When you're at the right time in the wrong place...

...you realize how deeply ingrained old information is in your brain and can't help but laugh at yourself. And take note to avoid this silly mistake in the future.

What am I talking about?

Lemme explain.

Yesterday I organised my day so I can go in the evening to a yoga class with the teacher I've been practicing with since around 2009.

For about 3-4 years, almost every time I was in town and not traveling around the world, if it was Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday I would go to a yogilates class with Carlos L'Abbatte.

He used to teach (and still does) in the beautiful attic of an old house in the Cotroceni area of Bucharest. It's a very nice area which looks very different from the communist grey blocks of flats neighbourhoods.

Anyhoo, I digress...

A couple of months ago I joined a Yoga Teacher Training and I started going again to Carlos' classes. During the time passed since I stopped going to his classes and the present moment, he added more days and another location where he teaches.

Yesterday I checked the schedule on his website, to double check the time of the class. It was 19:30, like I remembered.

I left early so I arrived there around 19:10.

I was a bit surprised to be welcomed in front of the house by a guy who asked me if I also came for the Qigong class. I said, for the yoga you mean?

He didn't reply and I went upstairs to change and prepare. The second sign that something was off was that nobody was there.

I know from experience that people come early and so does Carlos.

So I waited a few minutes before changing into my yoga clothes and had the brilliant idea to send him a message. I thought: maybe today something came up and he cancelled the class.

As he didn't answer right away I checked his schedule again on the website. And this time I noticed that on Thursdays he teaches in the other location.

The timing was right, the place was wrong.

Soon a girl showed up and told me that they have a Qigong class there.

I asked: "since when?"

"Oh, for more than a year now, every Thursday!"

We instantly clicked and we talked a few minutes about what we do and even maybe about collaborating for some workshops. (I thought: "well, maybe I had to meet this nice girl, that's why I came here :)

She invited me to the Qigong session but I declined as it was the last from their module and I'm a total noob. But it is on my list of things to do and learn in the near future so I want to go back there in January when they start again.

I left, headed back home and kept thinking about this confusion.

I called @dragosroua to tell him what happened and why I missed my yoga class.

After talking with him I realised that this small confusion about a thing that was not so important, like a regular yoga class, might happen in other areas of my life that I'm not even aware of.

I thought about how this thing happened: for a few years I went to yoga in the same place every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Then I stopped going for a few years and as I recently started, although I knew some things have changed, my brain kept the old information as the truth.

I checked the schedule before going there, but because I knew that Thursdays meant yoga in that place, I didn't see the words that showed a different location. My mind didn't register that new information because of the old one.

Thinking about all this, I was amazed at my ability to delude myself without even noticing.

And it made me ask myself: in what other areas of my life do I behave in the same way, holding on to what I believe to be true based on my previous experience?

And how much of that knowing is no longer true?

My head was spinning...I was both amused and serious in my thoughts :)

What did I take from all this?

In order to prevent future delusional experiences like this one I decided to

• double check facts, ideas
• ask people I trust about what they see and think
• question more of what I believe to be the truth.

I thought about sharing this story here as I feel it can happen to anyone.

Did this type of confusion ever happen to you? How do you prevent these situations from happening again?

I would love to hear from you.

Namaste!

Photo by Daniel Frank from Pexels

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Hi, I'm Raluca. Freelance copywriter, currently going through a Yoga Teacher Training. I have an educational background in communication and psychology. You can find me mainly on my blog at BeingRaluca where I write about communication, relationships, listening, sexuality and many more. Here on Steemit you can follow me @raluca.