***The Mental Breakthrough

As the year was coming to an end, I had been thinking about my goals and resolutions for the upcoming year. How can I move forward in my life? What do I want to work on? What is my hope for the world? I had begun many a year in this manner.
Then I had a flash of insight. It occurred in a yoga class. I was in a forward bend, when I noticed that there was more movement on one side of my body. Up until that moment, I had always experienced resistance on that side. In that moment there was an ease, an unfolding and a letting go. I eagerly looked forward to my next days practice.
A few days later in a conversation with my teacher Lea, I shared with her that I felt that I had a “mental breakthrough.” She responded in a humorous manner, “That’s better than a mental breakdown.”

I knew that the impact that this physical experience had on my psyche would show up in other areas of my life. I wasn’t sure as to exactly how or in what manner.
What if my breakthrough would be experiencing more ease and flow in my life? In the next few days I asked a few clients and friends what would be a mental breakthrough for them in this New Year.
On our weekly radio show, Jou
eyOn, I discussed with my cohost, Ralph Marston, the Daily Motivator, what a “mental breakthrough” would be for him. Ralph expressed that it would an allowing of living life fully—no censors, no limits and being authentic. Expressing all of it, the light, the joy, the sorrows and the disappointments.
What I have observed over the last twelve years is that as we continue to evolve, our values and what is most important to us, shifts. We begin to make the shift to what I call the Positive Side of Change. What is most important, is waking up each day, excited, with a smile on our face—even with all of the loose ends and uncertainty. The breakthrough then becomes the shift from the physical world of accomplishment and achievement, to the inner world of being and wonder.
While most of us would like to be more successful in the world, that by itself won’t fulfill us. Most, if not all of us, would like to laugh more and to be able to take things in stride. We would give almost anything to be more playful. Said in another way, we would like to lighten up and enjoy each day to its fullest, which includes the ups and downs, the twists and turns and ebb and flow of life’s unfolding mystery.
The paradox is that when we live on the Positive Side of Change, not only will we experience less stress, we’ll experience the same or greater levels of material success.
When we live on this side of change, we know that life is full of new possibilities. We’re curious as to what these might be. We don’t fear or obsess about the “loose ends” because we know they are going to be there. They’re there to make sure we are fully awake. Life’s momentary setbacks or disappointments don’t’ get us down, or if they do, not for as long.
This ability to enjoy all of it, life, with all of its complexity and mystery, is what I’m working on, and would be a mental breakthrough for me.

What a worthy adventure we are on. Our job is to enjoy it, to be ethical and to live life fully.