Current mood: Victorious

Hey Friends,

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged but I wanted to catch you up on my experience. I recently went through a storm in my life but somehow came out better because of it. It’s funny because it has been the most beautiful weather I have ever seen here on the beach in Los Angeles, but when you’re sad inside . . . it might as well be thundering and hailing. What I have learned is that you never come out of these fires unscathed or unchanged, but it is for me to decide whether I let it bog me down and make me bitter or let that fire refine me. I choose to rise. And every day get’s easier and every day my light is shining brighter.

We were all put here for a purpose and I am one of the lucky people who know what mine is: to positively impact the world through music and art, love and life. Whether you have found your purpose or not, your life is meant to be lived in the awareness of the moment, the accepting of our thoughts that deem to control us. When we are conscious of what we are thinking, only then can we begin the quest of repairing our thought, thus repairing our lives.

In March I went to the Anthony Robbins seminar, which was off the hook by the way. They actually asked us to walk on 10 feet long of 1400-1800 degree coals…barefoot. I thought, ‘are these people crazy?’ It was some kind of ancient tradition that worked only when you got out of your head and decided that you would not get burned. Tribal music played in the background as the staff cheered people on. It came to be my turn and I freaked out, I thought ‘no way, I’m gonna get burned’…. but then I saw my 53 year old mom (who is my manager by the way), go in front of me and fearlessly walk. “Cool moss, cool moss, cool moss”, they chanted like crazy people as they walked across. Well anyway I figured that if all these people could do it, I could certainly do it. I decided to go for it purely on adrenalin. I jetted across in about 5 seconds and came to the other side. VICTORY! Talk about a rush…my head was going crazy with joy and excitement. It was just about the best feeling in the world. The point of the exercise was to show us that we could do anything we set our minds to. Later in the car ride home, I checked my feet for burns and found nothing but a little tiny dot on my right foot.

The moral of the story is that even when you feel like you’re in the middle of the storm, know that you will always get through it. Even when you feel like your world is on fire, there will always be the other side. And even when sadness stands to ruin you, only you can decide to overcome.

Love,

Aria Johnson Xox

Uncategorized Anthony Robbins, aria johnson, walking on coals

Hello Friends,

Last night I was leaving my house for dinner when I suddenly heard the fire alarm go off. I thought it was a false alarm and proceeded to my car like nothing happened. When I got into the parking lot I heard blood curdling screams and different voices yelling “Run for your Lives”, “The building is on fire”, “You’re all gonna f%*ing die”. I started looking for the fire and at first couldn’t figure out what building it was in. There were people going crazy in everywhere running into each other and screaming “Fire! Fire! Get out of the building”.

“Oh my God,” I thought, “My mom is in that apartment”. She too had thought it was a false alarm and wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon. I called her to get the hell out and started driving around looking for the fire. Almost instantly I saw 25 foot flames violently raging with smoke, black as night, escaping from the roof of MY BUILDING!!!! This was about 5 apartments down from mine. ‘Holy $*@’, I thought, ‘People could die’ followed by my next thought of potentially losing everything I own’.

I decided to go get some food being that about 400 people were evacuated. I have an extremely wild imagination and all the “what if’s” started going through my head. This is when I decided to put all those years of studying enlightenment into use and to practice being Zen. I decided that the end result would still be the same, regardless of my feelings or my stress level. By the way, I kind of, half succeeded.

About an hour later I absolutely had to drive back to the fire to find out if my place had burned down. The cops wouldn’t let any non-emergency vehicles drive down my street so I parked way far down the street and walked in, bracing myself for the news. There were fire men everywhere running around and police roping things off. As I nervously walked up to the police to find out the damage I somehow found the fluttering calm in my heart. They said the fire was out and I could probably go into the building. THANK GOD.

Here is what I found out. Quite a few people have smoke damage and 3 families lost everything. My place was completely untouched but I still don’t know if anyone was injured.

All I know is that life is short and we need to truly count our blessings. It’s funny how a crisis brings people together. Today as I ran into so many of my neighbors, they all introduced themselves. They had a look of relief and gratitude on their faces. I am right there with them with the feeling of thankfulness. I was so lucky to have escaped the fire. Now I can really say, I went through the fire, and came out stronger.

Love,

Aria Johnson

UPDATE: One person (a senior citizen) was hospitalized due to smoke inhalation. He will be in our prayers.

Uncategorized apartment on fire, aria johnson, building on fire, fire, life is short