The Universe: Your Co-Conspirator

"And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." When I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho two years ago, this particular line really resonated with me. The possibility behind this premise fascinated me...could the universe really give me anything I wanted? I have to admit, though, that part of me remained skeptical, not fully believing in its message.

Fast forward two years later and I find myself amazed by the fact that I will be teaching in China next summer. "How did this happen?" I keep asking myself. These are things that happened to other people, not me. I still can't believe that it is happening to me! The opportunity to teach in China literally presented itself to me - I did not seek it out, at least not on a conscious level. Could the universe have been conspiring on my behalf? I definitely think so now.

Yoga-nalogies for Life

After practicing yoga for almost ten months now, I was finally able to do a wheel - with a little help and support from my yoga teacher. I was both petrified and exhilarated at the same time!  It was so scary to surrender to the pose and put my trust into my yoga teacher's hands. But afterwards, I was beaming because I had challenged myself to take this risk and had emerged victorious.

On the way home, I started thinking that this milestone in yoga class was clearly an analogy for life. In life we need to challenge ourselves and to take risks if we want to lead the most fulfilling life we possibly can - the life we were meant to live. We wouldn't practice yoga with the thought that our pose is good enough as it is, and we shouldn't approach life this way either. The ability to trust translates into trusting the universe enough to know that we are in exactly the right place, at exactly the right time, that we are supposed to be. The universe will always be there to provide us with everything we need - to be our metaphysical "helping hand."

Monday, Monday

Every other day, every other day,

Every other day of the week is fine, yeah
But whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes
You can find me cryin' all of the time

These melancholy lyrics sung wistfully by the Mamas and the Papas ring oh so true for many people.  But do they have to?  Are Mondays truly awful or are they awful because we have a pre-conceived notion that they will be awful and so they live up to our expectations?

A few weeks ago, I went to my boot camp class at the Y.  During the cool down, the instructor was playing a song about the weekend and she apologetically said, "Oh, this isn't fair, I shouldn't be talking about the weekend on a Monday night."  To which I replied, "Why not? We need to learn to appreciate Mondays. For one thing, we get to take boot camp." And no, I wasn't sucking up. I meant what I said.

Nudges from the Universe

Recently, I got together with several former co-workers for a night of drinks and appetizers. It was great to see them and to catch up on the current events of our lives. We also talked a lot about the place where we used to work and were unanimous in our sentiments: that time and that place had been a wonderful, magical time in our lives because we had bonded so strongly, not only on a personal level, but in terms of our dedication and commitment to carrying out the mission of educating college students, many of whom were inner-city, first-generation.

I loved that place and was devastated when I was let go due to a reorganization. It clearly wasn't my choice, and I was upset that I was being forced to move on. The others had similar stories.  No one had wanted to leave but had been forced to move on for various reasons. But they all lived to tell the story and had all moved onto positions that were a step up in their careers and professional development.

Are you eating old, stale popcorn?

I read an article today about a new way to diet which suggests using your opposite hand to eat.  This simple trick, the authors say, will slow you down and put an end to eating out of habit.  The study tested people eating popcorn at a movie theater.  Those subjects who ate due to "automaticity," (without thinking about what they were actually doing) ate buckets of old, stale popcorn.  The study concludes that by picking up our fork with our less dominant hand, we can change our old patterns of eating behavior and lose some weight.

The whole idea of changing old patterns of behavior for the new year resonates strongly with me.  What are the other old, stale buckets of popcorn in our lives, patterns of behavior...ways we think about the world and life...that we mindlessly "consume" without giving them a second thought?  The beginning of a new year is a great time to break those patterns and to live life to the fullest, in the way it is meant to be lived.