“Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Howard Thurman (click here for more on this great philosopher)

This is a time of great change. Not only great, but rapid change as well. It can feel like your internal internet speed got upgraded to the highest speed strangely in a time of quiet and lockdown for many people. 

In this past week alone I have had probably 10 blogs written in my head, the next appearing before I had a chance to capture the last one in print. 

If you are feeling unsettled, uncertain or anxious right now, you are not alone. 

Many people are feeling it in their bodies, their nervous systems, like something is coming, or happening, but they are not sure what it is. 

The world is shifting around us and much of the fear and shame that has been simmering for decades is erupting, largely in anger and also sadness and grief. 

On the flip side, there is also relief. Relief that what was held in darkness is being held now in the light. The layers of racism, sexism, greed, planetary destruction and other types of oppression are being revealed and on the surface it looks and feels pretty ugly. 

Things hurt on the way out.

But wait, pause and be patient. With time and tolerance, this outflux will settle as trauma releases and we settle into a “new normal”. My hope is that this next stage involves a flattening of the playing fields to include all bodies regardless of colour, race, sexual orientation or religion. 

How wonderfully free it will be for us all to eventually walk equally on the earth again!

Uncertainty raises anxiety and doubt. I have heard many people wondering “what am I supposed to do now?”, “what is my true purpose?”. 

A time of reckoning is upon us and may I offer you a guide if you are asking “What is my purpose here now?”. 

No matter where or who you are, you are a living, breathing, feeling body. 

You are alive for this lifetime. That we can be sure of! 

But what if that aliveness was the key to your purpose and your passion?

You might automatically think of feeling alive as a peak experience such as climbing a mountain or a great yoga practice or accomplishing a goal.  But stay open, some people have told me they feel most alive in the seemingly small moments such as sitting by the ocean, playing with grandchildren, or cooking and sharing a favourite meal. 

You can bring aliveness into your life everyday simply by being alive!

To start, here are some tips:

• Find quiet in your life. You cannot connect deeply with yourself or anyone or anything else if you are constantly in noise and mental clutter.
• Go into nature. Nothing is asked of you here, but to be. Listen and receive. 
• Tune into your body... A Lot! What are you feeling? How are you really?

If that is not enough for now, here are some questions to ponder. Take each question slowly, don’t rush. Feel or write about each one and see what comes up. You might be surprised.

1. How alive do I feel in my breath? Am I breathing just a little or fully into life? Where do I hold my breath, my life force?
2. How alive do I feel in my body? What parts feel cut off and what percentage of me feels present “in my body”.
3. Where in my life do I come alive? What am I doing or who am I with?
4. What foods/drink make me feel alive and which are life-draining?

This contemplation can start to reveal who you truly are under the layers of what you have been told is “right” or you “should do/be.”

When we first touch into our aliveness it might feel like a buzzing or a peaceful sensation in your body. 

Aliveness cannot be found in the mind. It lives in the body.

Start today by tapping into you. 

Your purpose here is to truly live. Not by someone else’s rules, but by the beat of your own heart.

To live is to truly feel alive.  It might be sitting and watching birds, or climbing a mountain, or writing. 

What are you doing when you feel most alive?  

Let this be your guide, it might surprise you when you follow the breadcrumbs of aliveness.

Stay tuned for more on coming alive and let me know in the comments what make you feel alive.

Madeleine

“It is not unusual for people to wait their whole life to start living.”

Eckhart Tolle