Mindset Matters

Do you ever just switch your mind to vacation mode? Did you ever try? I encourage you to. You may find that it's easier than you think and has incredible benefits to your over all well-being. I speak from experience.

Okay, and maybe it's not vacation mode per-se, but hibernation mode or creative mode or FLOW mode, just a chunk of time that you give yourself to completely tune OUT or tune IN... however you'd like to see it. I like to do this at least once a week (or daily through meditation, yoga, creative writing, etc, but longer chunks of time, like an entire day, is amazing!) Take a day to hibernate, to lay around in my pajamas, read what I want, write, clean, watch some TV, take a nap, dance, sing, cook and eat, just hang inside, take a nice, long bath. I do have to say that this is a new thing for me in New York City. After spending two years with an almost eternal sense rush and endless to do list from teaching in a urban middle school in the Bronx while working on a Masters of TESOL, this is definitely a new thing. Not new for me in my life (two years in southern Spain... cough cough sun, siesta, dias festivos... and a year in China, showed me VERY different ways of being), but new for me HERE.

In New York, it is not our setting, it is not our pace, it is not of our mindset to take it easy, do less, enjoy, be in this moment without rush or expectation. At least that has been my experience. I have felt a perpetual movement, forward-looking, bigger and better, fit and do more in less time or space, ever-expanding, constantly striving, creating and developing. It's what makes New York "the greatest city in the world", yes. BUT, it is also exhausting. How about if we are just fine? If we are happy with what it is we have right now? What if we just take a second and say, "I don't need to do this right now", "It can wait", or "I have all the time in the world, there is no rush"? What if we just gave our selves a break? We take that day off, we lay in bed, we order in or go out and just indulge? What is so wrong with giving ourselves these pleasures, this ease, this sense of, "this is it, let me enjoy"?

The truth is it is all in our mindset. Sometimes a change in mindset is all we need, though a change of scenery does wonders. A walk in the park, staring at the moon, taking fotos of your surroundings, a trip to a friend's house, visiting a new shop, speaking to a new person, seeing a new thing (a family of black squirrels in Inwood Hill Park... !), just letting life flow and seeing where it takes you. This is the best. These are the moments that MAKE the life we live, not the ceaseless planning and to-do lists. These set us up to meet certain marks, but are not those moments so full of beautiful synchronicity, the magic that is everywhere, that make our hearts jump, that fill us with a deep sense of connection, of appreciation of all of this here, for our enjoyment.

Fotos from Today

View from Inwood Hill Park

Tree that reminded me of the nerve network of the human body.

Rainbow Flowers, see you in the spring.

The purpose of our lives is to be happy, and each day truly is a gift. I don't want to need a vacation from my life, I intend to build a life I do not need a vacation from. Why? Because This. Is. It. This is all there is. It's all here. Now.
#lovelovelove #beherenow #livethelifeyoulove #emancipateyourself #watchinthewheels #magiceverywhere #itsallhappening