What makes you come alive?

I first heard this phrase as a symposium facilitator for The Pachamama Alliance. It’s an especially deep question because it assumes you have various levels of aliveness – and that you’re aware of it. I believe it’s true for people who have awakened: who are paying attention to communications from their body and who are telling themselves the truth about what’s really going on in every area of their life.

The exciting benefit of being awake and paying attention is that you then see the choices in front of you. Things you didn’t see before because you were operating from outside in. From what you’d been taught or programmed to see and to believe. Awakened, you operate from the sense of knowing that comes from inside, that comes when you let yourself really see the evidence around you. Awakened, you recognize your internal response – your body’s wisdom – to what you see around you. Awakened, you get better and better at trusting yourself.

Awake, you know what to do next, which makes life so much easier to navigate. We generally have far less control of most things in our lives than we admit, but we also have far more control of our responses and where we want to direct our attention and our energy.

When I returned from my pilgrimaging to Bolivia and Peru, I reflected upon the qualities that fill my days and give me a sense of purpose and growth. The qualities I identified that give me my sense of well-being include feeling

alive – connected – energized – relaxed – 
excited – peaceful – loving – generous

I will be examining each quality in depth in future posts. As for me, I’m clear on what lights my fire. Spiritual Magic gets top billing. The alchemy of consciousness by which you pull a richer life from the Magician’s Hat of Challenges. I love learning it and applying it in my life. I love seeing how it can change someone else’s life as it frees and heals them. I love visioning situations in which disaster is the fire from which the phoenix flies. I love writing stories about them to entertain and encourage you.

Here are a few specifics that flavor my life.

• I love the house and neighborhood I live in and the two small dogs and the big kitty that share my life and my bed.
• I love that the park that is the dogs’ back yard is a half block from my house, a tienda (Ecuadorian convenience store) is across the street next to the grill restaurant, a farmacia (pharmacy) is around the corner, and a large mercadito is three blocks away with an abundance of fruit and veggies and about anything else you could want.
• I love that I don’t need a car because I can walk and either bus or taxi anywhere in town way cheaper and easier.
• I love the community helpfulness of extranjeros (expats) here and their desire to serve.
• I embrace this culture that carries within its complexities a sense of heart and compassion.
• I am grateful for the creative richness of my city, Cuenca. The painting, sculpting, writing and performing that are embraced here.
• The fine symphony that gifts its music to the community.
• The spiritual awareness that produces a steady stream of synchronicities.

These are a few of the ways that I know I’m blessed and I know what to do next. I invite you to think about this.

Think about what makes you feel alive, about where your joy comes from, and about whether your gratitude shows you’re fully receiving what’s being offered to you. That’s the whole point, my friend. Are you letting it in?

Wait! Did I just hear you say, “What’s ‘it?’ What am I not letting in?” Because that’s just plain silly. YOU are the only one who DOES know what “it” is. So this is where you get serious about telling yourself the truth. 1-2-3 GO!