Finding Belonging Without Overbearing

July 18, 2018 by Alannah Paren in Inspiration, Travel

Growing up, my family’s go-to vacation spot was Hawaii, and since my very first trip when I was just over a year old, I have always felt a sense of deep belonging to the island state. My name even has Hawaiian roots, meaning “awakening.” No matter how many times I have been fortunate to visit, Maui in particular, seems to ceaselessly call to me. There have been times that I have honestly cried because I longed to smell the fresh, fragrant air and feel the warm ocean mist again. As I prepared for this past trip to Maui, I eagerly anticipated the sensation of peace, oneness, and clarity that I usually experienced while there. Much to my dismay, when I finally arrived I felt frustrated and lost; it felt as though something I loved so much was rejecting me in a sense. The days seemed a little gloomier and rainier than I remembered, and the energy a little less uplifting.

I began to get upset with myself for feeling as though I was not harnessing as much of the vacation as I could have. As my remaining days on the island began to dwindle, the anxiety and unsettledness intensified, making it even harder for me to reach the level of zen I had been hoping to reach in the first place. One morning I decided to go on a run along the beach, followed by a cool down under a palm tree facing the ocean. I closed my eyes and tried to understand why I had felt so separate from “my” sacred space. That’s when I realized that up until that moment, I had felt some sort of elite ownership of the island, a feeling that no one can truly earn because this earth is a shared space amongst all human beings and living things. I had arrived with an expectation that the beautiful land I was entering was going to just give me everything I needed, when in actuality, it had the potential of fulfilling everything if only I had respected the space and put in a little effort to seek out what I desired.

In that moment, I had a revelation that anywhere we are, no matter how familiar or foreign, we belong. We belong because we exist and the universe has placed us in that space at that moment. However, if we feel as though we are the only ones entitled to a given space, we actually bring about a strong sense of loneliness and bitterness onto ourselves. When we shift our perspectives to realize that places and instants are shared, we can then begin to decipher and appreciate our own individual experiences, basking in how wonderful it is that so many different people can benefit from a singular place, person, or idea in various ways. Life truly is what you make of it, and I had been blind to all the beauty that was still surrounding me, even if I did feel like it was a bit alien to me.

Moral of the story: when we enter spaces, regardless if they are old or new, we must be open-minded and acknowledge that we are not alone in whatever we are about to experience. We all have an individual right to feel and react in our own ways, and therefore we need to respect that this world also provides others with their own rights. Like I have said before, the universe is plentiful in its resources for us, but we must be willing to put in a little elbow grease to reap these means so as to reach what we are journeying for. Spread you’re light and love, and light and love will flow back to you!!

The Sands of Time

July 05, 2018 by Alannah Paren in Inspiration

Happy July! Lately I have been reflecting a lot on how so much has changed in a year! If someone had asked me a year ago where I saw my life headed, I would have said something completely different than what I would respond today. Despite the fact that the emotions and experiences that this past year held were not always the most pleasant (and at times I questioned if I would even survive to see another day!), I couldn’t be more grateful for where I am now. I think it is important that we all realize that with time comes change, and though it can be change in either a positive or negative direction, all change serves a purpose.

I know I have written about embracing all that life has to offer in any given moment, which is somewhat repetitive of allowing for change in either direction, so I’d like to focus this post on setting intentions for the future, knowing that as time goes on, we have the opportunity to transform into our most ideal lives. Change can be scary, unexpected, and stressful, but I honestly believe that there is always some, even if it is small, positive takeaway from any situation. So, no matter where you are currently in your life, where do you hope to see yourself in three months? A year? If you think back a year ago, could you have predicted all that was to happen from that moment up until now? Life is a whirlwind of sensational occurrences, it is doubtful that one’s life will remain forever stagnant in the way it currently is. As individuals, we have the power to analyze where we are, and then make decisions to fine-tune our paths in a stronger direction towards our dream.

Growing up, my parents always reminded me that no matter how hard it seemed to push myself to do something, whether it was to go on a run to stay healthy or even sit down and try to write a blog post, that someday I would look back and wish I had started today. Essentially, we can’t gain time back, but we can make the most of what we have. Every day is a new beginning. If the life you wish to be living someday includes daily yoga, then find an outlet to take your first class this week. Why wait for “someday” when today is waiting for you to take the reins and live life to the fullest? I think that it is just so important to recognize that although we might not have complete control over what happens in our lives, we do have some power in the choices we make to place us on different paths, and it is never to late to take some new exits and find ourselves on new routes.

