Category Archives: Happiness is an Inside Job

Meditate, Run, Sleep: Chasing Goals Week 2

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Last week, I began participating in The Weekly Chase, an incentive started by fellow blogger Melissa at Live Love and Run, where we log weekly goals and share them with others for accountability. Here is a recap of my goals from last week and progress report: 1)   Continue my plank a day:  All good here 2)   Veganize my home:  Done.  I have been vegan as of Tuesday of last week.  3)   Run my fastest mile ever!  Last week I caught a virus and had to cut back on the intensity of my runs.  This week for sure, I will get a time on … Continue reading →

Mom Fail in 13 Days

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My children have been out of school for exactly 13 days, and already, my parenting standards have dropped to an all-time low. Summer got off to a shaky start this year, and I’m not sure whether to blame that on planetary alignment or if the fact that summer vacation came abruptly early had something to do with throwing us off (our school district is one of those in the Northeast that paid us back for unused snow days, hence, the school year ended several days ahead of schedule). We have been struggling to find our summer groove. It’s a hectic … Continue reading →

The Power Of Goals: The Weekly Chase

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Earlier today, I discovered a great weekly blog link up created by Melissa Durham of Live Love and Run.  It is called The Weekly Chase and is a forum upon which to create goals for the week ahead.  I’m a huge fan of setting goals.  I have yearly goals, monthly goals, daily goals, and so on.  I’m also a big list maker, where I write down my different goals.  If you were to walk into my office, you would see lists everywhere.  I have a yoga list, a running list, a blog list, etc.  Goals come in many different forms.  … Continue reading →

When I Grow Up

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What do you want to do when you grow up? It's the question we have been asked since kindergarten, if not sooner.  In my first grade essay, I said I wanted to be a nurse. In fifth grade, I said attorney. The first time I went to college, I decided to become an English teacher. The second time I went to college, I thought I'd be a writer. By my third try at college, I was no longer focused on what I wanted to do.  I just wanted to graduate.    I took my first post-bachelor's degree job out of … Continue reading →

My Yoga Playlist May Surprise You

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Yoga teacher training changed my life.  Yet, in the thick of it, those six months were comparable to attending boot camp.  There were strict rules, high standards, and last minute schedule changes that had trainees jumping through hoops to find babysitters, teach impromptu classes, and cram for a "surprise" final written exam.   Our trainers were traditionalists.   Through the intensity of the program, their beliefs became deeply ingrained into my psyche in such a way, that they led to nightmares, like the one where I can't recall the Sanskrit names of the yoga postures I am teaching my students (bad!)  … Continue reading →

The Fat Girl

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Carla never liked me.  She resented that she had to work, and the fact that she answered to a seventeen year old girl as her manager at a mall retail job exacerbated her bitterness.   She compared me to her own kids, while making tiny jabs that picked apart the relics of my teen angst, the black nail polish, the buzz cut, the quasi-goth clothing.  "I would never let my Gabby go out of the house in that."    Nightly, at closing time I would remind Carla to straighten her area.  "You don't have to remind me," she'd snap  But … Continue reading →

Love Letters

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It was the second phone call in a week from Miss F's teacher to discuss her defiant behavior.  Miss F was born defiant, I want to explain.  She could not be sleep trained. She would not allow me to put her down, ever, in a bouncy chair, Exercauser, or swing.  I learned to perform all household and personal tasks, from checking email to stir frying tofu,  with Miss F nestled in a sling against my chest.  She "ran away" for the first time, at the age of four, leaving me in the complicated position of having to leave a two-year … Continue reading →

Church of The Diva

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I am a recovering adult child of the religiously traumatized.  If you were force fed religion as a child for the sole purpose of performing in a rite of passage ceremony at a certain age, perhaps you know what I mean.  If the messengers of that said religion delivered its doctrines while instilling in you fear, guilt, and confusion, then maybe you too, once suffered from the condition I am talking about.   It didn't help that the God they presented to me was not the most loving and forgiving of all holy beings.   God was watching, and he was judging.  … Continue reading →

Lucky

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Thirty eight dollar and ninety six cents? How can that be all that's left in my bank account? I stare at the screen of the ATM machine, and retrace my steps from the past few weeks.  I don't remember spending all that money!   Back at home, I lock myself in my office and go through my check records, but not without several knocks on my door. "Mommy, I thought we were going to the store to get ice cream," Miss F asks from the hallway. "We can't get ice cream today honey." "But you promised. " "I know baby, … Continue reading →

My Photo Scandal on Facebook

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" WOAH!" "I don't believe you!" "Just checking to see if you are OK." "Rebel!" These were just a few of the comments that I received last weekend, when I posted this picture on my personal Facebook page along with the following caption: "Those of you who know me well will appreciate what I'm having for dinner…if not be shocked by it." People who knew me were surprised – if not amused  – that I was having a slice of pizza with fries for dinner.   As a matter of fact, it was one of the most commented-on posts I have … Continue reading →