This past Memorial Day weekend, I had the privilege of teaching at Lighting In a Bottle. Think Burning Man with fewer drugs and more conscious awareness. I remember, before going, reading a quote about imagination. It was something along the lines of “Your imagination is yours and yours alone. With it, you can create your masterpiece or you can create your hell.”
We are all born with so much potential and believe we can create anything but, somewhere along the way, life beats that out of us. Being at Lib was truly like seeing someone’s imagination come to life. The immaculate detail that went into creating this magic world helped uplift people, reignite passion and drive, and pretty much put a smile on everyone’s face. It was truly a Disneyland for adults where you just found your tribe. From spiritual talks to yoga, to house music, to Meditation Lookout Point, to shaman talks, Lib had it all. Walking around, I just kept thinking about the amount of detail and hard work that went into creating something like this. I became curious about the people who came up with this idea. I have heard that this festival started out several years back with 500 people and now it’s around 20,000.
Think about how many times people must have told the creators that they were crazy for attempting this. That they were wasting their time and money. Yet their drive and dream took priority over their fears and they conquered. We can all choose to starve our fears and feed our dreams. We can all choose to create a masterpiece with our imagination. But imagination is nothing without drive. It is nothing without action. So get going. Life waits for no one. Will you choose to feed your dreams or your fears?
Last week in my classes, the ongoing theme was knowing your WHY. Why we do what we do? Why do we choose the city we live in? A particular career? Our friends? Our life partners?
It all started with me trying to decide if I wanted to lead a Fall 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training. I kept searching and asking myself why, as this training is a huge task and I just couldn’t come up with enough answers to excite me. I tend to always need to know the WHY to my choices. At the same time, I was very disappointed in the actions of a friend and I kept asking myself, is this friendship worth fighting for? Why would I choose to fight for this?
I had to make a decision by the end of the week about Teacher Training and I had to answer my friend. I noticed how both choices started to steal my peace. So I decided to feed my mind the right things and see if I could switch my perception. For me this usually means listening to a podcast and walking my furry love, Anjali. I remembered my student Rob, who knows me well, had sent a Ted talk he thought I would like, so I put on my headphones, grabbed Anjali and started walking.
Funny enough, the talk was by Simon Sinek on how all successful people know their WHY. Life is funny like that. I kept walking and kept thinking how I’ve always made decisions in a similar way. I knew at a young age I did not belong in Romania. I had to make a decision at the age of 13 about staying in the United States or returning to Romania to compete in the Olympics. I knew why I wanted to move to Los Angeles from Portland. I know why I choose to teach yoga. So I challenge you to know your WHY in every aspect of your life. It’s important to because if we know anything about life is that change is inevitable. Life will kick our asses and make us question everything we thought we knew. Know what it is that you’re fighting for. Make sure it’s worth it. And be honest with yourself about your choices. About your WHY.