You may not know this about me, 24 years ago I sold cars at a Ford dealership in Vancouver. At the time, it was the largest Ford dealership in Canada. My team alone had 10 sales people and I was the only woman.

I will never forget my first sale. I sold a used red, sporty two-door to a younger single woman. When it came time to negotiate the sale, I presented her with the numbers and without hesitation she said ‘I’ll take it.’ I froze. I didn’t know what to do.

I ran to my manager nervous with excitement and said ‘She said yes! What do I do now?’

Just thinking of my innocence brings a smile to my face.

Interestingly enough, as the months passed, my sales decreased rather than increased. The reason – I got in the way and started to over think everything.

I was a natural at building rapport with people. They trusted me and I was excited to be of service.

I was in the flow.

But then...

Fear and self doubt started running the show.

At the time, I was meditating. I was actually in a yoga teacher training course. And it was all still very new to me.

(As a side bar - selling cars and taking yoga teacher training made me somewhat of an anomaly. People associated selling cars as non-spiritual and teaching yoga as spiritual.)

As we know, mindfulness is a practice, and being more of a newbie, I wasn’t able to observe my emotions and limiting beliefs and so they took over. My confidence vanished. I became very anxious and lost all sense of Self and the excitement I once had for the work.

The reason I share this story with you so many years later is that now, more than ever, I am becoming aware of how enjoyable life can be when...

I am present.
I am out of the way.
I let go of striving and trying to make something happen.

Most recently my mind feels very empty. And that's a good thing!

I don’t feel the need to figure things out or to strive to make things happen. And yet, things are happening; with more ease, grace and joy.

Including this Mindful Monday message. The idea to write this came to me last week in the middle of the night. When I woke up the words were still fresh and flowed on the page effortlessly.

The Universe, once again, was showing me how easy it can be when I let go of the reins and become a pure channel for everything to flow through.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the belief that we need to strive and force to get ahead, to make things happen and succeed in life.

But do we?

My experience right now is that by letting go of striving and the need to control, things are flowing with much more ease. Just like when I sold my first car.

What would happen if we explored this more?

Trusting in ourselves and in life.
Letting go of forcing or striving.
Taking time to be.
Going with the flow.

As you read this what are you noticing in your body?

Right now I invite you to...

TAKE A BREATH
Breathe in ‘Life’
Breathe out ‘Letting go’

And gently be with what is.

Much love,
Diane