Daily Manifestation Challenge, Delight

Your Favorite Memory. The DMC.

February 19, 2012

Dear Manifesters, today’s DMC is a sweet one that came to me after I updated my Facebook last night and asked people “What is your favorite memory?”

My last retreat to Mexico is popping into my mind as the greatest one for me. It is tied with Good Morning America filming my birthday karaoke class and my nephew Blaise being in my arms as my friend Annabel gave a speech at my wedding. Also tied with New Year’s Day at my friends’ house in London as we sang and donned hats for a hat party and didn’t move from the kitchen all day.

My wedding at Yogaco ( cancelled class, Red cross sponsored and we gave all money to Haiti earthquake relief.)

Can you tell how happy I was? Holding onto my friend Cameron Mathison (GMA correspondent) as GMA filmed my karaoke class on my birthday!

Today’s DMC is really just meant to be a collage. A collage of your favorite memories. Below, write down what your favorite memories are. The top 3 even. I cannot wait to see them all. Together. Floating on the same page.

Having lost my dad at such a young age, I have been fairly obsessed with the idea of memory for a long time. In fact, here are a few lines from a poem I wrote 8 years ago:

We never know where we will find our history,

where we will discover what has formed us,

What we will find while farming tomatoes.

Exhuming beauty from the soil, excavating remains.

The unearthing of things long forgotten.

The source of the blue-green jade used by the Olmec remains a mystery,

As most things of beauty often will. 

You carve from clay-

The pounding of it, the pulverizing,

This creation and inevitable destruction of matter.

 

You are a sculptor.

This process as inevitable as any ritual-

Like watching women pound acorns with oblong rocks.

Holes the size of nickels created by the repetition,

The repeated impact of stone against stone.

I think of you sculpting red clay into things of mythic beauty-

Then letting it dry and crushing it into the earth, to be reshaped.

The repetition of this, the rebuilding.

This natural desire towards achievement.

What turns into memory? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I find it interesting which memories stick in our minds. Which memories morph so they no longer represent what actually happened but what we need to remember it as so. Which things do not even make it to memory status. Why should some memory be so lucky and others fall into a dark corner of the mind, into an abyss of thought and sound and things that happened to us when we were babies?

The way some memories stay strong is by sharing them. By retelling them. The fact is, you can never ever go back into the past, but you can tap into that magic again by sharing and letting yourself feel what it felt like the first time. Maybe the memory makes you feel even better, in fact?

I can’t wait to read your favorite memories below.

I am fascinated by how one moment we are living in it and the next it is living in our minds. Forever.

I think one of the great ways of keeping memories alive is by sharing them. Also, by pictures (hence my obsession also with photographs.)

(Click here to watch me on Good Morning America. Truly one of the my favorite moments of all time. My face hurt from laughing after this day. A lot.)

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/year-fitness-trends-15233963

Lastly, I will leave you with an excerpt from Brandi Mayo, an amazing girl who attended my beloved Mexico retreat. She wrote a letter to the attendees in an effort to not have our magic fade. To keep the memory alive, as they say.

You will see why, in fact, it is my favorite memory:

1) I am incredibly blessed. Specifically, I am incredibly blessed that I get to take Jen’s classes and am reminded that the magic of what conspired in Xinalani was real. Over the past two weeks I have found myself on this incredible emotional roller coaster of highs and lows replaying the week over and over again wondering if the “magic” was real – wondering how I integrate that “magic” into “real life” where most people walk around with a solid metal jacket of fear and judgment. Every time I take Jen’s class, I am taken back to that safe place, where I allowed myself to be silly – to not take myself so seriously – something for which I am very adept. Having that safe place in my own backyard, every time I take Jen’s class I leave with that same feeling of lightness I felt in Xinalani, and a huge smile on my face. As I walk back to my apartment or grab a starbuck I find myself smiling at everyone, and I have come to notice that smile is so incredibly powerful. I see it transform stranger’s faces as I look them in the eye and give them a huge smile for no apparent reason. I see that solid metal jacket of fear and judgment start to melt away. That is how the magic is integrated.

2) The magic was and is real! When I have told my friends and family, I have started the story by explaining that a group of 13 “nearly-complete strangers” came together and left fear and judgment at the door. I’m coming to believe this is the “magic” ingredient of what conspired at Xinalani. We all met each other at the Corner of Fearlessness and Love, and just as Jen explained in a recent blog post, the only way we could have “fallen in love” with each other, could only have happened by falling in love with ourselves first. I truly believe that happened because we each faced our own personal fears in the face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please feel free to go into detail and be poetic and grand and silly and personal. It’s what makes us human. This sharing of our stories. This showing the world the things that makes us come alive.

The things and people that make us smile.

GO! Share your favorite memory/memories below. 

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No Comments

  • Reply Sabrina at MyMiBoSo February 19, 2012 at 8:40 am

    I have such an interesting relationship with memory as I have set the intention to live in the now with brief visits to the past and future (time travel!).

    But in writing my gratitude list every night I find I indeed tap into those beautiful feelings again while I review my day.

