Mondo Beyondo Dreams Revisited

Sunday mornings are the perfect time for dreaming and scheming. This morning I sat down with my favorite coffee mug and spent a few minutes reflecting on the Mondo Beyondo list (essentially a "bucket list") I created in early 2010. It was amazing to see how many of my dreams I'd accomplished since the time I first wrote my list. I adopted a rescue dog. Traveled Italy. Grew an herb and vegetable garden. Went white-water rafting. Began a journey toward my healthiest self that revealed a passion for holistic health and wellness.

It was also interesting to see how my list has changed and evolved. Certain dreams remain the same. (Be a mom. Buy a bungalow. Play piano daily. Get certified to teach yoga. Begin a non-profit yoga & wellness center.) Certain others have been edited or taken on different forms, and some have been deleted altogether.

As 2011 winds down, it feels like the right time to update my list. To start fresh with a set of goals & dreams that ring true for me right now, at this moment in time. I'm sure the list will continue to evolve, as I grow and learn more about myself.

Updated Mondo Beyondo Dreams

Travel & Adventure

• Surf Goddess (surf, yoga, & spa) retreat in Bali
• Explore Spain's Costa Brava, Pyrenees, and Barcelona by bike
• Complete Baron Baptiste power yoga Level 1 training in Hawaii
• Spend a month backpacking Thailand, Nepal, and India with no specific plans or itinerary
• Go wine-tasting in Chile & Argentina
• Visit the elephant sanctuary in Hohenwald, TN
• Kayak the San Juan Islands
• Attend a Squam Art Workshop

Personal & Health

• Get a tattoo
• Earn my 200-hr yoga teacher certification
• Eat dinner on on organic farm
• Eat at The French Laundry
• Celebrate my 30th birthday at a quiet and romantic restaurant with my husband, sipping wine and dining on oysters and Caesar salad
• Have a family
• Cook an entire menu from Chez Panisse, from scratch
• Take hip-hop dance classes (<--took my first one last week!)
• Spend a week at a wellness spa
• Buy a bungalow in a metropolitan city in the Pacific Northwest
• Set aside money for monthly deep tissue massage and acupuncture treatments
• Learn to speak Italian
• Ride my bike to work
• Purchase a piano and play daily

Career & Community

• Start a non-profit wellness center that provides complimentary yoga classes, health counseling, and other holistic health services, housed in renovated townhouse with an adjoining tea room and café
• Give a TED talk on the power of possibility and goal-setting
• Donate 10% of my income to charitable causes
• Host a community-wide charitable event with proceeds benefiting local farmers and access to local foods
• Write a column for Whole Living
• Become lululemon's Head of People Development and/or Director of Possibility
• Serve on the board of The Awesome Food Foundation

It feels a little scary to put all this out there, but really good and exciting at the same time. 

Have you updated your bucket list lately? I'd love to read yours, if you'd like to share. Have a lovely rest of your weekend, and happy dreaming.

An outdoor adventure

Guys, I'm so excited!  This weekend, we're joining three other couples for a camping and whitewater rafting adventure in wild and wonderful West Virginia.   (You might remember that whitewater rafting is one of my Mondo Beyondo dreams!)

I have not been camping in a loooong time, but I'm so excited to re-live some of my favorite childhood memories of relaxing around a campfire, toasting marshmallows for s'mores, and immersing myself in the peace and beauty of the natural world.  I've got a cooler filled with veggie burgers, copious amounts of bug spray, several rolls of toilet paper, and enough Larabars to feed a small army.

The river above, by the way, is the New River, where we'll be rafting.  Isn't it gorgeous?

Have any of you been whitewater rafting?  Got any stories or tips to share?

Image via wildwaterwv. 

The most you can do

As my Mondo Beyondo class concludes, I'm feeling exhilarated by new ideas, exciting possibilities, and - most of all - the dreams I've articulated for myself. I'm also feeling a tad bit overwhelmed. Reading over the journal I've kept throughout the class, I'm struck by the sheer amount and variety of things that interest and inspire me. Things I've never really considered before, but that somehow made their way out of my subconscious mind and into my journal throughout the process. It's a little disorienting, for example, to see the words I want to to learn how to arrange flowers written in my own handwriting. Really? I think to myself. Is that what I want? I'm not sure. It came from somewhere though.

These pages filled with seemingly random tidbits, notes, and half-finished sentences feel significant in a way I can't put my finger on. But I think, in part, it's this: I'm noticing recurring themes - things that seem to pop up, in various forms, over and over again. Things like art + being surrounded by beauty, connecting with nature, creativity, family + community, food + cooking, adventure + travel, and holistic health/wellness. I already knew that these things were important to me in some general and undefined way, so the categories themselves aren't all that revelatory. But to be confronted with *specific* long-buried or never-before-articulated hopes and dreams (such as one of my adventure + travel dreams: become an Outward Bound instructor) is an incredible and slightly terrifying feeling. Talk about an "aha moment." You mean it's totally within my power to identify and pursue the things that are important to me? No one's going to give me permission? No one's going to do it for me? Nothing's stopping me?!?! WHAT?!?!?!?

Ahem. (Like I said...pretty exhilarating stuff.)

