Just Say Hello
I was at a grocery store, the other day, when one of the employees walked past me and appologized. He wasn't too near me, but I picked up on his energy getting close. I looked at him, and he said, "I'm sorry." I would have appreciated it more if had he said, "Hello."
Instead, I've been thinking all week about this poor man who felt the need to apologize for existing in the same place as me. I use to apologize constantly when I had not done anything wrong. Over time, I've been learning from people who seem to be a lot more emotionally healthy than I. Those people said to stop apologizing for no reason.
Therefore, I've been exchanging the words I'm sorry with hello. I deserve to be passing people in public without feeling guilty about it, and I shouldn't feel bad about making eye contact with people. I believe that we are all connected, and hello reaffirms that, for me.
I can't put my finger on an exact time when I started the transition from sorry to hello. But, around that time, I also began my yoga practice of developing a full yogic breath (5 part breathing), and I began to confidently claim the space around me. I began to feel even more positively connected with people around me.
This awareness made me want to make eye contact with people in the stores, and I wanted to smile at them. I wanted them to know that they belonged here, too, and they could just say hello.