No More Plans, No More Goals, Simply Free to Go With the Flow

Before starting this "path to yoga", back in March 2010, I wrote down a two years plan with all the things that I wanted to do in India. The two years passed and I've been lucky enough to be able to do almost all those things included in my plan, yet somehow something didn't feel right.

Group Meditation at lake near Sivananda Ashram

I visited the Sivananda Ashram in Kerala and in Madurai and did their Yoga Teacher Training Course, their Advance Teacher Training Course and their Sadhana Intensive. I visited the Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama and joined their Teacher Training Program. I did the Four Months Yogic Studies Course at the Bihar School of Yoga and visited some other ashrams and pilgrimage places around India, like Ramana Maharshi's cave in Tiruvanamalai and Babaji's cave in Kukuchina.

Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama

Ramana Maharshi's cave

Meditation inside Babaji's cave

I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to visit all those places and to do all those things that I wanted to do for such a long time, so many dreams made true. I've had so many incredible experiences and I've made some invaluable friendships.

But the downside was that I was not very present. Because I had a plan I was constantly thinking about the next place that I was going to visit, constantly worried about getting there forgetting about being here, and constantly driven by this idea of achieving something.

Luckily after two years, after having "achieved" all those goals that were in my plan, I found myself free, free to explore new things, free to go with the flow, free to fully experience whatever the universe puts on my way. I don't have a plan anymore, I can't not even tell with certainty where I'll be in the next few weeks, things are constantly changing and I'm constantly adapting, or at least I try.

And you know what, with this attitude things tend to happen in a more natural way. The first thing that I had planned to do when I arrived in India by the end of July 2010 was to practice ashtanga yoga for three months in Mysore but because of some visa issues I had to leave Mysore after a week.

I had totally forgotten about this but somehow without doing any planning and without any effort, by the end of July 2013, almost exactly after three years, I came back to Mysore and ended practicing ashtanga yoga for three months as I had originally planned, although not at the main shala but with two amazing ashtanga yoga teachers, first with Ajay Kumar and then with Vijay Kumar. I guess there was a reason why I wasn't supposed to do this at the beginning of my journey but only at this time.

Now, it's not like I don't have a direction in life, I do know what I want in the future but I'm not worrying too much about how to get there and I don't need to follow a detailed action plan, at least not at this time. I'm just allowing life to show me the way, and it feels great. I have set all my intentions in the past and in great detail, now I just do as my heart tells me to do. Whatever I do, wherever I go I'm just following the voice of my heart.

What's going to happen next? I'm not 100% sure and I don't need to be, life will take care of itself, my job is to do what I'm supposed to do right here and right now, and what I'm supposed to do is what my heart tells me to do. My heart tells me "come back to India soon!" My visa expired so it was time to leave. Now I'm in Sri Lanka and I have no plans so most likely, if this is my karma, I'll return to India in a week or two, but you never know.

So, if I can give you some advice it would be this: Find out what you really want in life. Take your time and write down exactly what you want, write down what kind of life you want to live and if you wish then make your plans. By doing this you are expressing your intentions and putting the forces of the universe in motion to help you get what you want. I know this might sound a bit too "New Agey" but it just works that way.

But then don't get attached to your plans. Forget about the how's, just know what you want and then surrender, trust that life will somehow guide you and show you the way. Let life surprise you with it's magic so you can live with no worries experiencing the joy of each moment.