. In January, I found lump in my throat. Ultimately it was a benign cyst on my thyroid that was drained and deemed non-risky. But the first six weeks of the year brought about an unknown that tested all of us. (emotions and labs) Then, from March through December, we were told we would live in seven different locations. Yes, seven. We had to digest each one as it came. This stung as it was our ultimate goal for 2018. Bigger plans awaited us though. We should know more in a few months.

Wholeness. Art. Clarity. Reconnection. 2019 will be a big year.

I love re-reading my previous mantras. Go back into yours and see how you’ve evolved over the years.

2018 mantra: Power

To create your own mantra, answer these 2 questions:

1. How do you want to feel?

2. What do you want more of?

2018: Power

Diana Antholis — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 22:01:11 +0000

I’m reclaiming my power. Impulsive change, gutsy beginnings, sassy confidence…I’m ready to go bold for 2018.

In 2017, I called upon my strength. Being a new mom and going through yoga teacher training at the same time had me questioning my sanity countless times. But, I did it (on zero sleep).

2016 was our transition year. 2017 was our foundation year. 2018 is the year for change.

In addition to caring for my baby full-time and yoga teacher training, 2017 brought us to our first family vacation in Portugal, road trips throughout France (new visits to Cap Ferret and a few villages in the Loire Valley), and three trips to the ever exotic New Jersey to visit my family. I watched my daughter sit up, crawl, and walk in Rodin’s garden and the Jardin du Luxembourg. I started giving private and semi-private yoga classes to moms in their apartments. I made new friends and became a volunteer for an organization dedicated to supporting English-speaking parents in Paris. This all may sound bold already, but I’m going for some new challenges this year.

2018, don’t hold back.

I love re-reading my previous mantras. Go back into yours and see how you’ve evolved over the years.

To create your own mantra, answer these 2 questions:

1. How do you want to feel?

2. What do you want more of?

2017: Strength

Diana Antholis — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 21:44:53 +0000

I am strong enough.

I am strong enough to embrace my new mama-hood. I am strong enough to care for my baby and my family. I am strong enough to care for myself.

I am strong enough to complete yoga teacher training and work on my big ideas. I am strong enough mentally. I am strong enough physically.

I am strong enough to let go. I am strong enough to stop worrying about what others think. I am strong enough to accept who I am if I do hold on or worry.

And if I need more strength, I will TRUST in me.

2017: Strength. In my mind. In my body. In my abilities. In me.

If you’ve been following along for the last 5 years, you’ve noticed that I don’t set resolutions for the new year. I set intentions, mantras, and words to live by.

2016’s mantra had a very specific meaning when I wrote it, but I kept it a secret. Why? I was 7 weeks pregnant at the time.

For me, 2016 was all about embracing the wild ride of pregnancy and having a newborn. My husband says 2016 was a transition year for us. We had to navigate the system in France for having a baby, move to a larger apartment, and prepare ourselves for the new little human in our family. Our travel miles subsided compared to 2015, but we still managed to get to Vienna, Saint-Gervais, New York, and Tuscany. I continued to work on a very limited basis as I was exhausted, but managed to film, edit, and upload my Prenatal Series two days before THE day. Then, August 13 arrived and our beautiful Ophelia stole our hearts. (And our sleep.)

On a self-imposed maternity leave until…well…now, I give myself a pat on the back for that one because I rarely opened up my computer during the first 5 months of my daughter’s life. I now understand the true meanings of no time and pure exhaustion.

So 2017 will also be about balancing and not being so damn hard on myself. Meaning, how the heck I will care for my baby AND do my work (and exercise, and eat, and shower, and have some me time, and have some husband time, and basically do anything else) while also recognizing and loving that am I doing the best I can right now. (And always remembering that the well-being of our little family is my priority.)

2017, welcome. I’m ready for the ride.

I love re-reading my previous mantras. Go back into yours and see how you’ve evolved over the years.