Heather McCloskey Beck - Take the Leap: Do What You Love 15 Minutes a Day and Create the Life of Your Dreams

Praise for Take the Leap!

Heather McCloskey Beck rocks a great life. She walks it, she talks itshe's the real deal. When I first set eyes on her she absolutely glowed with vibrance, exuberance, and inspiration. If you want to be that kind of person, read this book. Heather will show you how to create a life that will make you feel joyful, inspired, and deeply fulfilled, every single day.

COLETTE BARON-REID, bestselling author of The Map, CEO and Founder of The Invision Project

Heather McCloskey Beck is a spiritual visionary. Read this book and feel your life transform in amazing ways.

PAT BENATAR, four-time Grammy winner and author of Between a Heart and a Rock Place

First published in 2013 by Conari Press, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

665 Third Street, Suite 400

San Francisco, CA 94107

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2013 by Heather McCloskey Beck

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data:

Beck, Heather McCloskey.

Take the leap : do what you love 15 minutes a day and create the life of your dreams / Heather McCloskey Beck.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-57324-589-0

1. Self-realizationReligious aspects. 2. InspirationReligious aspects. 3. Vocation. I. Title.

BL629.B43 2013

646.7--dc23

2013016512

Cover design by Jim Warner

Cover photograph Lonely/shutterstock

Interior by Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Printed in the United States of America

MAL

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Standing in our own center, recognizing our intrinsic beauty and abilities, we are emboldened to go out into our linear lives and express our true, Creative Essencewithout hesitation, without shame, without embarrassment. We must acknowledge our essential right to choose to be exactly who we are, despite any external force persuading us to believe otherwise. Perception and belief create our human experience. Formulate your thoughts with clarity and brilliance. Create a life you desire to actually live.

Deepest Gratitude
to Caroline Pincus and Jan Johnson,
for their desire and willingness
to publish Take the Leap.
I am honored.

Eternal love and gratitude to my radiant
Guide and friend, Cherish

I have always been searching: searching for an understanding of that intangible, mysteriously compelling Essence that seems to reside at the very core of my being. I have held a profound desire to comprehend that which has no physical form, yet whose intrinsic energy is the underpinning of all that I know as substance within our physical world.

Throughout my life, I have been drawn to experiences that made me feel joyful and inspired, which compelled me to discover those things that would expand my energetic self into an even more elevated state of exuberance. As a young girl, I had a profound desire to play musical instruments, sing, compose songs, and write poetry. I discovered very early on that while engaged in these creative activities, my sense of joy and wonder would increase significantly, and the more deeply I was immersed in what I was doing, the happier I became.

I also noticed that these ebullient moments were far too often fleeting and unpredictable. When I was practicing my piano, it didn't necessarily result in my feeling excited and inspired. It wasn't always fun. I was working at it, sometimes struggling, trying to improve. But what I did discover was that after practicing a piece repeatedly, there came a point where it stopped being practice, and quite spontaneously, I was catapulted into an experience of pure joy, as I felt the music radiating out from within me. I then discovered that by composing my own music, not only did I feel this excitement while I played the songs, but that I felt this high even more intensely when the music was my own. As I became immersed in what I was doing, I would lose my sense of awareness of my surroundings, no longer feeling separate from the piano and the music I was creating. I was streaming in a blissful state, and the piano, the music, and I were inseparable.

I was streaming in a blissful state, and the piano, the music, and I were inseparable.

So, what was this feeling, this happy, buoyant energy that seemed to be a natural part of me? I had always been the kind of person who awakened in the morning with a lovely sense of well-being, eagerly anticipating the day that lay ahead of me. I loved to be with my friends, play, compose and play music, and I loved to laugh. I never was able to get enough of things that were funny; I was always looking for more. As a child, I was at ease with how my life was unfolding and always felt quite normal. However, as I was busily being a normal kid, I was experiencing something else highly unique and very difficult to describe.

Beginning at about eight years old, as I would lie in bed at night before sleep would descend upon me, a great awareness of what I can only describe as Presence would seep into me, triggering within me a feeling of deep relaxation and peace. I felt entirely suspended in a gentle solitude, with my mind cleared of any thought whatsoever. I was simply there. And then, from within that peaceful place, I would begin to experience a sense of magnification and my little self would begin to expand. Cocooned within that sublime state, I grew larger and larger until I felt myself become the size of my house, then increase to the size of my waterfront town, to the reaches of Long Island, unfold to the dimensions of the United States, and then exponentially amplify to the expanse of our Earth. The more I expanded, the more content and blissful I became. While of course I was still lying in my bed, I was completely unaware of any physical sensations and instead felt myself to have no bodily limitations whatsoever. The larger I was able to become by degrees, the more joyously blissful I became in Essence, until I was simply no longer just little Heather, but rather I was part of everything that existed within our universe. I felt a wave-like infusion of love pulsating through me as I floated in a vast and elemental energy, having no sense of time or space at all. Of course, I wanted to stay there, streaming in that feeling for as long as possible, but in truth, I had no control over any of it; I was simply along for the ride.

The more I expanded, the more content and blissful I became.

After a while, I would feel myself returning to my normal self, lying in my bed. Snuggled under my covers, I continued to sense the residual presence of that enormous, wave-like energy. No longer, though, was I only Heather, the particular, individuated self, but now I was also part of something far greater in that vast wave of energy. I was aligned with the Essence of our very existence. I would always try to hold on to that remarkable feeling for as long as possible, but the familiarity of being in bed in my room, with all my things surrounding me, invariably drew me back into my customary child awareness. During the years that I enjoyed these expansion events, I noticed that if I did not interfere with this process, instead allowing this thing to unfold on its own, that I was able to remain in that state for increasingly longer periods of time, which was pure joy for me.