Happiness… Peace… Gentleness… Joy… Love… Kindness… Openheartedness… Generosity… Compassion… Presence… Ease… Bliss… You know, all those things that feel fabulously good.
All those good feeling feelings exist, all the time. Always. No exceptions.
They don’t go away; their energy doesn’t inherently disappear. We just get into pockets where we can’t tune in; we can’t hear the joy or the love or the life that’s singing around us and wants to live through us.
Honestly, there will be times when you’re so far away from Openheartedness that it may take a wee bit of a hike before you make another sighting of it. But you can always, always take one step in the direction of what it is you want to feel.
You always have a choice. Not always easy. But there is always a choice in every single moment about which direction you’re going to head.
Sometimes, you don’t want to go any damned where. And you know what? That’s absolutely fine. If you need to curl up in a dark basement under a pile of blankets and eat chocolate chip cookies and binge watch Netflix, by all means go for it. Do it intentionally. Own it. Know that it’s time limited. See you when you come back.
When you’re ready… when you want it… try one of these. Make up your own. Play. Have fun with it.
1. Breathe—deeply; down to the tips of your toes. Imagine every single one of your trillions of cells breathing in… breathing out…
2. Smile (even if you don’t feel like you have a damned thing to smile at). Smile again.
3. Walk—with a little hop in your step.
4. Smell a flower—deeply.
5. Dance as if not a soul is watching.
6. Sing at the top of your lungs.
7. Take a shower and imagine you’re stepping into a waterfall of light—sparkling, liquid light.
8. Sing in the shower.
9. Dance in the shower.
10. Step out into the rain and turn your face up into the raindrops.
11. Sniff your dog’s feet—best smell in the world! Grassy. Earthy.
12. Call a friend—maybe one you haven’t connected with in a long time.
13. Make a new friend.
14. Sing to a friend.
15. Smile at a stranger.
16. Skip.
17. Twirl.
18. Walk barefoot in the grass.
19. Climb a tree.
20. Build a fort.
21. Play hopscotch.
22. Giggle.
23. Laugh (even if there’s nothing to laugh at and you sound silly).
24. Be silly.
25. Yoddle.
26. Meditate.
27. Do a puzzle.
28. Knit—teach yourself how to knit if you don’t know how. It’s fun.
29. Color (with crayons or better yet, fingerpaint).
30. Sniff crayons.
31. Cut pictures you like out of a magazine.
32. Read a book—a really good, awesome one. The kind you can disappear into and get carried away into another realm.
33. Dangle your feet in a lake or a creek or over the side of the bathtub!
34. Go for a walk in the woods. Walk barefoot in the woods.
35. Imagine there are fairies in the garden… Talk to them. Listen to their response. 😉
36. Massage your feet.
37. Massage your feet with delicious smelling essential oils.
38. Sniff a rose (a scented one).
39. Doodle.
40. Write a story—just because. See where the story wants to take you. Make it an adventure of discovery.
41. Journal. Write and write and write.
42. Take yourself out to lunch (favorite spot of course!)
43. Walk in the woods.
44. Sit in a chair that’s too high and swing your feet.
45. Tap dance in the kitchen a la Fred Astaire—like you know what you’re doing.
46. Talk to the bushes and expect an answer.
47. Garden—get your hands in earth. Get dirty.
48. Plant a seed.
49. Pick a flower.
50. Give a flower to a friend… or a stranger.
51. Have a pillow fight.
52. Get on the floor with a toddler.
53. Hug a puppy.
54. Hold a kitten.
55. Build a fairy castle out of twigs.
56. Take a bubble bath.
57. Jump in a mud puddle. Maybe you should do that before you take the bubble bath! LOL
58. Follow a butterfly.
59. Kiss a snowflake.
60. Roll down a hill.
61. Summersault.
62. Watch your favorite movie.
63. Beam love and compassion—beam it out onto someone else and somehow it ends up beaming right back onto you! Love this one and so true. (This one is courtesy of Mary from her comment on one of my previous blog posts).
64. Build a sandcastle.
65. Make a mud puddle.
66. Jump in the mud puddle.
67. Kitchen dancing (Kathy shared this one with us). To Earth, Wind and Fire’s September. The only thing required is a kitchen and some music. ?
68….
69…
70…
71…
What are some of yours? Any ideas for 68, 69, 70 and 71? What are your favorites? Add them in the comments section.
And then, my wonderful fellow life adventurer, let’s print this baby out, and use it.
