Whoa nelly… things have changed a lot over the past couple of years. For me, for you, for everyone we know.
My job today is a completely different reality than my little brain could have ever dreamed up back in 2020.
Today, I primarily teach online about how to be a thriving, healthy woman over 50 using the vehicles of:
- Energy (daily energy routines, exercise, yoga, meditation)
- Drinking less (or no) alcohol
- Eating more plants (and less animal and highly processed food)
Just a few months ago, I owned a brick and mortar yoga studio.
My whole life has led me to where I am now but one of the critical turning points was when I spent time in India with a spiritual master.
Since then, I’ve dedicated years to studying ancient texts on how to be content/at peace (or, you could say enlightened). I’m definitely not up there with Jesus floating on a cloud but I do believe, mentor, and practice in my own life the key tenants of the teachings – and incorporate them in my health and wellness programs.
On Tuesday, I wrote about being in the present moment and knowing you’re just fine even though you have no idea what’s around the corner.
Which leads to questions like: If I’m always in the present moment, how do I plan for the future? How do I simultaneously plan ahead and enjoy what’s happening right now?
The teachings don’t tell us not to plan for the future. What they do tell us is not to be attached to that plan. A subtle but important difference.
In December 2019, I owned a thriving yoga studio in Colorado. I had a busy business including: regular yoga classes taught by 14 teachers, yoga teacher trainings, retreats, workshops, and more.
I spent the final two weeks of 2019 in Florida planning for 2020, including big investments to make 2020 the most successful year yet for the studio.
Well… we all know what happened in 2020.
When I shut my studio down the first time, I had to scramble to change everything about the business to be 100% remote with online classes, workshops and trainings.
That plan I had labored over for two weeks back in December went right out the window.
When I thought I could possibly re-open several months later, I had to plan all of the re-opening activities without attaching to the idea that it would actually happen because no one knew…it was a whole new world.
What I experienced and accomplished during those tumultuous years created the foundation for what I’m doing now which I NEVER could have imagined back in those planning weeks of 2019.
And I’m much happier (and making more money) doing this!
More recently, back in April, I planned this vacation that I’m currently enjoying. Then a hurricane wiped out those plans and I had to redo everything at the last minute.
I think the pandemic taught us all a lot about non-attachment. It has been a great life lesson on why we should think ahead but not frantically grasp onto what we have planned.
Because life throws us curveballs.
Not attaching can be a foreign concept for us in the West because we’re taught in the school of materialism that desires and attachments will make us happy. We think, “If I can just make a certain amount of money or buy a new house and car then I’ll be happy.”
In Buddhism, living with non-attachment basically means that you don’t grasp onto possessions, plans, or results in an attempt to find comfort or happiness from them.
You realize that true peace and happiness comes from letting go of those things. The attachment causes the suffering.
So, when you’re planning (which you should do and I do all the time – I’m a big planner), you do so with your thoughts and attention in the present moment: Right now, in this moment, I’m planning for the future and this brings me joy.
Without being attached to the outcome.
Something even better – outside the limits of your imagination – could be waiting for you if you just let go.
That’s the balancing act.
It’s the formula where you can be happy now while you plan for more happy to happen in the future.
