It Just Is

Whoa!!!!! It's been almost a month since I made my last post! When I set out to create this blog, I had aspirations of posting every other week. Funny how time flies. While quarantined, that felt doable. Enter schools opening and back to the weekly grind, and here we are. But, I have to say. I'm ok with that. "It just is." Something I try to keep as a mantra.

IT. JUST. IS.

That reminds me of my father. He would have said something like that. I feel like he was mindful before Mindfulness was such a thing. This past week marks the 18th anniversary of his passing. I sure does feel like yesterday. My kids would have loved him....found him funny...unique. He really was. A trained, chemical engineer, he worked for Proctor and Gamble his whole life, retired at 55 and was the most practical, sensible, even-keeled person I knew growing up. On the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest of Jewish Holidays, I feel an extra sense of him unlike the years past. I'm not really sure why.

It just is.

The past few weeks have been kind of heavy. Our school lost two students tragically, the needs of others feel a bit more intense, and the issues surrounding school, the political landscape (locally and nationally) and the issues of the pandemic appear to be a bit more ramped up lately. Not to mention and dear personal friend survived a devastating pulmonary embolism and is starting his miraculous recovery which is not easy. I share all this for a reason: I keep asking myself, "Why is all of this happening? People seem more on edge lately, and bad things keep. happening to good people."

"It just is" doesn't feel good right now. It isn't making sense to me right now.

Meditating certainly helps my sense of calm. It physically feels good to meditate. I notice more clarity and open-ness and all. I used to get so bothered when my wife, who remember....she's usually right about things, would say, "All things happen for a reason." I used to never buy that phrase. Perhaps that is what resonated so much with me about the book Ten Percent Happier. I was such a critic of anything "woo woo" sounding. But since my mindfulness journey started several years ago, I don't just believe that saying now. I often feel it.

The pieces of my life seem to be linking up a bit. Here's the clincher to explain:

Several weeks ago, a trusted colleagued sent me the typical, "Check-This-Out-You-Might-Be-Interested-In-This" email. He was spot on. A local hospital was seeking applicants for the newly forming Hoosier Heartland Healing Collaborative.

I was all ears!

As stated by the HHHC, "This evidence-based, transformational online training gives you the science and tools you need to make mind-body medicine an integral, foundational part of your practice and your life. It is the first step in becoming certified by one of the world’s premier programs in comprehensive self-care and group support."

Those selected will:

• Make evidence-based mind-body techniques, including meditation, guided imagery, biofeedback, written dialogues, and genograms an integral part of your life and your practice.

• Experience self-expression in words, drawings, and movement, and learn to use these creative approaches with others.

• Learn the latest scientific evidence for these techniques and how they bring positive change to our physiology and psychology.

• Experience CMBM’s pioneering Mind-Body Skills Group.model and learn to lead these groups.

• Bring new vision, more effective practice, and greater joy to your life and work.

• Become part of a worldwide community of healers.

So I applied. And I was selected! And I start the training this week! While I'm not looking forward to being in a virtual training for 9 hours a day, I feel fortunate to have been selected. The gratitude I have is palpable. I'm still uncertain what the specifics will entail upon completion. By that, I mean when I finished my 200 hour yoga teacher training, I knew I was credentialed to be a yoga teacher....to bring yoga to others and implement it as another mindfulness tool in the kit. With this, I am excited in the "teach the teacher model" as it taps into my desire to get back in a classroom and to teach something I am passionate about. What I am hoping is that this experience not only deepens my own mindfulness practice, but it allows me to help others suffering from trauma in a way that is evidenced based, backed by science and holistic. By all means, I know how to teach meditation, mindfulness, yoga. I an versed in how to help others apply that to their own lives. But to learn new mindful modalities with the collaboration and affiliation of medical professionals....THAT......I am over the moon about. I have never been so excited to sit in front of a computer for hours upon end in my life.

I guess all things do happen for a reason.

I guess it just is.