Happy New Year! It was an incredibly challenging, but an overall excellent year. 2017 brought loss and grief; a lot of hard work; some amazing connection with people and friends; and many success stories. I finished my first year back as a full-time student with straight A’s for the first time ever! Feeling proud. Being a fulltime student; dad to a very energetic ten-year-old; and maintaining a private practice has been the most challenging endeavor of my life. I’m incredibly thankful for it. I’m grateful to have another year moving forward on this planet.
One of the biggest challenges I had last year was with my body, maintaining my personal movement practice, recovering from a sixth knee operation, while maintaining a parenting-school-work-life balance. Taking a full load of classes required sitting and studying for long periods of time. I had to be very intentional about movement and I wasn’t always successful. These are the realities and hardships of real life. Incorporating movement throughout the day is vitally important so that it doesn’t fall out of the schedule entirely.
Movement Video Diary
One way I created more space last year was building an outdoor obstacle course and setting up a slackline in my backyard. It added a really nice outdoor space to focus on movement and play. I feel that a huge step in cultivating a mindful movement practice is to create a dedicated space to move (see Establishing a Movement Practice: Where to Begin). As a way to challenge myself to move more, regardless of how bogged down I feel with school, work, and life commitments, I have started a new project. I have started a Movement Video Diary. This is a very intimate project for me. I will be documenting something that I have never really shared with anyone else, my personal movement exploration practice. This is my self-care with descriptions of how I feel each day and my process for exploring my body through movement.
If this is something you’re interested, here are the places I will post regular updates:
Goals and Intentions for 2018
I have set my goals and intentions for the year to move my body as well as grow my homestead and movement space. In 2018, I’m committed to:
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Two different kinds of persimmon trees and a loquat tree Another year of straight A’s
- Planting three fruit trees (already done)
- Finish my chicken coop and get chickens
- Build a backyard garden
- Moving more, with less pain, and getting back to doing some of the fun things I could do easily before my knee surgery–running, climbing, roughhousing with my kid, etc. (see Movement Video Diary below)
- Be inspired
I spent NYE in my gym getting back in touch with my body. For New Years Day, I did a 3-hour hike and followed it all up with a 30-minute movement restoration session. What a great way to start the new year!
I’d love to hear some of your goals for the new year! And if I can help you reach your movement goals in 2018, I’d love to connect about that, too!
Happy New Year from Tao-Fit!
Jesse James Retherford