#yearofyoga

[seacretsea]

The year of yoga

One year of every day yoga is now complete! Last October I challenged myself initially to 3 months, but could not stop! I am way more flexible and feel much better in my body!

Yoga helped me get closer to loving my body

[cure18store]

Year Of Yoga: Rituals For Every Day And Every Season

Year of Yoga: Rituals for Every Day and Every Seasor: Rituals for Every Day and Season (Yoga with Kassandra, Yin Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Lunar Yoga). For winter, spring, summer, and fall, align your yoga practice with the natural environment by using a holistic approach to movement, breath, and meditation.

[cookbookdiet]

Yoga Thursday!

Namaste xo

[brandoncityyoga]

The Year of Yoga begins Monday! We are giving away a pass to this four month session! Tag three friends for your chance to enter! #bdnmb #brandonmb #brandoncityyoga #yearofyoga #newyearnewyou

[sarahunfiltered-blog1]

February Reflections & March Intentions

Oh, February...what a month you were. 

It’s taken me a bit to hop back on my blog to write with everything that’s been going on, but here I am. :)

February rocked my world in a very unexpected way. A lot of old wounds were brought to the surface and there wasn’t any way of getting out of it and stuffing it back down, so I faced it head on, so it would no longer have any power over me and I could heal the areas that came up and out. I’ll blog about all of that in a future blog when I feel the time is right, but for now. I’ll talk about my reflections from February from the intentions I set. 

 Yoga every day! - done :)

Mediation too ^ - done!

Map out financial game plan for paying off debt - done. I was able to pay off around 1/10 of it last month!

Put XX in savings and keep it there - DONE

Buy a nutribullet - done

Keeping eating out during the week at ZERO - done! I think I went to Whataburger one time for fries on a random work, but outside of that I didn’t go out for lunch once on my lunch break if I remember correctly. 

Going out for coffee too ^ - donnneeee. I haven’t gone to Starbucks any of 2018 tbh. (HUGE DEAL)

Starting using debit card more for bills, groceries and gas. (Maybe start with one bill?) - I do use my debit card for eating out and if I want something, but since Michael and I share bills it’s just easier to use my credit card and every paycheck pay it off with the money I set aside for everything. 

Learn more about astrology and the moon phases - As much as I love everything astrology it doesn’t stick with me when I research it. However, I have been learning about numerology and am currently geeking out over that on the DAILY and calculating out all of my friends and family’s charts. Numerology just clicks for me. And with the moon phases I have a full moon cleansing night every full moon that I love and any time I feel off or weird or even good I always look to see where the moon is at and will research it. I was listening to a podcast and a book was mentioned on the moon phases, so I’ll be ordering that soon enough to learn more. 

Create an indoor herb garden - haven’t quite made this happen yet. Michael and I need to build something to mount on the wall, so our animals can’t mess with it and we just haven’t been able to make a weekend project out of it quite yet, but it’s still in the works. 

1 bath/face mask a week - done. I’ve gotten so much better about my weekly spa nights either mid-week or on the weekends. 

Keep up 5 a.m. morning routine. Make tweaks along the way and don’t be overly obsessed with how it “should” go or look - done! I’ve really surrendered my mornings to the universe and just go with what feels good and I’ve had so much magic happen because of it. I’ve really learned taking a step back and not being so xyz about everything has really helped me work through my attachment issues. 

Pay off BB card in full - this didn’t happen due to an unexpected interest charge popping up, so I had to take that money and put it towards that instead this time around, but I’m still in the works of paying this off in full real soon. 

Buy a new oracle deck and 1 new book - done. <3 I purchased a fairy deck and a few poetry books. 

Work on eight angled yoga pose - this is still in working progress, LMAO. but I am working on it. I’m building up my core and upper body strength the more I practice, so one day soon I’ll be able to strike this pose. ;)

1 blog post per week along with journaling daily - done. I’ve been more of a hermit the last few weeks and just feel the need to be more quiet and go inward, but I still will blog when I feel lead to and I journal and write in different ways. I always have a journal with me just in case I need to write a poem or something’s that’s going on. It’s just not this super structured thing like it was in January. 

When I think March all that really comes to mind is “REST” and that is exactly what I’ve been doing. I’ve been healing a few different areas of my life and just giving myself the time and space to do so. March has been a big month of letting go and surrendering along with writing poetry, going inward and learning about all things numerology. 

I’ll keep it at that for March so far and will follow up in the new month on how it all went down. 

