Day of Hope #6

Thursday June 13, 2013

Goal: Go big or go home?

Quote: “If you can dream it, you can do it.” - Walt Disney

This day of hope is in two parts. On the actual 13th a girlfriend of mine and I went to go see the sunset on a restaurant rooftop. Sunsets are one of my joy items, and I watch them every chance I get, as they make me feel peace and calm.  I was excited to enjoy a drink and watch it from the rooftop. I booked it weeks in advance to make sure we were in. We got there, and they had rented the whole restaurant out for a company event. What??  We decided to make a detour and go to a different spot on the Boise River to watch the sunset. It was completely beautiful, and we had fun. On a different day we went back to that place and watched the sunset from the rooftop. It was amazing. It was not what I had planned but turned out great. 

Bonus Event

There was an amazing item I did during the month of June I had wanted to do for many years, and I only booked it because of my new day of hope inspiration. Here is what happened. 

I got out of my small thinking box and wanted to go big. Once I had first picked my day of hope, I thought about what to do. Suddenly, I realized I can do anything I want, anything at all. The universe is the limit. I remembered something I had written in my journal many years ago, about an all-inclusive spa I had seen on an Oprah Winfrey television special. I pulled out my old journals and found this: 

Journal of hope excerpt (2007)

I watched a special today on Oprah where she went to Miraval Spa in Tucson, Arizona. Someday, I don’t know how or when, but someday I am going to go there. I just want to get it in the journal, so I remember where it was.

I wanted to go to Miraval Spa. This was one of my big items for the year. The plane ride was about four hours from Boise into Tucson, Arizona, and Miraval Spa is forty-five minutes from the Tucson airport. I took my gal pal Frankie with me as a passenger but made it clear there were items, I wanted to do specifically for me. I wanted to go in March, but it was completely sold out on the 13th, so I had to go a few weeks later into June as I could not get affordable prices for my budget until then. June it would have to be.

When we arrived in Tucson, there was a driver holding my name on a sign. I felt like a celebrity. It gave me butterflies of joy in my belly. I know it’s probably standard procedure for some, but for a small-town country girl it was exciting to see my name on a shuttle driver’s sign. It was something like you might see in the movies. 

Miraval is no ordinary spa. It offers every type of treatment you can imagine, and that’s only one portion of the property. There is also a workout center, huge dining area, smoothie bar, and a whole host of classes you can take depending on what journey you are on. I was delighted to find waterfalls, a cold pool with sea salt water, a lounge pool, a lap pool, and lots of cactus and palm trees. It gets hot there in the summer, but it’s dry heat and I love it. I spent most of the time in my robe or workout clothes. 

Several of the classes were designed to help people conquer their fears. One is the outdoor challenge course, where you can climb a traverse, zipline, tightrope, walk on a limb, face to face trust, bungee jump, etc. - Another is the Equine, where you bond with horses and use a powerful guiding force within you to communicate with them. 

We met people who were there to deal with the death of a child, and couples going through divorce. They seemed to have classes for everything. I took a meditation class every morning at 6 a.m., which was crazy as I am not a morning person. But I told myself, I was going to try it all. If it brought me joy, I would keep going. I went all five days to the morning meditation class. I was getting amazing sleep; it did not seem early at all. 

And the food, oh my gosh, the food was amazing! They make everything fresh and with healthy ingredients. Since it's all-inclusive, you pay a set price and don’t have to compromise what you want to eat. You can order the whole menu if you want. I learned how good food can taste. I am so grateful for that, as we can forget in our world of fast food just how awesome real fresh food can be. 

The one thing that stood out for me was the day I did the labyrinth walk. The labyrinth is a maze of rocks in a circle out in the desert, and it became a turning point for my life. This experience solidified that my day of hope is my passion, and it will go on until I am not breathing. 

Labyrinths are very ancient rituals, and you can find them in different areas of the world. At this particular one you pick a rock from somewhere in the desert and you think of one thing you want the answer to. Then you walk. I started my walk asking, “Will I ever really find true love?” You walk on the path, stop, and look at the mountains, the sky, and really be present of where you are, and focus on getting your question out to the universe. You walk some more, then stop and reflect again and keep going until you get to the middle. However long this takes you is the journey. You set your rock along with your question down on the main pile in the middle with the other rocks and you leave it there. This is still to date one of the most unexpected and powerful things I have done. You will see why as you read on. 

One of the girls who also completed the walk came up to me at the end and said, “When you entered the maze, you looked sad, and I just wanted to give you a hug. Then, when you walked out your glow was like an angel. You looked so peaceful.” She could tell I had my “aha” moment. She couldn’t believe the transformation. Here is my breakthrough moment from my personal journal. 

Journal of Hope Excerpt (June 2013)

I started the walk to see about true love with someone and came out realizing that I have someone to love me just the way I am, and that is me. I need to take care of myself and not change for someone else. When I am ready for a man, love will come to me and it will be with someone that is worthy to be with me because I am awesome, and I deserve to be with someone that will treat me and love me like I love myself. I realized I needed to love myself first before I could love and be loved by anyone else. 

An exercise at Miraval everyone does is write a letter to yourself about your time at Miraval; what you learned, and what you want your future self to always remember. You write it while you are there and then three months later, they mail it back to you. I am guessing three months is about when you start to forget your stay as life gets in the way. 

Here is the letter I wrote to myself. I keep it on my vision board and read it often – postmarked October 2013. 

Dear Kayla, you set out on a journey to relax and get some tools for you to find balance and take time to spend on just you. You did this at Miraval. 

Don’t ever forget your “Aha” moment in the labyrinth where the spirits confirmed to you to love yourself and be your own best friend and love and balance will come to you. 

Always be proud of yourself and thank yourself whenever you do something to enhance the inner goddess inside yourself. 

You are amazing and proved it by spending time at Miraval. Signed, your own best friend. You. 

My lesson of hope: Once we love ourselves everything becomes clear. I found that if we create a space where we can go and free up the traffic jams in our minds and lives, we can turn rush hour traffic into a calm and peaceful highway where dreams have space to become our reality.