This morning as I hurried myself out the door to get to my yoga class, I realized that I left my keys in my boyfriend’s man bag. SHIT. I called him up. We decided that I would leave the door unlocked and he would be home shortly to lock up. After my class, I found myself with some extra time as I had to wait for him to return home. So I went to a cafe and ordered a cup of tea and a slice of cherry cheesecake. What came out of it were my goals for May! I’ve always loosely set monthly goals but have never written them down. And, I already set 1, 2, 5 and 10 year personal, health and career goals and re-evaluate those goals twice a year, but many of those goals are long-term goals, some of them not coming to fruition for a year, where some of the monthly goals I’ve set are not as time-consuming and will be reached in the next week, even tomorrow if I want.

I find goal-setting extremely helpful. Yes, sometimes I don’t reach all my goals as life happens and things change but it’s important to work towards things that you value. I found this great blog  5 Reasons Why You Should Set Goals, have a read when you get a chance.

I thought I would share my goals for May with you and hopefully this will inspire you to set your own goals AND sharing my goals with you will make it more concrete for me.  Don’t make your goals complicated, but set a couple of goals that may take you out of your comfort zone.  Have fun!

GOALS FOR THE MONTH OF MAY

1. Journal everyday.
2. Renew my driver’s license.
3. Renew my passport.
4. Donate dish to Salvation Army’s monthly dinner.
5. Create two new yoga playlists – one slow and one fast.
6. Take yoga classes with 3-889 Yoga teachers that I haven’t taken a class with before.
7.  No dairy for the month of May.  (eek, what am I to do without cheese and yogurt?)
8. Buy new eyeglasses.
9. Go dancing!
10. Go out for a tea or wine with someone I haven’t gone out with before.

I found this image (see above) on the internet and thought it basically sums up what yoga is all about! It sits on my desktop as a daily reminder. I thought I’d share it with you!

This weekend I had the pleasure of spending some time alone. My boyfriend went away to visit a friend and without any plans except to teach my yoga classes, I was left with some time to be by myself. I can’t tell you how much I savor alone time, maybe too much. Prior to being in my current relationship, I spent a lot of time alone and for the first two years that my boyfriend and I dated, we spent it in a long distance relationship, where we maybe saw each other 3-5 days per month. So now that we’re living together, these short spans of alone time that I get, I really enjoy and make the most of it, even if that means just lying in bed reflecting on my day in complete quiet and stillness.

There was a period in my life when I didn’t like spending time by myself.  It was a very lonely time for me.  I felt like something was missing.  The thoughts, the silence, it all scared me.  I look back at that time now and realize how desperately I needed to get in touch with my true self.   Many things were missing….I wasn’t happy with my career, my long-term relationship and my friendships.  I made it worse by filling up my life with empty things such as hanging out with people who didn’t necessarily bring me up, coffee, alcohol and cigarettes.

I was scared to be alone with myself.  I didn’t like who I had become.  So, as challenging as it was, I knew something had to change and that change was me.  I felt like I was starting over again.  Filling in the missing pieces, creating myself anew and making myself whole again, the healing process began.

I began by doing things that warmed my heart, that made me feel good.  I journaled, I did yoga, I cooked, I took myself on movie dates, I read inspirational books, I walked and got to know my city, I danced in my living room, I hung out with people who made me laugh.  I also started to ask myself some tough questions that perhaps I was avoiding in the past.  What was I scared of?  What did I need to let go of?  Who did I need to forgive?  What did I want to do with my life?  What kind of person did I want to spend the rest of my life with?  And instead of running away from my fears, I moved towards them with trust and openness.

You can be alone without feeling lonely. And you can still feel lonely being amongst a group of people.  The difference is you and what you choose to do about it.  Move towards the people and things that you love, and that make you feel good.  Be honest with yourself.  Can you look yourself in the mirror and honestly say that you really like yourself, and to go even further, love yourself?  If you truly love yourself, you’ll have no problem spending time with yourself.

On that note, here’s a video that I really love that is on the subject of being alone.  It’s by singer/songwriter/poet Tanya Davis.  Enjoy!