I’ve preached quite a bit over the past year about all the ways yoga — specifically Bethany and Lyons Den Power Yoga — has impacted my life and powerfully changed the way I choose to live it. I really do encourage you to go try it out for yourself. It’s my happiest place right now.
This past November marked the one-year anniversary of Lyons Den, and I’m so proud to say I’ve been there since day one. Literally, since the first official 7:15 PM class on a chilly Thursday night.
To celebrate the Den’s roaring success, Bethany hosted an anniversary class for the studio’s founding members. It was a huge honor to be there. The energy was ridiculous and the love in the room was completely palpable.
The best part was when we were in a pose — it may have been half-pigeon, I actually forget — and Bethany started to read something to us.
Because what she read changed my entire outlook on life — and because maybe it will change yours, too — I wanted to share it.
It’s by an anonymous writer (not me, not Bethany, probably not Lurlene McDaniel, because no one dies at the end), and I hope you enjoy it and heed it as much as I did…
Stop Waiting
We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren’t old enough and we’ll be more content when they are. After that, we’re frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on vacation, when we retire.
The truth is, there’s no better time to be happy than right now.
Your life will always be filled with challenges. It’s best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. One of my favorite quotes comes from Alfred D Souza. He said, “For a long time, it had seemed to me that life was about to begin — real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”
This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have.
Stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose 10 pounds, until you gain 10 pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until you are off welfare, until the first or fifteenth, until your song comes on, until you’ve had a drink, until you’ve sobered up, until you die, until you are born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy.
Good stuff, right?
Carry on.
47 Responses
I have Christine of Love Life Surf for sharing this link. I love this because it’s so true.
Now is the perfect time to start. So thanks for the reminder.
So you’re the first person I’ve run across who knows who Lurlene McDaniel is. I’m just like, 6 Months to Live? Anyone? No? People just give me a blank stare.
Dear Allie,
since I found your blog, it has been around half a year. Back then I was volunteering at US Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC. Having my lunch at the Mall is still somehow unbelievable in my eyes. Now, back in Germany (yes, native German) and in college, I find myself very often running out of focus, struggeling with my path and so on. In the US I started running, just to explore the hood (including the Capitol 🙂 ) and get a sense for the city. I miss this feeling of running together, even if you’re alone on the way, BUT there are so many other people out there smiling at you, motivating you to do your best.
To sum up: A HUGE thanks to you, giving me this feeling by words and charing these great sentences. It’s somehow like coming home (and I truly hope this doesn’t seem as crazy as I think).
You are awesome!
Only the best from Germany,
Antonia
What a joy it has been to discover your blog last year. I have had Crohns for about 20 years now and over the last few years have been able to get Back into running. Great thoughts for 2015, we al have obstacles, deal with them but dont let them take away your hapiness, I needed to hear that. THanks for sharing, have a blessed year!
I am bookmarking this page so I can come back and reread this when ever I feel like it. This is the best. And also, dance parties to Taylor Swift are in fact the best kind of dance parties to have.
Yes you’re right! I have been taught by yoga which allows me to strip away all the worries, tensions and problems of life. It brings my attention to my being, gives me time to myself. Yoga has taught me to relax my body, my mind to rest and to renew my peaceful spirit. Thanks.
You are totally right yoga is the best way to peace your mind and ease your body. In addition, it allows you to focus and to recuperate.
Thank you for sharing this!
Omg auto correct. IN Naples Florida, not on. And BALA vinyasa. Not ball. Haha
I’m doing teacher training at a Baptiste studio on Naples, fl… (Ball Vinyasa Yoga owned by Kiersten Mooney… Ask Bethany, I’m sure she knows her) and I have heard that reading before… Also probably during pigeon pose or maybe frog. It is good stuff! We have our fourth weekend starting tomorrow so maybe I’ll ask if anyone knows who wrote it!
Yes. All of this. Especially Selena Gomez, as my daughter’s pet giraffe *who vibrates* is named Albus Von Esschenbach.
Thank you for sharing this. I’m in my 40s, and I’m only just starting to figure this out. So much wasted time waiting for life to begin. I’m going to read this over and over every time I slip into those negative thought patterns. Thank you!
LOVE LOVE LOVE!!
❤️❤️❤️
I don’t find it coincidental that you wrote this on my bday…I needed this. And will be printing it and framing it and reading it daily. Thank you for this reminder (but not for making me burst out in tears haha). Love you!
Wow, this is amazing. Thank you so much for posting it.
I love so much of this and try to preach and live by this daily. Thank you for a great post!
OMG I used to LOVE reading Lurlene McDaniel books – even though they made me cry ALL THE TEARS.
