Day 6 Intention ~ To Remain Calm & Breathe

Day 6 Intention ~ To Remain Calm & Breathe 

In the airport. Don't get me wrong, flying is not what gets me unnerved when traveling. It's the airport, the hustle and bustle, the delays, the cancelled flights, the possibility that something could go wrong. 

This anxiety is really not unwarranted. Several years ago, when still living in Colorado, my husband and I decided to make the trek back to Rochester to see my family for the holidays. At first, our flight was delayed because of a snow storm in Cincinnati on the first leg of our flights. Then, the delay was so long, we were going to miss our connecting flight to Rochester. So, they switched our flight to a different airline and sent us to Atlanta on Christmas Eve. Luckily, my brother lives there, so we actually got to see him and his family for the holiday. Our next flight, sent us to Philadelphia, where we would get to fly to Rochester. Unfortunately, the baggage folks on that particular airline went on strike Christmas day, so although we made it to Rochester, our bags did not. It goes on from there, but I won't bore you with anymore details. 

A positive that came out of that was that we got a free flight anywhere domestic from the first airline. So, we used it for our honeymoon to get to Florida, where we had to catch a little plane to the Caribbean that we could only get on Saturday. Well, lo and behold, there was a computer problem, so our flight to Florida was delayed so we wouldn't get there to make our flight. After many lines and phone calls, they shuffled us around & got us there to get our flight.

Soooo, once on the plane. I am good. Rereading this, I feel like a complete whiner, I mean, really- I know that I have been lucky to get to go to these beautiful places and see my beautiful family and that the hassle was worth it in the end. I also learned that although my husband doesn't practice the physical yoga asana practice, he handles these stressful situations on a much more enlightened and yogic way than I do. 

The biggest lesson I learned from these two crazy trips is to breathe. My yoga practice on the mat & definitely in my life have evolved greatly since those trips 7 years ago, but there is still that part of me that feels anxiety until I see that plane on the tarmac and we are boarding. 

Until that moment, just breathe.

Shanti, 

Marcia