What Happens When We Ask The Question ‘Why’

There I stood, in the middle of a large conference event room with the eyes of thousands of people on me. Thousands of eyes waiting for me to step closer to the microphone and thousands of ears waiting to hear what it was I had stood up to say. I hadn’t planned on standing up or raising my hand or drawing any sort of attention to myself. I am that quiet introvert that prefers to keep silent in my chair surrounded by a sea of people. But sometimes something larger than yourself has a different plan and lets nothing stand in the way of being heard.

As the MC walked down a nearby aisle and scanned the audience for people who wanted to tell their story and share their personal ‘why’ for being there, I was having quite the emotional breakdown in my chair. I couldn’t understand it, but my heart was beating up in my throat and I felt a strong clenching in my stomach that was getting tighter and tighter as the energy in the room grew more intense. So it must have been the expression on my face that made him suddenly stop, look directly at me and then hold out his hand for me to join him in the aisle. Instinctively I stood and walked into the safety and comfort of his left arm that wrapped around me as I drew closer. ‘What was I doing here and what was I going to say?’ I asked myself silently as I noticed all the expectant faces in the audience.

As I attempted to pull myself together and release the invisible frog that had lodged itself at the back of my throat, I felt my entire body surrender to the moment and to the words that were aching to get past my lips. Words that had not originated in my mind. I opened my mouth to speak into the microphone and that is the last moment I remember. No more than a couple of minutes after I had stood up, I hear the audience applauding and notice the smiling faces, as well as the tearful and misty eyes, as I gaze out into the crowd. ‘What the hell just happened?’ I heard the voice inside me ask.

The experience of receiving a message and then being granted the ability to have that message flow through me for the benefit of thousands of people is not something I am likely to forget. After sitting back down in my seat, I literally felt like I had been ‘used up’. Like a big wave of brilliant energy had come down through the top of my head, into my heart and then out through my lips. I was energized and depleted all at the same time. My whole body was vibrating (shaking) and tuned in to a frequency that was resonating throughout the room.

The question asked had been an important one – Why? Why are you really here today? What is the dream on your heart? Any answer you receive to a question like that is not something you tuck away in a notebook, stick on your bookshelf and save for a rainy day. Rather it is one that you contemplate, consider and meditate on. You begin to look for the signs, the outposts and the markings along the path to guide you in your quest to fulfill on that very thing. Like your very life depends on it. Because perhaps it actually does.

The answer wasn’t one I expected, but it was exactly the one I needed to hear and I suspect many in that room needed to hear as well. We are more similar than we let ourselves believe. In speaking with others throughout the rest of the weekend, the conclusion I came to was that we are all seeking our own version of what I had called ‘a better way’ during my 2 minutes of fame.

At the heart of the message was this: So many of us dream of a quality to our life that has us slowing down. That takes us out of the rat race and puts us on a purposeful, soul-guided path at a pace we set and that feels good to us. We dream of spending more quality time with our close friends and loved ones, being able to nurture those relationships that are most important to us. We dream of financial freedom, peace of mind and the ability to be of service to others. We dream of building successful businesses we can be proud of. We dream of travel, exploration and adventure. We dream of love and partnership.

Don Miguel Ruiz, renowned spiritual teacher and internationally recognized author, teaches us in his book ‘The Four Agreements’ that the world we are living in is actually a grand illusion and is not the dream of our own making. We must awaken ourselves to the dream that is within us, the dream that is on our hearts. This experience brought me greater clarity and fuel for my own dream.

Nearly a year later, I find myself in the beginning stages of creating a movement and business platform called Juicy Conscious Living (JCL). JCL is about cultivating a lifestyle that includes pleasurable, sensual experiences and practices for the body, mind and soul while also making conscientious, heart-centered choices for how we show up in the world in service of the greater good. JCL is a global community of like-minded individuals who will change the world by listening first to the dream that is on their heart.

If you recognize yourself in anything that I’ve shared here, I'd love to hear from you in the comments below. And if you're ready for more, I’m looking for people just like you to be part of an organically evolving team that will bring the promises of JCL to life. To schedule a delicious conversation with me about that possibility, please send me a note at: [email protected].