Life is uncertain so have dessert first

Tony Robbins said, "The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably deal with."

Facing uncertainty is scary. We like to know what will happen. We want to control our lives. The reality is however, that we can never know for certain what will happen in our next moment. We only know what is happening NOW. One minute we are running toward the finish line at the Boston Marathon, and the next we are on the sidewalk with our legs severed at the knee. It can happen, and it does. 

Not knowing how something will turn out can cause a gripping feeling in our hearts and our minds. Fear shuts us down. We try to hold or grip something that we know to be true. Maybe its something from our past. In our minds and hearts we hold onto that. This gripping feeling can move into our bodies as well. We hold in fear. At some point this holding pattern can begin to feel normal to us. We can create a stiff body, and if we stay frozen in our hearts and minds as well, we can solidify our fearful thoughts and feelings until they become real. Pema Chodron says we can "concretize our thoughts". What we think, IS. Whether we are frozen in our past or creating a frightening story in our minds about the future, we are experiencing that which we think. Just imagining fingernails on a chalkboard can send chills down our spine, that's how powerful our minds are.
 
Yoga practice can help us get more comfortable with life's uncertainty. We breathe, stretch, and relax which begins to loosen our stiff bodies helping to release some of our physical "holding patterns". This flexibilty in our bodies can produce a more flexible mind as we release these holding patterns as well. Our flexible mind becomes more open to creative solutions when the unexpected occurs. We also learn to be more present so that we are less likely to create stories in our minds about what might happen in the future. 

The bottom line is, you never know what the next moment will bring, so enjoy the moment NOW. My mom used to say, "Life is uncertain, so have desert first." May you all enjoy the sweetness of life now, even if its simply a piece of chocolate cake!