How Do I Find My Passion? : The Ultimate Key.

Have you ever asked yourself what you are truly passionate about? Have you asked yourself if what you are doing now is aligned with your passion? I know I have. I believe that a life truly lived is a life of passion. When we are able to fuel passion into our relationships, work and most importantly ourselves, we are truly living. 

Whether we are in a place of wanting to discover our passion or if we simply want to refine our existing passion, exposure is the ultimate tool.

Passion is defined by our experiences.  More specifically, it is through our exposure to valuable content and life experiences over time that brings us closer to our passion.  

Reading a book, taking a course, listening to a lecture, watching a video or following a blog are all examples of content that feeds our mind. The internet is a powerful tool. We can use it to connect with sources that inspire, empower and define our passion. A great place to start is TED.com

In the past year especially, I have come to terms with a very powerful art- the art of doing. We are a result of our choices. What we choose to do is the defining factor. Also, how we choose to do it. Choosing to approach new experiences with awareness, excitement and an open mind will serve us best.

Passion is something we experience wholly, through our heart, body and mind.

When we travel, meet new people, explore different opportunities, and attend events, when we get outside the comfort of our own home and neighborhood, when we explore new grounds of any sort, we give ourselves more to work with.

I was able to start defining what I am passionate about in my life when I started really doing things, things that surpassed my comfort zone. The more we face our fears and take risks to do the things that bring us into the realm of uncertainty, the more we grow and refine who we are. When we take initiative, become curious, decide to do something and then also decide to dedicate our full engagement to our activities, we gain clarity.

Blessings,

Julie

Life is Messy, Embrace Imperfection.

The more of life I experience, the more I realize that life is messy. We have expectations and what ends up happening may be vastly different from what we thought would happen. We can make plans and have goals and we achieve them- but the way in which we achieve our goals is not a path paved in certainty. We must become comfortable with uncertainty and allow ourselves to become strong by facing it.

"Life is like a garden, full of roses and thorns, weeds and sunflowers. The only way we can smell the roses is by walking through the garden. If we stand at the gates, we miss the whole experience. We must walk through the weeds, the spaces that are empty and through the thorniest parts to find the places upon which the shines brilliantly and the smell of the sweetest flowers ignites our most brilliant inner spark."

What I have learned is that the journey towards our goals is far more valuable than the destination. Of course results are important. We can measure each our progress and assure ourselves that we are going in the right direction. But really, there is no final  destination. We continue to grow with each day, we define our desires with time and experience.

Life is messy. It is imperfect. Or rather, perhaps we can say that it is imperfectly perfect. Imperfection is beautiful. Being on the journey towards what we want is beautiful, with all of its successes, frustrations, with all of the bumps and turns- because it all works out in the end. The struggles make us stronger, the successes keep us going.

We can stand at the gates of the garden of life and we can choose. Do we stand at the gates and do everything but enter into the garden? Or do we walk in, even if we walk alone, but with the knowing that it is through following our path that we create meaningful connections? Do we walk into the garden knowing that we will fall down and get hurt, but that we will also discover beauty, light, freedom and the smells and sights that truly make us feel alive? Of course we do.

Blessings,

Julie

Express Yourself Fully!

What sets you free? Take a moment to think about this. What makes you go crazy and what gives you the physical sensation that your heart is soaring? Each of us has our own way of accessing our freedom. We each have our own journey, own own needs, desires, passions, wants, ambitions- you know what I mean.

I have mentioned the quote by Marianne Williamson a few times in other entries and I continue to stay true in my belief with her statement. "Our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." It is true. We all have greatness and a brilliant light within, but often times we hold back. We are scared to be judged, scared to be different, scared to be spontaneous without planning our actions so that we can predict what will happen. But what if the only thing we expect is to act in full expression with our truest self, however that looks?

Music has the power to set us free. Expressing our feelings to others and sharing what we feel is also freeing. Writing, running, our job, traveling, being in nature, singing, playing an instrument, being with friends, riding a horse, de-cluttering/getting rid of stuff that we don't need- the list goes on. Each person is different and has different means of accessing their own freedom. Whatever it is, it is important that we each find what it is that sets us free and make a conscious effort to do that thing every day.

Freedom is as simple as a decision. We decide that we are not going to hold back who we are because our light is what will allow us to become our greatest selves and will act as an attracting force to connect us with abundance and the opportunities that we need. We are not victims, waiting for life's circumstances to affect us, but rather we are creators affecting our own life with our decisions.

