So what am I up to these days? Well at the moment I'm in Sheffield, Massachusetts volunteering at the Option Institute but before writing about the interesting stuff that I am doing here, and believe me is not only "Gangnam Style dancing", I want to write about where I've been and what I've been doing since I left Nepal, about six months ago.
After four months in Kathmandu I decided to travel back to Europe. My dear friends Gladys and Tobias were getting married in Italy and I was also invited to another wedding of two wonderful loving yogis from Sweden that I met in India, Anjali and Surya. That was a good excuse to travel to Europe and to visit all my friends.
Trusting that the future will take care of itself
I've actually thought about the weddings for a long time but I wasn't very optimistic, I didn't really believe that I was going to be able to travel back to Europe. I didn't know where I was going to be, what I would be doing and if I would have enough money for such a trip but by June I realized that I did have the time and my real fear was lack of money. So I decided to face my fear, focus on abundance and trust that the future will take care of itself, I thought "what the heck, I still have money in my pockets so I'll go anyway".
Visa application nightmares
But getting the visa from the German Embassy in Kathmandu was not that easy. For the first time ever I got my visa application rejected. I thought it was over, I wouldn't be able to visit my friends in Europe and for sure there was no way that I would make it to my friends' wedding on time.
The embassy staff told me that I could submit another application (and pay the EUR60 fee again) but it would take at least 10 more working days to get the visa. I would miss the two weddings by then. I told them that I had a flight in three days but they said that it would be impossible for me to get the visa in just three days, and on top of that there was no guarantee that I would get it.
So I got depressed, I was very down. I started writing an email to my friend Gladys to tell her that unfortunately I wouldn't make it to her wedding but for some reason I couldn't send the mail.
There is no such a thing as impossible
The words of the lady that received my application "it will be impossible to get your visa in three days" kept resounding in my head. But all of a sudden in the middle of the night while laying defeated on my bed I started to feel some optimism. "Impossible....? impossible....? impossible....? there is no such a thing as impossible!" and instead of thinking about failure I started to meditate, pray, visualize, I tried to find reasons why this trip was meant to happen and I practiced gratitude cause deep inside I knew that there is no such a thing as impossible.
I even started throwing some old clothes away cause I was planning to buy some new stuff in Europe and believe me, after two years of living out of my backpack I really needed some new clothes.
The next morning I submitted a new application. The embassy staff was not very optimistic but I tried to not get affected by it. Two days later, on the day of my flight I returned to the embassy as soon as they opened. The lady said "sorry, still no answer and to be honest I don't think it's going to happen for today". I tried really hard to stay positive and feel the certainty that I would get the visa. I asked if I could come back again in the afternoon at 2pm; my flight was at 8pm.
At 2pm I was back at the embassy, I looked at the eyes of the lady that had received my application the days before and for the first time she smiled at me. While she was handing me back my passport with a smile on her face she said "how could you expect to get a visa in just three days?... have a great trip and enjoy the weddings!".
The power of group prayer
But I was not alone, my friends in Europe were also helping me with the logistics, with their prayers and positive thoughts and before leaving to the embassy in Kathmandu for the last time my flatmate and dear friend Rocio from Spain sat with me for an special, improvised and spontaneous prayer. I have no doubt that all their positive thoughts and intentions really helped.
Why we gotta celebrate even the smallest miracles
Getting the visa in just three days after it was rejected felt like a miracle, a small miracle... yet a miracle. I know this is a small thing but I'm sharing this long story with you all because I believe that we need to celebrate and be grateful for even the smallest miracles that we witness in our lives and consider them as such to give space for the big miracles to manifest.
Sometimes we might think that our prayers have never been answered or have never been even heard, but I think the problem is that we expect things to happen in a magical and unbelievable way and if they don't then we think that it was just chance and our prayers or Divine intervention has nothing to do with it. That's a sure way to block those miracles from ever happening again.
What I'm trying to say is that by feeling gratitude for the miracles that we experience in our lives we will be reinforcing the belief that miracles do happen and that belief will allow us to experience more miracles, that belief will allow us to see things that we thought were impossible becoming part of our reality.
So If you would like to see more of those "impossible" things becoming possible I think you could start by appreciating even the smallest miracles like the breath that you are taking at this very moment. Not that the breath is a small thing but we are so use to it that we take it for granted and forget how important it is. And if something that you have asked for in prayer have manifested in your life even if it has happened in a very natural way make sure that you consider it as a real answer to your prayers or intentions and not just as a coincidence.
Feeling gratitude
I spend three amazing months in Europe. I attended three weddings, even my ex-girlfriend's wedding, yeah that's right! And I had a wonderful time visiting my old friends and friends that I've met while traveling in India.
I stayed in Brussels, Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Stockholm, Angsbacka, a retreat center in Sweden were my friends Anjali and Surya had their amazing yoga wedding and Capracota, a beautiful small village in Italy where my friends Gladys and Tobias got married.
I had a really great time and I feel very grateful for the friends that I have because without them this trip wouldn't have been possible.
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| Beautiful Vienna, Austria |
Trying something new
I also had the opportunity to try some new things that I wanted to try for a long time. I had my first Capoeira class in Vienna and a few more classes in Brussels, I learned a tiny bit of Poi in Vienna with my friend Shankari and I went for indoor rock climbing in Brussels with my buddy Xavier, and we even did a weekend road trip to the south of Belgium to do some outdoor rock climbing, that was awesome. And one of the things that I enjoyed the most was teaching yoga to my friends in Brussels.
By the end of October I took a flight to Miami, USA to visit my family and to spend with them Christmas and New Year.
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