Earth Day
Earth Day is my birthday and I received a great gift from the Italian Consulate in the US yesterday. I have been working diligently for four years gathering documents for application for dual citizenship for myself and my 2 kids (my husband can apply once I have a passport). Yesterday, my application was finally accepted after 3 different rejections! This was the greatest gift I could’ve received. As you know if you’ve read my Italy Retreat Blog, I am passionate about all things Italian.
I’ll write more about this tomorrow, but wanted to celebrate Earth Day too by sharing this wonderful video by Aqualise that my daughter, Grace, sent to me.
May we take care of planet Earth on this day and always. Please watch the beautiful video. What do you do to preserve our planet?
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Letting Go . . Again
Some years ago, I accompanied my husband on a business trip to The Cayman Islands, which are known for some of the best snorkeling in the world. He decided to teach me to snorkel by having me jump from a low wall into rough water wearing my snorkel gear. I began thrashing and almost drowned the two of us. We made it out of the water alive, and then noticed a group of beginner snorkelers swimming in a barrier reef that looked like a shallow pool.
That’s where I finally learned to breathe through that ridiculously narrow tube. I don’t do well when I am thrown in over my head. I like to wade in with my feet touching the bottom, if needed, at least at first. This makes it easier for me to let go of my fears.
Once I got the hang of it, my husband would wake up in the mornings, startled to see me standing beside his side of the bed with my snorkel gear ready to go. I had surrendered to the ocean.
That’s what I felt like when I was thrown into India last week. I again traveled with my husband for this adventure. This time for ayurvedic health purification treatments.
Even though this was my fourth trip to India, the accommodations were more third world than I expected. My room was without windows and had a broken air conditioner with no one available to fix it. The electricity went out every day at noon for a couple hours without any regard for the 100+ degree temperatures. And did I mention the roaches in my room, including one climbing out of my toothbrush?
I know it sounds strange to many people that I would even go to India for rejuvenation treatments,but it is the home of an ancient health treatment called panchakarma.
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In the same breath, I might add that India is not for wimps, but it is a great place to burn off karma, stretch your boundaries and let go of limiting beliefs. In my clearer moments, I watched preconceived perceptions wash down the drain.
It’s a country of opposites — beggars, poverty, deeply spiritual citizens and holy people in the Himalayan mountains are quite common.
The scene outsidewas interesting — an empty lot filled with trash, that was burned on a daily basis, filling the air with choking smoke. Right next to the lot, was a small country club with a beautiful swimming pool filled with water, but no swimmers. Indian chants were blasting over a loudspeaker in the lovely park on the other side of the trash lot. The clinic is in a nice neighborhood, so there were no beggars on the streets, nor smoke from cow dung burning at night.
Their standards of cleanliness, however, are different than mine. I won’t even go into detail. Each day I would let go of my notions of what I needed to feel comfortable.
In each moment I had to die to my beliefs of cleanliness, of fine customer service, of being in control of my environment.
India was a gift that gave me practice allowing the death of my ego, the surrender of how things SHOULD be. The little deaths we go through when we fail, or find ourselves in deep water outside our comfort zone, create a more open-hearted, compassionate, enriching life.
For me, I find that coming up for air to find solid familiar space under my feet every once in awhile, supports the practice of letting go.
LETTING GO is a fast track to experiencing strength, growth and freedom. When we choose to try something different, we learn to stay flexible.
Grab change by the hand, maybe get a lifejacket, and swim.
What is your ‘India’? How have you learned to let go? I’d love to hear from you.
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Continuing with the subject from my last entry about women’s rights in the US and Iran…
There is a matriarchal society on a paradise island in the Arabian Sea off the Malabar Coast of southern India, called Lakshadweep. Women enjoy a lofty status on these islands. Property is passed from the mother to daughter and men can only be caretakers. Husbands are supposed to give a salary to their wives on a yearly basis, and if they fail to do that, the women can and do ask for divorces. I find it interesting that the islanders are Muslim, but the women are honored and in charge. Their manner of dress is simple and similar to the Muslims of Malabar coast.
I’d just be curious to visit a matriarchial society, even though it’s a very long and arduous journey to reach these 36 teeny islands off the coast of Kerala, India. The water is clear blue and the beaches sandy.
If you know of other matriarchial groups, send me a comment
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Please join me in Italy where possibilities abound, to AWAKEN YOUR DREAMS and learn to live la dolce vita (the sweet life). In September we will spend 7 days in Italy with a group of like-minded women, to transform our lives in a workshop that I will lead where we will be adventurers on the inside and outside.
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Barbara and Helena have been dear friends of mine for over 30 years. In addition to sharing lots of laughter and adventures with them, I went to college with Barbara and traveled to Germany with Helena. I recently helped my daughter, who just graduated from college, move to Boulder. It so happens that Barbara and Helena live there, in addition to many other dear friends. So, I was thrilled to spend time with them once again. They are powerful women in tune with the force that surrounds us! And so is my daughter who took on a big challenge–followed her intuition and moved alone without a job to Colorado, and within a month is happily settled with a new job that she loves, and a beautiful rental house 2 blocks from 20 trailheads.
It wasn’t easy, but my daughter is a force to be reckoned with, and even though she’s short, she’s mighty. She proves the point Yoda made to Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back when he complained that ‘it was too big.’
Luke: I can’t. It’s too big.
Yoda: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere. Yes, even between the land and the ship.
Do you feel the force around you? It’s there! How do you feel it?
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My life’s work has been focused on helping myself and others to be happier and live an authentic life. I focus on unraveling limiting beliefs, but also on following our heart’s desires. As often as I can I follow my heart’s desire to adventure to places like India. My friend and I are taking in the sites and sounds at the market in New Delhi, India. We laughed a lot on that trip!
In addition to just feeling relaxed and at peace when we laugh, laughter can enhance our health and boost our immune system.
My daughter sent this article to me from Times Online. Author Sacha Bonsor shares: “I think we are going to learn that exposing yourself to humour will not only change mood and stress hormones but also influence serotonin levels, which are involved in the pain control system,” says Zeltzer. “That would mean that laughter could have an effect on chronic pain over time and enhance immunoreactivity, as well as helping with depression and sleep and anxiety disorders.”
Dr Berk’s tests have also found that laughter increases a type of immune cell called natural killer, or NK, cells, which go after virally infected and tumour cells.
This is really an easy and inexpensive method for all of us to stay healthy. What makes you laugh or at least smile?
Make a list!
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This is the view my adventurous nephew had from his hang glider in Salvadore, South America before the instructor yelled at him to keep both hands tied to the instructor’s side.
We suffer because we believe we have no other options. Often our perspective on life is set in stone, but happiness is always an option.
Sometimes it’s challenging to be happy–mostly because on some level, we believe we need to be unhappy if things aren’t going our way. If we could just choose to be happy, why don’t we just do that? Basically, because we are complicated creatures. Somehow there’s a payoff in being unhappy. We get more attention, or we don’t have to be too responsible are just a few reasons. You can change your limiting beliefs that clog your perspective on life by uncovering and questioning them.
You can also make it a practice, like actor Jim Carrey, to choose to be happy. The other day on
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