2011: Rebirth

Wow!  The year flies by, doesn’t it?  I’m in the midst of doing my planning for 2012, and I’m really excited for what the year holds.  As I look back on 2011, I realize that the pretty obvious theme for me this year was BIRTH.  Most notable was the birth of the Bean: Noah Dean on Easter Sunday (no more perfect day than that one for birth!)  But 2011 also was the year of rebirth for my business.  And interestingly these two are pretty intertwined.

Motherhood this year changed me in profound ways, and reorganized my priorities very quickly.  What was so interesting for me though was my strong desire to get back to my work helping people grow their dream businesses.  I was pretty unsure, to be honest, that I’d want to go back to work.  Toward the end of my pregnancy and those first few months, I thought that the only thing I’d want to do is snuggle my little bundle of joy for the next few years.  Some of my friends went that route, and they convinced me that it was THE way to go.  But as time passed, I realized that the Universe had a lot of diverse paths for me, and that it was OK for me to follow ALL of those paths that brought me joy.

One of my favorite books is called The How of Happiness.  In it the author, a psychologist, describes 12 “happiness” activities to pursue for sustainable long-term happiness.  Activity #10 is committed pursuit of goals.  Studies have shown that those that have meaningful goals that they are on the path to pursuing have a much higher happiness quota.  One of my goals is and has been to help people turn what they love into a thriving, abundant business.  I have been blessed with gifts of the abilities to communicate and teach and I get a lot of pleasure out of helping people succeed.  So this makes sense then, this idea of pursuing my goals.  I’d bet you also get a lot of pleasure out of reaching the goals that you set for your business.  This kind of stuff is made to make humans happy!

I’ve also read a lot about the ways mothers around the world cope with motherhood, work, and the pursuit of passion.  One group that fascinates me are the French.  (Alas, another France reference.  I’m obsessed.)  Many French women return to work, and the government makes it extremely easy to do so (6-month paid maternity leave, subsidized child care, 4 day work weeks! They pay for it in other ways, but still.)  In Judith Warner’s essay “Towards a Politics of Quality of Life” in the book, Paris Was Ours, she states that her French working mother friends never ever spoke about the “mommy guilt” of returning to work like American women do.  She says “work was seen as an essential component of modern motherhood, a component of good motherhood, in fact, beacuse it was something that helped women feel happy and whole.”

I absolutely agree now that having passions and pursuits outside of your children keep women vibrant…and yes, happy.

Not everyone gets this.  When I told several friends that I was really ready to start my work up again, I could feel them slowly look me up and down as if to say, “You’re choosing to go back?”  But I saw also that these same women devoted their entire waking (and sleeping) hours to their children, to the detriment of their own sanity and their other relationships sometimes.

Of course, the choice is such a personal one to each and every person.  No matter what you do you have to ensure that you keep a few things for yourself, and it doesn’t have to neccessarily be work.  But for me, my “work” is not really much work at all.  It’s frankly a helluva lot of fun.

So, that leads me right back up to 2012 and the awesome things I have in store.  I’ve got big goals this year, because I want to reach a lot more people with the message that you CAN earn a beautiful living as a yoga entrepreneur.  (Yes, I know how, and I can’t wait to teach you!)  In 2012 I’ll be investing more money than ever before in my own business, with mentors that will in turn stretch me to reach for what I want.  I’ll be offering classes, workshops, and a very special opportunity later on for a select few to join me in a Platinum mastery group – just for those fierce feminine warriors of my tribe that are ready to make big things happen in their own businesses.

I’m gonna start off the year as a guest speaker on a brilliant Yoga Business speaker series…details soon to follow on how you can listen to all the awesome speakers (some really big yoga peeps will be in this series) and it’s all free to you!

So as I sign off for what is most likely my last post for this year, I have a request.  I’d love to hear what big things you have in store, or what big decisions you made or conclusions you came to this past year.  Are you ready to join me in a really big 2012?  Yay!  Let’s DO this.

xoxoxo and happy happy holidays to everyone.

With so much love,

Valerie