I often talk about how every single thing we do matters. Every choice has a ripple effect, whether positive, negative or flowing somewhere in the middle. I often end class reminding us that we get to choose how we move through the world. WE get to choose. Nobody else gets to decide for us. No husband, wife, partner, boss, colleague, politician, other driver. No one. Sometimes we forget that and we give that choice away. But as yogis we are (hopefully) engaged in the process of noticing. Noticing everything. Our breath. How we feel. How other people feel. How we move through the world. Are we aligning ourselves with our higher good? Or not? And when we don’t, are we able to notice and right the path. This can show up in seemingly insignificant ways (ever called another driver an asshole? I sure have!) or on larger scales like allowing the state of the world to enrage us so much that we become angry at everyone (guilty). Over and over again we get to come back to realizing that truly no one else has the power to MAKE us feel a certain way. We do. Just us.
Recently two moments underlined for me that how we choose to move through our lives has an impact far beyond what we imagine.
Early last Monday morning I was driving to a 7am class that I teach (you’re all invited!!!) and I had a moment that was seemingly benign and inconsequential but yet struck me as incredible. I actually love Monday mornings. To me they feel like a clean slate, an opportunity to start fresh, to lean into good habits and set the tone for a great week. I have long since framed my Mondays this way, and it has been a game changer. Anyway, on this particular Monday, I was stopped at a red light on Lincoln Boulevard and a gorgeous (like from the inside out radiant gorgeous) older woman was crossing in the crosswalk in front of me. She had on the most beautiful smile. She was positively radiating warmth and gratitude. She made such an impression on me with how she was moving through the world that I am still talking (and now writing) about her days later. I’ve never seen her before. I have never met her. And I may never see her again. And, yet, she changed me. She affected me. She enhanced my life merely by walking by with a smile on her face.
What this beautiful (and I am talking about soul beauty) did for me that early morning moment was to remind me of how we all are constantly creating a ripple effect. Whether we know it or not. We are. All the time. By the words we use. The choices we make. The energy we bring to everything we do. Simply by walking down the street. Each moment, each choice makes an impact. This woman, who didn’t even see me notice her, is now in your inbox and a living example of how crossing the street with a sweet smile on your face can shift someone else’s day into the amazing.
In contrast, I spent a wonderful week of rest and relaxation over Thanksgiving with my mom and daughters in Tulum, Mexico. Each morning I would take a long run down the beautiful white sand beach. After getting far enough away from any resort, I began noticing so much trash. Mostly plastic water bottles, little pieces of plastic, trash upon trash upon trash. I started to think about how every single one of those pieces of plastic represented a myriad of choices by every single human that had at one time been in possession of that trash. The choice to purchase or acquire it in the first place. The choice to either just toss it and litter or dispose of it in a way that would eventually land it in the ocean. But there were definitely choices along the way. The contrast of the magnitude of the magnificent sea lapping up onto the beautiful beach overflowing with a million plastic examples of humans making shitty choices was staggering. It also made me grateful. Grateful that we are yogis and at least striving to be better, conscious, and to live in concert with the environment.
None of us is perfect. Definitely not me. Probably not the awesome lady in the crosswalk. But all of us are creating a ripple of effect. The awareness of that carries with it, I believe, a responsibility to strive to be better, kinder. When we understand that we are all connected and that every choice we make actually ripples out, wouldn’t we want to be part of something good?
As we roll into the holiday season, remember it is not the gift you get a person that impacts them, but how you make them feel. Every day.
I love you. And merry, merry, happy whatever it is you celebrate.