The stress and strains of our always-connected lives can sometimes take us off course. GPS For The Soul can help you find your way back to balance.
GPS Guides are our way of showing you what works for others in the hopes that you can find out what works for yourself. Whether it's photos that relax you or make you smile, songs that bring you back to your heart, quotes or poems that balance you or meditative exercises that help de-stress you, we all have tricks that we use when we get bent out of shape. We encourage you to look at the GPS Guide below, visit our other GPS Guides here, and share with us your own personal tips for finding peace, balance and harmony.
My schedule is erratic. It is always changing, and many nights before I go to sleep, I don't know exactly what is in store for me the next day. I've been modeling and doing TV commercials for years, and this is part of the game. Two weeks ago, I landed in New York from LA and turned on my Blackberry (yes, I'm the last person on earth who owns one because I know an iPhone will keep me plugged in even more) to find out that I got a big callback for a television commercial... in LA and in three hours! Bummer. There was no way I was going to make it, which also means my chances to book that national television commercial went down to zero. This sort of thing happens often in my business, and the frustration can really take me down if I don't remember this one thing:
I am exactly where I need to be at all times. My soul is on a learning line, and who am I to try to figure out why it is where it is right now? My job is not to attempt to answer that question but to remain present in the place I am and accept that there is no way I can be at a callback in Los Angeles in three hours when I'm standing in JFK. In that place is where I will get all the learning that will nourish my soul. This is rarely comfortable, and the "what ifs" can come in and drive me nuts, but I remember that there must be more learning for me in New York doing whatever I came there to do than there was at that callback in LA.
Speaking of GPS: How can I be assured I am exactly where I need to be at all times? Because the more I remind myself to stay present in the moment, the more I am able to tune into my intuition. My intuition is my internal GPS and I trust that it never steers me wrong when I listen to it.
Other functions my GPS for the Soul performs to keep me on track include:
- I listen to Delilah on the radio almost every night for at least one song. For those of you who aren't familiar with Delilah, she plays all those cheesy old love songs and it just makes my soul sing. Yeah, we're talking Boyz II Men, Lady Antebellum and everything in between.
- My soul also needs me to move my body. This is especially rewarding when I really don't want to move my body and am just beat. When I am done I always feel better. Every single time. And I know that if I just put my shoes on and start, I am 90 percent there. Having sex counts sometimes. So does restorative yoga. That's almost better than dessert.
- I breathe. The easiest and most helpful breathing exercise for me is used while walking. Inhale for four steps and exhale for four steps. Repeat. Particularly helpful while navigating airports or busy Manhattan streets. If I'm so exhausted I need to lay down and breathe, this really New Age-y CD that's just the right amount of "out there" is so awesome!
- I eat good food. Read Michael Pollan for more information.
- I phone a friend. Even when I feel like isolating myself. Sometimes Skyping with a friend in a foreign land is especially soul lifting. Something about remembering there's a whole other country that's moving along out there and someone on it is connecting with me just makes me remember that all of us here on earth are entangled in some subtle way. This comforts me.
- I spend time alone in nature. Sometimes just laying on the earth and feeling how solid it is beneath me is just the grounding thing I need.
- I look at picture of my new niece. Babies just make me smile.
- I keep doing what works over and over and over again. Why do we stop whenever we find something that makes us feel really good?
Cheers to staying on the path!
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