All of my life I’ve wanted to be happy. And if you have a beating heart, somewhere deep down inside of you, you want the same thing. We all do. If we dig deep enough, we find that everything we do in life springs from a longing to be happy.
When I was a child I had immense amount of passion, creativity, and a natural sense of awe and curiosity about the world. But somewhere around late high school and college, I began to fall into certain habits that slowly degraded this natural, childlike vivacity. Like many of you, college was a time when I started staying out late, drinking booze, and eating too much junk food (hello, freshman fifteen). I went to college in Spain and spent much of those four wondrous years in sangria-filled bars, smoking cigarettes, eating jamon, making out with boys named Alvaro, and staying out till sunrise. And while I look back with nostalgia upon those vino-stained years, I do see that they were unhealthy—and I was really, really unhappy.
As I write these words, I am reminded of how much that childlike joy has returned to me through the practices of Ayurveda and yoga. The more I practice this healing art, the more a natural state of happiness shines through my body and mind. The more I give myself to the routines I share with you, the less I really strive for the external promises of a world that has forgotten Spirit. The more I give of myself through sharing these ancient rituals of a woman’s well-being, the more Nature gives back to me. Her currency? Energy, vitality, and a type of joy that radiates from within.
Katie Silcox 