My favorite holiday movie is Elf staring starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, and Zooey Deschanel. I’ve watched it about five times in the last three days. The reason I love this movie is Buddy-the-elf’s sense of wonder and child-like innocence. The movie is a reminder of how the world looks to a child. Somewhere deep inside all of us that innocent child still exists.
Best-selling author Barbara Sher has a dream exercise she calls, “reclaiming wonder.” She developed this exercise because in her career of getting people in touch with their dreams she found that many of them were stymied by their everyday burdens. They couldn’t get past their responsibilities to even think about pursuing a long-lost dream, even though they desperately wanted to change their lives.
We spend so much time worrying about what to fix for dinner; when we need to buy new tires; how we are gong to pay for college, and what we need from the grocery store that we forget to stop and see the world as it is happening right in front of us in this very moment.
It’s like Christmas. I bet there are many of you who spent the holiday season in a blur, running around frantically trying to buy gifts, bake, wrap and prep for guests that you neglected to actually stop to look at the changing season, the trees in your yard, the snow on the window, or the bird as it flies across the sky.
We forget to look at the season with the wonder of a child because we are so busy planning our lives … then BOOM another year is over.
Wonder is where dreaming starts. It’s the beginning place. It’s the door you stop to open. In order to change your life and start something new (even if you want to be a top blogger) you have to get back to a place of wonderment like when you saw your first decorated Christmas tree and oohed and awed with delight.
Wonder is where you begin to reclaim your dream and understand what it is that you really love doing. It’s about living in the moment and seeing it for its possibilities, no matter what is happening in your life right now to make you feel otherwise.
How do you bring wonder back?
Here is Barbara’s exercise from her book, “It’s Only Too Late If You Don’t Start Now” …
Reclaiming Wonder
1. Find your favorite dried spice (hopefully it isn’t garlic) but something that you love to smell. Place some of it into a small plastic bag that is easy to access and can fit in your pocket. You can just put the spice directly into your pocket, but if your spice is ground cinnamon, it could get a little messy. You want this spice easily accessible at all times as you go through your day.
Whenever you hang up your phone after a business call, or look at your cell phone, or finish running for the train, bus, taxi, or race across town to pick up your kids, reach into your pocket and squeeze the spice with your fingertips, and watch yourself snap back to the pleasure of wonder.
2. At this very moment take the palm of your hand and touch something near you, like to polished wood of your desk or the fabric on your pants, or sleeve, and pay attention to the sensation. See how many different surfaces you can touch without getting up from your chair. Imagine what the same experience must have been like when you were only a one year old.
3. Discover how many senses respond to the atmosphere outside. Sit somewhere outside or next to an open window and close your eyes. Take in the bluster of winter (or the warmth of the air if you are somewhere warm at this time of year). Take in the quickness of the wind, or the stillness of the air. Notice how much you know about this day without using your eyesight at all.
Listen to the wind blow through the trees, or the rain on the roof, and feel the heat or cold or dampness on the skin of your arm and the wind in your hair, and smell the fires burning, or fresh cut lawns. And notice the extra awareness of quickness or calm or crispness, of hints of memory about days like this or the expectation of rain or snow or nightfall that comes from somewhere harder to name.
Once you’ve taken in all you can with your eyes closed, open them and look around you. Take special note of what shows you the kind of day it is; screen out other distractions. Note the clouds moving, bright shadows or the absence of shadows, dawn or evening light, or the purity of winter.
All this belongs to you. That’s what you’ve lost and what you want back again. And now it rests in your hand.
When you see the extraordinary in the everyday, you’re always on a journey, no matter where you are.
This where you can begin your dream journey. As part of your plan to change your life in the coming year, start first with reclaiming your sense of wonder. Look at all the beautiful things that work in your life right now. There is your ability to read this and you are alive today aren’t you?
Start there. Then get up and go find your favorite spice.
This week promise yourself that you will bring back into your life that sense of childhood wonder.
Catherine
Catherine’s dream is to make 8 Women Dream the premier online publication for women looking to change their lives. She is a published author, known for her humorous speeches on finding your dream life and blogging for fun and profit. Catherine also writes about her life as a mom at the blog, A Week in the Life of A Redhead and several online marketing publications. She would also like to be invited to speak at TED about her observations on people chasing their big dreams. Catherine posts on Sunday evenings and fills in when needed. Join me on Google+ rapieress@aol.com
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