Emma is an internationally renowned yoga and meditation teacher adored for her empowering and uplifting manner of educating, writing, and speaking. She aims to help individuals reach their full potential by sharing powerful tools and techniques. Emma also runs multiple businesses, writes regularly for media, speaks at events, and facilitates corporate workshops sharing all things yoga, meditation, and wellness.
DEAR TEEN EM,
It’s fitting that I write this letter to you now as we are days away from our 30th birthday. Our Saturn return (you probably don’t care too much about that stuff right now), and in the early phases of being a new mum. Wow, how things have changed for us from where you are sitting now.
I won’t go into the moment-by-moment details because they are special and looking back, I wouldn’t change any of them. Life is for living and boy, have we spent the last 15 years doing exactly that!
You are probably busy updating our MySpace account with the latest indie band you’re into, spending way too much time chatting on MSN messenger, talking to boys on the phone until all hours of the morning and taking photos with your bestie and your matching emo fringes… Ah, the emo phase. It was one of our best (read: worst) looks: the haircut, the clothes… Looking back you might cringe but at the time we were super cool and rocked that weird fringe.
I hate to break it to you but your dreams of being a performer don’t come true (#spoileralert). You’ll go through a moment of realisation soon that it’s not the life you want. You end up working in a way that from where you are sitting doesn’t even exist yet and trust me, it’s very fulfilling. The countries you’ve seen, the places you’ve been and the lives you’ve impacted along the way have been worth every second of hard work.
Your tenacity will get you far, and your work ethic, people skills and headstrong nature will render you a force to be reckoned with! It’s the softness that you’ll need to learn, but there’s time for that. Once you learn to let go of worrying what other people think and living in accordance with your authentic self you’ll fly!
At 15 you’re about to do something that will change the course of our life. You’re about to step onto a yoga mat. While you’ll spend most of the class giggling at the teacher and thinking it’s silly, weird, and wondering why anyone would do this for a job, that one class will set you on a path that you can’t even see yet. It’s funny how things go full circle. (You’ll even get a circle tattoo to remind you of that later!)
That’s the thing about life. We can only see what’s in front of us. The past is a mere memory, and the future doesn’t exist yet so you can plan all you like, but all you have is right now. I know you’re sitting there wishing it away. Dreaming of the things we’ll do, but trust me, they will come. What’s important is the present moment. Be as present as you can to the unfoldment of your life.
Now, let’s talk about friendships… When we love, we love hard and while all those people around you right now feel like the most important people in the world, from where I sit, we can hardly remember their names. I can count on my hands now the people we hold dear. You’ll continue to be a social butterfly, but you’ll learn the difference between true friendship and acquaintances. You’ll learn that friendships and romantic relationships come and go and the only real constant within it all is you. The relationship you form with yourself is the most important and will set the foundation for all your relationships. If I could offer you some advice (not that you’re likely to listen) it would be to nurture the relationship with yourself and prioritise it.
It seems we never learn the art of getting straight to the point quickly. 🙂 I could write 100 more pages for you, but I’ll stop. Those pages are yours to write. Stay connected to your heart, trust your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right, then it’s not. You got this.
LOVE, ME XO
P.S. Being a mum is awesome and while right now you don’t think you want children, turns out you do, and it’s the best.
