The Universe Is On Your Side

I hope you all had a nice weekend. Last weekend I went to visit my daughter at her college for the last time before she graduates. I went to the airport and was thrilled that security was quiet. I breezed right through until I got to the TSA agent. He scanned my boarding pass, looked at me and told me that there was no flight for me at this airport. I looked down at my boarding pass and realized that I had gone to the wrong airport. At that moment I felt panic and dread and embarrassment. How could I have made such a big mistake? Thankfully the TSA agent snapped me out of those emotions by offering the advice to go to the third floor check-in counter to see if they could book me on a different flight. 

When I got to the check-in desk, again, there was no line. I went right up to the counter, confessed my mistake and she was able to rebook me on a flight leaving a few minutes before my scheduled flight. I ran back down to security (again there was no line) and up to the same agent. I smiled and thanked him for his guidance and he laughed and told me “it happens all the time.” 

I got to the gate just as the plane was boarding and as I took my middle seat of the last row I felt like the luckiest person in the world. I kept repeating the saying that is on the back of one of my t shirts I bought years ago, “The universe is on my side.”  

I thought about this a lot since then; how often the “universe is on our side” and we often don’t notice or realize it. In fact, our brains are very quick to notice when we feel like things are “against” us and tend to focus less on the things that ARE working.  What happens when we begin to shift that perspective and pay equal attention to what is working is that we begin to feel more grateful. We can start to see how usually the universe does tip in our favor and that inspires even more gratitude. 

“It’s not happiness that brings us gratitude. It’s gratitude that brings us happiness.”

On the mat we practiced this in our bodies. Just being able to make decisions that serve the body in that moment is something worth being grateful for. Acknowledging the tightness, restriction and pain is part of the practice but what we do from there is the key. Can we in same measure appreciate what IS feeling good? Can we be grateful for what IS available? Can we see the overall gift of the practice even if certain poses are not serving us in the moment? 

Off the mat, I tasked myself  with paying more attention to all the ways “the universe is on my side”. On the trip, even when we were running back to the hotel in cocktail dresses in the rain I was grateful it was at the end of the event instead of the beginning. Other than that, the weather was beautiful and I was deeply grateful to get the chance to experience a small taste of my daughters fleeting college life.

When I got home from the weekend I dug out that old shirt, and wore it to teach one day last week as a reminder. I found myself feeling extra grateful when someone was pulling out of a parking spot I needed, or when the light turned green just as I was getting to it. The more we practice, the better we get at it and I definitely feel like I strengthened my own gratitude practice. Gratitude is a powerful force. It truly does connect us to happiness. Happy practicing!