I have labelled this section of my blog “Ebullient Life” and I thought maybe I should explain what that means for me. There is an amazing woman, Danielle LaPorte, who has created a fantastic program called the Desire Map. In her book called The Desire Map, she leads us through a process to find what she calls our core desired feelings. She uses lessons from her heart and exercises to work through, to figure out exactly how we want to feel in our lives. It is so common for us to say what we want to be, what goals and ambitions we have, but not very often do we say how we actually want to feel achieving those things or how we want to feel once they are achieved. For example, we can say we want to become rich. That’s all fine, but how will this make you feel? Will this make you feel happy, relaxed, freedom, divine, radiant, or what? We can think we want to have certain things in life, be if they don’t make us feel how we want to feel, are they really worth it?

After working through The Desire Map book, I came up with 4 core desired feelings.  One of them is ebullient, which means, “having or showing liveliness and enthusiasm”. I was trying to come up with the feeling I get when I am dancing at a concert, especially concerts with bluegrass music. When I am there in the moment, I feel free, energized, and most of all lively and enthusiastic, aka ebullient. When I’m having a bad day, I try to stop and think, ‘Is this how I want to feel? No, I want to feel ebullient’. It often helps me turn a blue mood into a much better one.

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to spend 3 days with great friends and amazing music at the John Hartford Memorial Festival in Bean Blossom, Indiana. I counted the hours and I was on my feet dancing (or at least swaying) for 29 hours! My friends will tell you that I was feeling pretty darn ebullient. The key now is to bring that feeling home with me, to remember exactly how I was feeling during those hours, and to put that feeling into practice as much as possible in my regular life.

Since I have been working on my core desired feelings, I can honestly say that I am a much more content person, generally. Of course, I have my bad days, but now I am able to jump right back up, get back on those positive feelings, and not linger too long with the bad ones. It is always good to take a break from life, from the computers, deadlines, responsibilities, etc., and just feel ebullient for awhile. I am sure glad I got the chance recently and now I am more clear on how I want to feel as much as possible. I wish much ebullience to you during those fun breaks, but also in your daily life. What makes you feel ebullient?

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