NaNoWriMo, Yoga, Booch and Vacay

Wow! It's been a while since I wrote anything, and it's been a full month since I wrote 50,000 words with many others at NaNoWriMo.org. If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, it's short for National Novel Writer's Month. It's a month (November to be exact) where writers and aspiring writers and maybe even non-writers set a goal to write 50k words of a novel. It can be toward a novel they've already started, a novel they've been planning to write or if you're like me, a novel you had no idea you wanted to write. They even have a word for people like me who go in with no clue and no plan. We're called "pantsers" as in we write by the seat of our pants. That's definitely what I did. I went in with no idea what I wanted to write or where to go with the book and somehow ended up with over 50k words. It may not surprise you that I am now wading through a crazy somewhat jumbled up mess of words and thoughts trying to figure out what I want to expand on and where I want everything to go. There's not exactly a flow to the book...

I have to say that I actually looked forward to sitting down at the computer and letting the words flow out of my fingers. It's not really surprising that this came on the heels of me seeing Liz Gilbert at Salon @ 615 and reading Big Magic. Now I just have to overcome the fear of someone else reading my book. It's amazing how much fear there is around that. What if people judge me?? What if people don't like it?? Even worse, what if no one cares?

I've gotten a little practice on not caring if people care through this blog. I want people to get something out of what I write, but if it's not part of their path, it's not my place to force it on them, right?  So here I am with almost 65k words at this point and no clue where to go from here. If you have any advice, I would love to hear from you!

Meanwhile, I have other news to share. I went through yet another yoga immersion weekend at The Ivy House in Nashville. It was an amazing and eye opening weekend, and I met some really amazing women in the process. I've spent much of December processing the yoga I absorbed over that weekend, and my favorite takeaway was a more regular yoga and meditation practice. I'm meditating at least an hour every day now, and practicing awareness yoga on top of that. Add that to my energy work, and I'm getting closer to my bliss every day.

Another thing I got out of that weekend is a new friend who makes Kombucha. I've had several friends who make it, and I've been curious for a while. This one just happened to hit me at the right time. So, I've become one of the many with a science project on my kitchen counter. 

I had my doubts when I took the first sip of my new Kombucha on Christmas Day. After all, I don't know the first thing about the things that are growing in that jar other than that it came from a long line of Boochers before me who passed down advice and a quick lesson on how to booch in my friend's kitchen. It ended up tasting pretty good, and I feel pretty good, too, though, so I think it was a success! If you want to try some or if you have some good recipes, please send them my way!

And finally, I hope you enjoyed your holiday season! I spent mine on the beach, and it was warmer than I expected it to be! We slept with the door open so that we could hear the waves crashing on the shore, ran on the boardwalk and enjoyed some amazing local food. We even got to see some horses on the beach which was amazingly beautiful!

We even took a little jaunt up the coast to Ocean Isle Beach where my family vacationed every year while I was growing up and down the coast to Charleston. It feels like home to be in that area! I think my favorite part of the whole trip was the traveling Christmas tree that Beck's mom gave us to take with since we wouldn't be home on Christmas to enjoy our real tree. If you haven't already seen the photos, you can check them out on my Instagram with #travelingchristmastree. 

I'm so grateful for this amazing trip and that I got to share it with one of my favorite travel buddies. 

It feels good to be home, though! I've already been back in the studio teaching and am offering free energy work and private yoga during the month of January, so reach out if you need some love this month!

Much love,

Emily Rose