Giving Away The Festival or Yoga Retreat In Review, Day One

Saturday, Nov. 5th

It's the day before most people arrive and a day before the official start of the yoga retreat. 

Three of us touch down before 1:00 p.m. in Montego Bay then have lunch at some place by the sea.

View During First Meal in Negril

I try to, unsuccessfully, weasel out of being in a photo and I am super self-conscious because one of the travelers is super-thin. I channel Turia Pitt and also remember the importance of being your own guru.

I have jerk chicken and give away the festival that came with it.

After lunch we drive up to a fruit stand where the owner cuts up mangoes and prepares coconuts.

Fruit Stand

We check in at the hotel then head to the beach and walk toward the sunset. 

Jill and Mark

As Is

The Leaves

Missed out on part two of the mindfulness workshop at work because I was too busy. Asked one of my coworkers to take notes not knowing that she would be so mindful; I was touched because she did such a great job...

As I tried to wrap up the day, something unexpected came up and none of the people that I needed were responding but I stayed calm hoping for a favorable resolution even though I felt so alone with the problem. The situation resolved itself and I was proud for not panicking or being dramatic.

Went to yoga tonight and thought about Luther Vandross' Here and Now which is not the first time that this song has popped into my mind during yoga. Wish I knew why my brain frequently associates events with music.

Walked back to work after lunch. Perfect weather -- not warm and not chilly. I wanted to escape to Forest Park and just walk and walk.

While walking listened to a funny episode, Her Life For Ice Cream, of  The Sporkful with comedian Maria Bamford. Also finished listening to Dan Harris' interview with Rivers Cuomo on 10% Happier. I'm still trying to decide whether to download another episode of 10%...

Since I ready the article on Turia Pitt, I've started following her on Instagram where I found out that she did a Ted Talk; it's so inspiring and made me reset as far as having gratitude for my body as is.

Part of Coworker's Notes

✨The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let the dead things go✨ . Fall is coming... What do you want to let go of? What change do you want to welcome in with the start of a new season? . #wholeheartedliving #welcomechange

A photo posted by Tanya Conner-Green (@wholeheartedlifecoach) on Sep 11, 2016 at 9:16pm PDT

With A Single Lap

By chance I looked at the swimming pool's website and discovered that open swim time was slated to change today. It's no fun arriving at the pool early because the deck is hot and, you know, time...

Tonight was one of those nights; I didn't know if I'd be able to swim one lap.  After said lap, I noticed that this guy had climbed down into the lane. He asked me if I was swimming for time or distance and I asked him about his goals and he said that he planned to swim a mile.

The pool wasn't crowded so I wondered why he was still standing in "my" lane until he mentioned the water temperature which was a degree or two cooler than last week. It had taken me about five minutes before I found the courage to submerge. Glad that I paused before making assumptions about lane sharing.

It was good and energizing to have Mr. Mile in the lane next to me. His question about my intentions made me dig in and swim a little longer than I had planned to...

Saw an article about Turia Pitt posted on Twitter. She is all kinds of inspiring...