I keep coming back to this quote from the oh-so-wise Barbara Kingsolver:

"The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope."

I want to do the most.

Image via Chris Everard.

Mondo Beyondo List

As I've mentioned, I'm currently taking the Mondo Beyondo course, an online class about uncovering your dreams. A couple weeks ago, we created our Mondo Beyondo lists, which is a list of all the creative, wild, and totally juicy dreams tucked away in the back of your mind. Things that may be unlikely to happen in 5 or even 10 years. The point is to just write down whatever comes to mind without questioning it. As Mondo Beyondo instructor Andrea writes:

"If we can loosen ourselves up and stretch ourselves just enough to get our rational mind out of the driver's seat, really interesting things will float to the surface. You might not know why you are writing something down, but I encourage you to trust everything that shows up. Don't censor yourself. Your dreams are living below the surface and I want you to surprise yourself."

Now, we've been asked to release our Mondo Beyondo into the universe however we want, so I decided to (gulp) share mine with you. (It's always kind of scary sharing "dreams" and stuff like that, isn't it? Taking a deep breath...here goes...)

My Mondo Beyondo list:

-have a family

-backpack through india and thailand

-adopt a dog

-become certified to teach yoga

-take a culinary tour of italy (we'll sort of be doing this on our honeymoon!)

-learn to speak italian

-write a cookbook centered on principles of holistic health + wellness

-volunteer with animals (just completed my application to volunteer at local animal shelter)

-travel the world as a food writer

-buy a little bungalow (with a snazzy kitchen) in a college town (preferably near mountains)

-design and create my own line of wellness teas

-make my own jewelry

-make time for and honor my art daily

-get my master's in creativity studies/art therapy and become a creativity coach (more of a long-term aspiration as i'm very happy in my current job)

-start my own non-profit using yoga+meditation to help survivors of trauma (also long-term)

-become my healthiest self (working on making some serious changes to my lifestyle and diet and have lost 13 pounds since the holidays...woohoo!)

-run a half-marathon (going to sign up to run a local 5K at the end of march...hoping to work my way up to half-marathon)

-play the piano again

-grow an organic herb and vegetable garden

-go to culinary school

-improve my photography skills and become a food photographer

-spend a year traveling throughout europe

-meet at least a couple of the folks i most admire

-become an advocate for a more sustainable food system (à la my idol alice waters)

-take dance and drawing classes

-give a TED talk

-go white-water rafting

-learn to knit

-go on a yoga and/or meditation retreat in costa rica

-perform stand-up comedy

-become an outward bound instructor

I'm looking back over this list, and the phrase that keeps coming to mind is: jeez, I'd better get started! I'm kidding...sort of.

Image via Mondo Beyondo.

Creating a clearing

As I mentioned last week, I'm currently taking the Mondo Beyondo e-course, and I wanted to share with you a lesson from the class that is really resonating with me: Creating a Clearing.

Jen Lemen (who facilitates the class along with Andrea Scher) writes:

A clearing is a wide open empty space in your life that is ready for something new or amazing to emerge. A clearing can be a cleaned-out closet or a regularly unscheduled Saturday. A clearing can be dissolving an unproductive business partnership or going to bed early two days in a row. A clearing can be saying no to a pesky friend or saying yes to a forbidden treat. A clearing can be as simple as taking out the trash or as serious as leaving a job or ending a not-so healthy relationship. A clearing can be recycling that piece of furniture you never really liked, not for one second.

This lesson could not have been more timely for me. In recent weeks, I have been feeling a strong urge to create space in my life and let go of clutter, both literally and mentally. Part of this urge is a desire to make room for the adventures, experiences, and dreams of a New Year and part of it, I believe, is simply that I am growing out of some patterns and behaviors that no longer serve me and developing new ones that do.

Some of the ways I've been creating a clearing are:

• Eliminating the junk and impurities out of my diet and embracing wholesome and healthy foods that nourish me and leave me feeling light, energized, and clean. (Added bonus: I've lost almost 10 pounds.)
• Sorting through old clothing, shoes, etc. and donating four bags of things to charity.
• Switching up my exercise routine (trying new yoga podcasts, adding weight-lifting to my rotation, pushing myself slightly outside of my comfort zone, etc.)
• Saying no to social functions and other activities that I don't truly desire to attend and instead treating myself to an artist's date or just a relaxing night at home.
• De-cluttering my cubicle and using the freed up space for a stash of pretty office supplies.
• Avoiding the kind of conversation that saps my energy (gossip, complaining, mindless small-talk) and instead seeking out opportunities for genuine connection.
• Trading in chemical laden cosmetics and cleaning supplies for organic/eco-friendly alternatives.
• Researching volunteer opportunities. (I've found that one of the most effective ways to create space in your own heart is by sharing your time and energy with others. I really miss doing volunteer work, and have been wanting to get back into it.)
• Clearing my blog reader and twitter feed of stuff I no longer find interesting/relevant and replacing them with stuff that more closely aligns with my current interests.

I have to say - it feels wonderful. I feel relaxed, expansive, and open to whatever wonderful things are headed my way in the coming months. There's something really empowering about saying goodbye to the things we no longer want/need in our lives and welcoming in the things we do.

How do you create a clearing?

Image via Girl Meets NYC.