What is your secret life? What do you daydream about? Are you living the life you are meant to live or are you stuck in a life you feel obligated to live?
We all have some type of secret life, or fantasies, or daydreams, or visions that reflect who we are at our deepest core. This secret life may lie buried deep inside never to see the light of day, or it may be what drives us to create a life we love. It may be seeking adventure. It may be a job that you love. It may be creating paintings or dance or music. But no matter what it is, this secret life, when lived, brings a deep sense of fulfillment into our lives.
There have been studies done on plants showing how they react to our emotions. Don’t you wonder what your dog would tell you if he/she could talk? How often are people misjudged because we do not know what their secret hopes and dreams are? How often do we hold ourselves back from realizing our secret ambitions because we feel stuck or afraid?
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” inspired me to think about these things. In the movie, Walther had a thankless job working in a basement office for Life magazine managing film negatives. Sometimes Walter would just stare off into space oblivious of what was going on around him and his boss took great delight in making fun of him. Unbeknownst to others, Walter was fantasizing a life of adventure, leaping into heroic action and feeling fully alive.
Life magazine was about to publish their last print magazine before they went digital. This last issue was dedicated to the iconic, elusive photographer Sean O’Connell. He sent a roll of film to Walter saying that negative 25 was the most important negative and should be used for the cover. However that one negative was missing from the roll of film. Sean also sent Walter an old leather wallet with the inscription: “To see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to, that is the purpose of life.”
Walter needed to find that negative and the importance of this mission, fueled with support from a co-worker that he had a secret crush on. led Walter to step our of his comfort zone into a life of real adventure. He flew to Greenland looking for Sean and ended up in the ocean being attacked by a shark. He was rescued but Sean was not in Greenland. Next he flew to Iceland where he had to escape an erupting volcano, narrowly surviving. Sean again was gone. So finally he flew to Nepal and had to trek deep into the Himalayas where Sean was trying to photograph the mythical snow leopard.
When Walter and Sean met in person for the first time, they saw a snow leopard slowing emerging from behind a rock in the distance. They were both mesmerized by its presence. When Walter finally asked Sean why he did not take a picture of the snow leopard, Sean told him that just gazing at the snow leopard was enough and what was really important was embracing the small special moments as they appear in our lives.
Sean also told Walter that negative 25 was in the wallet he sent him. So sometimes what we are looking for is something we already have but do not see. Maybe we have the potential to realize our dreams but we are blind to it. Are you appreciating those special moments as they come into your life?
The deeper purpose of yoga is to explore our deepest core. Who are we? How can we express our deepest desires? Each pose has a secret life. Some poses like forward folds ask us to go deep inside ourselves with humility. Back bends ask us to open our hearts fearlessly. Warrior poses ask us to stand up with courage and defend our basic rights. Standing poses ask us to find balance in the most challenging situations. Meditation asks us to find stillness and contemplation regardless of exterior circumstances.
Use your yoga practice as a practice for life. Look deep inside to see your uniqueness as well as your connection to an energy source that is boundless. The potential is there. It is your job to seek it out and live it.
Are you living your dream life or are you dreaming your life away?
