For the first time, I organized an event that inserted inspirational content into a girl’s weekend. The intent for this event, The ViveX, was to have friends gather for their girl weekend and have a keynote that would fuel deeper conversations. Because: Deeper conversations equal stronger connections. Stronger connections equal a confident you. A confident you equals living a joy-filled life.
The event was a great success. We had 50 women attend – and there’s going to be another! But that’s not the point of this blog. I’ve had a lot of people ask me if the event met my expectations. At first, it was hard for me to define because I think I was deep in the forest looking at the individual trees. You know, when you can’t see the forest for the trees, that whole saying. I was too deep into the details to fully experience the event for myself. The ViveX was for others to experience.
That reminded me to pause. Taking time to think back, I did often find myself choked up with emotion during the event. I see now that the feeling was joy–and I’m thankful to be pushed to pause and recognize that. I wanted women to attend this event and be inspired because they would be growing with their friends beside them. I got to see the event’s mission of inspiring joy-filled lives in action. Also, going from an idea to success was a growth journey for me that took more courage than I knew I had within me. Hence, the overflowing joy.
So, here’s my takeaway: Allow yourself a pause to understand what is bubbling up. Feel the feels.
I find that many of us are just blasting through life, blasting through experiences. We forget to acknowledge greatness or even sadness, fun or pain, silliness or sincerity in moments. We become numb when we fail to pause and feel the feelings (or when we purposefully bury them because acknowledging them brings a harsh reality). It begins to poison us and come out in other ways. Sometimes it’s a physical pain, lashing out at others, or excessive drinking, shopping, or negativity. It can also come out in ways like being oblivious to others’ needs.
There were moments along The ViveX event journey where I was carrying self-doubt and exuding negativity. Every time I paused to understand where that was coming from and adjusted my course toward gratitude, my shoulders got lighter and life got fun again. Rather than blasting through junk like a bulldozer, I gave myself the time to understand what my greatness was trying to show me. I applied what I learned and found I became more creative while allowing new and exciting opportunities to come into play.
This experience has also helped me further tune into when I’m working in my flow and following God’s lead versus allowing my ego to lead the way. Looking at the event itself, I can see that I was living in my sweet spot the entire weekend. Overall, I see that the challenging moments in getting to and through the event were helping me become braver—less reserved and more me.
So pause with me and feel the feels. Feel the excitement that comes with the beginning of a new chapter and the opportunity to improve. When things are hard, sad, or scary, feel that crap too. Acknowledge it all because those feelings will impact your next step.
Reflect, savor, understand.
Then decide.
Decide to let the crap be its own crap. You don’t have to own the crap and allow it to come out in some negative version of yourself. Feel it, then decide how you’ll move on in the best way for you and in the way that brings out the best in you. Be intentional with what the crap is teaching you because there is always joy in junk. Use it to grow, love others, and love yourself.
Decide to be intentional with the positive feelings too. Let them provide you with proof of how great you are. Celebrate that!
Use the feels to keep yourself in the space of gratitude. We can’t live in negativity AND in gratitude. We can’t live in fear AND in faith. It’s one or the other; however, we can still recognize the feelings that flow through us and be thankful for what each one is teaching us. It’s being intentional by acknowledging them and putting them to work for you so that you are living your joy-filled life.