7 Ideas For Fully Enjoying Life

Stop Talking. Start Doing.

We mill around, waiting for it to begin, strangers except to say “hello” in this room. The teacher enters, turns down the lights, and starts the music, and we are no longer strangers—we are one.

An hour flies by, and I think of nothing but enjoying myself with the rest of the class, with the grandmother from Russia who doesn’t speak a word of English but has a huge smile on her face and the teenager beside me bouncing with happiness. We are all ages, all ranges of ability, all together, all laughing, and all thoroughly enjoying each other and ourselves.

How does this joy happen?

It begins with the teacher.

I have taken this kind of class from three different teachers. One marks the steps, one teaches it as if it were an exercise class, and the other dances her heart out, leading the class with joy and the pure happiness of moving to the music. It’s easy to know which class I choose to attend.

Taking the class are women of all ages, from 18 to 80. This inclusiveness gives us all permission to be ourselves. No one is trying to compete with another. Instead, every way of moving is accepted and celebrated because we are doing it and not talking about doing it.

Who is not enjoying themselves?

The only ones who don’t seem to enjoy themselves are the ones who can’t bring themselves to participate fully. Judging either themselves or others is a barrier to experiencing the joy that the rest of us are experiencing.

The community keeps me going. If I were doing these classes at home, I would be bored and walk away. Instead, the community carries me forward, long past when I would have stopped if I was doing it by myself.

When someone doesn’t show up for a few sessions, people notice and ask where they are, and if they don’t get a suitable answer, someone follows up to ensure everything is okay.

All this happens because the teacher fully and completely expresses herself with joy and passion. She is adventurous and curious. Often, during class, she will lead us to a different way to do the same move, exploring various ways to have fun.

However, there is another key point. She is expressing herself with skill. She knows what she is doing. She picks the right music. She plays it at the right sound level and says the right things.

We are all teachers, whether or not we like it!

All of us are teachers. Perhaps we don’t have the label of "teacher,” but just by living our lives, we are setting an example and leading the way. Why not do it with skill and fully express ourselves with joy?

It’s easy, really. It just takes a shift of perception.

If we approach a task—say grocery shopping—with the idea that it is a chore, it takes time away from something else, there’s not enough money to get what we want, we feel overwhelmed with other things that need to be done, it’s crowded, the timing is bad, it’s hard to get to, oh my... I could go on and on, which I know we all do sometimes, and then what we do wastes time.

How to shift what we are thinking to benefit ourselves and others.

However, we can shift it to something like this: “What a blessing it is that there is a place for me to find what I need, and how grateful I am that others have worked to provide this place for me. How lovely that I can participate for this brief time with a community of shoppers who, like me, are being provided for in this way.”

“I am grateful for the exchange of money for substance. I am grateful that all timing belongs to the divine, whose timing is always perfect. What a gift that I can experience this abundance of supply and share that experience with others.”

Yes, I could go on and on in this way too, and my experience at the grocery store will be far from unpleasant, with the bonus that I contribute to others having a joyful time at the store, too.

As I thought over why this teacher is so successful in this class, I came up with seven ideas that we can apply to our own lives and, in doing so, lift others and ourselves into the atmosphere of joy.

Seven ideas for fully enjoying life.

• Fill your heart with joy and express it openly.

• Be adventurous and curious.

• Gather a community (family, club, cohort, or tribe) that supports and encourages each other.

• Make it possible for many kinds of people to find your community.

• Find a way for members to be completely involved.

• Enjoy others for what they are, not for what you wish they were.

• Commit to becoming more skilled at what you bring to the community.

We can see how these ideas can apply to our home or business life, and in doing so, we are actively shifting the worldview and its activities from lack and greed to abundance and sharing.

Actually, then we will fulfill the promise that we are the “light of the world,” and each day will be the one “the Lord hath made.”

All of this happens with no effort on our part other than letting go of what we want people, places, and things to be like and relaxing into the guidance, creativity, and joy of Love.

Books for Shifting Perception.