Today I Choose to be Calm

   

      Life is a balancing act. Everything is a process. Once one is complete, another will surface, whether you were aware of it or not. I have been here for three months and this was the week I realized that I had SO MUCH FUCKING FREE TIME when I first arrived. I think it went very unappreciated and unnoticed. This week especially has been a mental marathon. I have not appreciated a quiet Saturday spent drinking coffee and writing in a long time. My next scheduled nothing day: right now.

      I joined a yoga studio. I probably have talked about it on here before but I don't really care, I'll beat the dead horse.Yoga is actually what is taking up a large chunk of my free time. I sprung for the year unlimited because the USD equivalent was cheaper than 2 months unlimited at my old studio (impulsive).  The Chinese are very concerned about health, at times I think it is taken to extremes (which I will discuss another day). Their concern for physical health definitely shows in my yoga classes. I have never received so much personal attention and help during a class. Poses I never thought I could be doing wrong I was, and poses I never thought I could do I am capable of. It is a yin and yang. I am improving by leaps and bounds, and at the same time I feel better because I am not hurting myself doing things wrong.

     Now keep in mind I can hardly speak Chinese. I learned the word for inhale,exhale,left and right. I am lucky the use a lot of the original Sanskrit names for the poses. Slowly but surely I am learning the names of the poses in Chinese.

    The yin and yang ignited by my yoga classes has pushed me in other aspects of my life here.  I decided to give tutoring a whirl. It is going very well and is really rewarding to have a group that doesn't ever play musical desks, throw paper airplanes, and act defiant when I take their comic books. However, that is an extra hour and a half lesson to plan each week. Kind of a challenge when I have other things to attend to.

    Before I left I had a few goals in mind to achieve:
1. Get back into shape.
2. Read more.
3. Focus on improving at yoga. specifically to do headstands, to eventually take instructor training.
4. Keep current with the digital marketing world. Maybe do some freelancing.

   I am proud to say I am working on all of these. It is easy to get caught up in the thrill of a new place and put things on the back burner. I was initially just reading a lot, but it wasn't enough to keep me busy. I see myself in a way reverting back to how I was in university, testing my limits for how much I can handle.  I realize that I enjoy taking on extra responsibilities, testing myself, that is what was at the core of my mental and physical extracurricular overexertion.  However, this time I see the purpose in everything. Nobody is hounding me to plan club events. Everything is of my choosing. Which makes the stress, lost sleep, and lack of free time completely worth it.