March 9, 2023
Welcome back to the conversation where we are talking about nourishing your soul, discovering what lights it up, and committing fully to birthing these gifts for the benefit of the many.
In my last email, I shared two different concepts from Stephen Cope and Lynn Twist. After having read their theories, I pondered, journaled, and pondered some more before developing my own concepts.
In sharing my thoughts with you today, I encourage you to continue exploring what this all means to you and how each of these concepts resonates with your soul.
Number one… The foundation of personal practice is to create the time and space for deep listening and reflection. Within that inner kind of reflective process can emerge the deep knowing of what it is that lights each of us up the most, thus illuminating the gifts we have to offer in service to something bigger than just our own personal gratification.
So the question becomes: What is it that sparks me alive the most, that is also beneficial to the larger whole? What is it that I know truly energizes me and is the most fun?
Let’s put this in perspective. My partner Sonya has two things that come up for her in practically every ceremony: having her hands in the dirt and singing in community. For me it’s a bit different. I come alive most when I’m in my creativity and play, which might look like singing or playing music, physically building something with my hands, or mapping out aspects of integrative medicine.
If we take a deeper look here, we can notice a similarity between Sonya and me in both of our examples. Creativity is a highlight for each of us, and if you poll a group of people, most will agree that some form of joyful, active creativity significantly brings them alive.
Another aspect to unpack is the recognition that creativity can serve two ends (at least), one of which is for the sheer act of enjoyment, as in playing sports and singing and dancing and making music, while the other is in service to something larger than ourselves, as in having our hands in the dirt in order to grow food or building something functional for an end goal to benefit a need – like building a home – or playing music in a community for the celebration of being alive. When we’re connected to that which brings us most alive, it is a holy act of service to ourselves. For what is more sacred than becoming more alive and being in grateful celebration for our lives?
This inner reflective process of identifying what brings us most alive may look different for everybody, but the number one piece is to create the time for reflection so that we can get more and more clear on what is most sacred and holy for each of us.
Number two… Start journaling and mapping out a plan, once you’re clear on what you’re meant to do.
How do I implement my realizations, my gifts, and bring them into actuality in my life?
How do I commit to them?
How do I create the time for them?
How do I move them higher up on my priority scale?
When we know the most important thing we’re meant to do and we don’t do it, that emptiness leaves a hole in our soul. In other words, when we’re not in service to our soul-level calling, we experience an overwhelming dissonance and a gnawing sense of unfulfillment that will eventually lead to a multitude of emotionally-driven problematic behaviors.
Thankfully, our souls are always guiding us from the place of knowing in our inner being. Its messages keep coming, like a whispering from behind a closed door. The key question becomes: Are we listening? If we continue to ignore this whispering, it will turn into a knock, and then a pounding on the door. And eventually, life is going to bust the door down.
That’s when a crisis storms in to wake us up to what we know is most sacred and most important for each of us to do. When we finally realize that these top priorities, these gifts, are our opportunity to live into the blueprint we were born with and which hold the keys to our fulfillment in life, we will no longer allow them to be pushed down on the priority list. When we listen to the inner guidance and prioritize its directives, we can then start mapping out the implementation strategy to manifest them in the day–to–day.
Number three… Have patience and perseverance.
I find that when I move something into a level of prioritization and start to put myself first, there may need to be a renegotiation of all the other priorities in my life around that new central choice, that new central anchor. Because I’ve been serving in other ways outside my own priorities, my energy has been pulled in different directions with lots of inertia, often wrapped up in other people’s hopes and expectations.
This reconfiguration from my inner knowing of my true calling (i.e. my dharma) often takes some time, which is where patience and perseverance come in. Patience helps to keep me in the listening and not acting too hastily when sitting and waiting is uncomfortable. Yet patience is not enough on its own to reveal and actualize any new priority because of the inertia that the collection of previous priorities contain.
Perseverance is also key here in remaining true to myself during this process. Perseverance is the discipline that helps me to keep refining my awareness around the importance of anchoring my new priorities and creating the new configuration where it now becomes the lead domino for all the other priorities to follow.
Number four… Rally the support necessary to allow this priority shift to really take root.
Rallying the support can happen in a number of different ways, including letting certain people know about your new prioritization and onboarding them, if their support or understanding is needed.
However, in the midst of this, I like to say, “Hold the gold,” meaning hold your new prioirities tight and keep them close. Not everyone needs to know just yet. Similar to a new mom in her first trimester, there may be a time when you don’t tell everybody and only tell a chosen few. You may also start to peel back your social commitments to allow this new thing to have the time, attention, and protection it needs.
Protecting this new dharmic gift that is being birthed into the world is important in order for it to ripen properly. Like fruit on a tree, if you pick it too early, it’s not going to be edible. If you wait too long, it’s going to be rotten. So as your dharmic realization is gestating, you have to really protect it until it’s ready to share with the world.
How does one carve out the time and space to deeply listen to the inner calling and serve what arises as our new priorities?
That’s a vital question and also a part of my decision to take a sabbatical this year: making sure I carve out the time and space for those sacred things I know I’m meant to be doing.
This wraps up this first series around the soul and the orientation piece around soul-level calling. I hope you’ve received the message of committing to the most precious thing that’s moving through you, that is larger than you and is in service to the whole.
What have you come to offer that will benefit the larger community?
How do you commit to it?
How do you implement it?
How can you hold it, protect it, and nurture it during its gestation period?
If you don’t yet know what it is, how do you create the time and space to get curious and allow it to be revealed?
May the path ahead continue to shower you with insights, growth, inspiration, and joy. And may you continue to find family and friends along the way who will lift you up as you bring forth that which is inside you, waiting to be born.
To your health,
Dr. Dan
Get healthy. Stay present. Help out.