Celebrateee…(October & November)

So my amazing birthday month, October! I never really celebrated birthdays growing up so they weren’t a big deal for until I got into my 30s.

If you remember my last post, I’d been doing a lot all summer into September. By the time I got to October 2023 – I understood that my body and brain was exhausted. Like physically exhausted. Between my regular 35 (to 40) hour day job, 10-15hrs of EforAll of weekly homework and mentor meetings and then managing my yoga studio, and also trying to care for my family. I felt like my brain was at maximum capacity.

I had felt it building up in September and mentioned this to my friends who were like “you should get away for a few days”. Then an amazing flight deal to PR popped up (like $175 round trip) and I impulsively brought the ticket and simultaneously put it on the back burner.  The week I finalized my  “Big Presentation” for EforAll  was also the week I looked for and booked a small hotel in Old San Juan.

I flew out on Sunday for a few days in Old San Juan! I’ve been to PR several times and LERV it, but I haven’t travelled solo in over 15 years and I can’t state how perfect it was for my state of mind and what I wanted my birthdays to look like.

I landed, found my hotel and found food! Then I proceed to knock out for several hours in my hotel room before heading to La Placita that evening – an open air club area with food, music and clubs and a nice mix of tourist trying to party and locals just trying to dance (I’ll try to attach a video).

Checking out my cute outfit after Spa Day!

Monday was the piece de resistance – SPA DAY!!! It was my first Hamman bath (Turkish bath) and experience and I received a regular deep tissue massage. I’ve looked several times to find a Turkish bath here in MA and honestly they look amazing but...NO. I think I just want to take random vacations and experience luxurious, decadent, body-melting spa services and have people wait on my hand and foot for at least 6hrs, lol. I also got to TOTALLY rock one of my many, purchased-in-the-pandemic-era outfits that actually look wicked cute on me!

On Tuesday I woke up and wanted to just read and lounge by the beach, so I set out figuring out how to get to a beach! And BOOM. Enter Loquillo beach! Gorgeous beach with the perfect mix of locals and tourist and my first authentic taste of Mofongo. LOVED IT!!  (side note: I LOVE food and trying food and new food and food food, lol)! And basically spent the day being a bum until the locals were like “Hey once the sun goes down its pitch black out here, betta skedaddle”  but in Spanish!  Since it was my last night, I just wandered around and soaked in the ambience and relaxation.

Loquillo Beach, PR

I got a chance to be. And I know that sounds crazy, but sometimes I get very caught up what I’m supposed to be doing now and what I’m supposed to be doing next. I got a chance to think about what I want to be doing, and how I want to be doing it.

I got a chance to listen to my own voice.  I’m certainly not afraid of travelling but its very different from traveling alone in your 20’s, 15 years later. To feel safe, I needed to speak up and ask questions. And repeat the question until I got a satisfying answer for me.  And it made me think about what is my voice when I’m back home? Am I speaking directly to the people I need to? And if not, why? And, if not, how to change that immediately.

I got to think about deep things. Such as how I want to live and not just how to get through the end of the week or the end of the month.  Theres so much invisible brain drain on mom’s – even when we are faithful calendar users, which I am not in my personal life. The appointments to be made and kept, the school events, sports, the food shopping list..etc. Sometimes are brains our just loud!

Anyways I returned on my birthday feeling refreshed and ready to get busy on all these deep feelings, thoughts, hopes, dreams, expectations I got to really reflect on.

Since this is a yoga blog – I was teaching yoga, I had landed the monthly Brockton Neighborhood Health job, and even won money through EforAll towards my business!!

November was filled with a lot of yoga and trying to make more community connections, particularly in Brockton, but also in the surrounding area! I was able to land another month visit with BNH and was even hired by the Boston Fire Department to teach yoga to the drill school!! EEKK.

Well that brings us to December and the end the year for GreenTree Yoga & Wellness.

Whats on the horizon? Well tomorrow you get the final scoop! See you then..