Today the wind is blowing the sleet sideways. Frozen slush is pelting against my window and I’m thankful to be inside a warm home. My bones hurt. More than ever, I dream of our winter home-to-be in Spain.
This weekend, I’m off to Edinburgh, Scotland. Travel for me is a mainstay in life. Besides the sheer adventure of it, travel is a way to step outside our day-to-day. Or as a client recently said, “I love to travel because I awake out of my sleep.”
This year, I have been writing a memoir. I’ve been recalling the moments of my journey. I remember a day in Mexico that changed my life. I was a wide-eyed 18-year-old at the time.
My girlfriend Kim called me up and said, “Let’s go to Hawaii.” I didn’t have the money. She had been awarded money following a car accident and said it was her treat. We had been best friends off and on for a decade. Wow, I jumped at the chance!
I was scheduled to speak at a local Yoga Festival a short while ago but things went sideways on the day so I did not. Shame. Here’s a shortened version – a little Jnana yoga for the soul.
Many of you know that yoga isn’t just about exercise, postures or asanas. The different disciplines of Hatha Yoga were designed to prepare one’s body to sit for long periods of time in meditation. Meditation and contemplation are what’s known as Raja yoga.
From my perspective, meditation is one way to train your brain. The practice helps us release thoughts of the ego… wondering, worrying … to connect with ALL THAT IS.
Bhakti yoga is living a devotional life and surrendering to God. Mantra yoga is to awaken the self with deeper meditation. Karma yoga is the path of unselfish action with personal consequences.
Jnana yoga was to be my topic because it is the wisdom of knowledge and I’m all about self-knowledge and growth. I think it’s the most powerful thing we can for ourselves!
As I write this blog, I’m looking out my home office window. The sky is a lovely mixture of pale blue, white with predominant strokes of grey. The clouds form a montage of pale hues. Below is the sea, a grey and very faint turquoise. The tide is halfway out. There’s a calm about the weather today. I heard on the news this morning we could be in for thunder and rain showers so I suppose this is the calm before the storm.
So different than yesterday’s sky. I could see the coast of France clearly in the distance reminding me that I although live on a tiny island, Europe is at my doorstep and for that I am grateful. J’adore my trips to France.
I remember an ex colleague of mine couldn’t understand why I liked living in Vancouver or San Francisco. He said, “Everything is so far away from the West Coast!“ I thought it was such an odd statement because there was SO MUCH to the West Coast with easy reach to Hawaii, Mexico and the neighbouring Provinces or States depending upon what side of the 49th parallel I was sitting.
May has been a month of surplus emotion. My mood has been going UP and DOWN like a seesaw.
‘UPs” or feel-good emotions are a result of positive triggers whereas ‘DOWNs’ are the opposite. Some ‘thing’ or some ‘one’ pulls a trigger in our mind’s eye. As a consequence, we experience a feeling.
Positive triggers are sensory experiences that make us feel good. They result in creating a positive STATE OF MIND.
Amazingly, I turn 60 later this year. When I was a young girl, my mother used to tell me how fast time disappeared in adulthood. It wasn’t something I could comprehend and when we are young, we tend to live ‘in time’. However, she was right.
At this particular place in time, I find myself in a bit of a quandary. What do I really want to do in the next chapter of my life? Travel, of course. Lead an active lifestyle, of course. I’m not a lady who lunches or competes in golf although I do love to do both from time to time. No, not me. If only it were that easy. I am looking for intellectual stimulation, spiritual growth, creativity, fun, community and to be of service in an impactful way. Work that will align with my top values. I am looking for my life’s work, not a career as that ship has sailed. It’s the direction I wish to walk with the wisdom I have acquired over the years. In short, I’m in search of my calling.
After I left the financial sector, I walked many roads – from philanthropy, to marketing video business cards, trust protector, seed investor, participating on a couple of boards, and coaching. Some things I enjoyed more than others but there has always been a feeling deep within me that I am not doing what I was meant to do.
Do you do the Cha Cha?
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
-Upanishads of the Vedas
These words have been quoted by Margaret Thatcher and Mohandas Gandhi because they are powerful. For me, the first three words are the most powerful of the bunch.
WATCH YOUR THOUGHTS
People think they are their thoughts. People think what they think is true when really it may be true for you alone and not necessarily a perspective shared by anyone else. We think what we think based on our past conditioning and no two people in the world think the same way.
A good exercise to learn how you think is to listen to your inner self-talk. When you listen to your inner chatter, are those thoughts serving you? Do you say empowering things to yourself that will ensure you have a great day or are you hard on yourself?
Greetings from Athens! As I stare out at the Acropolis from my hotel room on Vasllisis Sofia Drive I remain as ever amazed at how people think. I’m attempting to fill a group workshop and I’m getting more requests to work with individuals 1 on 1 and no takers for the group workshop. I believe it’s because people are frightened to be judged by others in the group. Sometimes, being a confidence coach has a negative connotation attached to it even though I know confidence is in high demand.
As I contemplate other’s thinking patterns, I think it’s apropos to be in Greece, the ancient home of some of the world’s great thinkers such as Socrates for example. He was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy who died 399 BCE. He was sentenced to death by drinking hemlock.
“An unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
Plato was another philosopher and founder of the Academy in Athens. It was the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He passed in 348/347 BCE.
“Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself.” – Plato
And last but not least,
It’s been raining hard. I have mud all up my calves, my hiking shoes are filthy, my feet ache, my big toe nail on my left foot has turned purple and I have blood blisters at it’s base, I’ve developed blisters on my right foot and hand, I walked 25 km today. I am on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain and I’m about to take a glorious hot bath – after I shower down my legs of course. Who wants a muddy bath?!
For those of you who do not know, the Camino de Santiago or Way of St. James, is the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in NW Spain, where legend has it that the remains of the apostle, Saint James the Great, are buried.
It is difficult to define where exactly the Camino starts as pilgrims used to start their journey from home, but over the years, different ‘ways’ have emerged. The French Way is the most popular and it usually starts in the French Pyrenees. There is also the Northern Way, the Original Way, the Portuguese Way and the Finisterre Way. We met someone who began his pilgrimage from Geneva.
One of my compadres (friends) tells me that when it comes to discussing physical challenges, that one can discuss the pain or the pride. Today is the third time he attracted bed bugs, which is very common on the Camino. Despite this and the other hardships he has endured walking over 700 km, he says he will only discuss the pride of his adventure. I am obviously not of the same mind.
As a confidence & clarity coach, I write my blog to help others with their mindset. This month is a little different. I am going to focus on the physical and share my detox story with you. I am writing this month’s somewhat lengthy blog from Bodrum, Turkey where I travelled to embark on a 9-day detox program at The LifeCo.
“Nobody can deny that when we feel fabulous physically, it only enhances our self-confidence.”
I have been on detox programs in the past, but I have never felt the need so great as now. It’s been a tumultuous year both physically and emotionally and it’s time to get off the roller coaster ride. I feel the need to be grounded and heal my body and rest my weary mind. I am an over-thinking empath, the combination of which can be exhausting. Physically, I have been anguishing with an underactive thyroid for some time now. I need a good cleanse inside and out.