How does one get from point A to point B? Without point A, point B might not exist at all. I believe that reflecting on one’s roots and foundations, figuring out why and how you arrived at point B, and accepting and addressing flaws along the way, are crucial for personal growth and evolution.
My roots are my parents. So strongly grounded into the earth, unfettered by a storm. My roots allowed me to grow in many different directions but always made sure that I felt supported. I have never tried to ‘fit in’, because my branches had their own terms, respectful of trees around, but always spreading out in unexpected ways.
In some ways my parents were my ‘handlers’, just like handlers in the CIA! And god oh god, did they know how to handle me. As I did, them, in their later years 😉 The beauty of my upbringing is that my parents understood my strengths and weaknesses, and pushed and pulled in exactly the right amounts in my foundational years. I always had a mind of my own, and they understood this well. They did their best to nurture this quality of mine in the most positive ways possible. They always gave me the opportunity to try new things. Even my fad of studying at a boarding school in third grade, when I was enamored by Malory Towers and St.Claires, books by Enid Blyton 🙂 Mom and dad allowed me to experience, learn and let go as I deemed fit, for the most part. I have made my share of mistakes and learned from them. Change, and learning from change has always been easy for me. However, accepting the unchangeable, and understanding the difference between what I can and cannot change has always been a challenge.
Diversity is the spice of my life and this is precisely why I love my life now. I am writing one minute, creating art the next, teaching yoga a few hours later, planning our next travel adventure and then cooking dinner! And fortunately I have the ability to do each one of these things for the love of the process, and not for money. Once you start being present and mindful in every process, you start living a meditative life. Even when I am not spending time on a focused meditation, I am infact in mindfulness meditation mode. This is indeed the universe’s gift to me. But it took me a long time to realize that this gift had been mine to accept for a long time. The mental journey to take money out of my personal purpose equation took approximately 8 long years.
I have heard people saying to me, ‘oh good you are so busy’ lately 🙂 I have always been occupied and busy even through some very deep dark days, but I think what people’s perceptions are indicating to me is that people identify ‘being busy’ with structure.
For the last few years as an entrepreneur, artist, or while supporting my parents through thick and thin, I had to keep changing modes, requiring a high degree of adaptability, flexibility and pliability. Now I am teaching yoga classes that have a time slot attached to them. I schedule the rest of my day based on the classes I have to teach.
Little did I realize that the unstructured time, when I was trying to shift hats constantly was indeed a very important part of my journey. The biggest purpose in my life was to spend as much time as possible with ‘my roots’ between the years 2014 and 2016 and the universe guided me perfectly to fulfill it.
There is great beauty in stillness. In just being. In just breathing. And sometimes we transform ourselves in this stillness. I have had a hard time with stillness for the most part of my life, but I think I have finally discovered that still space that I can sink into with comfort. Stillness has helped me in the process of accepting the unchangeable, and finding peace with it. Keeping oneself busy is not hard, but finding something purposeful, meaningful and meditative, and living your life in mindfulness can be 🙂
PS: Yogi friends…… Stay strong and grounded on your right leg, lengthen your torso, and ensure that the left knee is aligned with the right, as you spread the branches of your tree ; )
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