I had a really great chat with a very dear friend yesterday about Life Passion & Purpose and the need to develop a strong foundation, one which takes a great deal of dedication and depth on many levels.
Cheralyn, October 2013, The Rocks, Sydney
Often I get asked when teaching art or metaphysical subjects just
how to go about finding this Life Passion.
People don't know what to write about, what to paint, what to even teach other people. They just want to DO it, they love the IDEA of writing books, painting artworks, creating oracle decks or teaching but really they don't know WHAT to actually write, paint, create or teach. You then see these people scrambling around, picking up a miss mash of other peoples work and sticking it together as their own.
Your Passion is already there,
you have the seeds,
you just need to sort them out and get to work.
While inspiration is everywhere and I encourage you to seek mentors and to be inspired, you need to do your own work and to find out what
YOUR OWN WORK IS!
So before even think of writing that book, teaching that class, you need to learn.........
WHAT your Life Passion IS and live it a bit more to build the foundation on which your work will stand.
How do you KNOW this is your Life Passion?
EASY! I wake up each morning in my Life Passion Garden! I never ever have one second of doubt as to what my new work will be! I know what needs to be tended to today. What requires some research, who I have to connect with, what I'm going to share. I'm not lost on a desert planet, I'm right here in my garden and I have work to do.
If you don't know what you are doing or you have to sit sifting through what is being created by others or popular at present to find what yours is, then you are NOT on the Path of your Life Purpose.
Me? I can't wait to RUN out into my Life Purpose Garden and research, read, meet other people in my field, go to talks, LEARN and SHARE!
The energy that will drive you each day and never let you down is your Life Passion but you need to know what it is! People who don't know, cover it over with WAY WAY too much glossy 'insight speak'. They are parroting the work of others, they are unsure of what they are doing and
THEY HAVE NO PASSION FOR THE GARDENING,
SIMPLY FOR THE GLOSSY PICTURES
OF THEIR FLOWERS.
If you find yourself slipping into this STOP. Well Pit Stop... pull over and let's sort this out.
You should never ever have to rely on mumbled mystical speak when explaining your work no matter how esoteric it is!! STOP IT! :) It's not a good fit for you if that's what you are doing.
YOU SHOULD KNOW IT INSIDE OUT
BE EXCITED, PASSIONATE and KNOW IT LIKE YOUR HEART!
Because that is EXACTLY what it is!
There is a MASSIVE difference between work created to fit the market which brings short term reward if any, and work that is instantly recognisable as something 'special'. We often wonder, what is it about that body of work or even that single publication. You could spend a fortune on Marketing books and you know, they will give you a few tools, but the SEEDS are ALREADY IN YOUR POCKET.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO DO THIS,
YOU HAVE ALREADY BEGUN LONG LONG AGO.
You have three of these seeds already and one you will have to go on a long journey to find. Together they will create a wonderful garden in which you can grow and your Life Passion can flourish.
YOUR SEEDS ARE THOSE OF:
A Perennial Flower
An Annual Flower
A Wildflower
An Exotic Flower
Grown together... they create your Life Purpose Garden.
This is the place you and your work, be it Art, Writing a Book, creating an Oracle Deck, in fact anything at all will flourish and you will run to with joy, confidence and complete oneness every day.
LIFE PASSION SEED ONE: Your "Perennial Flower"!
What Flower Has Always Grown in Your Garden?
Even in the tiniest ways ~ what is it that has been there for you. The thing that has given you a smile when you needed it, you have been naturally drawn to, that has stopped your train of thought or your actions to take notice of and join energy with.
This Flower will come back year after year, its already in your Garden, you just need to notice it, propagate it and tend it and then more will grow.
For example, if you know ANYTHING about me, you will know for me, its Flowers. While it is true I did have a major event which created a deeper connection, it was long before, it was during my childhood that my intense PASSIONATE connection with Flowers began. Probably at the time, I didn't think of it as anything special or different, just a little girl who loved flowers A LOT.
The dots throughout my life are joined in Flowers and are something I always gravitated towards, in my artwork, my first thing I think about in new places I call home, in home-wares, in clothing, in the things I noticed at events, places and surrounding people. I always what to know... what is YOUR favourite Flower!
Explore by journaling, by meditating, by going for a journey walk, the thing that has been YOUR constant. Often its so close that we do not see it!
