The secret to living the life of your dreams is to start living the life of your dreams today, in every little way you possibly can.
Mike Dooley
Like many of my recent posts, this one is repurposed from my weekly newsletter. The theme of that newsletter was “the way of integrity, part 2,” and this post is a slightly tidied up portion of it.
Side note: If you like this post and would like to receive this kind of content via email, you can subscribe to my weekly newsletter here.
Theme: The way of integrity, part 2
Lately, I’ve deviated from both my morning ritual and my established way of living.
I don’t quite know what to make of it.
It’s not like I’ve ditched my ritual or way of living entirely. I mean, I’m still spending time in early morning solitude, I’m still sitting in silent meditation (just not every single day), and I’m still doing business-y things (like writing this newsletter) before I begin my day job.
But I’ve put other rituals on hold (hello yoga and pranayama), I rarely follow my daily plan, and I’m often just enjoying my evenings instead of working on my business.
Initially, it felt uncomfortable. Was I being lazy and uncommitted? Did I just need to power through, to force myself to do “the things,” to be more disciplined?
And yet, something in me knew that my resistance signified the end of one era and the beginning of another. A homecoming of sorts; a remembering.
This wave of remembering (because it’s not the first iteration for me) arrived mid-December, when I came down with the worst head cold on record.
Though my health has returned, the part of me that likes to – needs to – plan my days down to the half hour hasn’t. Neither has the part of me that values consistency in a multitude of spiritual practices or efficiency in how I spend my time.
Instead, I’ve noticed a shift in just how much I’m willing to let my heart and spirit guide my life.
Example #1: I’ve stopped driving for no reason other than that I don’t feel like driving any more. Despite it’s inconvenience – walking 40+ minutes (partly through early spring mud) to my preferred grocer and to then lug my cart (again, partly through early spring mud) back home – it feels so aligned. So I do it.
Example #2: I’ve transitioned from being a chronic live-beyond-my-means person to someone who’s looking at closing out February with a budget surplus of around $200 and being on track to finish paying off multiple five figures of debt by the summer of 2025. This isn’t even counting the income I’ve recently received from signing a new client, and comes despite the fact that my February budget was already pretty bare bones. The most amazing part of it all is that I’ve never been able to follow significantly more generous budgets in the past! The whole experience feels freaking frugally hedonistic and liberating. I want to cry just being able to type that!
There’s more, but this sampling offers a sufficient place to stop and reflect on the question:
What TF is going on with me?
I’m going to speculate that as I’ve gotten closer and closer to living in integrity with my true nature, the “not me” parts have felt safe to drop off. Like flies. [Btw, where did that analogy even come from?!]
The most amazing thing about these changes is that they didn’t require much effort; I simply recognized that I was ready to make them. And so I did.
You see, while I’ve agonized in the past over my over-spending and reliance on a car (the money, the environmental impact, etc), I hadn’t been ready to change without feeling like I was sacrificing something significant. This time, however, it’s like the constant “work” (though it usually feels more like play!) of living in integrity with my true nature has gotten me to the place where I was willing to change, ready to change, and wanting to change.
And so I changed. It would have been harder and more soul-zapping to stay put.
Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ll never again drive or live beyond my means. Nor does it mean that I’ll never budget my time down to the half hour.
But giving myself permission to let go of the script I’d written for how I ought to be spending my days or managing my life and instead embrace my true inner desires – I’m talking about desires that would bring value to my life should I honor them – is something that is deeply aligned with my true nature.
I’ll leave you with this: if you want to make changes in your life but feel like they’re too big to take on, some exploration in the manner of Wayfinding is in order.
If said changes are aligned with your true nature (rather than culture), Wayfinding can help you work through what’s keeping you from taking action – often from a place of desire and joy.
If said changes aren’t aligned with your true nature, Wayfinding can help you discover what is and move through whatever’s keeping you thinking that you should be making the changes.
To explore Wayfinding coaching, click here. Or for a low-cost approach, go to my mentor Martha Beck’s site [not an affiliate link], peruse her books, and start reading the one that you feel most drawn to (psst – they’re all glorious!).
That is all.
