Small steps
I had a wonderful class at the Urban Element last night. The thing that I love most is meeting the people that come to the class who are open to learn, cook and eat, and just have a good time. They are like children on the first day of kindegarten, and I think that's a wonderful thing for the teacher and the students.
And, they chose my course out of the entire Urban Element calendar as something that has intrigued them, peaked their interest, or aligns with the eating habits (some vegetarians and even vegans are hearing about the courses and coming from all over), or their values (they like that I buy local, organic, seasonal), or they just want to eat healthier and here's a quick way to start.
A woman emailed me this morning to say how thrilled she was with my course last night and that her husband, who came with her, was impressed and he's starting thinking about eating healthier too. That is so touching and uplifting, the fact that she would write and that what I have been believing and wanting to convey is working. You can change people's perceptions and views through their palate first vs. telling people that it's good for them and they should eat it, which reminds me of the Mikey commercial when I was growing up ("Eat it Mikey, it's good for you") and that approach never works.
They have that old saying "a best way to a man's heart is through his stomach", which seems quite outdated and old fashioned. But if you take out the "man" and replace it with "person" then it still makes sense. Through food, good food that is beautiful and delicious, we can do a lot to get people asking the questions that we need to start asking... is this food good for me and why or why not, how do I feel when I eat this food and afterwards, where does this food come from, etc.
By taking a class, coming to one of my monthly dinners, or taking another action in the right direction like (fill in blank) then I think this starts to shift things around. It's like when I bought the Artists Way book by Julia Cameron long ago about breaking the barriers in your life to becoming who you want to be and being a more creative person. Someone told me it was a good book so I bought it and I glanced through it but it looked like too much work, so I left it and there it patiently waited for me on my bookcase for years, probably a decade. Funny, how patient books are. You would think they would be screaming out... "please touch me", "open me, read me", "yoohoo, I'm here don't ya know?!", "what are you waiting for?!".
On this continuous search to find my life mission, passion or whatever you may call it, I went on several retreats and took some courses, but nothing really hit home about what I should be doing with my life and with passion and heart. Yes, I want to go there and do SOMETHING but what? It's great if you've always loved music and now want to play music, or you know what you want. But, what about those millions of us out there who don't know and want desperately to find out. Where do we go?
As yoga and meditation has taught me, I did my regular "practice" of yoga and meditation, continued reading inspiring teachings and stories, and was always searching for people who got me as I am and were inspiring to be around, tried the journey of staying present and in the now, and waited, but not patiently for the most part I have to say.
I started putting the question out there loud and clear. Now I understand that's part of the problem in getting an answer. As my yoga teacher and others often said to me, you have to be clear about your question and you have to start imagining what you want and all the details, the clearer the better. I guess the universe, or whoever, doesn't like vagueness, or lack of clarity, or fuzziness. Who does? So, I started putting out this question with a question mark and an exclamation mark afterwards. ... "What am I supposed to be doing to live a life with more heart and passion?"
This question led me to take a life mission course at one of my favourite retreat places, the Kripula yoga and health centre in Lennox, Mass. I thought this course would lead me to my new career direction. I'd come back with a new revelation like... now I want to become a brain surgeon or lounge singer or architect. But, instead I came back with key words that I needed to have as part of my new career. I was a bit disappointed I must admit with the results of this course. All this time and money, and all I have is three words that I need to have in my new career.... Creativity, Connection and Passion were the words. I did what I was told and wrote them everywhere to remind me... on my bulletin board, on my screen saver, and I would do what I could to help the universe to help me. Here I am universe with these 3 big words on my forehead, I'm ready, and now beam me up!
I waited, nothing happened.
One day a flyer came to me from Kripalu for a workshop with Julia Cameron with a quote from her about the course...
"No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity".
It spoke to me and I was hooked. I picked up that dusty book Artists Way on my bookshelf and headed to the course, and I have never looked back.