It might scare people. Expressing yourself may cause people to think you are crazy. But really, we are all crazy, believe me. Even though we conform to society's expectations of how we should act and what we should do, we all have a unique light that is meant to shine.

So smile at strangers, let the world see you laugh and dance. Because "as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." 

"Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you."

"As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

—Marianne Williamson

We all have great minds. Our minds are capable of accumulating great wisdom. But let us not become a prisoner to our thoughts alone. Let us engage our mind, our body, our heart and our spirit in full expression of our true being and share this beingness with others.

In mind, body, heart and spirit,

Julie

Facing Fear and Uncertainty: This is How We Grow

We all have fears. I have fears. I have also realized that if we want to use our fear to grow we must have the courage to feel it. It is just a feeling.

For some reason, many of us are lead to believe that fear is a bad thing. But really, it isn't. Fear is what makes us feel alive. We are meant to grow and become all that we are. But the only way to do this is by changing our ideas about fear, feeling it and using it as a powerful tool to move forward without becoming paralyzed by it.

Our greatest power lies in feeling fear and using it as a tool to grow. We become stronger when we face fear and take the leaps of faith. If we cannot become comfortable with discomfort, fear and the unknown, we simply cannot become our most powerful selves. We cannot grow.

We fear the unknown because we don't know what is going to happen. We fear love because we are exposing our heart. We fear that if we expose our deepest emotions and become vulnerable we will be hurt. We got hurt in the past so we want to avoid pain. But in doing this, we are also limiting how much we will experience in our life.

We fear failure. What if I put my effort and heart into something and it fails? What if we expect something and we don't get what we are looking for? But what if we succeed? We must consider this with just as much, if not more importance.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

- Marianne Williamson
 
We must also shift our way of thinking about failure. The only failure really is in not trying- in settling for less than we know we can become. In following what others are doing, because it's safe. Expressing our unique selves fully is scary. We ask ourselves, "What if people judge me?" We are scared to let our hearts guide us because the heart might lead us to do things that are different, things that are scary and uncomfortable. What we need to remind ourselves is that this is a good thing! It means we are becoming stronger and building ourselves from within.

Let us trust in the way of the heart. Even though its language is sometimes confusing, our heart will ultimately guide us to our truest, most fulfilled and freest selves. The way of the heart challenges us to push our limits of what we think we can do. The way of the heart is sometimes scary. But when we face fear and take risks, we build incredible self trust, inner strength, confidence and knowledge about ourselves.

"Do one thing a day that scares you."

Julie

When You Want to Give Up, Don't.

The feeling of giving up is something we all face in our lives at some point or another. I can say that there have been many times when I have wanted to give up. When I didn't think I had the strength in me to keep going. When it was really hard to focus on the positive and I allowed my mind to wander into a limiting place. I felt that staying focused on the positive was a challenge that I didn't have the energy for.

But then I have also realized that we have a choice. We all fall, we all break down- we need those times of feeling low to appreciate the highs- but at a certain point we have a choice. Connecting with and expressing our pain and sadness is actually healthy, but it is when we start feeling victim to our emotion- it is actually at this very point when we think that we are out of control that we actually have the choice. We can stay where we are or we can get back up. We can get back up and decide to see the cup half full and have gratitude for what we have. We can decide to not be a victim.

We can wait and hope for circumstances to change or for someone to come "save us", but this might mean that we will wait for too long and lose sight of who we really are and the fact that we are incredibly powerful and we have the ability at any moment to shine our light and initiate a decision that makes us feel empowered and focused on what we want.

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
― Confucius

I really love this quote. It has made me realize that our failures can actually be used as a motivating force. We can be aware of what we don't want and actively choose to pursue that which we do. Here is another quote that has always resonated with me.

“You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."
 – Christopher Columbus.

It takes courage to take the path less traveled. It takes courage to not settle. And sometimes when we go in search of our dreams, we find ourselves feeling alone. We let go of comfort and certainty. We just have to also remember to have faith in our ability to think and focus on the thoughts that will serve us. 

We become what we think about most of the time. Our life is a result of the thoughts we think- our thoughts are that powerful. 

So we may fall down, we may go through pain that is completely real. And we may want to give up. But we must realize that this is exactly the point where we can choose to try again. We can choose to ask for help (this is also a choice) and we can choose to focus on the way of thinking that best serves our greatness. 

Blessings,

Julie