5 Things We Can Learn from the Olympics to Have a Fuller Life

The Olympics are over. The last giant, inflatable beaver has left the building. Plushenko and his "platinum" medal are back in Russia. And Canada goes back to work, moose antler hat put away for another time. This Olympics, for me and many others, will go down as the BEST Olympics, and for many will remain just that - a fond memory. Yet there are lessons to be learned from these games and these athletes that we can all apply to our own lives to make them brighter and juicier and more fully lived.

1.  You have to risk big to win big!  This was the first lesson that really struck me from the Olympics. Watching Charles Hamelin win gold and seeing the supreme elation on his face (and, even more adorable, the face of his girlfriend, fellow speed-skater Marianne St-Gelais - watch this video to see what I mean), I realized that I will most likely never feel that kind of relief, joy and intense emotion. However, I will also not likely feel the intense disappointment that we saw on Melissa Hollingsworth's face as she tearily apologized to Canada for "letting us down". The lesson? If you want to experience the joys, the highs and the passion of life, you need to be willing to risk the falls and the disappointments. There's no way around it.
2. You can't please everybody so STOP TRYING! Say what you will about the closing ceremonies - they definitely went for it! They had an idea and an inspiration and they ran with it. Some hated it, some loved it, but it was hard to feel nothing about it. I have always said - "I would rather have 10 people hate me and 10 people love me than 20 people forget me". Don't dumb yourself or your life down to try to please the masses. You will fail at pleasing everyone, and at the same time you will dilute what makes you special so that no one really gets a chance to feel PASSIONATELY about you!
3. The Good and the Bad will always be there, but you can choose what you focus on.  The opening ceremonies were bar-none the most amazing I have yet to see. Yet a major point of focus was the failure of the mechanical arm to the cauldron to raise. KD Lang nearly broke my heart with her soulful rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. The northern lights, polar bear, dancing through fields of wheat to Joni Mitchell, and the fiddlers were all amazing. But if you were the person ranting about the mechanical failure instead of the beauty all around you, I ask you this - where else in your life are you seeing the dirt and not the diamonds?
4. Have a sense of humor about yourself!  Speaking of the mechanical problem - in the closing ceremonies they made a joke about the 4th arm of the cauldron. You are going to make mistakes. How can I be so sure? You're human. Just embrace it and have a sense of humor about it. And the thing is, the more joy and passion you want to feel for life, the more chances you will have to take. The more you put yourself out there, the more you are going to make a fool of yourself. So you may as well be laughing along with the rest of us!
5. All things End. The loss of Nodar Kumaritashvili at the Olympics was heartbreaking. Joannie Rochette's mothers passing was also very saddening. This too is life. Everything ends. This is not meant to be bleak or dark, but instead a cycle we must enter into with less fear. Neither your joy nor your sorrow is permanent. Ernest Hemingway said, "The world breaks all of us; some of us are stronger in the broken places." It is not the losses or wins that will define you. It is how you come out of them.

Wishing you a magical life, from opening ceremony to your closing!

Kristi Shmyr

Prana Holistic Healing Center

Haiti needs our Help

Ok, here's the deal - the Canadian government has agreed to match Canadians donations up to $50 million towards to efforts to help in Haiti. I really want to take them up on that offer and raise money for a country that has been struck by everything from extraordinary poverty (they are the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere), war, and now this devastating earthquake.

I live in Alberta, and since I was a small child I have felt an immense gratitude for that. We are prosperous, natural disasters are rare and limited in their destruction, we have plenty of natural resources and beauty, and, this may sound silly, but we have no rats and that makes me ridiculously happy (yes, for all you international blog readers - we have "rat patrol" in Alberta and we are rat-free. In fact, I did not see my first rat until I was 30, in India). Living in all of this natural and man-made luxury, I cannot begin to imagine (or begin to reconcile) the devastation that Haitians are experiencing right now.

All of that being said, we want to do something. We contacted the Red Cross and are set up to accept donations on their behalf. If you are in Edmonton and want to donate, here is our offer -

Between January 21, 2010 and February 6, 2010, Prana Holistic will be fund raising for the Red Cross:

• For every session booked here (except 30 minute sessions), we will donate $20 of that money to the Red Cross effort in Haiti. (for information on our services, see our website at www.pranaholistic.ca)
  
• For every infrared sauna session booked, we will donate $10
  
• If you would like to contribute more, we will also be more than happy to accept personal donations. All donations over $10 are eligible for a receipt from the Red Cross (to be mailed later).
  

And, perhaps just as important as the financial aid, we will be holding a "Group Meditate-y for Haiti" event (silly name, yes, but tragedy does not preclude cuteness!) on February 6 at 4:30 pm. Here we will meditate on and send love to our fellow friends in Haiti. This may sound like a silly, idealistic and trite effort, but there are numerous studies, published in respected journals, that support the idea that joining together to meditate can have amazing effects on the lives of others - even lower the crime rate in cities by 22%!

So however you want to be involved, please get involved. We really can band together and create a better life in Haiti and make this devastation a blessing instead of a tragedy.

Much love, health, happiness and success to everyone!

Kristi Shmyr