*Have you always had an affinity with cats? So much so that you FEEL cat~like!
*Do weather patterns entwine so closely with you that you feel your emotions have grown through them? Can you draw with clouds?
*Have you collected butterfly wings and drawn the patterns in everything from doodles to the patterns in your ceramics classes and found dresses that made you LOOk like a butterfly?
Sometimes they can be very general. That's ok too, its a GREAT start...
*You LOVE and adore animals.
*You are fascinated with the Natural World more than Technology
During this Pit Stop...
journal about the things that have woven a thread throughout your life.
start with lists and look for patterns.
Let yourself dream, remember and explore.
How do you know it's your constant, your perennial?
After this exercises, when you talk about your Life Passion, you really can look through your life and relate moments and times of revelation very fluently. Nothing is a misty dim memory, it's a bright shinning touchpoint now you have revealed it's relevance.
LIFE PASSION SEED TWO:Your "WildFlower"
What Flower Grows Easiest and Most Abundantly in Your Garden?
It's prolific, it's abundant, it's everywhere and grows no matter what. Perhaps some seasons she's a little hard to spot, she may need to be tendered a little bit more than other times, but she's there. Even the slightest encouragement makes her burst forth with joyful exuberant colour!
You have something, that grows easiest in your Garden because it's the natural Wildflower that belongs there. It may seem so far removed from art or metaphysical work but I assure you that the connections are there once you start to do the exploration.
Mine? Artistic Creativity!
I just do it. It's not that hard. I feel like my natural real self when I'm doing it.
This cant even be an 'EXERCISE" for you... you should be able to answer this in a SNAP.
No wrong answer QUICK WHAT IS IT???!!!!
LIFE PASSION SEED THREE: Your "Annual Flower"!
Which Flower Makes you The Happiest?
You see this 'Flower" and you just smile so widely that everything seems better. The crappiest day ever is turned around, you could crawl out of bed with the flu to still do this, in fact it would make you instantly feel better. Annuals need to be planted each year, they need you to make them happen. Sure sometimes a few seeds can find their way into your Garden but really you need to be happy to make happy happen!
So what is it in your life that makes you feel happy when it pops up with it's brightness, it's colour?
You need to do that! Plant those Annual seeds all the time.
At this point I really don't want you to look back on your answers to your previous two LIFE PASSION SEEDS... just answer without finding the right 'fit' for what you have already found. I assure you, it will all come together later.
Is is an Artform? Is it a Skill you have? Is it something you wish to do?
What ever it is, you will find that making it a bigger part of what you do and threading it through the things you are already doing, you will find yourself in a gorgeous Garden!!
So what is it that makes you THAT happy?
LIFE PASSION SEED FOUR: Your "Exotic Flower"!
Which Flower do you Desire Most?
There is something that you desire, that you would like to achieve, it is an Exotic Flower which you may not have the seed for already. It's perhaps new, undiscovered even, rare and very precious and to grow it will take a lot of work, research and dedication. you can't just throw a few seeds around and hope for the best. Neither can you sit there wondering why it doesn't just sprout up there in your garden.
You need to do something physical and real, get your hands dirty, be patient and you also need to study, research, connect with other enthusiasts of this exotic species and then you MAY in the future have the Exotic Flower you so desire.
BUT this Exotic Flower that you so want so badly will die very quickly unless it is supported by the ecosystem of the other plants in your Life Purpose Garden. There has to be links, connections, a FOUNDATION of supporting work and when there is, a Great Garden will arise from your hands.
All must be tended with care and with the same depth of purpose as the Exotic!
What is your Dream... your BIG life dream and desire?
How does this work in PRACTICE?
You work out what is the constant throughout your life, the thread that has woven through it, that one thing of greatest meaning to you. Alongside this is what you can do so well, that makes your heart sing and work with the greatest ease. That which makes you happiest should be entwined someway and then look at how these seeds you already have can work in together with what it is you desire.
All together, living and interconnecting... a Body of Work with a strong foundation, touchpoints that have appeared each season to enrich you and a Garden in which the Passion of your Life flourishes!
I wish YOU find your seeds and create a garden which is thriving under your dedicated hands.
Your Life Passion!
What are your seeds?
What do you feel are the patterns which link them?
