You don’t need to be special

OFF THE MAT

Weekly Thought Offering:
When we can’t see the magic in the ordinary, we can’t see the magic in life.

Weekly Journal Prompts:
100 Things I am grateful for are….
(does that seem insane? It’s not. Get started and likely, around number 20, you’re going to “run out of things” and then just then the magic will start.

Weekly Mantra:
For this, I am grateful.

Hello Lovelies,

Not that long ago I was listening to a recording of a talk by Caroline Myss and something she said pierced me. At first it made me upset but at the same time I knew she was right. You know that feeling you get when you’re learning a truth that you know is true but you’re almost not yet ready to know it’s true? But once you give it some time to settle in it becomes like second nature? This was one of those things.

In the interview she said, something akin to, and I am paraphrasing here, but she said something like “Everybody wants to be special, we’re so busy being special, teaching our kids to be special, you are not special.”
My jaw dropped, “Yes, of course I’m special. Of course my children are special.” my ego replied.”
But then she went on, and I listened, and told my ego to pipe down.
”We are so busy looking for what is out of the ordinary that we never learn to appreciate the ordinary. If we can’t appreciate the ordinary, we miss out on appreciating 98% of our lives and 98% of the joy”.

Mind blown.

She was right. Yes, I believe we all came here with a unique offering, a way in which only we can be of service. Part of our job and our jobs as parents is to figure out what that is. But I also know in my bones that being grateful for little things is actually what adds up to a joyful life. Being grateful for whatever is actually right here, right now, that is how we tell the universe we want more abundance sent our way. Knowing and appreciating that we are a part of a collective, that we are much more the same than we are different leads to us actually caring about others in real and meaningful ways.

This week ON THE MAT the offering is to pick a flow from your library, any flow, and find a reason to be grateful for it and for the body that even allows you to attempt it.

OFF THE MAT let’s celebrate all of the tiny and all of the ordinary (and maybe we don’t stop when the week is over ;) but I guess that goes for all of these practices :))

With Great Respect and Love,
Nicole