The Path to Wholehearted Living, Part 1 (of 7)
Let’s talk about Wholehearted Living. Let’s talk about living a life that fits your values and helps you define your purpose. How does that sound? I LIKE it. The thing is, it can’t be done in just one post, so here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna break it down for you into some easy chunks. I’ve got 7 tips for living a Wholehearted life, and I’m going to give you all 7, one at a time. Let’s not waste time! We’ll jump right in.
Tip #1: Celebrate Past Lives (All of Them!)
“Nothing comes ahead of its time, and nothing ever happened that didn’t need to happen.” —Byron Katie, author of Loving What Is
If you’re anything like me, you’ve lived a few different lives, really even more than a few. Let me explain what I mean by past lives, just so we’re clear. I mean the different eras of your life – young childhood, high school, college, early adulthood. I mean your different jobs and even careers – from Taco Bell to Wall Street. I also mean the different lives you’ve lived with different humans – boyfriends, children, parents, girlfriends, partners, spouses. And I mean the moments – whole lives that took less than an hour to live. Every moment that is not this moment is really a past life. Some of them you look back on and judge as good, others bad, some neutral (though usually, it’s the good ones and bad ones that make the list). All of them helped you be who you are right this minute. Every single second that you have lived, every single breath you have taken has brought you to this place. This place of curiosity, this place of openness, this place of yearning. All the breaths, all the lives have happened so that you could be here.
PERIOD.
This might not be how you have looked at life up to this point, and that’s okay. Really. AND I want to encourage you, in this moment, in this breath to look at it this way. See every second, even those you would judge as horrific for what they are: stepping stones that brought you RIGHT HERE.
Wow! What an awesome thing! Seriously. It’s awesome. If you weren’t here, where would you be? Really. Honestly, who the heck knows? You ARE HERE NOW. And that’s great because it means you are ready. Ready to start or continue or discover or uncover Wholehearted, On-Purpose Living. And if you hadn’t lived all the lives you lived up to this moment you might still be living, content or not, blind, asleep, numb…
CELEBRATE YOUR PAST LIVES! Seriously. You lived them! Sure, you can choose to whine about them if you want. If you WANT to. But I bet you’ve tried that already (I know I have). Try this instead.
CELEBRATE!
Throw a party for your bad self and the journey you’ve been on. For real. Every day for a week look backwards for a few minutes and Hoot and Holler about the past lives you’ve lived. They brought you right to the place you were supposed to be all along.
If you run into some past lives that feel too sticky, to hard to deal with, or if you feel like you need help processing through your feelings and memories, reach out for the help you need. If you are not already in therapy or counseling or working in another healing modality, ask yourself if you need to be. And if that answer is yes, make that choice. There are so many healing modalities available. Open your eyes and open your heart.
And at the end of the day, be kind to your Self. You deserve it.
Breathing,
Tara