Let It Flow

Passions are many. They are also ever changing. So how does one decide what to focus our attention on in any given moment? I say, let it FLOW.

I have recently returned from a weekend camping trip to one of my most favorite battery charging locations on the planet. A lovely piece of  natural heaven that also happens to be the location of my most favorite outdoor music festival, the annual North Country Fair http://lslncca.ca/current/. I love spending time "freeze framed" outside of time and space in beautiful natural spaces every once in a while to remind myself of the importance being able to "go with the flow" plays in living a truly passionate life.

In our world it is very easy to get caught up in to-do lists, a million self imposed deadlines and guilt over not being "productive" enough in a day. However, personal experience has shown me that it is when I allow myself to get too sucked into that structure that I am often LESS PRODUCTIVE.

Locking into what you are truly passionate about and choosing to flow through day, moment to moment, allowing those passions to unfold through you in concrete ways can be an incredibly productive experience that is way less stressful than beating yourself up because your inhumanly long task list isn't complete by the end of the day.

As my mother has always been fond of saying, "You're always in the right place at the right time".


What makes you feel productive? How do you feel when you KNOW you are allowing your passions to flow freely from within and guide your day? How do you practice getting yourself un-stuck when you feel bogged down by the pressures of daily life that can constrict a person's natural flow?

Please share your thoughts for the benefits of others.

In peaceful flow,

Cassandra

Trying vs. Doing

One of my most favorite quotes is "Do or do not, there is no try" from that wise old small dude of Star Wars fame - the Almighty Yoda (yes, I a bit of a Star Wars fan, lol!)

Every time I see that quote I can't help remembering the foot tall plastic Yoda puppet that circulated to various perches around my family's home growing up. He was just kinda always THERE. Still is as a matter of fact.

Yet it wasn't until very recently that I began to truly embrace this statement.Trying has held me back from a lot of things in life? It has been my excuse, my comfort zone and held me in a space of procrastination for a very long time. 

Do you find yourself saying "I'll try"? In what areas of your life are you resistant to fully committing to DOING?

Does your desire for "perfection" (whatever that is!) in certain areas hold you back from just doing the best you can at that given moment?

I'm going to wager that I'm not the only one.

I invite you to come join me on the journey of "doing" rather than trying.

What do you think might happen?

My guess is magic!

C

Do Nothing

Can a person really "do nothing?" I would argue that in fact you're always "DOING" something, even when sitting in stillness. That's why I tend to get a little annoyed when chatting with folks who say "I CAN'T meditate, I just CAN'T sit around doing NOTHING." There's no such thing as NOTHING in my opinion.


Yet there is definitely an  overabundance of SOMETHING in our current reality. We are constantly plugged in, glued to, pulled by some type of media, activity, action (anyone who is a parent and/or a working person or let's face it pretty much a human being in the Western world knows what I'm talking about) and as a result we often find ourselves in DIS - EASE. Stressed out, tired, hungry, sick, whatever you want to call it.

The thing is, we are also surrounded by endless opportunities to press the PAUSE button on all that chaos, EVEN (gasp!) while it is still happening around us, we just have to CHOOSE to take the opportunity.

Whether you are sitting at work in front of a computer screen, running around the house chasing after three children, attempting to herd a large group of toddlers onto a day care playground or waiting in line at the grocery store, you have the power to press that pause button anytime, anywhere, anyhow.

Here are the 5 top ways I have found that work for me to do this:

#1 - Stop and actively focus on taking deep breaths for 30 seconds  - this can happen ANYWHERE and no one is the wiser

#2 - Take a mini imagination vacation for two minutes - doesn't work so good when I'm driving! Seriously, when you go to get your next cup of coffee, while taking your pee break or walking into the school to pick up your kids - let your mind wander to that secret place of joy - mine is a beach in Thailand - NEVER fails me

#3 - Breathe through your heart - this is a technique from the Heart Math Institute. It takes a bit more focus and attention as well as visualization. Great for de-stressing in a tough emotional moment, especially when it comes to parenting.

#4 - Become the observer - stop and smell the roses, watch the cars pass by, listen to the birds, it could be anything, the point is - TURN OFF all electronics around you (yes, that means the Iphone in your pocket too) and just WATCH, LISTEN, SMELL etc. Actively focus on just sitting back and letting the world roll by. 

#5 - MOVE IT! - I am fond of saying that it is necessary to release the "bad", meaning heavy, dark emotions that come from all kinds of life stresses, before the "good", meaning light, creativity, passion etc. can come back in. When you're feeling tired, sluggish, like you need to escape put on a favorite HAPPY tune and dance!! Move to the rhythms just for you, knowing that no one is watching, or maybe they are -- who cares - do it any way! Trust me , it feels great. Release that pent up energy.

The key here is that relaxation, de-stressing, "breaks" from the hub bub of daily life whatever your situation do not have to be two hours long. Mini moments such as this throughout our day help us to stay focused, clear, present and in harmony with the world around us. For me, it also makes me feel less prone to tear my hair out by the dinner time witching hour too! 30 seconds ten times a day is just as effective as 30 minutes once a day. Whatever works for you, just make it work.

So you see, DOING NOTHING, doesn't have to be a long and tedious process and it actually doesn't even have to be NOTHING. Long silent meditations are fantastic for the body, mind and spirit for sure. If the idea of doing something like that is a barrier to you for taking any kind of pause, start somewhere, let yourself press the pause button for ten seconds or two minutes. Every bit counts.

Here's something my sister-in-law shared with me this morning. I fell in love with it the minute I did it the first time.

www.donothingfor2minutes.com


Give it a shot and post your experiences here. Please share your comments about how you find ways to pause throughout your day. Let's encourage each other to take those pauses when we can.

