all of us deal with many struggles many issues setbacks failures disappointments broken promises anxiety fears insecurities and unless we're in denial we try to get some help whether it's in therapy whether it's through medication whether it's through other forms of behavior very often we don't really resolve the issues at best a Band-Aid cosmetic short-term Solutions like a painkiller one of the most important questions however to ask yourself is something that you wouldn't expect a surprising approach is to ask yourself what are you passionate about now you may wonder what is Passion enough to do with
my problems remember a human being by definition needs to be passionate and if we don't get that passion resolved or released in a healthy way it's going to express itself in all kinds of unhealthy ways it could be passion toward unhealthy destructive Behavior or it can be the emptiness the aimlessness the depression the anxiety that many of us suffer from now I'm not talking about clinical even though it includes clinical but it's critical to address the things that you are passionate about I remember I gave a talk a zoom talk right in the middle of
the pandemic covid this was approximately was right at the end of the school season where all the schools were closed down and everything was by Zoom so I was asked to speak to a group of was over 1500 students public school students across the country teenagers via zoom and I opened up the session with a question I said because of course everybody was dealing with the uncertainty the unknown the the the claustrophobic being quarantined the lack of social distancing the lack of interaction and it was really messing with us some people really suffered greatly some
people Rose to the occasion so I asked the students to chat in the zoom and someone monitored and gave me the answers I said tell me the three priorities in your life today this was approximately May or June 2020 and interestingly most of the answers were about internal things love relationships family values and I said if I would have asked you that question in January 2020 what would you have answered remember January 2020 was before before Co broke even though it was officially in 2019 covid-19 but till it became something that we began to consider
as serious was around March 2020 in January 2020 what are the three most important things sexuality video games Sports travel that was the consensus obviously there were the outliers and the different uh answers but that was a a large of the responses do you see the difference because the crisis stripped us from our security blankets jolted us out of our comfort zones and suddenly we had to focus on things that really matter when we're comfortable and things were going regular we focus on the immediate often superficial things what does that tell you that tells you
that passion and our commitments and our activities the things we considered to be priorities are all dependent on your state of mind and where you're at the fact of the matter is as blessed as we may be in our society today our high standard of living our comfort zones the ease to access anything anywhere get a delivery by pressing a button Within half hour an hour also has a downside the downside is that our passions tend to lend itself to things that are quite frivolous when we're struggling for our lives when I say struggling I
mean whether it's a crisis whether it's a war whether it's other B battles or challenges then we have to be focused and crystallized what do we stand for it's a blessing that the Young people in this country including myself have never had to fight a war for our values we've been blessed the last time there was such a war was World War II that's long before most of us were born and even then was not that simple till PE till America entered the war but we don't have the need which is a blessing but also
tells you how much free time we have and as a result we don't have to fight for anything someone were to ask you what are you ready to die for and I don't mean physically die what are you ready to fight for Till The Bitter End there are very few things that we're ready to do until we are it's it's taken from us until we feel until we feel deprived which is a bizarre Paradox but it is a paradox and I want to bring it back to our discussion here about passion it is vital to
have healthy passions let me share one just one case study an individual was a young adult early 20s she came to me struggling with many issues growing up in a very traumatic home abuse other issues I was beginning to make it in school very smart and accomplished but still internally many many skeletons many demons haunted her she said as much as I study it my marks are good and I can probably get a good degree and get a good job I just feel a very big emptiness and as much as she tried she could not
build a relationship rebuild a relationship with her mother with her father they were unhealthy each in their own way they were at this point divorced what about your siblings I said similar each one of us struggles in their own way and as we were talking and I was asking I said to so what do you like to study so she was very scientific but also business-minded so she was taking different majoring and minoring in different subjects but still that emptiness so I said what we need to discover is something you're really passionate about let's forget
about her career money and and your studies even though she was passionate about her studies but but it wasn't that sole passion that you need so I said what are you passionate about and she thought about it said I have to think about no one ever asked me that question I was never even given the license the freedom to ask that question I was always told what I should like I was always told what I should be doing with my life so that alone the the mere fact that she had now the the the confidence
to ask that question was I saw already freeing after once or twice speaking together she came back to me and said you know what I really like music said did you ever play an instrument no how about trying to learn one great idea she began to take guitar lessons within a few months her life changed completely because this was not something that came that someone told her you have to do this it wasn't in order to have a career it was for no other reason but to express and release the very passion of her soul
and that's what I want to address rest your soul is like fire in the words of the verse the soul of a human being is the flame of the Divine a flame a fire fire is passionate it's burning now if your very nature is a burning fire and it doesn't burn with passion and anything that is healthy what kind of Life are you going to really live it means that you're not really realizing of course it's going to affect every part of your being because it's your very essence forget about your identity and what you
you're passionate about but the very fire that you are is not allowed to burn imagine a fire being contained in a little box it'll it'll extinguish in the case of the Soul it doesn't extinguish it implodes and what do you think happens it explodes in all kinds of different ways it can be in Rage it could be in silence it could be in pain it could be in anxiety in thousands of different voices that your soul crying out and say I don't want to be a bottled up fire and in the worst case scenario the
