How did you go telling Tom to take a hike on Monday? (And then Tuesday, and Wednesday, and… it takes practice :))

Did you at least listen to your heart a bit and get a little clearer on your message?

If you’ve got your message, AWESOME. (High five’s and whoop, whoop’s from me to you.)

Now what do you do with it?

For Buddha’s sake, don’t ignore it!

Personally, I did. I muffled that message for an eon.

The intoxicating climb up the proverbial corporate ladder quashed any existence of that heartfelt voice from within.

“Climb higher”, Tom Foolery would say. “You’ll be happy once you reach the next rung.”

But that wasn’t enough.

“Nope. There’s another rung that’s even more attractive. Just one more rung. One more. And then you’ll be happy.”

Nope. Still not.

What was I supposed to do then?

If I wasn’t this corporate career driven chick with the salary not to be scoffed at, then who was I?

“Help others,” was the whisper from my own heart.

But, but, but how? In what way? It’s impossible. I’m so ingrained on this path, there’s no way I can get off, is there? I mean, I’m too entrenched. I’m too entangled in the web. I have too many material commitments. I can’t. I simply can’t. No. No. I’m going to stay right where I am. (Hello Tom moonlighting as fear.)

“Help others,” it said again.

Nope. Not gonna work. I need to go on a holiday. That’s what I’ll do. They always help. I just need to gain some perspective. I’m just tired.

And I went away.

But I didn’t just go on any normal holiday. I went and volunteered, teaching infant Indigenous Central Americans (in Spanish mind you. And no, I’m certainly not fluent there).

It was nothing short of life altering. These children, who sometimes worked two hours on their parents farm before walking the hour and a half to school, who mostly lived in mud huts for houses, who sometimes were without a home due to the incessant rain, who never had power, who sometimes passed away from smoke inhalation because burning a fire in their mud huts was the only way to keep warm. These children, who sometimes didn’t make it past their 6^th year, were always smiling. They were always happy. No actually – they were truly, completely joyful.

So why wasn’t I?

Three weeks back and ‘into the swing of things’ and my heart’s voice actually grew so loud that it couldn’t be ignored.

“It’s just post- holiday blues,” a colleague said to me. “You’ll be right.”

But I wasn’t.

Post- holiday blues was something I had come to expect. Doesn’t everyone experience a blue period when they jump back into their normal life post an amazing holiday? Wasn’t it always unbalanced?

“No” my heart said.

So I jumped ship to pursue joy, not just happiness.

But don’t do what I did! For Pete’s, Pity’s and Buddha’s sakes, do not jump without bridging your gaps.

We’ll get to that.

With love

PS. If you’d like to keep up with my posts but sometimes miss them in the facebook quagmire (news feeds), then feel free to pop your email address in here and I’ll make sure you get a summary each week.