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Following the Call of Your Soul

Hello from London! It is wonderful to be back in Europe again. Rishi and I are here for business meetings to support the realization of MAPS: the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary.
I came to London directly from Toronto. But Rishi came via Singapore, where he attended the All That Matters music, sports and marketing trade show and made some amazing connections. While we work hard to connect by email, phone and social media, and so does our dedicated team of volunteers, there is just no substitute for in person presence and connection. What we see over and over again, when we share our heart and passion for MAPS, is that people are immediately touched. Executives well up with tears. And well-networked business leaders help us make the appropriate connections to see MAPS realized by the end of 2017. Meetings run long because no one wants to leave the moment of heart connection.
That does not mean that everything is an easy waltz from one connection to the next. We are working flat out, stretching our limits as never before. The intensity of crowds, travel, packed schedules and needing to be “on” no matter what, is a challenge to physical endurance. Yet, our minds and hearts are unwavering. We will not go home until we have secured what we set out for. We are very clear how essential it is that MAPS be established immediately. The voice within me, that guided me to sing at the North Pole to raise awareness of the quickly melting polar ice, is only becoming more vocal and urgent. Now is the time for us all to awaken to our inherent state of essential interconnection.
In this kind of mindset, with the universe’s support, it is almost as though everything has become hyper-real. Synchronicities line up. We will find ourselves passing through an out-of-the-way village and having a strange experience that feels like closing a karmic account somehow. We take each step on faith, ready to jump on a train at a moment’s notice to meet with someone we had never even dreamed would be part of why we are here. All the while, back home, people who had been aware all along of the work we are doing but had not been sparking with it, are suddenly signing our petitions, joining our mailing list, and sharing the valuable info about MAPS with others.
All of this underscores the reasons I follow my bliss and honour my artistic voice. It grows louder and more fearless the more I listen to it. In light of this, I wanted to share today more about the path of following your soul calling and the many miracles that arise as you do.
FOLLOW YOUR BLISS
When I am asked today for guidance on a career as an artist, I always say, you must really love it, because it is not easy. But because what I do feels connected to why I am here on the planet, I feel connected to my soul voice and so very alive when I engage in artistic work. It is not like I am doing a job when I work on music. I am engaged with life and evolving spiritually. My artistic career feels like my spiritual path. I feel aligned with my purpose.
Part of letting go of living for other people’s dreams is being able to articulate our own dreams. We may judge the idea of dreaming as a waste of time and not even allow ourselves to go there. Before we have begun to connect to our soul voice and our purpose, we have already sabotaged ourselves by judging it as useless.
Once we determine whose life we are living and what voices we are listening to that silence our own, we begin to find the space to express even to ourselves who we are. “I love painting! My dream is to be a full time artist!” Or perhaps “I love flying airplanes. My dream is to fly jumbo jets!” Once we are honest with ourselves, we can be honest with the world and begin to take the necessary steps to make our dreams a reality.
In this clear, inner honesty, we can hear the call of our soul adventure. We can hear our soul speak, because we are now open and listening. We may feel some fear, but we are starting to realize that to resist our soul voice is to live in unhappiness. Though the fear of newness is great, we open to possibility. We welcome the new. We know that if we don’t, our life will remain the same and we will be unhappy. When we say yes to ourselves, doors begin to open and we see things that before were blind to us.
Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer. He had a lifelong passion for the study of the cohesive threads in mythology that seemed to run through disparate human cultures. He spoke actively about the Hero’s Journey, something that we all must face if we are to follow our bliss. It was he who coined the phrase, “follow your bliss”. Campbell said: “If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.” What inspiration!
Here is a quote Campbell interestingly said he derived from the Upanishads, inspired by the word Sat-chit-ananda (Truth-Consciousness-Bliss), the high yogic state of bliss. He said, “If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.”
To me that is a perfect summation of what it means to live in the positive possibilities versus impossibilities. When we live in the positive possibilities, we embrace the notion of support and interconnection and doors do open that were closed to us before. If we remain in the impossibilities, we remain closed and disconnected from who we truly are.
