Don't stop believing...

"Chase down your passions like it's the last bus of the night" - Terri Guillemets






I was feeling kind of bummed. Not your average everyday bummed, but more of the sublime kind of downer kind of bummed. Oh well. I would usually kind of just let it pass and chalk it up to whatever erroneous programming that was going on in my head that day.

It was weird. As I was driving home the song "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey started to play. I would usually just start singing along to the song and enjoy it for what it was. But I guess with what was going on in my mind, it kind of hit me as some sort of universal messaging service. Hmmmm...Weird

Later...

I visit with my mom for a while and ask her why the tree wasn't up for the holidays. It usually goes up the day after Thanksgiving and it shocked me that it wasn't up. She told me that my dad decided to not put it up because it was kind of a hassle. Ughh. I mean I understood. And it's not like there wasn't any holiday stuff up. They had put some minor stuff up like lights and tiny porcelain Christmas figures and stuff. One ornament kind of stood out though. It was a tiny pillow with tiny mistletoe on it and embroidered on it were the words "I Believe"...Hmmm...Even weirder

Even Later...I was finally getting to bed and I decide to go on Facebook to catch up with what my friends are doing. and I come across a post talking about this School Chorus group from my area. I am from Staten Island and this Chorus is known as the P.S. 22 Chorus. It is run by Gregg Breinberg, or better known as Mr. B. I proceed to look them up on youtube and ironically one of the first songs I run across of them performing is "Don't Stop Believing". (Insert Twilight Zone music here)...

First off, whatever I was feeling this day was replaced with awe. This group of 5th graders blew my mind. They were so passionate about what they did. If I could just bottle whatever they had going on and keep it tucked away for a rainy day I would. I was also blown away by Mr. B. His passion for these kids and the music is amazing. To say I was moved was an understatement.

It's funny how quickly we get caught up in our own garbage. There is so much out there in life, and it's those weird little occurrences that come like gifts out of the blue that remind me  to not take life so seriously. If you do get a chance to check out the chorus, do so. Got to youtube and do a search for PS22 Chorus. If you don't get the chance, it's okay. They are scheduled to perform at the "83rd Annual Academy Awards." Nice...

I also broke out "The Magic of Believing" by Claude M. Bristol. Well technically I ended up buying it because I think I loaned it to someone. I used to love this book when I was younger and add to that, I think the universe is trying to tell me something....

Baby Steps...

"If one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with success unexpected in common hours" - Henry David Thoreau

A few months ago I had been finishing up a cycle of p90x (truly hardcore, try at your own peril). One thing that stood out in the p90 curriculum was the Yoga. I had done Yoga on and off for the past few years, but never fully embracing the Yogi lifestyle. Every time I would leave it and then comeback to it whenever something in my body structure seemed out of whack. I always thought of it as more of a maintenance workout, something to be pulled out of the medicine cabinet as needed. 

A weird occurrence would happen every now and then. I would stick the latest Yoga DVD in for a night of "maintenance" and then in the middle of the practice I would enter a weird "zone". The only way to describe it was like I was truly at peace. Kind of like the world disappeared and all I was left with was this moment. Trippy, I know. I mean it didn't happen every time, but often enough for me to notice.

Flash forward to present day. I was at Barnes and Nobles on one of my weekly browsing sessions. I happened to stop by the health section looking for my next diet of the week (more on that later). I happened upon the Yoga section and being that I was just thinking about it started to randomly pick up some Yoga books. Some I had seen before, others were new to me. One caught my eye. I guess the blurb on it from Deepak Chopra helped. I thumbed through the book. It was titled "Slim, Calm, Sexy Yoga" and was by a Yogi named Tara Stiles. Thumbing through the book I realized they had a website. Wow, it was located in New York City and I happened to be off the next day. 

Jump...

It is called Strala Yoga. It's on Broadway in the "NoHo" area of New York, and I wasn't feeling particularly "bendy" this day. But here I was, ready for whatever may be. The first person I meet is Tara Stiles. I was hoping she would talk me out of it and save me the frustration. Wrong, she was welcoming and very encouraging. She squelched a bunch of my concerns regarding the practice with a "we'll deal with it when it comes up." She was like a sage disguised as typical New Yorker, go figure.

 As for the class. One word. Awesome! It was a lot more accessible then I thought it was gonna be and just challenging enough to keep me engaged. I find that doing Yoga from a DVD gets mentally repetitive and after a while becomes routine. I also realized that actually going someplace to do Yoga has the element of "I am here to do this" that prevents me from waffling on it, if I were trying to do it at home. The classes run 10 dollars a class. Another 2 bucks if you want to rent a mat. For those of you where even that is too much, they offer free classes throughout the week as well. How could you go wrong?

I currently manage to make it there once a week. I know, I know but it does make a difference.  I also have incorporated a lot of moves into a mini routine I perform when I first get up in the morning. It kind of helps me get the day going on the right foot while centering me. 

As for Tara Stiles, I find out later that she is somewhat of a youtube celebrity and has a number of routines online if you want to check em out. Type in tarastiles in the search field on youtube and you can find a number of her videos there. Their website it stralayoga.com and Tara along with her talented roster of teachers is definitely worth a look see. 

Rules for the Road...

They say that it takes "dire circumstances" to change what must be changed. I'm not gonna say that my particular situation is dire, quite the contrary, but I think that what is worse then "dire" is complacency. Complacency has a way of settling you into a comfort zone that is a lot harder to escape then dire. Dire forces you to change, complacency, not so much. I'm not saying in all cases though, and this is one of those cases.

If there is one thing that drives me crazy, it's the comfort zone. Somehow I ended up in some form of a "comfort zone". I think we all do. I mean I did everything I could to stay out of it but inevitably it finds you. It takes you over like a deadly ninja, without you knowing about it.

I've been working on a lot of different projects thinking that this project or that project is gonna be the one that ends up being the next big thing. After a little while things fall through and I am back to where I started, waiting for the next big thing. Going through my various ways of solving my particular life circumstances seemed to just reinforce where I was. I was going  nowhere fast.

 "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself." -Albert Einstein


So I decided to make some changes. I didn't really know what to do. I guess that was a good starting point, I mean if I knew what to do I wouldn't be here right.  I basically decided to just follow my passions. I wasn't going to try to make money. I wasn't gonna try to do what I was "supposed" to do. I basically wasn't gonna do the expected. I also figured if anything, I would at least have fun. I made a few ground rules for the road (or should I say guidelines, nothing is ever written in stone for me). One, if I was intrigued by something, I would have to find a way to make it happen. I didn't have to have everything figured out (like I did in the past), I would just have to take some sort of action. And two, I would let go of controlling how it was gonna happen. I figured if I made mistakes, I would have some learning experiences.

In terms of success, I kind of had to let that go. If anything, there is no true gauge of success, just a journey. I also have to say that one I am not in a relationship right now, meaning I have more time in my life then I guess others in a relationship would. I am also not wealthy by any means. A lot of the solutions that I acted on had to be somewhat economically sound. Other than that...

"Using no way as a way, using no limitations as a limitation" - Bruce Lee