How Do You Shine?

Here’s a glimpse into how my mind works. It’s February and we have a bright, sunny day today. I love sunny days and as I was writing this sentence at my favorite coffe shop I just overheard, “It’s a bright, shiny day today.” Isn’t it interesting how things line up? So back to how my mind works – I was enjoying the sunny day and how shiny things look, which brought me to the question of “How do you shine?”

We often spend a lot of time figuring out how to fix things in our lives and little time recognizing how we truly are shining. What if this week you thought about the times in your life when you were truly shining, you were being yourself, full out? What if this week you decided to be who you are without toning it down? What might that look like?

An even more basic question is can you allow yourself to think about those times that you were shining? Sometimes people have difficulty letting themselves think about their shining moments even in the quiet of their minds. It somehow feels boastful or not humble for them. If that sounds familiar I encourage you to let it go and bask in the joy of letting yourself experience your magnificence. I know that this is hard for some people and yet please let yourself reflect about those moments in your life when you were shining. And, for many of you it will not be difficult at all to think about how you shine. Let your mind relish in those moments.

I figured it was only fair that I share some of my moments to give you a few examples. And, to be perfectly honest, I started this paragraph several times before I could write it. In fact, at first my mind went blank. So, deep breath, and here are some times when I shine. Another start. I wrote a few sentences and then deleted them. So, here I go again. The question I have to ask myself is how am I when I don’t tone myself down? How am I in the world when I am fully who I am without holding back?

One of the times that I shine is when I am giving Life Energies and Life Purpose workshops. It is so much a part of my very being that I love working with groups of people and guiding them to the experience of knowing themselves and the people around them more deeply than they have before. When creating a fun and meaningful experience for others it is a time that I shine. As I write this I feel like I have to clarify what I mean by shining. I mean it in the sense of me being fully who I am and not in the “look at me and what I am doing” sense.

When I am hanging out with friends and family, talking and laughing, I shine. I am fully present and this is absolutely one of my very favorite things to do. I love to talk about life and simply be.

Every year around New Year’s my nieces, nephew, brother, sister-in-law and significant others come to stay with us for several days for “Cousins Christmas.” During those days I feel like I am fully myself and go with the flow. It is a time to laugh, explore, talk, and again, simply be.

Many years ago I volunteered to co-chair a referendum for my local elementary school district for a $10.9 million building bond. I went into the experience knowing that my life purpose of guide could make a difference to the process. I jumped in fully and worked with some incredibly talented and committed people to help pass that referendum. It was a time of fully shining for me, and for the people that I worked with. We were doing what we loved and being who we were.

So, you can see from these examples that fully shining can look many different ways. Allowing yourself to remember them helps you to focus on the uplifting moments in your life and creating many more shining moments. How do you shine?