My Standard NYE Reflections...

Hello World,

It's been awhile since we last spoke! A lot has changed since my last post. 2015 has definitely been a year of transition for me. I broke into the world of Group X, tackled some very challenging issues in my full-time job and decided to go back to school for accounting. I'm one busy girl. But I am definitely grateful for the opportunities that have been afforded to me!

I did have to make some tough decisions as well. As my dad always says, "growth is painful." I wish it didn't have to be but, such is life. Here are a few of my resolutions for 2016:

Read 1 book per month
Run a 10K
Run at least 3 miles a week
Meditate for 5 minutes per day

These goals will be pretty time consuming. On top of school and my regular job, I think I will have to restrict myself to only watching tv on the weekends. That's ok though! It's probably best for sleep to minimize tv in the evenings anyway.

I've definitely learned a lot this year. We always see people speaking on leaving bad friends in the past, moving on from people who have done you wrong, etc. But that doesn't make it an easy thing to do. If you've had a friend for years and it turns out that this person is a complete POS, it's ok to feel uncomfortable walking away from a friendship. Regardless of how he or she treated you, long-term friendships can be large parts of our lives.

Between work and school, I've had very little free time which has resulted in a LOT of time by myself. Sometimes being alone with your thoughts can be a really scary thing. But it's important to be in tune with yourself! For example, I am a very anxious person. When dealing with anxiety, it's very important to understand what your triggers are so that you can learn to live with them. I am obviously not a doctor, but I have had positive experience with really figuring out what triggers my anxiety and working to minimize it. Some of my other (more private) resolutions involve making some chances that force me to confront these triggers in hopes of overcoming them.

One more thing...I've been hearing the term mind/body thrown around a lot lately. It took me quite a while to even figure out what the heck it meant. As a Group X gal, the first thing I think of is yoga. After this year, I've realized that yoga is very important. You don't have to be a human pretzel either. There are many options of yoga for any skill/flexibility level. The focus required to achieve this workouts is almost like a high for me. So I definitely need some downward dogs to balance out all my tuck jumps. What's the point? Go find a yoga class! Seriously. Take some yoga in 2016. 

Happy New Year!

-Ashley

Falling in Love with Love..

...ok not really. But the title was cute from a cute song in a very cute movie, so why not?

To be fair, we can say that I've returned to my "first love"...reading!

     As you can already tell, I am a little ambitious. A little bit of a "Type A". As much as I pride myself on doing things despite lack of time, I've notice that us Type A folks do tend to make another excuse. None of us have time for any fun. I have always enjoyed reading, so why not make time? I've seen the same episodes of Gilmore Girls and Big Bang Theory enough times.

     So far I've read Divergent, Insurgent and Gone Girl. Let's start with Divergent. I really appreciate the dystopian theme. Some of my favorite novels include Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (also known as Blade Runner), Nineteen Eighty-Four, Anthem, and The Hunger Games series. I think it's difficult to create a movie that portrays a fair representation of these stories, simply because a lot of the book consists of the characters thoughts. We can recognize this phenomenon in The Hunger Games, as Katniss just seems whiny and desperate in the movies. Her character is much more tolerable in the books.  In Divergent I really enjoyed learning the different characters motives and backgrounds.

Insurgent was very good as well. I watched the movies first, and now I understand the storyline better after reading the book. Again, the movie didn't do a great job of depicting thoughts or feelings of anyone beyond Tris and Tobias. The focus on the supplementary characters such as the refugee faction members really allowed me to understand the magnitude of the attacks and the uprising.

Gone Girl was...meh. The ending of the book and the ending of the movie were equally disappointing. I do think that the movie did a great job of balancing the past timeline of Amy's diary with the current timeline of Nick's search for Amy. I really enjoyed the depth of each character's perspective in the book. But, I just can't get over the disappointment of the ending. Obviously I wasn't disappointed enough by Gone Girl, so I just HAD to purchase another book by the same author... So far the ratings are just marginal. But I'll give you all an update.

Stay tuned for next time!

I want it all...

Good Morning Blogger Viewers!

This morning shortly after I woke up, I searched for the hashtag "positivity" on instagram. I do things like this pretty frequently to find powerful, cute or funny memes to re-post and share. Several of them really spoke to me but one in particular took the cake.

After a pretty late (for me) night, I was feeling sorry for myself and planning to skip out on my workout. Some of my peers have told me that they do not understand why I am "all of a sudden" obsessed with going to the gym. I gave it some thought and determined that I don't actually know.

I have committed a lot to this. I have a very regular schedule where I do not miss my regimens unless I am going out of town, have something major come up at work, or an emergency hair appointment (let's get real-I don't miss those). Typically, the only beverage that I consume is water, coconut water or homemade fruit and veggie shakes with protein. I don't eat late and I minimize my consumption of junk food. I just ran my first 5k and I am considering options for part time employment in group fitness instruction. It's simply become a part of my life.

I believe that part of this consumption is my drive to excel at anything I do. When I commit to things, I want to need to be the best that I can possibly be. Otherwise, I will never be satisfied. Sometimes that may cause me to appear that I am rigid, or anal or "too serious". But it is a major part of who I am. I stay hungry for more.