Do what you love and do it often

I am so happy to introduce Niki Free Spirit the little horse rider!  With a horse shoe for good luck and a rosette for being the best you can be, she wants to share some advice from her favourite horse.

Take life’s hurdles in stride

Loosen the reins

Be free spirited

Keep the burrs from under your saddle

Carry your friends when they need it

Keep stable

Gallop to greatness

– by Ilan Shamir

Niki Free Spirit and her love of horse riding reminded me of how important it is for us to do the things we love, and do them often. But it seems to me that oftentimes, as adults, and especially as parents, we tend to do fewer and fewer things that we love and get caught up in our daily routines, chores and responsibilities. And the days, weeks, months, even years go by.

Isn’t it bizarre that as parents we want to offer our children a myriad of after-school activities, recognising the benefits and how they contribute to their physical, social and emotional development, and how important it is for them to play and have fun.

So why do we decide that because we are adults that doing things that we love and enjoy must go to the bottom of our to-do-list? And why do we justify ourselves and find excuses. I’m too busy or one day I will or when the kids grow up or even when I retire! And yes one can deny that we do not have time because, you know what, none of us are going to live forever.  This video is really worth watching if you can spare a few minutes and want a little inspiration.

 

Do what you love and do it often.

What can be more important than feeling happy in this life? Doing what we love, doing what nourishes us, doing what fills us up and makes us feel alive.

 

 

Be an inspiration to your children and others. Seeking out and honouring in practice what makes us happy surely means we can be stronger when life dishes us a serving of difficulties and challenges and obstacles. Our happy moments can be our life jacket in a stormy sea.

Let’s try to put a bit of doing what we love a higher on our to-do-list and take action.

And last but not least:

”

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

― Howard Thurman

 

Filakia, Sophie