Breathe Write Do

“Breathe Write Do” is the title of a memoir I am writing in response to Elizabeth Gilbert’s insanely popular one, “Eat Pray Love”. Nah, just kidding! There is no such book right now because I’ve yet to live the best chapters of my own memoir. And yes, I was all set to blog steadily about my Bali, Indonesia Awakening (a.k.a. my first international solo travel experience), but here I am pausing to catch my breath and write about being overwhelmed by the current major events in my life (e.g. relinquishing a prestigious and very stressful magazine writing post) and how I’m coping with all these (very, very happily by taking things one day at a time).

 

It’s a good thing that the writers and bloggers I admire also show me that it’s okay to be vulnerable, to lay it all out there on the blank page or post in this case (which it won’t be for long!) and to just live a whole lotta Life rather than just a little of it. “Carpe the hell out of this diem”, so to speak. There’s motivational speaker, yoga retreat teacher and regular Positively Positive contributor Jennifer Pastiloff who shares with us in a Salon.com article how she felt like a fraud teaching scores of people how to be at their best when she felt her absolute crummiest after getting off of her anti-depressants. Minimalism guru Francine Jay (“Miss Minimalist”) scaled down her blog posts to weekly features on Real Life Minimalists every Monday so she can enjoy raising up and just being with her young daughter “Plumblossom”. Even Elephant Journal founder and Walk the Talk host Waylon Lewis confesses he is a “lazy yogi” and all he wants to do is “sit in my wingback armchair with my pipe and robe and Redford and read the New Yorker and drink scotch by my roaring fire, in a hot tub.”

 

The thing about us mere mortals is that we sometimes insist – nay, demand! – our lives be neat, coherent short stories when they’re actually more like messy, rambling novels. In the time between my last post and this new one I’m writing, life happened to me. Wait! I stumbled on a great quote about that one yesterday which made me rethink my experience so far: Life isn’t just happening to me. The Universe is responding to me. And boy, has it been! I’ve just joined a really great international travel club where I can go on my own Dream Trips and help others do the same too. I’m exploring work writing for a wellness institution that is truly doing good work. I’ve been meeting people whose stories and projects I am just dying (I’m way past the “I’m so excited!” phase) to write about! I’m attending mentor, professional wanderer, “We are Sole Sisters” travel blogger, entrepreneur and future-mama Lois Yasay‘s “Create Freedom Online” seminars so I can launch my very own “Freedom Project” soon. (In case you’re wondering, I’m sharing all these things not to brag but to accept responsibility and public accountability in making these “dreams” of mine come true.)

 

All through these, I’m reading, learning, spam-inspiring (more on this favorite past-time of mine later) friends and the general public on facebook, eating, cooking, washing the dishes, doing my laundry, trying not to have all my books, notebooks, CDs and other knickknacks overrun the house, meditating with my favorite music and in nature, journaling and desperately seeking valid reasons to justify time spent OFF instead of ON my yoga mat (and we all know how THIS search will end, right?!).

 

I’m not offering any particularly helpful travel advice or information with this post. Rather, I’m offering you a gift that will hopefully help you live your best life on or off the road. GREAT DEEDS TAKE TIME. I will say it again, so we can remember every damned glorious word of this valuable life lesson: GREAT DEEDS TAKE TIME. This irrefutable Law of the Universe encompasses everything from saving up and preparing for a round-the-world trip, laying the groundwork for and engaging in work you truly love to falling and staying in love (I’m a novice at the first two tasks but am quite the expert at WAITING for the last). So while we do everything humanly possible to make our own “Dream Trips”, “Freedom Projects” and “Other Great Stuff” to finally happen, we learn how to do our work better (read some really great advice for writers here), we learn to be alone with ourselves and truly enjoy our own company, act with loving kindness (or “maitri” according to Pema Chodron) towards ourselves and everyone around us, we learn to be happy regardless of what’s happening in and around us and finally just forgive ourselves and other people dammit because we do sometimes fail and must always try again and again and again. ME? I BREATHE, I WRITE SOME, THEN I DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. I like keeping it simple. (If I do forget, feel free to remind me of this!)

