Choose more "YES" in your life! When you participate in something that you love, you experience a natural excitement, a "passionate eagerness." This enthusiasm takes on a life of its own, if allowed to flourish, and seeks more "YES" experience. So, whether you love to garden, write fiction, travel, or have breakfast in bed, the actual doing is so rewarding that it changes you. Its positive reinforcement causes you to be on the lookout for other things you love doing in a very healthy, seemingly subconscious way.

In fact, the word "enthusiasm" comes from a Greek root meaning "God within." Enthusiasm can be sensed as feedback from our internal, Divine guidance system: "YES! Go here!"

A balanced and healthy life, for most people, requires generous helpings of experiences along this emotional spectrum: liking, enjoying, pleasure, fun, loving, bliss, joy, passion, exhiliration. I have worked with clients whose effectiveness in their work and overall satisfaction in their lives increased dramatically when they began to take better care of themselves in this arena.

But many of us have been trained in a different direction. Our work-oriented culture tells us that we should be accomplishing more, not enjoying more. Many of us put our own needs and desires last on our lists, and guess what? We never get to them. If you're able to see this pattern in yourself, then you can change it.

Some of us have not been encouraged to trust our enthusiasm. Marianne Williamson, in her visionary book, A Woman's Worth, points out that as girls, many of us were taught that our passions, our bliss, and our lusts were suspect, and that our natural exuberance was met with disapproval. She writes:

"The lost girl is still within us - the girl who wasn't allowed to blossom, the girl whose natural childhood instincts were unnaturally capped at puberty. . . . We were treated with suspicious looks at the very moments someone should have been turning up the applause. . . . Our most natural impulses were thwarted and distorted. We were like lava channeled into plastic molds."

The antidote? Step toward that YES in your life, find things you love doing and just do them! If you already have a life filled with that, Go You! -- and take it to the next level. If you do not know where to start, here are some ideas:

• Something physical - dance, tennis, exercise, massage
• Something creative - give a party, write an article, decorate a room, paint in watercolors
• Something visual - make art, assemble an outfit, take photographs, draw, plan a garden
• Something tactile - knitting, clay, sailing, needlework
• Something kinesthetic - singing, weaving, gardening, drumming, sports
• Something auditory - music, poetry, theater, being out in the sounds of nature
• Something spiritual - meditate, pray, sing, be with a pet, sit by a lake.

As you do more what you truly love, a joie de vivre comes into being that is truly a thing of beauty.

If you're considering hiring a coach to help you choose yes, contact me for an initial consultation at no charge.

Sources:
Marianne Williamson, A Woman's Worth
Oxford English Dictionary

Copyright 2003, Sharon Teitelbaum, all rights reserved.

Sharon Teitelbaum, http://www.stcoach.com, a Work-Life and Career Coach, works with high achieving women with young children, people at mid-career, and professionals seeking greater career satisfaction and work-life balance. She coaches by phone and in person in Boston. Her newsletter, Strategies For Change, offers practical tips for work-life success.

Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: Restoring Work-Life Balance, Sharon's first book, was published in 2005.

A motivational speaker, Sharon also also delivers keynotes & workshops on work-life issues. Clients include Children’s Hospital Boston, SunLife Financial, Arnold Worldwide, and many parent and alumni groups. She's been featured in national publications including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Working Mother Magazine.

Married for 30 years, she is the mother of two amazing young women.

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