Seek Beauty in Your Transitions
Over the past few weeks, I’ve talked about finding Readiness for Change, committing to getting just 1% Better and the importance of Practicing Affirmations for a smoother process of improving, of gowing-- of changing.
All of this leads us to one BIG topic— one that may scare you, yet is ever-present in our lives. There is no way to avoid this beast, so I figure, why not learn to navigate it a little bit better?
Transitions.
Leading away from discomfort and towards the horizon is what I want to talk about this week. Going back a ways— almost a year now, I wrote a Monday Mantra about the discomfort I felt from losing my coaching jobs, and along with it my weekly connection to my students.
At home, nothing to do, having some pity parties, I decided to have a few uncomfortable conversations with myself, to sit, to breathe deep, and to get still. It was then that the horizon appeared, revealing the future of what my business would hold… and that is exactly what led me to this awesome new community…
Don’t get me wrong— of course I didn’t want this change to happen. I was loving my routine and did NOT want that messed with. But welcoming in this transition has brought me closer to people I probably wouldn’t have otherwise, and led me to meet many new amazing people. I am now enormously grateful for my CardioOM tribe, my Yoga people, and my Total Wellness Group.
I want to share with you a lesson I’ve learned on transitions that I hope will enliven you to the changes happening in your life now, and the ones that will happen later down the road.
I also want to hear how you’re relating to the transitions in your life-- Look for the prompt at the end of this reading.
JOY IN THE JOURNEY
In yoga training, it’s often said that the transitions between the poses are just as important as the poses themselves. We get so distracted by our “to do’s” - work, errands, dinner - that we lose our sense of joy in the journey of our life. Instead of finding it in the present moment, we wait expectantly for the future to hold it instead.
When we can wake up to the present moment, wake up to our true essence, wake up to our highest selves— our minds become less dogged by their own roaming tendencies (90,000 thoughts a day) and less bogged down by the kleshas, a yogic term for afflictions like ignorance, egoism, attachments, aversion and clinging to life.
Waking up takes practice. Even if we practice everyday, it’s never the same— we are never the same. Realizing this, we can also see that nothing ever has to be the same.
Maybe then, even as we walk between the rooms of our house, we can pay a little bit more attention to the journey, to the transitions from room to room, rather than just hurrying onward to the next destination.
And like this, we can turn our whole life— which is ultimately a string of small and big changes and transitions-- into a moving meditation on what it means to be, become, and to finally no longer exist in the same way we do now.
Don’t wait for something big to be amazed. Keep finding “wow” everyday. Keep on waking up to change.