Julia and that course was magic for me, it gave me the support and confidence to take that step or many small steps. As she says, making improvements in your life doesn't have to be big steps, but small steps heading in the right direction can have a huge impact and make a big difference. Julia was a screen writer, who was married to Martin Scorcese and she used to hang out with friends like Steven Spielberg by the way, and she found out that she had the ability to help artists and people unblock barriers to their creativity and becoming who they could become. She started writing, teaching, and her popularity grew tremendously.
She tells a story about her approach to unblocking our barriers. This young man came to her and said that he wanted desparately to be a screen writer, but he didn't know how he could move from his hometown to a place like LA and that was stopping him. Julia told him, "If you want to be a screen writer, there is just one thing that you have to do." "You have to start writing and keep on writing," she said. Good advice, I love that story.
Throughout the course, you learn by thinking of simple things in your life that you can do now to make you feel better. Like, she would say, "Name 3 things that you could do in your office today or soon that are not expensive and would make you enjoy your office better." You would get only a minute or so to reply. People came up with things like putting up an inspirational saying, buying flowers, creating a fruit basket, clearing up the "in" basket that has been nagging at them for months. After numerous exercises, you begin to see that it's the small changes that count and should never be discounted.
And that's part of the beauty of being who you want to become and unblocking your barriers, writing three pages every morning upon waking to bring out your thoughts, called the Morning Pages, going on an adventure alone every week for an hour to somewhere you've always wanted to go to or doing something you've always wanted to do and it doesn't need to be expensive. My weekly journies took me eventually to the Cordon Bleu culinary school in town to observe a class and I found that the style of the class and what they were teaching was not for me. Then, through my morning writings, I went back to thoughts I had about the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. It's expensive and in NYC so how would I ever make that happen?! Well, I continued my writings and next thing I know Dave and I were on a plane to NYC for a holiday and to check out the school. I signed up, and have never looked back.
I'm not sure why I've come this far from where I started writing this blog entry, but it must be the passion talking again and it just takes over my body and luckily my hands as well. All this to say, never discount the steps, however small, but heading in the right direction, can do for you and your life. Try it.
And, they chose my course out of the entire Urban Element calendar as something that has intrigued them, peaked their interest, or aligns with the eating habits (some vegetarians and even vegans are hearing about the courses and coming from all over), or their values (they like that I buy local, organic, seasonal), or they just want to eat healthier and here's a quick way to start.
A woman emailed me this morning to say how thrilled she was with my course last night and that her husband, who came with her, was impressed and he's starting thinking about eating healthier too. That is so touching and uplifting, the fact that she would write and that what I have been believing and wanting to convey is working. You can change people's perceptions and views through their palate first vs. telling people that it's good for them and they should eat it, which reminds me of the Mikey commercial when I was growing up ("Eat it Mikey, it's good for you") and that approach never works.
They have that old saying "a best way to a man's heart is through his stomach", which seems quite outdated and old fashioned. But if you take out the "man" and replace it with "person" then it still makes sense. Through food, good food that is beautiful and delicious, we can do a lot to get people asking the questions that we need to start asking... is this food good for me and why or why not, how do I feel when I eat this food and afterwards, where does this food come from, etc.
By taking a class, coming to one of my monthly dinners, or taking another action in the right direction like (fill in blank) then I think this starts to shift things around. It's like when I bought the Artists Way book by Julia Cameron long ago about breaking the barriers in your life to becoming who you want to be and being a more creative person. Someone told me it was a good book so I bought it and I glanced through it but it looked like too much work, so I left it and there it patiently waited for me on my bookcase for years, probably a decade. Funny, how patient books are. You would think they would be screaming out... "please touch me", "open me, read me", "yoohoo, I'm here don't ya know?!", "what are you waiting for?!".
On this continuous search to find my life mission, passion or whatever you may call it, I went on several retreats and took some courses, but nothing really hit home about what I should be doing with my life and with passion and heart. Yes, I want to go there and do SOMETHING but what? It's great if you've always loved music and now want to play music, or you know what you want. But, what about those millions of us out there who don't know and want desperately to find out. Where do we go?
