Uncover your Passion

 

 Perhaps you have heard of the saying “Your Passion is your Compass”..... when i first heard that i thought “yep, that sounds right” but then i started thinking. Where does passion actually come from and what exactly is the compass i am supposed to use to measure this.

Well let me help you out, your passion is the thing you think about constantly, the thing that excites you, makes you feel good and the thing you do when you don’t “have to”, you “want to”. Your passion is what drives you to learn more, achieve more and perhaps be more. Your passion is not someone else. I say this because I have heard many times in the past people say ,”I’m happy if you are happy.... you are the person I think about every day and you are the thing that i want to love more and more and you are the thing I am most passionate about. While this is admirable, this type of love or passion is often driven by external factors, being that of the response of another person and what I am talking about here is passion that lives inside you. It is your internal response and feelings that guide you. In fact this is where the concept of the compass comes from. Compasses where designed to show us direction, to help us stay on track, formulate a path and help us move in a desired direction.

Putting this together, we have, do what you love and you are moving in the right direction. Here are some questions to help you find your passion. Following this are some tool to help you read your inner compass.

Actions to find your passion

Questions

·         If you could do anything what would you do?

·         What do you love doing?

·         What are you doing when you are at your happiest?

·         If you had all the money you needed what would you be doing each day?

·         If you had all the time you needed what would you be doing each day?

·         What do you wake up dreaming about every day?

·         What is it you really want to be doing?

·         What’s going to inspire you to see, hear or feel this?

·          What would motivate you to take action towards doing this?

O    If you are searching fro even more clarity, consider what cartoons, movies or role models you had when you were between the ages of 7-14. This is the key modelling phase in our development where we take on values and beliefs of others. What did you love about these characters, what were their values and beliefs, what outcomes did they achieve etc

Activity

·         Create a vision board of your passion. Get a piece of cardboard or large paper and cut pictures from magazines of interest to you. Include pictures and words of things you would to be achieving, seeing and feeling. What are others doing as a result of your passion?

Yoga Woman TV

I found this article on www.yogawoman.tv and found it really interesting. Even though it is written for teens, it applies for everyone - enjoy.

Get up, get moving and get stretching

Daniela

THREE YOGA TOOLS: HELPING TEENS FIND BALANCE

By Abby Wills 
Posted on 15-Feb-2011

For over a decade, Abby Wills has joyfully guided youth and teachers in movement arts, mindfulness and yoga. She is the founder of Shanti Generation: Yoga Skills for Youth Peacemakers, has guided youth in movement arts, mindfulness and yoga in schools and communities. Visit www.shantigeneration.com

Navigating the journey between childhood and teenager status can be both a fantastic and treacherous adventure. At the onset of puberty, everything seems to change. Youth experience dramatic, often sudden, transformations of physical systems, cognitive capacities and social relationships. It is natural for youth to experience some degree of confusion or disequilibrium about these major life alterations. The fluctuations in mood and opinion can be just as confusing for the people who live and work with youth. Fortunately, ancient health systems like yoga can contribute to finding balance and ease. Here are three yoga tools that I’ve found helpful to the teens I’ve worked with over the past 10 years. They address three distinct needs that many early adolescents share: self- awareness, emotional regulation and energy rejuvenation.

1. Breath Moves Energy
Sit in a comfortable cross-legged pose on the floor. With a deep inhale, extend both arms out to the side and up, joining the palms overhead. Exhaling, draw the joined hands down the midline of the body, past the face, heart and center. Inhale, arms reach out and up overhead. Exhale, center the mind and body as the hands pull down the midline. Repeat 10 to 20 times being mindful of movements and breath the entire time.

Benefits: Increases self awareness, builds lung capacity and develops core strength.

Why it works: When the body, mind and breath move together in concert, the whole system reaches a higher level of harmony. Explain to youth that yoga is about linking all of the different parts of ourselves together: physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and social. All of these parts can be compared to a band. When one part is out of tune, the whole song can sound unpleasant. Yoga is a practice of tuning our various parts to the same note.

Hear in the Heart

Have you ever looked at the word “HEART”, I mean really looked at the letters?

I was just doing some writing about listening to your heart when i realised something pretty special..... The word HEAR is within the word HEART – even more reason to LISTEN TO YOUR HEART.

I’m still amazed in how we can see the same thing each day and then one day we wake up and we see it differently. I have been writing this word in my journal, work and other areas for many years and only saw this concept today .... ok, so maybe you have already realised this, we see things differently and at different rates.

For me, the world and my own mind still amazes me ..... thanks mind and thanks world.

I would like to ramble on more but that is about it for today ..... fascinating really ...

Have a great one

Daniela

The art of happiness

Who wants to be happy?

We all do ... well most of us ..... except for those who are happy in their own misery.

In the Dalai Lama’s book, “The Art of Happiness”, he begins by saying that we are all human beings consisting of one body and one mind.  Often we search and search for meanings to our own behaviour, trying to understand the “why” of our choices, yet finding ourselves going in circles.

He continues by saying happiness is determined by a person’s state of mind and by our outlook.  It is a function of how we perceive our situation, how satisfied we are with what we have. Unfortunately our perception and level of satisfaction is strongly influenced by our tendency to compare ourselves to others. Making comparisons can work positively when we compare ourselves to those less fortunate than us however when comparing to what we don’t have, this can be detrimental to our own growth.

One exercise that has proven to be successful, is to complete the following statement five times;

“I’m glad I’m not a …..” as opposed to saying “I wish I were......”

Follow this by asking yourself “what” is it you are doing? As opposed to “Why” are you doing it?

“What” questions move you forward in understanding what is happening, where as “Why” questions take you backwards to all the excuses that are stopping you.

The Dalai lama says the first step in seeking happiness is LEARNING

“If you maintain a feeling of compassion, loving kindness, then something automatically opens your inner door.  Through that you can communicate much more easily with other people.  And that feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness.  You’ll find that all human beings are just like you, so you’ll be able to relate to them more easily”  (pg. 40 Dalai Lama)

This may  be referred to as Buddha Nature.

Positive changes begin with managing our own thoughts and can be very simple, such as setting an intent for the day by saying, “I am going to utilise this day in a positive way”.  Later that day, check what you have done by saying, “Did I do all that I had planned?”  If your answer is `yes’, then you should be happy, if `no’ analyse what you allowed to prevent you and reset your goals ensuring they are realistic, specific and measurable

Simply making a goal to build a happier life and consciously making decisions to achieve that goal can profoundly change our lives.

Ask yourself better questions and open your mind to a happier, more fulfilled life.

Daniela

11-11-11 what does it all mean?

Well, the 11–11–11 time has just passed. For some it has been a monumental event based in timelines, history and spirit. For others it has been just another day – so what does all this mean?

You see, the number eleven has been significant in many ages and for many lifetimes with roots in blessings, gratitude, forgiveness and of course love. It is a universal number of strength, new beginnings and mastery of the self.

The events leading up to this significant time have been mixed by all. Some more spiritually connected beings are using this time to harness and remember old energies and timelines. Others are just feeling “weird” and not sure why. Either way, this time combined with the full moon has resulted in people feeling strong in their own truth and not prepared to waiver in this truth. This is why you may have been feeling excited, centred or perhaps frustrated, annoyed and even tired at this time. These latter feelings only occur when you are not being true to you, when you are living life by someone else’s rules and agenda. When you act out of “should”, “but”, “I don’t know”. This event of 11-11-11 is the sign that this has to stop now. The time is now to live for you as you.

The significance of this date is for all of us to STOP, LISTEN and ACT.

The time is NOW to allow yourself to be a HUMAN – BEING not a HUMAN – DOING.

If you are sick or running in circles then stop running. If you are tired of being on the roller coaster then get off. If you are frustrated at swimming against the current then stop and float. It really is up to you – YOU DECIDE YOUR DESTINY NOW.

