Dance

This last Sunday was my first performance for the belly dance community. It was a bit stressful to be honest. It was a big show with both student and professional belly dancers performing. I was second on the list to perform! I was dancing to "Wherever I May Roam" by Metallica. The dances were supposed to have a 5 minute limit, so my honey shortened the song for me and all the crazy guitar parts weren't there. I danced to first three and a half minutes of that song. I will share it at some point. I need to get the camera/PC connector cable and upload it.

I was doing reasonably well with my nerves even once I got on stage. However, there were problems with an iPod and my music wasn't playing! So, here I am, standing in front of the audience (with my back to them) and... nothing is happening. And for few very, very long moments. I'm trying to figure out if I should just wait, or maybe turn around and take a bow or something. So, I sneak a little half-turn and give my honey a 'I'm freaking out here' smile. And just as I turn back, the music starts playing! No warning! I start dancing, but when I turn to face the audience, I end up going faster than I planned and the first half of the song turns into a choreography with a bit of improvisation thrown in. By the second half though I catch my breath and settle down a bit and actually do what I was planning to.

I was so disappointed at the end, but when I watched it back on tape, it didn't seem too bad. So, I'll share it once I upload it. Once again, I am my own worst critic. It seems that I worked through that in other areas of my life, but dancing is so new to me, I get to re-live all my insecurities and hang-ups. As usual, life continues to be a learning experience.

Anyway, in the second half of the show I was performing with a troupe, Daughters of Sumaya. They have graciously invited me to be a part of the troupe, which is very exciting. I was so much more relaxed having other people with me on stage! We did different parts of the song, one by one, and I was dancing with a veil. It was really fun and I got a nice picture out of it. I got few nice pictures from both performances, but I wanted to share the veil one with you. I think it looks neat. I have blurred the faces of the innocent :)

My troupe performance with Daughters of Sumaya to Tabla Tales

Teaching yoga

Yesterday night was my very first yoga class! Well, first to teach, not take :) It was great! I wasn't even too nervous, possibly because I was tired, but I'll just say I was confident in my abilities. That sounds better :)

The class is in Essex, at my friend's yoga studio. You can check out his site for more info, though my class is not listed there. I should probably remind him to do that. This class is a community class, so it's absolutely free. It's going to be every Wednesday night at 7:30pm, so I hope to see some of you there some time. I have a listing for it on my website, so you can read a bit of a description there.

I am tailoring the class for beginners as I think this is what I can teach comfortably at this point. I had 4 people in the class last night, with a very wide range of flexibility and yoga experience. I am hoping it was challenging enough for people who were more familiar with yoga yet informative and helpful to people who were not as familiar. And, I'm going with my favorite structure for the yoga class which is settling down, tuning into your breath, warming up, doing some flows, learning some alignment, balancing poses, and winding down into relaxation and meditation.

And, given how much I wanted to do, I ran over a bit. Just about 10 minutes but it was a complete shock when I looked at the time and we are still in the middle of things but it's time to be cooling down already! And we didn't even do everything I wanted. I definitely need to keep a better watch on the clock so the class flows and winds down better.

I got good reviews from the class though, I'm very excited. One comment was to keep my voice just a bit louder, so I have to work on that. I have to get used to the bigger space and project my voice a bit better. I found that when I was doing something more physically challenging, that it was difficult to keep my voice steady. I made upper body the focus of the class yesterday, and it was very nice to stretch the upper back and shoulders. That's where I carry my stress and it was nice to let it go for a bit. I think next week we'll do a bit more upper body and add a little lower body in as well.

Nice thing about teaching the class and also having a Reiki client in the morning was that it was a very nice reminder of why I'm doing all this. Yes, it's a transitional time for me and it's stressful and tiring. But doing the Reiki session in the morning and then teaching a yoga class in the evening was just so peaceful, I'll deal with stress and tiredness somehow.

Doing much?

I am having a complete overload of activities. Here I was, thinking that I finally got a handle on things, and then that illusion just gave way. I have way too much stuff going on! So much stuff that I didn't even have time to write a bit here and there.

So, what's happening? Between working full time, starting my own business, going to the yoga teacher training, going to belly dance practices, going to classes on how to start my own business, and still trying to be a mom and girlfriend, I have run out of hours in a day. I didn't really expect that starting my own business will put so much demand on my time. Yes, it sounds silly to me as well. I just didn't think I'll be seeing as many clients and doing as many classes as I'm teaching right now. And this is great and exciting, I just need to rethink my time-management plan.

