In this episode, Juliet and I explore what it is to celebrate and how we can bring more celebration into our lives. It may seem there's not much to celebrate with all that is going on in the world. When we find ourselves overly serious, celebration can be a way to mitigate that.

Here’s what we explored:

• often we celebrate the big events but not our successes along the way

• are we rushing on to the next thing, without taking time to celebrate?

• when we complete something, celebrating can replenish us

• the brain's negativity bias can keep us from enjoying the good, the true, and the beautiful

• can we intentionally look for the good, the true, and the beautiful?

• it can feel a bit threatening to the primitive brain that wants to stay in hyper-vigilant mode

• when we feel good it can induce a bit of panic, fearing the other shoe is going to drop

• well, the other shoe is going to drop!

• if we worry less, we are more resourced to deal with it when it happens

• to be relaxed is to drop your guard - over-ride the primitive urge

• celebrating is a way to intentionally over-ride that

• we feel a little more inspiration, a surge of energy, a little more motivation

• the sound and feel of celebration is just such a lovely invitation

• 'all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy'

• if we wait for the world to give us something to celebrate and stay in vigilance, we will only see what's wrong

• what we bring to life, we get: bring celebration to life and we find things to celebrate

• does reward have to be based on productivity, output, speed, and numbers?

• what if we celebrated waking up, the fact the sun rose, we have clean air?

• celebration is connected to wonder

• when you wonder at the miracle of Life, it releases so much fun, gratitude, and joy

• we can become burdened by the responsibility of taking care of others in business or our family and lose our ability to enjoy our lives

• we've made a false correlation between 'hard work' and output

• we falsely believe that if we're not working hard, there must be something wrong

• when we believe that seriousness and stress are necessary for productivity, we live in the feeling of seriousness and stress

• when we look to enjoy what we do, we'll get that feeling of enjoyment

• sounds too simple but try it for yourselves

• we learn best from play

• often our initial success is done without too much thinking

• celebration can restore that playfulness

• when we don't think there's anything on it we are more responsive

• when our state of mind goes down in the basement, everything looks difficult and very compelling

• in that state of mind, our view gets constricted and we get exactly that experience of things being difficult

• when we are light-hearted, our mind is open and we get in the flow and things feel easy and fun

• we experience that putting this podcast together

• fascinating to see how our business can thrive without the experience of stress and struggle

• interruptions for example can become a big problem if we get really serious about them

• if we don't take interruptions so seriously we can surf the wave of interruptions and be flexible, even find unexpected treasure in interruptions

• a shift in perspective can be so helpful

• it's interesting to look closely at what we are telling ourselves about productivity

• are we missing the heart of things, the possibility of connection and joy in every interaction

• our opinions get us into trouble

• what is before our opinions?

• when we get less fascinated with our opinions, we get to smell the roses more and enjoy life more

• connected conversations are so nourishing

• when we are not feeling connected with ourselves and Life, celebration can be a way of connecting with divine spirit

• Carla and Juliet are in the business of connection

• when we are constricted, we feel more separate and so the primitive brain responses get louder

• when we are in connected conversation, we psychologically relax and we get access to more wisdom

• we can notice this with pets: we don't have so much thinking, so we get to enjoy them

• if we look before thought and feeling, we can find more space

• the sky is like our essence, it is always there, storm clouds, like thoughts and feelings, come and go

• when we measure how we're doing by how we feel, we are missing the ever-present sky

• there's less to do when we realise thoughts and feelings are just passing through. No need to comment on them, rearrange them or figure out where they came from.

• as humans, we have all kinds of thoughts and feelings all day long

• we can bring celebration to life. Try it!

Quotes and References

• Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

• Long Strange Trip - a documentary about Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead

• In Quest of the Pearl by Sydney Banks

• Rocket Man 2019 film about Elton John's early years

• Pinky Piglet the blind, deaf dog on Facebook

Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear your questions or reflections so drop us a line. If you like this podcast, please rate, review and share it. It all helps spread the word we appreciate it.