By Leo Babauta

I’ve found that we’re often in a mode of feeling overwhelm, burden, and doing what we “should” be doing — going through the motions, in some ways.

Today I’m going to challenge you to have a more expansive day.

What does that even mean? Imagine the most joyful moments of your life. How about the moments when you felt the most open-hearted? In love with life? What about when you felt the most alive? Connected to nature? To yourself or others?

These are expansive moments. You’ve had them, many of them. But often these moments are few and far between.

You can have a day like that, today.

Here’s how to do that, in brief:

  1. Set an intention to be more expansive today

  2. Set some reminders, so you can practice

  3. When you remember to practice, view the moment that you’re in (all your surroundings, other people, yourself, the universe) as an immersive experience (like someone is giving you a VR experience)

  4. Now see if you can feel wonder, gratitude, and appreciation for this gift of an experience

  5. Let yourself fall in love with the moment

That’s it! Of course, some moments are more challenging than others for a practice like this — when you’re feeling frustrated, sad, angry, fearful, anxious, overwhelmed, for example. It’s still possible to find expansion during these challenging moments, but it will require more practice. For now, accept that sometimes, you won’t be able to find that kind of expansiveness, and that’s OK.

With practice, you’ll be able to expand your periods of expansiveness!