Resolutions!

Hello,

Welcome to my humble blog, thanks for taking the time out of your busy life to read it.  Like a lot of us mid-lifers I have found myself questioning my reason for being, feeling frustrated by the restrictions that our society / lifestyles have created and desperately wanting to fulfil my dreams.  I want to be the best person I can be as I hope to leave this world a better place for having had me in it some small way.

Call it a mid-life crisis but for 2012 my resolve is to eat, pray and love my way through the next twelve months.  With apologies to Elizabeth Gilbert however I'm not about to chow down in Italy for months on end, or meditate in mystic Indian ashrams or make love to Javier Bardem in Bali.   No, unlike the footloose and fancy-free Ms Gilbert, whom I must stress is one of my favourite authors and someone I admire greatly, I'm having to eat, pray and love while maintaining my obligations in life.  You see l have dependents (one 2-legged and two 4-legged), I have a job, I have a mortgage and like the vast majority of women of a certain age I can't just drop everything and run away not even for Javier!  My poor-paying job is not travel-friendly, I drive a 17 year old car whose kilometre meter gave up the ghost some years ago at 138,000kms and whose handbrake release button has been replaced by a piece of dowel rod and I am seriously having to consider selling my home in the next few months and move back into my parent's house which is not only a depressing prospect for myself but also for my poor parents who have been struggling to become empty-nesters ever since their four children became adults but we all seem to keep returning to the fold on a monotonously regular basis.  The point I am poorly making is that I am embarking on my journey of self-discovery under circumstances not faced by Ms Gilbert but from what I have been led to believe however struggle is necessary on the path to enlightenment and inner peace so it appears I have that requirement covered.

How do I go about incorporating these three elements of eating, praying and loving into my everyday normal life when I'm a broke, time-restricted, obese, humanitarian whose love-life can only be best described as completely disastrous?  Well this is my challenge but I have a few ideas on how I go about rising to it.

I will be following the teachings of my guru, Geneen Roth author of Women, Food And God, for the element of eating.  I will expand on Geneen's philosophy over the days, weeks, months to come but in essence her approach to weight loss and weight management is to stop dieting so my first New Year's resolution is to NOT diet!

For the element of praying, I am resolving to undertake daily meditation either quiet or active meditation depending on my mood  ... active meditation can be anything that I enjoy doing, that requires movement and lets me release stress i.e. walking, swimming, gardening or kick-boxing?!   

And finally there is love!  I have sworn off online dating sites after too many bad experiences to ignore and instead, in 2012, I'm going back to meeting men the old fashioned way face to face and no, I'm not talking about speed-dating. I'm talking about a singles social group, Table Talk Dining.  With support from my single side-kicks, Mina and Super Mario, I will be attending various events with the focus on meeting new people, having new experiences and just enjoying myself ... if I should be so lucky to find love then that will be the icing on the cake ... just as well I'm NOT dieting in 2012!

So I will be blogging for the next 12 months about the dreams I hope to achieve, about conquering my fears, about living life to the fullest regardless of my financial circumstances or familial obligations, about being happy and grateful for all that I do have.  Thanks for reading, I would feel very honoured if you felt interested enough to follow my progress or to share with me your own journey. 

Ciao

Boo