I had a really good lesson come forward to me this week. This lesson had actually been shaping up over the past number of weeks. For those of you know my story, you will most likely laugh about my lesson around the dangers inherent in striving for perfectionism. Over the last number of weeks, many of the practitioners at our clinic have been sick and have had to take time off from working to get well. My fellow clinicians take very good care of themselves so I have been somewhat shocked to see that they are getting sick. In the not too distant past, it was me that was taking sick days so the irony was not lost on me…I made a comment to the owner of the clinic two weeks ago saying would you believe that I am the healthiest practitioner of the clinic?! I knew as soon as the words came out of my mouth that I should not have said that…Note to self> Wrong move!

I like to think that the universe saw that my EGO was showing up and after a delightful weekend spent away in Radium hiking and soaking in the hot springs, I woke up Tues am and felt like I had been run over by a truck. I was truly incapacitated…I do my best to optimize my external and internal environment to  maximize my health given my situation but lately I was feeling invincible, I admit it! I have never felt so good in terms of my own personal health. I had even been thinking about going back to long distance running (something that I haven’t thought of in years)… so to have this lesson come forward to me was priceless. I am indeed human and so far from perfect that it is laughable. Besides, perfectionism is purely an egotistical space to begin with…this was a fantastic lesson in humility for me and gratitude for seeing the perfection in being so imperfect…it is so much easier to embrace being human… you can relate to others much better from a space of love and humility…

One thing I have noticed a lot not only with my interactions with patients but also observing the daily news is how many people are walking through fire at this time. So many people are in crisis right now and I have so much compassion for them as they are confronting a lot of challenging circumstances in their external environment whether it be in their working life or their personal life….the fact is many people are walking through fire right now. Remember these people in your prayers at night if you can (as I am sure you know some people that are walking through fire metaphorically speaking.) At the same time, one thing you can do that is helpful is to direct your thoughts to what you want to focus on…

You could potentially walk on water if you directed your thoughts to higher ways of being; looking at the situations in your life from a higher vantage point – What is this teaching me?; How am I growing in this situation? Or how about really focusing on the beauty in the present moment? This is keeping your thoughts in current time. So many of us, including myself, find ourselves thinking of future time (what may happen in the future) or we think about the past (thinking about what might have been or just plain dwelling in the past)…all these strategies are employed by the mind to somehow regain control (which is an illusion) and the only moment you have is the present one so why not focus on it? Bring yourself back to the present moment over and over until it feels natural to you to be in the present moment, then you will truly be walking on water when you realize how beautiful the present moment truly is…and it feels so much better than directing your attention to walking through fire all the time…

I have been thinking a lot about the experience of life and how grateful I am for it. I was reading a book by Osho on Saturday and I resonated so much with the message and it got me thinking about things. We each have an opportunity in every moment to open ourselves up to the richness of life. It is available to us in each and every moment of our lives. We interact with our environment on a continual basis…yes, our environment changes but our relationship to our environment can remain the same. We can maintain an air of anticipation no matter where we go…an anticipation of the richness that life will offer us because life is a blank canvas waiting to be written…Life meets us exactly where we are and asks us to willingly participate and offer ourselves up to it. If we offer ourselves up to it, up to life…if we empty our cup, open up to life and say yes I am available to life then our cup is soon overflowing with life’s offering…we then experience the richness of life and are left with a feeling of gratitude…all that is required is a shift in your attitude towards life.

I was riding the bus home today from work and two people were sitting not far from me complaining about the weather and all the snow. I empathize and even identify with their lament somewhat but you really need to embrace what is at the same time. Life is rich in the offering no matter what the weather is like and every moment counts…you need to seize the day! 

It was a somewhat inclement day yesterday but I chose to embrace it and had the best time because of my attitude and approach to the day. I went with my partner up to Nose Hill…we strapped on our snowshoes and embraced the experience of the day…we opened ourselves up to the richness of life. It was quite mild up there which was unusual (the wind is typically fierce but wasn’t too bad either), the hill was enshrouded with fog, the trails were non existent blanketed out by the previous night’s snowfall, there were no tracks to follow so we made our own tracks and trekked across the seemingly bleak landscape.. it was so beautiful…the starkness, the silence, there was nobody for miles, our hearts pumping, feeling how good it felt to move our bodies…

I saw a woman on the horizon jogging into thick fog and seeing her profile contrasted against the ghostly downtown skyscrapers remotely visible behind her was magical to say the least. We were only on our snowshoes just over an hour but what an hour it was. It left us feeling so grateful for the mystical experience of Nose Hill on a Sunday. We will never have the same experience again…we were so in the now and the richness of it. 

The point is these moments are available to all of us on any given day. It is making yourself available to them, truly being present with what is, and reveling in the mesmerizing beauty of what life is and what it offers to you…if you open up to the richness of life…Contemplate this and bring this sentiment into your day and see if it your day does not become more magical to you and then leave me a comment! Even your trip to the grocery store takes on a different hue if you view it through new eyes…