on patience (earned)

I used to be an incredibly impatient person. For as long as I could remember, I had always been anxiously awaiting something, anything. It's a stressful and exhausting way to live, honestly. I don't recommend it.

As life progresses and I grow older, I am finding myself capable of patience and acceptance, in ways and in circumstances that my younger self would never have been able to handle. Part of this change stems from a changing perception of time - it's no joke that the older you get, the faster time seems to go by. Sorry to my mom and dad for all the times I rolled my eyes at them when they said that sort of thing to me. 

Another part of this comes from the time and effort I have invested in creating a happy life and healthy environment for myself. The happier and more at peace you are to begin with, the easier it is to maintain that peace and positivity in the face of difficult moments. Prioritizing my own happiness seemed like a selfish and petty thing to do at first. Shouldn't I be more worried about saving the world / changing my community / helping others? Well, I have learned being happy makes it much easier to do all those things; happiness is the root of a good life, it impacts things both great and small. The younger me would have scoffed at my excitement about finding the perfect nail polish color - isn't that such a trivial thing and wouldn't my time be better spent reading ____ or ruminating on the existence of _____? But now I know that, while the nail polish itself isn't important, those little bits of happiness really are. They add up to a well-rounded perspective. Volunteering at the animal shelter brings a different kind of happiness than laying on the grass in the sun at the courthouse; helping others is certainly the more honorable action, but both are important and necessary in their own ways. Life is not exclusively grand gestures and great accomplishments. Neither is love, or happiness. It is the sum of the whole.

(fresh flowers...another little thing I enjoy so much)

The final great contributor to my level of patience is faith. That the journey will never be too long or too hard for me to handle. That life will never be completely without some sort of pain or struggle, and that is okay, because I am stronger than I think. That everything is temporary, nothing is permanent. Things are always changing, and that means that even if things are bad right now, they won't be in the future. I may not know when or how, but I know things will get better. The good and the bad are always changing, always fluctuating, and you either learn to ride those waves and stay afloat or you drown. To me, being patient is choosing to believe that things will be wonderful, maybe not on your own timeframe but that they truly will be...

lemons and lemonade

(los angeles, ca)

"What looks like a loss may be the very event which is subsequently responsible for helping to produce the major achievement of your life."

-Srully D. Blotnick

meditation + technology

(The Funk Zone on a cloudy day, Santa Barbara)

As someone who tends to become anxious easily, meditation had always intimidated me. I did not think I was capable of shutting my brain off and finding that inner peace that had always been elusive to me. However, I tried Deepak Chopra's 21-Day Free Meditation Challenge (now over, sadly, but you can purchase the series here, and I also mention some FREE guided meditation audio sources below) as a desire to try, really try, to understand and practice at least the basic tenants of meditation. Shockingly, I loved it and immediately felt the calming effects of taking 15 minutes out of each day to participate in this challenge. While I chose not to purchase the meditation series (I'm super cheap), I firmly believe it was an incredibly effective introduction to meditation for beginners and would recommend it to anyone.

After the challenge was over and I was meditation audio-less, I was stumped. I may have completed the 21 days of meditation, but I wasn't ready or able to just sit back in a silent room and try to achieve that inner peace myself. I needed the verbal instructions to keep me on task, instead of letting my mind wander into worries and stresses. What's a hippie to do?

Answer: Spotify! For those of you who are not familiar with Spotify, you really should be. It is a free music player that functions more like iTunes than Pandora. You can search for songs, albums, artists, make playlists, look at friends' music, get recommendations, and so forth...all for FREE. The free version is a desktop-only program with some ads between songs. The paid version ($9.99 per month) gets rid of ads and allows you to utilize Spotify's mobile app, so you can rock out on your phone to your playlists for free. Not all music is on there (big, sad, missing one: The Beatles) due to copyright owners not allowing the music to be used by Spotify and the like, but I rarely notice the absence, even though my music taste runs towards the obscure.

(Goleta Beach Park near UCSB, on a cloudy day)

Deepak Chopra and The Chopra Center have quite a few albums available for your use. The 21-Day Meditation Challenge is on there, but without the truly inspiring introductory remarks Deepak makes in the paid version. However, the real winner (for me) has been The Soul of Healing Meditations. It is a guided meditation CD (remember, I need someone telling me to stop thinking, dammit) and is a great way to ease into the wonderful world of meditation. Another amazing guided meditation for encouraging sleep is Blissful Sleep with Deepak Chopra.

I am so grateful for my mind and body, and my desire to be my own sense of peace. Even if you don't take it seriously at first (I chuckled aloud during my first meditation attempt), try it a couple times. You have nothing to lose, and so much inner fulfillment to gain!