Lately I’ve been captured by the question:
What would it be like to live from joy?
Every day I talk with clients who have been taught to muscle their way forward. They drive themselves like mules with the whip of need.
Harder. Faster. Better.
And yet they long to create with ease and flow.
Since the day I saw through my long-held belief that I had to work hard to prove myself, I’ve been slowly relaxing those muscles, settling into the natural current of life. And still, I notice the lingering habit of forceful doing.
So I turn and return to this question:
What is it like to live from joy?
As I explore, I notice a gentle organizing force. One that leads with desire and inspiration. A quiet knowing of what is mine to do now.
It doesn’t need priorities or a rigid routine to push me. It’s as simple as slowing down enough to sense what’s alive in me and letting that move me.
It provides the surest guidance without pressure or chastisement. I don’t have to “make” myself do things or conjure motivation to fulfill my responsibilities.
The wisdom in me knows my needs and my desires. Aliveness in-forms me how best to attend to them.
Today I shared this exploration with one of my insight-loving friends today, and he said:
“But what about business? I’m obligated to do things I don’t want to do. I can’t just follow my aliveness or the necessary stuff won’t get done.”
And yet…
This same friend followed aliveness to the beach on a sunny day.
He followed it to the tattoo parlor.
He followed it to the grocery store for a vegan gelato.
I see how brilliantly and naturally he knows exactly how to care for himself, as we all do, guided by what he wants and what he knows to do. (When he listens.)
We don’t need an ordered list of priorities. There is only Now, and in the now, we always know what is ours to do.
There’s no difference between building a business and building a sand castle.
Or between making money and baking a cake.
Each requires intention, action, and has a learning curve, and each can be done from aliveness because you want or know to do them.
Following the aliveness is exquisitely joyful. It’s simple.
I can quit worrying, strategizing, forcing…and simply flow.
Because the heart knows.
“The heart is a leisurely muscle. It differs from all other muscles. How many push-ups can you make before the muscles in your arms and stomach get so tired that you have to stop? But your heart muscle goes on working for as long as you live. It does not get tired, because there is a phase of rest built into every single heartbeat. Our physical heart works leisurely. And when we speak of the heart in a wider sense, the idea that life-giving leisure lies at the very center is implied.” — David Steindl-Rast
The heart is the strongest muscle we have, and yet we so often lead with a mind that is easily stressed and overwhelmed by too much thinking.
The head tries, but the heart knows.
The Secret Question I’ve Been Longing For My Heart to Ask
I sit across from my Heart.
She sits with her hands folded in her lap, big eyes looking up at me. Tender and a bit shy.
She is beautiful in the way that does not know it, which makes each smile, each gentle movement, more stunning.
What question do I want her to ask me?
I close my eyes and feel the question flow over me like liquid gold, seeking out the hidden spaces.
“Dear Heart,” I say to this lovely creature, “May I share the question I most want you to ask of me?”
She gives a shy smile and nods.
I take a deep breath. The question feels as if it may swallow me, or us, or the world.
“I want you to ask me, ‘Will you show me how to love?’”
My Heart gazes at me, eyes filled with tears.
“Would you like me to ask you this question now?” she says.
I nod my head. There is nothing I would like more.
“Will you show me how to love?” my Heart asks of me.
The words spill from her lips into a golden river swirling around us both, buoying us up, filling us to overflowing.
My answer is an easy yes, a dancing yes, somersaults and cartwheels.
Suddenly, I am laughing, and my Heart is laughing with me.
She has asked me to show her. Not to tell her with words or teach her with a lecture. But show her.
To show her love, I must be love.
How delightful, strange and holy we are.
Being love.
Yours in love and play,
Steph
If you enjoyed this article, join my daily Wildspire emails list here for more playful and provocative musings on business, being gloriously human and changing the world.
