DAY 1: Find Joy - Dance like a 5 year old

According to Patti there are 6 practices that emerged from writing her book:

Intensity, Inclusion, Integrity, Intimacy, Intuition, Intention

She helpfully points out that each one starts with 'In' (being present) and more importantly with 'I' (as in each person = themselves). So, I decided to make sure and be as present, focused, and involved with each of these 37 days and each challenge along the way.

Because change won't happen unless we start with ourselves. I'm not going to wait for someone to give me permission to live the life that makes ME happy.

Intensity - is part of my first challenge.

Day 1

Action:

Part A - Put on some music and dance like a 5 year old for 2 minutes. (Then write continuously for 3 minutes answering the question "What brings me joy?")

I will admit this is something that I practice regularly, to the horrible embarrassment of my tweenage daughter. When I hear a happy song I dance (in the car, the kitchen, at my computer). I can't help it. So, I danced for 4 minutes to a song that I find very inspirational: Jump Rope by Blue October. (Click on the words to get some happy feet!)

The result was that I was very out of breath by the time I needed to write, so there was a lot of heavy panting while scribbling.

The summary of what brings me joy? Mountains, sunshine, crickets, slightly melted ice cream, laughing children, watching dogs jump in the snow...

Part B (Oh, you thought we were done, huh?!) Describe your dance of joy in 3 minutes. (Then write for 2 more minutes about what keeps you from dancing it!)

I surprised myself in the description, it looked a lot like a yoga pose that broke out into aerobic dance moves with the accompaniment of giggling and screaming children. (Lots of twirling and skipping.) And though I do dance it - I don't do it nearly as often as I'd like because I don't want to embarrass my daughter or partner. And I have that annoying little voice that says, 'You look stupid' or 'People will think you're crazy' playing in my head.

Luckily, Patti reasons that if we worked harder at finding and expressing joy instead of caring so much what others think (and judging others who do things differently than we do), we would all find more time to dance and create joy. (Sounds way more fun than criticizing others anyway...)

So...what's your dance of joy?!

Conclusion: Practice joy, inner joy that makes me want to dance, even in the post office line. Practice being curious, it has much more power to produce good than being judgmental.

Extra tip:

If you haven't seen it already, watch Matt dance all over the world!