Hi there ~ Nice to see you again.
You know what’s crazy? Alignment. How things just fall into agreement. Some might call this synchronicity, or receiving back the energy you put forth, or “If you build it, they will come.”
When your world realigns, you wonder what happened. Why are, suddenly, all of these things miraculously falling into place, like dominoes resetting themselves?
Looking for a quote to sum up the power of the mind, I had to go straight to the Buddha for this one:
The mind is everything. What you think you become.
Ah, that Buddha: So darn simple and profound.
My world shifted in multiple ways this past year – and all of them left me breathless: Love, loss, and this new anxious creature that apparently might take up residence in my veins now and again. Last week was rough. After a full-on return of "the big stuck”, I saw a physiatrist who ordered an MRI.
The results showed, in short, nothing. I woke up the next morning and tried yoga for the first time in two weeks. I then proceeded to spend an hour on a spin bike and actually sweat. For the first time in three weeks, my neck didn’t hurt at all – not one bit – and I could breathe easily, as long as I wasn’t thinking about it. I felt like myself, rarin’ to go.
Pain is a beast, and the body holds onto it relentlessly. It remembers pain after carrying it for so long, and the brain can literally realign. Phantom pain is frustrating, but the anxiety is what really keeps you stuck. Looking back, I think that I felt the shortness of breath because the neck pain returned, stronger than ever – and I thought something was terribly wrong. I share all of this because I wonder if you’ve been there, and if you’ve considered the whole body-mind conundrum. For the record, it just might be your ticket out.
It’s rather remarkable how the smallest of readjustments can bring everything back into a more familiar alignment. Kind of like a chiropractor makes one small crack, and your body somehow feels like new again.
I participated in Cycle for Survival this weekend. Cancer is a beast that doesn’t discriminate, but I probably don’t have to tell you that – because you have probably also been affected by cancer in some way, shape, or form. It’s tough to find someone who hasn’t.
Cycle for Survival is a celebration of hope: A room full of people of all walks of life waving pom poms and dancing and riding spin bikes, sharing stories, tears, and joy, and sweating out love like there’s no tomorrow.
Last week, in my first-ever improv class, we focused on the importance of receiving before sending out. Experiences like Cycle for Survival motivate me to do exactly that. Receive it, then send it out. Take it all in, then carry it into other areas of life.
That book I recently read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck? One great quote goes like this:
Commitment gives you freedom because you’re no longer distracted by the unimportant and frivolous….it hones your attention and focus, directing them toward what is more efficient at making you happy and healthy.
Anxiety is, for lack of a better word at this moment, bizarre – especially when it decides to suddenly enter your life at a time when so many things are pretty darn good. But, as in the case of breathing, it’s so helpful to turn your attention away from it! Sometimes distracting yourself by filling your time with things that connect you to other humans in meaningful ways is the best way to prove to yourself that, for better or worse, a lot of it is “all in your head”.
So, yes, at the risk of directing it toward me-me-me, do I believe that Cycle helped unstick me this week? Yes. Yes, I do. Committing to something larger than yourself takes you outside of yourself.
And commitment can mean joining a fight against rare cancers, or embracing a life realigned.
Thanks for stopping by. And keep sharing your stories, because someone wants to hear them.