Intentions and Words to Live By in 2014

I spent the first 3 weeks of 2014 dealing with another weird lower leg injury and a never-ending minor (but annoying) upper respiratory infection. I'm still not completely 100%, and yesterday's pre-snowstorm trail run reminded me of that. The forced timeout from physically feeling blah allowed me the opportunity to consider my intentions a little more, uh, intentionally, than my usual "Hey, it's mid-January! I should blog about my intentions for this year!" My physical fitness, on the other hand, is kind of in the toilet. Anyway.

My words to live by 2014 are REFUGE and BELIEVE. 

If you had asked me on December 31 what I thought my word for 2014 would be, I would have said STRENGTH because that's what I thought I needed. But in the course of a 4-hour slow flow, yin, and restorative yoga practice on New Year's Day, it became clear to me that I had plenty of strength. Instead, I needed to believe in that strength and know when to take refuge. Refuge is not the same as being a recluse, which I was pretty sure I was becoming in the last two weeks of the year. Rather, refuge is a place a safety, and sometimes instead of finding that place and recharging, I hang out and weather the storm (see strength, above). 

On to the more tangible non-career intentions for 2014.

First, a few intentions to carry over from 2013:

*  PR in the 5K and 10K distances. A few unexpected things came up this spring and summer that I wanted to give priority to, so I had to put diligent and consistent training on the back burner. I don't feel bad about having to do that and the things I gave priority to work ed out. But I do want to drop a few minutes (yes, minutes) off my current cruising times in these distances, and 2014 is the year to do it.

*  Run another trail race. So, given that training was on the backburner, a trail race didn't happen either. I'm making space for it this year and looking for a few races.

*  Sleep in my tent at least one night. Uh, again, the things I chose to prioritize meant that I did not wind up in a tent even once. Wow.

* This is just going to be an ongoing intention and be integrated into my lifestyle: continue to nurture my friendships in real life. Preferably by adding skiing or running or yoga into the mix. Last year, I flew to Mississippi and ran a 5K with Michelle, a friend since high school. In 2012, we ran the Richmond half. It would be great to continue the streak in 2014. Skiing is a little tricky for me, and I blame my geography. I'm hoping to change that.

And then the new intentions for 2014:

* Learn the names of students in my group yoga classes. Back when I did my 200-hour yoga teacher training, one of the parting tips given to my cohort was to learn our students' names. Funny thing, though, if you suck as a teacher, it doesn't matter whether you know your students' names. So I focused on teaching. And now I have regulars. Yes, I know a number of students' names. But it's tough to remember names when students are quasi-regular – they show up one day and not again for another 6 weeks. I want to be able to remember names even if I haven't seen a student in 6 weeks. If this were a goal-setting post, I'd give myself some number of names per month. 

Uh. Yeah. That's basically it. I'm basically all about setting myself up for success in 2014. 

Believe. And refuge.