I haven’t posted much at all over the last week and a half.  I haven’t really been reading many blogs (I’ve shaved my Google Reader list down considerably) and I certainly haven’t been commenting.

I think my reasons for both reading and writing blogs are changing.  When I first started blogging over on LiveJournal back in 2005 it was never really meant for anyone else to read.  Just a few of my close friends in that strange clique-y locked down world that was LiveJournal.  I started a public blog on Blogger in March 2008 to make myself accountable in the whole giving-up-work-to-teach-yoga situation.

And a lot has changed since then.  I’m not convinced anymore about the public platform of blogs and social media.  Sometimes we say too much, give ourselves away a bit more than we should.  Sometimes we don’t say enough, give a false impression that life is all hunky-dory, when the reality is far removed from that.

Then there’s the time thing. I have a business to run.  It’s a realtime, face-to-face business that needs me to be somewhere far away from a computer. It takes up a lot of my time. I genuinely don’t have the time to blog like I used to and when I do I’m trying to create good content for my other website.

It’s always amazed me how much things change over time, our wants and needs, our ambitions.  Right now my day-to-day is so different to how I thought it would turn out, but I’m OK with that.

I’m not going anywhere, I just might not be here so often. I’m just trying to make things simpler for myself, especially in light of that whole Release thing.

February Intentions

1.  Write a gratitude list every day.
2. Find venue and design advertisement for Foundation Course.
3. Read 3 novels (very do-able considering we’re off to the Yorkshire Dales to do nothing for a week!).
4. Finish current knitting project.
5. Massage/Cranio-sacral/Pedicure/Eyebrow wax
6. 4x Pilates classes

January in Review

1. Floss twice a day. (DONE)
2. Up and dressed by 8.30am even on weekends. I am sick and tired of being a sluggabed! (I’m giving myself a one day a week reprieve on this one in the interest of Release!) (DONE! Except on Saturdays when it’s been more like 9.30)
3. Keep within the new household monthly budget for food shopping (which also means stricter meal planning). (DONE – really enjoying getting back into meal planning)
4. Pedicure/eyebrow wax/reflexology appointments. (DONE)
5. Do my physiotherapy exercises every day (having neck problems – nothing to worry about, it’s all par for the course!). (DONE)

]]> http://www.suburbanyogini.com/2012/02/01/february-intentions-and-january-in-review/feed/ 1 http://www.suburbanyogini.com/2012/02/01/february-intentions-and-january-in-review/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/suburbanyogini/nTty/~3/AEyMIaAnXmw/ http://www.suburbanyogini.com/2012/01/20/five-suburban-yogini-tips-to-working-from-home/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:51:45 +0000 Rachel http://www.suburbanyogini.com/?p=2399 (source)

Himself and I both work from home.  Well, Himself works from home and I work for myself but when I’m not at the clinic there’s an extraordinary amount of admin that needs to be done and this is primarily done from home.

A lot of people think that this is living the dream, and indeed in many ways it is.  But working from home is hard to do because there is nobody there keeping an eye on you, clearing their throats when your productivity is low, gently (or not so gently) nudging you to tell you that maybe you’ve spent a bit too much time surfing the internet.  It takes a while to find a routine, to find discipline in the sudden freedom that you have – and believe me when you’ve worked in law for years, when you’ve had to log every minute of your day, that freedom is almost too much.

As our situation is in flux right now, I thought I would share a few tips that have helped us over the last few years, before everything is different and I forget them. So just in case you’re about to find yourself self-employed or working from home, read on!

1.  Find yourself a space to work. This is the number one priority for working from home.  Try to find yourself a dedicated space to work, even if it’s just a small desk in the corner of your living room, and make that work space as beautiful and as inspirational (and as tidy) as you can.  Doubling the dining table up as an office just doesn’t work.  It means that your job is right there in your face all the time.  We ended up turning the spare bedroom into an office for Himself (he has several computers etc and needs the space) and I’ve taken a small cupboard bedroom for my desk and yoga mat.  It means when we have guests we have to book them into a nearby hotel but it’s all about priorities!

