What’s Costco Got to Do with Our Everyday Energy?
The fluorescent lights hum overhead as you push your oversized cart down the wide aisles of Costco. You weave through the throngs of weekend shoppers, grabbing deals on bulk items. But it’s not just merchandise and savings you’re taking with you when you leave. The energy we impart, good or bad, lingers in the places we occupy, if only for a moment.
My Afternoon at the Spa
Let me bring you back to a moment of my daily routine. One afternoon, I sank gratefully into the plush massage table as soothing music filled the dim room. The sweet scent of essential oils mingled with steam from hot stones warming nearby. My massage therapist, Judy, rested a gentle hand on my shoulder before beginning the treatment we’d discussed – focused on releasing stored tension.
Becoming One
As Judy’s practiced hands coaxed tight muscles into relaxing, my mind drifted to a quote I’d read recently by author Anita Desai: “Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” Lying in the semi-darkness, I considered how even places seen in passing hold and transmit a certain energy.
Serene Retreat
My local day spa, for example, offered a serene retreat from the hustle and bustle of daily life. Soft music and Judy’s calm voice unwound the week’s worries knotted in my shoulders.
Positive Energy Abound
Candles flickered, echoing the steady movement of Judy’s hands over my neck as she cradled it to give me positive energy and release tension. Time slowed. The very air seemed infused with tranquility – a welcome energy I drew into my cells.
Footprints Left Behind
Even short visits here attuned me to inner peace in a unique way that became part of me. I absorbed stillness and left behind my own imprint. As a guest at a day spa, I left my own footprint.
How Will They Remember You?
From my arrival and check-in, I reviewed whether I positively impacted those I met who were there to make me feel special, but did I make their day special? For this brief spa interlude, my energy mingled with the energy already present in the spa itself.
Questions to Ponder
Did I smile at the receptionist who checked me in and took me to the changing area? Did I thank the locker room attendant as she wiped down the sink, keeping everything perfect, so I felt like I was the first one to use it today? Was I thankful to the laundry person who cleaned, fluffed, and folded my plush robe?
Leave Your Problems at the Door
I was so appreciative of Judy, for she stayed focused on aligning my body and mind and helping me achieve a feeling of inner peace. Judy left all of her own problems and personal issues on the doorstep outside the spa to focus on me and her other clients. You would never know that Judy was going through a hard time herself.
Greek Wisdom
This reminds me of the words of wisdom shared with me by the Greek owner of the first restaurant I worked at when I was 15. George told me that when I come to work, I am to leave all my personal problems at the door before entering. You can pick them up on the way out if you want. Thinking back on that, I realize how true it is and his great wisdom.
Centered and Renewed
Far too soon, Judy whispered the session had ended. I blinked my eyes open, feeling tranquil and more centered, renewed by this place that had seeped into my senses. Fortified by stillness, I floated blissfully to my car, renewed for whatever lay ahead.
Share a Little Love
I made sure as I left, to thank and take care of each of the people I encountered. During this short two-hour time frame, I was able to recharge, renew myself, and leave a positive footprint to hopefully positively impact the lives of those I met.
Observing Costco
My contentment lasted through the weekend. But tomorrow is Monday I felt the familiar tug of a busy week ahead, I needed to stock up on quick meals and healthy snack items. Fortunately, the Costco near my neighborhood was on the way home.
Crowded Places Smiling Faces
As usual, on a Sunday, Costco was packed. I wandered the aisles looking for organic produce and freshly baked bread. As I headed into the cold walk-in refrigerator, I stopped to let an elderly woman pass. She smiled and waved for me to go ahead. I smiled, and it reminded me to leave a positive footprint.
If You Just Smile
I made a point to smile at each person I made eye contact with and observe those around me. I smiled at a toddler giggling in the shopping cart ahead of me; she was so cute with her little pigtails.
Fighting Spaces
In the back aisle, I saw a young couple arguing over which cereal to buy until the woman snatched one box with a theatrical sigh. Having picked up the few things I needed, I went ahead to the very busy checkout area.
Light Up Your Face with Gladness
I thanked the employee, who pointed out where the next available self-checkout was. I realized then how much I took for granted about my neighborhood Costco. But it clearly meant something different for each person here.
We Become The Place, and The Place Becomes Us
As Anita Desai said, this place seeped into each of us, becoming part of who we were. We also left faint imprints – from lingering conversations that passed between neighbors to minor mishaps like forgetting to pick something up.
To Each His Own
For that toddler, it overflowed with new sights and sounds to explore. For the bickering couple, it sparked minor drama around mundane choices. And for the shuffling elder woman, it offered connection and purpose.
Share a Little Happiness
Those glimpses of others’ lives in passing aisles offered insight I’d carry with me.
- For the child, sheer joy.
- For the couple, a family feud.
- For the elderly, connecting with others.
Their experiences mingled with my own. Each of our stories became part of the place itself. Make your Costco a positive family-friendly, joyful, connecting experience. It’s not just Costco; It is all the places we visit.
The Energy of Changing Places
As I look back over the years, more insights emerged through everyday observations in my community. During a class I took with him, Deepak Chopra once said that every cell in our body has the complete memory of our life and the lives of our ancestors before us.
Dead Skin Cells Tell Tales
Deepak went on to say that as we shed skin cells, we leave our DNA and our life memories everywhere. This made me think. How do the homes we live in carry our energy? Or does the energy of the house and the memories of the land it is built on influence us?
Homes House Memories
I noticed, for example, houses on my block that had changed owners as aging residents downsized or young families moved on. Each home seemed to hold the imprints of those who’d lived there, even across fresh paint and renovations.
Home’s History Repeats Itself
I pictured the house on the corner, I jokingly called this the “Big Toy House”. Every one of the three owners I saw living there had “Big Toys” RV’s, boats, four-wheelers, and large trucks to haul them.
The Tale of Three Homes
The house across the street from that was the “I’m a single lady” house. The first owner’s husband passed away within weeks of buying the house. The second owner was a single woman; she sold the house a few years later because she was getting married. The last couple was married and had a five-year-old daughter. Within months, the husband moved out, and they were getting a divorce.
What Influences You?
Even my house seemed to have a common theme with the people who owned it before me. All of a sudden, I realized that Deepak Chopra and Anita Desai were right. Somehow, energetically, we influence the things around us, and energetically, the things around us influence us.
Energy Is a Two Way Street
As Desai wrote, the places we inhabit daily become part of us through sights, sounds, and scents. But we also leave traces of our own unique energy in those spaces. Both flow between us with an invisible exchange.
Crowded Costco Community Cheerfulness
I smiled at the awareness that even a day spa, Costco, or neighborhood home held energies absorbed by every person who passed through. We impact each place we visit and each person we meet, even at a distance, just as each place and each person affects us.
Questions To Ask Yourself
This discovery made me curiously more attentive to the routine spaces I visit daily. And leads me to ask, what impact do I want to leave? What impact and memories do I want to leave in the homes I live in? How do I want to affect those around me?
What hidden glimpses into others’ worlds might open through simple awareness? I looked forward to finding out.
My Wish for You.
I hope that you will choose to leave a positive impact wherever you go. Follow the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated, even if they behave badly. Leave a smile, love, and kindness wherever you go, even when others are rude and cut you off.
Choose the High Road
You have a choice. You can be like those who came before you, good or bad, or you can choose to be only the good and the positive. Choose positive, good, and kind, Choose a smile and thankfulness. Release the negative. I know it is hard sometimes, but what do you say?