I feel like I’m being engulfed by vibrance.

That’s what happened when I touched down in Asheville and walked into the woods.  Above you’ll find my backyard trees for the week.  I ate dinner on the porch while watching fireflies started to sparkle at dusk. A few minutes later I asked a woman walking down the main street of town if there was a pharmacy where I could buy shampoo.  She gave me shampoo from her luggage (she was just on the road) and hugged and kissed me on the cheek before setting me off on my way.

Where am I?

I’m in my dream life in so many ways.  I’m starting to see that it is portable, it is always growing, it’s radically imperfect and beyond belief.

It made me realize tonight that all the feng shui for living your dreams that I’ve been sharing for years about boils down to just one universal principle that I see prevail over and over again.  And it’s what my driver today, an entrepreneurial badass himself- echoed back to me as we went down winding roads into the woods.

Making people happy is better than money.

I just arrived in North Carolina at my amazing woodsy rental house to an immense gift from Gaia Herbs who sent me on this adventure.  Everything from a perfectly made organic salad and chilled grapes from the farm to more herbs and fruit and snacks and gifts than I could have ever hoped to see.

Talk about people who believe in making people happy.  Their business is about healing.  Their ethos from the start of even talking about this trip is pure kindness.

I grew up as a child believing that America – and the whole world- was about being kind to others and helping each other and doing a great job to make people happy and give them extraordinary experiences.

I thought that… but I didn’t see it.

I saw people angry,  complaining, settling and checked-out of life.  I saw people take advantage, act in unfair ways, and otherwise be unkind. I saw mobsters (my dad’s clients, he was a criminal defense attorney) in states of disrepair.  I saw people scheming and manipulating. I saw people who blindly went about their jobs waiting for the day to be over.

Now, every single person I know who is successful and happy and well and living their dreams shares that one single common principle: they all work to make people happy.  It makes them happy.  It’s better than money.

Somehow money, success, career growth all seems to always come more easily in that frame of mind.

In Nature, everything is simple.

The stores around me right now close at 6pm. The latest restaurant serves until 9pm.

We locked ourselves out of the house at 11:30pm.

The owner of the house showed up with a smile and let us in and head home, not a single disgruntled muttering complaint.  Not a single bother.  We (my friend Leslie Durso & I ) felt so horrible having to inconvenience her, but she made us feel so much better because, well, she didn’t make it a problem.

Selflessness is a big part of Nature. 

I may not be totally selfless (is anyone?!) but I can say that I’m always happiest when someone is happy that I’ve helped.  It’s the way I decide who I want to work with, what I want to engage with, where I want to go… Jan’s selflessness in driving over 30 minutes in the middle of the night to help us was completely above and beyond.

I’m not a titan, but I’ve been sitting in paradise for a day and I can tell you that ten years ago, when I was thinking about how I could ever really make a life out of all of what I like to do, I started out only thinking of what people told me I should think about: what my business model would be, how that business model could grow and the practical things I thought would be the right things. Projections.  Plans.

It made me not want to have a business.

It made me feel disenchanted with life.

I became a clock-watching, complaining and waiting person…

It’s not that practical things are bad… but they are just a little piece of a big pie.

So, five years later, I revisited the idea from a whole different view.

More of a : What if I did everything I loved that maybe could help people be happier, only things I cared about,  and that’s it? 

What if everything at it’s core is that simple?

Nothing is without its challenges, but it’s so much fun!!!

Nature.  Love.  Really doing your most to make the people around you- whether they are clients, friends or family- happy.  Sharing happiness.   Being kinder, more generous, more selfless.

I am very far from perfect, but when my energy is in a great place, great things are around me everywhere. More and more I see the way that life organizes itself around our life force.  Some people- like Donna Eden of Energy Medicine fame- talk about how your energetic fields of electricity actually profoundly influence life around you as well as your own body.

Nedless to say when I got in the house last night I sat in a baking soda bath for 30 minutes per Donna Eden’s advice (it makes your aura strong, 20 minutes in a cup of baking soda in a hot bath) and can’t wait for the next few days to unfold.

Emotions are contagious, so catch the good ones.  Spread good ones.  Generosity, kindness, giving it all you’ve got-ness.  Spend some time in Nature. Simplify.

The happiness you spread around is total greatness.

xoxo Dana

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