One of my mentors and great spiritual teachers taught me the practice of asking myself the question “What would I love?” many years ago. The first time I heard the suggestion of this practice I could feel a wall of resistance wake up in me. What did it matter what I would love? Do we humans always get what it is that we would love? Should we even get what it is we love? What would love about what??? How many times a day do I ask this? Did I love pizza or sushi more? The chatter in my head around this practice ranged from eye-opening awareness around of what I might be blocking to random “nonsense” that served as a much better distraction than stepping into the vulnerability of why it was so hard for me to ask myself that question in the first place. When asked to entertain this as a spiritual practice in my own life I had to first step back and examine my own feelings about desire, joy, receiving and allowing. As I looked at my own internalized messages around these aspects of life I shifted into the awareness that as adults we often let go of the child like innocence around allowing joy in our lives. Watching children play you don’t see their little souls stop to analyze their joy or what they would love in any given moment. Rather what you might see is a sweetness and excitement over the things which bring that little soul joy in the present moment. Children are so present to their experiences in a way in which adults lose the capacity for unbridled presence as we meander through this thing called life. I spent some time sweeping up those internalized messages, particularly about receiving and joy, that were blocking me from being able to notice what it was that I did want or what I would love in any given situation. It was then that I could begin to ask myself the question—“what would I love?” For years this question connected me to my own internal wisdom and guidance about what would bring me joy or what direction I wanted to move in various aspects of my life. Sometimes I listened to the answer to this question and sometimes I chose to ignore the answer (but I did this with choice and intention and not just outside of my own awareness). The longer I engaged in the practice of asking myself what would I love the more I realized that the question itself was bigger than the answer at times. Yes, it was often helpful to check in with myself about what I would love as an outcome in a particular situation. However, the bigger gain was about the willingness to ask the questionand to clear out room for deeper presences and authenticity in my own life. The question became a practice of noticing and inviting joy into my life on a regular basis. The question became about releasing old patterns that were no longer serving me and stepping into my health and highest vibration in the present moment. So, I would ask you to consider how you might be stopping your own energy flow around joy and authenticity in your life? When we step out of old patterns we step into health, vitality, joy, desire, groundedness, and the list goes on. I will lovingly lend you the practice of asking and listening to the question “what would I love?” I would also invite you step boldly into finding your own practices that open the flow of energy into your life and connect you with joy.
