Tripping and Not Falling

Tripping is an inevitable part of life. We all do it no matter how careful we're watching our step. A few months ago, I was chasing after a grandiose dream. The dream was ahead of me on a path that was long and full of obstacles, but I was focused, watching each step carefully, and I was able to hurdle over each obstacle that crossed my path. I was slowly but surely getting closer to the dream, but out of no where an obstacle came that was too big for me to hurdle over. I tripped over it and fell hard face first. I layed on the ground in shock for a while and when I finally shook off the fall, the dream was so far ahead of me I couldn't see it anymore. I tried get up and keep running after it, but I was like a deer in the headlights just standing there with no idea which direction to go and no idea where I was. It was devistating, because all I thought I had was catching this dream. Finally after a couple of weeks of feeling blind and panicked, I recovered, regained composure and got back on track. It wasn't the path I was originally on, but it was a temporary path that would keep me occupied until I found the dream again or another one came in sight. What I learned from the experience was that we have to train our reflexes to act quickly so that when we trip, we just stumble and catch ourselves before we fall, that way we can keep going, even if it's in a different direction than where we were going before. Quickening our reflexes will save us from a full on fall, which will limit the time spent in the panicked state. There will always be unexpected challenges and obstacles in life that we will have to face, but it is our reaction to the situation that will change the outcome. We can trip, fall on our face, and spend time motionless in the panicked state or we can train our reflexes to react quickly. This will transform a full on fall into a stumble that we can recover from quickly and keep going. Just because we trip doesn't mean that we have to fall.

2012, The Year of Transitions

At the beginning of last year, I wrote in my journal that 2011 was going to be the year of exploration; exploration of self, exploration of love, exploration of foreign places, exploration of my limits and exploration of life. As it turns out, I was right in my prediction and 2011 was the year of exploration. I connected with myself and finally liked the person that was there, I was in a good relationship for most of the year, I went to Alaska and Hawaii, I pushed my comfort zone on many different occasions, and I found yoga and became completely immersed in the practice and philosophy as a way to better my life to understand life. After reflecting on the accuracy of this prediction, I wondered what 2012 should be termed as. I thought maybe movement, change or self discovery, but none of those seemed quite right. Then, it hit me. Transitions. 2012 is going to be the year of transitions; transitioning from my home town to new places, transitioning jobs to figure out where I want to be, transitioning away from the college life, and transitioning from plans to taking things as they come. Transitions are sometimes hard. They don't feel important. They feel like they're just a stepping stone to the next monumental segment of life and nothing can be gained from them. In actuality, even though transitions feel insignificant, they are some of the most important times in life. They are the times when we can reflect on the past and set up for the future. Transitions also connect our life's events to create a continuous sequence. Without them, life would be random events with no correlation to each other. It's easy to forget that every event builds upon what we have gained in previous events to create our lives, so it's important to be present in all the parts of it and not just the events we see as "monumental" to live a full life and gain everything that we can from it. Going into this year of transitions, I can expect that it will be difficult, but I don't want it to be a year wasted. I want to learn all that I can from every event, no matter how insignificant it seems at the time and fully embrace everything that is thrown in front of me. Life is too short to write off the transitions.