Two Months Later

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It's been about two months now since we came back to France after a five years break and moved to Bordeaux. The beginning was a little rocky I must admit, the apartment we originally were supposed to live in turned out to be a horrible mess, we ended up staying in a hotel for one week before found the place that we now live in, I learned that my employment would be a lot trickier than I first thought, I seemed to have forgotten most of my French and even the simpliest conversations caused me headaches, my rheumathism was kicking my butt 10-0, we still hadn't found someone to rent our flat in Poland, there was a lot of paper work to sort out from getting married (some in Finland, some in France) and well, the list is endless!

One leisurely Sunday in town.

These perfectly formed little passages got my heart going...

Omelette & bananabread brunch.

One of those quilty moments... But hey, when in France, eh?

Banana bread.

Slowly getting some exercising done after an unfairly long break!

Now, we're at the beginning of October and we've settled in. I speak French rather well, some could even say almost fluently, I've sorted my CV in French and have my fingers and toes crossed it'll bring me results sooner than later on my job hunt (so far, staying optimistic, we'll see how I'm doing in my next catch up post). So far I've been sending an English version of my CV to companies (where the job advert has been in English) as well as a French language version of the original and was wondering why it resulted in zero hits or interviews so far. Back home I had been told my CV was good and although I knew it must have been slightly out of date when it comes to its' format, I was surprised when I heard the feedback from a French connection lately.

After the games there's normally a social mixer at the VIP area of the ice rink, this is where the players go greet the sponsors and other people involved with the club. It's normal for wives and girlfriends (and even babies!) to tag along in this post game gathering and socialize. So that's what I was doing the other week when I came accross someone that works closely with the team as a sponsor. I got offered help with my CV as well as help sending it over to some potentially interested companies and so on. Later on the week I met up with this contact to go over my CV and I was then really surprised when I saw how the French CVs were expected to look like. For instance, if you had no picture on your CV, you would automatically have something shady about you and nobody would give a second look at your resume despite what experience you had listed there. After a one hour session I went back home and completely re-did my resume. No wonder I didn't hear back from anyone before! Now, thanks to this great network the team has, I might stand a chance on the job market ;)
 
Besides the massive work on my CV, I've fixed my passport and other documents that needed sorting out after getting married, I've gotten some sports back to my weekly routine which has helped with my rheumatism as well, I feel at home in our apartment and the town, I've made friends with pretty amazing people, ice hockey season has kicked off nicely, I've done some things outside my comfort zone (I went to a spinning class in a pool, in a one piece swimming suit for starters, let me just say, yey me!) and a lot more. In addition, I've been spending some time in the kitchen, baked my first banana bread, created a new recipe for healthy breakfast pancakes and well, perhaps one of the coolest things, discovered how to make a healthier version of Snickers at home (this deserves a hooray I think)! I'll put the recipies up here if anyone is interested in healthier goodies :) In the meanwhile, a few pics from here and there!

Paris <3 Had to take one quick snapshot while on my way to the Finnish embassy to fix my passport.

Does this really need a caption?

Salad with chevre.

A little reading corner at our home.

Have a lovely mid-week!

8 (false) Reasons For Not Doing Yoga

By all means, I am not a yoga expert so if you're expecting pictures of dancer asanas etc. you shall be disappointed. As I started to have problems with my back (=rheumatism) again at the beginning of the year and while the inflammations decided to have a rather permanent stay at the premises of my body, I became desperate.

I could not do my regular gym resume, no running (this was so disappointing it really killed my mood!), at some point I couldn't even go for long walks etc. I was literally trapped inside an old woman's body before reaching my 30s. I started to refer to myself with the nickname grandma, in a sad way it felt accurate. What wasn't comfortable was that due to high stress levels and no movement I wasn't losing any weight but morelike gaining back what I had lost with hard work the year before. I needed the endorfins that I normally would get from running, but how?

I think I've said this before, but here it comes again "things have a way of working out". I had been sitting alone in my corner of the office for a year, when one day a new colleague joined the company and came to sit in my area of the office. We started chatting and the conversation turned to health and exercising, it turned out my new office neighbour was a yoga teacher! She insisted that I come and try a lesson at the school she teached in one day. Slightly suspicious at first, I decided what the hell, I'll give it a go as I can't do much else at the moment anyway! And after my first visit, I understood, that all the reasons I had before for not trying yoga, were wrong.

