When you love your work it’s easy to mistake it as play.

The danger, in our present times of 24/7 on-call home offices, is you can become isolated from unstructured exchanges with the world. You lose touch with where you BELONG. And, a bitterness starts to fester.

Belonging leads to intimacy, inwardly and outwardly. And, it’s the underlying juice of your passion.

Intimacy develops when there’s an exchange between your inner self and outer world. But what does that mean?

In the last year my home has become a working gym, recording and editing studio, and virtual classroom. The long cold COVID winter was spent imagining my brand: The Mind Body Adventure! I love the subject, so with the COVID isolation in full force, it was all I focused on!

When the first days of Spring arrived I was feeling uncharacteristically deflated and unmotivated. I found myself hungry for a distraction from the very thing I love doing?

Happy Hours we’re beginning to spill out onto the sidewalks in NYC. So I started to stop by sidewalk tables and connect with neighbors. I laughed. I played dress up. I made new friends. I started to be drawn to playing, rather than working.

It was a draw that interrupted the workaholic lifestyle I had adopted.

As entrepreneurs and creatives, we often get consumed in projects and lose the balance between work and play. When we love what we do, balance between nurturing what we love and nurturing ourselves can feel confusing.

When busy working, my body would feel exhilarated; while my mind would worry about whether the world would want what I was creating?

When out playing, my body would relax; while my mind would wonder about what I wanted that the world was offering?

What I learned was, no matter how much work feels like play, it’s a giving, while playing is a state of receiving.

As I balanced giving and receiving, an intimacy with myself and the world created a greater sense of belonging. Stretching into the world through my work’s message and mission started to feel less scary. I stopped feeling alone in the world.

To feel better, not bitter, I needed to stay connected to all of me. What I wanted to give and what I wanted to receive. My attention had gotten too narrow. To stretch into the world with my work, I needed to stretch into the world with my self first.

Life ignites your passion, when you allow it to nurture you.

Balance giving and receiving, mind and body, work and play, and you will celebrate the process, as well as, the destination.