August 2016 Goals

I’m getting real emotional about the fact that it’s August which means summer is inevitably winding down. Seriously, I refuse to go back-to-school shopping (although I am pretty excited to be going back to school) and I will continue to wear sundresses and sandals until I’m shivering. Summer is my happy time 🙂 and my goal for August goes hand in hand with how sad I am that summer is almost over.

I never ended up writing goals for the month of July with with whole blog redesign and all, so below is the recap of how June’s goals went.

Revisiting June’s Goal

Commit myself fully to Yoga Teacher Training.

I’ve already covered the nitty gritty of yoga teacher training and all my thoughts after the intensive 4-week program. In regards to being fully committed to training, I think I did a pretty good job during those 4-weeks of totally focusing on the task at hand. It helped that the blog was down for most of June so I wasn’t filled with “I should be posting something” guilt.

I’m still finishing up some final observations, but I’m proud that I was able to complete all the other requirements during the 4-week program considering how insane the schedule was. Missions accomplished.

 

August’s Goal

Focus on santosha: contentment.

I delved into this a bit on instagram yesterday and wanted to expand here. Santosha is one of the niyamas of yoga and means contentment– basically being content with where you are in the moment and what you have.

I’ve noticed over the past few summers that I get into a certain pattern– I get really really sad about summer ending, so much so that it stops me from enjoying what’s left of summer. Come August I’m filled with this anxiety without fail.

Instead of being sad about the fact that August signifies the end of summer, I want to focus my energy on enjoying where I am and making the most of what is left of the warm weather and fun summer activities.

One way I’m doing this is by taking super long walks every single day, eat all the vegan ice cream I can and I will do my best to take advantage of all the fun summer events NYC has to offer.

 

Conquer my “before grad school” to-do list

I started a lengthy list of things I want to accomplish before grad school starts in September. Most of it is boring admin stuff like look into insurance as a yoga teacher and renew my personal training certification. While I have this free time I want to make the most of it and do all the things I’m usually too busy to do or take care of… which kind of contradicts my next goal…

 

Learn to enjoy my free time

In addition to feeling anxious about summer ending, I’ve also been feeling a bit funky since I’m only working part-time and have a ton of free time. I truthfully feel very lucky that I have this time and that I can financial support myself during this transition before grad school, but I’d be lying if I said it was all sunshine and beach days.

As someone that thrives on to-do lists and feeling productive, it’s been really hard for me to enjoy this free time for what it is and not feel guilty about it. Days go by and I feel like I accomplished nothing, and it stresses me out.

I know this free time is short lived and I’m sure things will be absolutely crazy once grad school starts, so for the month of August I will work to be less hard on myself for days I spend doing absolutely nothing and enjoy the free time while I have it. Someone please teach me how to be lazy!

 

Your turn: What are your goals for May?