I can't believe that the last time we talked it was 2013! I hope everyone had a safe, happy, and healthy (or not!) new years celebration. I spent mine surrounded by love, great friends, food, and fun.
I started the day off with a little bit off this :) For anyone who lives in Jersey City, I purchased this juice from JuiceWell on Jersey Avenue. They have a selection of fresh juice that they make and bottle every morning. You can also purchase packages to complete a juice cleanse similar to what Blueprint offers. I like solid food too much, but just letting you know. Like most juices, this little bottle of nutrients was pricey and cost me about $7.50. I try not to buy these often as it can add up. Cha Ching. I do have a juicer, and my goal is to get back to making my own concoctions this year.
Before PJ and I met up with our friends for a celebration, we enjoyed a nice 3 course meal at Maritime Parc, which is where we will be getting married this year!
Along with its reputation for being a fabulous wedding/party venue, the restaurant at the venue is absolutely amazing. The menu is so interesting, and the food is always prepared and cooked to perfection. I have had everything from fois gras, to a burger with duck fat french fries (I know... swoon), to top notch seafood , and I have always been impressed.
Happy Gal.
Cutie pie after dinner.
I enjoyed the most amazing duck I think I have ever had.
Pretty dessert.
Please don't photograph me while I'm eating.
As the evening progressed, he seemed much more interested in posing for photo opps! Big red smooch courtesy of yours truly!
The fantastic party hosts instituted this policy. Everyone deposited their phones in a basket, and all phones were returned at midnight. We used disposable cameras to capture the events of the evening. How vintage!
Le-La and I enjoying some champagne!
So, that's how I spent the last hours of 2013 until the wee hours of 2014. As far as new years resolutions go, I've decided to switch things up a bit and work on something I hope to incorporate into 2014. That thing is self love. While I'm a firm believer that everything in your life improves when you truly love and honor yourself, I also acknowledge that it takes work to treat yourself like you would your best friend. I don't know about you, but most of the time I would never say the things I say to myself to my best friend. I probably wouldn't have that friend anymore because they would think I was a nasty and verbally abusive person. We tend to be our own worst critics, and while I think it's important to strive for continuous growth, I also notice that the more I berate myself, the more my growth is actually stunted. While for the later part of 2013 I have been focusing on really listening to my inner voice (a.k.a my gut) , this is something that I want to make front and center in the coming year. There are a few things that I have already begun practicing that I hope to be even more diligent about incorporating into my day as we move into 2014.
1. Meditation
While I tend to be an easily distracted person who finds shavasana to be the most difficult posture in yoga, I have started to incorporate a short meditation into my day. When I say short, I mean a 5-6 minute guided meditation. While I haven't done this every day, over the past month, I have meditated for a short period on most days. After comparing the days I took the time to meditate to those I did not, the difference in the way I felt towards myself and others is undeniable. I will provide some examples of my fave guided meditations soon!
2. Journaling aka brain dump
I have journaled sporadically throughout the years, but as of late I have been turning to paper and pen a lot more often to help work through the muck in my head.
3. Yoga
Enough said. Never have I practiced yoga and said, "Darn, I regret taking the time to do that." I always feel better when I leave the mat. I am a highly reactive and impulsive person, and yoga helps me to observe without lashing out at myself of others.
So, those are the "practices" that I plan on incorporating into my daily life in order to help me love myself more. I believe that everything in life gets better, including relationships with others, when you honor and love yourself as you would your closest friend. With that said, there are are certain things that I need to get honest about if I truly want to grow as a person. I don't know about you, but sometimes I get frustrated because I feel that "I should" be able to handle certain things as well as others do. While intellectually I know that each individual has their own unique internal and external struggles, I tend to identify and accept other people's obstacles but refuse to acknowledge where I may need to do things differently to take care of myself. I tend to make the same mistakes over and over hoping that I'll change or that something will change.
As I approach 30, there are certain things that I know I need to do to in order to take care of myself. Some of these things I already do, and some are going to be new and challenging for me.Some of these changes are going to be as simple as wearing sunscreen daily, and some are slightly more complex. There is no time like the present, but in order to truly grow, we need to have acceptance around certain circumstances. While I have often cringed at the idea of admitting imperfection or hardship, I'm trying to re frame this concept as a truly courageous endeavor to accept and honor where I'm at.
If you have been reading my blog for a while now, you know I love quotes. Why try to rewrite it when someone already said it beautifully? With that said, I think that we can all take a little something from this quote and use it to start 2014 from a positive, loving, and honest place.
As always, thanks so much for reading.
xo
Sarah
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