Friday, December 3, 2010

Zen In Vegas?

If there is Zen in Las Vegas, I didn't find it. It took me over a week to write this post because it has taken me that long to process my holiday experience.

Every year my sister visits for the Thanksgiving holiday and we spend the week casually hanging out chatting, shopping, cooking and just doing anything and nothing. This year we decided to mix things up a bit since she has a new man in her life and we thought he might find our traditions a bit boring. He also wanted very much to go to Vegas on vacation with her. To be budget conscious and to make everyone happy we decided to try having them come visit us for a few days and we would all go to Vegas together and have a nontraditional Thanksgiving. Seemed like a good plan until the last minute when my husband could not go since he had a deadline at work and had to stay behind.

Vegas is not my favorite place on earth. It's in fact my least favorite place. I've never been there with my husband so I thought I'd give it one more chance. When he was unable to go with us, I thought this must be the universe's way of testing my practice of yoga by sending me on this adventure without him. I'm not sure I passed with flying colors.

The Sutras tell us "The restrictions of these fluctuations is achieved through practice and dispassion." -- 1:12  I thought that on this trip I would practice non-attachment and try to go with the flow of things and see how I do. I wanted to try not to let my past experiences of Vegas cloud this new experience. I wanted to go and experience it as if for the first time much like my sister would be doing. What ended up happening was that I focused so hard on being unattached and unaffected, it was in fact the very last thing I got out of the trip. It seemed the more I tried to think "oh they don't know where they want to eat, no worries, we'll eat some time." I'd end up screaming in my head "Make up your minds already!!!" I wanted to go with the flow, but it sure felt like I was a small salmon swimming up stream and there were some bears on the top of the waterfall!

When I got some time alone in my room, I did take those times to be quiet, think, journal and meditate. But I clearly didn't bring enough of my A game yoga arsenal with me to make me fully enjoy that trip.

I did get to see the Bodies exhibit at the Luxor. I dragged my sister to that while her boyfriend went off to check out another building. She seemed almost as impressed with that show as I was. Probably not for the same reasons though.

I think they had a good time on their visit and the week did seem to go by very fast. When we got home at the end of the trip, my husband called me from his gym and told how beautiful it was in Newport and asked us to join him to view the sunset and go for cocktails. We did and it was spectacular! I felt right with the world again and back in alignment with the universe. The glass of wine at the Rusty Pelican didn't hurt either ! ;)

My sister and I decided we will go back to the traditional Thanksgiving again next year. If only to have left over turkey for sandwiches! I'm not sure if the boyfriend will return for that visit. But we'll find a way to entertain him if he does.

It's true, sometimes if you focus too hard, or on one thing too much, it will allude you. I guess the lesson from this week was maybe don't try so hard to be detached. Just be. This too shall pass.

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