My Manipura

Trying to remember my hope for 2013, I took some time out of my insane work weekend to meet my friend for a yoga class at Rasa. I knew it was a going to be a ridiculous weekend and I also knew that if I didn't say yes to my friend's offer to meet, I would never have made it to the mat. As it was, I was pedaling full speed ahead on my Velib to get there on time...

There was one spot left to park it.

I arrived, gave my friend the bises, blurted out that I was having the worst weekend of my life, ran to the dressing room, changed and then proceeded to bombard my friend with all of the reasons why I was stressed out. My poor friend. She took it in stride, told me I needed to make some changes (um, yes please!) and then told me that she was happy that we had found time to meet for a class together. She's a good friend. We are both dancers - who haven't danced in a long time - and had been saying that we needed to get to some classes together.

On this crazy weekend, despite all the odds, we finally did.

My friend was feeling nervous about certain poses due to a recent abdominal surgery, but we decided that Silke's class was gentle enough for both of us. We placed our mats side by side, sat cross-legged and waited for Silke to begin the class...

What I love about Silke is that each class begins with a focus or an intention. It helps to settle the mind, remember why you are on the mat, the beauty and power of your own body. As Silke began to speak, I realized that the stars had aligned to get me and my friend to that yoga class. The focus of the class would be the manipura - the solar plexus, but also the stomach and lower belly. She talked about balance and the importance of putting good sustenance and good thoughts into our bodies in order to maintain that balance and therefore, happiness and confidence. Here is a more thorough definition since I'm not really doing the manipura justice. 

Third Chakra:

Manipura (yellow)
The third chakra, which governs our will, self-esteem and sense of personal power, is located in the solar plexus. When energy flows freely through this center, we’re confident about our ability to manifest our intentions and desires. When the third chakra is blocked, however, we feel powerless and frustrated.
source

Ummm, did Silke read my blog post? (Did she also know that I ate pizza and beer the night before because I was too tired to make dinner and woke up feeling like crapola?) Did she know about my friend's surgery? I'm pretty sure our third chakras were allllllll blocked up, and that we were both feeling totally powerless  and frustrated (for various personal reasons).  We both tuned in to what she had to say, feeling as if she was speaking directly to our frustrated souls.  

At La Fourmi Ailée, where we got tea and coffee afterwards, we both reveled in the relevance of the class to each of our particular challenges. Then we decided that yoga needed to be on the schedule for next Saturday - because hello, our manipuras are clearly in need of some additional assistance and the universe seems pretty adamant that we get our bootays on the mat - stressful life or healing body be damned.

5 Things I Hope 2013 Will Bring

As you know, 2013 started off as a major gastro drag for me.  It was the never-ending gastro. A horrible virus that just lasted and lasted until I couldn't take it anymore.  In short, so far 2013 has not been stellar.

So I thought I'd make a list of what I hope this year will bring - putting out the good vibes and all that...

Balance

I've always had a really hard time finding balance in my life. I'm an over-commiter and a perfectionist - it's a bad combination. Great for employers, but bad for me and any sort of balance I ever wished to achieve. Because I'm good at troubleshooting and planning, I will tear myself apart, stay late at the office and make sure that no balls have dropped - until I am exhausted. I will forego my yoga class to work on a schedule and prep for the next day, just so that tomorrow is a little less stressful, so that I will have finally "gotten ahead". 

My hope for 2013 is that I will put the work down, and get to yoga or get home to have dinner with Copain or say yes to an invite from a friend for drinks. I hope that I will carve out time for myself and remember that it will all get done - maybe just not this very moment.

A New Parisian Apartment

While I feel strangely attached to my little hovel in the 11th arrondissement, I think it's time to move on. Copain and I are THIRTY and we live in 28.85 meters squared - isn't there something wrong with that?  (That's less than 300 square feet for you Amuuuricans). This place has served us well, and it served its purpose while Copain was abroad and I lived here alone (cheap rent to pay all by my lonesome!), but now we want to invite friends over for dinner, we want to turn on the heat and know that it's not escaping out the leaky windows, we want a new taupe couch damnit. 

Part of me feels horrible to even gripe - we have a roof over our heads, we are warm, we are lucky - it's more than lots of people have. But I'm ready for more and since we can afford it, I think we are going to move. We still want to keep the budget low-ish, but two bedrooms would be ah-mazing and maybe space for a dining room table? Even room for a coffee table would be the bees knees...what luxury!!

