Quite the week

Last Sunday, I had long talks with both Tennessee and Optimista. They both give such sage advice, and love me despite all my faults, neuroses and wackiness, and last Sunday was no different. Their advice all came down to two concepts. First, make your work and your svadhyaya your escape, instead of escaping from your work and svadhyaya. Second, step off the relationship rollercoaster and be with yourself for a while. Somehow that all flipped a switch inside my head, and everything started feeling much better - lighter, stronger, healthier. My binge noshings have disappeared, energy is so much more consistent, veggie consumption is up, carb consumption is down, procrastination has dropped to nearly zero, I'm even ENJOYING all the work a little bit (and now I can recognize Chinese 15th- and 16th-century professional paintings without thinking twice, for what it's worth).

This whole week has been super-productive in terms of reading for exams, and - better still - I don't have to prepare for them with my advisor. I ran into him at the library, and he gave me a choice: either take exams this May with the visiting scholar, or take them next fall with him. No question there: just sitting there across the table from him was making me all sweaty and nauseous, plus for the first time he admitted that he's really not all that familiar with my material (Chinese painting from beginning to contemporary, with a special focus on the eighteenth century and East-West interaction). The scholar I'll be working with is a Taiwanese woman who has published widely on all sorts of things connected with both my exams and my dissertation, does a lot of work with objects themselves, and I have to admit I'm far more excited about having a female in the role of exam-advisor. The older I get, the more I appreciate the advice and support of female role-models who had to manage all this sort of thing back when it was much harder simply because of gender roles and expectations, and in my experience are far more generous to young scholars and professionals because of that.

From a personal standpoint, it has also been a really excellent week:
*My living space is CLEAN and ORGANIZED!!!!
*I've had good hair days all week - it is finally getting long enough that it doesn't take fifty bobby pins to keep it in place.
*I was accepted into the graduate student a cappella group! Love singing, used to sing a cappella in college, and a friend from my college group actually sings in this new group as well, so it's good to spend so much time with her again.

*I've finally lost a noticeable amount of the weight I put on China, to the point that I fit into a dress that was tailored for me in Shanghai right after I arrive in China back in August 2005. My college singing friend invited me to her company party (belated holiday thing) as her "date" since her boyfriend was stuck at work, and I even wore the dress out to her swanky little party last night.
*Another few pounds, and I will fit again into my absolute favorite, goes-anywhere-just-change-the-accessories Little Black Dress (LBD) by my favorite Hong Kong designer, Shanghai Tang. Their stuff is REALLY expensive, but I bought this dress at their end-of-season sale years ago when I was working in Manhattan, and it has been one of the best investments ever. It was KILLING me not to fit into it, and now I'm so close that I can practically taste it. It feels so good to be healthy again!


This week I've been experimenting with some new podcasts: the new Yoga Journal podcast, and Grace Yoga by Arlene Bjork. The Yoga Journal podcast was pretty good: a little boring, and needed a theme and a few minutes of getting centered on the mat before jumping right in to the sun salutations, but a nice strong 25-minute flow. They need to put this on iTunes, however, instead of just having it on the website. The other podcast, Grace Yoga, is 60- to 75-minute strong, creative vinyasa flow. LOTS of vinyasas, and sometimes it can feel a little too much like a workout, but it reminds me a lot of Mimi's Level 2-3 Classes back at the Yoga Yard in Beijing, which were always amazing. Not having the regular 90-minutes, three-to-four times weekly practice that I had there is apparently taking its toll on my stamina, so I'm working on pushing past the 25-minute mark where I start to get a little tired and make some excuse related to work to end the practice early. It was easier to stick with a long practice in a class; much harder on one's own, but afterwards (like now, after a full hour of practice), it feels SOOOO much better and more satisfying. There are another couple of podcasts I'm working with as well, and I'll post full reviews of Grace Yoga and the others in a few weeks, after several more practice sessions.

By the way, did you know that fortune cookies are Japanese? Plus, here is the Minimalist's recipe for whole-grain pancakes from this week's NYT dining section.

WoYoPracMo Log:
1/15: 25 minutes, the new Yoga Journal podcast
1/16: Full round of "Om Namah Shivaya" and breathing on the mala
1/17: 20 minutes powerful flow
1/18: 25 minutes of a Grace Yoga podcast
1/19: 60 minutes to Grace Yoga's 1/4/08 podcast