An invitation to answer boldly, gently, honestly even if you're new to this
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A message on excitement🌿 by The Easeful Place.
Happy Jupiter day. I hope the day has offered moments of ease through people, places, memories, pages or any other source. Showing up in your inbox today to touch on a topic that is close to my heart: living a life in alignment with what excites and gets you up and out of bed each rising. A nudge towards what lives in your heart with joyful simplicity.
The prompt that led me here, writing to you from my hammock, sipping ginger cacao and trying to stay on schedule, is this one:
What deeply matters to you?
The question, though simple, asks for a level of honesty and bareness that might be easy to underestimate. What deeply matters is the step beyond what you care about. It is also beyond the questions ‘what are you working on?’ or ‘what are your obligations?’. It is a call to examine what is truth, unignorable, core in your existence.
I see the question as a prompt to speak life into our values. To know and name them and feel the rush of joy as it returns to us, that gush of affirmation. Our values may change through our lives and evolutions, which is why the second part of the question might be useful too - what once mattered that no longer does? Together, these questions help us listen to the most current version of self and move towards the brave task of welcoming those values into our every day. Aligning with what matters to us helps us to stop squeezing ourselves into spaces and identities that we have outgrown and it helps us to, gently but boldly, end the cycle of abandoning ourselves and what is ignited deep within us.
Living in alignment with our deepest excitement is the greatest gift to our soul, which becomes the greatest gift to those who we serve, who in turn feel inspired to examine and revive their own excitement.
It’s a cycle of becoming unafraid of who we would like to be, seeing that who we would like to be is intertwined with what we naturally are excited to do at a soul level. I.e. it is who we already are. There are several opportunities to tap into our power to affirm our wants and excitements.
One example is the question “What do you do?” As a born and raised Londoner, this question was normalised from young. I understood that it was not a question of what I actually fill my time doing, but what I do for work, what I must do to survive in a society that has made survival central to being here. Our jobs, our commitments, our contributions to systems and societies (that don’t always align with what we believe in), isn’t at all to be confused with what we came to Earth to do. We absolutely are at a point in humanity where we do spend the majority of our time working, over-working, sometimes sacrificing a well-balanced lifestyle for a version of financial stability. But this still isn’t all that we can speak to when we describe what we do. It’s important that we hold space for ourselves as separate from our labour. The question itself deserves a fuller and widened answer.
So let’s be honest, bold, gentle with this question.
It invites real-life wonder, pause, a moment to explore what it is that we choose to exchange time for with our doing, what lives in our bodies, what lives rent-free in our mind. We get real about what we aspire to do for the rest of our time here, or tomorrow. We learn to notice what we do in our mornings, night times and everything in between.
In the above diagram there are a few questions to prompt wider exploration of the initial question. Feel free to recreate this in your own journal time. It is an opportunity to create a new way of expressing to self first and later to others, who you are and what truly matters to you.
Some more starters to prompt what might matter to you:
✺ Things I like to do to show up for my bloodline or chosen family
✺ Things I like to do to support my self-exploration journey
✺ Things I like to contribute to my community or wider society
✺ Things I like to make and create
✺ Things I like to learn about
There are other categories that you can add to align with your lifestyle. Feel free to personalise these prompts. Hopefully this will help you branch out your response the next time you’re asked so, what you do? It is an exercise taken from the ‘Return to Self’ guided journal itself (officially launching June 6th) and, hopefully, will guide you towards normalising talking about yourself in full and create an opening for others to also introduce themselves beyond the rigid structures of what they do for work and labour. Here is my response after responding to the prompt:
I write letters to strangers and friends. I journey and pay attention to places and corners of the world that I feel a connection to. I cackle and silent laugh to the point of tears with my loved ones, especially my sister. I hold safe space for ease and encouragement. I make sanctuary out of the homes I live in. I buy books and I read, reread, lend, and wear most of them out. I cook nourishing meals and write my recipes in a cookbook I hope to pass on. I learn about healing and health from ancient teachings for mind and body. I practice yoga daily. I wonder. I journal my deepest thoughts. I make mistakes, learn from them. I try to live life slowly and intentionally. I rewild myself. I do what I can to follow my excitement.
What matters to you? Feel free to share in the community corner. Also, thank you to those who shared music for the curated playlist for the ‘Return to Self’ journal. You definitely got the vibe and added some goodness to it.
The 'Return to Self' Journal Workbook Launch Event
On Saturday June 7th, 10.30am - 12pm CST, we’ll gather for The Easeful Place journal workbook launch event to recentre, write, explore, and share joy and good company with each other. It will be a gathering for long-time and newbie journalers and those who enjoy sharing space with a mindful and aligned creative community. I can’t wait to be in community with you.
The ‘Return to Self’ event ticket includes your copy of the guided journal workbook, the first curated journal by The Easeful Place. There will be plenty of time for solo and communal exploration of the prompts. If this sounds like you, feel free to join us.
If these letters, events and our journal offerings are aligned and supportive, please consider sharing it with a friend. Feel free to share the invite to our launch event with your friends and community who you'd like to share space with. Gratitude in advance for helping us get the word out. Until the next letter.
Love,
Amara Amaryah
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