2. Set yourself working hours. There is a tendency when working for yourself or from home to start checking emails immediately upon getting up and carrying on from there.  Set yourself reasonable working hours and stick to them, otherwise your job will take over your whole life.  What these hours will be are dependent on a) what you do and b) what hours you are at your brightest (I’m an afternoon person, Himself is a morning person).  It will be hit and miss to start with while your work them out but once you’ve got them, stick to them!

3. Get up, get dressed, eat breakfast. Don’t be tempted to work in your pyjamas.  It’ll be lunchtime before you get showered and you’ll feel horrible for it.  Act exactly as you would if you had to go in to an office.

4. Turn off wi-fi. Have certain set hours during your working day when you turn off your wi-fi.  This way you can’t be distracted by social media and incoming emails.  How many hours you have offline will again depend upon what you do, Himself needs to check his emails far more often than I do, but do try to take that time offline, especially when you need to get your head down on a big project.

5. Twitter is your office mates. Conversely you will never need social media so much as when you work at home alone!  You’ll be surprised how much you miss the office banter (even though when you were in the office you hated it so) and it’s easy to become isolated.  Pick your Twitter and Facebook friends carefully and check in with them a few times a day.  It sounds crazy but it can keep you sane!

A final point for any couple who, like us, both work from home.  Learn to leave each other alone! Don’t be tempted to bother each other with household minutae during those hours reserved for work.  Remember, you’re meant to be behaving as though you’d gone into the office.  Ask yourself, would you phone them at work for this question or leave it until they got home?

Any other tips from my fellow home-workers?

People who know me well are always surprised to hear that as a teenager I hated Dickens.  Hated.  I thought his books were overly long, ridiculously rambly and life was, quite frankly, too short.

When I was 17 (the year in which, basically, I became the person I am today – I’ve been lucky like that, got it all over in one fell swoop), I read The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

And it changed my opinion of Dickens forever.

However, the thing about Drood is, as I’m sure you know, that Dickens died while writing it.  Most people think, like Mozart’s Requiem, that it is unfinished.

That’s as maybe, but unfinished does not necessarily mean incomplete.

There have been many attempts at the ‘constructed ending’ (usually by inferior writers) when it comes to Drood - most recently in the BBC’s rather odd adaptation – and, like really bad sewing, you can always see the join.

To me Drood isn’t incomplete.  I never walk away from reading it with a feeling of dissatisfaction.  I’d go so far as to say that it is perfect just the way it is.  So far as to say, in fact, that it is finished.**

We humans have an almost innate need for things to be done, for loose ends to be tied off, for everything to be tidied away.  Maybe it’s because deep down we know life’s not really like that.  There are nothing but loose ends in life, question marks hanging over paths we didn’t follow, people we lost touch with.  We will most likely die unfinished, a work in progress.  And, if you believe in reincarnation, have to come back and do it all over again, still unfinished.

But we are always trying to beat this. Rather than allow ourselves to be unvarnished we continue to search for new shades of polish. Especially at this time of year, when every newspaper or magazine we open, every other blog post we read is telling us we’re too fat, or too thin, or should eat more raw vegetables, or have less clutter.  Whatever it is, We’re Doing It Wrong and Need To Do It Better.

We really don’t.  Change happens over time.  Most of us change for the better without even realising it’s happened.  And sometimes it’s OK to remain unpolished.  No good has ever come from trying to finish Drood, no good came of adding that awful ending to Requiem. Lots of things aren’t broken, they’re just unfinished, so they don’t need fixing.

