Can you remember the last time you felt lightness in your steps? Can you remember the last time you felt empowered with a new thought? Can you remember when you felt excited down to your toes about something you made? Most of all, you felt like you were in the right place at the right time doing the right things and you were alive!
Alive: marked by alertness, energy, or briskness.
One of my favorite quotes of all times is about just this.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” -Howard Thurman
Can you remember the last time you felt alive?
A couple years ago I was leading a retreat framed around such a question. The only way I knew to get folks talking about "alive" when they weren't used to doing so was to speak about their energy.
So we collectively named things that drained us. We named things that left us saying, "Let's do that again soon!" And we compared our lists.
And from the facilitator point of view, it was amazing to watch the eyes in the room as they were given permission to spend a whole day thinking in this way. For energy is simply that: energy! Talking about what makes us come alive is inspiring. Once the positive vibes start coming, it’s hard to control them.
And here is where we landed: talking about when you feel alive gives you clarity about what you need to do and what you don’t.
Too often all of us spend our energy tokens on things that have “always been done.” Or things that will keep everyone happy. Or things that somebody guilted us into.
But what if we didn't? What if we just stopped all of this . . .
What if we just played detective in our own life and followed the clues toward what brought us joy? Toward what left us talking and talking nonstop? Toward what we couldn't wait to do next time?
What if we did more of that?
Maybe this week, you can simply pay attention to moments when you come alive. Your soul will be thankful that that you did!
XO
Elizabeth
P.S. One thing that makes me come alive is talking about topics that matter-- especially if other religious folks aren't. This week is the 3rd birthday of my book, Brave Church. Today I celebrate all it has done in the world to help folks bravely enter uncharted waters of conversations. If you've read it, I always love to hear from you.
