Welcoming 2016
Hey, y’all. And happy new year!
I know I said that I was hoping to blog more and please know that’s the truth and my intention but man I can’t seem to find the time. Wait I don’t even know if that’s true. Energy is more like it. I’m running low on energy during my ‘off time’.
Luckily I have recognized this and have started to make some changes in order to be THE STRONGEST LIZA POSSIBLE.
So much is going on. And I feel like in order to optimize the momentum and keep my sanity, I need to build strength. And possibly as a side effect I will get toned arms and glowing skin.
I’ve started a new daily practice called morning pages. Have you heard of morning pages? It’s an exercise you do right after you wake up where you write down three pages of conscience flow. The idea (I think) is to clean out the clutter in your brain so you can access your inner voice and creativity. The result, a clear mind. It’s therapeutic, slightly meditative and I love the silence that it involves. Ticol and I started doing it while traveling in Mexico and the things we have discovered have been pretty sweet. The answers are inside of us, we just have to find them! Silence is such a key factor here. Have y’all read The Artist’s Way?
On top of morning pages I’m practicing yoga and seeing a personal trainer. I need to get my body stronger. I have a lot on my plate and it’s going to keep piling up, buffet style. I need to be able to clean out the junk in order to put my energy to go use. So that’s that.
All of this is a part of my 2016 goal list.
Last January when we were traveling through the south of Chile I had two weeks of intense reflective time. Nature and silence allowed me to recap the previous year, evaluate the good and the bad, and paint a clear picture of how I wanted 2015 to pan out. I thought about specific goals, replayed them in my brain, voiced them to Ticol and kept it simple. I want Nola to become less dependent on Liza & Ticol aka the team needs to grow (or we will fry just like that chicken), I want each of us to take a separate vacation (b/c I know Nola wont be ready for both of us to be out of the country for more than 48hs), I would like to up my yoga game and spend more time on bettering Liza, and I would like to read more. I want Nola to be xyz….
Everything came true. And not because I’m lucky but because I made it happen. I’m so tired of people saying how lucky I am. LUCKY? How?!! All of this, yeah, I made that happen, just like you can too.
I had endless curveballs throughout the year both professionally and personally but I kept on pushing and ultimately everything was resolved in one way or the other.
This year we welcomed the new year in Mexico. We had 2.5 weeks to taste our way around a vibrant country. Perhaps it was my favorite trip of Ticol and I’s, apart from the one where we met (it’s kind of hard to beat 5 months of tropical backpacking when you’re 25 and falling in love and don’t even know it, yeah?). We spent our time in Mexico eating and observing. Once we left DF (the capital) we headed to Oaxaca, rented a car and drove for days throughout the desert, mountains, jungle and coast. A perfect setting for more reflections as we crossed into Chiapas and then the Yucatan.
What is it about water that creates such a pensive mood?
One morning while on Playa Brasil off the Oaxacan Pacific Coast I started to write a letter to 2016 while watching the sunrise. The stillness of the morning, the crashing waves, pelicans diving for their breakfast, it made me feel so small in this giant world. Yet I feel like I carry such a burdening weight sometimes, most times really. So I wrote my letter in silence, shed some tears, set my goals, signed it off, gave it a big kiss, turned the page, and jumped in the ocean.
The sense of relief was so intense and refreshing. Like a massive cleanse almost.
Which I think in some way is exactly what I need to start my year.
This years goals are …. BIG.
I wont get into them, one thing I’ve learned over 2015 is to sometimes just keep my mouth shut because some people just take take take. And I don’t know if it’s an Argentine thing or what, but man there are a lot of copy cats out there and I’m tired of people taking my ideas and attaching their name to it with no thanks or recognition involved. Where’s the originality or creativity, people? Or is that just toohard? It’s inevitable, I know. Ya esta.
I wont be bitter.
I was for a while and luckily worked through that. Bitterness doesn’t serve me in any way, gotta let that go, girl.
All I know is I need to be true to myself and the people I care about and those that care about me. I need to focus on my intentions, both the cause and effect. I need to do a better job with staying in touch with my friends and family who mean the world to me. I want to be a better leader, a better partner, a better listener and most of all more compassionate to myself. Because if I’m good with myself more good will come to the ones I surround myself with.
So, 2016, are you ready? I know you are. You just began yet you are already making me dance.
Just within the last few days after retuning from Mexico things have spiced up. For example- Saturday in the middle of service water started coming out of the floor in the storage unit and flooded the entire restaurant. We luckily have understanding clients and amazing neighbors that gave us a hand to resolve the issue which unfortunately only worked for a couple of hours before the water started rushing out again resulting in us having to close early.
The next morning bright and early two plumbers arrived and discovered that there was a piece of plastic in the pipes from the mens bathroom that apparently someone flushed and clogged the whole system. FUN!
Meanwhile on this Sunday morning NOLA is on the cover of the biggest newspaper in Argentina, a massive surprise, and while my head is spinning of excitement the realistic fear is very much present going, are we even going to be able to open today?? This flooding situation needs to be resolved NOW. We can’t be on the cover of La Nacion and have to close the same day because of maintenance issues!!!! So many emotions.
The plumbers came and fixed everything fast and efficiently and the show went on.
2016, I’m full of nerves yet somehow at ease.
Will you be gentle? Will you allow me to travel a bit? Please tell me yes and to where! Please say Bali please say Bali. I’ll be good with just one trip this year, promise!
Can we somehow get some friends to come to BA for a visit? And perhaps chain them down so they can never leave?
Amsterdam, we’re gonna be good friends. Which makes so much sense because I bloody loved spending time with you a few years back. I can’t wait for our friendship to sky rocket, I hope you’re ready.
Jaw, are you ever going to loosen up and stop being so damn tense?
There’s so much I want in this life.
I will get there.
No doubt!
What about y’all? 2016 goals?!
Put them out there!!
