The #1 way to feel more alive

Today we’re going to talk about shaking yourself out of your hum-drum-numbness.

I feel like since I started writing these weekly posts back in January of 2020 it’s been one damn thing after another.

I’m beginning to realize that it may not get calmer/easier/peaceful for a while.

(Not if you’re paying attention.)

So we’ve got to figure out how to LIVE despite it all.

Are you with me?

GREAT.

Let’s face it. The world is getting a little more cray every day. If I think about it too much, I get paralyzed with helplessness.

Remember that the best thing you can do in the face of all the suffering that is, is to donate to the causes you care about, volunteer and focus on your the twenty mile radius from your home, and do your best to be a good human.

At some point, that’s all the control we have.

However!

We DO have some control over our own lives, YES?

(answer key: yes)

And if you’ve been feeling a little weary and blank-eyed in the face of so much hardship around the world then it’s time to come back into your body and remember what it feels like to be ALIVE.

So do this for me:

Take one breath.

Feel that?

It’s life flowing into your human form.

Intentional breathing is always a good way to remind yourself that you’re here, you’re breathing, life is living you on a continual basis.

Keep that breath going. Feel it. Take a really good deep breath that has an extra satisfying exhale to it.

Good.

Now that you’re a bit more back in your body, I want to talk about the number one to feel more alive:

doing something that scares you.

Nothing feels more exciting or more thrilling than doing something that makes your heart race.

I remember the first time I jumped off of the high dive at our local pool.

God bless my family.

We would skip church on a Sunday morning and go to the pool so I could stand there, shaking and near-tears, defiantly looking down at the water from the 3 meter board.

I’m pretty sure I climbed up those stairs twenty-seven times before I got the nerve to even go to the edge.

Then I’m pretty sure I stood there at the edge for what felt like three hours, quaking with fright, while my parents and sisters cheered me on and one dead-eyed lifeguard stared at me, utterly unmoved.

Hand to God, I have no idea how I ever stepped off that high dive board.

I’m certain no one pushed me, although MANY offered.

But y’all… the THRILL once I’d jumped!

I still remember the feeling of conquering that fear, my parents smiling and cheering, my sisters’ excitement, even the bored-out-of-his-mind lifeguard gave a half-hearted round of applause.

When we’re kids there are so many opportunities to do things for the first time.

No one forces us to go off the high-dive, but you have this thought of “Hm… what’s that like…? Why not try it?” that’s all around you.

So you try things, because you don’t know what it’s going to be like. And because we encourage kids to try new things, a LOT.

After we reach a certain age though, we’ve realized that no one is going to make us do scary things any longer (or maybe even encourage us to do something that’s out of our comfort zone), so we stop doing scary things.

Sure, comfort is nice. (It really is). But when you start feeling complacent, bored, stifled, like you need to feel the THRILL of living again, there’s nothing like doing something that scares the hell out of you.

So tell me: what could you do in the next few days or weeks that would really get your heart pumping?

What’s your jump-off-the-high-dive?

How scary would it be to tell me what it is and tell me when you’re going to do it?

*grin*

Doooo it! Doooo it! Dooo it!

(omg—I’m instantly back on the diving board again…)

Decide to do something scary-thrilling and let me know what it is!

I can’t wait to hear.

Until next week!

Rebecca*