To Enjoy It – Woodbury-wellness

When was the last time you woke up and your number one goal was to see how much fun you could have that day? Can you remember a feeling when you were a kid waking up and all you could think about was how excited you were for the day, for a specific adventure, to see your friends? When was the last time you went to bed, filled with joy, almost out of breath from all the pure fun you had that day? When was the last time you had an awful day, out of your control, but you still found moments of fun, and that’s what you remember the most?

As you’ll read woven in through some of these posts, I recently lived a year in Colombia. Yes, you bet correctly, it was an adventure- one that shook me to my core, waking me up to a lot, digging very deep inside myself, and overall showing me a lot of beauty in life. When I got there, my Spanish was beginner at best. I did immediately start to pick up on the common way for people to say goodbye, “Disfruta!” English translation, “Enjoy!” It was used any time of day. Example: as I went off to the next part of my evening, friends and strangers alike would wish me to enjoy whatever I was off to do by saying “Disfruta!” It was around this time, at age 35, where I really began to realize, and prioritize, the importance of actually ENJOYING it- whatever it was in the day.

Right about now, I’m guessing you’re thinking, life is not that easy to be able to enjoy all the time. I’ll be the first to acknowledge life is not naturally full of all rainbows, bliss and easy times. Trust me, I have experienced incredibly challenging, painful, seemingly impossible times. I get it. I’m not saying you always should find enjoyment in everything. Rather, I am saying that we need to make it a conscious habit to prioritize enjoying the small moments that make up this life.

In other words, I feel that ‘enjoying it’ can be phrased as lightening up, BEING PRESENT, and choosing fun. For example, if you are in a huge executive job, of course you will have stress at work. What if, while driving to work each day, you make it a priority to genuinely enjoy a few people you are going to meet with that day? Even more importantly, driving home, after making that big pay check for the week, you prioritize ENJOYING the present moment with your spouse and kits, living in gratitude for that nice home, feeling the nourishment of the food that paycheck buys you.

This also doesn’t mean you should be lazy. Quite the opposite, both working hard and fun are possible simultaneously. I have traveled much of the world, lived abroad and lived around the US. As much gratitude as I do have for the United States, I have seen that there is an obsession on being productive, over-working and accomplishment in our culture. It is woven through our society that to be happy, you need to be successful at minimum, overachieving at best. I am the first to admit that for most of my life, my self worth came from my career success. I am grateful to be from a family that praised education and career. I am also grateful to have found my own way, learning to evaluate my success on how much I genuinely enjoy life, how healthy I feel, and how much I’m surrounded by people I love.

Another example of this is my life chapter of working in skydiving. I worked in Corporate America (another story) for 10 years, then bravely broke left that world to follow my dream of becoming a successful skydiver instructor. I traveled the world and was determined to change peoples’ lives with skydiving (another story!). When I first broke away from corporate life, I enjoyed the first 3 months whole heartedly. You’ll see photos where my eyes were glowing, I was laughing, I was – yes- ENJOYING. Then, I became obsessed- obsessed with becoming a successful skydive instructor, obsessed with achieving a high skill level, obsessed with building a successful coaching business. The enjoyment dropped, I was not present, I didn’t enjoy my romantic relationship fully, I didn’t value the communities I was around- I was obsessed. With a few small changes, I could have easily enjoyed AND been successful. I look back at those days, now three years ago, and have major regrets about not enjoying it more.

Life, our loved ones and friends are far from perfect. No job will every be perfect. No stage of life will every be 100% perfect. We, ourselves, will never be perfect. What is perfect? Nature. Finding a way to laugh. Jumping in the ocean. Full presence in whatever you’re doing. Fully observing your kid’s innocence as the explore. Gratitude. Fully feeling sunlight, the breeze, seeing clouds roll over you. Doing something just for fun. Kissing. Taking a detour. Putting music on and dancing. Be goofy. Taking a walk without your phone. Doing anything without your phone 😉 Climbing a tree. Doing something wild. Skinnydipping. Choosing a hobby you’ll never be perfect at, but you enjoy 1000%. Randomly doing something nice for somebody. Doing a cannonball in the pool. Giving a genuine compliment. Speaking with kindness. Looking people in the eye and truly listening to them. Smiling. Feeling someone’s energy when you hug them.

What if you fell asleep at night planning to do one of those activities the next day, woke up in the morning overjoyed that your day was going to include that activity, and then fall asleep that night, focused on the enjoyment you had? Just last night, I was in a challenging moment. I set my sights on today, to get up up and walk with my new ankle weights to beach yoga. I woke up, excited for my plan. I put those ankle weights on (yes they work!), walked in the sunshine, showed up to yoga and got everyone laughing, including myself, about my ankle weights. Today my day is incredible because I chose to seek joy this morning. Enjoyment and joy are a choice; they are a daily practice. They are something you have to consistently choose to prioritize. You are capable of this prioritization. You are capable of enjoying moments of every single day. You have this light in you and if you start looking, you are surrounded by this light too.

Much love,

Woodbury

Majorca, Spain: