Simple in San Francisco

As I head to San Francisco for the next week, I am being “yogic” in "setting an intention" for this latest adventure. This intention is centered around ease and simplicity. As much as I love to travel I often find myself in the midst of anxiety, walking in circles quite literally and putting so much pressure on myself to see everything worth seeing that I end up not really experiencing the full capacity of which I could if I could just simply calm down. In this ongoing effort to just be, I am finding more happiness, satisfaction and ease than I do when I run around from place to place trying to accomplish as much as humanly possible. This trip is about not trying too hard; exploring without expectation and enjoying without analyzing. I wouldn’t be me if I didn't have some kind of criteria outlined for myself, but these are just some things I’d like to do and remind myself of throughout the course of my week:

• Stay Present; get lost often and laugh about it
• Walk around a museum and really look at the art; take as much time as needed. There is no rush.
• Order a drink at a random bar by myself
• Meet a stranger, make a friend
• Do an insane amount of yoga, somewhere different everyday
• Feel what it’s like to be back in a university setting; be a student of travel
• Avoid buying obnoxiously expensive fresh green juice; or, go all out and order it with a shot of wheatgrass and all; don’t complain about how expensive it is or apologize for being a yoga freak 
• Spend time by the water; hike outside; take in as much fresh air as possible
• Buy a vibrant, colorful dress and rock it even if I have no where special to go
• Find a quaint coffee shop and blog; #talesofawriter
• Find as many free things to do in one day as possible
• Be okay without having every moment planned; it likely wont work out that way anyways
• Avoid tourist attractions and discover hidden gems; write them down
• Visit a winery and get drunk in the middle of the day “unintentionally”
• Don’t buy Kombucha if you venture into Whole Foods; suggestion: Avoid Whole Foods
• Be curious rather than anxious; find ease in simplicity
• Eat amazing food and don’t think about the price- you’ll get paid in a few weeks
• Breath every moment in, sigh every stress out
• Find a vintage shop and buy an eclectic piece of jewelry 
• Walk barefoot in the grass or in the sand; lululemon socks stay permanently dirty anyways
• Enjoy myself to the max. It’s that simple.

This ambitiously long list can really just be summed up in three words: 

Presence, Simplicity and Enjoyment. I’ll check in with this list at the end of my trip and not until then. I wont be carrying it around in my pocket, checking off each bullet point like kale on my grocery list. This is my experimentation; I’m eager to see how it pans out.