goosebumps

When I re-branded the blog, my yoga teacher/mentor of sorts/dear, dear friend Liz emailed me and said, "I LOVE the new title and especially the meaning behind it. I got goosebumps when I read it - that's how I know it is perfect."

Wow. Undoubtedly she meant it as a simple compliment, but her words stuck in my head for days, until I finally sat down to write this post. Mostly, aka 99 percent of the time, when I get goosebumps it just means I forgot a jacket or didn't check the weather before getting dressed in the morning (this happens more often than I'd like to admit). But that one percent...it can tell you a lot more than you think.

When you know, in your gut, that something is falling perfectly into place, do you ever get goosebumps? I do. You could dismiss it as fluffery, but I think our bodies can tell us an awful lot, if only we would stop and take the time to listen. 

When B said that moving to France was potentially a reality and asked how I felt about it, I got goosebumps. It started in my heart, an electrification, and spread to my arms and legs. It was a primal response to a very deep-seeded desire of mine. I had a whole lot of fears and questions and concerns, but the goosebumps told me "Oh, honey, you definitely want to move to France."

Too often, though, we ignore the goosebumps because of the accompanying anxiety. I'm incredibly guilty of that. The very thing that thrills us to our core is often the thing that scares the ever-loving crap out of us. It usually accompanies a big decision: to marry a person, to have a child, to take a new job, to quit an old job, to move to another country. And it's all too easy to err on the side of safety.

But safety doesn't usually lead to perfection. It might lead to comfort or even happiness, but rarely to the level of perfection that makes you stop and truly thank God (or your higher being of choice) for where you are at that particular moment. The goosebumps usually take you to places you'd never dream.

So the next time your skin prickles and you find yourself wishing you'd remembered your jacket, stop and think about what's at stake and what you truly want. Your heart and your head may be conflicted, but your body rarely lies.