It's time to get irrational again

What moves you? You need to move toward it
It's time to listen to what life's calling you to do
Published on August 18, 2010

As you may or may not know, I lived in Mexico for four years (2004-2008) and had my own flamenco dance company in Los Cabos (aka "Cabo"). When I was there I did all kinds of different things in addition to dancing in order to fund my dream life down south, including starting a personal coaching practice and writing for local magazines and newspapers. I wrote a wellness column for a magazine called Destino, and this year when the publisher saw that my book, Live a Life You Love, had come out, she asked if she could publish excerpts in upcoming issues of the magazine.

This week, the publisher sent me a link to the online version of Destino's summer issue. As I flipped through it, I felt a surprising hit to my gut. I saw articles about different social events held at different locations (like "Zippers" surf beach), and looked at photos of beaming laughing local faces. I remembered what it had been like to be part of that vibrant community, where I have more friends than I do in my hometown, where I am right now.

As I felt that longing, and the remembrance of how I'd thrived in that place, I knew I had to do something about it. I came back up "home" in early 2009 for practical reasons. Live a Life You Love would be coming out in a year, and I felt that I could better support and market it from up north. My Mexican husband wanted to get his Canadian papers organized and acquire Canadian work experience. I thought it wouldn't hurt to generate some extra funds by working extra hours at the clinic, and being up here I could study with fabulous flamenco mentors that were glaringly absent from my Mexican life.

Yet looking at those photos of Los Cabos, I was reminded on a cellular level that I unexpectedly sold my soul to be up here. I didn't think that that would happen, but it did. There's something that happens to me in Mexico - I expand, I glow, I light up. I create. I dream big dreams. I make big dreams and big things happen. I look years younger. I smile and laugh more. I would wake up every day and gratefully inhale the warm sea air, filling myself with life.

Mexico moves me. It made me, actually. I moved there in 2004, hoping to find time to write and to dance. I left in late 2008 as a professional performer who had performed for thousands of people and even taught celebrities. I was now an author with a publisher and a book contract. I had become a life coach with clients from across the continent. I spoke internationally about wellness and life. I had had all the ingredients inside when I arrived, but Mexico brought it all out of me, on a scale I hadn't dared to imagine. I need that magic again.

When I followed my "crazy" heart's call back in 2004, it proved to be right on, even though it didn't make sense to most people who knew me. It's time to get irrational again.

What moves you? What fills you with a sense of longing? What would you WISH for if you could, like a child fervently wanting wanting wanting something that they long for but don't believe that they could ever have?

Whatever it is, you need to move towards it. You will find life there. You'll find your life there.

Yesterday, Armando and I booked our tickets to Mexico. He's going to stay, to look for work and get settled again. I'm coming down for a short trip to check out the scene and start making plans, I'll probably commute for a while between the two countries like I used to. I can't wait!!!

When we booked the tickets, I danced around the house singing the Mexican Hat Dance (not that anyone can really sing that, it was more a kind of frenzied melodic yelling) like a madwoman. That's a very good sign - I'm clearly onto something.

What could you do today that would bring you closer to you and a life that would inspire you sing and dance out loud with irrepressible glee?