What keeps your soul burning alive with passion? What wakes you up? What moves you forward through the day with intention and purpose?
I ask myself these questions regularly. It's easy to get lost in the day to day, eventually losing focus altogether. When I lose focus and mindfulness on these things, my fire burns out.
These questions are kindling to get the fire started, but I've been pondering the question of how can I fan my fire? Fanning the fire enlivens it. Fanning the fire grows it! Fanning the fire brightens the atmosphere with its flames.
I think one of the most important aspects of feeling passion is living with purpose and intention. I wouldn't be able to even have a fire without having a deep sense of direction..... it's my big WHY.
WHY I choose to do the things I do. WHY I am alive essentially.
This WHY comes from nowhere but within the depths of my own heart. It comes from the inner calling of my soul. It comes from my intuition speaking to me. It comes from deeply listening to myself.
An obstacle I have faced recently is that while I know my why's, some days I don't feel that motivation toward them. It definitely helps from time to time, on regular occasion, to recognize them, yes. I remind myself of my reasons. This is a huge part of my life to keep me moving forward each day. Yet... to be honest... sometimes it's not enough some days to get my fire ablazin'.
This morning in my journaling practice, I asked the question: "What can I do today to keep my creativity sparked, my heart alive, and my soul burning for expression?" This inspired the blog today to be titled "Fanning the Fire".
I think simply asking myself this question was the first step in beginning the process. Asking the question resulted in my mind thinking of solutions to the answer. It began a creative thought process. Creativity is simply that sometimes.... thinking of solutions. The ideas that come up, when you allow yourself to freely think - well that is creative thinking.
The answers to my question today involve engaging in creative activities. I have had a few ideas swirling the past week or so, new things to do that will inspire me, fulfill me, and come from my heart. I think to fan my fire today, I should act on a few of them.
What a perfect day today. I look outside, see clouds. I open my weather app, see rain all day on the forecast. Just what I need. A rainy day. Sometimes what I need to fan my fire, is sit at home, ground, nourish my body and mind with creativity and self-care.
Life is calling me to be extra intentional these days. I am making small moments intentional acts. I am making the day to day things consciously aligned with myself. I am infilling as I do things outwardly, so there is a constant flow of give and take. As I put energy OUT into the world, I do it in a way that nourishes myself, therefore receiving simulaneously.
Maybe the acts we take that are reciprocal to the world and ourselves are fans to the fire.
Reciprocity is the equal exchange of what we give and receive.
The fire I'm looking to fan is my inner fire. There are times in my life that I feel like my fire is burnt out. It's embers and ashes. It's barely burning. I feel exhausted and over given. Then, I take those mega self-care days. These days get me back feeling filled up and alive again. But does it have to be this way all the time? Over-give, then having to recoup our energy again - over and over.
What if we kept the fire burning all the time, and we spent more of our time fanning the fire. This is passionate living! It's living OUT LOUD! It's living with energy and motivation each day, to get up and win the day - again and again!!!
What if the answer is in reciprocitity. The person we are looking to have a reciprocal relationship with is ourselves and the world around us. Not only do we give to our community and our loved ones, but also ourselves. I think this is where that big WHY question is so important. We should be spending a lot of our time doing things in alignment with our WHY.
Service to the world around us is such a fulfilling thing. Our creative endeavors can be gifts to the community, to people we know, and to the world at large. This morning, some of the items on my list that I wanted to do, on this cozy rain day, involved sharing things with others from my heart. I have been recently called to reach out to people who have supported my art and engaged with my creative journey by liking, commenting, sharing, appreciating .... send them a voice memo, tell them thank you, and send some love. I really do feel so grateful. I could wake up each day and say thank you in my alone time... send off my prayers to the Universe and move on with my day. Or... I could actually express that gratitude to supporters and people I know.
Doing something like this fans my fire. It comes from my heart. It is something new that I am doing. It connects me to others. It also fuels me to keep creating. I have other various creative goals similar to this, but this one particularly is lighting my soul up with a bright smile.
So asking the question what can I do to keep my creativity sparked, my heart alivee, and my soul burning for expression led me to two simple conclusions:
- Engage with creativity by creating! Of course! We have to create to keep the fire fanned.
- Do things that are reciprocal to the outside world and to yourself. Serviceful creativity that comes from your WHY nourishes your soul with purpose but also gifts the outer world with your beautiful heart. Feeding yourself by doing things from your why keeps the fire flamed. It's more than just recognizing the why. It's acting on that why, and then giving that why as an act of service to your loved ones and community. It is YOUR gift to the world. Sharing yourself deeply and authentically is fulfilling.
These are some of my morning thoughts today. I appreciate you reading. Below is a poem I wrote just recently a newly completed artwork as well. I hope you enjoy.
Wild & free exploring to see all that I can be. Everything offers a glance at the potential chance to expand into a new beginning, where I have lost the thought of loss, because healing rebirth is infinitely revealed to me, as I seal the past and let go of regret. There's only today to choose to come out and play with possibilities and wonder. So I take a moment to sit under the stars to gaze at everything worth amaze. It's all a miracle and everything is here to open up what is meant to be. I'm just excited to see what's in store for me to adore.
