change – Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker

I have not been practicing yoga much these past few weeks, since my yoga teacher (you know who you are!) moved to NC . I drove the road to North Berwick to get to yoga, about a half hour away, over and over and over, and was happy to do it.

I wasn’t familiar with that area at all when I first started going, but I got to know it well enough. It was a nice ride. I got to meet some wonderful women that I might not have met otherwise. I went to shops that I liked on the way home sometimes. It also gave me the opportunity to listen to my audiobook of the moment, which was a nice bonus. (Oh, did I mention I passed a Dunkin Donuts on my way…? I always invite coffee to my yoga practice :).)

Change is hard.

Anyway, I decided to try a new yoga class, and (since I was out of my comfort zone already) a new yoga (to me) entirely: Holy Yoga. My class is in Sanford, and is taught by Susan Hampton (find her website here: soulfulstretch.com).

I was the first to arrive (hello? I am a first-born) and as I was waiting, I started reading the notices on the bulletin board.

It’s important to note here that I am always looking for clues to know that I am in the right place and doing the right thing.

This is what I saw on the board:

Llamas. I LOVE llamas. My husband and I have a collection of about a million (conservative estimate) of them, all different sizes, shapes, colors with one noteable exception: living. None of them are living.
Another posting said something about Brave Girls and my one word this year is BRAVE!
There was a posting about a Drumming Circle and not too long ago someone suggested that I try drumming.

Do you think those are enough clues?? Plus, Susan is a fabulous teacher: welcoming, funny, and caring. All of the other women were lovely. It was a pleasure to be in this class.

Repeat after me…change is good. Change is also hard. For every good reason you can think of to make a change, you will probably think of almost as many reasons not to.

Here’s where a pros and cons list can come to the rescue. You can certainly do it the good old-fashioned way: take a piece of paper and pen to make your list: draw a line down the center, write “pros” on the left and “cons” on the right and have at it.

If you want to kick things up a notch, however, you can use this pros and cons list tool online. Enter your data on each side of your argument, then assign a numerical value to it using the tool as your guide. What’s great about this calculator is that you may think that think you are leaning in one direction, but after you complete the exercise with the calculator, you discover that you actually are leaning in the other direction! Hey, it could help!

Another cool thing about this is that you can print out your results when you’ve finished. I actually used this to make a decision that I though I had already made, but after I completed the pros and cons list tool I was surprised by the outcome. It compelled me to revisit (and ultimately, change) my decision.

See? It’s just like they always say: “You never know”; also, “It ain’t over till it’s over”.