BREATHE AND LIVE IN THE MOMENT

I’ve had some difficulty in coming up with a word to frame my goals and intentions for the year which is why this post is 24 days after the new year. I’ve been thinking about it for a while though and I thought had it figured out until I started writing about it.

I began with focus because a major goal for this year is narrowing down my “to-do lists” and placing my energies toward things that matter, clearing out some of the distractions I seem to be caught up in. I liked the word focus because I liked the idea of seeing more clearly by adjusting or sharpening my view. But there was something not quite “enough” about it once I started writing my goals for the year. Once I read a friend's post on actions that help encourage follow through, I began to think about the phrase that says, “breathe” and “live in the moment”. When I thought of it I am reminded to breathe, to stop and pay attention, to sharpen my perspective instead of looking at everything in a huge way and concentrate instead on what is required in the moment. But it’s also about being present and accepting what is happening now instead of looking forward or backwards. For me, the moment is about letting go and not feeling like I must control everything. It means trusting in the bigger picture while staying present in the daily stuff.

Though I may come off as a confident person in some areas, I’m incredibly insecure in others. Since I graduated, I feel like the insecurities are making themselves known in detrimental ways, particularly in my career but also in my personal and emotional life. I need to trust myself and my ability to make decisions. I need to give myself some credit and realize that I am good at what I do, or at least I have the potential to be. If I could get out of my own way and stop second guessing myself. I need to trust in something bigger than myself, in the universe, in good. I need to rely on my instincts so that I am better able to place my energies into specific projects and moments instead of all over the map.

Some of my goals for 2010:

Continue to learn to cook, try out new recipes and take joy in the process. I’d like to cook more; I want to do a recipe a week but I’m not sure we should eat that much fat but I do have friends and neighbors who would enjoy more calories so we will see how it goes. I’ll look over the recipes and see what I want to make and start next week.

I’d like to plan a vacation that is not related to work in any way and truly get away with zoe and my husband. But I’d also like to visit new places (domestic travel preferred) and some of my old friends there as well as see my brother and relatives more frequently.

Mostly I’d like to settle in to my life (and this where living in the moment began to emerge for me). I know that sounds kind of strange. But I’ve been in a kind of identity crisis since I graduated and left life as a student behind. School was my safe zone; it always has been. I knew exactly what was expected and I was really good at it. I don’t know that I realized how deeply embedded the identity of “student” was in my psyche.

I’m trying to relax into this, professional identity and that has been more difficult than I expected. I think it accounts for a lot of my struggles in the classroom and the need to prove myself, thus taking on too many projects (so weird to account my college life 4 yrs after graduation, hehehe).

So, my major goal for the year is to look at this place in my life, a place I wasn’t sure was possible for me and take a deep breath and accept it in all of its messy and wonderful ways.

...I am so incredibly lucky to be here and I don’t know why I’ve been so resistant to saying, yes, this is my life.

...I am scared, I think, to step out embrace where all my (and those who love and support me) hard work has led.

I remember when I received my college diploma and thought now what?

What do you do when you’ve reached the one point you’ve been striving toward?

You set new goals, of course, but there’s a lot to handle emotionally and even though it’s fantastic to realize your dreams, it’s also terrifying.

I’ve tried to express this turmoil multiple times but I think now I have a better handle on what, specifically, I need to do to move past this and onto the next big things. And I want I need to do sounds really simple, but it’s harder than you think to be in the moment when you’re so used to looking ahead.

I’m not saying that I will stop planning or looking ahead, but that less energy will be spent in planning and more energy will be spent on doing.

That’s what I think living in the moment is all about, experiencing and doing.

Last year was about enriching my life, about adding to my knowledge and understanding, and adding to my life.

This year is about discovering what I might have and where I might be and who I’ll be with.

To help me do that I’m going to see and discover whats in store there for me, an incredibly cool and amazing idea from a mentor that seems so damn perfect for my living in the moment phrase for 2010.

I feel that the universe is supporting my endeavor!