With this fairly fresh start of a new month, I think it is a healthy exercise to reflect on how your life has changed in various ways. What was a change you weren’t expecting, and are you happy with how you handled it? How have you evolved into your current position in a positive way? Taking the lessons from the past, then apply these thoughts to the future, coming up with some first steps to progress towards a happier and healthier you. Live in the now, in a way that your future self will thank you!

P.S. These sunset photos are from the same night, taken within the span of 10 minutes! I thought it was symbolic of how fast things can change and seem completely different than one might expect! :)

Living a Life of Loving-Kindness

June 23, 2018 by Alannah Paren in Travel, Inspiration

My recent travels to Israel imparted a lot to me, and I plan on doing my best to convey some of the lessons I learned or feelings I experienced throughout the next few weeks, but right now I want to focus on the idea of loving-kindness. Love and care is important in many forms, and in today’s world there is a large movement supporting self-love, promoting individuals to take time out of their routines to honor themselves. While in Israel, I was introduced to the term loving-kindness, and being the word nerd that I am, I just couldn’t let go of how perfectly I feel that this concept bottles up and describes an aspect to life that I think plays a critical role to our well being. In fact, parts of it are reminiscent to my past post on “The Art of Releasing Contempt + Opening the Heart,” and I loved this new spin.

During the trip, I had the opportunity to partake in several guided meditations, one of which was a loving-kindness meditation. The goal of the meditation was to focus on an individual that you feel overwhelming admiration for, send them positive thoughts and energy, and then reciprocate that pure love to yourself via the person you envisioned. Essentially, the practice allows you to send love to others, as well as to yourself, serving as a platform for indirect self-love (something that can be hard to do for ourselves, but is easier when we can utilize a loved one to be the messenger of the love we send ourselves!). Towards the end of the session, we were encouraged to expand our vision beyond our original individual, to more people in our lives, even those who we might usually have a tough time feeling affectionate towards. The lesson was that the more love we send out and the more walls we try to overcome, the more space we open up in our hearts to receive love. Loving-kindness is essentially the open flow of love for everyone, recognizing that as human beings we all fundamentally share the desire to love and be loved.

I came out of the meditation quite overwhelmed, choking up with tears of joy at the rush of emotions I had experienced. During my session, I had faced some negative feelings I had towards myself (that I didn’t realize were still buried deep down inside me!) through my visions of my loved one sending me love. I also had a ton of people, who I hadn’t thought of in a long time, pop up into my head to send love to – even someone who often pains me, but regardless I mustered up all the positive energy I could, and sent it to them. The entire meditation did not take very long, yet the effects afterwards were so incredibly blissful. It helped me to further activate my compassion for others, along with giving me the space to dedicate time to fully recognize my connections with various people in my life.

There are lots of studies on the short and long term impacts of meditation in general, but I also think there is something specifically special about taking the time to acknowledge love for others, no matter how close of a relationship we share with them on an average day. As we teach our hearts how to expand our love across distances, boundaries, and differences, radiating love becomes the norm and we work towards focusing on what we can emotionally share with each other.

I hope everyone had a beautiful summer solstice and is enjoying this beautiful season! xoxo

Snowy Search For Strength

April 06, 2018 by Alannah Paren in Travel, Inspiration

This post is inspired by my latest travels to the charming city of Québec, Canada. Rather that start in chronological order, I'd like to skip to the very last moments of my vacation where we only had 10 minutes to make our second flight's gate after our first connecting flight was delayed. There we were, running through the Montreal airport, clad in our big snow boots and snow coats, heavy backpacks and suitcases in tow. I'll spare you all the details of our terrible experience in Customs and jump to the point where I race up to the gate and collapse over the desk while desperately offering up my passport and ticket to the agent, only to have her say, "Madame don't worry, we haven't starting boarding yet." And that's when I realized: why did I ever doubt that the universe wouldn't have stalled the plane for us so that we could be exactly where we needed to be?

