If I were my own life coach, I would say: “Victoria, the hell with it. Seriously. Take care of yourself, take care of your family, and everything else can take a number.” And since I am my own life coach right now (I’m spending my money on book publicity), I’ve been taking my advice.
As a result, yesterday was a totally delicious day. I knew it had to be because last night I had my talk and signing for Living a Charmed Life here in New York City. It was the first event for this book. I wanted to be at my best so I could forget myself and give all I had to the people who showed up. To that end, I started the night before, praying extra and getting to bed early. I got up at 6 and took the train down to The Village to the
I started with Integral Yoga — unadorned hatha yoga, very pure — when I was 17. When I take a class now, it’s like revisiting my childhood home; everything is familiar and comfortable and right. Then I went to a cafe and worked for several hours — not madly, not desperately, not even teasing myself that I would get to everything or make a sizable dent in the e-mails, but I worked and got some things done.
Then I went to the gym and sweated on the treadmill. I watched fluff TV about Hollywood stars’ Botox usage and the extreme wealth of the young royals of the world. It was perfect for the treadmill: when I’m thinking about the daughter of the Sultan of Brunei getting a jumbo jet for her 18th birthday, I’m not thinking about how many more minutes there are to go at 3.5 mph on a level 7 upgrade. Then I got my hair blown and my makeup done, and went home to meditate, clear my head, and collect my thoughts. It had rained all day (and for two days prior, and again today for that matter), which I knew would affect the turnout, but I kept my thoughts all day on the fact that the people who were supposed to be there would be. And they were.
The lovely large room at the Lincoln Triangle Barnes & Noble was nearly full. I recognized about half the group — friends, colleagues, readers who’ve come to these events before — and the other half were new readers or people curious about this particular book. I know that I said what I needed to be saying, because I could follow their energy. When I’m “off” (i.e., coming from myself, my ego), the faces are blank; when I’m letting Spirit through, everyone stays engaged. It felt good.
I signed a lot of books and then William and Stan (remember Stan from last week? — “portable sunshine”) and I went for Chinese food. I was wired so William and I stayed up later than usual (Bobby, our cat, loved that), and we talked about work and calling, success and service, desire and destiny. Then I read a little, prayed a little, and went to sleep.
Today, of course, there are a hundred new emails I didn’t get to yesterday. But I had clients this morning, and my daughter is under the weather and I went to her place to take her lunch and walk her dogs. Those emails will still be there tomorrow. I have one major project to finish. And William will meet me and we’ll go home.
I don’t know how perfect people and jumbo-jet people do things. I just know that when I lighten up and loosen up, when I put first things first and do some of what I suggest that my coaching clients do, life works pretty well. And that makes me happy.
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