The Big Questions: What Makes You Come Alive

Today I’m participating in my friend  Tiffany Moore’s Big Questions extravaganza. She believes in asking the Big Questions - the kind that help you decipher your (actual) dreams — and (actually) do ‘em. Find out who else is answering The Big Questions and how you can win your own Big Question session here.

What makes you come alive? I love this question. A lot of things make me feel alive, but I thought I'd start with sharing the following things that really spark my aliveness.


(recent dinner date with John)

Great conversation with my husband. The ones where we talk about all the stuff we're grateful for. The ones where we talk about how far we've traveled with one another and separately. The ones where we dream and plan about what's yet to come. The ones where we talk about how amazing it is to be parents of True.

Making art. The losing of time that happens when I'm in the flow, creatively. I need more of this in my life. It definitely makes me come alive - literally with energy flowing through my body.


The moments when I look over and see my son across the room and just marvel at the preciousness of his life and all that he teaches me about my precious life. Every morning when I walk into his room and am greeted by the sweetest little "Hiiiiii" you can imagine. Every evening when we read and rock together in his darkened room before he says "Nite nite" and falls asleep.


A really good thought or idea that makes me stop whatever I'm doing and write it down. These aha moments of inspiration are fleeting, often happen in the car or the shower, but they are like fuel for me. They spark me into passion, into aliveness. The trick is to catch them in their moment of being in my consciousness before they're off and traveling to the next person who might gift them with their attention.


Connecting with my girlfriends over conversation, good, music, dancing. The energy of truly being seen, and the reflecting of one another's remarkableness wakes me up, lifts me up, and energizes and inspires me for weeks.


Being afraid, deeply afraid, and taking action anyway with a good dose of hope and intuition. There is nothing that makes me feel more alive than pushing up against one of my edges and then jumping over into a new place with an even further horizon. It's that moment of thin teetering between the world of compliance/comfort and the world unknown/adventure that makes me feel most alive - the moment just before I jump.


Another thing that's been making me feel more alive lately are 5:30am bootcamp workouts. I've just finished two weeks and coming home at 6:30am with a sweaty workout behind me is the best feeling. A bit addictive, even.

How about you? What's one think that is making you come alive today?