fire will go the wrong places a foreign flame a foreign fire an alien fire it can go into different forms of addictions whether they're physical substance addiction alcohol drugs or behavioral addictions psychological ones but the fire is going to burn somewhere and if it doesn't it can be even worse because it means there's no expression at all and then it has to have impact and usually what we call negative energy instead of burning outward even toward destructive destructive ends it starts burning Inward and causes that emptiness but a deep emptiness to the point that it
really can make you miserable with anxiety with fear with insecurity and so on so yes there's ways of dealing with the symptoms of anxiety and fears and insecurities but there's a way of going back to the root your fire has been burning since you were born since you were conceived for that matter but it's like a pilot flame and it needs expression in this case the guitar the instrument the music and she told me I would go into a Zone I just love playing and now she hasn't become a great guitarist but it's her passion
ask yourself what is your passion sometimes you have to go back to your childhood to early years and remember something you really enjoy doing and very often that was knocked out of us our creativity our imagination our mischievous and adventurous side we were told no no that's for children grow out of it when in truth it was your fire burning yes for a child it expressed itself a certain way obviously an adult shouldn't be sitting and playing with toys like an child does but we should still be playful we just have to find other ways
of expressing it I remember reading once an advertising agency in the west coast very powerful very popular and they had an interesting exercise when they came as a new client came to them to create an advertising campaign they would have their the Reps get together but not just get together they rent out an amusement park a children's little park somewhere they would go there for a day or two play in the sandbox play on seesaws play on swings and on slides and you know go back into the child mode I'm talking about the advertising agents
here to get into a place that was out of their regular comfort zone out of their regular sitting at an office looking out a window out of the executive structure to get them to think like children think to get their creative juices going I thought it was a fascinating approach and they would come up with these crazy ideas that they would never have come up had they stayed in their regular straight jacket structured environments the same is for all of us maybe go out go out to the beach go to a park go back and
evoke and remember a childhood experience the best warmest childhood memory you have even if your childhood may have not been so great but we all have memories of certain memories allow yourself to imagine to dream the Enchantment of the Soul which so often becomes limited constrained by adult Ru rules and laws and establishment and and institutions and you'll be surprised what will emerge now some of us may be afraid to go there because we've already developed another Persona what are you telling me to do that for it may bring back all kinds of negative memories
but we're looking for the fire the passion you have to ask yourself what are you passionate about and the question is meant to be have the answer then you began looking and seeking and it may be in places you never would have imagined it may be places you are imagined some people love to read some people love to travel but the thing the most important thing is that you love to do it because it's you not because someone told you it's you not because someone told you it's important and sometimes it's not easy to distinguish
because those imposed values can suddenly become can over time become second nature to the point that we can't distinguish between what is really me and what was told me to be me that's why you have to experiment now the most natural place where people are passionate is when it comes to romance to courtship to sexuality to intimacy that's because the very nature of it feeds into the very essence essence of our soul that is why as I've discussed in a number of classes sexuality or what I'd like call intimacy is the fire of the soul
in its most unadulterated and uninhibited fashion at work but even that has become somewhat defined by mechanics by technicalities as opposed by a completely unbridled loving energy that's connected to commitment and devotion not just a pleasure because passion is important but it's not just about instant gratification it's not just about a one night stand of pleasure it's about a passion that's actually allowing your soul to be itself and not just for a moment and not just for a few moments to spill over and transform your entire life so that's an important place to look at
as a person's sexuality and their intimacy and their passions related to that there's no question that is a channel that many of us use as an outlet but ask yourself is it in healthy is it being expressed in a healthy fashion so there's no doubt that that is definitely a healthy passionate outlet but are you experiencing in a healthy way and that too is something that needs to be looked at so passion Plus produ of passion not just an escape not just an outlet not just relief for the moment because then it could also become
another form of an addiction we're talking about a relationship a fire that is there that spills over into your life and that's one of the easiest ways to tell I have a chapter in my book toward a meaning for Life called intimacy and it discusses that well how do you know the difference between healthy intimacy and unhealthy sexuality one of the ways does it make you more productive in the rest of your day or do it compartmentalize and that's a general a sign if the passion is compartmentalized and doesn't affect the rest of you then
it usually is an escape not always it is a bad Escape but it's an Escape that's not really integrated with the rest of your life so never underestimate the fire of your soul it's one of the strongest forces that each of us have and it's one of the places we do not look now one of the reasons we don't look there is because our passions sometimes have been already misplaced or misdirected or being expressed in other ways so we think hey I'm a very passionate person I love to go to a restaurant I love to
go with friends I love to be with different partners Etc that's why it's important to go back to the passion of your very Soul not just the passion that you have decided right now there are people passionate playing video games there are people passionate watching a soap opera going to a movie so what's the difference between that passion and what I'm calling the FI the Soul's passion those are passions that are that are escapes those are passions that are shortterm they are there and they could relieve us but they're like a drug in one way
