Tag Archives: manifesting your dreams

Gratitude Saved My Life

Posted on May 16, 2017 | Leave a comment

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Every sun salutation series I teach in my yoga classes reflects my lifeline: gratitude. We end each sun salutation reaching up with our hands together, arms straight, stretching, reaching past imagery clouds to find light, inspiration, that we then bring into our heart space as we bow our heads and pause. We breathe in what has brought us joy, peace or even just a smile that day. We do this over and over until we have put together a list that is nearly 12 long of moments, people, projects, things, pets, events that we are grateful for that day. At the end of the series we pause longer, with our hands over our hearts, heads bowed, as we shift our vibration by thinking about what works. We focus on what is good, positive, flowing, beautiful, inspiring, supportive, comforting in our lives. It’s a powerful choice. And it has saved my life.

I can recall a time when what didn’t work would drive me crazy. And I’d focus on that one nasty comment or the inconsiderate actions done, or the hurt from real sorrow. But instead of finding the lesson in that pain and letting it ALL go, I became filled with resentments and a need to fix, control, make it better, understand, or be understood—which is another way of focussing on what isn’t working, instead of just allowing, accepting and letting go of what doesn’t serve and focussing on where the love is, the light is, the support is, the friendship is, the compassion is. These beautiful things and souls are in everyone’s life. It takes mindful effort to focus on them and not obsess on the negative, the toxic, the unhealthy, unloving people or environments. But once I do focus, and give thanks for, and give more time to the people, events, jobs, activities that fill me up with joy, acceptance, love, support, I suddenly find more of that in my life. And then giving feels like receiving, because I want to give to those who bring me happiness.

I’m welling up with tears by the sweet texts and notes from my dear yoga students this past week. Happy Mother’s Day wishes, thank you’s for classes they enjoyed and meditations that moved them, etc. My work feels like play. I’m in another yoga training right now with such an inspiring teacher and women. The focus is making me stronger, too, at a time that could tip me out of gratitude and into sadness or anxiety if I let it.  But how cool is it that instead, I have to take two hot classes a day (that kick my tush), attend training and teach to my teacher. At night I memorize dialogue, in between all my mommy demands, and I love every minute. Sometimes I need to have a distraction in order not to worry about what I can’t control. Can you relate? I can’t control disease. I can’t control violent events. I can’t control the president, geez. I can’t control what will or won’t happen to people very close to me who are fighting for their lives. I can only love them. And when I take care of myself, I can love them better. I can be more mindful after yoga, and be present with them without letting fears race. I can trust the Universe more, and trust their journeys and my own. I’m so grateful for the calm and trust and strength that yoga and meditation brings. I can love and accept others and even let go with so much love, trusting that we are all on our own paths, our own journeys, that are exactly as they are meant to be, for our highest expansion.

My heart is full this week. Yes I miss my mom who passed away this week last year. And yes I’m scared to lose anyone else close to me. I know death is an illusion, but damn, you can’t really talk with, smell, hug easily from the other side can you? It’s still a painful loss anyway you look at it. Choking away the fear is hard. Hot yoga classes, meditation, sweat, no alcohol, makes it so much easier for me to float back into a space of gratitude.

And having the best boys on the planet doesn’t hurt either! This Mother’s Day my 15-year-old got up at 5 a.m. (he thought I was taking a 6 a.m. class) and walked into town, bought me a mocha with coconut milk and a huge bouquet of flowers. My 8-year-old gave me an adorable picture and hand-delivered a chocolate cupcake and a juice box to my bed for breakfast. And you know what else? My ex-husband texted and offered to buy us brunch. How lucky am I?

So lucky. When I think about going to Hawaii this June to finish my next book—AND my yoga & writers retreat I’m leading in Greece this August—I’m BEYOND grateful. It’s amazing where life can lead me if I let it. If I’m open to allowing my dreams, and the right people, to float into focus, and then focus on them, the miraculous bubbles to the surface.

Here’s to letting in—breathing in—more: peace, calm, light, love, compassion, joy, adventure, strength, patience, friendship, acceptance—and a little wiggle room for fun.

Namaste,

Laura xo

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Posted in Dating/Relationships, Health/Wellbeing, spirituality, Travel, YOGA

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The Year to Surrender

Posted on January 2, 2015 | Leave a comment

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I read this quote today from The Buried Life: “Don’t be afraid to let things fall in or out of place.”

Simple, yet profound, especially for those of us who struggle to make things happen, or to control our lives. This I know for sure: it takes strength to not push, to not force, to trust in something bigger than ourselves, to wait, to listen, and to see what evolves. This type of advice used to make me cringe. It seemed so passive, as if telling a person to sit around and not DO anything to manifest their dreams.

