Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

What stops us from being incredible? What stops us from letting our light shine and being the wonderful, creative, full beings we are intended to be? I don’t have the answers to these questions; I only know what stems from my own personal experience.

I can only speculate. We get distracted; we become fearful; we feel we are not good enough, and we might fail or someone might laugh at us. We are afraid money will get in the way. We are afraid of looking foolish and we are afraid of going out on a limb and never coming back.

I think we sometimes fear the change that comes along with chasing our dreams. In order for our dreams to come into fruition we need to take certain risks, make certain sacrifices, and give up certain comforts we’ve grown accustomed to.

Other times, we give up our dreams for other people and what we think they want. Perhaps for our partners, families or friends? Maybe we don’t take that trip because we are afraid we’ll miss our spouses too much. Or perhaps we don’t pursue further education because we think it’s somehow impossible while taking care of a family.

Perhaps we compare ourselves to others too often. We get so blinded by someone else’s light, and in doing so, we forget about our own light. When we get wrapped up in comparing or thinking we need to be like someone else, we lose a little part of ourselves. Our own light dims a little and we struggle as we wonder, what is happening to our happiness?

Whatever the excuse we make for ourselves to not venture out of our comfort zones, there’s no denying the ache we feel in our souls for repressing those desires. At least, that’s how I feel.

In my life, I will admit, I have taken many risks for the dreams I’ve had. Sometimes those risks are flat-out stupid, but sometimes those risks have turned out to lead to the greatest joys of my life.

I am a yoga teacher; I opened my own yoga studio about a year ago. If you would have asked me two years ago, I would have told you it was a crazy dream and probably unattainable for financial reasons. However, I’ve learned in life, you have to follow the path, your path. And when a door opens and feels right you have to walk through it, fear or no fear.

My endeavors have lead me to live a rather unconventional life some people would rather not have. I trade in certain creature comforts for the opportunity to wake up each day and live the kind of life that feels true for me.

I have traded nice dinners out for cooking meals in every day. I have traded travel and going out to events for taking long walks and staying at home watching movies. I’ve traded the idea of financial security for the idea of living day by day, and let me tell you, it’s not always easy. I wouldn’t trade any of my experiences or the freedom to be myself for any amount of comforts in the world as it stands.

In the end, we are all human. We all strive for the same basic things in life, but we also strive for something deeper and something more. I think this “something more” is where we toe the line. It’s the tipping point where we are handed the choice to decide what kind of life we’re going to have.

If we can find the courage to overcome our fears every now and then, and jump into that pool of freezing cold water that is our dreams, we might realize it’s not as scary as we think. Maybe we’ll find a whole new world we once only dreamed about.

So please, whatever you do, just try and let your light shine.

The world will be a better place for it.

                               Teresa is a work in progress and enjoys sculpting her life and waiting for beautiful mysteries of her life to unfold before her.  After traveling to India to become a certified Hatha yoga teacher, she decided to open her very own yoga studio in Wisconsin. She teaches traditional Hatha yoga classes as well as meditation. She also is newly married and enjoys spending time with her husband doing things like: vegetarian cooking, walking their nine bundle of attitude (miniature pinscher), Maggie, or going for hikes and spending time outside exploring. Teresa is a self-proclaimed dreamer and romantic. When she is not teaching yoga or hanging out with her husband you can find her with her nose buried in a book, with a paintbrush in her hand or writing heartfelt essays and poetry. She dreams also of traveling and hopes to one day be lucky enough to see a generous  portion of  the world

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Editor: Jennifer Spesia

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