Breath, Focus, Follow Through

These are my chosen anchors for the coming weeks. In this case, an anchor is defined as  2.: someone or something that provides strength and support. Here are the reasons I am in need of such a thing…  The volume of work at my job is astounding and it doesn’t appear things will get better soon. In fact, many in supervision and others “in the know” have stated things are going to get even worse. That is hard to imagine, but the truth is things are already a lot worse than they were last year. I have the New Years Yoga Manifestation Retreat in Ojai with Jen Pastiloff and her tribe coming up in less than a month. I’m committed to a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Certification Training with my yoga studio sometime after the first of the year. I spoke to the owner of my studio about it. They will be finalizing the curriculum and schedule by the end of this month. I already know how much it will cost. Then there’s that Big Island Writers Workshop I signed up and paid for which is on Friday, January 22nd. Oh, and my wonderfully amazing, kick-ass therapist is leaving her practice for another job in Orange county. I have two more face-to-face sessions with her over the next two Mondays before she leaves the last week of this month.

As my girl, Dawny put it when I called her to talk last night, “THAT is a lot on your plate.” It is a lot and lately it feels like I’ve either got something going on or a whole lot of something going on. This is a busy time of year with my sobriety date, the holidays and a host of other fun, interesting events I planned or signed up for. At least I no longer wonder what happened to my life. It’s finally sunk into my consciousness and into my being that my path is unfolding in some places, opening up in others and possibly dead ending at yet another juncture. Isn’t this is what I signed up for when I decided to discover my Mission for work and life? Isn’t this is what I signed up for when I decided I wanted to live and work from my heart more than my head? I do know this is me being fully present for my life. Sometimes it’s so fucking wonderful. Other times it’s so fucking frustrating. A lot of times it is overwhelming. Even the wonderful can be overwhelming when it happens, like winning a scholarship to a retreat because of my essay or planning to attend my first ever writers workshop at the invitation of another writer/director/actor who read my blog.

So instead of wistfully and misguidedly longing for my old isolative, couch potato days, I think of how I can journey through this phase of my life with as much presence and enjoyment as possible. Just how does one enjoy the frustrations of an increasingly overwhelming and toxic work environment? By keeping my sense of humor, utter ridiculousness and irony. Trust me, my co-workers can attest those are golden qualities to have in our line of work. I already received instructions on what to bring to the Ojai retreat through a closed group on Facebook and Jen herself has personally assured me of a few things I was concerned about. I’ve spoken to my yoga teacher about what I can do to prepare for the certification training and she has suggested some readings along with a few other things I plan to do. As for my therapist, well she’s already mentioned the possibility of us doing skype sessions through January and she has someone she could refer me to that has similar spiritual values as her and I. So there are things I can do to prepare for what’s coming up. And those things I can’t prepare for?

This brings me back to my topic of breath, focus and follow through. These are my anchors because sometimes all I can do is breathe. Breathe deeply, rhythmically and reverently, if possible. God in, God out. A part of my higher power is inside me and also as close as my next breath. It’s calming. It’s centering. It can be clarifying. I can focus on whatever or whoever is in front of me, be it a task at work, a friend or family member in need of my attention, processing how to let go, or an endeavor aimed at feeding, growing, expanding my spirit or soul. This leads to following through. For me, it means to continue to follow through with trusting the process. Following through on the next indicated step. It means finishing what I committed to starting. I’ve written it before and I will continue to do so. I will follow through on what God is calling me to do, what God is unfolding, opening or eliminating on my path. What do you use to anchor yourself through some of your busiest times?