But I now see that’s not what this message implies. 2014 was a year of hard and beautiful lessons for me. What I know now is that the biggest accomplishment, the highest goal to attain to, is to follow my inner voice,  my boundaries, my dreams, my intuition, and my journey home to myself. So that takes courage to continue walking towards dreams. It takes energy. But then it requires that I release heated expectations, or nagging thoughts filled with worry, or any mental struggle that can come from wanting something to emerge, or to develop, in a specific way. It requires being still in moving waters. Trusting the flow is going to take me where I’m meant to go.

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Louise Hay said it perfectly: “We must place our order in the cosmic kitchen, and then let it go. Don’t follow the waiter to the kitchen and hover and make sure he places your order correctly and that the chef is cooking it per your specifications. Make up your mind, place your order and then trust that it is being filled.”

For me, this is about trust and surrendering to the process, in all my relationships, my goals, my dreams. And if I do nothing to make these dreams come true, than likely they won’t. But if I take babysteps each day, put in a little effort, and then trust the process and let it go—who knows what could happen? I have to let that cosmic waiter take my order to the Universal kitchen. And then surrender. Surrender to the process. Surrender to the possibility that the results may fall within my expectations, or outside of them.

Like the splashes from a water fall, I have to wait to see where the pool forms, where the waters converge and divide. Perhaps my dreams, our dreams, will manifest in exactly the way we want? But maybe, just maybe, if we open ourselves up to the possibility that they can manifest into something far more beautiful, far more unexpected, we might just float into a pool that is wilder, more tangled, more rooted in the unknown—until it rings the truth of something meant to be. … But only if we let go, with excitement, with gratitude.

So, friends, here’s to a 2015 filled with joy, excitement, gratitude, anticipation— without rigid expectations, fear or worry.

Namaste ~

L. xo

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Posted in Dating/Relationships, Health/Wellbeing, YOGA

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What Can You Do In Eight Weeks?

Posted on November 15, 2014 | 2 comments

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My dear friend, Linda Baffa, reminded me this week that there are eight weeks left in 2014. She plans to explore one chakra per week in her yoga classes. I’m beyond excited, as chakras have become a passion of mine…But when she discussed what she wanted to do in the eight weeks left of the year, it dawned on me that I rarely, ever, really plan. I might set an intention, but that’s different. And so much can, and will, happen in an eight week period. What you consciously focus on, expands, right? Instead of just floating with the current, I might want to think about what specific areas and goals to magnify, instead of just trying to stay afloat with whatever life steers my way.

Think about it. In eight weeks, you can fall in love. Have your heart broken. Pick up the pieces. Finish writing a novel. Lose 10 pounds. Lose your way. Find your passion. Help a friend. Find stillness. DeClutter. Travel to another country. Forgive someone. Forgive yourself. Earn a lot of money. Donate to the poor. Learn how to say no to those who ask too much of  you. Detach with love when it’s necessary. Become a good listener. Discover how to listen to yourself, to your body, to the inner cues and intuitive voices. Learn something new. Do something that scares you. Start a project. Confront someone when it’s needed, and when it’s helpful. Eat more raw, organic food. Start flossing daily. Read a classic novel. Attend a concert. Go dancing. Stop drinking. Quit smoking. Run a marathon. Start playing with your children.

Where do you want to set your course? What areas of your life do you want to put more emphasis on? Or is it just too much pressure to even think about? Will the current just take you, let you drift into unchartered waters without a conscious effort to steer? Maybe you are stuck in a place where currents don’t even flow: living with the same-ole-same-ole without the slightest change of scenery. And that can be really comforting sometimes. Or, like me, maybe each day, each week, fluctuates so much that there seems to be quick sand underfoot?

Why am I meandering down this path? Well, I think it’s time to put some concerted focus and planning into my last eight weeks of the year. Sure, there’s still room for surprises, for serendipity, for coincidences, and hopefully for much-needed spontaneity. But at the same time, I need to steer a course, even if I don’t have an outlined, defined ending. It doesn’t have to be anything too rigid, or too unrealistic. It may just be as simple as the writer’s group I’m starting with trusted friends whom I can support, and who will support my writing in return. Yes, within eight weeks I will likely be finished with my novel (just one more chapter to go!). But at the same time, if I’m not, that will be okay. Life happens. If another child breaks an arm, or gets pneumonia, I’m thankful that I have the ability to take care of them. I love yoga and meditation for how it allows me to be become more flexible, to go with the flow more often, and to open up into trusting that I’ll still arrive at my destination—even if I don’t arrive as I had planned. Do I always go with the flow? No. (Especially not in love! But that’s for another venue!) But if I start a course, if I have a plan, it should help.

