The NEW new years resolution,

Take a look at the list below and just for a minute think about how much time you spend on each in a week.

• Family & Friends
• Career
• Finances 
• Travel
• Entertainment
• Culture
• Hobbies 
• Exercise

Done that? Ok now look at the next list and do the same. 

• Meditation
• Contemplation
• Gratitude 
• Self awareness 
• Mindfulness 
• Spiritual pursuits (retreats, church etc, etc). 
• Compassion 

If your anything like me, your priorities lie with that first list and barely any time gets dedicated to the second - am I right? 

The reason I'm highlighting this to you, is because as one year ends and another starts there tends to be this mass exodus for fitness, diets and a sudden sense that it is imperative to improve all the external factors in your life. 

I love nothing more than starting a fresh page in my diary and writing down all my projects and hopes for the new year, its incredibly carthic and I think an excellent step in trying to make dreams a reality. 

What I tend to always neglect though is this simple theory: 

Cultivate your internal landscape through tending to your spiritual practice, nurturing mindfulness, compassion and investing in regular meditation. Do this and like flowers in a garden your dreams will have an environment in which to grow. 

(I'm quite proud of that metaphor)! I'm starting to realize that by focusing my attention inwards I'll have greater clarity and will be better able to scope out opportunities and truly follow my dreams. 

I too hope for fulfillment in my career, to continue to flourish in a loving relationship, to surf and surround myself with great people, plants, pets and the beautiful outdoors. Those things will come but first I'm saying hell yeah to meditation, reflection, gratitude and compassion! 

Until next time 

Stay strong and surf well 

Love 

Around 2am I was vomiting, which at the time I couldn't deduce whether was because of stress bought on by grief, or just a bug I'd inherited. 
Waking up a few hours later, weary and with that cotton wool head you tend to get after a restless nights sleep, I blundered through my day like a newborn baby deer. 

That was until I did three things. 

I took a duvet day, I meditated and I began reading eat, pray love by Elizabeth Gilbert. 

I'm not sure about you but I don't do stillness. I find it almost impossible. Wreaked with illness I will still work out or walk the dog, I can only manage two hours max of watching television/reading (if that) and sitting doing nothing is comparable to shutting my fingers in the door - impractical and unnecessary. 

Except stillness is completely necessary. 

How are you supposed to hear or feel anything if your not able to stop and listen? 
Imagine we are like a TV antennae, to pick up a signal it is necessary for us to stop stationary in one place long enough to catch something. 

To stop fidgeting I meditate. 

Today I chose to finally do a visualization meditation for healing which my good friend Jemima has been raving about. Her exuberance for the fifteen minute tutorial was well founded, I dreamily transcended through layer after layer of consciousness until I was able to walk around in a place of complete sanctuary. I came back to myself feeling lightness and strength. 

I love hippie dippie stuff. I know to the novice it sounds weird, or a bit far out but there's a reason Buddhists are always smiling. Meditation helps you silence the inertia of destructive thought processes and with it the ability to accept samsara (suffereing) as an inevitable part of life. 

Samsara is Nirvana. 

- Which basically means no pain, no gain. If you accept that happiness is fleeting and suffering is a much a part of life as oxygen is, your far more likely to be receptive enough to accept happiness when you are actually blessed with it. 

Now I know I'm about eight years behind the hype but I finally picked up a copy of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. Unfortunately I'm one of those terrible people who see the film before reading the book, but I knew I loved the Julia Roberts movie so discovering the book feels like a spiritual endeavor. 

I love her warmth and the candor of her words, this is a woman not afraid to explore her self indulgent tendencies (which we all have) or her vulnerabilities. Its making me think about my impending trip to South Africa, how much of a whim it was deciding to go. It's also making me think long and hard about where I want to study. I got into two Universities literally opposite ends of the country. 

One means seaside living, surfing and a course of my dreams. 
The second is town life, world wide placements and the man of my dreams. 

I think I'm going to need a lot of prayer and love to figure this one out...

I'll keep you posted. 

Beautiful things I saw. 

      

































Until next time, 

Stay strong, Surf well 
Love

Soul & Sun.

The soul is the equivalent of 14 suns. Like a light bulb covered in layers of dark cloth, meditation is the process of taking layer after layer off until all that is left is light. 

-Unknown Taxi driver, Handsworth Birmingham. 

Its fairly unoriginal to 'compare thee to a summers day' but I believe I've found my sunshine. Perhaps its unwise to divulge too much about an early relationship, but this is a personal blog and writing about how I feel comes with the job description. 

It is too early for names, photos or declarations but I'd like to explain how a conversation with a taxi driver today got me thinking about soul, sunshine and happiness. 
The above quote comes from a conversation I had coming home from work, a very lovely Hindu man discussed with me the idea of karma after I suggested he run over people who don't pay their taxi fare (I was joking of course)! A silly comment from me resulted in a lengthy discussion on meditation and the benefits of positive thinking. It's amazing what can happen when you actually talk to your taxi driver beyond the customary 'I want to go here...' 

I know its early and this post is most probably the internet equivalent of gushing, but I feel like I've found someone I want to surf with. 

Ok let me explain myself. 

I realize saying I want to surf with someone probably doesn't seem like a major life affirming move but when saying that to a new boyfriend, that's a pretty big deal (to me).
Surfing is my thing and for the longest time I've been afraid of sharing that with a boyfriend in case it stops being my thing and becomes something else, something that I might resent if we end bitterly. 

With the new guy....lets call him Mr Sunny, I find myself wanting to share all aspects of my life, I want him to know all that I am and that means allowing him into my little surfing world. He's not a surfer but he wants to learn and has the adventurous spirit which means we'll probably backpack across Thailand or climb Kilimanjaro together. 

Allowing someone to see all versions of yourself and sharing the things which make you, you is daunting but its such an essential part of letting people get close to you. I'm no expert but surely surrendering to this is good for the soul. 

So.

Let there be light! 

   



Until next time 

Stay strong, surf well 
Love