Simply Authentic...Your Soul Voice is Calling. Do What Makes You Feel Alive

Do What Makes You Feel Alive Like a phantom lover, work charms, cajoles, comforts, and caresses. Our work—especially if it’s our grand passion—can be so seductive that we can find ourselves completely caught up in its rapture, unable to resist. However, work, doesn’t have to be a grand passion for us to be swept away; an infatuation can just as conveniently distract us from whatever is disappointing, disagreeable, or disturbing elsewhere in our lives. When you simply can’t deal with real life, a fax that needs to be answered immediately can be a fine friend. The ultimate seduction is often accompanied by the ultimate addictions: workaholism and perfectionism. What makes these two reckless behavior patterns so dangerous is that they’re sanctioned, supported, and sustained by a society still shackled to the Puritan work ethic. The Puritans frowned on anything enjoyable, believing that God’s favor could be achieved only by grueling struggle, stringent self-discipline, and backbreaking work. But Spirit can’t use us to heal the world if we can’t heal ourselves.  -Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy I met with one of my acting and voice students for tea this morning. Twenty-something Melissa knocks my socks off and I always love getting together with her. She gives me faith that the future of our country is in place, that there are younger adults who listen to their own hearts rather than what they’ve always been told. Melissa, a nurse and energy healer, had a job she liked in a sometimes violent environment, where people can be physically hurt. She wouldn’t have considering quitting until she had several disturbing and violent nightmares, which felt like a warning. Melissa is intuitive, and knew this was not something to ignore. She had a long talk with her manager, took some time off work, and eventually decided not to go back. She’s still exploring her options, and has already received another job offer she will probably say “no” to. Melissa is in “the gap.” That place where we left what wasn’t right. We have a good idea of what is right. But the bridge between the two isn’t all that clear yet. One of my AEWWC clients, forty-something Jennifer, was raised by a career-oriented family. Therefore, success was working for a corporation with great pay, benefits and prestige. She taught her children what she had learned. Yet when the corporate dream happened for Jennifer, she had to ask herself why she wasn’t happy, in fact was miserable.  When she finally left the corporate environment, her creativity was unleashed. She’s been painting, refinishing future, and several of her paintings have sold within just months of her taking one art class. Yet she still isn’t sure on her next steps, or how to create a viable income or business. Jennifer is also in “the gap.” While in the gap, she’s had the opportunity to speak with her young adult daughter about how everything she’d been taught wasn’t necessarily “the truth.” Whereupon Jennifer immediately became one of my heroes. The “gap” is an uncomfortable place to be, for sure. But if you’re changing, it’s inevitable. You can always stay the same, but then you shrink. If you’re always growing, you expand. Melissa inspires me. Jennifer inspires me. Millennials can give us all reason to be inspired. Check out this 6 ½ minute video to find out why:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=875z-hcFJkE Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive. –Howard Thurman If you found this post helpful, please share it with your friends! Authentically Yours, Laura