the adventures of dos tortas

My visionary voice for this week’s blog is clearly on vacation. The first topic I have considered sharing is the sadness I’ve been experiencing.  I have committed to honesty in this life-changing process of moving to Mexico, the good, the bad and the ugly. I clearly have a lot of judgement about being THAT honest. I posted a selfie on Facebook and was admonished to “smile” and look happy. After all, I’m retired and living in paradise, what’s the problemo?

My first inclination has been to push the feelings away, not tell anyone and pretend they don’t exist. I don’t want people to try to fix, analyze or criticize, as if  I could control the world. I can understand why people who are depressed go for years without telling anyone. But I am not depressed, just sad, and I’m not sure why, nor do I care to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out.  I have faith that I am loved and that sadness is a normal part of life and that the answer will come to me. It usually does.

The second topic is inspiration. I have come across two people this week who inspired me greatly. One of them is Diana Nyad. You may recall that she recently completed a Cuba to Florida 110 mile swim at age 64, after three failed attempts. Watching her interview with Oprah on youtube was riveting. She did not let the haters deter her from big and bold failure. Against huge odds she didn’t give up. I am always interested in how to stay motivated and love hearing other people’s stories.

I came across more inspiration from a young man named Slim, who has the website The Next Forty Days . Slim weighed 600 pounds in 2012. He saw a video  by Arthur Booreman who used DDP Yoga to reclaim his life of obesity and disability. I had also seen Arthur’s video and as a result, purchased the CDs that have become favorites for Lisa and me. Slim was inspired by Arthur as well, and used DDP Yoga to springboard his life into something incredible. He not only lost 150 pounds in six months, he and his wife Laura began setting forty-day goals of all types. They’ve given up meat for 40 days, done a juice fast, volunteered, raised money and so much more.  He has devoted his time to helping other people while figuring out how to change his own life.  I am a geek for goal setting.

So maybe my sadness has been a rebound of setting the BIG goal of participating in a 46 mile kayaking marathon that I splashed all over last week’s blog, SMART or Estupida. My fear of failure, that I wasn’t even aware of, reared it’s head and roared. People have commented about how “inspirational” I am. My goal with this blog has been to leave bread crumbs for anyone who cares to make big changes in their life. I guess Diana, Arthur, and Slim have done the same and I am willing to follow their trail.

Laguna Bacalar, Mexico

Let Go Of The Life You Planned

Selfie

Tags: bacalar mexico, DDP Yoga, Diana Nyad, Inspiration, retire mexico, The next forty days