Wishing you a day filled with "DO NOTHING" moments,

Cassandra

The Million Dollar Question

Passion, I asked myself... hmmmm, so what is that anyway?


A quick Google search or... imagine this - an actual flip through the pages of a REAL paper dictionary, GASP! will get you a variety of definitions for this tasty word.

Definitions according to Dictionary.com are as follows:

pas·sion

 /ˈpæʃən/ Show Spelled[pash-uhn] Show IPA

–noun

1.

any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.

2.

strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.

3.

strong sexual desire; lust.

4.

an instance or experience of strong love or sexual desire.

5.

a person toward whom one feels strong love or sexual desire.

6.

a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything: a passion for music.

7.

the object of such a fondness or desire: Accuracy became a passion with him.

8.

an outburst of strong emotion or feeling: He suddenly broke into a passion of bitter words.

9.

violent anger.

10.

the state of being acted upon or affected by something external, especially something alien to one's nature or one's customary behavior ( contrasted with action).

11.

( often initial capital letter ) Theology .

a.

the sufferings of Christ on the cross or His sufferings subsequent to the Last Supper.

b.

the narrative of Christ's sufferings as recorded in the Gospels.

12.

Archaic . the sufferings of a martyr.

Now I'm sure if I sat down and analyzed it I could figure out how each of these definitions apply to me and I bet you could too.

You all know the feeling, and if you don't please let's talk cause my goodness are you missing out! I have yet to meet a person who isn't passionate about SOMETHING. I wonder what that something is for you? For me it often exhibits as me actually getting flushed. We're talking, turn a bright shade of red when I get going on something I'm really passionate about! You can just imagine what kinds of situations that has put me in :-)

Which leads me to my list. It's often changing and always growing. See that's the cool thing about life in my opinion. It's never stagnant. It's ever changing and so your list of passions can change and grow as you do the same. It is a reflection of who we are at any given moment.

So at the moment, here is a list of my current passions, in no particular order, just as they come to me, which as I said, continues to grow daily. 

THE GREAT BIG LIST OF PASSIONS

- Life

- Learning 
- Immersion

- Personal growth and development (this could and probably will have a whole page of its own)

- Discovering and living as the most authentic version of myself and empowering others to do the same

- Family - I have a pretty fantastic one that I am very proud to be part of
- Conscious Parenting 
- Parent Empowerment & Education
- Children
- Authentic Relationships

- Community

- Travel

- Connecting and sharing in positive ways with other human beings

- Cultivating authentic relationships

- Gratitude

- Diversity

- Communicating through spoken and written word

- Language 

- Dance/Movement

- Expressive Meditation

- Finding the silver lining, exploring all angles, finding the lesson in any situation

- Finding the calm inside the storm

- Creative expression of all kinds

- Play dough - yes play dough :-)

- Oh, and let me not forget... QUOTES! You'll be seeing a lot of them.

At the end of the day I guess you could say that what I am most passionate about is BEing. BEing true to yourself and true to those around you. To be sure this is a journey. One well worth taking. On that note, I leave you with a somewhat cliche, yet nevertheless very meaningful quote from one of our world's most influential leaders: 

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Gandhi

So who are you? What are you passionate about? Who do you want to be? Please post a comment and share where you're at in this moment.

What's with the name?

Passionista? What the heck is that?!

Here's the story as I can best explain it...


Once upon a time I embarked on this thing called life. Had experiences as a kid, had experiences as a teen, had experiences as young adult etc. etc. All the while wondering... WHY AM I HERE? As I'm sure many of you have, I've had a series of rises and falls where I thought I had figured out what I was "meant to" be doing with my life. Yet something has always been missing. There's always this nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach with every great accomplishment that "Ya, that was awesome, but NOOOOT quite what I'm looking for". Next!


Round about 2008 I really started exploring this feeling of something "missing" a lot deeper. I READ a lot! I TRIED a lot! And along my journey much of what I came across asked "What is your passion?" or "What are you passionate about?". So I asked myself, what in the world am I actually passionate about? The answer is... QUITE A BIT. I bet the same is true for you if you really let yourself sink into it.

You see, when I first started exploring this question of my passions I couldn't really come up with a single thing. Enter.... my most recent vocation as an early childhood professional and parent educator - translation: one who plays playdough with preschoolers, learns a lot from hanging out on the floor with babies and shares insights with other parents about how to navigate the murky waters of the greatest and most challenging job on Earth. Hands down one of the most rewarding ways of spending my time & energy so far! So, how does this relate?

Well, the other day it hit me as I was pondering yet again the idea of what it means to be me.

Me = being passionate. What?! It was like I had been hit on the head with some very large object (or more likely some kind of toy!)

Often after parenting workshops and classes feedback from participants would be that I was "passionate". In fact, many friends of mine over the years have described me or my actions as such.

When I really sat down and thought about it, the best days for me are the ones in which I recognize that I have felt passionate about what I was doing that day and also that I was called silly AT LEAST ONCE! More on this later...

Therefore, in choosing a name for my blog (and believe me, I've procrastinated on this A LONG time) I decided that the best way to describe the contribution I'd love to add to the world is through passion. And thus, The Passionista Blog is born!

I'm excited about embarking on this journey and double extra excited to share it with you.

May your day be filled with laughter & light no matter who you are, no matter what you're doing, no matter where you are on this amazing planet, no matter when you happen to read this, no matter why you're reading it and no matter how you came across it.

Cheers!

Cassandra

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!

Essentially, this is a space for ME to BE ME. It is also a space meant to encourage YOU to BE YOU. After all, as human beings, essentially that's what we are. A collection of spiritual beings exploring the human experience of being ourselves, as individuals and as a collective.

I have created this place as an opportunity for me to share what I am passionate about and hopefully to serve as an inspiration to others to express and live their passions.

In love & light,

Cassandra