 

GREAT DEEDS ALSO NEED GREAT ANTHEMS FOR MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT. It sounds cheesy but if anthems can work for Rocky Balboa and his legions of boxing fans, then there must be something to it, right?

 

As a parting gift for your own journeys then, my fellow Traveling Seekers, I’m sharing with you MY current personal anthems. It is my hope YOU will discover your own as you go along.

 

“TRUST IN YOUR LOVE” by BLISS

Imagine me sitting cross-legged on the backseat of a cab negotiating its way through the gnarled traffic of morning rush hour or the evening mad dash. Now open your eyes. ~ Yes, it’s really ME you’re seeing seated in lotus pose on the backseat of a cab with hands in chin mudra. This song always manages to calm me down and help me find my Center. I used it as the soundtrack for simple music meditation during the most stressful weeks of my life a a full-time magazine writer. So those excuses you keep giving about NOT having time to meditate? Not gonna fly. You can ALWAYS find time to meditate if you really want to. It will save your life ~ literally.

 

“UNCONDITIONALLY” by KATY PERRY

I LOVE this Katy Perry song for its power in helping me remember my inherent worth and goodness. Working on great deeds can feel alienating at times because it forces you to step out and go the extra distance other people are not willing to walk. Sometimes you’ll also feel alone because other people will be so fixated looking at their own small “Selfies” while you’ve seen glimpses of “The Big Picture”. I love this song because it reassures me that I am loved no matter what happens and precisely because I know I am loved, I am moved to be compassionate and loving towards myself and all of Creation.

 

“WHAT A FEELING” by IRENE CARA (“Flashdance” OST)

This is a relatively new personal anthem for me. The memory of it had been bouncing all around inside my head yesterday when I was mentally writing this blog post while walking my adopted dog Maya at dusk yesterday. It’s part of the original soundtrack of the 1985 film “Flashdance” starring Jennifer Beals. In it, she brings to life the story of a blue-collar steel worker who moonlights as a dancer in a bar and fights tooth-and-nail for a top spot at and a financial scholarship to her city’s premiere dance school.

 

“I am jealous of those who think more deeply, who write better, who draw better, who ski better, who look better, who live better, who love better than I.”

― Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Well, I’M jealous of Irene Cara and how the Universe was so generous giving her the words for this song:

First when there’s nothing
But a slow glowing dream
That your fear seems to hide
Deep inside your mind

All alone, I have cried
Silent tears full of pride
In a world made of steel
Made of stone

Well, I hear the music
Close my eyes, feel the rhythm
Wrap around, take a hold of my heart

What a feeling
Being’s believing
I can have it all
Now I’m dancing for my life

Take your passion
And make it happen
Pictures come alive
You can dance right through your life

Now I hear the music
Close my eyes, I am rhythm
In a flash, it takes hold of my heart

What a feeling, being’s believing
I can have it all
Now I’m dancing for my life

Take your passion
And make it happen
Pictures come alive
Now I’m dancing through my life

What a feeling

What a feeling (I am music now)
Being’s believing (I am rhythm now)
Pictures come alive
You can dance right through your life

What a feeling (I can really have it all)
What a feeling
(Pictures come alive when I call)
I can have it all (I can really have it all)

Have it all (pictures come alive when I call) (Call, call ,call, call, what a feeling)
I can have it all (being’s believing)
Being’s believing (take your passion) (Make it happen) Make it happen
(What a feeling) What a feeling

 

I believe the genius of these lyrics lies in its being a pretty good description for how the creative process feels like while you’re engaged in it or “being in the zone” as some like calling it. Of course, like all mere mortals, we start with small steps. We write our Morning Pages for 10 minutes every day immediately after waking and just get over ourselves  if we miss a day (we can do this ritual later in the day or even the next). We start that bloody first draft because there ain’t gonna BE a final one without it. We dance, we paint, we sing, we draw, we take pictures, we design, we cook, we act our roles, etc. We must lose ourselves in this process because when we think about how we’re going to sound, look or come across to other people, we kill the Truth and Beauty that are trying to emerge from our minds, hearts, souls and bodies. I really do believe art or the creative life is simply a losing or letting go of oneself so we can find ourselves again in new forms. We must express, not try to impress. We must also remember to put our work out there in the world so we can learn from others how to do it better and how not to crumble under the weight of their criticism. Perhaps our work will be able to help a struggling soul or two out there who needs us and that is always a good thing. We learn, oh how we must learn from every one and every thing ~ and humbly too! Even the internet can be our Jedi Master if we allow it to be.

