Dear one,
We moved to Bozeman based on a feeling. It wasn't logical or carefully planned for years. My husband and I came out here for a weekend, had a great time, and started asking ourselves some questions.
Could we uproot our family? Could we really pull our kids out of their schools? Could we do our jobs outside of Boulder? What about our house?
For so many reasons, the idea felt ridiculous and impossible to pull off.
But after going through the pandemic in Boulder, one thing was clear: we felt a palpable pull to be on land and have more space.
It's funny to look back as I sit in my office gazing out at the pond and mountains to think how quickly it came about. But as I reflect, I think that so many of the best decisions I've made in my life come as a result of that gut feeling. They are not carefully planned and plodded.
They come as a result of going where I am called, following that quiet thread of sweetness that makes me feel alive.
Can you relate?
Rarely is the thread attached to a should. I "should" be doing this or that. I "should" be going here or there. I "should" be spending more time with so and so. Often, to outsiders looking in, your idea of sweetness looks foolish.
When my husband and I left our careers in NYC with no job prospects in sight, everyone told us how sorry we'd be, how we'd regret leaving big time jobs, and we'd never make as much money as we were then.
We didn't care. We booked one way tickets to New Zealand and didn't look back.
Furthermore, this thread is not always leading you to bigger, "better," more. Oftentimes, it's leading you to less, quiet, slowness, or ease. In my own life right now, that's certainly the case. My family and I had planned to travel to Vietnam over the holidays. Though it sounded exciting and to an outsider may have seemed like a dream trip, the more we felt into it, the more it felt like too much. So we changed our plans.
I've come to see myself as thriving to the degree that I am in integrity with myself and the greater messages coming through me.
To me, integrity means being whole within myself and being connected to a greater current of intelligence operating beyond my little ideas of how things "should" be.
So start small. It takes practice witnessing that tiny golden thread that weaves the magical fabric of your life together.
Here are a few tips to practice finding your own thread of sweetness:
Get quiet first thing in the morning and, instead of pounding off to get after your regular routine, see where you are called.
Reflect on your week last week. What sparked something exciting in you? Was it reading a particular book? A conversation with a particular person? Did your senses heighten in a particular place?
When trying to sort through a decision, start here:
How does it feel to your HEART, on the deepest level?
Then, move to your GUT. Does moving towards X feel like calm, relaxation and sweetness? Our best decisions bring about an inner tranquility.
Then ask your SPIRIT. If I make the decision to move towards X, do I feel more free or less free? The most important decisions of our life that are guided are trying to move us toward MORE freedom. Let this idea of FREEDOM be part of your internal compass conversations. Your decision may be scary or painful, but it will be freeing.
Finally, bring your MIND in last. This will help you with the how.
Live this way, following the sweetness of life, and you will start to see little coincidences. And after time, you will begin to see bigger ones, too. This will help build your trust in your intuition, and also in the idea that the universal consciousness is rooted in you and connected to your inner compass. There is no greater trust than this.
Here's to following your threads of sweetness,
JOURNAL PROMPT: When was a time in your past when you followed that sweetness? Where did it lead you? What did you gain from doing so?