Being Honest and True to Myself: Following My Dreams

Besides yoga and meditation playing guitar has always been one of my dreams but for some reason or another I always stop practicing, sometimes even for several years in a row. When I started this path to yoga I thought a lot about taking a guitar with me but can you imagine traveling around India or Nepal by bus, train and budget flights with a 20kg backpack, a 5kg backpack, a yoga mat and on top of that a guitar?I already get stuck while walking in the aisles of the Indian trains and sometimes I can hardly get in the buses.

Being honest and true to myself

Two years passed and I started to feel that I couldn't resist any longer, I wanted to play guitar again. At the same time I updated the "About me" tab in this blog and in a way I shared that playing guitar is one of my dreams.

I actually think that that's part of being in this path to yoga, practicing satya or truthfulness also means that you gotta be honest and true to yourself, you gotta find what you love to do and then do it regardless of all the fears that you might have. You gotta follow your dreams. Sharing my passion for yoga and for guitar playing here in this blog is like taking the first step.

Following my dreams

A few days after I updated the "About Me" tab I found "by chance" a nice guitar shop while walking in the streets of Kathmandu and through that guitar shop I found a jazz conservatory where I could go for guitar lessons.

I hesitated for a while but after being motivated by a dear friend of mine I bought a guitar, I followed guitar lessons for about a month and I even took singing lessons. That was an awesome thing to do while in Nepal and I even thought that maybe someday I could perform in a bar in Kathmandu or somewhere else.

Living the dream: playing guitar live

Six months later when I got to Sheffield, MA USA to volunteer at the Option Institute my friend Gina Paola told me that I should play my guitar at the Gypsy Joynt Cafe, a nice bar in Great Barrington, MA, USA. Every Wednesday they have an Open Mic event where anybody can sign up to perform live.

I thought in my mind "yeah right, me playing guitar live... and with my singing skills..." but by "coincidence" her friend Emily had just decided to start singing again so she hooked us up and convinced us to do it, and so we did.

We chose three songs, practiced for a couple of days and in a week we were there with all the people from the Option Institute to support us. I was so freaking nervous that I lost my pick, I didn't hear the introduction that Emily gave and when I started playing I couldn't even feel my fingers but it was a lot of fun, I'm so happy that we did it.

Where is my pick?

Performing live at the Gypsy Joynt Cafe

Luckily our friends recorded the performance, otherwise I would have never realized how cool Emily actually sang, I was so focused on playing my guitar.

Performing Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

Performing High & Dry by Radiohead

Performing Santeria by Sublime

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Will I keep practicing and improving on my guitar skills now? Well, I bought a guitar so that's the plan but I haven't been practicing that much yet and my priority is still yoga.

There is a lot that I need to learn still, I can interpret some songs but I am not able to improvise or to compose.... yet. I guess I'll take it one step at a time and allow things to take its course. What really matters to me is to continue being honest with myself and to do what I love to do no matter what.