Witness your Mind

Yoga class always begins the same way- with a few stretches and taking a moment to breathe and "clear our minds." There was one exception to this week's starting routine: the instructor asked us to witness our minds rather than clear them.

This mantra became the intent for my practice tonight and I must admit that my mind was very active tonight as I took time to distance myself from my thoughts and simply bear witness to them.

What's on my mind? Well, many things:
- making sure that I'm searching for jobs and submitting appropriate materials for the few things I find
- studying for the GRE (osmosis and schlepping my book all over DC with good intentions will not help me learn all of those vocabulary words!)
- it's sunny and I want to enjoy my favorite season
- my passport is trying to coax me into using it
- Israel is calling
and much, much more

The past few days have been a blur of confusion as I've tried to continue to make a "plan." While I have a few strong ideas of what I want to do, when I will make decisions, etc., yet nothing feels concrete to me and I'm yearning for some facts to help guide my intuition in making a choice. My mom calls it "analysis paralysis" - just not able to make any decisions at all. Perhaps it's because in the past, I've had the opportunity to make plans prior to having to act. This has always allowed me to stay one step ahead and make contingency plans just in case. This time around, it feels like I am planning and acting all at once without a clear picture in mind of a short-term plan. It's left me frustrated to say the least and half-heartedly following a few different options until I find something really compelling that I'm willing to act on.

I recognized that I'm in a funk and I'm hoping that my travels next week will help give me a fresh perspective (and hopefully I'll have heard back on a few things that are currently in the works!). I keep reminding myself that "everything in life is only for now" and I know that I will soon have plans, ideas, and too many things to do!

To shift gears, I want to write about a new experience I had on Sunday at the grocery store. Being gluten intolerant, I tend to quickly pass over the cracker / cookie / baking aisle. The only store that ever has mixes and interesting treats for me to try is Whole Foods. That is, until I happened to glance at the rows of cake mixes, just in time to find something new. Betty Crocker now has a line of gluten-free baking mixes (yellow cake, brownies, and chocolate chip cookies to be exact!)!


I've never been so excited to stumble upon cake-in-a-box before. In college, I would by the regular variety to bake for friends but I never got to be a part of that "regular" store purchasing experience. That is, until Sunday! I've now joined the ranks of Americans who can buy cake mix in a regular grocery store (for less that $7 a package). This might seem trivial to many, but you try to go years without being able to purchase, let alone eat, baked desserts from a regular ole' grocery store. I will admit that these options have existed for years. Yet, my healthy eating habits and tendency to splurge on berries and other things instead of Sarah-friendly GF baked goods means that I don't eat them very often. I haven't yet made the brownie mix that I purchased but look forward to making them soon (pictures will be posted).

I'm going to end this entry here as I am finding it difficult to organize all of my thoughts in a cohesive way. I hope that everyone has a great end of their week!