Starting to Formulate my vision... my journey.

So I guess it is time to start making some real plans. I know for sure that I will be starting my month as a yogi on September 1st. Other than that I haven’t nailed anything down. I have been calling the months up to September, my “learning” phase. There is so much that I don’t know about what being a “true” yogi means. So I am going to have to figure all of that out before I will truly be able to embrace it fully as of September. 

Things I want to quit:

1. I am going to start titrating myself off of my bad habits, addictions, and medications. I have been telling a bunch of my friends and coworkers about my goals and my plans and evoking a support field. Which has been surprisingly easier than I thought it was going to be. People can surprise you sometimes. The one subset of people that I haven’t gotten involved in this process yet are my doctors. Here is why: A friend of mine (Jill) saw me liking some naturalistic product pages on FaceBook and she reached out to me. She has been taking a super vitamin product that I will write more about at another time. Long story short, her and I talked for an hour (first time we have talked in 4 years) about our experience with military doctors and their habitual prescription writing. We met 6 years ago in Colorado, both of our husbands were in the same unit at Fort Carson. We completely related on the epidemic that, on post, military doctors seem to shove pills down all of our throats; husbands and kids included. For what I understand this is true for the civilian doctors as well. Because of this it is easy to get into the mentality that a pill will “make it all go away.” If you read my first blog you will know that I have been taking pain medication for my back for over three years, and that for a while I just gave in to the whole thing. Part of my mission is to take back some control of my health and start looking for alternative health initiatives. I initially thought that the smart thing to do was to get my doctors involved and ask them if it was safe and how to titrate off of my medication. The thing is, I know how to titrate and I am afraid that they will try to scare me away from my path to Mental East… my yoga journey. Its not that I think that they are coming from a bad place, I just think that it is the medical culture in our country. When I talked to Jill about all of this, she completely agreed that she wouldn’t bring them in on it either, unless it is necessary… so there you have it. 
2. Yes I said bad habits and addictions. So I am going to put this in writing as if I am really admitting it for the first time ever. I don’t know if my grandpa/ma will read this post, but if you are reading this… I am sorry. I have become a smoker… A real one. I could definitely be a more active smoker but at this point it is something that I look forward to at the end of a long day at work. While I used to have a cigarette with a beer during our time living in Europe, I am now smoking without a beer, which is totally out of character! I want to treat my body as the temple that it is, the only home my soul has, I want to take care of it and stop abusing it. 
3. The other addiction that I am looking to kick is caffeine. Whatever our current Western culture deems legal or not should not have any precedence in what I consider to be good for me or not. I mean alcohol is one of the deadliest of legal substances, and yet it is so ingrained in Western culture that you are considered antisocial if you aren’t a drinker, which I haven’t been for years. Anyhow, I am a one a day coffee drinker (16fl.oz.) or more a day. I am going to start cutting back on that as soon as next week. 
4. Processed cheap foods. I am a strong believer that easily accessible simple carbs are addictive. Whether it is sugar or starch, I would like to make the effort to reduce the presence of these simple, and specifically, processed foods from my diet. 

Things I want to start:

1. Yoga: I am on once a week yoga class type gal at this point. I read a funny blog the other day that stated that there are different types of yogis and one is the one that basically the person that shows up to yoga, but doesn’t embrace the mentality, the trendy yogi. I am that yogi, and I want to be more than that, I want to be the Spiritual Warrior Yogi (Click this link to read the blog. https://fatandthefurious.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/yogi-types/). I want to increase my practice for various physical, mental, and spiritual health reasons. Right now I am thinking that I will commit to 5 days a week. 
2. Meditation:  I am going to have to work my way into meditating as I am a very anxious person and I am constantly thinking about 3 things as once. Clearing my mind during yoga and being present is hard enough for me… but just sitting still and staying in the moment is even harder. So this may be the area in which I struggle the most. With that said, I believe that this may the the area in which I have the most to gain. 
3. I am going to add more to this at a later time… I am still working on the learning… but I am wanting to commit to some spiritual growth, I am just not sure what that is going to look like yet. I feel like spending the time to blog is helping me to sort through my thoughts and to keep me honest about my process… what I want, what I will struggle with and where I am going. 

I am going to keep working on my plans. On Wednesday I am going to do another post that will entail more thoughts and plans. This is the first date commitment that I have made so far! So I will see you Wednesday. 

—Lily