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I experienced the blessing yesterday of meeting Deepak Chopra. I shook his hand, and thanked him for how his work significantly shifted my mindset, my self-worth, and my spirituality 6 years ago.
I then had the privilege to hear him lecture on the "Neuroscience of Self-Awareness & Higher Consciousness" for the next 90 minutes, and while I could not take notes fast enough, I managed to scribble 5 pages of single-spaced notes. Some parts of his lecture I recognized from lessons I've learned before in his meditation series; Other parts related to some of the philosophy I learned in my yoga teacher training program. One of my favorite lessons he shared, I'll paraphrase: "Nouns aren’t real - they’re human confounds, limited by our perception. There are only verbs - everything is moving. And when we see a pillow (for example - gesturing towards the chair on the stage), we see the color, the shape, the form. It's through our perception that we call it a pillow. The act of you seeing and defining the pillow is consciousness (pointing at the waves of light reflected back and forth between your eyes and the pillow). When you see yourself in the pillow, that’s beauty. When you see yourself in another person, that’s love." This completely changed my perspective on beauty in an enjoyable manner, and I found the thought... well, beautiful. My take-away: When we see our true self in the non-living, it’s beautiful to us. When we see our true self in someone else, we love them. To be love, to be beauty, we must embody it so radiantly that everything around us becomes so, which we can achieve through meditation. As a side, I'd like this share one last thing on the power of meditation. Prior to this conference, I visualized myself at a book-signing event where I was able to meet Deepak and thank him the way that I did. The morning of the conference they were selling some of his books, and I bought one called "The Healing Self" (which resonates a lot with where I am in my life right now). A couple hours later after the lunch break, I saw him sitting in the auditorium, and I approached him nervously and asked him to sign my book. He was so kind with such a gentle demeanor, welcoming me graciously, and signing my book "To Susie, Love Deepak". My thoughts came true. Yours can too.
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I was stuck in job complacency, a relationship ended, my friend network suddenly shifted, and then property management sold my apartment building (forcing us to move out). It was the ultimate universal sign to make a change. I moved from San Diego to San Mateo (back in with my parents temporarily) at the end of summer 2015. I was unemployed for 6 months. I had applied to 83 jobs in that time (mostly support engineer positions, then getting desperate for work applying to data entry roles). I had many near hires but received feedback “we don’t think you really want this job” or “you’re far too experienced for this job”. I considered going to business school, attending MBA workshops at Cal, but once again received feedback: “you need to get work experience first”. Not having an income or even a clear direction was frustrating. I spent most of my time in the gym working on myself. I was deconditioned and truly knew nothing at the time. My mom got me a membership to Crunch and with my savings I bought 5 personal training sessions. I started to really enjoy the meditative state of mind I developed when at the gym, which calmed my unemployed, anxious monkey brain. And it was very rewarding to see my body responding to the work I was putting in. This inspired me to physically move more. My anxiety and depression and feelings of instability all started to diminish with movement. I shifted states of mind from one of victimization (“no one wants me” [in job-searching]) to exploration (“how can I best use this luxury of time”). I then researched anything relevantly close to my newfound interest meticulously: MBA in Sports Journalism, athletic training positions, PhD in exercise physiology, PhD in consciousness, yoga teacher trainings.. Ah! Yes! There was a 200 Hour yoga teacher training starting in 9 days at College of San Mateo. I signed up immediately and used my unemployment to my advantage receiving college grants to pay for the entire program. The amazing instructor Denaya Brooke Dailey happened to also run the dance department and asked me Day 1 to dance with her the other days of the week. (Having been a dance minor in college and dancing 19 hrs/wk in high school, it was another universal miracle to bring this passion back to me & showing me I was in the right place). Over the next 3 months, everything snowballed. I picked up a job at a gym earning $12/hr cleaning & organizing equipment. I started studying for my personal training certification. Within 6 months, I was interning as a student athletic trainer (where I was introduced to physical therapy!) and teaching yoga. Within 9 months, I moved to San Francisco and was training clients of my own. I spent 2 years training, teaching and volunteering in physical therapy. Which led me to today at NYU earning my doctorate in physical therapy - a field that I am undeniably passionate about. It’s funny to think that my story matches the cliche of ‘finding myself in unemployment’ and ‘giving it all up to accept a minimum wage position in a new field and start all over’ - but I’m SO grateful that I did. ❤️💪🏼  My last 5 days...