I had ALL of this typed out yesterday and it wouldn’t post and half of it was deleted. *face palm*

But I am made some time today to finish writing the rest of it, so it’s all good in the hood. :)

Until next time...

Sarah xo

[sarahunfiltered-blog1]

Yoga, Forgiveness & Explosions

I’ve really been working to start my 2018 intentions while I’m on vacation that way in the new year I won’t be starting a million things at once, so I gave my morning routine ago and it was magical, emotional and just amazing. For Christmas Michael and I were gifted a beautiful homemade tray with an S on it for our last name. I decided to put it to use and set up my crystals, sage, coffee oils, etc. It worked perfectly. I am not a fan of setting things on the carpet cause knowing me I’d knock it over, lmao.

I lit my sage, set up my crystals, turned on the diffuser with some peppermint and frankincense in it, I set an intention and rubbed palo santo eo across my forehead and surrender eo over my heart and on my wrists because the main reason for my practice was to surrender and let go of old hurt and potentially up to almost 25 years of anger and bitterness.

I’ve recently learned about cleansing your crystals and setting intention for each one, so after my free flow yoga routine (really focused on my hips. hurt so good) I did some research on the crystals I have and wrote a note for my intention for each on and set the piece of paper under each one. Before doing so I saged them to cleanse them from anything previously. woowoo, i know i know, but I love it, so let me. ;) I also used my mini composition notebook to write down 3 things I'm grateful for because I hear time and time again how starting your day with gratitude is one of the best ways to start it. 

I could go on and on about how much respect and appreciation I have for Elizabeth Dialto. Pushing maybe 2 years ago when I started listening to podcasts I came across this beautiful soul and listening to her podcast Untame The Wild Soul at first made me SO beyond uncomfortable because the range of what her and her guests would talk about when it came to chakras, buddha, crystals, energies and other religions/spirituality conflicted with everything in me. I think it’s more so because of just the way I was raised and that being everything to do with God, Jesus, The Bible and Holy Spirit, so hearing about all of this made me feel like it wasn’t ok, but what Elizabeth helped me realize is that it is ok to learn and grow and figure out what works for you and that it’s even more ok that it doesn’t match your upbringing. 

Awhile back I printed off this poem and set it as my desk, but haven’t taken the time to read it and take it in. It’s absolutely beautiful and reads: “The Wild Soul Woman Manifesto

An invitation to live into, a practice, a dedication, a pledge. I am a woman, not a lovelier version of a man.

I am devoted to loving myself in the untamed way - through cultivating self-acceptance, awareness, knowledge, respect, and trust. I am committed to discovering and living into my ever evolving truth. The truth of what it means to be a woman in the 21st century. The truth of what it means to be me, the me that I AM, not that society, culture, family, government, religion or other structures have dictated to me. I am discerning. 

I listen to my wild soul and trust her innate wisdom and guidance. 

I have boundaries. I do not sacrifice myself for the benefit of others. I say no when I mean no and yes when I mean yes. I am just as worthy of my own time, energy, and attention as all of my loved ones. I do not need others to be different or agree with me for me to feel OK. I do my best to respect others’ beliefs, opinions, cultures, choices, self-expression, sexuality, even if I don’t understand. I am global sister. 

I am work in progress and a work of art.

I am safe place to land for all life and all people. I know that it’s not all about me, but that does start with me and I happily accept responsibility for my own life. My body is sacred. I am willing to have courageous conversations. I embrace my uniqueness, my power, my beauty, my creativity, my inner fire, my passion, my fierceness and my softness. 

I reserve the right to change my mind. 

When I want to be harsh with myself I choose gentleness instead. I honor the earth and all her creations. I am unashamed. I trust that my temporary circumstances never have to be my permanent reality. I am a powerful creator. I am receptive. I am a force for expansion, for love, and for good. 

I am a Wild Soul Woman.“

WOW. How powerful. This is something I want to print off poster size and hang up somewhere that I can read every day. 

During the summer Elizabeth launched some oracle cards and since I support and respect her 100% I ordered some, but haven’t used them up until now. I read through the little guide and shuffled the desk and pulled the top one. 2 reasons I loved it. 1.) 8 is my favorite number, and 2.) the card was about self care which I was in desperate need of that morning in particular. One things she points out on these cards is they’re not for predicting the future like a tarot card, it’s for what you need in the present moment, so me pulling this card was just spot on. 

After I read the Wild Soul Woman poem and read the mantra for the card I pulled I lit a candle and started writing a very important and overdue “FU letter” to a family member of mine. It was so hard to bring myself to the point of anger and hatred to write this, but I knew it was time. I filled up 5 pages with hurt and anger and bitterness and resentment I’ve held in. I had to get up 2 different times to blow my nose from crying so hard and my nose running. It was great, lmao.

