Sometimes I forget to “live life.” Seriously. I get so caught up in the rat race of the entertainment industry and the need to always be “doing something” to help propel my career forward, that I forget that “life” is what happens…every day. Now I know that might sound ridiculous. I mean life is obviously happening or I wouldn’t be typing this right now. What I mean is that I sometimes find myself not enjoying the journey or taking time out for all of the things that fill my heart that aren’t industry related and make all of the hard work worthwhile.
I’ve recently added in a regular meditation practice to my days which is helping center me a lot, and I am also making a commitment to get back to making yoga a regular part of my fitness regimen because it always fills me with joy and calms my mind.
Last summer in an attempt to pull myself back into the daily joys of “living,” I created my Bucket List of Randomness to make “life goals” for things that are outside of the industry, things that would just be hella fun! Looking at the list again made me want to revise it a bit for where I’m at now in 2013. So here it is!
Helenna’s Bucket List of Randomness aka) Things to do…eventually.
1. hug a gorilla (but I’m not a fan of zoos so this might be tricky)
2. do a crazy fun photo shoot or film shoot out in the desert and at the Salton Sea
3. “high five” Joss Whedon
4. dance with Ellen
5. say “Thank You” to Nathan Fillion for the great advice he gave me when I ran into him at the Yaletown Brewing Company in Vancouver back in 2006
6. grow a garden
7. FINALLY go to New York
8. finish at least one book that has been sitting on my bookshelf that I’ve only read 1/4 of…that would be almost all of them…
9. cook an amazing vegan feast from scratch for my hubby (no jarred or prepackaged items)
10. rescue a dog
11. become a skilled archer (NOTE: I’m working on this one every week! Woohoo!)
12. be “styled” by Ilaria Urbainati who gives me a major “stylegasm”
13. sit on a panel at Comic-Con (Woah, I accomplised this one this year! So…now it’s “sit on ANOTHER panel at Comic-Con
14. act along side Anna Faris in a female driven comedy
15. cook with Jamie Oliver
16. get really good at surfing
17. drink wine in Paris
18. tag along with a street artist as they…tag
19. meet the Dalai Llama
20. tell Craig Ferguson that he’s a “cheeky monkey” in person
21. fly in a private jet
22. star in a great horror flick, zombies preferred
23. go to the Hollywood Bowl (yes, I live in LA right now and have never been. *le sigh*)
24. go on a yoga retreat for at least a week
25. sponsor a child in the Philippines
26. play a gigantic game of hide and seek in a forrest
27. take a two month road trip across America
28. start a fire with just two sticks
29. hike the Grand Canyon
30. do voice and motion capture for a video game
31. be a spokesperson for a charitable organization
32. go to Burning Man
33. give blood
34. camp at Joshua Tree
35. volunteer at a soup kitchen
36. go with my mom to Peru
37. ride a camel
38. go to Fiji and stay in an uber swanky hotel
39. drink at an Irish pub in Ireland
40. fly in a helicopter
41. drive a motorcycle
42. get really good at shooting a gun at target practice
43. play a superhero
44. spend time in the Philippines getting closer to my roots
45. volunteer with a non profit
46. go to the Taj Mahal
47. go to New Orleans
48. learn to scuba dive
49. star in a project where everyone is a “minority” but not cliche character
50. play a kick ass sexy character like the girls in “Sucker Punch”