weightless

Being the unconventional wild woman that I am, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions.  I don’t do anything that might feel like an empty promise or a failed expectation or a glorified to-do list.  There’s too much room for self-criticism and doubt and that yucky feeling of well-I-guess-I’m-not-good-enough-so-I’ll-try-again-next-year.  While I appreciate the magic of new beginnings, I’ve always felt like that too much hype has been built up around becoming something we obviously feel that we’re not…  skinnier, richer, better, happier, more organized…  all in the span of the next 365 days.

Boo hiss.  How boring.  How bland.  How overwhelming and disconcerting.

Enter:  Intention.

I like to think of intention as one word that somehow captures the heart of your journey– the stories and experiences behind you, who you are in this very moment, and what you’d like to see/be/do/feel down the road.

(Many of us are all to eager to push the fastforward button and jump into the future, leaving behind the rest….  But I think when we do that, we miss the adventure along the way, and are unable to recognize the process of unfolding, evolving, living (!) as a GIFT).

I really thought I had my intention for 2012 all figured out.  My word was going to be thrive.  It felt solid, it felt clear, it felt strong.  It felt like I was stepping up and squeezing more out of life.  It felt like the perfect jumping off place for all of the pieces I’ve pulled together in my life during the last few months~  my health, my visions, my business, my tribe of friends, my family.

Well, the fact is, wild women are prone to changing their minds.

I suppose there was something missing in my original plan, because just yesterday morning, a song popped up on my IPod, one I’m not sure I’ve ever heard before, and it put me in a trance.  Not because of the beautiful melody or even the lyrics…  but because of the name of the song, and how it made me feel to listen to it.

Weightless.  (By Lee Dewyze).  Have a listen!  

I breathed a little deeper.  I got up and swayed and stretched and moved.  I noticed my heart opening and smiled at my children, who grimaced and just wanted me to skip ahead to a more “dance-worthy” song.

That’s it, I decided.  Weightless.

When I went out walking later in the day, I remembered how my friends and I, when we were kids, would play that game….  light as a feather, stiff as a board.  There are quite a few theories out there around why exactly it works for a group of kids to lift up someone using only two fingers apiece…  all of which I find extraordinary as I ponder this curious word… weightless.

There’s the one that says that with one’s weight distributed among so many people doing the lifting, it’s through cooperation that one “levitates.”  Recently, I’ve been reminded over and over again how my friends and I lift one another when we’re challenged or heartbroken or terrified.   I feel so blessed to have friends who are willing to meet me within the land of vulnerable AND silly, who can love me regardless of how lovable I feel.  I can’t wait to see how these relationships grow, evolve, deepen over the next year.

Then there’s the one that basically says the opposite…  that it’s the one being lifted, stiffening their body, that evens out the brunt of the ones who are doing the lifting.   This speaks to me of deliberate attention and mindfulness, and of how it can bring us into harmony with whatever is in front of us…  so it becomes less of a balancing act (is there really such thing as perfect balance? I think not!), and more a woven masterpiece of grace and ease and focus and trust and flow.  How divine!

And then, of course, there’s the theory that it’s all a mind-game, and that by chanting the words in that oh-so-mystical way…  light as a feather, stiff as a board… we begin to believe them, and can thereby manifest the reality…  like an affirmation almost.   This to me, tosses in just the right amount of mystery and curiosity… reminding me that the only tools needed to be weightless are one’s brain and the willingness to make shifts in one’s thinking and  believe in the seemingly impossible.

To bathe myself in gratitude and joy rather than shame, to be light and open and spacious and loving rather than caught up in guilt or fear or other such self-imposed confinements.  That’s what I long for.  To let go of the stuff that I myself have been allowing to weigh me down.

And no more “weighting around” for a more opportune time or place either.  Now is the time to let go and savor the light.

What about you?  If you could pick just one word as your touchstone for this brand new year, what would it be?  Please share below, shout it out into the universe, claim it as sacred territory!  May you have a blessed year!  

Categories: intention   |   Tags: gratitude, intention, Lee Dewyze, Lisa Rough, thought, trust, weightless  |  2 Comments »

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