 

Then when all of a sudden we feel we’ve truly become both music and rhythm and as though we can really dance right through our lives for eternity, we know that we’re doing exactly what we’re meant to be doing with our one precious life: honoring ourselves and Creation by being one with both and breathing, creating and living Art. These are the moments when we experience that inner, instant clarity that we really do already HAVE it all. It’s part of Life’s challenge to us as artists to live for and sustain these “Tiny Acts of Creative Rebellion” in our world. Let us not disappoint the Universe and ourselves. Let’s all rise up to meet this challenge head on with each breath we take and every moment of our lives. Now is as good a time as any to start.  

 

This post is dedicated to friends and fellow Traveling Seekers, namely, writers Kim Bartolome, Ime Morales, Henry Tiu, Viva Andrada and Sharlene Festin whom I adore for their wit and wisdom; my cousin Kristine Nicole Go who is valiantly working to the bone  in a Doha, Qatar hotel inspite of  it being a challenging social environment; my friend Diana Therese Veloso from high school newspaper days past who is now a very good and very, very patient college professor; Mark Trajano because he said, “I want to write poetry” and I want to show him he can go even beyond that and Ego; Wing Chen, Chikky Cayuca, Guia Yu, Teeda Pscual, Doris G Rodriguez, Belai V Gruenberg, Jason Oliver, Leslieanne Lee Hoffman, Kristi Cone Czajkowski, Deborah Stacy, Kian Etezadi, Rick Passo, Dominique Bouillon and Eboni Lloyd for keep me floating on happiness with their  generous facebook Likes (send me a facebook PM in case I forgot to include your name here, friend); Ronald Calderon and Myla Orogo who have bared a part of their beautiful, struggling souls to me and for Jeff Scott for doing the same AND affirming my Beauty & Goodness during my own rough patches and, last but not the least, my Creative Non-Fiction writing mentor, Karla Delgado whom I really should blame for all this madness! Thank you, my Dear Ones. May the road rise to meet all of us and all the rest of that great Irish blessing we must hear Karen O’Shea recite really soon (I  just LOVE listening to your Irish accent, dear!). Let’ s all keep on being, writing, seeking and traveling! Namaste.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and learning a lot from the links I’ve peppered it with intentionally and quite rabidly. My hope is that it helps you somehow in some way to do What You Love or Your Great Thing, whatever these may be. Here too is a bonus (actual) travel post for you: My We are Sole Sisters guest post “The Romance of Sun, Sky and Spirit” on Mt. Pulag”.

I’m pretty big on sharing helpful information with as many people as I can reach. If you believe your friend, lover, brother, sister, mother, teacher, et. al. will benefit from reading about what I’ve written here about creating, writing, etc., please do share this blog post with them too. SHARE AWAY, SHARE AWAY, SHARE AWAY! (To the tune of Enya singing the chrous of” Orinoco Flow” haha). Thank YOU for sharing the Good ~ Buddha bless you!

Wood & wool artist Alma Boheme created the accompanying image “Your Journey” which appears on her blog. The message itself is a quote taken from Asha Tyson, author of How I Retired at 26! A Step by Step Guide to Accessing Your Freedom and Wealth at Any Age. Sylvia Plath’s quote on “Jealousy” is taken from Goodreads.com.

Connect with me on facebook: Pauline Apilado and twitter: @PaulineApilado. Just a hint: I’m quite friendly and chatty on facebook and do put in effort to be twitty or “truly witty”  on twitter (it’s early days yet to pass judgment on THAT one!).

If you have a Traveling Seeker story to share with us, then writethetravelingseeker@gmail.com.