Live Quality
If you want to give Joy to someone that really changes person’s life, the best thing you can do is make the person you’re trying to help a participant in the process.
Don’t hold back! Participate with enthusiasm: You’ll have more fun, feel more present and discover a wellspring of satisfaction.
Learning to Participate
Much of what we learn about participation we learn as children. It is almost impossible for young children not to fully participate in every aspect of life. Each moment is a magical doorway into some new experience. One valuable skill we learn during childhood is how to detach ourselves a bit from our experiences, so that we can begin to evaluate and make sense of them. This is a natural occurrence, and in a balanced environment we learn when we can be fully immersed in our experience and when we can afford to (or should) get some distance from it.
Unfortunately, most of us do not live in a particularly balanced environment. Too often, our modern culture encourages us to habitually check out of life before we’ve begun to fully experience it. Television, in particular, has taught us how to inhabit the passive part of our minds and to stay out of our own visceral, authentic emotions.
This can happen in the classroom, too, if we aren’t fascinated by the material or regularly engaged in experiential learning. And, of course, it happens at work: If we feel we are punching a clock and going through the motions, we may end up divesting our participation there, too.
Push Me, Pull You
When many of our hours are spent engaged in activities to which we may not be enthusiastically or authentically connected, it may feel like it’s enough (or all we can handle) just to watch events, much as one would watch television, instead of participating. But humans were never wired to be passive viewers. Without real, kinesthetic experiences to balance passive “viewing” behaviors, we may wind up disconnected from the very things that could bring us joy.
What are the rewards for participating enthusiastically in life?
1. Increased vitality and energy
2. More awareness of your surroundings; richer interactions
3. Satisfaction with your life and your choices
4. Enthusiasm is viral in nature — it is contagious!
5. Enthusiasm keeps the body young and healthy”
How do you know when you are not participating?
1. Silently criticizing or judging others
2. Holding yourself back when in group activities
3. Unable to be fully in the moment.