The entire trip got me thinking about how grateful I am that I have the opportunity to see the world and follow my dreams, which then got me mulling over the age-old debate of luck vs. hard work. Throughout our explorations everything found a way of working out and it felt like things seamlessly fell into place or were justified through later little karmic experiences. As I reflected on everything, I came to the personal conclusion that life is a balance of both "luck" and hard work. (I put luck in quotations because I truly believe that life is simply a blueprint of what the universe has planned for you, so everything is exactly as it's meant to be… hence we don't get lucky, we are fortunate!) Essentially, we all have the power of the universe working behind us, but it is also up to us to acknowledge the full potential of this power, surrender to it, and do our part in the physical world to achieve the full effect of our goals.

In other words, we are fortunate that the universe provides us with the opportunities that it does and ensures that what is meant to be will be (like making sure your plane is just as late as you are!). But the second that we realize that we have the power to change our perspective and statements from "I wish/hope/want" to "I will/am," we activate our "hard work" portion by harnessing the power of our self will to align with the magic of the universe that acts as the tail wind pushing us towards these goals that we have now affirmed we will dedicate ourselves to. I personally used to say, "I want to be a blogger," "I want to travel," etc. and for a while I was stuck in a rut feeling like I wasn't living my life like the person I wanted to be. Finally one day it hit me: there was no reason other than the fact that I was treating these things as hypothetical "wouldn't it be nice" statements instead of saying "I am…”. The entire time I had been sitting there aimlessly wishing was time that I wasn’t going out and realizing that I had all the tools in front of me (thank you universe!) to fully actualize my aspirations. I needed to make the decision to live purposefully because it was just a matter of me not running through all the wonderful doors that had been there, opened in front of me the entire time. And the funny thing is, is the more doors you say, "I am going to run through you" to, the more doors that seem to fly open on the other side.

The moral to this story is that even when life feels like you are buried under heavy clothes and baggage, do your part to run and the universe will make sure that the door (or in my case, airplane gate :) ) will be open for you in the end! I know I talk a lot about our individual power, but it's so true that we all have the power within us to manifest our dreams and desires. Be patient and know you aren't alone, trust in yourself and the universe around you!

Reflecting + Letting Go

December 27, 2017 by Alannah Paren in Inspiration

As we approach the end of the year we are given the opportunity to set behind us anything that no longer serves us and move forward with specific intentions. Setting New Year’s resolutions is a great practice, but it should not go without also reflecting on the past holistically, and surrendering anything that does not fill us with pure happiness and positivity. It is important that we take this new year as a fresh start and shed any emotional weight that the past year brought.

The first step to making the most of this clean slate that 2018 presents, is to recognize anything that does not fulfill us or elevate us to a higher self. We must acknowledge whatever obstacles or rough times we dealt with this past year and allow them to be, letting go of the baggage and moving forward in a more positive direction. We cannot always control the events that have happened, but we do have control over how much energy we expend on dwelling on what cannot be altered or put towards cultivating something that advances us towards more bliss. A great way to help surrender feelings and other things we wish to release, is to physically write each thing on its own individual piece of paper, and then either place the pieces of paper wrapped in foil within the freezer, burn them, or simply tuck them away during a full moon. This clears them from your mind and psyche, giving them the proper space to be, while also stripping them of the power to influence your energy field in a negative manner.

It is also crucial that we forgive ourselves for anything we feel is withholding us from our greater potential, along with keeping in mind that everything happens for a reason. As we reflect, we must remind ourselves that although we may not have made some of the same decisions or taken the same actions that we did, at the time they might have been the most appropriate decisions and actions, and therefore we cannot blame ourselves. Life is a continual process of learning and broadening our scope of the world, facing various twists and turns, but with each new bump or sticky situation, having a larger “tool belt” to approach things with.

There is so much in this life to be grateful for, and when we utilize our individual power to bring upon more positivity, then we are doing the best that we can. Being that we are all human, I am sure that at some point in the past twelve months we were all tested or found ourselves in a period that lacked optimal happiness. But with that comes the fact that we are all now at this current point in life, having grown stronger and wiser in this past year, and can now apply our experiences to the future. Allow things to be, accept them for what they are, acknowledge their effect on you, and then approach future moments with a fresh outlook. May this upcoming year be filled with more love, laughter, and joyous moments!