My plan that I came up with just the other day was that I'll have two weeknights off from all activities to spend at home. This, however, will shrink to one free night as I'm starting to teach yoga classes on Monday nights. It was by request and I just could not say no. It is after all what I want to do with my life. So, one free night and an occasional second night, but not every week.

At this point, my reworked plan is to shift my hours at work and to start coming in to work at 6:30 in the morning. Good thing I live so close as I'll just need to get up at 6 to make it on time. I have one buy-in for the plan, but that's not a guarantee at all. I'm trying to take it one day at a time, and I know things will get better. It's just a transitional period and those are always tough.

I do wonder though... How did I make it when I went to college full time, worked 20 hours, and had a 2 year old? Is that the age showing itself that I'm having a hard time doing everything?

Pretty colors

Last weekend we had a chance to get out for a bit and go see some lovely fall colors. It's a little late in the season already, but with the busy schedules it's hard to find some time off. As it was, we only had few hours because we were on a way to my niece's birthday party.

We decided to go visit Audubon center on lake Massabesic in New Hampshire. It was pretty and I wish we had more time to explore. We ended up passing the entrance and then GPS continuously tried to send us on roads that were closed. They looked like little maintenance roads for the Audubon center, there wasn't even gravel on them. Yet the GPS kept insisting. We ended up making a u-turn later on and then trying to find the actual road. In the end, we found a sign on the side of the road pointing us in the right direction.

Because we only had an hour or so, we ended up going straight to the lake. That was an easy stroll through the woods on a wide path. They had another path that was about 3 miles and ended at a different point on the lake, but we just didn't have the time. Overall, it was a great trip. I wish it was closer to home, but next time we are in the area, I hope we can go there again.

View at Lake Massabesic

Hair care

Every once in a while even I get a haircut. Today was just that day. I had some free time since I took a half-day at work but we no longer are going camping. So, I decided to use that time and get a trim since I was planning to do that next week anyway. With the belly dance show coming up, I thought getting a trim would be a good idea.

The place I go to is very close to home and work, which is an added bonus. Though the main reason I go there is because they use organic and natural products. While I don't think they are really-really good for me, I think that at least they are better than conventional stuff. And their prices are pretty much the same as I would have paid anywhere else. The name of the place is Lifestyles Hair Studio and while they don't have a website, they now have a Facebook page. If you live near Peabody and are looking for a more sustainable way to do your hair care, check them out.

I think my trim ended up a little shorter than I wanted, but it might be just that I got so used to my longer hair. I would prefer just getting a cut at home, but I don't think my honey can handle that much pressure :) Last year my dad trimmed my hair a couple of times, but after a while you kind of need to go to a salon to restyle it. Anyway, it will take me few days to get used to the shorter length. She took off about 4" so it really feels different. I hope it still looks good when I dance! Yes, I can still be vain :)

Happy Friday!

Presents!

Well, not really, but it definitely felt that way! I got my order of Mexican blankets and meditation cushions in yesterday! It was unexpected too because I never got the email that they were shipped.

They are lovely! The blankets look very nice and I got 16 of them. I don't necessarily need 16, but they had a big discount that way. And by 'they' I mean Yoga Life Style store. I saw their ad in Yoga Journal and wanted to check it out. Turns out they have pretty good prices. They are also located in New York state, which is a lot more local than buying from California. And, a bonus to their sustainability practices was that my shipment arrived in 100% recycled boxes! That was a nice and welcome surprise. There also was no extra packaging. The blankets were just in a box, with not even a plastic bag in sight. And meditation cushions were in another box and they were wrapped in a plastic bag. Still, easily recyclable plastic bag. No other packaging though.

I only bought two meditation cushions since I already have three and I thought this would be enough, at least for the time being. They had a lovely Indian-inspired pattern so that's what I got. I also bought a round bolster in the same pattern. It looks great and it's just the right size to put under the client's knees during a Reiki session.

It was great to get everything yesterday and it's just in time for today's meditation class in the evening! Now I just have to bring everything to my space in Beverly. Those blankets are heavy! And surprisingly soft for being so heavy :)