After being laid off from my teaching position here in Korea, I’ve been thinking a lot about my next steps. I’m definitely nervous, but I also feel excited. I haven’t had a real vacation in about 2 years, and I haven’t seen my family and friends in the US in about that long, either. I plan to be in the US for about a month. Beyond that, I’m not sure right now.

I am a planner. I always have at least 3 plans going in my mind. I have one plan that I’m working, a backup plan, and a backup for the backup. I know that plans rarely last longer than the first two steps. And yet, I still do this.

I recognize all that planning is a way to allay my anxiety. Problem is, all that planning also leads to more anxiety when things don’t work out as planned. Intellectually, I know things never work out the way I planned, and that it always ends up okay. But the planning, okay let’s call it what it is, the worrying, happens anyway.

I am going to try something a little different. I am going to do something very new-agey and manifestation-ish. I’m going to send out into the universe what I truly want, and wait and see what unfolds.

This time, I’m choosing ease.

I don’t know how well I’m going to do with this. The thought is making me extremely nervous.

But I also realize that I may be missing out on many other amazing opportunities because of all of my plans. Because I don’t allow myself to just see what the universe presents to me, and to just see if the choices I’m offered are better than what I would have planned.

I am going to set some parameters, of course, and I am going to still have a safety net, I’m not going that far. 

But I’m also going to be brave and be curious and have faith. 

I’m going to relax my grip on my future. It’s going to get here anyway.

I want to see what happens next – in ease.

I hope these affirmations remind all of us that it’s OK to just be at ease.