Once upon a time in an acting class far, far away…I observed a critique where a very astute acting teacher told the student they “phoned in” their performance. He didn’t “show up” as the character he was playing in the scene. As a result the scene fell flat and we never really got a sense of what was going on.

It’s easy to “phone in” life. We’re all very busy. We don’t call each other anymore – we text. We don’t wait until we get home to go over emails, we have Blackberry’s so we can respond on the run. We even drive-in to get our coffee. It’s almost natural these days to be so busy that we don’t make time to be fully present and show up.

Life changing events cause us to show up. Last week I had the pleasure of working with the very talented performance coach and dance teacher, Cindera Che, who I fondly call the dance alchemist. The event was Boa Me Beautiful where women have the opportunity to explore their sensuality and inner power through dance and show up in some way to themselves and the audience. It was a transformational journey for me. How can I express in words what is only experienced on a deep personal level. I won’t even attempt it. All I know is, I showed up as a dancer that night but more importantly I showed up as a more powerful and present – me. Another example – a friend just told the man she loves that she can’t handle the way he doesn’t give full attention to their relationship. She showed up for herself in that moment by telling him what she really needed. She will miss the relationship, but she’s now in a better relationship with herself. That is real loving.

Death and birth usually catapult us into a place where we must show up. Everything seems to change and we’re more present than ever before. Even if we don’t have an event that compels us to show up in our lives, we can go to that still quiet space within ourselves and explore where we’re not showing up and go that extra mile. Don’t phone it in anymore. You’re worth too much. Tomorrow we celebrate Valentine’s Day. Give yourself the best gift of love – You… fully present to your life.

Filed under: INSPIRATION, LIFE by myoshun