I learned about this writing practice through another podcast called Over It & On With It by Christine Hassler. Another beautiful soul I discovered a few years ago. At the end of the letter I wrote out another writing practice she taught me. 

“Dear_____

I am letting go______

I learned_______

I forgive you for _______

I forgive myself for______

Thank you for______

Goodbye.”  

Then I ripped it all up, said a forgiveness prayer and blew out the candle.

Craziest shit happened when I took it outside to burn the paper. Right as everything had turned to ash the bowl EXPLODED into a million pieces. LIKE WTF. O___O Could have been cause it was chilly outside, could have been some cray spiritual ish, who knows. I squealed and ran inside to grab the broom to clean it up then ran everything down to the dumpster.

A year ago I wrote the same kind of letter to a different family member and I’ve had so much change since then with forgiving and letting go and I can definitely say I felt a release from this letter in particular. Growing up I was just told to pray or go to the altar and give it all to God, but it just for me didn’t work because the hurt and anger and sadness was still there. I think with me taken it upon myself to write out, burn everything and pray in my own way was what I needed to discover as adult because it just works and it feels amazing to put in the work and feel like a weights been lifted off my shoulders. I really believe me closing this door with this family member in particular will open new doors for me and close old ones that don’t serve me when it comes to a number of things like manipulation, disowning, close-mindedness, blaming, stuffing, not communicating, etc. When you’re raised a certain way it conditions you to believe certain things or a way of being and I am working to un-condition myself from old ways, thought patterns and belief systems that don’t serve me and the Sarah I am today.   

Once I got back inside I saged my space one more time to clear everything and did a cord cutting and grounding practice Elizabeth taught me, then went about my day. 

I am really thankful that I’ve discovered these practices because I just haven’t ever felt like I’ve been able to cultivate my own spiritual practice and way of being up until recently. I’ve had to do a lot of work to get to this place and work that much harder to sit here right now and talk about freely, but it feels so right and so so so good. 

- Sarah xo

[sarahunfiltered-blog1]

I’ve been tested...

Hi. :)

I’ve been meaning to sit down and write this one for a little while now, but just haven’t been able to quite make the time for it, but here I am now starting it at 5 a.m. with my mushroom coffee in hand, peppermint oil rubbed on my ears and my oracle cards I pulled next to me. ‘

The title of this being “I’ve been tested...” is for that very thing. This month in almost all ways I’ve been tested. Friends, communication, work, family, spirituality, finances, all the things. 

I pulled an oracle card this morning and asked what the message needed to be for today and the card I pulled was “Passionate Self-Love Affair” and reading about this card it’s about how self love is more than just red lipsticks, memes and bubble baths which I’ve learned to be so true because what happens when you’ve had the worst day ever or something at work happens or a friend and you need to have an uncomfortable convo? Are you still going to show up in a loving way not only to the situation, but yourself? This is something I struggle with immensely, unfortunately. And it’s the biggest thing I’ve taken on for 2018. Self-love. Not self-loathing, not self-criticisms. Self...Love. 

How have I been tested you may be wondering? Well, lemme tell you, booboo.

1.) Money - I’ve been working towards a solid “get out of debt” game plan and while I was happily going to check my one account I noticed an old interest charge I wasn’t planning on popped up and I flipped out, called the bank and they were no help and I just had to eat it. Now why this bothered me was because it took away from what I was saving for the heaping mountain of debt I had been saving for ALL month and it was taken away. I felt defeated, then started to go down the “why did I let this happen in the first place” rabbit hole, but I didn’t. I stopped myself, bit the bullet and paid it, then walked away telling myself it was OK that 1.) I was upset, but 2.) it’ll all work out in the end and I’m going to be OK. 

2.) Communication - Something I say every time I read my Wild Soul Woman pledge is “I am willing to have courageous conversations” and I’ve had to live up to this quite a few times this month especially with friends/family. It’s BEYOND uncomfortable for me to speak up and not be doormat and not let people walk all over me, and just go with the flow and put my feelings aside and stuff and suppress, but then I will end up pushing someone away and resenting them and I am just not about that life anymore. These types of convo’s no matter how large or small make me anxious. I sweat, I hear my heartbeat in my ears, I can’t think straight, I shake, but I can say it is getting easier to stand in my truth and speak up and I’ve taught myself how to calm down when this happens within a matter of minutes, instead of it lasting the rest of the day and me having to go to straight to bed when I get home because I am exhausted in all ways.

