My vantage point today makes it clear how important engaging in life is to our happiness. Today my life is full, active and overflowing with rich relationships, robust business opportunities, vibrant health and the wisdom of knowing just how I was able to transform what was into what IS today. My life has been full of transformations just as yours has and I know that these things have brought me to where I am today so I can share what I have discovered along my journey. I am a teacher, a guide and a coach.
Somewhere between the tear soaked face, the skinned knees from falling and the broken heart(s), I have consciously created a business and a life that has pulled me toward a version of myself that requires my best. It requires me to be vulnerable way beyond my comfort, compassionately honest to the point of serious self-love and courageous as I face the life I have dreamed about.
And you know what? I realized I would not want to live any other way. Life sitting on the sidelines is no life at all to me. I also realized that I’m not alone in my desire to squeeze every last beautiful sweet drop out of this life experience. In fact, I would dare guess that you too are big life-live-er, a sweet-drop-squeezer, a radically engaged soul.
Over the years and challenges I did a lot of soul searching . . . a lot! I discovered something profound. After chanting for days in search of my essential self, between the extreme meditation experiments requiring 6+ hours a day in deep intense no-thingness, while studying the religious practices of our world, I discovered that I don’t believe we are here in this human experience just to overcome our human-ness.
Enlightenment isn’t to see how disciplined we can be in overcoming being human. To see how much we can do without. To deny ourselves pleasure and joy and the beauty of the human experience. I am not here to restrict myself to tight rigid boxes of identity and conforming beliefs that limit my ability to create and express my loving self. I realized that instead I am here to enjoy the fullness, the richness and the radiant vitality of being human as a spiritual being. Full on senses, locked, loaded, and fully engaged in the present moment and following my desires for the full meal deal!
And you know what? This awareness changed e v e r y t h i n g for me.
I mean EVERYTHING!
I started getting in touch with what would please me rather than focusing on pleasing others. I focused on developing what I wanted to be doing, rather than what others thought I should be doing. I said YES! to my own desires. I learned how to create my own time. I started showing up. Guess what happened? I started feeling alive! I felt free. Free from what? I didn’t totally know, I just knew that my happiness meter was at an all time high and became sustainable. Yes, SUSTAINABLE!
This way of living I call Radically Engaged Living™. I discovered that my happiness is directly related to how engaged I was in MY OWN life. I’m on a mission to help others define and create their very own Radically Engaged Life™ because I know when we live this way we are able to bring the fullness of who we are to our work, our families and ourselves. We fully experience what it means to be a spiritual Being having a human experience.
I’m delighted and honored to be an Expert Columnist here at Aspire Magazine and look forward to sharing with you different ways of looking at your life and business. Forward motion and traction will be an everyday occurrence with practical and magical opportunities showing up to greet you. So join me here where I will be taking you deeper into just how you can create your very own Radically Engaged Life™.
Radically Engaged Lives are created. They are not bestowed upon us. There are tools and strategies that you can learn that will move you toward your Radically Engaged Life™. This I know . . . happiness is directly linked to the level you are willing to engage in your life. So let’s get started by looking at 3 very different ways to live life.
Begin Where You Are
First we must understand where we are. Getting honest with ourselves is a key component to any real growth. Along our journey there are rules and signs and guideposts. I have found there are three main ways that people live and below I share guideposts to what kind of life you are living. Without self-condemnation identify which of these areas you identify with. To get where we want to go the first step is knowing where we are beginning from.
Guidepost #1: The POW perspective
The prisoner-of-war (POW) life perspective feels imprisoned and these people believe they are not free to make decisions and live according to their own desires. Other perspectives include:
- Living safe by not venturing far from their community, family, work or country.
- Live in the past, being bound to experiences they never got over (health, lost job, divorce, economy etc.)
- See the world as scary.
- Feel and act as if they don’t have a voice, therefore they don’t use it.
- Have very strong and limited beliefs about what is possible for them.
- Complain often about things they wish they could do, be or have.
- Blame others and feel / behave resentful as if they just don’t have the freedom to make their own decisions without judgement.
- A predominant underlying feeling is resentment and frustration.
Guidepost #2: The Comfortable
The Comfortable life perspective feels they have so much to be thankful for and feels guilty for not being more satisfied with their blessed life. Other perspectives include:
- Life is on cruise control. They can see possibility and yet don’t take risks to move toward their dreams.
- Follow other people’s lead (society) of how life is lived. Feel like a passenger in life.
- They wonder if what they have is really what they want.
- Guilt is the bumper pad that keeps them safe within limits. I would do this but . . . (guilt).
- Life is a rut, somewhat boring and confusing because it has actually become comfortable.
- Not sure if who they identify with is their authentic self.
- An underlying dominant feeling is guilt.
Guidepost #3: The Radically Engaged.
The Radically Engaged Life™ finds life a magical journey full of meaning. We look for, and are inspired by, new experiences and challenging opportunities. Other perspectives include:
- Understand we aren’t passengers rather we are creating our own definition of what it means to live!
- Fully live and experience the life we want rather than coveting others’ lives.
- Controversy and hurt feelings are taken care of with our full presence and care.
- We are present and connected to the ebbs and flows of our day.
- We know we always have a choice
- We don’t worry about making waves (right and wrong) instead we focus on doing what works and what is meaningful.
- Relationships are deep and vulnerable allowing for authentic intimacy.
- Deeply enthusiastic about facing challenges because we know they will happen and offer us personal growth.
- Understand we are a work-in-progress and feel great pleasure in being responsible for creating and shaping our own realities.
- See the world filled with exciting and unlimited possibilities for growth and progress.
- Dominant feelings are freedom, passion, gratitude and joy.
In the coming issues of Aspire, I will take you on a deeper dive into the foundational components and give you tools and strategies to implement that will support you in transforming the key areas of your life to be Radically Engaged.
Until then, get started by getting the Radically Engaged Living™ eBook and audio gift below. Start your Radically Engaged Living journey today!
XO,
Marianne
