It’s All in Your Head

I love the placebo effect; the fact that if you believe enough in something, it becomes true. A doctor can give you a pill and convince you it will help your condition and although the pill is made of sugar, it really works!  Then the minute you are told the pill is a fake, your symptoms return.   It was “all in your head”. 

There are things going on in the world today – your own world and the collective World – that are dismaying and possibly depressing.  Decide to join those low vibrations and you will be dismayed and depressed.  How helpful will you be in that state? Not much.   If you take the path of joy and energy, simply decide to rise above the pain and feel good, then you can take the bull by the horns and do what is needed to make the world a better place. 

It’s okay if it’s all in your head, because your brain is the boss of your body and it’s your body that leads the charge.  Find what it is that makes you rise above yourself and go do it.  Yoga, service, walking in the woods. (Sorry, Margaritas are not on the list!).  Get yourself ready to make a difference, and then take the first step. You probably won’t be in a position to broker world peace, but I bet you can make your grumpy neighbor smile!

Let it go to your head.

New Jersey Dreamer

I have a great idea!  It came to me in a dream.  It involves lots of work, and some money capital, but I just know it will make us a million.  Of course I want you to be my partner!  You and I work so well together; remember the PTA fundraiser when I developed the idea for the fashion show, and you got all the models together and talked the stores into donating clothes and found that perfect venue?  People still compliment me on that.  This new venture may be a little more complicated, but I know you can do it.  Here, I wrote it down as soon as I woke from the dream; call me when you are ready to go to market and we’ll figure out your share of the profits.  I’m thinking 70/30.  No, I get the 70, of course.  

Without the idea, what is there?

A good idea lands in your lap.  Just came out of nowhere! Maybe a rumor of a job opening in another department, maybe a tune keeps running through your head, perhaps you tasted a delicious cookie you just know would be made perfect by the addition of a little allspice.  Thank your lucky stars, now you can get a better job/write a pop hit/be the next Mrs. Fields!  It’s fate, kismet, karma, (cue Julie Andrews) “there must have been a mo-ment . . . of good”. 

Weeks go by.  You didn’t get the job, you forgot the song, and you haven’t finished reading Mrs. Field’s biography. What went wrong?  It seemed a sure thing.

Oh.  Well, that.  But I was waiting for someone to come over and offer me the job; they know I’m just sitting here being wasted in accounting.  And I didn’t have the right music paper to put down the notes for that song, and it wouldn’t look right on notebook paper.  My oven is broken so I couldn’t test the recipe, and now I can’t remember if it had chocolate chips or butterscotch ones.  I always have such bad luck.

TAKE THE STEP! (Yes, I’m yelling in capital letters).  When an idea falls into your lap it is kismet, but you need to marry it with some action. Apply for the job, write the song, bake the cookie.  Then follow up with the appropriate next action.  Then the next, and the next and the next.  Dreams can come true, but only with help from you.  Not your friend (unless it’s a true partnership).

Dream it, do it.  

The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent

What am I searching for?  When will I be happy, and what will bring about this happiness?  Why does that guy have it all and I don’t?  How do I know I am on the right path? Where do I look for guidance?  Who What Where When WHY?

We search for answers, and for clues that things are as they should be.  A raise at work signals you are doing a good job.  A hug from your teen shows you are connected to your child.  A smile from a stranger affirms that you are connected to the world.  So does it follow that no raise this year means your performance was poor; the cold shoulder from your high schooler proves you are a failure as a parent; someone letting the door bang in your face means that the outside world doesn’t even notice you?

Here is something to consider:  Everything is neutral.  There is no good, no bad, there just Is.  Allowing salary to dictate worth as a person would mean that the Wall Street guy is a better person than the Visiting Nurse who takes care of your aunt.  Each is doing important work, and their value cannot be known by their weekly paychecks.  The guy who rushed by you in the doorway wasn’t slamming the door in YOUR face, he was simply unaware of you, for reasons of his own.  And don’t get me started on teenagers -- they are beginning the important and difficult work of separating from their parents, so just breathe through those years and don’t take anything personally!  

In yoga, we salute the Light in each other, acknowledging that we are all part of the same Light.  We do our best not to judge.  We remind ourselves that the person with the perfect Trkonasana is not better than her neighbor using three blocks and a strap to set her pose; they are two people in different places.  Feeling the connection, knowing that we are each a part of the other, will foster a feeling of peace and love toward all.  And it will help you feel better, too.  Aren’t we all searching for Love, Peace, and Joy?  Where else can these be found, but in each other.