Hello my friends,

Thanks so much for stopping by! Diving right in today. Here’s something nice from a lesson that I’d like to share.

Working with a student today, her leg released at the hip. It moved freely and she smiled; it was a shift into freedom.

She was ready to ask about using her leg in movement.

I suggested that she just enjoy a breath and noticing this nice feeling of ease for a moment. I said, celebrate the nice feeling of release right now. Just for this one breath in time.

Celebrating the small moment now, then moving on.

We worked this way all through the session, finding small things to notice and pausing just for a breath of time.

Especially when thing are tough, your mind can be caught up in anxious thoughts. If you’ve got an injury, it’s natural to think about it and feel where it hurts, and to check in and notice it again.

I think we’re wired up in an animal sense, for our bodies to be alert to danger and to react to protect us.

It’s so important to take these moments right when they happen. Not tomorrow, not next week, but just a mini-celebration.

Like now!

How many times when you dance, do you achieve some improvement, and then immediately push to add the next level?

We do that, and that’s okay, but it’s also good to take tiny moments to celebrate the day. Celebrate staying up on toes and being stable. Enjoy the progress and also keep working.

It’s like an endless treadmill of never getting there. It’s like climbing to one pinnacle and not stopping to look at the view. Sure, you go on, but life has many small moments and not so many big ones.

It’s like decisions. One of my professors in college, who was my advisor, taught this to me. He said that in life, there are many small decisions and very few large ones. He said that when I have a large decision to make, often I’ll find that it’s more like a discovery of something I decided, long ago. It’s just coming to a peak moment, now.

If you celebrate enough small moments, life goes better. It automatically creates a positive habit of noticing good things and letting out a breath. I believe that it’s healthier for the body, too. Breathing while enjoying something is a happy habit to have!

We are all wired up to be protective of ourselves and to react quickly to danger. That’s all good, but in a world that stimulates us constantly with traffic lights and email beeping, with constant thoughts about work on the current project and planning for the next one, it is ever more important to cultivate habits of happiness.

Did you tie your shoe? If you’re five years old, that’s a celebration.

Even if you’re not, it’s a marvel to look at fingers flying with such precision. Enjoy the movement. Enjoy the small things of life. There are more of them, and if you enjoy many small moments throughout your day, you will have a happier life.

Creating habits of happiness is a worthwhile endeavor.

Big decisions happen but they may also be made up of many small actions, getting there.

Celebrate them.

Celebrate every little moment of your life.

Namaste,

Dana

P.S. Thank you for visiting; thank you even more for your thoughts.

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