Follow Your Passions by How You Feel

How do you know what passions to follow? If you try to figure it out with your mind, you’re overthinking. Deep down, you already know how each passion feels to you.

When I write, it feels like all the love and awe I have for this life flows out of my heart, through my hands, and into the universe.

It’s a gift to the people who come across it, but most importantly, to myself.

I feel inspired by something bigger than me, intuitively guided by an infinite well of creativity and wisdom. It’s soothing. And deeply satisfying.

2 hours of journaling goes by, and it feels like 5 minutes of effort.

But it’s not always easy. Because it also feels like FEAR, one of my biggest fears. It’s the voice in my head that stops me from posting for months at a time. It blocks me from believing in myself and sharing my work more widely.

They say if you don’t know what passions to follow, follow your fear. It shows you what you truly want, something too close to heart. It shows you what you’re afraid to lose.

You don’t need to overcome this fear because it will always be there. But you can move forward despite it and use it as your strength.

It gives you strength, because no matter what your fears, the true battle is with yourself. And with each tiny step forward, you remember why this is your passion.

At the deepest level, it is you.

My writing feels like me. It’s my voice, my natural expression. And what I create is a raw snapshot of my soul — pure, vulnerable, unmistakable.

Creating with Love

This is Carolina Gruner. She’s a self-taught painter from Finland. She says when she paints, she feels full of love. It pours through her hands.

She was discouraged from painting in pink because “it doesn’t sell,” but she kept doing it anyway.

Carolina built her own success and loyal community. She is bringing her unique expression of femininity, flow, and divinity into modern art.

When I look at this painting of hers, I feel like I see her soul.

The Purpose of Your Passion

It doesn’t mean it’s always easy.

Often, it’s going to feel frustrating and ugly. You might be at a complete loss for where to begin. But that’s part of it. I believe you need that contrast. You’re bound to find that state of flow again, and when you do, it’s that much more beautiful.

Your passion might not be as concrete as writing or painting. But ask yourself: what makes you feel alive and most like you?

It could be giving advice to people and opening their eyes to new perspectives. Or talking about a cause you care about. The outdoors, dancing, hosting events. Meditation.

The mind may chime in here, disqualifying certain passions because you think they can’t become a profession that makes money. Try to observe this, and let it go.

You don’t want to put that pressure on your passions when the whole point is the joy of experiencing them.

The question, “Where is this going to take me?” comes with expectations of the result. True passions take you into the now. And paradoxically, when you’re tuned into the present moment and your thoughts melt away, you create what‘s most aligned with your soul.

When you follow that feeling of excitement, aliveness, effortlessness (AND fear) — it will lead you to your bliss.

That state of flow, where love rises and pours from your heart, can’t help but attract more things you love to you.

And ultimately, it‘s not about the passion, but the feeling it creates.

More important that what we do or create in this life is how we’re being, how we feel and flow through each present moment.

Writing is one of my tools to tap into the feelings I described above – which, simply put, is a state of love.

I want to experience life in a state of love. If I can drop into the love in my heart more and more each day, isn’t that a beautiful existence?

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If you want to follow my writing, I share it more frequently on my Instagram @ashmi.path and Facebook.

Love,

Ashmi