It’s Time to Positively Rock In the New Year!

The new year is almost here. Feels like the past 12 months flew by. Does time speed up as we age? Some say it does.

Reflecting In The Rearview Mirror
While I’ve been doing a good job of practicing mindfulness and living in the present, come December I find myself looking back in the rearview mirror. There are more wrinkles on my post 50 neck and  face, but not for lack of anti-wrinkle creams and serums. Thanks to all the nice  PR reps from Loreal, AHAVA, EB5, and Beverly Hills Cosmeceuticals for keeping my skin care in check in 2015.

Thanks to all the PR reps who sent me anti-wrinkle creams and serums.

My blogging brought me other good fortunes this year, with a trip to Portugal on my first-ever Viking River Cruise and my first-ever international trip with my boyfriend L. It was an adventure and the best part is that L and I still love each other after eight days onboard.

My boyfriend L and I took our first-ever Viking River Cruise to Portugal.

In addition to my travels, 2015 brought great personal and professional growth as I started my training to become a yoga instructor at Lourdes Institute of Wholistic Studies in Camden, NJ. Being a student again after more than 35+ years has not only physically stretched my body, but also required me to emotionally open my mind and spirit. The best news is that I passed my first semester. (Go Judi! Go Judi! Go Judi!)

In 2015, I started my training to be a yoga instructor.

Time To Rock In The New Year
The January magazines are on my night stand with bold headlines for 2016: Vogue says “Be Yourself!” InStyle shares “How To Get Away With The Best Year Ever!” AARP The Magazine advises “Experts Agree: Slow Down To Live A Longer, Healthier Life.” Oprah says in O, “No moment but this one is guaranteed, so I’m ready to be in each as the healthiest, strongest, fittest, most conscious, most alive me I’ve ever been.”

I hear you all. My headline is to “Positively Rock In The New Year!” That’s right. I plan to positively welcome 2016 with my BFF L and her hubby and my boyfriend L when we celebrate New Year’s Eve together – if we can all stay up until midnight. Then my plan is to continue to positively rock in 2016 – each and every day. (BTW, I’m wearing a Rock Cotton – Cotton For Your Body, Rock For Your Soul – tee-shirt dress that the nice PR rep N sent to me. Each shirt comes with a matching rock necklace. My rock was onyx – with properties of strength, positivity and stamina. Perfect for my 2016 theme.)

I intend to rock in the new year wearing my Rock Cotton tee shirt dress.

So Excited For 2016
I know I’m supposed to live in the moment, but there are so many things I’m excited about in 2016:

♥ Mala Meditations – I received a Be Present mala designed by Silver & Sage Jewelry for Chanukah. A mala is a set of beads used to focus and center oneself during meditation. My mala has 108 beads and I go around the entire necklace each morning as I meditate, inhaling and exhaling as I touch each bead.

According to Silver & Sage, “each bead may represent a mantra, prayer or intention. The stones of the mala provide certain properties. My mala includes: “Turquoise a stone of healing, which provides protection and promotes purification by releasing negative energy; agates which help one find emotional, physical and mental balance; smoky quartz which promotes positive thought by relieving stress and anger; and chrysocolla, a stone of communication, encouraging compassion and strength of character.

I meditate with my Be Present mala from Silver & Sage Jewelry.

♥ Yoga Training Second Semester – In January, I will begin the spring semester of my yoga training. By May 2016, if all goes well, I will receive my 200 YTT certification. More importantly, during the next several months I will be reading a translation of the Bhagavad Gita. Stephen Mitchell, the translator, says that reading the Gita, “presents some of the most important truths of human existence in a language that is clear, memorable and charged with emotion.” Stephen says “Whatever intellectual or esthetic satisfaction it may provide its purpose is to transform your life.” For sure, I will share my Gita learning and yoga journey with you on my blog.

♥ Fabulous Family Vacation – My daughter A will have a special birthday in 2016 and we’ll be taking a family vacation to celebrate this summer. She wants to go back to Italy and explore Positano, a new place we haven’t visited. Better build up my post 50 stepper stamina – just read that there are 75 – 85 steps between the town and our lodging.

♥ Beautiful Bathroom – I’m upgrading my master bathroom in 2016 with a deep soaking bathtub to soothe my aching muscles after I build up my stepper stamina. Besides international travel during my life after 50, I LOVE taking baths. In fact, I’m thinking of trying one of the current trends called sensory deprivation tanks, where you float for an hour in a big tub of epsom salts. Definitely adding to my “to do list” for 2016.

♥ The Pantone Color of the Year 2016 – Ever leading the trends (as my astrologer told me years ago) and being a student of yoga and mindfulness, I was thrilled when Pantone announced Rose Quartz, “a persuasive yet gentle tone that conveys compassion and a sense of composure” and Serenity, ” weightless and airy, like the expanse of the blue sky above us,” as its tandem Color of the Year 2016.

“With the whole greater than its individual parts, joined together Serenity and Rose Quartz demonstrate an inherent balance between a warmer embracing rose tone and the cooler tranquil blue, reflecting connection and wellness as well as a soothing sense of order and peace,” said Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute.

Pantone Color of the Year 2016 is Rose Quartz and Serenity. (Credit: Pantone Color Institute.)

♥ Good Vibrations and Wellness – Having recently begun atlas orthogonal chiropractic treatment for my very painful occipital neuralgia, I am hoping for greater healing in 2016. My dad always said that “if you have your health, you’re rich.” May my atlas stay adjusted and may I feel better day by day.

These are just a few of the things I’m excited about for 2016. Who knows what more 2016 will bring.  What are you excited about for the new year? Share a comment. As Virginia Woolf said: “A self that goes on changing, is a self that goes on living.”

Have a happy and healthy new year!

Judi