This is exactly what I needed to read today! I love the message, and as someone who has the train of thought far too often, the reminder to live and not live in the future is fab. Thanks!
Loved you when you were down and love you when you’re up. Thanks for being a constant source of laughter and encouragement. Everyday when I open my blog feed, I hope there’s a new Ali post. Thanks for sharing!
I LOVE this! I am definitely going to be reading this a lot. I wonder who wrote it. How sad that such great thoughts have no author attached to them!
“Good stuff, right?”…GREAT STUFF! I was a bit late to your blog, but your hilarious writing style and quirky personality resonated with me from read one (also your love of going off on tangents…I love tangents…and tangerines, and…oh right anyways…). Thank you for being a great source of positive energy. I need to start 2015 on a better note, and keeping a message like that in my heart is sure to help 🙂
I’ve never posted on your blog before even though I’ve read it frequently over the past year. THANK YOU for posting this. What a great message and wonderful way to start the new year!! I love it. Congrats to you on the wonderful year and all the exciting times ahead!
Yea. That’s solid. The line alone “There is no better time to be happy than right now.” is amazing. Thanks for posting it!
Excellent speech/talk. There is never a better time than now to be happy. And I must say that practicing Yoga has helped a lot in that regard. Even though I am a newbie to Yoga and am self taught I love doing Yoga.
Congrats to your friends at the Lyons Den on their 1 year anniversary:)
I finally reached a point in my life where I am happy. It took a while, and I still have stuff to figure out but 30 has been a magical year in arriving here. Thanks for the reminder!
I don’t know what it was about this past year, but something woke me up to this exact motto. I definitely don’t live it every day, and I certainly get caught up in the daily grind and plans for the future, etc. But more than any other year before it, this was there where I was like, “WHAT AM I WAITING FOR?” I used that energy to be a little more spontaneous than usual, to plan outings and adventures I had put on hold forever (for no reason whatsoever), and to just have a lot of fun. IT WAS AWESOME. Thank you for sharing.
This post is amazing!!! Thank you and I’m glad you stopped waiting!!
awesome stuff!
I am starting my 200-hr yoga teacher training tomorrow and I needed to hear this. Thank you for posting/sharing! Definitely a game changer.
My yoga sessions are probably the one hour of my day when I truly focus on myself in the present moment; feeling so alive and happy. So glad you discovered yoga too. 🙂
Wow, I NEVER comment on blogs, but this is absolutely, 100%, exactly what I needed to read today. Right now. Printing out for my bathroom mirror!!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
THIS!! I find myself getting caught up in the planning and what’s coming next, and I rarely enjoy the now. Then I see quotes like this and experience those ‘now’ moments that make up life and am reminded of what it’s all about. Thanks for sharing this – I needed that reminder!
Very good! Must try to live it!
WORD!
I have always had that mindset. It’s helped me through so much. At 25, my husband died of cancer, just 5 months after we got married and I could have let my life pass but I didn’t. I continued to be happy even thru the sad. I continued to make my life exciting with the help of some amazing friends especially the one who introduced me to running. Happy can be happier and happiest when timing allows but even sad can bring happy…even if it’s through memories.
Thank you for posting this. It’s something I’ve been struggling with lately and been trying to tell myself! It’s nice to hear it put so succinctly!
love the passage she read! thanks for sharing! it actually reminds me of a quote i’ve continually said to myself lately:
“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.”
– Margaret Lee Runbeck
glad you’re in a better, super duper happy, place these days 🙂
Literally copying and pasting this to a word file. This is needed every day. Love it. Thank you for sharing!
Here’s a link to it as well: http://www.inspirationpeak.com/cgi-bin/stories.cgi?record=56
So glad you love it, too! Total game changer.
me too!!!
L.O.V.E. LOVE that poem, thanks for sharing — half way through it struck a nerve and I realized how even though I may seem not to be “waiting” I am in one way or another and I need to knock it off and live already.
Do you think yoga has helped your crohn’s?
Yoga has definitely helped me better learn to handle stress, which can be a huge trigger for Crohn’s flares. So in a more indirect way, YES, it has absolutely helped. Without sounding overly preachy (a line I’ve surely already crossed), yoga has completely changed the way I act (I’m less of a bitch on public transportation!) and see life (like in the piece I shared here, and having a “be happy now” outlook). I do believe that impacts my overall well-being, definitely.
I. Freaking. Love. It’s the perfect anecdote to the New Year’s Resolution mentality of “I’ll make the change later” or “I’ll be happy once this diet is over.”
Thanks for sharing Ali!! Really good stuff.
So glad you like it! I’m so obsessed. I read it almost daily.