Just Breathe

"There is a road, no simple highway, between the dawn and the dark of night, and if you go, no one may follow, that path is for your steps alone."- Jerry Garcia

I have been talking with several of my friends recently about the completely fucked up and confusing nature of being in our 20's. I try to just listen attentively, but unfortunately in my mind I am completely scared shitless about what direction my life will take. 
Even though it seems cliche, I always come around to offering the advice I try and tell myself...JUST BREATHE. 
That hour in yoga that I have come to cherish is the ample time where my mind can remain in the present and the realities outside of breathing are not in my conscious. As I have been putting an extreme focus on yoga and exploring meditation, I have been attempting to transcend my hour of yogi-solitude into more of my life. But let's face it, our 20's and our reality is unfortunately extremely overwhelming. 

It is an everyday struggle to not have my brain go into this over-analytical overdrive that ends up being extremely constricting, when the brain should be a liberating entity. My free flow of thoughts translate into one big stressful question of "what the fuck am I going to do with my life?" 
As I am sure I am not the only one feeling this, but it seems like at this stage in our lives nothing ever comes at the right moment; those plans you want to make, the people you need to see, someone entering and/or exiting your life at the complete wrong place and time...everything is just in this realm of a quarter-life crisis that I/we can't quite get a grasp on. 

Slowly, but surely I have been coming to terms with the fact that this is just the nature of our 20's. They are just confusing, heart breaking, selfish and unstable. This is the time when we are developing into a more complete being. Many of us have moved to a new city and are constantly meeting new people. It is so easy to feel lost and alone without the comforts of home and/or your close friends. This lost nature only gets worse when you realize how poor you actually are based upon your minimal paychecks, high rents and excessive drinking habits, you are surprised to find out every Sunday when you check your bank balance. WHOOPS! And that hangover I currently experience is nothing like I ever felt in college, because now...they literally become more wretched and hurt to the core of my soul for no less that 24-hours. 

But seriously, when I think about it, why is it that I/we have to overanalyze every current situation our lives are in or where our lives are going to go? Why do I have to figure out the rest of my life RIGHT NOW?  LIFE IS A LONG FUCKING TIME! There are thousands of more mistakes to be made, hundreds of more shows to attend, many more adventures to be had...as Hunter S. Thompson so wisely said, "life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather a skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a ride!'"

Yes, it would be nice to have a general idea of what I want to do, but I don't, so I am just going to continue on my journey and BREATHE. And if my current career aspirations of developing a business that allows me to follow Phish for the whole summer are successful, then, "Wow! What a fantastic ride that life will be!

Failed Business Attempt #1! Trying to create a Phish poster to sell at the shows to pay for my
tickets...I created a wave and a guppy like Flounder from the Little Mermaid...next

"The less we buy into our set version of how things should be, the more we can be available to things as they are." The Buddha Walks into a Bar 

Every new face we meet in our lives should be treated as a special gift, a presence and energy that can only help us along in our journey (except networking vultures you meet in NYC...they suck).
I don’t want to be in such a rush to arrive at the future, I want to be present. Being present allows you to be awake to life. The moment you are having right now is all you have. We spend so much of our day lost in thinking about what we need to do, mostly because we are afraid of messing up. It's exhausting. 

"We need to relax our assumptions and expectations. Treating our world as sacred is one way we can relax. It can be refreshing to take  break and just be present with the world around us, and experience the beauty of our life.We can be present with our daily commute, and enjoy seeing two children dancing on the subway. This experience perks us up. We don't have to make a big deal of chasing after the most exotic dance troupe in the world; we can jut appreciate the one right in front of us." The Buddha Walks in to a Bar 

Pink Floyd - Speak to Me/Breathe/On the Run/Time