Weekly Letter: Getting Started

*Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

I sat down to paint the other day. I’ve been watching a few artists work a medium I enjoy and whose prints I have bought for my home.

The technique is ink and watercolors. I love watching the way their hand floats across the page, they make it look so easy and relaxing, don’t they? I’ve never taken a formal drawing class, but I have doodles in my notebook. I thought I would give it a shot.

The window in my office overlooks the backyard, I want to draw the roof line of my neighborhood. I sit down with my sketchpad (that I’ve never sketched in) a pen and some acrylic paint I have lying around. Here we go! This is going to be amazing!

The first line goes on the page and its not straight. That’s ok, the artists on Instagram don’t always have straight lines. That’s what I like about it. Then the roof line doesn’t match up, whoops. The tree trunk looks weird. How is the garage so much farther away on the page than in real life? What IS that? Maybe this would be easier if I used the right materials and not what I have. I think Michael’s has paint markers. I wonder how hard they are to use.

I work for an hour before deciding to switch to a fresh sheet. That was a bad idea. I just start doodling again for a bit before putting it down.

But I don’t put it away.

Keep going,

~Carmen

Weekly Letter: Getting Unstuck

 *Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

I had a meeting last week I was kinda dreading. It wasn’t the person, but the topic. I had put a project on the back burner and I was going into a meeting where I was going to have to admit that. I had built up the outcome in my head (as we do) and was certain I was going to feel the feeling in my stomach we are trained to avoid (dread, regret).

As the meeting was finding its footing among the various things we needed to discuss, after a few minutes, I decided to lay my cards out on the table-outcome be damned.

After I was finished, the person I was meeting with started talking about ‘getting unstuck’ and applying it to different facets of interaction, practice and more.

Without this being either of our intention-our meeting took a theme. And the more we talked, the more this theme kept coming up. At one point, I told her, ‘I usually have a word or phrase that I use for the year and I didn’t have one yet, but I think unstuck is it.’

We had to hold ourselves back for so long due to the pandemic, moving out of the safe hibernation seems scarier than before. Or harder than before. Allowing ourselves the grace to recognize the moments when that resistance is coming in and giving it a good hard look to see if it is something we’re still clinging to and why. Is this something I’m holding back on waiting for the other shoe to drop? Why am I waiting for that?

Stay curious,

~Carmen

 

Weekly Letter: 9 Years

*Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

9 years.

I bought the studio 9 years ago Monday (1/15).

Am I any wiser? What have I learned in the 9 years of having my own business?

To think back on the person who decided to take on an existing business, she really didn’t know what she was doing. She knew how to work hard. She knew she was willing to learn. She knew this experience would ask her to grow in ways she couldn’t predict.

What she didn’t know, was how lonely it can be. How you are your own worst employee. And how you can very easily make more work for yourself.

There have been a few reoccurring themes. Things I remind myself of to stay motivated or to steer me when I’m flying blind. So here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned in my time as a business owner:

1.     Keep reading. Read everything you can about business, budgeting and topics on your field. You will grow infinitely faster if you give yourself the space to keep reading and learning. Stuck? Read something. Grow.

2.     You’re never going to be organized enough. But allow yourself the space you need to organize. Use it as a practice to clear your space and your mind. You will find things you’ve been looking for, uncover things you never noticed before and otherwise will sleep better leaning into creating systems and lend themselves to organization.

3.     Trust your gut. Trust your gut. And when in doubt, trust your gut.

4.     Five minutes of discomfort is worth the outcome. We avoid things that make us uncomfortable, so change what that feeling means to you. If you lean into the discomfort of the unknown, you will begin to change the sensation into one that signals learning and growth. And then you will begin to look for it in situations to grow more.

5.     Take the trip. The work will always be there and your students will understand.

6.     Everyone is your teacher. Read that again.

Thank you for the last 9 years, I may not say it enough or in the most elegant way, but please know, it is not lost on me how important you all are and how lucky I am to do this for a living.

