Swimming in Circles

I recently read about a woman who needed to clean out her fish bowl, but could not find a container in which to place her two goldfish. So she filled up her bathtub with a couple inches of water and placed the fish in the tub. After cleaning the bowl and returning for the goldfish, she found them swimming in a corner of the tub in a circle no bigger than the fish bowl.

Compare yourself to the fish in the tub. Do your fears and habits and the patterns of your life keep you swimming in a small circle?

Or do you live dangerously, exploring the potentials of your existence?

Margaret Stortz says, "It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."

When making a new decision about your life, Osho advises, "... don't choose the convenient, the comfortable, the respectable, the socially acceptable, the honorable. Choose something that rings a bell in your heart. Choose something that you would like to do in spite of any consequences."

Dangerous ideas? For sure. You could screw up big time. Or you could find yourself walking down a new path of aliveness.

If you're swimming in small circles and life isn't as fulfilling as you want it to be, consider your level of aliveness. Aliveness is excitement, enjoyment in doing what you do. It's that blood-pumping exhilaration, challenge, joy, stimulation, and pleasure that makes life worth living.

If you've traded freedom and aliveness for security, there is no time like the New Year to consider adding some joyous new challenges to your life.