Hello + Acceptance

Hello friends and soon to be friends!

I am excited to say that I am back in the blogging world! It's something I've been thinking about for a while and I figured the new year was the perfect time to start!

I've always found writing to be cathartic...one of my favorite quotes has always been, "I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say," by Flannery O'Connor. Plus, let's be honest, I'm too lazy to consistently write in my journal...I know no one will see it, so I skip over words and it ends up as just a big mess! I need the accountability of having an audience, even if it only ends up being one or two people! Anyway, that's why I'm here. To write, to share my thoughts and my journey, and hopefully to inspire or connect with someone along the way. Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate you taking the time to experience life with me!

So to start off strong, today I've been thinking about acceptance. About what I need to accept going into 2016. You may say, "Well, that's random, Sarah." And it is. But I promise there is a reason. Or a few reasons.

2015 was kind of a crazy year for me. And by that I mean, it was full of more change than I've had collectively in my life. To sum it up, I changed careers, I moved states, and then towns. I have lived in 3 different places in the last year, and with 2 different people, including the man I thought once upon a time was "the one." And now I've moved out and am on my own again. In a rental house that is less than perfect. In a town where the only people I know are my coworkers, who are tremendous, but 10 or 15 years older and in a completely different stage of life than I am (and therefore not automatic besties to hang out with nonstop). My entire life plan has been altered. I am not at all where I thought I would be, literally or metaphorically. Literaphorically, if you will.

Going into the new year, I also decided I needed to get my health together. (I swear this is connected...bear with me!) I've been getting back into yoga sporadically, through youtube videos in my living room and have loved it. So I decided to take a 30 days of yoga challenge with my favorite youtube yogi, Adrienne. You should check it out here. Anyway, since yoga is about the mind and spirit as well as the body, she has sent out a calendar, with a daily focus to accompany the daily practice. Guess what the first day is? You got it. Acceptance.

Why is acceptance so important? Why does this even matter? Acceptance is recognizing a situation for what it is, not attempting to change it, just acknowledging it. Many psychologists suggest that without facing reality, one can never really move on to self-actualization. The struggle of fighting to accept present circumstances uses up the energy that could instead be expended on finding happiness and enjoying the good in life. Which makes sense considering that acceptance is derived from the Latin word for "to rest."

I've been thinking today about what I need to accept moving into 2016. What am I fighting against acknowledging? What is keeping me from being happy in my circumstances? What do I need to let go of?

Here are a few that I came up with. Can you relate?

I accept that I have been hurting, but that I am also healing.
I accept that I am not perfect. That I have made mistakes and will continue to make mistakes.
I accept that I am back on my own, going off on a new adventure by myself.
I choose to accept that I don't know what that means, that I don't know where I am going or what my plan is, or even what I want out of life right now, and that that is okay.

One of my favorite lyrics is from Mumford & Sons song Hopeless Wanderer, they sing "and I will learn to love the skies I'm under." My goal for this year is to get better at accepting my circumstances, as well as to be happy and joyful in them. I want to learn to love whatever sky I'm under, whatever circumstance I'm in. At the risk of sounding super cheesy, will you join me on that journey?

-Sarah