How to Find Your Passion(s) and Eliminate Stress

One of my best ways to eliminate stress is by being in a state of passion.

Whether it is in your job/career, relationships, or the downtime activities when you re-charge your ‘soul battery’, if you are living with passion, negative stress just melts away.

You probably already know some of your passions. Passions are things that you really, naturally like to DO (activities and behaviors).

Over the years, I’ve found that many of my clients disregard, discount or completely deny their passions — this is because they don’t understand the MASSIVE extent to which passions are a true expression of who they really are.

It’s like the iceberg metaphor: downplaying the true passions in your life is like ignoring 90% (or more) of yourself !

From working with my own core values over the past few years, I’ve discovered an extremely accurate predictor of what kinds of things you will be passionate about…

This predictor is your own personal set of core values.

I am of the opinion that one of the main reasons we have so much stress in modern lifestyles is because we are not fully conscious or aware of our internal values. Many have suggested they our 21st century problem is not being able to connect with our passions.

I believe that once we know our core values, then our passions naturally arise.

Values represent who you really are — your authentic and unique persona. They are NOT morals or principles. They are NOT who we would like to be, NOT who we think we should be, but who we are in our lives, right now.

You might have passions such as being a perpetual student, earning lots of money, or travel. However these are NOT values, but they do honor values like a love of learning, diligence and curiosity and interest in the world.

Consider how a knowledge of core values can transform our experiences:

If you know your values, they will serve as a compass to point out what it means to be true to yourself.
Once you know what it means to be true to yourself at a deep level, the choices you make tend to be congruent with who you are.
When your choices are congruent with who you really are, the results of those choices give you much more satisfaction and peace of mind.
When you live your life consistently from a place being connected with your core values, stressful situations happen much less frequently.

Bottom line: when you honor your values on a regular and consistent basis, life is good and fulfilling.

You need to understand that everything in your life NOW exists because of choices you made in the past. But even when a potentially stressful situation happens in the future, if you respect your core values, you will find that you are much better equipped to deal with it from a place of real personal power.

Most people think that situations are stressful, but its actually our experience of a situation that’s stressful, NOT the event itself.

Our personal values can help us to re-define our experience of who we are, where we are going, and how we will get there — as empowered beings.

But some people don’t like to be defined by anything at all. I know of someone who refuses to find out his core values because he thinks knowing them will somehow limit his self-expression or choices in life.

Believe me, I get it…

The reality, however is that rather than limiting us to specific behaviors or beliefs, knowing our core values allows us to tap deeply into our past experiences to reveal an almost limitless supply of talent, creativity and inner resources.

Of course, we are always free to go against our known values. But, this is like the proverbial “cutting off your nose to spite your face” — it just doesn’t happen very often. The results of acknowledging your core values are that you will experience more joy, spend your time with the people you love, and get the most out of her own natural gifts and talents.

The act of clarifying your unique values will help you to create a life map. This is true in job/career choices, relationship choices, lifestyle choices, etc.

On the career front, knowing your core values can save you years of blood, sweat and tears. Too many people are influenced by their parents’ or family’s notion about an ideal job, career (I know that I was). Some find themselves waking up after years of frustration to who they really are and what their needs are around their life purpose.

A person who lives according to his values lives a fulfilling life.

PASSION comes we when we fully ALLOW ourselves to live according to our values.

(Now we have come full circle)

Hopefully, I have shown how your passions are connected to your core values and convinced you that there are really no drawbacks to discovering your own core values.

So, let’s get to work on discovering your core values…

AUTHENTIC HAPPINESS FOR YOU

“Authentic Happiness” is the homepage of Dr. Martin Seligman, Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and founder of positive psychology, a branch of psychology which focuses on the empirical study of such things as positive emotions, strengths-based character, and healthy institutions.

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

In order to discover your unique core values you will need to take a survey called “VIA Survey of Character Strengths.”

Make sure that you set aside plenty of quiet, undisturbed time to take this survey — it takes approximately one hour. However, I promise you that hour will be well spent and provide you with years of enlightened action and inspiration in your life.

I’d love to hear about your insights and revelations from this blog or taking the survey…

(originally posted @ http://www.empowernetwork.com/gitaneros/how-to-find-your-passions-and-el...)