In a recent blog post, in her inimitable in-your-face style, Danielle Laporte shared a couple stories (and a video), and asked a question that really grabbed my attention.
Why are we doing what we do?!
It’s SO easy, especially in this holiday season to get caught up in the shopping and gift giving, the parties and gathering, the family traditions “we always do it this way!”. The momentum can keep gathering and we keep going until the celebrations are done and we’re sitting surrounded by the debris of dirty dishes or giftwrap. Before we find ourslves there, why not stop now? What if there was a different way? Michael Franti & Spearhead have a suggestion – how about clicking below and listening? It’s the video Danielle shared in her blog!
|
Do It For The Love (Lyric Video) – Michael Franti & Spearhead
|
What are we doing, and why are we doing it?!
What if we pause for a moment right now, take a breath and just let those questions land in our bodies? What might we notice?
It might be that what bubbles up is a feeling of satisfaction – the sense that you’re responding to the big “yesses” in your life. If that’s so for you, I imagine you’ll return to whatever you’re doing with a renewed sense of energy and delight!
It’s possible that what some of us notice if we pause is a sinking feeling – perhaps it’s the recognition that what we’ve been doing just isn’t satisfying. Or maybe it’s not so much the ‘what’, but the ‘why’. The moment of realizing we’re doing what we’re doing to prove our value, or to try and convince someone we love them is a sobering one. AND, depending on how we respond to that uncomfortable realization, it can be a great gift – to ourselves and ultimately to those around us. It may be a moment to pull out or download your copy of Practical Steps in Coming Back Home to Ourselves and make some different choices.
to make ourselves or others wrong!
And while we’re paused, the end of the year is also the time when we look back on the past year, and look forward to the year ahead. Those same questions – what are we doing and why are we doing it – and Michael Franti’s video make a lot of sense here too.
The practices and principles we engage in this community are simple, practical, powerful tools – especially when you’re feeling into what you’d like your life to be like in 2015.
Connecting with you and sharing the things I’m exploring in life is one of the things I do where I feel the juice of that aliveness – I do it for the love of it! While the act of pausing to sit down and write isn’t always easy, nurturing relationships with those of you who feel a resonance with this work, and seeing the way it makes a difference for all of us is one of the places where I feel most alive! I’m thankful beyond words for the company and partnership I feel with you. I love seeing the ways we’re stepping into possibility, and look forward to what we might co-create over the next year. Today, as we in the Northern Hemisphere mark Winter Solstice and the increasing light that comes with that, and all the other holidays we celebrate at this time of the year, I wish you and those you love a wonderful holiday season!
Speaking of holiday season and gifts of aliveness, one of the things I’ve been excited about doing is making a series of 7 short videos that’ll give people a ‘taste’ of Realizing RICH Relationships. They’ll be like when you’re wandering around booths at a show and the exhibitors are offering samples. You can enjoy the sample knowing if you find something that’s really delicious, you can always get more!
Just this week I created the first one, I’ll be using these in different ways, but I’m sharing it here with you first – and you can ‘unwrap it’ and see the video by clicking here right now – no waiting!
 |
| Nurturing co-creative community – |
And you might like to try that suggestion I make at the end of the video as you think about your life in 2015. What if our relationships with everyone and everything in our lives were RICH?! As you feel into that idea in your body, what do you notice happening?
If you run into a sense of impossibility, or if when you think of certain relationships you notice there’s a contraction or a sinking feeling inside, you might want to re-visit the Practical Steps in Coming Back Home to Ourselves I spoke of above.
On the other hand, in those relationships where when you check in you get a “yum, yes” feeling, savour it and spend some time feeling into the juiciness of that. In fact, I’d suggest spending a couple minutes feeling into that sense is a wonderful way to start each day! Think about how you’re being in those relationships or experiences where you’re really being respectful of yourself and others, where the degree of intimacy and openness feels just right, and you’re courageously stepping into the invitations life is offering you, AND in those moments when you or those you’re with don’t manage all that, honour the humanity in all of us.