Month One of the New Year - dolphins, burlesque, mountains

So, I’ve already declared that 2019 is ‘The year of being outside of my comfort zone’… as apparently this is where the magic happens and life stretches, begins, grows and helps to bring clarity right!

Well I have to say, so far it’s going really well.

Thinking back to the start of the year (30 days ago) I camped solo, swam with Hector’s Dolphins, climbed up to Mueller Hut to stay the night with 27 strangers, taking over marketing operations for work, building KPIs and starting burlesque classes, quitting sugar and gluten - phew, what is February going to bring.

Swimming with the dolphins was so special and to capture the moment on the GoPro magical, if I had put my hand out I could have touched (I wouldn’t have) these beautiful creatures. It was like they knew that I wanted them to come and see me and they didn’t disappoint. So yes, this wasn’t quite outside my comfort zone as I was in the water and near dolphins, technically this could be my happy place.

I then proceeded on my adventure up to Mt Cook, now if you had told my 15 year old self that I would be walking up a mountain in 25 years time she would have laughed at you. But I did it and it was magical! To start with halfway up I realised I hadn’t done any training, due to injury, since Kokoda - bar yoga and basic walking - and that was back in September. How my body was happy to walk for 5 hours up a mountain, over 2000 steps and then into rocks, scree, boulders and snow, I just don’t know, but it did and it really was one foot in front of the other.

I can safely say this was outside of my comfort zone, for starters it was up a mountain to 1800m and that was straight up, with a pack, in the heat of New Zealand’s summer sun and the thought of ‘if I’m the last up there I’ll have to sleep on a top bunk and I won’t be able to climb up to it’ - this causes some anxiety, but I solved that by talking to a guy on the way up and asked nicely ‘as you’ll beat me can you save me a bottom bunk’ and he did!

Being up on the mountain was special, talking to strangers and seeing a friend up the top - go figure, all the way from Newcastle - then climbing up to the top of Mt Ollivier for sunrise and marvelling at being up in amongst a world where so few venture, I can see why so many get hooked on spending all their time in the mountains. Coming down the next day was even harder, 80-100km winds buffeting down from Mt Sefton and it certainly didn’t feel like summer up there, but it was only 3 hours down followed by a swim in Lake Pukaki, and that is perfection!

Needless to say, I’m on the look out for more mountains to climb and challenges to achieve.

Burlesque, now where do I start! I’ve always had a fascination with burlesque, the confidence, style, grace that the dancers show has always eluded me and it wasn’t until I was at my hairdressers chatting away last year that Lars said ‘go to the bring a babe day at Sky Sirens tomorrow’, so we found out I could still go even though they were booked out and I tried Lyra (ouch), Sling (fun), Pole (my hand wouldn’t even slide) and then Burlesque, it was then I knew I had found my next challenge.

Rocking up to my first class in my activewear, feeling uncertain, uncomfortable, vulnerable and prob every other feeling under the sun, an hour later I left feeling empowered, confident, and a few bricks from that wall had come down. Roll on week two, a few more bricks have come down and I left Sky Sirens with a beautiful white lace bodysuit, bring on week three (aka tonight) and I wore the bodysuit over a bra and underwear - safe to say a lot more bricks have come down and I even signed up for term two. My next challenge is still to signup for the performance and do our routine in front of others from the studio, but I know I can do it…

Along with dance, mountains, dolphins and more I have also detoxed from sugar/gluten/dairy, in my quest to heal my thyroid and hashimotos. I had already re quit alcohol back in November and I can give or take coffee so it is now my treat drink, so needless to say it’s been an amazingly busy month and there is more exciting news to come.

Now I just need to think about my uncomfortable challenge for February (even though technically burlesque is still going), maybe it might be climbing as I know I have always believed I’m terrified of heights, don’t trust people and can’t climb, so if anyone in Sydney is up for a newbie climbing adventure drag me along.

The reason I decided to do a lot of smaller challenges this year, is that 2018 was just so incredibly focussed on Kokoda and I felt lost after it, it’s taken a while to get my groove back and think of what goals to achieve next. This I am so excited to be doing and I can’t wait to see what each month is going to bring.