Gratitude Day 30 - Grateful for the Cold

Today I'm grateful for the cold air. When I step outside and breathe it in I feel like my entire body is being energized and stimulated. It wakes me up. 

Cold weather is not my favorite but it certainly has some benefits! And by being grateful for it I can realize those benefits.

Gratitude Day 29 - Thankful for Homemade Veggie Soup

Today I'm thankful that I took the time last night to make homemade veggie soup. This stuff is seriously soup of the gods. I feel nourished and healed when I eat it. And I'm grateful that it yields a ton of leftovers!

Gratitude Day 28 - Grateful for Facebook

So after a few days of not logging onto to Facebook in order to not procrastinate all the work I need to get done, I logged on this evening to find amazing posts of gratitude, inspiration and positivity. Wow is all I can say. And thank you Facebook for providing a way for me to be connected to all this goodness.

Gratitude Day 27 - Thankful for Tuna Salad

Tonight I'm thankful for my quick and easy dinner of tuna salad. And the wonderful dude that made it for me.

Gratitude Day 26 - Grateful for Monday

Today I'm grateful for Monday. Mondays can suck. The weekend is over. Back to the grind. I didn't say that I necessarily look forward to Monday. But, once it's here, I tend to look at Monday as the first day of the week, a fresh start, the day to ramp up the week. The day to set the tone for what will hopefully be a productive week. So, thank you Monday for always being here to give my week a fresh start.

Gratitude Day 25 - Grateful for Leftovers

I think this title says it all. So, so grateful for leftovers. I really haven't had to cook since Thursday. And I'm a-ok with that!

Gratitude Day 24 - Grateful for Awareness

Today I'm grateful for awareness, specifically awareness of knowing what I need to do to nurture myself. It's been a very, very busy month. Lots of photo shoots which means lots of weekend work. 

Tonight we had an invitation to a surprise birthday party for a friend. Back in October I rsvp'd yes because at that time I had NO photo shoots lined up! We were psyched to see a bunch of people we hadn't seen in so very long. But then my scheduled started filling up, and my energy reserves started dwindling.

Thanksgiving was a full day of cooking and being "on." Friday was our anniversary which meant more indulging in wine. And now here it is Saturday evening and I am beat AND I have more shoots tomorrow, early too.

I had to make the call to not go to the party. It was tough. But I needed some rest and relaxation and I needed to prep for tomorrow. 

My awareness that I needed to stay home and take care of things, primarily myself had to be listened to. 

Of course, when I bail on things like this I always feel like I'm missing out. Usually I'm not. But this time I did! Turns out it was not only a surprise birthday, but a surprise marriage proposal and a surprise wedding. We missed out for sure. 

But even though we missed out I still felt much better about being home. So I'm also grateful for listening to my intuition.

Gratitude Day 23 - Thankful for My Partner in Crime

Today I'm thankful for Mr. Shahin "The Great" Sharifi. Today is our 9th wedding anniversary. Today is also our 13th anniversary of being together. And it was 11 years ago today that he totally surprised me by asking me to marry him. 

I'm thankful that he always makes me laugh. I'm thankful that he is so non-phased by cat puke and other cat bodily functions. I'm grateful that he calls me out on stupid things I do, reminding me "that's not very yoga like." I'm thankful that he beautifies our yard and house and created the Jasmine Lounge oasis in our backyard. 

I'm grateful that he is compassionate and generous. I'm thankful that he can get a good hate on with me:) I'm thankful that he is humble. I'm grateful that he is forgiving. I'm thankful that he never once verbally got irritated with me during vacation when I kept saying "mon" at the end of every sentence. Like "stay to the left mon" or "rum and coke mon."

I'm grateful that he recognizes that I'm always right, or at least let's me believe that. I'm thankful that every time I go out of town he's like omg, what am I gonna do without you and then cleans the whole house so I come home to a spic and span home.

I'm thankful that he puts up with my crazy schedule, working all the time ways. I'm thankful that he encourages me to be totally lazy and indulge in things like cupcakes and cocktails. I'm thankful he's a hot, ass rock star, so I can be a hot ass rock star's wife. 

I'm grateful for my partner in crime of the last 13 years and I'm grateful that he is here to continue to be the yin to my yang.

