You are allowed to do things differently now. You are allowed to embrace a wholehearted approach to life. Approaching where you are with wholeheartedness is to approach each day with sincere engagement, being fully engaged, where you are and how you can. And when you start to feel unsure if you are being fully present in the “right way,” take a moment to reflect and learn from where you’ve been.
Think about all the moments in your life where you may not have been everything, but you were still able to be engaged in life in a meaningful way. Remember all the times when you were not even thinking about “being present,” and yet, there you were, breathing through each moment, acting with courage, and learning to sincerely engage with life in the way you knew how. This may not have generated the perfect results all the time, and the outcome may not have always been what you hoped or expected. It is okay to acknowledge and grieve that. And at the same time, it is also okay to acknowledge and embrace this very moment as a space in which you are still breathing, and you are free to gently and intentionally explore what it means to live wholeheartedly, right here, in new ways. This could look like:
Finding value in the process of something coming to life, not just the result.
Exploring new paths, even when it means starting over.
Allowing yourself to let love in again
Acknowledging the progress you made, even if it seems small to others
Letting yourself become a lifelong learner in some way, even amidst the doubts that it’s too late.
All of these are examples of embracing the “whole picture” of something: there may be a fear, doubt, or uncertainty, but you’re still open to approaching the situation wholeheartedly. You’re still able to learn from where you’ve been while recognizing, today is still a new day, and you are still free to be fully engaged right here, in pursuit of what could be.
So here’s to letting go of the old expectations of a perfect method for being present right here, and letting yourself embrace this present moment as a space in which you can learn from where you’ve been and do something differently now, with wholeheartedness. – Morgan Harper Nichols
