What floats your boat?

Life without passion and purpose can feel empty and promote symptoms of depression.

We all have a purpose but often it takes time to identify what it is. Although your purpose is your gift to the world you may have forgotten or suppressed it, and might not find it till later in life- but thats okay as life is a journey. Perhaps you don’t feel empower to follow your heart and turn your dreams into reality, or you are stuck doing what others expect of you.

What is your passion? This is important as passion often leads to purpose and a sense of purpose leads to meaning.

The following questions will help you identify where your passion lies and so then we can focus on purpose.

Write a list of all the things that you love to talk about. These are your passion points.

Passion is such a powerful energy and can light up the world. To be passionate about something translates to inspiration, motivation, excitement and fulfilment. The things you list that you get truly excited about, and could talk forever on, are very things that you should visit often.

If you’re having difficulty identifying the things that make you feel excited, recall what excited you as a child. Dancing lit me up when I was little.  Although it’s the last thing I feel like when I’m in the depths of despair, if I summon up the willpower to put on some classical music, and just imagine myself doing a couple of pirouettes in a tutu, I start to feel better. Painting also lights me up from the inside out.I am generally controlled by my stomach and if I don’t eat at the designated time, I am not pleasant company. But, sometimes (only sometimes), when I am writing, researching or painting, I actually forget to eat.

This self-reflection is important to identify where you will find meaning, purpose, and passion, as where you find meaning and purpose, and passion, is where you will find mental wellbeing

What floats your boat? Write down you passion points and list why you find those points so exciting?

 Now list what makes you forget to eat, drink, pee, or sleep (yes I know stress and anxiety often do that).

What have you done lately that has made you lose track of time as you were so completely immersed in the fascination of it all?

What makes you feel alive? Write down those things … and then do them more.

Next we are going to discuss positive thinking and why it’s not always the way to go.