Where were you in 2012? Did 2012 offer a profound turning or growth point for you?
Hey heart family, I’m curious – where were you and what unfolded for you in 2012? Was it a year that offered you a profound growth or learning opportunity?
Over the years I’ve had a ridiculous amount of people share with me stories of a big change that happened in their life in 2012 – divorce, career change, heartbreak, soul connection, life crisis, meeting their beloved etc. And it’s always caught my attention.
Because 2012 was a year that changed my life in ways I never could have imagined.
Do you remember when there was this big excitement around how the world might end on 21 December 2012? It was connected to what would be the ending of the Mayan calendar and a great uncertainty about what would come next. But of course the chatter was far more doomsdayie than that, with some predicting the material world was going to end in cataclysmic events.
Low and behold the world didn’t actually ‘end’. And despite all the disruption and suffering we’re living through at the moment, as a species we are still here.
But while the world didn’t physically end, for the ancient Maya this date wasn’t a doomsday prediction, it was the completion of one cycle and the beginning of another. A 5,126 year cycle…and that’s kinda big right? The Mayan’s apparently saw the 21 December 2012 as a time of great transformation and renewal.
And I don’t know about you – but for me that is more true than I’m able to put into words.
Back then I had zero clue what the chatter of the world ending was all about, I just felt the intensity of change coming. I was recently divorced and living overseas. I was still drinking and partying and enjoying my new found relational freedom although the thrill of this kind of living was starting to rub off. I was in between creative projects, living in Barcelona and deciding what to/where to next. A lover suggested I might enjoy the book Las nueve revelaciones (The Nine Insights). In Australia that book is called the Celestine Prophecy and if you haven’t read it I highly recommend it, it’s fictional but offers so much insight into human behaviour and consciousness.
I devoured it – and those 9 insights set me off on a heart adventure that would unexpectedly lead me to Guatemala, where I met my own Heart for the first time and remembered what life felt like when I wasn’t drowning in busyness and depression. It was in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala that I was first introduced to the Spiritual Heart, Hridaya Yoga, Tantra, Cacao Ceremonies, Dark Retreats and the shift toward a more expansive way of thinking, living, relating and loving. All of this was new to me – I was so green and curious and wildly ignorant to the new age and ancient esoteric wisdoms.
I thought I was going to Guatemala to spend a month on a personal yoga course, before starting my own yoga hostel in Brazil. But while I did spend an incredible month immersed in Yoga & Meditation – it was so much more than I imagined it would be. As corny as it might sound, it really was the end of the world for me. The end of a world that had become so consumed by fear and craving for material accumulation and the avoidance of emotions. And the emergence of life brimming with the beauty and potency of heart connections, inner world enquiry, awakening, simplicity, trust and Love.
And the timing of all that? Without really understanding quite how I’d come to be in Central America rather than Brazil, I found myself arriving in Guatemala just in time to make some new friends who invited me to sit with them before sunrise in the very early hours of 21 December 2012. On the shores of the beautiful Lake Atitlan we sat together to honour this monumental opportunity for transformation.
We meditated (which for me back then meant I sat uncomfortably and watched the wild flip flop of my mind all over the place) and sat in silence together. I don’t remember much about that sitting except at some point I went to light another stick of incense and a giant gust of wind came through and I heard life whisper not so quietly to me, sit down child, put your pretty things aside for a moment and listen. Stop distracting yourself with things that don’t matter.
Start listening with your whole heart to what is here right now.
I’d love to say from that moment on I’ve lived a peaceful existence of bliss, wisdom and enlightenment (welcome to my fantasy) but it wasn’t like that. Almost 13 years on, oh boy the stories I could tell you on when I have been so incapable of listening to life that she had no choice but to speak a little louder/kick my butt a little more strongly, until I began listening again. But one thing I can tell you, 2012 was indeed an ending of old ways and since that time I’ve had a fire in my heart and a trust in the wisdom of my soul and life’s bigger ‘plan’ that has kept me going even through the darkest of nights.
While I might be a little less interested in the new agey spiritual community (and all it’s bells and whistles) I have something so much more precious – an unwavering commitment to living life as best I can from Love over Fear. And a belly full of gratitude for all the opportunities life has offered me to keep growing and embracing my quirky, weirdly wonderful and deeply loving self.
And as I sit in the sweet sanctuary of my little cottage nestled amongst nature honouring the balance between light and dark (thanks Spring Equinox) I can see how this moment in 2012 was the very first stone to be laid in a new foundation of love for me. And I imagine so many others.
One that has allowed me to create a beautiful life with my partner and step daughter. A simple appreciation for the magic and the mundane and the opportunity to serve and guide others as they too walk this path of remembering the wisdom of their Soul. Love’s Wisdom.
Where were you in 2012? Would you be willing to take a moment to cast your mind back to the decisions you made or the moments you experienced back then that set you up to be exactly where you are today?
I’d love to hear from you, I bet you have some amazing stories too. Leave a reply below and share your story with me?! Or send me a message if you’d prefer it to be private 🙂
With Love & Gratitude
Lani