Hey there, Positive Positive! Hi from Chicago. My first time here and I am in love!! Thank you to everyone who packed the house at my workshop. It was so great to meet so many PP readers!!
Recently, I was watching an old Twilight Zone on Netflix. Confession: they are my favorite. Seen every episode. Multiple times.
This woman, an actress, was stuck in the past. She would sit in a big fancy chair, blasting the a.c. and consuming cocktails, and watch herself in old movies from twenty years prior.
She couldn’t accept that she’d aged or that she was no longer the young star. (Arg! This show is from over fifty years ago but hell if it doesn’t resonate now, right?) She’d sit watching old movies all day, trying to relive them, trying to get back.
In the end, eventually, she wishes hard enough (she literally goes “I wish, I wish, I wish” as she rubs her head as if she has a migraine, which she probably does from trying to live back in the 1930’s) and ends up back in the old movie – gone forever into the twilight zone. (Side note: do you love The Twilight Zone, too? I am a total nerd with it. What are your favorite episodes? Tell me below.)
Dude, it was depressing and really relevant.
How many of us can’t accept aging or our bodies? @JenPastiloff (Click to Tweet!)
I know I struggle, at times. On bad days. On good days, I stay here, in the present. I know who I am. That I am enough. That nothing defines me except my capacity to love and my kindness.
Remember my saying, “Take a picture of your face & remember in ten years time you’ll be amazed at how gorgeous you WERE. Be amazed NOW.”
In real life, if there is any such thing, we can’t escape into the past. We can’t “I wish” our way into a different reality. Or, maybe we can but then we’re stuck in the past and miss what’s happening now. So sad. And yet, I catch myself doing this. Do you? Talk to me. tell me in the comments.
And so it is.
Acceptance is powerful. It doesn’t mean we sit back & eat salt and vinegar chips on the sofa all day watching Girls on HBO (but that sounds real good because I love me some salt and vinegar and Girls.)
It means we accept what it so.
We give up fighting with what is. We say yes.
Tell me, where can you practice acceptance today? Finish the sentence. I accept ______. I know, I know, I am asking for so many comments but I love this community and the dialogue we create. I do not want to end up like that woman living in The Twilight Zone.
P.S. Don’t be an a-hole and should all over yourself. I love you. And salt and vinegars and Girls and The Twilight Zone.
P.P.S. You know I have a whole series called “Don’t Be An A-hole?” I do. Here’s a sampling of one:
P.S. I have one spot open for my next Tuscany retreat Sep 26-Oct 3rd. And four for the Vermont writing retreat with Emily Rapp. Email me at info@jenniferpastiloff.com. And.. I need your help as a tribe. I am launching my workshop for young girls Sep 19th and 20th called Girl Power: You Are Enough. Can you help me spread the word and also register your teen or yourself if you are a young woman age sixteen-twenty-four? (The NJ workshop has a minimum age of thirteen but NYC is sixteen due to studio policy.)
Jen leads retreats that are a combo of yoga/writing and for ALL levels. Read this post to understand. Click here for all retreat listings and workshops to attend one in a city near you (Atlanta, NYC, St. Louis, London, Chicago & more, are next). Jen is the guest speaker 3 times a year at Canyon Ranch and leads an annual retreat to Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health every February, as well as an annual invite only retreat to Tuscany. She is the founder of the popular The Manifest-Station website. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter. She is the founder of Girl Power: You Are Enough.
