Are you enjoying, or enduring?

Are You Enjoying Or Enduring?

Enjoying your life means you are being present and basking in the moment, taking time to stop and smell the roses. Enduring is making it through, feeling like you are waiting for something to change or happen. Which do you most identify with? Which do you most want to experience?

Of course you want to enjoy!  Yet life tugs and pulls you this way and that, always trying to make the next thing happen, which has you attached to the future.

I know for me, it doesn’t work.  Our bodies are either contracting or expanding.  When we are enjoying our day, we become expansive, open and aware of the sensations in our body.  When we are trying to endure, we feel tight, constricted, stressed and overwhelmed.  And when we are stressed, our immune system is compromised.  Did you know that 70-80% of all visits to the doctor are for stress-related and stress-induced illnesses?  Stress contributes to 50% of all illness in the United States.  So when you find yourself coming down with a cold, having back pain or any other physical ailment, it’s a pretty good indication that you are just getting through each day; enduring.

Whether you are enjoying or enduring, it’s a choice.  And too many of our choices have become unconscious habits.  Those habits are what have you feeling depleted and settling for less than.

I know what you may be thinking because this is the response I hear all the time about this topic:  “How can I enjoy my life when I’ve got so much to do?  I can’t just walk away from all of my responsibilities!”

It’s true that you have responsibilities, AND, it’s also true that what you are responsible for is based on choices you are making.

If you are ready to enjoy your life, here are some steps that will help:

1.  Notice what part of your life you seem to be enduring versus enjoying. Make a list of all the ways you are being responsible.  Then mark the items on the list that you can let go of,  share responsibility, or get the help you need.

2.  By decreasing responsibility, create the ideal daily calendar, including self care time, quiet time, family time or anything else that matters to you. Each day be intentional about fulfilling your calendar in a way that has you feeling balanced and enjoying.

3.  Ask for what you need from your family, friends, co-workers, etc.

4.  Journal around any fears that are preventing you from taking the first 3 steps. Include in your journal what you can create without believing those fears.