How Do You Choose to Travel?
As many of you already know, I’ve been traveling and promoting my book, The Enlightened Mom. What a whirlwind it’s been, meeting all kinds of people and having some wonderful experiences. However, like we often experience with travel, my trips have not gone without their glitches, especially my trip to New York last week. I want to share this story with you because there is a wonderful message in it. I learned a lot from my adventure and I hope it will inspire you!
I arrived at my local airport here in Destin, Florida, only to discover that my flight was going to be two hours delayed. This meant I would miss my connection in Atlanta that would take me to NYC. I had planned this trip so that I would get into the city and have plenty of time to settle in that evening before my very busy following morning. However, with the delays, it meant that I would be arriving in the city late into the evening. Immediately, my thoughts ran into imagining being tired and rundown. I felt my body tightening and an immense sense of dread, as well as an impulse to try and control the situation. Thankfully, I know better than to allow negative thoughts to rule my mind and that’s when I made a decision to make a different choice.
I began to embrace the delay and allow it to happen, rather than try to control the situation. Hard to imagine, right? I knew that it was up to me to create the kind of day I wanted. I couldn’t change the plane issues, but I could change my thoughts. I knew it was time to look for the gifts in the difficult situation.
As I stood in line waiting for my tickets to be changed, the first gift was the realization that I had been assigned lousy seats on my original flight from Atlanta to NYC. I was in the middle of a row with three seats. I HATE sitting between two people. I am an “aisle” girl at heart and like to stretch my legs out instead of being scrunched up. So I set an intention that I would get better seats on my new flight later that day. I imagined it and asked God to bring this to me. Then I let it go. I sat in the knowingness that abundance would show up. I had no idea what that abundance would look like, but trusted that the universe would take care of it.
I finally made my way to the ticket counter where the agent assigned me a window seat. I wasn’t thrilled, but made a decision once again to embrace the situation and trust that good things would come.
The second gift of the day was when I found myself twiddling my thumbs waiting to board my first flight. I knew I had to make a choice about how to handle the two hour delay. I could feel frustrated and blame the airlines, or I could make the best use of the time and get some work done. With all of the traveling I’ve been doing, I was a little behind. I opted for the second choice and before I knew it, I had caught up on the things that were most important and was on the plane to Atlanta reading a romance novel. The time flew by!
I was so happy when I boarded my flight from Atlanta to NYC and discovered that not only did I have a window seat instead of a middle one, but I was also sitting on the very first row next to the main entrance. This meant no one was in front of me and I could stretch my legs out. Woo hoo! Plus, I was seated next to two very dynamic women. We had the best conversation and were all in shock when the pilot came over the intercom and said that we would be landing in 20 minutes. I had held the knowingness that abundance would show up and it did. What a gift!
The next gift came when I landed at LaGuardia airport in NYC. If you’ve ever been there, you know it’s chaotic. The taxi lines seem to be a mile long. As I stood there with my luggage in tow, once again I thought about what I wanted to create. I knew I didn’t want to stand in line for a long time. Immediately, a man walked up to me and asked, “Miss, would you like a car?” The next decision was whether I wanted to spend the extra 15 dollars for a car or to stand in line for a cab. I know that when I make a decision that surrounds myself with love, letting go of worries about money, abundance shows up. So I opted for the car and skipped the taxi line. And you know what, ABUNDANCE showed up in a big way when I got to the hotel.
I had booked a room at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. It’s a BIG hotel and was hustling and bustling with crowds. At first, I thought, “Oh, dear. What was I thinking when I booked this hotel? It’s so busy.” But because I had made my day about setting an intention of allowing and embracing the situations, I quickly shifted my mindset and began to send love to the workers at the registration desk. As I was called up, the young woman at the desk chatted with me and asked me what I wanted in a room. I told her I was easy and simply wanted a king bed as I had originally requested. She said, “You’re being so easy. I bet you’d like a little more space and maybe a view.” I responded with, “That would be awesome!” never really knowing what she meant.
I took my key and made my way up to the 43rd floor. As I opened my room’s door, I stepped into a marble foyer and a spacious living room. My mouth dropped. Not only was there a living room and a little dining area, but there was also a window that went across the expanse of the room looking across the city to the river! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! And I wasn’t even in the bedroom! That was a whole new room in itself. The registration agent had put me in a junior suite! Woo hoo!
As I looked over the day, I knew my decision that morning to embrace my flight delay had set the tone for the whole day. If I had chosen to be in blame and frustration and stayed in that resistance all day, none of the gifts would have shown up. But instead, I chose to embrace what came my way. And because I was creating abundance from the inside, it showed up in all areas of my life that day.
My travel day to NY is much like our lives. Each day is filled with choices. We can travel with resistance, filled with negativity, creating more of that for ourselves. Or we can embrace what seem to be difficult situations and look for the gifts to be revealed. What do you choose?
________________________________
P.S. I learned last week while in NY that my book won the Best Spiritual Book Award at the NY Book Festival. Woo hoo! And it won the same at the San Francisco Book Festival in May. If you’re ready to make a choice of loving yourself, opening up to manifesting the kind of abundance that I describe above, The Enlightened Mom book and meditations will show you the way! Check them out here!