Happy Anniversary Baby!

Gratitude Day 22 - Thankful for the Feast

I made a kick ass feast today. And I infused it with love:) I'm so, so grateful that I have the means to purchase all the food. I'm grateful that I could share it with my wonderful husband, my brother, my father and my brother's friend. And I'm grateful for the awesome walnut pumpkin pie recipe I found. Wow! And now I'm grateful all I have to do is go pass out:)

Gratitude Day 21 - Grateful for My Girlfriends

Today I'm grateful for my girlfriends, old and new, you know who you are:) Some of you I've known for almost 25 years. And oh, the adventures we've had. On that note, I'm grateful to be alive after some of those adventures:) Some of you I met when I went back to school to Old Dominion. Some of you I met through yoga and teacher training. And some of you I just met a few months ago at Kripalu but damn if it didn't seem like we've known each other forever! My girlfriends are the best. Boosting me up when I'm down, not letting me get away with stupid crap and always a source of something, whether it's positive energy or a beer drinking throw down, that I need. I love you girls:)

Gratitude Day 20 - Grateful for My Yoga Students

Today I'm grateful for the lovely people that attend my yoga classes. Some are complete newbies, eager to learn and experience the power that yoga holds. Some are regulars that come to move and flow with grace. Some come when they can, carving out time in their busy schedules, giving me the honor of guiding them through a practice.

Each and everyone of them come with open minds and hearts and allow me to share my understanding of yoga and how to live a more spiritual and fulfilled life. They let me play my choice of music. They let me offer asana and pranayama that can heal their bodies, minds and spirits. They are my teachers:)

Gratitude Day 19 - Grateful for Body Pump

Today I'm grateful for the Body Pump class at the gym. Shawn and I started going together back in April. I've determined I have a love/hate relationship with that class. I love it because I don't have to think since there's a great instructor yelling orders at me. I love it because it's a quick hour. I love it because it's a great workout and I ALWAYS feel great when I'm done. I hate it because DAMN IT'S HARD! And apparently I'm a wimp. So thank you Body Pump for my weekly ass kicking!

Gratitude Day 18 - Grateful for the Laziness

Today I'm grateful for laziness. And the opportunity to be lazy. Because I have nothing scheduled for the whole day. In fact, I don't plan on leaving the house at all. So my laziness will entail staying in jammies until I can't take it anymore (usually until around 2pm:), surfing the internet, browsing Pinterest, hopefully napping with kitties or at least playing with them and as much nothing as I can muster.

Gratitude Day 17 - Grateful for the Busy-ness

Today I'm grateful for the busy-ness that's been going on. This month I have 9, NINE, photo shoots. Whoa! And yes, that's making things pretty darn busy. 

But, these people and their families are so awesome and amazing. I'm very lucky to have clients that refer me to their friends and family. I'm blessed and honored that they are choosing me to document their lives. 

Soon enough the busy-ness will be over. And I'll be grateful for that too:)

Gratitude Day 16 - Grateful for the Outtakes

Today I'm grateful for the outtakes in the photos I take of families. I just love them. You know the photos where the dad's eyes are closed, the mom has her mouth open because she's about to laugh, the baby is looking at the dog who is licking the baby's face. 

I usually trash those pics because folks generally don't like to see themselves like that. Believe me I'm the same way. BUT, through the eyes of someone else these photos are awesome. It really shows that life is just a big outtake. 

Seriously, how many of us walk around posed and smiling? Life is messy and I think messy photos are great! You just can't photoshop life so why not embrace the big mess that it is:)

Gratitude Day 15 - Thankful for the Insecure, Control Freak Who Doesn't Pay Attention

Yesterday I had an encounter with an insecure, control freak who doesn't pay attention. Note that this description is not made out of judgement but merely observation and this person has called themselves these things. Note that I have no patience for people who don't pay attention on a regular basis. Zero, none, zippy.

I certainly don't claim to be perfect and am keenly aware of my imperfections. And that awareness leads me to try harder to not continually do stupid things. But enough about me, back to the insecure, control freak who doesn't pay attention and why I am thankful for that person. Shawn will love this because he had to listen to me rant about this person and now here I am thankful for them! I've surely lost my mind, right? 

