Just laying here. Feeling beautiful.

In today’s A Course In Miracles for Badasses app by Pam Grout, I am reminded of a story I had once heard but since forgotten. And it totally turned my morning around:

Robert Holden is an amazing British author and A Course In Miracles teacher. He shares that when his daughter was four, he found her one day outside in the garden — gazing up toward the sky and smiling in huge joy.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said as he joined her.

“Hi, Dad!” she responded.

“Whatcha doin’?”

“Just laying here. Feeling beautiful.”

In that moment, I realized I have been heading down a path of mental ick this morning. Absorbing external complaints disguised as conversation in order to keep a connection. Apprehensive about an upcoming meeting. Both thrilled for and envious of another’s situation, and not at all proud of the latter. Whew — confronting my shadow yet again is exhausting! Here I sit, swirling in the beginnings of a low-grade funk. And it’s not even time for breakfast.

“Just laying here. Feeling beautiful.”

Boom.

What if I can be that, instead? What if I can choose that, today? What if I can see my shadows, but not have to fix them? What if, instead, I can turn toward the things that do make me feel good, anyway? The parallel things I can be thankful for.

Not in blissful ignorance, but in conscious choice. The light, the dark, no difference.

Choosing first to feel good, for no darn reason, I then become flooded with reasons:

I have beautiful, fulfilling connection with loved ones. I adore creating my schedule and doing my work in the world. I know that creative energy is limitless, and I revel in where I am already supported. And now I have just become nourished.

Just laying here feeling beautiful, first. The rest now flows from there.

There’s no question of “What can you do to feel beautiful today,” or “How can you feel beautiful today?”

Simply pause here. And feel the beauty that you are.

Try it.

Boom.