Yogi New Year

Hoo-boy, it has been a while since I updated the ole blog. First off, Happy New Year! I've never been much of a resolutionary person, but it is a nice time to reflect and check in with yourself.

I suppose you could say that is exactly what I was doing for most of December--after all of the parties and surviving a nasty respiratory virus. I took all the time between Christmas and New Years off work, giving me 11 days off in a row (including a couple unpaid days since I had to sacrifice the last of my sick days for that virus). That's the longest I've been away from the office since I started this job (seven years ago, but who's counting). I actually considered going in for a couple of hours for those unpaid days, but I'm glad I didn't. I think I was actually afraid of being bored (or being alone with myself, if you want to take the therapist perspective)! It took me a couple of days to get used to letting myself just relax. Usually when I have time off, I'm always trying to get stuff done, clean this, fix that, and I did some, but I really just wanted to let myself unwind. I feel like I'm running ragged most of the time, like I'm always going places and doing things because I have to instead of want to. I've always been a pretty high-strung person, but my energy level took a big dip when I turned 30, so I've been trying to manage that for the past year (both mentally and physically).

I spent most of my time off at home alone (the bf was at work most of the week) on the couch, and it was nice. I didn't talk to friends or family much, and we even dodged the holiday travel stress bomb. I let myself watch a lot of TV without feeling guilty about it (which was A LOT of the month between being sick and hungover and staycationing). I went to the gym a couple of times and by the end of the week I wished that I had been taking advantage of the free classes that my gym offers--but I guess that's just the realization that the time off was intended to show me. So I hit up a yoga class on Friday afternoon, something that I've been encouraged to do for a long time by my therapist (for the mind benefit) and my physical therapist (for the body benefit), and I loved it. There's always that first-class-hump to get over, but now that I'm over it, I'm hooked and I hope to go at least once a week. I was crazy sore after that first class, but I already hit up another class a few days later, and was encouraged by the instructor to keep coming, which was pretty cool.

Now that we're back at work, I've had a little bit of a hard time adjusting back to the daily grind, but I try to stay positive and think that if nothing else came from my break, I enter 2012 with a clearer mind and a new found fitness goal.