I CHOOSE VANILLA - 2013 Mantra

Each year Jeremy challenges us in December to create a mantra for the upcoming year.  This is the 3rd year I've done it!

• 2010 Mantra: Live as if Everything You Do Will Eventually Be Known
• 2011 Mantra:  Became a series of mantras changing throughout the year to accompany my goal of going to The Reebok 2011 CrossFit Games
• 2012 Mantra:  With Childlike Spirit .......which started off like THIS and ended up more literally like THIS

All of this leads me to my 2013 Mantra:  I Choose Vanilla!
I figured with last year's becoming so real :) - I should pick something that was a little less dramatic if it came to life!

For those of you who have participated in the Landmark Forum you may "get it"  - However, I realize for a MOST of the world it sounds like the lamest Mantra ever!!! Why would anyone choose vanilla?  Vanilla = conventional, bland, unexciting.  In fact here is what the Urban Dictionary had to say:

Definition of vanilla

vanilla

adjective

• bland, boring, normal.

  I would ask Mark to the show, but he is so vanilla.

  That was pretty vanilla. I think it needed more flair.

So what does it mean to me?
I Choose Vanilla:  Means that I CHOOSE and accept everything that comes my way in 2013.  I choose "it" just because I "choose" it!  The faster I can adjust/adapt/accept the path that I am on - that I am creating - that God has planned for me - the EASIER my life is!  I am notorious for expending obscene amounts of mental and phyisical energy "fighting" against imaginary battles or against enemies that I can't control!  I Choose Vanilla is a way to remind myself that the path I am on can be easy and that life is not a fight but a journey (yep, I just wrote that #cheesyIknow)

Some examples of I Choose Vanilla so in 2013:

• My timeline is HIS timeline - Life is easy when my plans are made around Jacob's schedule.  Once I got that down - getting stuff done, making appointments, etc became 100% better.  ie: my schedule would have been to post a 2013 Mantra in January - his schedule gave me time in mid-March :)
• This is what I do at night - Staying up and/or holding a baby for HOURS so that he can go to sleep was oddly one of the hardest adjustments for me to make. I wanted so badly to fight this - to "make" him sleep quicker - but surrender brings an entirely new joy to the task and the ability to enjoy Jacob as a baby (P.S. he is already 6 months old!!!!)
• This is my body...(for now)..... don't fight nature or time - You'll lose everyday!  It's actually pretty amazing.
• Going Individual...more on that soon....

Having a child has to be one of the single most humbling - life altering things that can happen: going from "not a parent " to "parent"!  I realized VERY soon after Jacob was born that I could resist the changes and try to hang on to ways of Pre-JBT or I could choose to enjoy what IS.  It may sound like a simple switch for some of you but for me it's something that I need a constant reminder of  - when I do choose vanilla  I am suddenly able to be present with my son, my husband, my current body/fitness and appreciate the NOW.
This is NOW: