So do you remember my recap from the beach last week?
My daughter was off with her friends, the hurricane had whipped the sea up into a froth unfit for paddle boarding, so I was relegated to trying to entertain myself.
After pulling up my computer and surfing the internet for a bit I decided that was quite pathetic and that I needed to get out of the condo.
So I headed downstairs to YOLO… “you only live once” and rented a bike. I decided that was my best bet.
As I biked towards Seaside, I began to feel better.
Movement has a way of doing that… it breaks our habitual patterns of physiology, which have a related psychology attached…
Don’t believe me? Let’s do a little experiment… right where you are….
Sit the way you would if you were depressed…. breathe the way you would if you were depressed.
Now, I don’t have a creepy camera peering into your home or office right now, but I would guess you sort of slumped over in your chair, and the corners of your eyes and mouth went down and your breath was shallow and primarily in your chest.
Genius? No, just aware of a pattern of physiology tied to a psychological state. If you change your physiology, you change your psychology. ** Here’s my disclaimer, I am not underestimating the pain of clinical depression, nor am I suggesting it can be cured by a bike ride. Merely that there are specific patterns of behavior associated with different states.
Okay, back to the bike ride.
As I biked, I began to tell myself to think the way I would if I was having a great time. I smiled at those I passed… except for the jerk that didn’t stop at the crosswalk!
But as I went over the bridge, the one by the lagoon (I think they call it a lake, but it’s sort of more lagoon-like in my book) I saw the most unusual thing….
It was some sort of bird. It flew overhead, right in my line of site.
I shook my head in disbelief…
It looked like a bald eagle! I had only seen one in the wild in Alaska in Summer of 1996.
This thing was impressive! It had a distinct white head and white tail. It’s head was big, not like those pesky, yet I am sure useful buzzards that clean up roadkill.
I had that moment where I thought I should pull over and grab my camera and try to take a picture. But truthfully, I’m not really a great bike rider, or photographer, so I knew the likelihood of me getting pulled over and actually getting the shot was not in the cards.
So I did the yogic thing and decided to just appreciate the moment… even if I couldn’t post an eagle picture on Instagram.
I didn’t mention it to anyone until after I got back home. I told my husband I thought I saw a bald eagle at the beach. He chuckled and said, “Oh sure… why didn’t you say anything before?”
My daughter wasn’t too sure of my sighting either.
But I am. I even looked up “are there eagles in Florida on 30a.” Google seemed to be more sure of my sighting than my own family.
Where in your life are you not trusting what you see?
Maybe it’s the sign that you should go for the big promotion, or you should connect with a certain person. Or that you should appreciate taking the dog, or your child, or both, for a walk.
Whatever it is, set your drishti with intention. And then trust what you see.
As for me, next time I am going to snap a picture of the Eagle…. or at least that sounds like a good excuse for a beach getaway!
Who wants to come with me?