I recently started reading an amazing book: The Desire Map, by Danielle LePorte. If you feel utterly bored with your “goals” right now {and I put that word in quotes because goals that make us bored are really more like chores than anything else} I highly recommend you download The Desire Map and start charting your way towards emotions and sensations rather than the surface accomplishment type of stuff we normally think about on New Year’s Eve. You know, the drop 10 pounds, save for retirement type of the stuff. Start working towards feeling sexy, alive, free, creative, engaged, in love and spontaneous. Even to type those words FEELS infinitely more interesting.
But on to today’s work. Danielle challenged me to think about joy and describe it. To come up with a color, a sound and smell for joy.
I closed me eyes and saw gold. I heard a giggle that sounded like jingling bells. I smelt banana bread.
Now I don’t know what this all means, but I do know I was smiling. And I felt like I wanted to do it again.
Later in the day I closed my eyes and decided to conjure joy again. This time I saw blue, heard a belly laugh and smelt salty sea air. I felt equal parts at peace and completely free.
As I sit here, I am seeking joy again. I close my eyes and see white, but a shade I can only describe as gauzy. I hear wind and I smell fresh laundry, as if I pulled a clean sheet from the dryer and gave it a big shake.
What do you see, smell and hear? If it feels hard, close your eyes tighter, take a deeper breath and yes, try harder. Chances are you haven’t given you brain a chance to think along these lines in a long time…maybe not since childhood, when the sky could be pink and the grass could be purple.
Go into your joyful place. See something different than whatever was right in front of your nose before you closed your eyes. And yes, I know my words were right in front of your nose 🙂 Ditch them and find your own sensations. Let me know what comes up!
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