Take Back Your Life!

What I’ve observed in life is that many people do not have the courage to begin the things they really want to do. Sure, they’ll begin something that falls into the default living category. But the juicy life things that will free them from some captured element of themselves — those can be hard to begin. They involve a “go for it attitude” and a leap of self-faith. Unfortunately, the ability to trust ourselves to set our own course in life has been repressed until it’s so well hidden even we can’t find it within ourselves.

The good news: it’s still there. You just need some gentle coaxing to get you to take that first step Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu calls the journey of a thousand miles.

We have many fears about taking that first step: we’ll disappear into journey quicksand, we’ll get lost in the unknown mist, we’ll be scared once we leave the beaten path.

To me those fears are the point. I don’t know where I’m going and scared as I may be, I know that to live a wild, juicy life I need to step into the unknown, embrace it as something that will be cool and unforgettable.

Recently, I was working on a wild painting. I just paint layers and layers of paint until it feels right. Then I step back and stare at the painting to see what wants to be born. Often I think, “Golly I’m just wasting expensive paint and canvas. This is a colorful mess of nothingness.” And it’s usually at that pivotal moment that I see the thing that’s there. That’s what I develop, trusting that I’m going in the right direction. Today that painting  has an Africanized-Buddhaness to it. The universe of my subconscious sent it to me. I never would have picked up a paintbrush and consciously created this thing.

We’ve been trained to be fearful so we do what we’re told, which usually benefits someone other than us. That’s how we develop an artificial fear to begin.

Can you imagine a world with people filled with energy and excitement following their dreams and strengths? Children would not agree to sit at desks for a good 12 years and often 16+ in the name of learning — which happens everywhere every day of our lives. Adults would not sit obediently at desks all day to get a paycheck thinking they had no choice but to toil for another. People would not go to a Town Meeting and be afraid to speak up thinking they’ll look stupid, when it’s the people who long to speak but stay in their seats that end up losing the most. People would not go to the grave with the song still in them.

I think it that world would be a cool place. But the idea of people dancing to their own beat scares the crap out of people who’ve had the crap scared out of them. And so this fear of taking charge of our own lives, this fear of starting something new gets ingrained in our psyches until we can’t do anything without getting permission from some authority outside ourselves.

So, what can you do? 1) First be aware of it. I’ve met people who’ve told me they fely dead inside. I think our society does a nice job suppressing aliveness. 2) Scribble down some things you want to start and why you haven’t. 3) Pick something small and take a step toward it …

That’s why I call this musenews “Take back your life.” Take it back from the folks who took it away from you and step back into it. Most of the malaise out there comes from folks living lives of quiet desperation as Henry Thoreau called the unspoken but pervasive murmur that lives among us. And that was back in the 1800’s. Sure we have more stuff in our bigger homes, but are we living the lives we want?

Yours in following my own life curriculum,

Giulietta “Julie” Nardone

p.s. one seat left in How To Live A KickAss Life (Rather Than A Life That Kicks You In The Ass). Tuesday nights in July, in Holliston. For women who want to be less well behaved. Please click “KICKASS” for more info: