Maintenance time

I moved to the UK 6-months ago with an intention to travel, and experience more opportunities in the land of 60-million people.  One of my goals was to travel to one place per month, and so far that has been achieved, even if it is somewhere in the UK.  I’m conscious that a lot of people do “OE’s” and spend a lot of time in Europe, while living in the UK, and see very little of the UK.  The accessibility to Europe is definitely one of the draw cards to living here.

I had 10-days off over Christmas but didn’t go anywhere.  It was maintenance time.  Time to reflect, look back on the last year, and plan forward.  Each day was a nice balance of this, yoga, meditation, and plenty of sleep.  It was ideal hibernation weather with the snow falling outside.  Being a goal driven person I can get caught up in my things to do list and forget that it is only when you have reflection time, that you really look at these things to do with mindfulness, and perspective.  It’s easy to do, and not really think, why am I doing this?

Johnathan Mead had an interesting set of questions on his website for reflection and goal setting so I sat down and did these before a unique New Year at the Manchester Buddhist Centre.  We burnt things we wanted to let go off in 2010, which was very cleansing.  This also helped put things in perspective for a year of. This year has been a massive year of change, and growth.

Some of my intentions for this year:

Health and fitness

• Be able to run 240-minutes a week, and run a half marathon (left over from last year)
• Do the Level 2 Yoga course at Bodywise
• Feel fit, healthy, and continue to focus on organic, healthy meat-free eating (I’ve finally let go of bacon, and butter chicken)
• Continue with a minimum of one yoga class per week, and 2-3 days of home practice
• Take dance lessons

Community, spiritual and friendships

• Work on friendships.  It is easy to take these for granted, and then 2-3 years later realize you don’t have any!  And be open, and put myself out there for more
• Get more involved with the Sangha at the Buddhist centre
• Level 2 Buddhism and meditation course
• Continue to meditate everyday
• Go on 2-3 Buddhist retreats
• Continue to read, and listen to Dharma podcasts

Gadgets

• Macbook Pro
• Photo scanner (for film)

Financial

• Debt free and continue to live within my means
• Increase my income

Creative

• Writing course
• Use my beautiful classic film cameras more, and learn how to use them properly by doing a photography course
• Finish 2 of the 3 books I have quarter/half done, and find a publisher for them

Travel

• Every month somewhere I have not been before

Other

• Continue catching my unskillful habits, and do things abnormally
• See things as they really are
• Be generous
• Be open to receiving
• Start another degree be it in business (MBA), or a Masters in mindfulness/CBT
• Continue to live authentically being true to who I am and what I want out of this life

It’s going to be a busy year.