I embarrassed to admit it, but this lesson has proved to be one of the hardest.
It's learning how to truly savour experiences; to bask and wallow and enjoy life to the max, to not just witness places or events but to really allow ourselves the time and the headspace to soak them in. When we have done it, the experiences have been incredible.
Savoured experiences have included taking the time to imagine what it would have been like to live in the South in 1956, while sitting on Rosa Parks’ bus. Or it was taking an extra few minutes to stand next to Martin Luther King’s desk at his home in Montgomery, Alabama, or next to the piano in the recording studio at Motown in Detroit, and feel the incredible, palpable energy of both. And it has meant really making the most of moments of pure fun – like playing in front of 'the Bean' in Chicago, dancing in the streets in New Orleans, being eaten by dinosaurs in Cabazon, laughing at road signs in Texas, or eating fried green tomatoes and singing along to Motown classics at BB King’s nightclub in Nashville, Tennessee.
It's one thing to enjoy a tourist attraction, it's a whole other thing though to set out to savour every day - the four hour car ride between towns, the grocery shop in yet another supermarket where you have no idea where to find anything, or the cheap hotel room that feels like someone tipped lego all over the floor and then laid the carpet. And it's making enjoying life a priority when you feel like you should be doing more, and trying harder and working longer hours to get two new fledgling careers off the ground.
After nine months we can speak from experience when we say that working around the clock and stressing is not the solution. Time and time again, when we cut loose, let go and just set out to enjoy life, then the amazing things start to happen - opportunities for collaboration, great ideas and income!
We had to drive an awfully long way to discover the value of making feeling good a priority.
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