When we name it to claim it, we align ourselves with our soul voice and our life begins to move in support of our highest purpose. Though we will be tested, though we still face fear and doubt, we have begun our own hero’s journey, our soul path.
FACING ADVERSITY
As we move more deeply into alignment with our soul voice, sometimes the road gets tougher and darker before it gets easier and lighter. On the hero’s journey, the hero must face his/her shadow to find wholeness. So too, we are tested in the process of becoming our fullest selves.
I do not believe that adversity is a problem or a sign from the universe that we are off path. Sometimes New Age teachings oversimplify life into, “if it’s all fluid, then you are doing well, and if it is challenging, then you are not in alignment.” You may feel challenged when you meet adversity, but I do not believe it is a sign that you have taken a wrong turn. Only when we face our fears will we be free from them. Only when we stop fighting the dark, will we no longer be afraid to be the light we are.
Nor do I believe it is a good idea to passively let adversity steamroll over us and take the wind out of our sails. We wobble. We fall. We get up. We start again. We learn to be both humble and powerful, because we are aligned not to our personal will but to our soul. Through tests, we learn to honour the voice of our soul, which is connected to the divine source of infinite power.
The very love and spark and deep passion that made us start our journey in the first place is the source to which we return again and again. We may feel afraid. That is ok. We may feel challenged and unsure how to make it through. That is ok. Beyond the doubts and the fears, stronger than the power of the obstacles, we learn to touch with confidence the reality that we are guided, that we are not alone, that we are loved. Though the dark may scare us, we know we are beings of light.
Adversity does not make us stronger, in terms of our ability to push at life with more determination. Pushing only leads to a push back, as the universe must maintain balance. Adversity calls us to connect more deeply to our truth and let go of the temptation to get caught up in anger, fear, doubt, shame, rage and despair. Instead, adversity is an invitation from the universe to resource our energies with discernment, to use them wisely so that we may keep focused on our purpose and on our highest good.
Adversity will come. Obstacles will come. Tests will come. But so too will the help, the angels, the mentors, our very own support crew. The universe conspires to support our greatest joy. In this we will learn to believe. We have to put ourselves out there to discover that our dreams are indeed possible.
TODAY IS THE DAY
Today, pull out a pen and paper and find a quiet place to ask yourself the following questions. Take your time with each one and write as honestly as you can:
1. What are my dreams?
2. In which way do I hold myself back from living these dreams?
3. What excuses do I make?
4. Are these really legitimate reasons or can they be overcome?
5. What am I afraid of?
6. What will I gain if I choose to follow my dreams?
7. What will I lose if I choose to follow my dreams?
Change can be sudden and change can be slow. In that, there is no right or wrong, only what is correct for you. Every flower blooms at its own speed. But if fear holds you back and causes you to be slow, then perhaps it is time for you to challenge that fear and dig deeper to resource your greater courage. If you tend to push at life out of fear, then it is time to pull back and allow things to unfold more organically. Acting out of fear will only lead to fear. No action rooted in the impossibilities will create a positive possibilities outcome.
Ultimately, when we find and follow our bliss, we touch the immortal realms, because our soul is rooted in the eternal divine. Our bliss is the voice of the divine in us. When we express our bliss, we express the divinity, our highest purpose. When we express our highest purpose, we support the good in all beings, whether others see that or not.
When you follow your bliss, you not only do it for yourself, but you do it for the world. When you say yes to who you are, you are saying yes to life. When you say yes to life, you maintain an energy that says “yes” to life, which touches everyone you meet. It also sends out a “yes life” energy to the universe, which supports all beings, even those with whom you have no physical contact. When you say yes to your soul voice, yes to life, everyone wins.
Finding the courage to follow your bliss is the greatest gift you can give both to yourself and to the world. And the best part is, it feels amazing!
Much grace to you along your path.
Until next time,
Love yourself.
Love others.
Love our world.
We are one Earth family.
Namaste,
Parvati