Fashionista to Passionista

Our planet has seasons. Our lives have seasons. My butt seems to now have seasons. Currently, it is in a season of plenty…….

Every system has cycles. Cycles of lack, cycles of plenty, cycles of discovery, and of expression, and so on. My readers know that I have been through a very dark cycle over the past year, one of grief. I have basically spent my non-working time on the couch, a glass of cabernet at my side. And while the experience was, I believe, a necessary one (the winter of my soul as it were), the results are a newfound passion for life devoid of all nonsense and drama, and a much larger butt. Super.

I believe that personal growth does, and should, be ongoing. I think each and every one of us is pure potential and our only real mandate is to find that which makes us different, makes us special, and share that with the world in a constructive and positive manner. For instance, I’m very good with a big roller brush and blow dryer, and I’m happy that I can bring significant joy into the lives of those around me when I expose them to my incredible hair. I’m currently working on finding a mandate which is a little less…..superficial. My shift in focus is that of fashionista to passionista.

So despite the daily steps we take to be better people and offer more to the world, there are those times where a significant event, perceived as either positive or negative (although Eckhart Tolle would argue, kindly, that it is neither; rather it simply IS and should be relished as such), forces such introspection and subsequent personal growth as to move from one plane of perspective to another. These huge leaps in paradigm occur during those darkest, most bleak times, if we only look for the lesson within the experience. And sometimes, the lesson simply IS to experience.

For instance, every day I try to be a better person than the day before. This tends to occur in small ways: Today I will actually push my grocery cart back to the little hut and make it easier for the parking lot guy, rather than leaving it beside my car so the wind can catch it and ram it into someone’s Lexus. Or, today, I will take the stairs at work rather than the elevator. Little things, that add up to a lifetime of being accountable and responsible for ourselves.

Or, I can experience a great loss, and use the painful but necessay downtime to really examine my priorities, and make great changes accordingly. So, rather then focusing my energy on things beyond my control (like, let’s say, my grown children), I decide to refocus it on myself and – oh, I don’t know – start a blog.

My point it, it really is darkest before the dawn and that is to say that sometimes you unable to experience the dawn if you don’t experience the darkness.

Now on to the downside (or backside – ha!) of those dark, winter periods of soul-searching and internal change and growth. A bigger butt. Yes, after just over a year of sitting around thinking, thinking, and thinking – and did I mention thinking? – I have come out the other side with a much clearer picture of which direction I want my personal journey to take (goals), and of the horse I am going to ride to get there (plan of action). And I have a much bigger butt to settle into the proverbial saddle.

There comes a times when the thinking has to stop, and the action has to begin. Thinking itself can become your only form of activity. Thinking, at some point, needs to transform into intention, which needs to transform into action. That is the order in which your personal journey should occur, and all three facets need to occur for maximum success and effectiveness.

And therefore, I am going to ensure that I take my clear mind, thoughtful purpose, deliberate intention, and accompanying butt, to the gym.