Letter from the Editor
For the past couple of months, I have been adjusting to a new schedule here on the blog as well as a new teaching arrangement at school. And while the changes at school have been a delightfully positive shift, the blog schedule has had me befuddled to say the least.
And since two changes had occurred, I assumed I would just have to wait it out before enough time passed for me to settle in. But no, something was a little off, and I realized I needed to address it.
While working through my understanding of why I felt so betwixt and confused, I came upon a few realizations.
First realization: I miss writing!
With only one inspirational or motivational post a week, I miss playing with words, sharing thoughts and picking out ideas that capture my attention. While Monday’s have kept me engaged and focused, it feels like such a long wait until the following Monday arrives. However, and this is the conundrum, there are only so many hours in a day and therefore a week, which means something has to be cut. And to be honest, it has been wonderful to gain back a bit more of a social life these last few months. So what to do?
Well, you’re looking at it. From time to time, without a schedule, rhyme or reason, I will write a Letter from the Editor post. Similar to this one I posted last month, it could be about anything, but my hope is to find an outlet to communicate more openly with you, the readers, about topics, life questions and inspiration that is on my mind.
Second realization: Let things unfold as they will.
As someone who has had very clear goals set for my career and financial security, I know without question that my ability to control my spending, decision-making when it came to where to attend school, which jobs to apply for, how to nail the interview and where to save my money was necessary for success, but I’ve also realized something else. I can’t expect to have this type of control in all arenas of my life – especially in my personal relationships.
And as someone who is goal-oriented and doesn’t want to waste time, this was a hard realization to accept.
But while realizing this life truth is one thing, accepting it and embracing it is quite another. So how do we go about letting life progress at its own pace? Here are a few tips:
1. Set intentions, not expectations - Rather than setting concrete expectations that if not met will put you in a bad mood or cause an argument to erupt, set an intention for what you hope to happen. What is the difference? At the beginning of each yoga class, my instructor always reminds us to set an intention for the class. Once we’ve done that, it is up to us to do what we can in the hour of class to help our intention materialize. However, if it doesn’t, we choose to rather celebrate our best efforts and the mini triumphs that occurred rather than berate ourselves. And the proof is in the pudding – each time I walk out of class at the end of the session I always feel lighter, refreshed and a bit more successful (and I’ve yet to do every pose correctly in one session).
In other words, we need to visualize what we desire and not expect it will happen just because we want it to. Why? Because there are a myriad of factors that come into play – unexpected events, other people, our body’s abilities, etc – and it is how we flow with these uncontrollable variables that determine the outcome. So rather than being disappointed when we don’t get precisely what we imagined, why not embrace all of the other unexpected events and positive moments that occurred that we may have taken for granted or not expected?
2. Respect your intuition – As we navigate through life, we will run up against frustrating moments from time to time. We will be put into situations that don’t make sense and so we will seek out advice from our family or friends. However, more often than not, our intuition, if we’ve honed it, knows how we should best proceed.
Only we can know how the conversation really went, only we can know the context of any given situation and only we know the truth of how we behaved – the tone of our voice, the facial expressions, etc, etc. While we can certainly share out with friends and family about the events, seeking advice from people who can only speak from their perspectives and views of how life should move forward will only give us insight into them. And aren’t we living our lives, not their’s? Food for thought if nothing else.
3. Get on with your life – Rather than waiting around for life to happen for you, live your life. Go after what excites you, piques your interest and invigorates you. Choosing to live this way frees you from expectation because you can’t know the outcome of something you’ve never done, and that often makes life all the more exciting. This is where planning and goal-setting can most certainly occur and should if you wish to complete a task, open a business or create a new prototype. Dive into your life, enjoy it and that will create a positive electric energy around you that will open up the world around you and introduce you to others more than you can imagine.
So as you can see, for me, there is something intoxicating about writing, re-thinking and trying to go about life better than I did yesterday. Thank you for continuing to join me on this journey. It has yet to let me down, and I am confident it will be even more exciting as new and more rewarding experiences present themselves. Have a beautiful and inspiring weekend. Bonjour.
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