“He needs to follow his passion.”
This is the thought that woke me a few days ago. I was in Colorado visiting a university with my son, trying to help him decide where to spend the next four years of his life – four years which have the power to shape the man he becomes.
It’s a big decision.
“He needs to follow his passion.”
Have you ever woken up with instant clarity on something you’ve been struggling with, or a decision you’ve been trying to make?
There’s a magical moment, just after we wake up, but before our brains take over with their constant chatter, where we gain brief access into what I believe are our true “thoughts.” The part of us deep inside that just KNOWS, the part of us that’s always there, whispering to us in a voice so quiet that it often gets drowned out by our fears and worries and objections.
That beautiful moment lasts only a second, maybe two. But there is so much power and clarity in the messages that come through in those sacred seconds.
When I had this thought last weekend, I pulled out my notebook and started writing.
“He needs to follow his passion.”
Most of us had big passions when we were 17. Huge dreams. Stars in our eyes. The future was ours to make of it what we wanted.
And then “real life” smacked us in the face with responsibility, nay-sayers, and our own loud chatter filling our minds with fear. We followed the “should’s” around and around, adding more and more layers between our daily experience of ourselves and that voice that KNOWS who we really are.
We got off track.
We found ourselves living according to what we think is expected of us, and that little whisper grew quiet.
But that little voice is still there, and it still KNOWS our passions.
It still knows what’s truly right for us.
Some people can access it through meditation, others while running or becoming engrossed in an activity they love. For me, it comes most often in that brief instant right after I wake up.
I want to encourage you, the next time you have a moment of clarity, to stop what you’re doing and write it down. Journal about it. Hand that little voice inside you the microphone and let her speak without interrupting her or objecting to her.
She has so much to say, and she will not steer you wrong.
That question you’ve been struggling with? She knows the answer.
Trust her. Instead of trying to “think” your way into the answer, let her share it with you.
For me, this meant that I need to support my son’s passion for video game design by encouraging him to choose a school that offers it as a major, instead of pressuring him into a program that others consider more “professional.”
That little voice was ME, speaking up in a critical moment as a mother – helping my son see beyond the “should’s” and honoring HIS small voice inside.
And the message felt RIGHT.
That’s the thing with the voice of our true Self – it always feels RIGHT.
If we let her speak. And if we trust her when she does.
She knows so much more than we realize.
WE know so much more than we realize.
Xx Jen