Here's my (false) list of reasons for not trying yoga and how I overruled them after trying yoga:

1. You're not flexible. You don't have to be, the flexibility is a bonus that comes with time and practise. 

2. You're not the skinny yogi type. There is no weight limitation for yoga, everyone can do it. Yoga can help with your weight control.

3. You're not strong enough. Yoga helps develop strength, you start with the strength you have and time after time you get stronger.

4. What will the others think. This is such a cliché. Everyone else is busy doing what their doing, nobody cares! And on the other hand, what everyone else thinks about you is none of your business.

5. It's outside my comfort zone. The best things happen outside your comfort zone.

6. It's too hard. Good things never come easy.

7. Yoga is not a sport. Everyone who's tried it knows better.

8. I have no time for it. Every minute counts. With good time management you can easily fit a 30 minutes session to your morning. Every session doesn't have to be 90 minutes long!

Have a lovely evening!

Learn to Let Go, Perfectionist

Yet another week that has flown by too fast. Do you ever feel that your week only consist of Mondays and Fridays? Anything in between goes by as some grey fluff that you can't recall and after a few weeks have passed you wonder yet again where did the time go?

Perhaps your weeks go buy with high levels of stress, with you wondering how to survive this week while you want to shine in everything you do and master all areas of your life a 100%. You perfect little thing you. You might think that if you're excellent in everything you'll have the ultimate level of happiness in your life too. Think again dear. I ran into a great quote lately in LinkedIn from a former CEO of Coca-Cola. Here's how it went:

I've been having a lot of open questions in my life lately and have lived under constant high level of stress for quite some time. When I saw this quote, it gave me some peace of mind. Not everything in life needs to be a continuous performance of excellence. It's ok to not be great all the time and it's ok to accept that. Focus on the things that really matter and learn to recognize when excellence is truly needed and relevant. This does not mean settling for less though.

The problem with perfectionism is, in real life there is no "perfect" of any kind. If a perfectionist doesn't reach a level of what they imagine would be perfect for the things they do, they will feel like they've failed and the guilt adds up. Perfectionists also often compare themselves to others with similar goals to theirs and when they try to reach excellence in all areas of life, you can imagine the level of comparing to others is ridiculous and even the perfectionist would acknowledge this.

Social media is not making things easier for perfectionists as people tend to present only the optimal/good side of things online whether it's work, home or looks. What needs to be remembered is the old saying "things are never fully as they look like" or "if something seems too good to be true, it probably is". Keep a healthy level of skepticism in mind whatever your viewing and you'll feel a little less pressure for being perfect.

What matters the most are those four things: family, health, friends and spirit. These are the fundamental things in life, the things that make life taste like life. The things that make you live all the days of the week and not just the Mondays and Fridays. Work is important as it is a big part of our lives but work is the rubber ball that bounces back if you drop it. Perfectionist and highly ambitious people easily forget themselves inside the world of work and all things career. We need people like that but not at the cost of health, family, spirit and friends. We need to put things to right perspective and ensure that the time outside office hours is not spent stressing about the things at the office but focusing on the things that matter.

I've moved far from my family, left friends behind, had a lot of health issues and a struggled to keep my spirit up through all that. I've definitely damaged a thing or two but I've always kept my career at a high priority. The past four months (and probably more) I've lived Mondays and Fridays in poor health. My rheumatism has kicked back, my heel has been so painful I have barely been able to walk for the past two weeks, my jaw muscles are so inflamed due to stress (I bite my teeth together during nights) I cannot chew properly and have constant pain and my eyes got inflamed as well a couple weeks ago. All these things have been related to high stress levels. In addition to my autoimmune disease too of course.

I went to Prague for a long weekend a week ago and had a lovely time with my parents. I saw my future husband play ice hockey on the big arena and was so proud of him. I realized the last time I had been there was seven years ago and then as well with my parents. At that time we were just starting to get to know each other with the hubby. Seven years and most of those had been spent seeking for excellence and trying to perform in all areas of life. Weeks consisting of Mondays and Fridays. All of that made me see things a lot more clear and put things to the right perspective.

The cup is half full, that's my spirit. This summer we're getting married and start a new chapter in life overall. It's time to leave Krakow and Poland behind for now and head back to France. For the first time in my life I let the work ball drop and bounce back on its own pace. For the first time I don't have a clear plan but I trust the process and trust things will sort out. For the first time I'll learn how to let go of my inner perfectionist and focus on the stuff that matters :)

Good night!