It's Okay to Cry

I cried this morning. Sometimes I suck it back in, but today I didn’t. I needed to cry.

This year has been hard, like really hard. That’s not to say it hasn’t also been a great year because it has. It’s honestly been one of my favorites.

I’ve gone back and forth on whether to list out all the reasons why it’s been so hard, like a guest list to my own personal pity party or my own resume of suffering. Then I think about writing each hardship with a positive spin like, here’s a list of all the great lessons I learned in 2016. That’s not going to happen either.

Instead I want to share with you a quote taken from Michael Singer’s book, The Untethered Soul. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend that you do.

“So let all of your blockages and disturbances become the fuel for the journey. That which is holding you down can become a powerful force that raises you up. You just have to be willing to take the ascent.”

I think the last line bears repeating. “You just have to be willing to take the ascent.”

After a full year of making the conscious effort to move forward and up, I can say in full confidence that I am not just willing, but committed to the ascent.

Going back to my first statement and to my overall theme of grace.  It’s okay to cry. It’s okay to feel. To do so is to be human. But don't waste too much time feeling. Instead, get out there and be the badass you were meant to be. 

Grace Period

I've been a little quiet lately. It is not that I don't have anything to say, it's actually quite the opposite. A lot of the major changes in my life took place about this time last year including leaving the job, city, and friends I had for nearly a decade. With that, came the new husband, the new name, the new city, the search for a new job and friends, and the new life in the military.

Change is hard and personal growth is not always a pretty process. I know my original intent was to unveil all the ways I have learned to trust the universe. But I have to be honest, that motto doesn't leave much room for grace. That motto is more about being a super human and powering through whatever crosses my path. It is more about force than flow, and believe me, I wrote the book on forcing my way through life's difficult moments.

To me, here's the difference between trusting the universe and living with grace...

I am hiking along a trail and encounter a snake (I am terrified of snakes by the way). Trusting the universe would equate to forcing myself to walk right past the snake (fear and all) in hopes the universe did not want me to be bitten at that moment, or accepting that there was a lesson for me in being bitten. My response to this idea = OH, HELL NO!!!

By acknowledging my fear and giving my blood pressure a moment to normalize, I allow myself some grace and hopefully a more rational decision for moving forward.

There's a saying I like that is often found in books on spiritual growth, but it originated from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. It says, "we are not humans beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

While spirituality has been my guiding light over the past year, my hope for 2017 is to acknowledge my humanness and to allow for grace to flow more freely. I hope you'll join me in this journey.

With grace,

Jennifer

Trust the Universe

It’s time for a refresh of the blog. As a marketing/branding professional, it pains me to not have an aligned purpose and messaging. One option could be forty new things before turning 40. However, I think I’m good when it comes to trying new things. For those of you that don’t know, in the past year I have left a job of 10 years, gotten married, moved to a new city, became a part of the military family, found a new job, and almost completed yoga teacher training. I’m sure there are a few other nuggets I left out, but you get the picture.

A lot has occurred in my life over the past year and a lot occurred in the thirty something years before then. It has certainly been and continues to be one hell of a ride.  One of the most life shifting moments occurred during a meditation retreat in 2014. 

At that retreat Byron Katie said, 

“Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don't have to like it... it's just easier if you do.” 

After she made the initial comments, she and Deepak Chopra asked us to close our eyes and to imagine for a second that everything in our lives was perfect, and to accept everything that has occurred as a blessing. Initially it felt hard to swallow, literally I felt the urge to puke, but as I sat there surrounded by 300+ beautiful souls I attempted to accept this as my truth. As I did, life got easier.

Now let’s be real. Like with most major life lessons, it can take time and practice for a lesson to take root in our lives and for us to fully bloom from its wisdom. On the bright side, the universe will typically keep “giving” us the opportunity to learn that same lesson over and over and over again until it finally sinks in.   

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

So instead of sharing perhaps 40 life lessons before forty, I plan to focus on just this one: Trusting the Universe. The stories I’ll share about my life will illustrate how I have come to accept this as one of the major truths in my life. Consider this blog as my gift to you and as a constant reminder to myself to always trust the universe.

With love and light!

Jennifer

The Journey Continues...

Source: The Chopra Foundation via Instagram

What an amazing journey this life has been and continues to be! There have been seemingly endless challenges and equally as many victories, and along the way tremendous awakening and rebirth.

For those unfamiliar with my original blog-My thirty x 30 adventure: a journey of mischievous proportions-here’s a little back story. It was a pretty dark time for me (which I may or may not expand upon later). Essentially, I had lost my spark and needed a good challenge to rekindle my desire for life. Overall I would say it was a success. Not just because I attempted thirty new things in the year leading up to my thirtieth birthday, but because I found my fire again. A huge part of that flame came from adventure #10, yoga.

It’s been six years since that fateful, sweaty day at the yoga studio when I stepped on my mat for the first time in years.  Ever since that day, yoga has played an integral role in my life and a month from now I will make a huge step in sharing that knowledge even further with the world as I complete yoga teacher training.

I honestly cannot say where my path as a yoga teacher will take me. I just know the impact this journey has had on my life, the light it has shined upon my soul, and I feel it is partly my purpose in life to share this light with others.

So, what does this have to do with the saying in the picture above, The less I needed, the better I felt? I guess you’ll just have to stick with me as I begin to unravel all the wonderful lessons I have learned through this thing called yoga.

With love and light!

Jennifer