Much appreciation,
~CC

Weekly Letter: 5 things that keep me organized

*Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

Last week, I was putting myself together for the year. By that, I mean I was compiling the tools I use that keep me organized and on track with the responsibilities of my job. Some of the items I replenish as I run out and some I need earlier than the new year, but all keep me organized in my mind. By not having the tools we know help us stay successful, we can become more distracted and unbalanced and tasks can take longer than they should to complete as we try to invent a new way.

Here are the things that keep me organized throughout the year:

1.      3 wall calendars: I have 1 at my desk at home and one at the studio (I use these more as quick refence while I’m working at my computer). I also order one for the kitchen that Levi and I use to record different things together and make plans. I jot down studio events, vacations or days off, he will add work functions or football games he wants to watch. In addition to birthdays and other fun things. Levi is the one that often takes the calendar down and updates it while I make dinner. I know it helps him have an overview of the month at home.  

Why not use a digital calendar? We do have a shared digital calendar, but he can’t share his work calendar with me and my schedule often confuses him and he doesn’t see the things that actually pertain to our life together.

Is it a lot of calendars for 2 people. Yup. I hate to tell you, we all now live in the Matrix. Instead of code, it’s calendars.

2.      A spiral notebook: Something smaller than a notebook used for school, I have been using hardback notebooks like these to begin my week for about ten years. I start a new one each year and often get close to getting all the way through it. I record notes from my meetings and often go back to remember what we discussed. In some ways, I like to think of it as a diary of my work. I will write ideas and inspiration and enjoy going back to older books to rediscover old ideas. It can be very grounding.

3.      My meal planner: if you’ve spent any amount of time with me, you know I live and die by my meal planner. An honest discovery that came out of Levi and I needing to live very frugally in the early parts of our relationship. We discovered grocery shopping before the weekend prevented us from eating out so we cooked consistently and have leftovers on nights early in the week when we might be less inclined to cook. You know you’re going to eat every day, why not simplify the process and make it easier to go about your week? It takes me less than half an hour to meal plan each week. That’s less time than it usually takes to decide on a restaurant once!

4.      A monthly calendar: I know, I know, ANOTHER CALENDAR??!?!? This one is for studio events, social media and programming. It helps me map out my time. By having a designated calendar for this, it doesn’t clutter my regular calendar. I use post-its for event ideas or tentative programs and colored markers to organize by theme.

5.      Other fluff: with taxes coming up, I like to have backup ink cartridges ready to go and a case of paper on hand to get me through the year. You might like to have a new set of pins, washi tape or post-its. All things I grab as I need throughout the year, but these things keep me feeling on top of things from day one.

I didn’t set out to have 6 calendars (really, 2 are just for quick reference), and I know there are other ways to organize, but I came to this process naturally. If I had all the calendars in the same place, it would take a lot for me to see what I needed to see from the page I was looking at. This way, I ‘bulk process’ my tasks. I will sit down with the calendars as I need to and work off of them without getting distracted by the rest.

I’d love to hear what things help you feel successful and organized.

Let’s make space for our minds,

~Carmen

Weekly Letter: Happy 2024

*Weekly Letter is the letter I include in my weekly yoga studio newsletter.*

Me to Levi: I want to write something about new years resolutions, but how they don’t work.

Levi: there’s a podcast you should listen to…

Link to the transcript and recording:

The Problem with setting goals with NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho

You don’t have to read/listen to the whole thing if you don’t want to, but the first part highlights where I was trying to go with goal-setting, but with more depth.

I frequently see people creating a goal only to be discouraged by it. They take on yoga teacher training and never practicing again once it’s over. As soon as the individual misses their practice or completes the program, the goal is either unattainable or achieved and then the intended inertia it was supposed to bring, very quickly becomes something draining. They become resentful of the goal as opposed to empowered by it.

I read something recently about choosing the pain you wish to endure in pursuit of what you want to achieve. Deciding the end result is easy. Are you prepared and willing to go through the pains it takes to get there? I will forever look at the goals I need to set through this lens.

I know this letter is less guided than others…I am just asking you to consider another idea.

Your friend in exploration,

~Carmen