On yet another morning in Central Park, I saw my favorite furry friend, Daisy. As I’ve mentioned in past experiments, Daisy is the most enthusiastic critter I encounter on my way to work each morning. When she enters the park, she begins to bark and wag her tail, and rush up to people along the way to say good morning. The other morning, as Daisy did her thing, I heard someone say that they’d rarely seen a dog put so much of her whole body and energy into barking and wagging. They went on to say that there ought to be a Daisy exercise video. We all laughed, as Daisy continued her usual morning routine.

As I walked on, I got to thinking about how unreserved Daisy is in her delight and enthusiasm each and every morning, and my mind drifted to the gift of living fully in the present moment and giving our whole selves to it. I also got to thinking about how often we may hold ourselves back and lose some of the flavor and energy in what’s emerging in our experience, and how we may not even realize this is happening.

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to notice how you move through your daily experiences. Do you engage whatever shows up with energy and enthusiasm? Do you put your whole self into what you’re doing? Or, are you distracted or holding yourself back in some way? So often, we miss some of the delicious parts of the present moment because we’re preoccupied or self-conscious, or caught up in something distracting in one way or another.

When we do this, we lose some of the richness of the stuff of everyday. For example, Daisy’s walk in the park is one of the mundane, regular things in her life, and yet she fully engages it each and every day. I can’t say I’ve ever seen her walk in the park with a blasé attitude. Even when I can’t see her on a given morning, I can hear her familiar barking, so I know she’s there. When I think if her constant delight, I notice how much I want to share that quality in my own life. Whenever I thoroughly engage the present moment, giving it my whole self and my whole enthusiasm, I am richer for the experience, even when it’s a mundane task or familiar activity.

As you explore the qualities with which you move through your daily life, notice what happens if you choose to engage a given experience with a bit more attention and presence than you might ordinarily give it. The key is to become aware if there’s any difference, any enhanced richness in your experience, if you engage it with more of your whole self, or in an unreserved way. While we can’t be a “Daisy” in every moment, the quality of enthusiastic exuberance for life is a gift we possibly can give ourselves more of the time.