tao of Dana -:

Falling in love with every day

Are you madly in love with your life? Obsessed with what you are doing and who you are doing it with? Today, it's all about the best and often most-overlooked kind of falling in love that we all need in order to thrive: falling in love with every day!

I happen to be in love with wild and luscious plants and trees. In fact, visiting even a small nursery in West Hollywood brimming with treasures can change my mood and set me into a wonderland of thought.

We all have things we love. Not everyone is in contact with enough of them on a daily or even weekly or monthly basis. Not everyone gets to tap into love in this way simply because these lovely habits just slipped away gradually or abruptly and have been replaced with necessity, obligation, problems, responsibility...

The necessity, obligation, responsibility and even problems can feel so big that the time, energy and passion to do things you love seem like a fairy tale.

Right now, a group that has over 750 members- about 300 I'd say that are active at this time- is truly pouring through Julia Cameron's Artist's Way book.

Many have already found one thing to be true as they move through even the initial stages of the creative-unblocking process. I actually see it happen yearly when I run this group. I feel it happen to my own self, too, each time I go through the weeks of writing and indulging more in fun and play.

It's often not time, money, obligation, responsibility or anything else that tends to prevent us from living passionate lives where we can have a weekly indulgence in a solo Artist Date to explore a passion.

It's largely fear and habit that stop the flood of the kind of passion that makes every day an obsession with creating greatness. That's my observation... and it may strike a chord with you, too.

Fear & Habit

The habit of fear. The habit of getting stuck on what my friend Erin calls "the hamster wheel" where you are running just to run, even though you aren't getting anywhere but you feel you have to run because, well, that's what the wheel is all about. And then there's the practicality habit. The hiding-in-work habit.

To short circuit this whole matrix of stuff that seems to grow like weeds, right now decide to indulge in a hobby, a trip, a hike, a day with the family, a spa, a home-spa, a brilliant something that makes you feel fantastic and deeply in love with life.

I cannot wait to propagate succulents next week. It's such a cool way to multiply your greenery and expand nature before your eyes.

Try studding your schedule with things you can't wait to do!

I just threw my hat in the ring to go on a trip to Japan in the middle of the busiest season ever in my work in August. Why? Because it's always going to be the busy season. I trust that life will organize itself around my 6 days away, even if it's a risk. I'd been negotiating myself out of this trip for "practical reasons"... and once I decided to go, all the responsibilities and obligations I have to conquer leading up to that voyage melted from a mountain to a raceway. Everything in front of me feels extremely exciting because I have this epic trip waiting for me.

It can be as easy as planning to see friends one day a week, or setting a date night, or signing up for a class you've been dreaming about...

It can be small and crafty like doodling, intellectual like watching lectures, supernatural like learning to analyze your dreams.

Idea for right now:

Stop the automatic train we all fall onto during the day at times. Take a break of pure fun. Before the break is over, stud your schedule with things you are looking forward to. If you already have a few things you can't wait to do, think of ways to make those events ahead of you even more tantalizing and magnetic and dreamy. Maybe you can find waterfall hikes while you are in Hawaii, or you can book a hula lesson? You know... take it to the next level for your own pure pleasure! Now, when you go back to the day, how much more in love with your life do you feel? It's kind of incredible how things can change in the light of love!