Have you noticed that you are not feeling joy in life? If you yearn for a sense of completeness and a richer, fuller life, choose to honor your truth. Discover how to find your real truth, the truth that makes you feel alive, rather than the false truth that flattens you.
Many years ago, unhappy in my marriage and not feeling joy in life, I attended a personal growth workshop where I burst into tears, sobbing that I was “living half a life.” My words seem to land in every woman’s heart that day. One of them approached me later to say that she realized that she too was living half a life. She promptly announced that she was leaving her job and moving. She drove off to live in another city. I faced the truth of how I really felt about my marriage and ended it. This was the right choice for me at the time, and in retrospect.
Since then, I have had billions of opportunities to face my truth. Each day, I have to find what is true for me. Sometimes my truth is obvious; my truth moves me into action that feels good and right. Other times I can wrestle with my truth, trying to convince myself that it’s really something else. I don’t know quite why I’m sometimes unwilling to face my truth, because I suffer the consequences. I feel small, incapable, confused, anxious, tired and don’t enjoy life. However, when I find, face and follow my truth, I feel alive, vibrant and joyful. I am courageous and free inside, which results in me feeling enriched by who I am and by the richness of life.
If you are not feeling joy in life, take some time to reflect on what is going on in your heart.
Most importantly, find and honor your truth. Follow the career that calls you deep in your heart, make your business joyful, or launch yourself into the special project that makes your heart sing. Life is too short to settle for second best.
Here are three steps you can take to find your truth:
- 1. Notice what areas in your life drain you or make you feel flat. Look at your work life, your business, your relationships, your time alone, your typical day, your social life.
- 2. Take one area at a time that makes you feel like something is missing or makes you feel like you’re shrinking and tightening rather than expanding with a sense of fullness and joy. Get quiet. Take a few deep breaths, then ask yourself what is your truth?
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3. Listen for the response. Have a conversation with the wise part of you, the part that knows what feels good. You can do this by writing in your journal to help you focus and go deeper.
You will find that life opens up and becomes so much more thrilling when you open up to your truth and act on it. Furthermore, courage builds on itself and you will find that your vitality increases the more honest and courageous you are. Ultimately, you feel joy by honoring who you really are, listening to the wisdom of your heart and following its guidance.
Nicola is the author of the forthcoming book, Joy in the Middle of the Mess: An Evolutionary Adventure on the Quest for Success. One of her greatest joys is to walk and hike in the hills and along the beautiful California beaches, near her home in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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