Earlier in the year, I promised you that I was going to produce 1 blog post per week. I was very consistent with that for many weeks. However, I recently took a few weeks off from blogging, the main reason being that I was completely out of ideas for what to write about.
After returning from Australia, I spent one month working diligently to finish the process for acquiring my pharmacist license in Alaska. I finished the application in early April. Then I waited & waited & waited. The licensing exam was taken & passed, all paperwork completed on my end. I couldn’t understand why I still did not have the license in my hand after several weeks.
I got frustrated. I felt angsty & stuck. I could not see how things were going to come together. My personal deadline for starting work in Alaska came & went & I still didn’t have a license to practice pharmacy. I stopped writing because I’m not working & I’m also not traveling right now. I didn’t feel that I had any valuable insight to offer the blogosphere.
Last weekend, I was spending time with a yogi friend, Melissa. My anxiety about my lack of job & license was through the roof at this point. Melissa gently said to me, “you’re just taking a 2 month savasana. You need this & there’s a reason for it. Things are coming together.”
For the non-yogi readers, savasana is the final rest pose after a physical yoga (asana) practice. Savasana is so important for recovery from the physical practice & to allow the practice to take hold in the body, mind & subconscious. In sanskrit, savasana literally means “corpse pose.”
A few days after that discussion with Melissa, the license has finally arrived & my job in Alaska is already rapidly coming together. I expect be moving up to Nome some time next week & I am so excited! Now that all is said & done, I can say that there was truly nothing to stress out about.
However, I gained some valuable insights during my 2 month “savasana.”
As in savasana, just because I couldn’t see things coming together didn’t mean nothing was happening. In yoga, we work hard in the physical practice & then spend 5 to 10 minutes clearing the mind & resting in savasana in order to let the practice settle in. In savasana, we practice the art of letting go, doing nothing, & being comfortable with existing in the moment.
Letting go is truly an art & I needed to practice it. I had to learn to let go & be ok with sitting still in order to allow the plan to work itself out naturally. This is an exercise in faith– faith that things will come together exactly as they’re meant to & that God will never let me fail.
During this 2 month time, I had many questions constantly running through my angsty mind. How long will the money in my savings account last? What if I can’t find a job? What if there’s a problem obtaining the license? Why do I still not have an Alaska license? Should I change my plans & pursue a different job? What if I can’t maintain this awesome lifestyle? WHY DO I STILL NOT HAVE AN ALASKA LICENSE? >_<
During that time of angst, I applied for & got rejected from an Indian Health Services job in Washington & I was slightly crushed. Guess what? Another, better opportunity was around the corner, waiting for me.
Suddenly, the license came, followed immediately by the job. The anxieties dissipated as quickly as they came.
Most importantly, what I learned is that I have a choice. I can worry about an unknown future or I can live in faith, knowing that things are always coming together exactly as they are supposed to on a Divine scale. I can choose to view this downtime as an opportunity for resting, relaxing & actively strengthening my faith, as I do in savasana, or I can view this time as an obstacle. Either way I look at it, it becomes my reality.
Stay Glamorous,
Stephanie
