I’ve spent the last 12 months living in or within 3 miles of my childhood home. After rocketing back from a summer in southern Arizona, Singapore and San Francisco — and a full, final semester at OU — I was finally ready for a change of pace from the hectic, travel-filled sprint my life had…
Category: ‘Body Mind Bella’ Blog
Take Root: Mindful movement in practice
I knew in the first few minutes of the class that it wasn’t going to be to my liking. I noticed right away, its absence all but unnerving my supposed-to-be calm senses. There was no music. Breathe in through your nose, the instructor nudged his pupils in the stony silence. I did as he instructed,…
Thoughts on my first retail job
I closed the cashier drawer for the last time yesterday evening. For the last 6 months, I’ve been working part-time (although sometimes it definitely felt like full-time) at a natural foods grocery store in my hometown. I took the job back in August, when the prospect of graduate school applications and a year “off” at…
Untangling Identity: Letting go of “smart” ego
The smell of seven snickerdoodles was almost assured every time a new report card came in the mail. As a kid, my brother and I were front-row customers at our local Cheryl’s Cookies bakery on report-card day. It was family tradition. Some well-kept secret in the neighborhood had somehow reached our doorstep: For every “A”…
Under Construction: From work to worth
I’ve been playing a lot of games of solitaire recently. I enjoy everything about the game: The familiar shape and sound of the cards stacking up. The seemingly infinite ways one can win a game. The quiet meditation the game requires, concentration away from any screen. I think I’ve been drawn to the game recently…
The Burnout
I’d be untruthful if I didn’t admit that I’ve stumbled, I’ve struggled, and I’ve failed to do what I set out to achieve in these last work-filled 3 months. But I’ll tell you what I know now to be true: It’s always been easier for me to run away from what haunts me, challenges me,…
