A Little Bit of Soul Searching!

Little bit of soul searching.....and yes, I'm using Facebook as the platform for this! I truly LOVE reading about other people's journeys and what they encounter along the way - makes us all feel connected and human, instead of disconnected and tuned in to devices.

We are all on our journeys - and along these journeys, we encounter huge obstacles, complete awe, and so much more.....A friend of mine recently referred me to the author Danielle LaPorte and I absolutely LOVE her. I signed up for her #truthbombs as well as her emails. I received this email the other day about being fully alive and I had to share.......in it Danielle writes:

"If you want to live according to the pulse of your soul, to the depth of your desires — to be FULLY ALIVE THIS LIFETIME…then you must devote yourself to be a QUESTIONER.

QUESTION EVERYTHING. Disrupt, reveal, ascertain, liberate your life force through inquiry. Especially question obvious, assumed and inherited rules, practice and beliefs — and the gurus and healers and authorities — don’t spare them your questioning. It’s for the highest cause: your freedom.

Why these rules? Why am I feeling this way? WHAT am I feeling? Why did they do it that way? Why can’t I? Why are we doing it this way? Where are we going? Where else has this been? Where does it go when I’m done with it? Why not?"

....my own journey has led me far from what I envisioned as a naive 24 year old. It always amazes me when people question me on how I can "coach" and make a decent living at it, or how I can talk about and share struggles when I am always so happy, or how I can possibly get nervous in a crowd when I have the ability to be a Zumba Instructor and dance with or in front of so many people, or how I can even mention the yo-yo of weight loss and weight gain when I have been "skinny" my whole life, and so on. In my experience, these questions are not so much about me; these questions really come from a place of "how can I do that - how can I do what she is doing?"

If people really knew me and what I have been through in life, these questions would be very different. I have overcome abuse, depression, anxiety, obesity and MORE - and my story is not that different than yours. I still struggle, I still fight to be present, and I am still human - what I do differently now though is I focus on what I can do. I focus my energy on positive things throughout my day. Yes - I will never get the "to do" list done, that is our reality - what I will do though, is get some of it done and be proud! Like Danielle suggests, I question everything. Why am I feeling this way? What am I feeling? What can I do to change how I'm feeling?

Over the past few years, Zumba has taught me that each one of us has a story; a story that affects and shapes us into the people we are. One of the biggest reasons I love to teach Zumba is that during class, we are all free - free of our many "hats" and free to just be us (where "free to be" comes from). Just like many of you, I have tackled huge fears (I was afraid to just stand in front of a group of people; now I dance with them) and just like many of you, I have lost and gained more weight than you can imagine, and just like many of you, I have overcome depression and anxiety. So if you take anything from my post today, use Danielle's words - If I can do it, "WHY NOT YOU?"