Living...Or Just Not Dying?

I saw the movie The Croods this week.  I normally do not go see animated movies as my children are teenagers, but was invited to go with the girl scout troop I will be a part of in the Fall.  It was a good movie about a family, but what is amazing is this, the family moved from fear to fearlessness by the end of the story. 

There was a line in the movie that has resonated with me for the past several days, "that wasn't really living, that was just not dying."  What does this mean really?  We all go through the motions of day to day life almost effortlessly and without thinking.  But, what if we were to stop and notice the life that is happening around us each day, what impact would it have on us?  What if when life throws us curve balls that we intentionally learned how to hit them versus dodging them? 

I spent many years just not dying.  Life went on around me and I did not participate.  As a result of this I ended up in a place of self loathing, anxiety, fear, hopelessness.  I was not living, I was not noticing life, I dodged all the curved balls I could.  There were times that I tried to live, only to sink back into the pit of despair.  In the movie, the father figure said throughout, "always be afraid"  "fear is good"  "fear keeps you alive."  But does it really? 

I discovered in the past 18 months that fear does not lead to living life, however being fearless does!  Living in fear really is no more than letting the thoughts in your head have control over you.  Believing the thoughts of hopelessness, fear, worthlesness is what keeps you in the pit.  However, as you choose to make the journey to your heart and start to listen to what it has to say the fear begins to subside and true life happens.  When the family in the movie met a person who lived life with hope, with courage, with no fear, they at first resisted, but soon discovered all that life had to offer.  They moved from their heads to their hearts and as a result they started living. 

I would love to be able to say to you that I live each day fearlessly...but I cannot.  I allow at times my head to lead me in my day and the result is always the same, I end the day with hopelessness.  But, the good news is that this is a journey!  A bad day does not mean it is over, it means that you are still learning, growing, living.  Being able to recognize this and make the choice to go back to your heart is fearlessness!    We are all on this journey together of learning to live fearlessly in our hearts and to shut down the voice in our head  that can be stress, tiredness, fear, negativity.  What makes the journey so amazing is when we are able to tap into the positive aspects of our hearts such as courage, fearlessness, hope, passion, this when when the dying stops and the lving begins!

So I challenge you, are you living?  Are you each day choosing to shut down the neagative in your head and start listening to the positive in your heart?  Take this journey with me and start living a life you onlu dreamed possible!