This year why not let your loose ends hang free?!

~~~~

** Much as I love Dickens now, I still maintiain he’s not very good at endings and often resorts to pantomime and farce to wrap up his loose ends.  Perhaps that in itself is what makes Drood so very very good.

But every now and then I wonder “what if things could be different?”  What if we could change not just our stories but the stories of the world around us, those in built societal beliefs? What would that look like? What would they be?

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Well here are a few of mine.

What if:-

* we all just quit it with the endless overachieving and allowed ourselves to just be?

* yoga wasn’t always about standing on your head/hands in fancy pants?

* we worried less about what we ate or when we ate it?

* we accepted that it’s OK to be unhappy sometimes?

* we were kinder, to ourselves, to others, to all living beings?

* guilt didn’t exist?

* men and women really were equal?

* we paid more attention to our physical body?

* we paid less attention to our physical body?

* our only inspiration was simply our wonderful self?

* we stopped trying to be someone we’re not?

* we embraced our inner lazy?

* we worked a 4-day week (and discovered nothing changed)?

* we all bought local and seasonal and the big supermarkets didn’t exist?

* we genuinely believed there was enough?

* it’s all just Maya?

Readers, I would love it if you could join me in wishing a very happy first birthday to my little clinic!  Can you believe I’ve been open a whole year today?  I had four clients on that first Monday and I can still remember the butterflies in my tummy waking up a year ago today, not knowing what the future held!

Oh and what a year it has been!  I’ve worked my little fingers to the bone to increase my client base, get my website to the top of Google, get my name and brand known in the local area, think up the zaniest special offers, work out my niche market and here I am at the start of 2012 with enough regular clients to keep me ticking over and new enquiries all the time.

It’s not all been roses though, there have been some really hard times, some long dark tea-times of the soul, some times (like when we got back from Australia) when I really wondered if this was going to work.  But so far so good *crossed fingers*!

So I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you for every word of support and encouragement, every client, everyone who has been to a yoga class, or spread the word, or handed out flyers.  Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

Here’s to the next 12 months!

As with so many things, once you make space new stuff comes flooding in.  No sooner had a cleared out my Reader than I came across a whole bunch of new and exciting blogs to read (my time will never be my own, I’ve come to terms with this now!) and I thought I’d share a few of my favourites with you.

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1. Louise Gale – Louise is a Brit living in the States and her website is just so beautiful you can’t not want to read it.  She’s on an adventure in Australia right now and she’s also the author of the Big Dream, Small Wonder workbook and planner of which I am a proud owner.  I cannot recommend this bargain enough!

2. A Forest of Stories – Sara’s blog is full of beautiful writing, snippets of wisdom and all sorts of goodies.  She’s on a mission to make money mindfully and explains here her intentions for 2012.

3. And Then She Saved – I’ve mentioned Anna’s awesome blog before, but if you want to save money or pay off debt you could do a lot worse than read this blog.  Here’s what it’s all about.

4. Catherine Just – who takes the most beautiful photographs.

5. Marc and Angel Hack Life – now you all know how much I love lists.  Well this blog is list after beautiful list full of amazing things to think about.  Here’s one of my favourites: 30 things to stop doing to yourself.

What blogs are you reading right now?

]]> http://www.suburbanyogini.com/2012/01/06/five-new-to-me-blogs-for-the-new-year/feed/ 2 http://www.suburbanyogini.com/2012/01/06/five-new-to-me-blogs-for-the-new-year/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/suburbanyogini/nTty/~3/WM0O2axw5k8/ http://www.suburbanyogini.com/2012/01/03/happy-new-year/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:51:49 +0000 Rachel http://www.suburbanyogini.com/?p=2370 As you read this I will be opening the clinic for the first time in 2012.  I’ve had a great fortnight off but I have to admit I was itching to get back to work.

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These first couple of weeks of the new year are already busy.  I’ve a fully booked appointments book and I have to finish putting the final touches to my Foundation course before handing it in for final approval. How exciting! I’m hoping to have the course up and running by the end of this year, but I’m making no promises, either to myself or anyone else.  2011 threw me a ton of curveballs that I really wasn’t expecting (the invitation to become a Foundation course tutor for starters!), and my biggest mistake of the year was to try and continue with the Big Plan regardless of all the twists and turns on the way.

