What Does Happiness Mean?
It's 90° here in Tulum Mexico, more specifically in this small beach town Akumal, about 16 miles outside of the touristy Tulum area. A quaint little secluded area stretched along the white gorgeous sand of the Caribbean Sea. As I type this journal entry to the sounds of the waves crashing in front of my temporary home, I can't help but notice the staff workers, laughing and joking around with each other as they shovel seaweed from the beach in the heat, a strenuous job with few results, given that the seaweed reaches the beaches in enormous quantities. They are literally shoveling the sea. The concierge manager of the property told me that sargassum has always been present in the Caribbean, but since 2011 it has arrived massively to the paradisiacal Mexican coasts. He explained that this phenomenon has occurred due to the warming of ocean waters, one of the consequences of climate change.
The staff workers have to manually pick up the seaweed that is laying on the beach with spade forks and shovels, put it in a wheelbarrow and then they move it up the property stairs, where they have to manually layout plywood first, every single day, so they can roll the wheelbarrow, and they move it all the way across the street and dump it into a giant pile. A truck then comes once in a while and picks it up. They start at 6 in the morning each day and end at 7 in the evening.
My heart went out to them doing this excruciating intense labor in this kind of heat, even though I can clearly read their positive and almost cheerful energy, as I have not seen them once without a glowing smile on their face. I told the manager this must be extremely physically demanding on them. He then cheerfully responded, “we do this because we want to ensure that the beach is clean and looks pretty for you guys when you come here so you can enjoy your vacation, senorita”.
When I arrived here about a week ago, the moment my luggage was dropped and I plopped down on the sofa gazing at the 360 degrees breathtaking views of the Caribbean Sea, I noticed that I could breathe freely for the first time in a very long time. Even though I practice pranayama every single day and I live in Santa Monica, a beach town as well. I felt the stress of the last 15 months melt away. In an effort to dissolve that cumulative tension of a 5 hour plane flight, a 40-minute ferry ride and a 45 minute taxi ride to get here, I rolled out my yoga mat to do my asana practice and move my body. I immediately noticed that I was more limber, and that my body was just melting into the poses.
You don't know what easy breathing feels like because you cannot feel other people's breathing, you can only feel your own breathing, so even if you are a certified yoga teacher, you have no frame of reference really. I have never breathed this fully and fluidly since I can remember. I didn't hear the cracking of my knees when I came into malasana, or what is called a yogi squat. There was no neck cracking, no shoulder stiffness or even low back tenderness when I came into a chair pose. The emerging skin bumps on my skin, that I feared were a sign of early psoriatic arthritis, completely disappeared. I started to reflect on the physical signs that were showing up for me back in Santa Monica, what my body was trying to tell me. Even though as yogi, I fully understand that the body never lies, the mind can play tricks on you, but the body always tells the truth, I still completely dismissed those signs, as part of simply my body aging.
I was flowing through my practice feeling light like a feather, I didn't want the practice to end. This is what health and vitality feels like, I thought to myself. I had always considered myself healthy and vibrant, as I live a very mindful way of life and prioritize self care. It was like the boiling frog metaphor, I was not aware of the tension that my body was carrying until I moved my physical body to a new environment, as my kapha dosha was imbalanced and out of harmony with the intense and polluted environment back in Los Angeles.
After my practice, I walked down the beach to one of the local restaurants to grab some dinner, my dog Blake Shelton, bouncing his little white tail right behind me, walking freely off leash. His jaw wide open with his tongue sticking out, the biggest smile that I have ever seen on his face. Ever since we got here he has not closed his mouth once! Even Blake's energy is more vibrant and joyful. Back in Santa Monica he would just sleep on his dog bed all day everyday, I would always joke around and say it is his favorite hobby and post on social media videos of him sleeping with #TheLaziestDogInTheWorld. I had also dismissed his behavior as an aging process. But now I realize as our energies are so intertwined, he was feeling what I was feeling.
When I got back to the condominium I saw that a new group of visitors had just arrived from Idaho, as the staff was carrying their luggage and large quantities of alcoholic bottles and cans.
The moment I opened my eyes the next morning I stepped outside of my beach front condo and laid on a hammock, I was in awe of my surroundings as Blake, with his tongue still sticking out, lying right underneath me. I started to do a gratitude meditation and contemplate the beauty that was created just for my entertainment. The sun shining above me to keep me warm, the breeze of the waves keeping me cool and the fluffy sand underneath supporting me, and I say thank you, thank you, thank you.
The Idaho visitors next door came out of their condo as well, the youngest son who just graduated high school cracked open a beer at 7 a.m. then his mom and her two friends came out and were on their phones complaining about the seaweed and how they are not able to swim in the sea. I can hear one of them saying “ This was advertised as a beachfront condo, and I dragged all of my friends and my family down here so they can swim, this is unacceptable and I demand a full refund! These workers are shoveling very slowly. It will take forever for them to clean up the beach so we can swim. They need to pick it up and stop dilly dallying”.
For the entire week that I have been here, every time I run into her, she never talks about anything else other than complaining about the seaweed, “did you know about this seaweed situation?”, she asks me. “They already showed me other places but there's seaweed all across the coast. They offered me a villa with a private swimming pool, but do I really want to drag 8 people and pack our stuff and move again?”
I thought of the staff workers shoveling the seaweed in 90° heat and how happy and content with life they seemed. That truly we see things as we are, not as they are.
Dr. Wayne Dyer said that one of his lessons to live by is, There Are No Justified Resentments. He said, no matter what anybody says to you, no matter what kind of anger comes toward you, or how much hate you may encounter showing up in your life, there are no justified resentments. Meaning, that if you carry around resentment inside of you about anything or about anyone, even the person that was abusive in your life. I'm talking about the person that you lent money to and hasn’t paid you back. The person who walked out on you and left you for somebody else. I'm talking about all of the things that you have justified in your heart and in your life that you have the absolute right to be resentful about, and I'm suggesting to you that those resentments will always end up harming you and creating in you a sense of despair. No one ever dies from a snake bite, a snake bite will never kill you. You cannot be unbidden once you're bitten, once you're bitten, you’re bitten. But it is the venom that continues to pour through your system after the bite, that will end up destroying you.
Most people fear taking accountability for their own happiness. It’s easier to blame others for why they feel the way the feel, the seaweed, the government, the company that employees them, their co-workers, parents, kids, friends or neighbors. I truly believe that happiness is a decision that you make every singe day, a state of mind, not a place, event, thing, person, job title, bank account or social media post.