3.) Work - Oh, work.. So I was in hot water all of 2017 with work. I’ve never had such a hard year when it comes to work ever. I’ve had bad months, weeks and days, but never an entire year filled with stress and heartache. I went from the last 6 months of getting maybe 1 error and we’re allotted up to 5 in a month and as of right now I am at 5 until the month starts over. Now if I don’t get anymore I’ll be fine and won’t be written up, but as of now I still have 3 more work days to get through and old Sarah would be on the floor right now crying into a glass of wine (Funny not so funny story. Today a year ago I was doing just that according to a picture that popped up on my timehop. I’ve also noticed that in over a week there hasn’t been a picture that popped up that didn’t have a glass of wine in it...>____< ), but this new fairy haircut, zenned out more often than not Sarah realizes this is just a test to see if I’ve really grown. Yes, it’s frustrating and I allowed that feeling to come up, so it could have its space and pass, but I also know this is part of life, this is a test I needed to pass, and to more important not bash myself in the process like I’ve done before. Like thinking I’m worthless, a piece of shit, don’t know what I am doing, and all the horrible things I used to tell myself. I keep telling myself “All is well with my soul. This is a test and I will pass it. I will not give my power away to this situation. I am going to be OK nonetheless.” because in reality taking a step back no one is out to get me, I am not going to die, this is part of life and I’ll be OK. 

4.) My Daily Practice - This is a big one for me. By nature in all the astrological and numerology ways I hold myself to REALLY high and I mean HIGH standards. I am SO bad about getting onto myself if I slip up... and you probably guessed it. I’ve “slipped up”. To me I feel like if I miss one day of mediation and lose my streak everything will fall apart, if I don’t journal then I failed, if I don’t blog at least once a week then I’m not being true to my intentions I’ve set, the list goes on... but is this really true if I take a (for me) HUGE step back? No. I’m very compulsive, obsessive and easily addicted by nature. If I love something and I’m into it I’m all in. Ask anyone that knows me well and they tell you the same. Now on the outside it probably seems like I’ve got all my ducks in a row and I am so disciplined and just having it going on, but this is why I started a blog. To take that filter off and talk about what’s really going on because I do struggle and slip and fall, but I’m learning to love myself in the process as I just pick up and keep going instead of constantly shaming and blaming myself when I do miss a day of mediation or my morning doesn’t go how I feel it should and so on. 

5.) Spirituality - I grew up in a spiritual home, but when I moved out and I completely shut it off and down and asked it to leave me alone and it did, but I’ve stepped back into and it’s come back in full force. Even me writing this right now makes me feel a little anxious because it’s such a touchy subject for me because it’s just really vulnerable and personal to me and I won’t say too too much, but what I will say is I’ve had some thing happens where I could question it, blow it off, not believe it and call myself crazy and think I am just making shit up, but that would honestly defeat the entire purpose of my spiritual practice. I am learning how to turn my ego down a lot and let things be, so they can grow and I’ve had some really cool things happen. One of those being how I had this inner knowing that I would write poetry and I asked the universe to show me how and within a week I pulled an oracle card that said listening to music would be beneficial for the day and to really listen to the words and instead of blowing it off and listening to podcast I listened to music and there was one song that ripped me wide open and I ended up writing 4 poems that day. The universe know what it’s doing and I am learning to listen and follow the still, small voice when it does speak to me and not question it. 

6.) Body Shaming - Oh, girl... I will be brief on this one as well because I do plan to write an entire blog on this topic because it’s been big for me this month. But practice yoga I see more of my body than ever because being completely clothed ends up annoying because my shirts is in my face and I can’t breathe or see and then I get hot and at that point I am not breathing and then I fall and you get the picture...lmao. So I wear less clothes and see more of me and it’s SO uncomfortable seeing the cellulite on my legs, the roll on my stomach and how bad I need to shave my legs and it’s been a daily self-love practice of not body shaming how my body naturally looks, and to work through this I’ve posted some, to the mindlessly scrolling IG eye, unflattering pictures of myself because for the last 5 years I’ve painted a picture of what my life and body looks like and it’s just not true, so I am working to paint a new, unfiltered, raw, real life picture of what my life actually looks like. 

Until next time... <3

Sarah xo

[theelusivequeen]

Twenty-Five Weeks!!!

Twenty-five weeks of continuous yoga practice!

I'm pretty excited! One more week until the halfway point to a whole year!

I'm loving the progress in my inversions. I still have a long way to go but I'm just going to enjoy the journey for now!