So this situation with this person is not the first, in fact, it is an ongoing thing. And there is no doubt it will continue until I make certain changes where there will be no reason to have contact with this person any longer. I've been working on letting go of the irritation, anger and frustration that ends up taking a hold of me when I do deal with this person. And I thought I had been doing a good job. Until I exploded yesterday. 

I didn't explode towards them. But the anger, irritation and frustration took over and turned a minor headache into a full on raging, can't function, gotta go home and lay down migraine. While I was laying in bed I came to the realization that I'm not really letting go but rather pushing the irritations into a bucket. And the bucket keeps filling until like yesterday it overflowed and left me a mess. 

So I'm thankful for the insecure, control freak who doesn't pay attention because now I know what's really happening within myself. Today I'm drilling a hole in that irritation bucket so that the irritations that go in there will just drain out instead of filling up. 

And I'm also thankful that I got to take a nap with kitties yesterday!

Gratitude Day 14 - Grateful for Amazing Beauty

Today I'm grateful for this amazing beauty that I get to see for about three weeks every year. This is the view from my kitchen window, as well as our living room window. What a great thing to see as the blinds raise. These are some of the last trees in the neighborhood to change color and they are just spectacular.

Gratitude Day 13 - Grateful for My Car

Today I'm grateful for my car(s). The old girl 1995 Honda with 230k miles and the Scion with a little over 100k miles. Having the two cars means I can drive to work. I don't have to take public transportation. 

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against public transportation, in fact I use it to go into DC more often than not. I've used the bus and Metro before and it got me to where I needed to be, usually without issue. 

But today I'm grateful for my car because it's raining out and standing in the rain waiting for a bus would suck. I've done that before. I've also trodded through snow to get to a bus stop. 

I'm grateful for my car because it took me minimal time to get to work. I've done the ride a bus to another bus stop to take another bus to the Metro to get to another bus that will take me home and then walked home about 1/2 mile. Yes, it took about 2 1/2 hours, one way.

I'm also grateful for the money for gas. Although to take public transportation from where I live now to where I work now, it would cost about twice as much as I pay for gas. 

So yes, I'm grateful for that privilege and when it's time to buy a new car I will absolutely be looking at something environmentally friendly. 

Gratitude Day 12 - Grateful for the Pain in My Ass

Yes, I have a pain in my ass. Literally! I have scoliosis and because of that my back and pelvis are not aligned optimally. So sometimes I get back pain, like a strained quadratus lumborum which isn't comfortable. Or I get tension headaches because the curve in my lower spine also causes issues in the upper spine, so my neck gets out of whack. Or I get a pain in my ass! Right now my gluteus medius is inflamed and strained. Basically, the curvature in my spine causes all kinds of muscle imbalances. Some are too strong and overdeveloped, some are too weak and underdeveloped. 

So why am I grateful for the pain in my ass? Because it reminds me that I have to be vigilant in keeping my body strong and flexible. I'm just like everyone else and when I'm feeling good it's easy to forget that the scoliosis is still there and just let the specific exercises and stretches slide. But I can't do that. I have to be consistent with these things to avoid pain. 

Pain teaches us that something in the body is wrong and we need to address it. There are a lot of people who ignore pain. Or when they are in pain just give up. And that's the exact opposite of what we have to do. 

Yes, it's uncomfortable to try and move through pain or address it. Yes, I would rather sleep 10 or 20 more minutes in the morning. BUT, and the big but is YES, I want to be able to do yoga, exercise, hike, bike, walk, stand, move on my own until the day I die.

So thank you inflamed, irritated and strained gluteus medius for reminding me that I need to get the hell up in the morning and do the things I need to do to stay strong. No excuses.

Gratitude Day 11 - Grateful for our Veterans and All Military

Wednesday of last week I attended a Veteran's Honoring program where the founder of the company I work for was a guest of honor. Lots of veterans, current military and government officials. 

During the keynote speech by a retired Brigadier General he reminded us that everyone who joins the military takes an oath to protect our rights with their life. 

They all make tremendous sacrifices, some the ultimate sacrifice of their life. And for that I am beyond grateful.