I love the picture above for so many reasons. My son William became obsessed with the sailboats in Luxembourg Gardens the last time we were in Paris. I was five months pregnant with his little brother. It would be the last family vacation in Europe that we ever took. I’m so proud of that vacation. I found my voice, even through the waves of ever-present nausea. I demanded that we slow down and let a little boy, be a little boy. Our constant walking and museum going was driving him crazy. There was magic and importance in just sitting in a garden, in people-watching, in sailing a boat. This is what William and I had always done. While daddy was in meetings in various cities in Europe, I would stop and let William dig for worms in botanical gardens in Madrid, Paris, Lisbon. It was our thing. It was how I compromised. We’d go to a piazza in Venice and play with other children, and then later sit still and behave in an adult restaurant. It was my way of honoring him and me. Well, it reminds me that even back then, before I did yoga and meditated every day, I still knew the value of slowing down, of watching, of being, of playing. I even convinced his father to go to the dreaded EuroDisney instead of yet more museums. And you know what? I’m convinced it became one of their best memories together. And so with slowing down in mind, I tiptoe toward my eight week goals with the intention of still being able to find space. Of finding time. Of finding ways to just ‘be’ instead of rushing, demanding, stressing and getting distracted from what really matters.

What matters to you? Focus on it. Magnify it. Write it down. Marinate in it. Imagine it coming true and give thanks for it. Work toward it, even if just for an hour every day. And have a wonderful journey to the New Year.

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Posted in Divorce, Health/Wellbeing, WORDS

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Grounding Roots While Reaching For the Light

Posted on December 29, 2013 | Leave a comment
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Reaching for the Light by Laura Roe Stevens

Today I received two messages that I clearly needed—completely and utterly  perfect for me at this moment. The first came from a friend in Italy, another single mom who painstakingly takes care of her seriously ill young daughter’s every need. The quote from Khalil Gibran: ‘Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.’

Then, for some reason, I received a free copy of Deepak Chopra’s 21 Days of Inspiration—part of his bestseller The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.

Today’s ‘inspiration’ about transformation is based around the metaphor of the beloved Sequoia tree. Again, how perfect for me, as I have been intrigued and mesmerized by these ancient trees and took a trip to see and hike among them. I even bought sequoia puzzles and blocks from my sons, as I am fascinated by the fact that these 3,000-year-old trees, older than Buddha, can only exist with the presence of fire. The heat of the forest fires release their seeds and clear away smaller trees that might block sun light from their roots.

My book, that I’m having difficulty focussing on at the moment, is quite literally centered around the mysticism from ancient trees. Not entirely, but it starts in this manner. I wish I could share a sneak peak within this blog, but a literary agent told me not to, so I’ll listen to her advice.

While the book is not based at all on my life or my childhood, I have always been affected by trees. As a child, I would escape the madness or chaos or fighting that might be occurring within my large household and run away to lay beneath 200-year-old pine trees. Our house bordered an old horse and tobacco farm and I would quite literally run past abandoned slave quarters and a tobacco-curing barn and then walk for ages on the then-empty horse trails, lined with soft pine needles. When I was finally exhausted, I would lay underneath a tree, my head resting on the moss that blanketed its knotted roots, and look up into the sky. The fingers of the trees would touch and move softly, letting in rays of sunlight, bits of blue sky. The shade helped me escape the usual oppressive heat of the South and if I laid still long enough, sometimes a deer would gently wander past. It was my heaven. Laying against the roots of trees that had witnessed likely atrocities from slavery, and perhaps moments of joyous horse-back riding, I wondered just what else had occurred or who else had shared this spot with me in the past. I didn’t know that I was meditating, but my eyes would close half-way, as I’d sleepily watch the limbs sway far above me. There were no other sounds except that of water trickling in the near by stream, leaves or pine needles rustling from deer, rabbits, squirrels or chipmunks. But most certainly, and steadily, like an ocean tide, I’d hear the soft, whispering wind from above. Although I was only a young girl, I think on some level, I recognized the metaphor in the moment that I sought over and over again when I needed to escape. And that is:

– Beauty Exists.

– Distance yourself from chaos, addiction, toxic relationships.

– Find stillness.

– Listen.

– Strengthen your core, your roots.

– Although rooted in who you are and what you want, strive to stay aware, mindful, accepting and grateful—especially for those lessons taught by those who have hurt you the most.

– And, most importantly: bravely, tentatively, reach for the sky, the light, and toward baby steps to manifest your dreams.

Happy New Year all ~

Laura xo

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Posted in Health/Wellbeing, Photography, YOGA

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