I’m a huge believer in energy.

Whatever energy you give out affects how people respond to you and ultimately what happens in your life. However conscious or unconscious you may be of what energy you have, it’s what attracts the kinds of friends you have and it’s what decides how well you do at your job. It’s the language we speak when we want to talk to the world.

I’m aware that sounds completely hippie-like but, I believe it because I see it at work in my life 🙂 The simple formula I’ve observed is this – 1) you just think long and hard about what you want. Think about it everyday: why do you want it, how do you get it. 2) Be intentional about your actions, even with simple things like hanging out. Who do you hang out with? What do you do together? What do you eat everyday? What small things do you do for that thing you’re dreaming about?

Then comes the hardest part. 3) Just let it go. You’ve done the work so now, patience. Honestly, I’m an impatient person – even more so when I was younger. The letting-go part for me always happened just cause it was either that or I worry myself to the point where I just want to give up. There are days/weeks/months where you feel like nothing’s happening and you just put one foot in front of the other because that’s what your long-term plan says. And you think, “uh, why did I want this again?” You trudge, trudge and trudge until one day you find that hey, things are going right somehow 🙂 Life gives you breaks and you meet good people. You may not be there yet but you’re headed in the right direction.

I used to call it luck but now I think it’s bigger than that. Just in the past month, I feel like the wind has really been blowing in my direction. It’s hard to imagine now that in January, I was at a job completely different from what I’m doing now and I’m actually surviving! What?!

I see energy as intentions that have brought me too…

Teaching beginners. Last year when I did my practicum classes for my teacher training, I thought to myself, I really want to be a teacher for beginners. Months later I start teaching and I completely forget I ever said anything like that cause I have a lot of other things on my mind. But then I start noticing that I attract people who are completely new to yoga. Most of the people I teach have never tried it and are trying it with me for the first time. I was wondering about this until on separate occasions, both my teachers reminded me, that’s the statement you made. It means I teach less fancy poses and we’re not flying our legs up in the air just yet but, seeing people start to understand how to put their bodies in downward dog, or plank, or a warrior pose is amazing and I’m glad for it.

“Meeting” fellow yogis before I actually meet them. I really feel that how you relate to a person all goes back to their energy – if you like their energy, if you complement each other, if they energize you or tire you out. And it’s far-reaching. I got to talk to two of the current graduates of White Space’s second batch of teacher trainees and in wildly different ways, it’s like we had met before we met in real life. One of them, Sarah Salcedo-Rubin, is a Reiki master in White Space who was looking for a sign whether she should take the training or not and just when she had been thinking about it, we encountered each other twice. Crazy. It feels sooooooooo great to know that in a tiny way, just by being there, I helped her out. It’s crazy when you realize your an instrument of the universe. Mind-blowing

Bahay Kalipay. And now this 🙂 A Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal of mine is to put up my own wellness center outside of a Manila that’s a social enterprise at the same time. Bahay Kalipay is exactly that – a wellness, yoga and detox retreat center in Puerto Princesa, Palawan where people come to heal. Just when I was asking about them, they were also looking for a teacher. And so, it’s going to be my home for a month. I will be there in April to teach, learn, learn and learn 🙂

Honestly, I’m afraid. For the past week or so, my fear of the unknown that so rarely shows itself has been bothering me non-stop. Just because I do yoga doesn’t mean I’m immune to normal anxiety like being alone in a new place, having to impress in a new work environment, realizing I might arrive in Manila having to go back to square one. All these are compounded by the fact that this whole teaching this is still so new to me that I ask myself everyday, am I really doing the right thing?

One thing Obama reminded me of though – Keep it about the work. The work is to help people and I believe this will make me better at it, reach more people and eventually, show me if this is really what I’m supposed to be doing or not.

So here we go 🙂