    Taking a moment to travel back, here are a few of my top ones (though I’ve been blessed to have so many beautiful memories shape me that it’s hard to pick a few!):

    1. Joking around with my grandpa at his house a week before his soul left his body

    2. Discovering that my man and I have a talent for goofy songwriting as we turned on the voice memos and sang on the way back to LA from a road trip

    3. Rescuing my first dog from the Burbank Animal Shelter and having her put her head in my lap on the drive home

  • Reply Barbara Potter February 19, 2012 at 8:57 am

    Well there are many memories in my life. Some are sad and some are amazing. I will have to say my most favorite three are ones that you might hear from others. Actually there would have to be 4 and that does not discount some of the other fun and wonderful memories in my life. They would be the moment of birth of Jennifer and Rachel and Blaise and Maddy when their little bodies emerged and their little lives were placed into my hands. Their little hearts beating, their faces , their being in my hands. Those moments for me will always hold first place amongst all the other beautiful memories in my heart.

  • Reply melkrell February 19, 2012 at 10:19 am

    Sixth grade sleepovers in my basement with Jaime Lissansky, Brandie Leach, Julie Gayer, Lisa Freedman and Amy Blackman–and often random guest stars! Before everything got complicated! We had such an amazing childhood, and when I think of Cherry Hill now I smile big and feel God blessed me from the start!! 🙂
    (I met the Manifesting Master Jen Pastiloff on one of those fun weekends in Ryan Weiss’ basment-how lucky to have known her for over two decades too!)

  • Reply Rachel Pastiloff February 19, 2012 at 10:36 am

    My memory is not what it used to be, but I still have tons that are kept near and dear.

    Here goes:

    Driving cross country with my mom, sister and her friend. Blasting Groove is in the Geart by Dee-lite. Approaching a car and we all danced for them through the car windows. Then hours later at our night time stop to run into those same people and we all chuckled. Love that memory.

    I remember my dad taking my sister and I to bed. Marching up the stairs to HUT 2..3..4
    Don’t know why but that sticks with me.

    Climbing to the top of a huge tree in the mountains, jumping off to catch a trapeze. That was a great feeling.

    Here is one that is recent and special. Lying in svasana in the Jungle room in Mexico. My sister came over and pushed down on my shoulders. Bam….magic. The flood gates open and emotion I didn’t even know was there came out. I could not stop crying. Then after class she held me as I cried some more. Only after I showered for dinner did it hit me. I felt free, I had finally released all the pain. My journey began right there.

    Here is something that is rather a big deal to me. I am finally able to relive and enjoy all the memories of Blaise from the most painful time in my life, the year before he was diagnosed. I can finally look back at the pictures and videos and smile rather than crying. I have transcended those memories as painful back to joyful.

  • Reply Tina Willoughby February 19, 2012 at 2:29 pm

    My favorite memory was when I was a child around age 8. I would spend my warm Atlanta summers running through the grass catching lightning bugs after dark. Me and my little brother and sister would also watch for shooting stars to make a wish. 🙂

  • Reply Kario February 19, 2012 at 6:14 pm

    I love that memories come to us sometimes unbidden. There are times when something happens and I am instantly reminded of something I hadn’t thought of in years or decades.

    My most dearly held memories revolve around relationship, for sure. I don’t think I can name three favorites, since they change constantly, but there have been tender moments where my husband has said something astounding that rocked my world, or times spent with my lovely daughters that were unexpected. I have a somewhat generic memory of spending time on the beach in Oregon, combing the coarse sand for tiny rocks with a dear friend close by doing the same thing.

    Thanks for prompting these wonderful thoughts.

  • Reply James Vincent Knowles February 19, 2012 at 10:53 pm

    Memories

    Specific memories. The most important ones. The memories i am pretty certain i shall never forget, the ones which I can recall the most vividly, the ones which I believe, help define my character, the ones which help guide me in the present. My most cherished experiences. All of them involved at least one other person. All of them were experienced in moments of self aware awareness of self and awareness of another or others. All these memorable experiences, though each was absolutely unique, were infused with positive emotions, all unforgettable. These were, for me, as i consider them now, all unique and spiritualy enlightening experiences. Most, but not all, might be considered boring to anyone who was not there. Haha… maybe even to another or others who were indeed there. Whereas for me, these experiences contained purpose & connection. They contained & still do remain & contain a true sense of belonging. A sense of oneness and freedom of spirit, freedom of self, without judgement. Neither judgmentalism of or by self nor towards or from others. And looking back over 59+ years I can honestly say not one of these amazing memories has faded. Not one was dependent on money or fame or things for its specialness. And all involved one fundamental ingredient … love.

    You know exactly what I’m on about. Experience. Connection. The moments joy, pleasure, magic, happiness, comfortable-ness, flow, excitement, newness, surprise, laughter, friends, positive-ness, playfulness, and on and on. Its

    • Reply James Vincent Knowles February 19, 2012 at 10:54 pm

      … the stuff of life, that which makes it all worthwhile. Unforgettable.

  • Reply Cary February 22, 2012 at 5:35 am

    Jennifer, love your post about memories. 3 most memorable ones that come into my mind at this moment are: birth of our son, celebrating our 25 year anniversary last year and a trip to Washington D.C. to see Lincoln Memorial last Oct.! 🙂 There are so many which will be impossible to list, but we must hold onto our memories because those precious ones are the ones makes us smile/tickle! 🙂

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