“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” —Helen Keller
This is Tip #4 (of 7) in my Wholehearted Living Series.
In the little bit of time we’ve been together, you’ve celebrated your past lives, you’ve taken ownership of your superhuman power of choice, and you’ve started looking inside and outside at all the things you are grateful for. You may have even started FEELING gratitude! All three of these activities were meant to prepare you for today’s challenge – identifying your deepest emotional values.
Emotional values? What? Aren’t values things like being kind, telling the truth, loving others?
Well, sure. Of course. Those are values. And those kinds of values are great!
Here’s the thing. I want you to go deeper than that. Deeper than ideas. I want you to get to know the deepest part of YOU. It’s time to identify what makes you MORE than TICK.
What makes you ROCK –N- ROLL?
What flips ALL your switches.
When you feel at your best, what are you feeling? When your heart is popping wide open, and your head is buzzing with ideas, what are you FEELING? And more importantly, how do you WANT to feel?
Look backwards at your past lives, look at the power of your choices, the very best ones, look at the things you are deeply grateful for, and identify the FEELINGS that come up. What are they? Love? Enthusiasm? Spiritual Connection? Compassion? Energy?
Here’s a practice. Sit down, close your eyes, and call to mind one of your favorite experiences, people, foods, accomplishments (you get the idea). Give it as much detail as you can. Remember colors, textures, tastes, sounds…. And let your body start to FEEL. Bathe in it for a little while, and then open your journal, and write about the feelings that rose in your body. Give yourself time and space to identify a NAME or NAMES for the feelings.
Look backwards at the previous exercises, and keep your eyes open as you move through your day. What FEELINGS make you pop? Make a list. It’s important. Once you identify the feelings you value the most, you can start designing a life that generates those feelings. Cool, right?
So get started. List the very best FEELS.