So this year I’m learning from those lessons and allowing myself to be a lot more flexible.  In the words of my beloved Dupree: “stay loose, stay liquid, laugh a lot.” I have no big plans, no big ambitions, no monumental life changing goals. There are a few vague plans – an Indian Head Massage course, a holiday in Yorkshire in February and an inevitable house move but other than that I’m flowing with the river!

That said, a few posts ago I mentioned The Spending Diet.  I don’t know if you read And Then She Saved, but the blog author Anna put herself on a Spending Fast to clear off all her debt in 15 months.  The Fast is too much for me.  I don’t work like that.  If I set myself up for huge huge life changes or massive restrictions I inevitably fail and then feel even more awful.  But the various ups and downs of 2011 have seen me with quite a bit more on the credit card than I would like and so Spending Diet it is.  I’ll keep you posted!

So 2012, let’s do this.  What have you got in store for me?

Any goals for the new year you’d like to share?

January Intentions

1. Floss twice a day.
2. Up and dressed by 8.30am even on weekends. I am sick and tired of being a sluggabed! (I’m giving myself a one day a week reprieve on this one in the interest of Release!)
3. Keep within the new household monthly budget for food shopping (which also means stricter meal planning).
4. Pedicure/eyebrow wax/reflexology appointments.
5. Do my physiotherapy exercises every day (having neck problems – nothing to worry about, it’s all par for the course!).

December in Review

1.  Write and post the Christmas cards by 10th December DONE
2. Work the Mill Road Winter Fair – I’ll be opening the clinic for free massage tasters and wearing tinsel in my hair. What more do you want? DONE (and what a successful day it was!!)
3. Make the mincemeat by 5th December DONE
4. Get the Christmas cards/gift vouchers for clients written and posted by 16th December (which is also the date of the annual Christmas trip to see the best band in the world). DONE
5. Make stollen and gingerbread by 20th December (there will be updates on this as this year I try to make them wheat free). DONE but wheat free didn’t really work – I gave myself a break over Christmas!
6. Master the art of the Yule Log for New Year. NOT DONE.  After reading the recipe several times I decided I just couldn’t face it and made a big yummy wheat-free chocolate cake instead!

Whatever, it seems that 2011 has been a crazy year for everyone I know, both on- and off-line.  I for one have had some stunning highs and some breathtaking lows!  Bring on 2012 – and if London can make it through the Olympic Games, we can all make it through anything.

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Have a very happy New Year dear readers and for your pleasure I give you my 12 favourite posts of 2011.

In January, in an attempt to be healthy, I made vegan carrot muffins.

In February, I took my gloves off about having M.E.

In March, I got a poem published and got all nostalgic about a letter from an agent .

In April, I did things in Sydney I’d never got to do before.

In May, I waxed lyrical on running.

In June, I turned 37.

In July, I made you a present.

In August, I made a little podcast about self-employment and my tips to smoothing the path towards it.

In September, I wrote about maggots and anxiety attacks.

In October, I asked you to be kind to yourselves.

In November, I told you a few things you might not know.

And in December, I likened Jared Leto to a yoga class.

Oh and as a bonus 13th – I love rock stars and soft furnishings.

I don’t know about you but I have always been notoriously bad at keeping them.  I think it’s something to do with the pressure we put on ourselves to do so much on 1st January every year.  Years ago, when I used to smoke, I always resolved to give up smoking on 1st January every year.  I think the longest I ever went without a visit to the newsagent for a new packet of cigarettes was 5th January!  Then one autumn day several years ago I just stopped.  Life’s like that sometimes!

In 2011 that word was JOY.  And opening my business has brought more joy than I ever thought possible.  A lot of headaches and panic attacks too, but mostly joy!

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In 2012 my word is going to be RELEASE.  Releasing expectations, comparisions, judgement, procrastination, scarcity mentality, poor health, credit card debt, the eternal straightening of my hair.

I wonder what adventures 2012 has in store for us all?

I’ll ride the wave
Where it takes me
I’ll hold the pain
Release me.
– Release, Pearl Jam

~~~~

**although I really need to drink more water, get more sleep and remember to floss twice a day!