Here are 3 easy but not simple steps to help you get started;

1.  Stop and breathe – yes right now, not later after you have made dinner, swept the floor and rushed the kids off somewhere..... right now. Close your eyes, put your left hand on your heart and breathe. Feel your breathe go in and then out, feel the heat of the energy of your hand and feel the love that you give to yourself in this moment. Do this for 3 big breathes, 3minutes or 3 hours, It doesn’t matter how long, just do it until you feel the connection of your breathe with your body and the stillness of your own thoughts.

2.  Listen to your inner voice – you know that little voice inside your head that says “this feels right & this doesn’t”?, that is your heart voice. Some call it intuition or instincts, the bottom line, is it is there. This is the voice that is NEVER wrong and ALWAYS right. The challenge is being quiet enough to hear it and deciphering the difference between our heart voice and our ego voice. The best way to do this is to close your eyes, breathe as mentioned above and think about a situation that is consuming your mind. Consider one possible course of action and breathe in as if this course of action has happened. Notice the feelings in your body – does the feeling make you smile, stand tall and bring joy? Or does this taking this action make your body feel tense, cringe and feel frustrated? Noticing how your body reacts to thoughts is a great start to listening to your heart voice. It is the feeling of expansion or contraction that gives you guidance when acting with your best interests at heart. If you heart open and expand then your heart voice says YES, if you feel your heart contract then you are advised to take another course of action.

3.  Act with compassion and trust – It is one thing listening to your heart voice, and a very different thing to act on it – let me tell you, it can be challenging but is always rewarding. The reason for this is because there are other people involved and we are often wanting to ‘manage’ other peoples responses and feelings so we feel better about ourselves. Acting with compassion and trust comes from standing in your own truth and saying what feels right for YOU. It means “No Compromises” of the self . This doesn’t mean you walk around without consideration for others, what it means is you act with awareness and consideration of yourself first and then others second. It means being kind to others because you choose to, not because you feel you “should” or “have to”. It is saying “no” when it feels right and saying “yes” equally when it feels right.

Is it all really this simple?  ......... actually yes. This is the beginning anyway .......

This is the new way of the HUMAN – BEING known as the “5th Dimensional Warrior”. This is the significance of 11-11-11. This is the way of the future and the only way to find peace, joy and harmony in this time of new energy.

So, live, love and be merry in this very auspicious time where we reconnect to ourselves and by doing so are able to better connect with others.

Blessings

Daniela

Balancing our External & Inner worlds

For the past 20 years I have been teaching and running workshops about the law of opposites. How we live in a world of duality. How everything has a necessary opposite and that one cannot exist without the other. Yet is only recently that i have been able to truly grasp the concept of our "Inner Life". All these years I have been easily focusing on my outer life, trying to get the things I wanted, trying to be who I thought I needed to be and basically, just TRYING, when all i needed to do we to regain my own balance and access the opposite of this, my inner life....


We live in a dual world, one were opposites are necessary to create balance. We know that 'up' cannot exist without 'down', 'sun' without 'moon' and 'front' without 'back'. So why is it that we think we can experience our external world without spending time in our inner world.
By inner world, I mean the one that exists when we close our eyes and feel the beating of our own heart and the breathe of our own life.


It was only tonight after going to a concert to see "Sacred Earth" play that we were encourage to close our eyes and FEEL the music in our own hearts that I actually grasped the concept of really experiencing our inner life. The life that is solely mine ... my eyes, my thoughts, my breath and my heart - wow...... we actually have so much power if only we were able to stop long enough to feel it. I already knew this, but tonight I truly "got it".


Our true power lies in our ability to choose ...... to choose ourselves. Unfortunately we seek approval from others in the form of bosses or partners, from things such as clothes, cars and technology and of course indulgent behaviors such as food and alcohol.


It is these external distractions that trap us, not free us from experiencing our inner life, the life that is free to imagine, free to experience and free to feel.


I encourage and urge all who want to build a happier external world, to spend a few minutes each day connecting to their inner world. Once upon a time we had to work hard to create an abundant world to live and function in, today harmony comes from developing our inner world to add value to our outer world, not the other way around.


Enjoy the blessings of your inner world today.


Daniela