Amanda Kingsmith

yoga teacher. world traveler. writer. podcast host.

akingsmith@gmail.com

Day 20: Gossiping & Self-Esteem

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The other day, I caught up with a friend that I used to work with who I haven’t talked to for almost a year. We caught up about our current jobs and how life is going for both of us before we got onto the topic of some of the people we used to work with. I found myself telling her a story of a mutual friend and how that mutual friend had hurt my feelings this past summer. It felt good to talk about it with someone who knew the situation, but I found myself halfway through feeling guilty that I was gossiping about my friend instead of talking directly to her about the challenges I have with our friendship.

I don’t strive to be someone who talks about my friends behind their backs, or who deals with frustrating situations by venting to other people, and as I hung up the phone I found myself immediately feeling down. Acting against what I believe to be integral caused a hit to my self-esteem that impacted the rest of my evening, and left me with a really bad taste in my mouth.  [Read more…] about Day 20: Gossiping & Self-Esteem

Day 19: Being Sick in a Foreign Country

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I woke up a bit before 6am this morning to the familiar rumble in my stomach that told me I was going to be sick. I spent the next 30-45 minutes fighting the pain and the waves of nausea before I couldn’t fight it anymore. I proceeded to spend the next 4 hours getting sick.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I’ve realized that getting sick is the one time when I’m traveling that I really, really want to go home.  [Read more…] about Day 19: Being Sick in a Foreign Country

Day 18: Falling in love with Atlanta

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Yesterday, I wrote about my 19 favorite things about Atlanta, so I think it’s pretty clear that I love the city; but, today I wanted to write a little bit more about falling in love with Atlanta.

In September 2015, Ryan joined Praxis, and his business partner was in Atlanta, GA. So, we picked up our lives and moved to the Southern US. Ryan had to start his job a month before our lease was up in Canada, so he headed down a month earlier than I did. As he found an apartment and got settled into life in Georgia, I packed up the rest of our life back home, finished up work at lululemon, and embarked on a 5 day road trip to get down to Georgia.

After 5 days of solo travel, I was super stoked to see the Georgia state sign and know that I was almost “home”. Arriving at the apartment that Ryan had found felt strange. We had almost no furniture, cutlery or groceries, and it hardly felt like I was “home”. [Read more…] about Day 18: Falling in love with Atlanta

Day 15: 4 Must-Read Books Inspired by Ryan

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Today is Ryan’s 28th birthday and in honour of that I thought I would share 4 books that he encouraged me to read that have impacted my life in a positive way.

For those of you who know Ryan well, you know that he reads A LOT. Like, a lot a lot. He always has at least one book on the go, but it’s usually 2 or 3 books. Each time we have traveled, his backpack has contained more books than clothes. This is probably why he’s also one of the smartest people I know.

Every time he reads a book that he really likes or has had a positive impact on his life, he encourages me to read it as well. Sometimes I don’t, but most of the time I do. Here are 4 that impacted me the most:  [Read more…] about Day 15: 4 Must-Read Books Inspired by Ryan