“Why they always look so serious in Yoga? You make serious face like this, you scare away good energy. To meditate, only you must smile. Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy. Even smile in your liver. Practice tonight at hotel. Not to hurry, not to try too hard. Too serious, you make you sick. You can calling the good energy with a smile.” – Ketut Liyer, the Balinese healer, via Elizabeth Gilbert
At lunch yesterday, I was talking to a new friend about how we can make a difference in the world. Both of us have, in our own way, changed our lives completely. We’ve gotten rid of the stuff, bought the tickets, and begun creating a life of magic here in Costa Rica.
But no matter where you live, you can’t escape how desperate the world is becoming for real change; for awake and compassionate and loving people. And if you are one of those people who feels things deeply, you can’t help but feel some guilt that you are not somehow doing more.
But how do you influence change or help save the world from a tiny place in the middle of anywhere?
Ketut Liyer passed away just over a week ago. I’d never met him. I’d never been to see him or even set foot in his home country of Bali, but when I heard that he had died, I put my hand on my heart and said a gentle prayer of gratitude and love for the things that I had learned from him.
If you’ve not heard of him before, Ketut Liyer was a medicine man. What made him special? He met people. He healed people. He talked to people. He did his thing, his way, in his place. Nothing more, nothing less.
But one of the people who met him happened to be a writer, and she happened to listen to and be changed by him, and she happened to write an incredible book in which (among lots of other things) she shared her experiences with Ketut with her – ready for it? – more than 10 million readers.
In her tribute to him, Elizabeth Gilbert said: “He was a healer, a mystic, a time-traveler, a world-bender, a mind-shaper, a compassion-expert, a flirt, a comedian, a bozo, a hustler, a magician, a trickster, and a fully ascended spiritual master.”
A man, living in the jungle, managed to touch millions of lives. Because he was totally committed to doing his thing.
If there a better example for you just never know, I haven’t heard it. By doing your thing, totally, authentically, and whole-heartedly, I believe you send out a particular kind of signal to the universe. Then allies and friends and teammates and angels are attracted to the total you-ness. And then magic happens.
Do your thing. Be totally you. Love. Laugh. Heal. Believe. If enough of us just do that, the world will change. I know it.
And thank you Ketut and Liz for being such an inspiration.
xo
Oh my, I knew at the first mention of the name Ketut who you meant. I, too, often wonder how I can help make a difference in the world. I am just one person. But, I also know that this little light of mine, was given to me for a reason, and it is my duty to radiate this little light of mine so that others who may be in darkness may see it know they are not alone! And I absolutely agree with you that your true authentic self attracts those who are tapped into your particular vibration or frequency, and DIVINE MAGIC happens! Yes, Friend…WE ARE ONE in this Universe!
And always, always give thanks! Yes, Gratitude is a daily practice of mine! Aloha!