How to Feel More Alive by Changing Your Attitude — Go All In!
I was salsa dancing with this young buck named José. He was bringing his A-game, trying out new moves, and I was doing my best to follow. As always, I was smiling the entire time, a smile so wide that my teeth dried out and my lip stuck at the top of my teeth like Bucky Beaver, but I didn’t care. I was dancing!
Sometimes you talk to people while you dance and sometimes you just dance but that night, Jose said, “I think you must be an artist.”
“How did you guess? Was it my cool earrings?”
“No, it’s the way you dance. You dance like you really care —with enthusiasm and love,” he said. Then, he turned me around a few times before returning us to the basic steps of salsa.
“So what do you really do?” he asked.
“I really am an artist! And you’re so right about artists being passionate. Sometimes, when I show up to paint, I paint like I dance — giving it everything I got. And when I give my 100% to the canvas, it seems like people can feel the energy and the vulnerability and it pulls people in. Those paintings tend to sell first.”
The song was ending and he said, “Thank you for sharing a little of your life as an artist and for being ‘all in’ with me on this song.”
While driving home, I thought about how life would be different if I showed up to the other parts of my existence with the same gusto. If I recognized that all of our years, months, weeks, days, moments were supremely precious. What if we saw our mundane tasks as times to pray for friends and family, times to be grateful, times for reflection, preparation, even growth?
Imagine saying, “Okay, God, I know it’s cleaning day today so give me the strength to do it with zest!”
Our mindsets would be transformed. We’d see the world, our world, in a renewed way. Life would mean more and it certainly would be more fun. Relationships would be richer, deeper. And I bet how you feel about yourself would lift too.
Since returning from Costa Rica to my big, empty house with no one to nurture — not even any dogs — I’ve been a little down. The weather didn’t help. I’m going to try and change my approach. To go “all in” whether it be for work, chores, visiting my parents, or my Barre 3 class.
I challenge you to go “all in” too — in everything in your life. Let’s see where it takes us!
If you need a little spark to jumpstart you into a different way of seeing, doing, and living, consider joining in on one of our painting nights at the studio. We have three coming up.
