I must yet again thank my yoga teachers. I am always inspired by their messages and their ability to apply that message to the practice.  The messages this week were about diving deep and letting things go (both of which I definitely need). We all need!  I haven’t been able to truly sit down to allow myself to dive deep and let things go for quite some time. Grief and sicknesses and just life lately has been busy to say the least and my anxiety has been up and down (and the scale). I finally decided to take over and push myself right back up.  In this crazy world it’s hard to just be, it’s hard to dive deep and it’s even harder to let things go. We all seem to get into these patterns and routines that are superficial and on the surface.  We are so worried what everyone thinks and who is doing what or who said what to who – that we lose sight of our humanity and ourselves. We need to dive deep for the person who matters the most – us. I am like “Ground Hog Day.” I do the same thing over and over again and get the same result. My husband has been calling me “Ground Hog Day” for years. At one point, when do you stop and recognize your own patterns (both positive and negative). The only true way to self-awareness is to go into the deep as you work through your messy journey. I am learning that things will happen (both good and bad), people will get sick, people will die, and I will get hurt (emotionally and physically), BUT (yes there is a big but), I have the power to change my reaction. You have that same power to make a change.  You have the power to dive deep and not let the behavior of others and the situations around you affect you. We all have the power to just be! We get so stuck in the negative or the craziness that we lose of sight of what matters most. We forget to have gratitude. We need to embrace our beautiful selves in all our shapes and sizes.  We can’t control anything or anyone, but we can control ourselves. I can very well control my own “Ground Hog Day” from happening by diving deep and learning to let things go. During one of the yoga classes, the teacher talked about the movie “Ground Hog Day” and how Bill Murray’s character repeats the same day over and over again. He repeats the struggles and the frustrations every day, until he realizes he can’t change what is going on around him. He can, however change how he reacts to it. How often do we get mad at spilling the coffee on your clothes or the idiot driver who just cut you off or your children and pets for not behaving? We can’t control any of that. But we can control how we react to it. The teacher gave me a very different perspective to the way I looked at “Ground Hog Day.” Things may go the same way, I will have the same difficulties and frustrations, but I can change how I react to them. I have the power to accept myself, show some self-care, and most importantly adjust how I react.  It makes so much sense to dive deep to your core (both mentally and physically) to learn to change and break patterns. Life is shitty sometimes. But it’s also beautiful and amazing and wonderful. If we stay focused on the shitty, then the universe will give you shitty. If you try to see more of the beauty and love, the universe will show you more beauty and love. You don’t have to be a religious person to know positive = positive and negative = negative.  We all need to practice self-love, self acceptance, and patience. I don’t know about you but I have no patience (especially when it comes to me).  I want things to change when I want it to, I want people to behave the way I want, etc… You get  my point.  But we all have to dive deep to our core and push ourselves faith over fear and courage over comfort.  Your faith can be spiritual or divine or mystical or simply your faith in yourself.  Faith can be that simple. Faith is that simple.  You can have faith and courage and you can go into the deep!

FAITH OVER FEAR 

COURAGE OVER COMFORT 

When we focus on both of those mantras, it’s much easier to go into the deep and change our reaction to our own “Ground Hog Day.”