A Path

Lately, I've been feeling a bit lost. Maybe it's the big 3-0 and all that comes along with it. Maybe it's because I've never been the kind of person who only wanted to do one thing, and one thing only. I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. So, I'm on a search for a clearer path. I'm considering doing a yoga teacher training course (if I can figure out how to manage that with my day job), and I'm hoping that will help inspire me to get back the FCC before the injury that put a halt to my daily love of movement (and turned out to be a herniated disc). This video is floating around facebook these days, and it's a good reminder...

City Love and Appreciation

I absolutely love Paris. Truly - I think I fell in love with Paris before I'd even visited; I was pulled to live here and I knew I had to to make it happen, somehow, someday. Now that I'm here and settled (for the most part), I feel like I don't take advantage of all the city has to offer. (Maybe I'm extra feeling this way because I just spent the better part of 7 days on a taupe couch with the gastro, but still). I'm not good about booking tickets for plays or dance performance, at going to exhibits or checking up on cultural events around town.  I usually just play each weekend by ear and like to check out new restaurants and old faves. But shouldn't I go to these things happening all around me?! I don't have kids to pick up from school or any other responsibilities beyond my full-time (but admittedly, intense) job. So, what gives? I hope that in 2013 I will stop with my whole "fear of committing my time away" and just book some tickets already! 

A Solid Foot in France

In part of the memory that my mom gave me for Christmas, she wrote this:

I hope that you will be able to plant your feet more firmly in France, as I know that it is important to you. Put these things out to the cosmos and things will fall into place.  

For as long as I've lived in France, I've had trouble with this. I wrote about it more clearly in this blog post.  Since writing it, I'm not much better off to tell you the truth... but I have perhaps made some progress. I think that many of my 2013 hopes/goals will help  - moving to a bigger/better apartment with room for growth, finding a clearer path, digging into the city - all of these things will be beneficial to planting my feet in my second country. I've also recently learned that one of the retirement accounts that I have in the states is no longer valid with foreign-earned income, so I'm thinking of moving all financial aspects of my life to France, and that should also help root me more strongly here.  My oldest copine d'enfance (childhood friend) got me these ornaments for Christmas:

Eiffel Tower / Statue of Liberty

I of course, loved getting them and hung them in my little hovel for the holidays. It was a nice reminder that I have two homes, and that planting my feet more firmly in one does not mean loving the other any less. 

Bringing in 2013 in Style

Leave it to me to bring in 2013 with the dreaded gastro.  It all started at the belle-famille's house in Toulouse, where Copain and I celebrated Noël. I thought I was going to be okay until BAM! Sunday morning  - GASTRO ATTACK!

Monday, AKA, New Year's was just depressing:

Dinner of champions.

2013 on the taupe couch.

I've been dealing with it ever since. This is my second day off of work (I tried to go back for two days, thinking I was better, but au contraire mon frère.) I've still got it good.

Since this will be my fifth full on day with... ahem, problems, I figured I'd better call a doctor (I was experiencing symptoms of dehydration - yuck).  At around 8:45 this morning I called the French SOS medecins and explained my symptoms. The woman on the phone listened to the issue, told me that I definitely needed to see a doctor if I was 5 days in, took down my address and told me that one was on the way.

Not even 30 minutes later, Dr SOS was knocking on my front door. Now I've made calls to SOS medecins before - but never for myself - always for other people. Sometimes you wait an hour, sometimes you wait 8 hours, depending on how busy they are and the level of urgency of your illness. I have to say, I was super impressed with the service. 

Yeah, Dr SOS smelled of cigarettes and it was the weirdest thing ever to be examined on the taupe couch in my living room - don't mind the drying laundry! - but it was awesome not to have to leave my house with the gastro (impossible!) and the visit cost me 50 euros (which I'll be reimbursed for by my health insurance). Yay for France and their resistance to change - otherwise this whole house call thing probably wouldn't exist. (ps - why don't they have this in the states??!)

I got a prescription for a three-day treatment (there goes another weekend!) and a doctor's note for work if needed. Voilà. Merci SOS.

Since my pharmacy is at the end of the street, I crossed my fingers for no gastro within the next 10 minutes, ran downstairs, got my free medicine and felt good enough to stop for chicken soup ingredients and ginger ale at the market next door. 

I'm about 5 pills and two bowls of chicken soup in, but still no improvements yet. I'm starting to get annoyed and feel trapped in my teeny Parisian apartment! 

Vive le gastro en 2013 - hopefully this less-than-amazing beginning to the year has nothing to do with what the rest of 2013 holds in store...