Summer has always been a special time of year - a time that brings, or at least seems to, fewer responsibilities, a sense of holiday. Summer, that season of growth and blossoming, is a great time to start something new.

What would you like to start this summer? How would you like to grow and blossom between now and autumn? And as you ponder this question, get out of your head. Ponder this with your heart - and the heart of the creative child within.

Once I wrote in the Weekly Challengers, “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, then you’ve never been in a bedroom with a mosquito.”

Well, I am in my office with a very loud and persistent fly - and it won’t land long enough for me to swat it with my flyswatter.

It’s such a little thing, and yet terribly annoying, wearing, and disruptive. I’m trying to write, here! I can feel that buzzing eroding away at my concentration and focus. It’s easier to put aside big challenges and concerns than it is to ignore that fly.

We all have buzzing flies in our lives, dragging our attention from what is really important, picking away at our peace of mind, tugging at our attention like a cranky three year old. Some coaching schools call them tolerations. This week, take a look at what little things in your life are sapping your focus, your energy, your fun. How can you get rid of some of them?

There’s a lot of information in your emotions. If something makes you really upset, it’s usually because a value of yours has been violated or a need of yours has been ignored. If something makes you happy, it’s often because a value of yours has been honored or a need met.

This week, explore what lies behind the emotions you feel. What really made you so upset? What value is represented there? And how do you honor that value in your life?

And conversely, what really made you happy? What’s that value? Where else does it show up?

Last week, I asked you to become aware of the emotions you normally repress. Whether you acknowledge them or not, they are there. If you don’t deal with them, they’ll never go away. They’ll hang around in your subconscious, and in your body, and then, sooner or later (and usually at the most inconvenient time) they’ll pop up and bite you in the you-know-where.

This week, continue to tune into your feelings. And figure out a positive, healthy way to express them.

I bet you’ll sleep better!

How often do you honor your feelings? So often we stifle them—even the good ones—and hide behind our day-to-day tasks instead of accepting our feelings as part of life.

We have learned, it seems, to not express joy or sorrow, anger or pleasure, grief or happiness. It’s almost as if we’ve evened out the hills and the valleys of our emotional life and turned it into one flat plain.

And that’s sad. We miss out on so much of life’s experiences when we don’t allow ourselves the full range of our emotions.

So this week, start noticing the feelings you are trying to repress. You don’t have to express them—yet—but become aware of them. The richness of your life will increase significantly!