“I want my joy back,” a new Compassion Coaching client said to me, looking both focused and sad. “How in the hell am I living?! I wake up with my mind racing and my heart pounding. I hardly slow down to eat breakfast or look at my children. There has got to be another way. This isn’t living.”

I struggled with that, too.

Years ago, I had an incredible job, but I was commuting long distances. I arrived home tired and with little capacity or energy for my family. I didn’t want to live that way. It took me a long time to make the big decision to drastically change things up. But one day, I was stuck in traffic again, and I knew what I had to do.

My soul was offering me an invitation – to trust. And though there were many unknowns and I was afraid, I knew that I had to honor my truest self. I knew that I had to answer “yes” to the invitation of my soul. And even though I didn’t know what specifically would come, I knew that it was freedom.

Too often, we are going about our day in a way that slowly robs us of our capacity to experience joy. Our inner aliveness feels dull. This isn’t living.

Enough.

How do we “get back” that aliveness? This is an embodied spiritual approach:

1. First for me, it is always pausing.  We have to find some silence in between the moments of our day.  With so many pulls on our energy and attention, we need sacred pauses to connect within.

2. And in that sacred pause, you connect to your inner longing. Don’t deny it – listen to it. The inner longing of my client was to open to joy. My inner longing was to have access to my inner vibrancy when I got home to see my family. Whatever your inner longing is, create the space to connect to that inner longing.

3. Then let that longing and your prayer be spoken as you listen. As you listen, you sense that there is an invitation – a hand stretched out to you – in this very moment to live in a way that honors your truest self. Don’t be quick to solve or fix. Instead, learn to listen. Let your inner longing speak to you.

4. Then begin to honor what your soul speaks to you in little ways as you go about your day. From the way you breathe to what you wear. From how you stand as you wash the dishes from breakfast to how you pause to hug each other before going out the door. Embody the invitation of your soul in little gestures, postures and actions.

I know – that’s not a popular, quick-fix solution. But in the “pausing, connecting, listening, and honoring” what emerges is a call of your soul to freedom. An opening appears. And you know it as truth you must follow.

Every day, my focus is on pausing, connecting, listening and honoring. And as I do, my inner sense of vibrancy has space to rise. My soul speaks to me and I know what I must do. And I do it.

Just so you know – that all sounds too pretty and neat! It’s not a neat, linear process! You’ll feel uncomfortable. You won’t always know what to do. But just keep pausing, connecting, listening and honoring. Truth emerges.

The following passage from my new book, Gems of Delight, is for you. May it support you in answering “yes” to the invitation of your soul to live, speak and love as your soul speaks to you:

The Invitation
By Lisa McCrohan

There is a sacred moment
right now
when you awaken,
you open your eyes,
and you can answer “yes” to
the invitation of your soul
to freely be who you are,
as you are,
standing or dancing
in your power.
Because today,
today, you are honoring
your truest self.
You are answering the call to
live and speak and love
as your soul speaks to you.
And this is freedom.

Lisa McCrohan, © 2015

{I talk, God listens}

Me: “I hear You calling to me. I feel the invitation to aliveness and inner vibrancy. It used to be a soft whisper. Now it is getting louder. But I feel stuck. I don’t feel like I am standing in my power. I’m not going about the day in a way that honors my truest self. This culture of parenting doesn’t agree with me at all. I connect with people more on social media than in person. I eat when I’m anxious. I hurry from one thing to the next. Everyone is rushing. No one really listens deeply because they are in a hurry, holding too much, and feeling stuck just like me.

“And yet, I get it: in this very moment when I wake, I can pause and feel You calling me to live in a way that honors my soul, following Your voice within me – not the voice of the world. You want me to say ‘yes’ to MY soul. You promise me that in doing so in each little moment, I begin to embody a deeper sense of ease, aliveness and inner vibrancy. This is our birthright! And my God, how far we are from it! We are stressed out, burned out, numbed out, in desperate need of a time out. We are under resourced and overwhelmed. Every day! Enough. Enough playing the victim, enough asking someone else to rescue me with some great solution, and enough blaming the world for me feeling this way.

“My freedom lies in waking to this moment and answering ‘yes’ to the call of my soul to live, speak, parent, work, and love as YOU desire. THIS is freedom.”

Prayer: God, I long to make contact with an inner sense of vibrancy. Keep inviting me to go about my day in a way that honors my soul’s voice.

Invitation: Ask yourself, “What would it look like if I started the day in a way that honors my truest self? What if I went the whole day like this?” See an image of yourself. Then go and live it this week. Embody it.

Gems of Delight will be out in May – just in time for Mother’s Day!  I’m publishing with an Indie publishing company – that’s fancy for self-publishing.  It’s been a LOT of work and I’m super proud to self-publish!  You can sign up here to get on my list to learn about special offers and be the first to get the book: