Passion—any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling

Passion—a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm or desire for anything

Passion is a word that seems to be excessively used and confused with purpose and interestingly paired with work.  It has found its way into all sorts of environments—school, work, places of worship, neighborhood communities, etc. It has become a buzzword-like phenomena since we are told to constantly follow it.

We often hear people say that they are passionate about X or Y, but it always seems like the focus is on some external thing or force. I am pretty certain that if you asked a bunch of people what they are passionate about that you would get a bunch of varying responses. But most likely it would be about work, a hobby, a community, a relationship or an interest or call to something like music, art, learning, science, health, etc. Why does it seem that our passions are drawn to other things and people outside of ourselves?

You will not hear many people say that they are passionate about themselves. Maybe this is because it seems too self-centered or self-serving or just uncomfortable to say that we have a powerful emotion or enthusiasm for ourselves. It is just not in the “norms” of society. Maybe it is because we are not fully comfortable or accepting of ourselves or have not really spent time to know ourselves. 

Or could it be that through being passionate about things or people and pursuing those passions this contributes to our own well-being and happiness. It is sort of the training wheels for being passionate about ourselves. Through the experiences we have in being passionate about other things or people we learn to know how to be passionate about ourselves.

Common lore holds that when you follow your passion, bliss ensues. Which leads me to being passionate about yourself. I came across an informal poll online that asked people what they were passionate about. The one response that stood out for me was “my passion is having happiness within myself no matter what the situation.”

Being passionate about you is not selfish or conceded. It is being in-tune with yourself and thinking about and doing things (taking action) that fuels your soul. Being passionate about yourself leads you to discoveries of purpose, gives you fresh perspectives and new outlooks.

So, it is perfectly fine to have strong interests or emotions for something outside of yourself as these help you learn about yourself and contribute to who you are. Likewise, it is perfectly fine to be passionate about who you are—you—and not defined by those other things or people.

“Vibe high and the magic around you will unfold.”

~ Akilnathan Logeswaran

In this blog we have often spoke about vibration. Everything in the Universe is vibrational in nature, including you. The essence of what you are is pure energy with vibrational frequency that oscillates. Your vibrational frequency essentially determines your quality of experiences—situations, opportunities and relationships.

As we are living in time of great change and evolution with what seems like a continuous stream of conflicts and challenges, it can be difficult not to be impacted and to have associated feelings of frustration, fear, doubt, confusion and even blame.  On the spectrum of vibration frequency these are on the lower side vs the higher vibrational frequencies of joy, calm, happiness, etc.

Now more than ever it is important to check in on your vibrational frequency and to keep tabs on it. Your vibrational frequency is determined by what dominates your thoughts and the beliefs you hold in your consciousness. Think for a moment of when you feel good and the thoughts you have. Think for a moment of when you feel bad and the thoughts you have.

As we are humans, it is normal to have variations in our frequencies as our thoughts are impacted by what is going on around us, and it is possible to vibrate at different frequencies on different topics and in different settings. But when you start to have an imbalance and your thoughts are generating lower vibration frequencies, it may be time to take action to raise your thoughts. 

Vibration is influenced by thought, and for the most part this is done at an unconscious level. Your mind is like a powerful quantum computer and if you are not checking in on how its programmed it can easily be run by external forces such as media, family, institutions, etc. If you are not paying close attention your lower vibrating frequencies will impact your intentions and attract or manifest more of what you do not want.

Think about it this way, as your thoughts become more life affirming and encouraging your life will respond likewise. Overall, it is about becoming responsible for your mental energy, and if you want to raise your vibration you need to raise your thoughts.

All of our natural vibration is high but we often let in worries, judgement, victimhood, holding onto the past in some way, among others that interfere with this natural frequency. Plus, what keeps us vibrating low is when we consciously focus on what we do not want or do not like and imagine future undesirable outcomes or experiences. The good news is that at any given moment you can become responsible for how you feel and how you vibrate, and raise your mental and emotional energy.

But to master this you need to practice this. It is critical to work at mastering your thoughts-knowing that, yes, our vibrations will oscillate and many times the reset button will be hit.  There is no magic answer or process and most likely changing your view of the world will not happen overnight.  So, in short, you cannot look at this from a “to-do” or “check list” perspective. To help you on your way below are some guidelines.

• Reclaim your worth and stop asking the outside world to prove that you are worthy
• Appreciate yourself and listen to yourself
• Release disempowering beliefs of victimhood and being powerless
• Stop giving your power away by reacting to low vibrating people or situations
• Take conscious responsibility for your life and be a conscious creator
• Remove the drama
• Practice gratitude
• Laugh more

I encourage you to take your first steps today to checking and raising your vibration.

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” 

~ Jalaluddin Rumi

In this blog we often address the concepts of the Universal truths and our soul’s intention and purpose. We have explored being at peace with yourself, where you are and where you have been, and that you are exactly where you are supposed to be at any given point in your life as we are here to experience. These experiences create who we are and how we evolve.

With this, we have given insight into the careful manifestation of intent. The Universe will put in front of us opportunities that help direct us to our evolution and next phase or season of our lives, and ultimately provide what we need.

This does not necessarily mean that we should idly wait for things to happen. We need to be in-tune with ourselves and our surroundings and understand ourselves as best as we can so that when opportunities—be it through the channels of events, people, information—are presented we can clearly see them and decide the energy we invest in them.

But note, that it can be difficult to put energy and focus into an externality without first investing energy in yourself—your mind, body and soul. When you have a better understanding of yourself—what motivates you, what you like and do not like, your values, your beliefs, your true intentions and goals—then you have more confidence in your instincts and are able to ascertain or evaluate the opportunities put on your path.

This brings me to what I would like to explore in this post—that of push and pull motivation. Push motivations are when we push ourselves toward our goals or to achieve something. This something can be a range of things, from good health, financial security, prestige, etc. Push motivation can be easily influenced by our upbringing, other’s expectations, misunderstood values or beliefs.

These forces can easily confuse why we are doing something. The intention or goal may sound or feel like what we aspire to achieve, but along the way too much noise gets in and we can find ourselves driving toward a goal that is not relevant any longer or not really what we want. In general, push motivation is when we are essentially pushing ourselves away from something to something else.

Pull motivation is defined as the opposite of push. Pull motivation is when we are drawn to a deeply desired point. With pull motivation, we are not pushing ourselves away from something, be it a set of circumstances, relationships, what we do not like or what we fear, and that are quite influenced by expectation. We are being pulled toward something.

In pull motivation, we get beyond the noise so that we are able to listen to our instincts and our deeply held wishes and intentions. In pull motivation we tap into our most inner selves and the subsequent actions we take are aligned with our values and beliefs, and with our purpose.  Pull motivation comes from a place of a sense of presence and engagement. This is a much stronger motivation and where we can more clearly see the opportunities that are presented to us and know when it feels “right” to pursue them.

It is about half way through summer in the Northeast US as we are about to turn the calendar page to August. How did that happen? And where did the time go?  For many of us, the excitement about the upcoming summer and the things we resolved to do (or not do) seem to have have melted in the summer heat and humidity.

You know that list — take some time off, go to the beach (lake, mountains), read a good book, get together more with friends and family, have more BBQs or just in general kick back on some nice summer nights.  And here we find ourselves looking at August with the feeling of being a bit defeated that we have not really put into action some items on that list, and may even say to ourselves “next summer will be different,” and “I like the fall better anyway.”

Some of that excitement about summer comes from when we where kids and school let out for the summer—and we stood in front of about 10 weeks of no school commitments and a nice lazy summer. Some of our expectation on summer are also fueled by the fact that it is the popular time to take work vacations and/or it was when you went away with your family and friends when you were young.

With this, we have this built-in mind-set that we have to do something fun and go away in the summer—plus we do look forward to longer sunny days and all the typical traditions (and feelings) of summer. Regardless, we—like we do on 31 December when we make New Year’s Resolutions—set our thoughts, ideas and plans for what we will do or how we will modify our behaviors or routines over the summer. 

Then it happens. We really don’t do what we set out to do or we don’t follow through on our intentions. We get bogged down in work or extra-curricular activities. We get side-tracked or distracted. We let some noise in and may even make up excuses. Maybe our expectations are set too high. We have some over-inflated series of fond memories of special summers and we are trying to recreate them.

But it is OK. We can start right now. We can do a reset and take some small steps to work in the things we had envisioned for our summers. It is never too late and we can still savor the season.  You can make time and space—even if in small batches or sprints.

Maybe as kids we had the innate thrill of the uncommon or new that the summer gave us and as we got older that thrill somehow faded as we tied ourselves up in “grown up life.” But we can work to remind ourselves of that thrill of the uncommon by simply changing up a few things. Think about that feeling and do a few things that gets you in the mindset.

This can be as simple as eating dinner outside on your patio vs standing over the kitchen sink, stop for a cold sweet treat, find a place to sit even for a few minutes in the summer sun (or shade) or take that vacation day and not use it to clean your house. Go out to the park, the beach, the lake, the county fair, etc.  And while I’m at it, these little treats of the uncommon don’t have to be reserved for the summer or have to be so uncommon. We all can work it a little “summer vacation” into our daily lives!

“I move, therefore I am.”

~ Haruki Murakami, 1Q84

As humans it is hard to be still. We tend to want continuous motion or progression. Maybe it is because it has been instilled in us since a very young age with an evolving list of milestones, such as first steps, first words, first dates, advancement through school, first job, promotions at work, or accolades, awards and recognition for contributions or achievements.  As we get older, we seemingly are driven to get to the next milestone, sometimes not only for ourselves but for some type of social acceptance or inclusion.

Maybe our desire for continuous motion comes from the evolutionary process of the human development, whereby we progressed our physical and behavioral traits over a period of six million years from apelike to where we are today. As we are more advanced human beings (relative to where we began and where are are now, but noting via ascension progression will continue), there are times where we feel like we are being idle or, at least, not moving forward in our personal lives. 

In this state we seek more—to do more, be more—or to do or be something different.  We may feel that if we are still too long, we are not advancing or we are losing our “edge” and therefore losing our relevancy or sustainability. We ask ourselves are we personally becoming extinct or an “endangered species.”

It may be that we are not discontent or unhappy, but feeling bored. Our bodies and souls feel a need for new experiences, but where we want or need to have those experiences are not yet formed or built. We are waiting for various pieces to come together, and it can be difficult to see that our current experiences and people put on our path are all part of the evolution.

We can have gratitude for where we are and what we have but still feel a desire (maybe an instinct) to have forward motion. It is not that we are being ungrateful or selfish. We simply have the human desire to cultivate other things in our lives—to make a contribution, to be creative, to help others, etc., and this is movement.

If we have movement, we may feel more alive and in the moment. It may not necessarily be about advancement for more or better, but the movement is almost like a catalyst for our purpose and our existence.

Movement helps us make sense of the world and ourselves. Movement is fundamental to our sense of self and existence.

Ambassador: a diplomatic agent of the highest rank accredited to a foreign government or sovereign as the resident representative of his or her own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment; an authorized representative or messenger.

As we go through life, especially once we hit adulthood, for the most part we get caught up in working for others and doing for others. This is fine, but in doing so we become brand ambassadors for others—our work, our school, our family, our friends—and we lose sight of our own personal brand and being the “authorized representative or messenger” for our sovereign selves or our individual sovereignty.

When countries speak of sovereignty it basically means their right to determine what goes on inside their borders. It is their right to exist as a self-determining, self-governing geographic area. When we speak about our own, personal sovereignty we mean our right to determine what goes on in our own lives based on who we are (our personal brand). It is not about having sovereignty over others—but being sovereign over ourselves, including individual empowerment and freedom.

As we grow into adults we increasingly take on more responsibilities, we conform to the rules and processes of institutions and systems and we get tangled up in an array of expectations. We begin to label or define (brand) ourselves by a check list of accomplishments or milestones that may not be truly ours. We begin to feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the world we navigate and find it easier to just go along with the masses, and inadvertently we stop defining ourselves. 

In a way, we get branded by the circles or environments in which we live. Some of us may over time even feel compelled (either consciously or unconsciously) to promote or advocate for others, but not ourselves. With deadlines, commitments and overall just “doing” we forget about our identities. We lose sight of our unique value proposition. We may have a false sense of what is really important to us.

In the business world a brand is defined as a unique design, sign, symbol, words or combination of these that coalesce into an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from competitors. Over time this image becomes associated with a level of credibility and quality.

Using this as a parallel framework for how we define our own personal brand, it would be the combination of our unique thoughts, words and actions coupled with our values, beliefs and intentions that identify us and which differentiates ourselves from others. This is what you take into the world everyday. This is what you have agency over and for which you advocate as the only authorized representative of you.

I encourage you to take some time to think about your personal brand, your identity and overall sovereign self. Ask yourself if you are letting others define you and your life. Think about how much time you may be spending on promoting or advocating for others and by doing so, are you losing sight of yourself in the process. If you want change and to redefine yourself declare your sovereignty and start to be the ambassador of you.