Don’t Push Passion

What someone is passionate about gives you a deep look into who they are, as it comes directly from the soul. If you are passionate about mental health, you are someone that is meant to help others, you are empathetic. If you are passionate about running, you enjoy the thrill and feeling present and alive. If you are passionate about photography, you see the beautiful details of the world that others can’t see or don’t notice. However, one thing about passion, is that the moment it is pushed, it loses the whole meaning that it had in the first place.

I have always been a passionate person, I am pretty sure my twitter bio from age 15 is “Be PASSIONATE!”, and I can’t remember my password so it won’t be changing anytime soon. I have been passionate about saving the whales (if you know, you know), I have been passionate about health and wellness, I have been passionate about writing, designing, sewing, styling etc. Passion creates sparks in your life, it creates momentum and joy and drive, and it feels good to care about something really deeply, to really give something your all. This is, until you start questioning where your drive is really coming from, at which point it isn’t passion anymore, it is pressure. 

This blog has brought me to the conclusion that I absolutely love writing and that I am not too shabby at it either (IMO), as someone who can find social situations stressful, which leads to overcompensating and saying things that I wish I wouldn’t, or feeling like I don’t know the right thing to say at certain times, I found such comfort and safety and most of all confidence in writing, being able to have the space to write my own words that I was really proud of. That is until people close to me started to critique it, and asking if I was still doing it if I had missed the mark by one day, what my ideas were, giving me suggestions, giving me edits etc. This felt like it had taken my whole purpose out of it. Believe me, I understand that when someone puts something out there for the public you have to be ready for whatever may come, but that doesn’t mean you won’t feel less inclined to do it for a period of time. I fully admit that it made me lose a lot of the passion I had for writing and for my blog, and the more you push passion, the less you are going to feel it. I currently have seven blogs that are ready to be posted, but do I feel the passion coming from my soul when I read them over, or did I feel it when I wrote them? Absolutely not, I dreaded it, and I knew it wouldn’t feel right if I had put any of them out. My whole goal is to put out words that are to the core authentic, and they weren’t, at least at that time. 

However this, right now, is something I am incredibly passionate about; being honest and real about what life will look like, about what my life looks like, that a lot of the time you may lose the momentum for your passion, and that is really okay. For the most part, I have to remind myself that just because I am passionate about something, it isn’t who I am, it is just a part of me and what I love and care about, and that I haven’t lost myself or my meaning just because I am choosing to step back and honour what I need in that period of my life. Passion isn’t meant to be pushed, it is meant to wander.