Day 146/366 days Towards Self-Mastery.
Living with passion. What does it mean to you?
When I was first introduced to the idea of living my passion I had visions of fireworks and energy, action and joy. Passion was about excitement, the enthusiastic and frenetic pursuit of pleasurable experiences fuelled with a passionate energy for life's experiences.
Much of my youth was spent in this way. Seeking out ways to experience myself in passionate explorations of life. Scuba diving, skiing on water and snow, hiking, travelling. My career provided exciting and adrenaline pumping experiences daily.
All that excitement wasn't enough to feel that life was coursing through my veins. Something was missing. With the emotionally unresolved passed that I brought into my adulthood, my true desire I discovered much later was not to live at all.
Sometime back then I had decided that if I had to be here I may as well do what needs to be done to mark time until it's all over. Many of my experiences emerged from that choice. "What the hell, if I'm here I may as well do whatever is here to experience."
Noticing that approach to my life was a momentous discovery. Life was not what I was choosing. Quite the contrary. And in a short period of time I was given a number of opportunities to choose. To revise my decision or go with it. I chose life. I chose life. I chose life. It didn't come easily. It took some thought and a real choice about staying or leaving, 3 times to be sure. By choosing life, I chose to commit to discovering what life was really about, what it meant to actually LIVE this life rather than waiting for it to pass.
That's a huge distinction that I see many people not yet making. Choose life.
Passion eventually showed me that its also about what I put my love into. It's about ordinary everyday experiences of living life to the fullest. It's about the way I cook a meal, the attention and presence that I bring to the ingredients, the blending of flavours, the changing textures as the meal cooks.
Passion arrives in my study programme as I immerse myself in learning something that interests me, that opens new ways of looking at the world, that expands my understanding of beginning concepts, that awakens my mind to new explorations.
Passion permeates learning a new art. Listening to masters share their skills and techniques, observing the world around me through those new filters of light and dark, tone and contrast.
Passion surfaces in caring for my garden, observing the changing landscape when water is needed, experiencing the emerging new greens in spring, the fading colours of autumn, and gathering the bounty of late summer.
Passion is the fire that burns deeply within. The desire for life, for experiencing and expressing life on my terms. The willingness to say "YES" to life.
Nowadays I live life quietly, and passionately.
366 days Towards Self-Mastery
When I considered my New Year's intentions for 2020 I had just one: To allow my heart to love what it loved...and let it lead me. (If not now, then when?)
I've spent months working on integrating my life. To live life more fully with my home life, my interests, my work, my responsibilities, all coming together, all connected. I want to give each the attention that they desire and need, and still have time and energy for the others. That means living and working from the heart.
As I was clearing out my bookshelf over the Christmas break I discovered Simple Abundance. I set it aside to explore it on New Year's Day as I lazed through another delicious day of nothingness. Sarah, the author, says this book is about living in grace. Living in grace I realised, is about Self-Mastery.
My thirst for understanding the human condition has driven me all my life, and hand-in-hand with self-mastery it has been a life-long goal. And seeing as I love to write, that living in grace is about self-mastery, and I love a bit of a challenge, then if I am truly going to let my heart lead, I really don't have any other choice. So scary as it feels, I'm starting out on a daily mission of leaning into the suggestions of this daybook and making a daily post to keep me accountable. If not now, then when?
I'm Josie. You can find out a little more about me here.
Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy: by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
This book is written for the Australian and NZ market because it refers to seasonal changes. It's available on Amazon here if you'd like to follow along.
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