Hello future-Jamie,
I am sitting on a yoga mat next to some Tibetan singing bowls. How did I even get here? It’s been 8 weeks now and I’m supposed to write something really profound about what I’ve learnt and wish to remember. I hope my 8-weeks’ worth of mindfulness classes didn’t go to waste and that you’re all calm and zen.
Okay, let’s do this. So, what did I learn?
Just like anything else in life, if you want it, you must work for it. When I signed up, I was expecting a life-changing experience — and I was naively disappointed when I realised it was actually up to me to do the work and change.
2. Uninvited feelings came, had a party, and didn’t want to leave.
Yup, all that nasty anxiety, guilt, shame, emptiness….and everything else that you work so hard to distract yourself from…yup. They all came and had a party in my brain the moment I was meant to be “in the moment”.
3. There’s no magic fix.
As wise and calm and amazing and kind the instructors were, they can’t give you the answers. Not the kind I was hoping for anyway.
Now that I’m done ranting, here’s what I actually did learn and hope to take away from all this:
Nothing just happens to us; and every day, we have a choice.
Yes, there’s some things in life that we can’t control much (like being angrily shoved and then glared at on the MTR). But what we can control is how we choose to rise up to challenges.
How we choose to approach life. How we choose to show up.
So future-Jamie, I hope you f***ing show up.
Sincerely,
Jamie