Quantum Leap

Somehow on my trip to the yoga retreat in the Bahamas last month, I lost my wallet. It was a shock when I reached for it in the taxi on the way to the boat dock in Nassau. It threw me into a discombobulated state reminiscent of my childhood where I often couldn’t find my ballet shoes in time to get into the car of my horn-honking mother.

Halfway down the tropical path to the registration desk, ignoring the beauty of the palm fronds and ocean lapping sounds around me, I plopped myself down to try to think what must have happened. And I found myself waylaying a young girl to ask for help submitting online claims to the potential lost and founds. Eventually her beautiful mother came down the path and got into the mix.

In 10 subsequent conversations around the retreat I recounted the puzzle of the vanishing wallet to the point where people opened with, “Aren’t you the woman who lost all her money?”

While my mind kept going to the implications of being in a foreign country without cash or credit cards, and of having my license out there at large, something happened that changed my thinking.

It began when the mother of the girl who helped me on the path handed me $50 dollars and said, “I don’t need this.” Then the friend standing with her said, “I see that wallet coming back to you.” The elevated feeling from that encounter allowed me to stop rehearsing the potential disasters and to see the little black wristlet wallet coming toward me. I pictured it all day long—on the yoga mat; lying in my tent on my cot; laughing with people at lunch. I stopped feeling the dread and kept seeing this simple picture.

Obviously I hadn’t been able to pay the driver the $45 taxi fare to take me to the retreat, and he was kind enough to say, “No worries, Miss.” But still I wanted to pay him back, and I needed another $45 to return to the airport.

Without any proof it would happen, I called the driver and said, “I will have the money for the round trip for you.” Then I borrowed some dumb scissors from the front desk and set about doing haircuts all over the retreat. And, by the time it was time to go, I had the driver’s money and more haircuts than I needed.

Back home I kept that image of the wristlet wallet in my mind even after 2 1/2 weeks had gone by. And finally, eureka! I got the thing back as well as my substantial wad of cash. But best of all, I made those three new friends I met on the path, and they invited me to Romania this fall and on to Istanbul. Istanbul, where I’ve talked about going for the past year. So how about that for positive thinking and Quantum physics times two?

Style tip: Keep your eye on the prize and train your mind not to keep going into familiar ditches. It takes time to develop new grooves, so practice positive thinking. What you focus on expands.