Wed: Reflections Yoga - Basic Flow Thurs: Rumble Boxing Fri: Barry’s Bootcamp - Total Body Sat: Reflections Yoga - Flow Sun: Fhitting Room - Signature Fhix But Susie these classes cost $40 each?! How are you doing this??? 😱😱 😱 Glad you asked. For the price of $33 I got all of them plus I have 6 more classes to take without spending another dollar. HOW?! 🤯 The yoga package was 3 classes for $33 for studio first timers. I’ve got one to go. I bounce around studio to studio trying out all their new member packages. It’s a good way to keep your practice cheap, learn many styles from different teachers, and explore your city! 💰 Rumble was a Christmas gift.. Thanks Megan! 🎅🏼❤️ And the other 2 are through ClassPass. If you’re new to ClassPass (like I am), you get one month for FREE (45 credits worth, up to a max of 7 classes depending how you use your credits). After this month it’s around $70/mo to continue doing this. You then have two choices: 1) max out your classes and cancel before they charge you, OR 2) keep it going if you can afford it and enjoy it! 💪🏼 😎 If you opt choice 1, BE PRESENT IN CLASS. Focus. Learn what they’re doing. Observe everything. Memorize the circuit boards. Then go to the gym and do it yourself. If you need the accountability and coaching, then call me. 💪🏼📱 30 days (esp in January) is the perfect time to build a new routine. If you can do 7 classes — scratch that, if you can do 1 class — you can commit to excellence. You can commit to yourself and your fitness. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🙌🏼 ✊🏼 Sign up for your free ClassPass month here: http://class.ps/ly5m9 1. Moved to Manhattan with Daniel in June! 🗽
2. Began my doctorate in physical therapy at NYU.🎓💜 3. Traveled to New York City, San Diego, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Providence, New Jersey, Philadelphia & France. ✈️ 4. Hit my 2 year mark working with San Mateo Athletic Club as a personal trainer reaching over 800 training hours. 💪🏼 5. Earned a 4.0 GPA in my last prerequisites, 3.7 GPA in Summer (11 units) & 3.9 GPA in Fall (19 units). 🎓 6. Became elected as the 2019 NYPTA SSIG Communications Chair - one of the 6 executive positions for student PTs in NY state. 📨🗣 7. Swam in the Mediterranean Sea. 🌊💕 8. Celebrated an epic good bye party with friends in Dolores Park, San Francisco. 🌁 9. Completed CEUs and reactivated my yoga and personal training certifications. 🧘🏻♀️🏋🏻♀️ 11. Went to my first Mustache Bash! 👨🏻✌🏼 11. Worked full time as a physical therapy aide. 🏥 12. Explored new levels of fitness including losing 15lbs and 5% body fat through increasing my walking & daily activity. 💪🏼 13. Worked as a medical volunteer for the NYC Marathon! 🏃🏻♀️🏃🏽♂️🏅 14. Placed 4th in the regular season and 2nd in the playoff championship with our rec soccer team Midtown Maniacs. ⚽️ 15. Ran my first ever official 5K (& in under 30 minutes!) 🏃🏻♀️🍎 16. Took a golf lesson; played my first rounds of 9 & 18 (and many more rounds); golfed at Citi Field! ⛳️🏌🏻♀️ 17. Watched games at the NY Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, Warriors (home & away), Philly Sixers, Yankees, & Mets (vs Dodgers & vs Giants). 🏀⚾️ 18. Began my NASM Nutrition certification & EXOS Performance Specialist certification. 🥗🤸🏻♀️ 19. Did pushups for #ChoosePT on Good Morning America! 💪🏼🧡 20. Became a graduate researcher for NYU studying vestibular disorder for physical therapy using virtual reality. 👩🏻⚕️👩🏻💻 21. Went apple picking & Christmas tree chopping in Pennsylvania! 🍏🍎🌲 22. Improved my cooking and baking skills - especially chicken dishes & cobblers! 🐓 23. Took a contemporary dance class at a Broadway dance studio near Times Square. 👯♀️💃 24. Watched my Dodgers make it to the World Series again! 💙⚾️ 25. Sold my Mazda 3 after 9 years & 120k miles! 🚘 26. Went wine tasting in Napa. 🍇🍷 27. Saw my favorite band The Main Squeeze play at the Casbah & at Brooklyn Bowl! 🎶🍋 28. Attended a PT student conference, the National Student Conclave in Rhode Island for my birthday weekend, where we built 70 prosthetic hands for amputees. 🖐🏾 29. Experienced the coldest ever Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! (14deg F after wind chill). 🎈🎏🎁 30. Ran the Rocky Balboa steps. 🥊🐅 31. Intertubed down the Delaware River. 🍩🌊 32. Celebrated 2 years with my love. 💕 |
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