Do what you love!…

Hi EveryOne,

Do you do what you love to do? Or do you do what you are compelled to do?… Many people believe that to do what they love means to chase and pin down that elusive object / person that will make them happy ‘forever’. Truth is, happiness is fleeting, it’s a constantly moving target that cannot be filled permanently. Meanwhile the chase becomes a perpetual pattern – aka compulsion – that becomes increasingly stifling the longer we insist on ‘playing the game’! What makes us happy one moment may irritate us the next… Take relationships for example – what may attract us to someone (make us happy) may in time become the bane of our existence, so we sabotage it. Why? Because life is a cycle of change but most of us dig our heels in and resist it. To enjoy life consistently, creating inner balance is therefore essential. Without inner balance we compulsively look to others to make us happy while resisting change and so our relationships suffer. This ‘killer’ reason breeds expectation, blame and often painful separation… When our happiness is reliant exclusively on external circumstances, so too will our sadness stem from the same source. Of course there’s nothing wrong with being happy (I thrive on it) but the key is to not become dependent (attached) to external motive and desire. Appreciating life inside out, not outside in, allows our relationships to naturally blossom with love and acceptance. In other words, by continually working on our inner self we get to know who we are and connect with our purity and truth. Through this self awareness our happiness is not dependent on others nor will we want to make others depend on us. This subtle form of self care enables us to step away from self-imposed boundaries and no longer do we measure our own worth with how others treat us.

Knowing ourselves – our strengths and weaknesses, our likes and dislikes, our values, our worth – gives clarity and focus and when we cooperate with this inner understanding, we can turn some of our weaknesses around. This is not only beneficial for us as individuals but also for those around us 🙂 By doing what we love (not what we are compelled to do) we can now start making a difference in the world… Because the more we get to know ourselves from the inside the more we will like who we are and what we do – no longer driven by compulsion we can now ‘do’ life with purpose. When we realise and accept that love lives inside of us, we can do what we love outside’ without the need for validation… When we do what we love rather than chase what makes us temporarily happy, we will be better at what we do because when there is genuine enthusiasm we will naturally give it our best. We won’t feel the need to look to others for our happiness but rather, we will be able to make others happy without expecting a return. A wise soul once said ‘If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life’. Interestingly, when we don’t see life as ‘work’ we uplift others but when we see life as a chore, we bring ourselves and others down. So it pays to change the way we look at the world.

It’s true! When we change our view, our landscape, our perspective, life and the things / people we look at will change. It has to, it’s not rocket-science – it’s a universal law! When we change the filters in our own ‘lens of life’ from negative to positive, from hard to easy, from anger to love, amazing things happen!… Though it does take daily practice, something most of us are unwilling or unprepared to do. Instead we distract ourselves by trying to change or ‘convert’ others, while we remain bogged in the mud of self-victimisation… How can we possible do what we love and love what we do, when we see ourselves as ‘being hard done by’? When we believe that ‘life is unfair’ and that ‘it’s them not me’? When we choose to project, judge, criticise and blame others?… Learning to view the world through clean lenses (not through rose coloured glasses) life must change – sparking enthusiasm that ignites our divine spark within. In a world that’s becoming increasingly ‘dark’ isn’t it time we ignite our own inner light? Isn’t it time to be self responsible as a means to become fr
ee? Isn’t it time to shine and do what we love?… I believe it is 🙂

Question: Do you look to others (or things) for your happiness (no matter how subtle)?

Consideration: What’s the ‘reason’ you may not be doing what you love? What’s stopping you?

Action: For the month of February, if ever you’re feeling down and looking to someone or something to make you happy. Stop! Breathe! And turn inwards. Tap into your own treasure store of gifts and specialities and see which ‘tools’ you can use to make it happen. Keep digging till you find it – we each have many tools at our disposal. And even though sometimes we just need to dig a little deeper, trust and know that your inner qualities is how we can turn our life around, little by little. This is how we can improve our relationships and how we can support and encourage others 🙂

Lots of love Annemarie