Sometimes things pop up in your path unexpectedly. This past weekend, I was once again attending BhaktiFest, an annual gathering in the high desert of Joshua Tree as part of a yoga and music festival. My three days there were spent practicing yoga, meditating, singing mantra and hanging out with many like-minded people. The tribe had gathered to bask in the practices of devotion, known as bhakti. After having spent consecutive days in this frame of mind, my functioning mind shifted from my analytical left hemisphere into my more creative and non-judgmental right hemisphere. When I returned home on Sunday evening, tired and a bit blissed out, my main intention was to get things in order for my work week and get to bed.
That was until I got a text at 9:15 pm letting me know that the air conditioning at our main studio was kaput and it was suggested that I "cancel all of my Monday classes". "Oh", I thought, "I don't think that's going to happen. I have 20 people signed up for classes tomorrow and canceling is not really an option". So in my right-brained state, I began to look for a solution. I wandered into the garage looking for an old oscillating fan to bring to the studio. I found it, tested it out by plugging it in and put it in my car. I found a smaller fan and put that in the car as well. I texted my colleague asking if she had an extra fan and after sending the message I began to get a glimpse of the left side of my brain that said: "That's not going to work. You don't know how hot it is in the studio. These fans aren't going to make a difference. You can't have people come to a hot studio unless they were planning to do that in the first place. What to do? What to do?". In that moment, I realized I had access to another studio, which wasn't being used on Monday. The problem was beginning to find a solution.
However, by this time it's now getting close to 10 pm and way past not only my bed time but my personal limit as to when I'll contact people. So I shoot off a quick message to my first morning class asking if they're interested in practicing at the other studio. And on it went: the rearranging of people into classes; the contacting of people; the update as to when the AC might be back working. And what initially felt like I had been handed some lemons and a major buzz kill following a blissed-out weekend, turned out to reveal not only a teaching theme for the week but a reflection of sincere gratitude.
As people attended classes on Monday, they were incredibly thankful for the classes not being cancelled and some were delighted to return to the "original" studio where many first began their practice of yoga. I began to realize a solution to a scheduling issue I had tucked way back into my consciousness, by being confronted with a different way to look at the current challenge of not having one studio for a week. Where a solution was lacking previously, this particular challenge triggered a solution to something else.
Often when things arise unexpectedly it may be overwhelming. In that moment, we may have feelings of helplessness or despair, yet, it is in precisely those moments that we begin to gain a different way of looking at what happened. Now the AC going out isn't life altering, but it illustrated how when we reflect, things have a way of working themselves out. It helped me to remember that where we are on our journey is exactly where we are meant to be and in order to find ease with that we need to do a couple of things: trust and let go. The trusting is about having a deep sense that all will be okay just as it's unfolding. The letting go is about releasing the need for it to be different to what you expect or want. When this element of surrender occurs, we release our attachment to outcome and gain a greater sense of empathy and compassion. It's in these moments that we expand our experience and although it might feel like we've been handed a bushel of lemons, we now have the opportunity for insight in a way never imagined. We make lemonade.
So next time something happens that takes you by surprise, realize this as a moment of looking at life through a different lens. Let creativity arise and squeeze the heck out of those lemons!
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