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Vision and Goals Workshop plus a Forrest Yoga Class with Lululemon

Jan 4, 2014 | Uncategorized | 3 comments

Getting up on a wet and miserable day in London is never easy, however when there is the promise of coffee, some friendly faces and a free workshop and yoga class, it becomes a little easier.

Ashley, Steph, me, Zoe and Charlie

After a quick stop off at Starbucks, we arrived in time to get a front row spot at the Lululemon Vision and Goals Workshop run by Aoife. We were each given a handout with a number of exercises to work on throughout the workshop to support us in creating our vision and setting goals.

‘Setting a 10-year vision and the goals that support it allows you to create a clear picture of an ideal future and what it takes to get there. Jumping 10 years into the future inspires you to dream big because it removes the constraints of time, money and knowledge.’ 

The three main components in our lives are;

  • Health
  • Personal 
  • Career
Aoife explained that most of the time two of these prominent with the other takes a back seat. She then had us write down a number of words that we associate with these areas of our lives. Apparently  in order to set goals in health, personal and career it’s helpful to know what each of these domains in our lives mean to us. Here are a few of my words;
Health- fitness, headaches, running, balance, food, weight, exercise, asthma, nutrition, happy, 
Personal- relationships, friends, travel, balance, running, exercise, blog, money, stability
Career- food, money, creative, progression, travel, studying, passion, interest, writing
The next exercise was to think about what we want for ourselves and others, placing what we wanted in life inside a circle, and what we didn’t want outside of the circle. This helps focus on what’s important for us to have in our vision and goals. 
A few things that I thought about when thinking about what I do want included family, to be healthy, a loving relationship, good friendships, happiness, to travel, to live abroad, a stable income, to volunteer, to study and to be successful. I had far less in the ‘don’t want’ list, but those that I did have were more feelings than such as I don’t want regret, jealousy, to feel stuck, to become ill, for my family and friends to become ill, to stop learning and stop trying. 
Aoife invited us to lie down, and led us through an exercise looking at ourselves, our homes, our lives in ten years time.  I was surprised by how clear and image I had of what I’d like for myself in the future. The first thing I noticed was that I was living somewhere warm, so probably not the UK. I wasn’t in a big city, but a house in a smaller community. We wrote down this vision including little details, but using a vision board/pinterest board would also be a great way of doing this and working out what you want. 
We discussed with those around us what we saw in our visions, and it was interesting how similar ours were- perhaps because we have similar interests and hobbies- running, exercise and cooking all featured heavily! Using our visions of our future selves, we then worked backwards to choose one area and make goals to establish how to get there. The idea was that anything was possible, where did we want to be. We need to look forward, without constraints of money, time and the past, to get where we want to be and start on our way to achieve them now. 
We were invited to create a 10 year goal plus a 5 year goal and a 1 year goals with deadlines to help get there. We started with a 10 year goal then worked backwards, using affirmative language, stating what we were, had and created rather than ‘I will have’.  These goals are supposed to be audacious- apparently we should be failing 50% of our goals to know they are ambitious enough. I don’t know whether that’s scary or reassuring! Give it a go yourself, just sit down and allow your mind to take you to yourself 10 years in to the future. 
After our empowering workshop we moved on to the Forrest yoga class also led by Aoife. Forrest yoga is a modern style of yoga, similar to Hatha, and created by Ana Forrest. It’s know for its long holding of poses, ab work and standing series. 
My hips and glutes were certainly feeling Friday evening’s Yang and Yin yoga class. I’m seriously hoping that my 21 days of yoga challenge improves my flexibility as I really struggled during this class. Luckily I wasn’t the only one… 
See below for how this pose is supposed to look!
I did feel less stiff after a number of lunges and other hip openers, and I left with quivering muscles. These first three class I’ve done this month have all felt like real workouts, and I certainly worked up a sweat this morning. 

Lululemon showrooms offer free community workouts each week, it’s first come, first served so arrive early. See www.lululemon.co.uk for more information. Thanks to Ashley for some of these photos. 

3 Comments

  1. Tess @ FitBits

    This goals workshop looks wicked and I’m right with you on the yoga – I’m so unflexible! Been looking for extra classes to complete your #21DaysofYoga challenge as I haven’t actually started yet!

    Got my normal once-weekly class booked in Wednesday and am thinking of trying a 30day trial of Bikram as there’s a good deal on near me – have you tried it?

    Reply
  2. Lucy Edwards

    Sounds like a great class! I might join in the 21 Days of Yoga challenge, I’ve done yoga twice this week so I’ve made a start!

    Reply
  3. Emma StripesandSnapshots

    That’s a really interesting way of looking at goals. I’m guilty of only looking short term into the future, but if I think to myself honestly I know what I want long term, but sometimes I think I stop myself achieving these things. Very thought provoking, thanks!

    Reply

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