Find What You Love and Keep Doing It

Years ago, I spent three months living outdoors in the foothills of the Sierras. I had an outdoor kitchen and an outdoor bedroom—a mattress with a down duvet on a platform about 10 feet off the ground supported by four towering pine trees. When I moved indoors at the end of the summer, it felt like a form of punishment. Why do we live in rooms with walls? You cannot feel the sunlight and the caress of wind on your skin or watch the heavenly bodies progress across the night sky. As the weeks passed, I became accustomed to living indoors and while the deep longing for immersion in the elements remains intact, I seldom answer its call.

So often we decline to prioritize what we love. We fall into habits that appear to be driven by necessity but instead are driven by something less benign: a surrender to the forces of the culture-at-large. And when we live in a culture that worships materialism, our souls pay a heavy price.

I have not created an outdoor bedroom recently but I have been going to the beach. There, because the dance studios were closed due to the pandemic, I found an alcove that I claimed as my studio. And I dance. At first, if someone walked by, I stopped but soon I realized that no one really cared. Now I keep dancing no matter who shows up: dogs chasing balls, children frolicking in the sand, lovers nestling under blankets, seals poking up their heads, pelicans flying in formations, sea gulls cawing, brides and grooms posing for photo shoots. No matter. We are all doing what we love.

One of my favorite spiritual teachers gave me some sage advice recently: Find what you love and keep doing it.

So simple and so utterly profound.

Finding what we love is one thing. Doing it regularly is another. When we do something over and over again, it becomes habitual. And we have the option to habituate to activities that create harm or ones that create well-being. Now when I go to my beach studio, I have no resistance to dancing, no hesitation. I dance because that is what I do there. It has become totally normal. Now, when I go to my beach studio, my body wants to dance and knows that this is a place where dancing happens.

Sometimes, we need someone to give us advice even thought we might already know in our inner being what we are to do. So I am passing along the advice my teacher gave to me:

Find what you love and keep doing it.