or another I don't want to use the word drug because that may turn somebody off not everything is a physical drug a drug means it's a form of getting away from yourself whereas the passions I'm talking about is makes you even more of who you truly are and they're always Transcendent in nature so some people love to listen to music it's a it's it's a natural thing it makes us feel it resonates it makes us feel like we belong that's beautiful but when I say passion I also mean something proactive not just listening to someone
else play music not just taking it in which is a beautiful thing or reading great a beautiful reading wonderful books but it's also about what are you doing which brings me to the next Point proactive passion something that you can go out and say I'm going to now do because the next step after she was taking guitar I said why don't you then maybe join a group not that she necessarily was excellent but maybe even amateurs come together create something because that's the second half of the passion that you want the fire to build something
in this world so once you discover the passion you want to direct it toward building constructive I happen to be passionate about helping people discover their their inner selves their soul now that could have been a passion that would have remained dormant or would have remained in some way active but not very dominant in my life but it became my mission in life just to use myself as an example so the passion should be turned into an should be brought into it into into it's the word I'm looking for concretized into something execution implementation do
something with it and that's when it becomes a reality in your life because most of our activities are either our work or our Leisure or our family but if you can access the fire of your soul and turn that into an actionable plan if you can turn into a career that's the best of all worlds but even if it's a volunteer or it's something you do parttime and you take that passion and turn it into a movement into activity then the fire becomes something solid in your life and the life of others give another case
study an individual who's also struggling this person was struggling with many addictions cannot find a healthy relationship came from wealth so there was no problem with money did not struggle financially but internally was a mess I suggested to this person to volunteer well let me just back up back up he told me one of my one of my talks he said to me I live in a gilded cage I can do whatever I want I have all the money in the world but it's a cage it's a golden cage I don't feel I'm ever going
to spread my wings so I suggested them to volunteer and and help go go to one of the homes of special children and volunteer once a week take a walk with a Down syndrome child or have a conversation with a uh a child that has other handicap or disability initially he refused he said I'll hire someone to do that I said no the whole point is you and the more he resisted the more I realized how important it is I said you have to get out of your comfort zone and do something like this how
do you know maybe you'll benefit from it anyway to his credit he did try few months later he's telling me he's doing it three times a week he loves it he says I take a walk these Down syndrome children some of the others so much love that they give they don't know who I am they give me much more than I give them that's my feeling anyway a while passed and he decided he found this passion he's going to build a home like that because he found some of the things some of the institutions are
lacking he feels he has a new model here's a man who's turned his life into a passion all of us have within us that type of virtue that type of benevolence kindness but we don't always have place to express it we see it as okay it's my charitable thing I need to volunteer I need to help but it's like an extracurricular activity no make it a make it a commitment that every day for every email you send send three emails with some kind message doesn't doesn't even have to be your own you can find something
share it with others make that your passion when I say make that your passion I really mean make that discover is that your passion you may be surprised bringing a smile to another person's face bringing hope to someone who felt hopeless can become a great passion of your soul and for all you know it's exactly what your soul needs and then make it into an action you not just think about it you act on it and a little while you may have thousands of people doesn't matter the number here but you may be sending out
messages like this and bringing a smile to someone's face that's another example of taking of of discovering a passion and actualizing it we need to find these things in our lives because we are today un inundated by everyone demanding and expecting things of us just the amount of advertisements that come your way the amount of messages text email so social media they're inundated they're demanding things of us and they're not allowing us to be proactive I'm suggesting let that instead of taking all that in you know what I'm not looking at that I want to
find out my soul's passion and then I want to go from the inside out not respond to someone but I want to be proactive not to react but to be proactive to initiate you will see it will change your life so to sum up we have to find find that fire and the passion that your soul that is the essence an inherent essence of your soul we have to act on it and we have to be proactive that's the key if you can master that art you will see how your life will change you don't
even know how much you're reacting to other people's requests and demands even if you're not reacting but you are being I the word respond is also not the right word but you're basically on the receiving end it's coming your way you may be deflecting it you may be ignoring it but it's still playing defense whereas when you go on the offense that changes the whole picture but it's not just going on the offense it's finding the passion of your heart and soul of your fire and acting on it and turning it into something that has
Perpetual impact this is the formula the healthy formula that will preempt so many of the problems that we have today and I know it's counterintuitive because usually we look at a problem let's say put out the fire but that's putting out fires we're talking about preventing fires or bringing in a new reality a new mindset a new heart set a New Soul set that transcends and overrides the fires instead of just dealing with each fire with each wound with each injury with each pain on a temporary basis that's my friends the way way to go
there are three types of people they say people who make things happen people who watch things happen and people who ask what happened become a person who makes things happen and you have it in you your soul has that fire has the passion you just have to identify it Discover it and act on it and turn it into something big this is Simmon Jacobson meaningful Life Center meaning forlife.com where you can find this program and many other programs like it on many different topics we have a robust schedule of events and programs check it out
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