As yoga and meditation has taught me, I did my regular "practice" of yoga and meditation, continued reading inspiring teachings and stories, and was always searching for people who got me as I am and were inspiring to be around, tried the journey of staying present and in the now, and waited, but not patiently for the most part I have to say.
I started putting the question out there loud and clear. Now I understand that's part of the problem in getting an answer. As my yoga teacher and others often said to me, you have to be clear about your question and you have to start imagining what you want and all the details, the clearer the better. I guess the universe, or whoever, doesn't like vagueness, or lack of clarity, or fuzziness. Who does? So, I started putting out this question with a question mark and an exclamation mark afterwards. ... "What am I supposed to be doing to live a life with more heart and passion?"
This question led me to take a life mission course at one of my favourite retreat places, the Kripula yoga and health centre in Lennox, Mass. I thought this course would lead me to my new career direction. I'd come back with a new revelation like... now I want to become a brain surgeon or lounge singer or architect. But, instead I came back with key words that I needed to have as part of my new career. I was a bit disappointed I must admit with the results of this course. All this time and money, and all I have is three words that I need to have in my new career.... Creativity, Connection and Passion were the words. I did what I was told and wrote them everywhere to remind me... on my bulletin board, on my screen saver, and I would do what I could to help the universe to help me. Here I am universe with these 3 big words on my forehead, I'm ready, and now beam me up!
I waited, nothing happened.
One day a flyer came to me from Kripalu for a workshop with Julia Cameron with a quote from her about the course...
"No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity".
It spoke to me and I was hooked. I picked up that dusty book Artists Way on my bookshelf and headed to the course, and I have never looked back.
Julia and that course was magic for me, it gave me the support and confidence to take that step or many small steps. As she says, making improvements in your life doesn't have to be big steps, but small steps heading in the right direction can have a huge impact and make a big difference. Julia was a screen writer, who was married to Martin Scorcese and she used to hang out with friends like Steven Spielberg by the way, and she found out that she had the ability to help artists and people unblock barriers to their creativity and becoming who they could become. She started writing, teaching, and her popularity grew tremendously.
She tells a story about her approach to unblocking our barriers. This young man came to her and said that he wanted desparately to be a screen writer, but he didn't know how he could move from his hometown to a place like LA and that was stopping him. Julia told him, "If you want to be a screen writer, there is just one thing that you have to do." "You have to start writing and keep on writing," she said. Good advice, I love that story.
Throughout the course, you learn by thinking of simple things in your life that you can do now to make you feel better. Like, she would say, "Name 3 things that you could do in your office today or soon that are not expensive and would make you enjoy your office better." You would get only a minute or so to reply. People came up with things like putting up an inspirational saying, buying flowers, creating a fruit basket, clearing up the "in" basket that has been nagging at them for months. After numerous exercises, you begin to see that it's the small changes that count and should never be discounted.
And that's part of the beauty of being who you want to become and unblocking your barriers, writing three pages every morning upon waking to bring out your thoughts, called the Morning Pages, going on an adventure alone every week for an hour to somewhere you've always wanted to go to or doing something you've always wanted to do and it doesn't need to be expensive. My weekly journies took me eventually to the Cordon Bleu culinary school in town to observe a class and I found that the style of the class and what they were teaching was not for me. Then, through my morning writings, I went back to thoughts I had about the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. It's expensive and in NYC so how would I ever make that happen?! Well, I continued my writings and next thing I know Dave and I were on a plane to NYC for a holiday and to check out the school. I signed up, and have never looked back.
I'm not sure why I've come this far from where I started writing this blog entry, but it must be the passion talking again and it just takes over my body and luckily my hands as well. All this to say, never discount the steps, however small, but heading in the right direction, can do for you and your life. Try it.
posted by Caroline at 9:18 AM
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