I saw a sign in Ubud that read something like this: “Follow your dreams! They know the way!”
It is a challenge coming back to the US after visiting cultures that run around less, are more present and seem to simply be OK with enjoying life. Fast pace to living, a sense of restlessness and struggle and people being too busy to connect much of the time.
So what is an option!
Years pass quickly, behaviors and attitudes become familiar, routine and automatic! Who a person is, what matters to them, often gets buried under what they have been talked into.
More than TGIF!
Life is about more than getting to the weekend! What is fulfilling for you? What do you feel “wholehearted” about? What inspires you where you lose track of time, are so engaged and focused you forget to eat and an engagement that leaves you feeling energized and inspired?
Some dream of travel! I’ve met a lot of long term travelers who simply have substituted “travel” for “work” and drag the same old busy and unfulfilling habits along with them! Socrates was correct when he said “wherever you go, there you are”.
So who are you really? What matters to you heart? I love this scene from the movie “Hook”.
Buried deep within life activities is life itself. I’ve read a lot of stories about people who wake up one day, look back on their life and wonder: “I’ve given my entire life to be the person I am today. Was it worth it?”
In travel and in my life, I focus more attention on “feeling” what feels right in the moment rather than analyzing things to death. The feeling of lightness, ease and “going with the flow” let me know I’m on the right path.
Right path for or with what? My inner being, Soul, spirit, whatever word works for you. The struggle and debate stop! Peace comes in and a sense of ease and calm prevail. In travel, unless I have that feeling, I don’t make a decision. I’m not in alignment yet!
Be receptive!
When I saw “The Power of Myth” interview with Joseph Campbell, I was struck by his message about “following your bliss”. That is pretty much what I follow when travel and pay attention to in my daily decisions!
Bill Moyer asked Joseph Campbell: Do you ever have the sense of… being helped by hidden hands?
Campbell: “All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time — namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
A variation that speaks to me as well was from Wayne Dyer quoting Patanjali: “When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
To me, that inspiration comes from Source deep within. If I’m quiet, present and still, I can hear or feel that voice. Following it has made my life so much richer!
