{"id":875,"date":"2012-01-09T23:07:57","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T04:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katrinakenison.com\/?p=875"},"modified":"2012-01-09T23:07:57","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T04:07:57","slug":"wholeheartedness-practice-and-a-book-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wholeheartedness-practice-and-a-book-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Wholeheartedness practice — and a book for you"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last week, I wrote about wholeheartedness, a word that truly seemed to pick me, rather than the other way around, for 2012. On New Year\u2019s Day, my last morning at Kripalu, having accepted my word, I decided that I would simply allow myself to live into it.<\/p>\n

Moment by moment, I would try to do the loving thing, whatever that might be. Instead of second guessing myself, worrying about what might happen next, or trying to come off a certain way, I would set my foot down firmly on the side of love over fear. And so, at the risk of being the one who loves more, I sat down and wrote a note to a friend, just to say, “you are important to me.” At the risk of being silly, I emailed my husband to tell him I love him, as much when we\u2019re apart as when we\u2019re together. At the risk of seeming mushy, I let my son Henry know how much it meant to me that he was willing to spend the New Year\u2019s weekend eating brown rice and doing yoga with his mom, instead of hanging out with his friends.<\/p>\n

Back at home, I made dinner for the family, lit the candles, held my kids\u2019 hands as we said grace together, and, at the risk of appearing vulnerable, allowed my full heart to overflow. The next morning, Henry and Steve left early for the airport and Henry\u2019s flight back to Minnesota, and I went hiking, arriving at the top of Pack Monadnock in time to watch the sun come up. Standing there alone on the top of a wind-whipped mountain at dawn, overcome by a sense of awe at the vastness and beauty of this world, I also realized that I felt more connected to myself than I have in a long while, a little more at ease in my skin and a little more accepting of the raw intensity of my own emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWholehearted,\u201d it seemed, wasn\u2019t really a resolution I had to keep. In fact, it felt more like a choice, one I could make moment to moment, a way of inhabiting my life that feels akin to faith. Faith that life is already good, faith that I already have what I need, faith that I\u2019m enough as I am, faith that things are just fine as they are, and faith that, no matter what the circumstance and even when I don\u2019t have a clue what to do, the loving thing is always my best bet. What a relief. And what a revelation. I kind of thought I\u2019d just invented a whole new concept: Wholeheartedness!<\/p>\n

I went home and had breakfast with my son Jack, and then I sat down to write a blog about Wholeheartedness. Within a few hours of posting it, as I read through the thoughtful, generous comments on this site and on Facebook, I learned, of course, that there is already an entire Wholehearted Living movement afoot — and that I’m just one more latecomer to the wholehearted conversation.<\/p>\n

No matter. I am happy to be here, thrilled to jump in and learn more, to share what I discover, and to encourage you, too, in the words of Wholeheartedness pioneer Brene Brown, to \u201clet go of who you think you\u2019re supposed to be and embrace who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have just finished reading Brene\u2019s wonderful book, \u201cThe Gifts of Imperfection\u201d<\/a> and can\u2019t recommend it highly enough. My own copy is full of folded pages and underlined passages.<\/p>\n

A passage about courage particularly resonates with me. The root of “courage” is cor<\/em>, Latin for “heart.” And in one of its earliest forms the word “courage” meant something very different than it does today. Courage meant “To speak one’s mind by telling one’s whole heart.” This, I realize, is what is required of all writers. It’s how I want to live. It’s how I want to be in relationship with the people I love. And, well, speaking and writing honestly about who we really are and what we’re really feeling is scary stuff. “Ordinary courage,” Brene suggests, “is about putting our vulnerability on the line.”<\/p>\n

Brene\u2019s TED talk<\/a> on vulnerability and worthiness was one of the top ten TED talks of 2011. Pour yourself a cup of tea, treat yourself to a twenty-minute break, and give it your wholehearted attention. And make sure to visit her terrific blog, Ordinary Courage<\/a>, where, as it turns out, she writes this week about the word that found her for 2012.<\/p>\n

Elisabeth Lesser\u2019s book \u201cBroken Open\u201d<\/a> is a wholehearted manual for living through difficult times. Given to me by a dear friend two years ago, when I was going through a difficult time of my own, it has remained my go-to book when I need to be reminded that every challenge I face makes me stronger, that suffering enlarges my heart, that a \u201cwhole\u201d life includes both light and dark, joy and sorrow, emptiness and fullness. \u201cSo often,\u201d Lesser writes, we \u201ctune out the call of the soul. Perhaps we fear what the soul would have to say about choices we have made, habits we have formed, and decisions we are avoiding. Perhaps if we quieted down and asked the soul for direction, we would be moved to make a big change. Maybe that wild river of energy, with its longing for joy and freedom, would capsize our more prudent plans, our ambitions, our very survival. Why should we trust something as indeterminate as a soul? And so we shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I struggle to write a book I feel uncertain about, agree to speaking engagements that make my knees shake despite being months away, and wonder what, exactly, my nearly grown children still need from me and how to give it to them, I remind myself that nothing really needs to be as complicated as I make it. I don\u2019t have to change who I am, I simply have to be<\/em> who I am. I can tune in to the call of my soul. I can live wholeheartedly. I can embrace the gift of imperfection. I can do the loving thing and trust that love really is enough.<\/p>\n

I am seriously thinking about creating a Wholehearted Playlist<\/strong>; when I do, I\u2019ll share it. Meanwhile, here\u2019s the song I\u2019ve played a couple of times every single day since January 1, just to remind me of who I really am \u2013 and of how a really great song can set the tone for an entire day. Have a listen to Girish’s “Diamonds in the Sun,” definitely my song for 2012.<\/p>\n

02 Diamonds In the Sun<\/a><\/p>\n

What piece of music says \u201cwholehearted\u201d<\/strong> to you? Leave a comment here \u2013 or, better yet, a suggestion for the Wholehearted Playlist — and you may win a copy of Brene Brown\u2019s \u201cThe Gifts of Imperfection.\u201d<\/a> I would love to share her work with all of you, but since I can\u2019t do that, I\u2019ll choose two names at random after midnight on January 16<\/strong> to receive the books.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to singing our song in this new year, wholeheartedly!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I wrote about wholeheartedness, a word that truly seemed to pick me, rather than the other way around, for 2012. On New Year\u2019s Day, my last morning at Kripalu, having accepted my word, I decided that I would simply allow myself to live into it. Moment by moment, I would try to do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20,26,27,8,43,44,14,49,15],"tags":[101,104,149,161,190,256,316,413,424,461,470],"class_list":{"0":"post-875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-acceptance","8":"category-books","9":"category-faith","10":"category-family-life","11":"category-parenting","12":"category-practice","13":"category-reading","14":"category-soul-work","15":"category-writing","16":"category-writing-and-reading","17":"tag-brene-brown","18":"tag-broken-open","19":"tag-diamonds-in-the-sun","20":"tag-elizabeth-lesser","21":"tag-girish","22":"tag-kripalu","23":"tag-ordinary-courage","24":"tag-ted-talk","25":"tag-the-gifts-of-imperfection","26":"tag-vulnerability","27":"tag-wholeheartedness","28":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/600x600.png?fit=600%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}