do what feels good

why do what feels good is only compass you need to navigate the wilderness of being alive

this week my to-do list has shrunk into one item: do what feels good. actually good. not momentarily good, not ego good, not false comfort good. good like a good run, good like a hearty meal you cooked for yourself; the kind of good that has movement and space and depth in it, a good that takes you to places in yourself that you want to go to, but maybe you don’t remember how to get there.

perhaps everything I do is ultimately about getting to those places within myself that I enjoy so much — still lakes of calm and serenity, dramatic cliffs of deep feeling, warm caves of cocooning comfort. I am my own island, my self-sustaining ecosystem, and I don’t really have a map to get to my favorite places, except this one compass — do what feels good.

do what feels good is a very good compass, the only compass I need, because it adapts to how I feel, moment to moment, surfing the mysterious dynamics of my internal being with no effort. sometimes I look at the veins in my arm and I’m shocked that blood is being pumped there from my heart. the body is far wiser than I give it credit for. it wants not only to live, but to feel as vibrantly alive as possible. like all of life, it has a survival instinct. it has an instinct to flourish.

so why don’t I get out of the way?

do what feels good requires me to let go of the idea that my brain knows better. it took me years to realize that it doesn’t. as much as I like my brain, my intuition is far wiser, my sensing instinct knows without me understanding why. I’m giving up on the notion that I need to understand the reason why before I do something that feels good. I’m learning to trust. to let go. to give up the questions — is this activity contributing to my long term financial security? career prosperity? emotional safety?

but those are very small questions asked by a brain in survival mode, stuck reading a paper map to navigate the wilderness.

we don’t need maps. we just need a compass.