December is a good time for an annual review and also a good time to reevaluate that you are doing all that you can do to bring joy into your life. Discovering and claiming our passion is about knowing what we love doing.

When you’ve identified a life passion, you’re led to feelings of bliss, or the natural direction to take in order to maximize your sense of fulfillment. Finding your bliss or your calling is about bringing into your life all those things that bring out your potential and help you live your life to the fullest.

Finding and Developing Your Passion

Once you open your eyes and are aware of your bliss, opportunities begin to emerge because the universe hears your desires. For years, I’ve known that my bliss revolved around writing. I knew this because whenever people asked me when I felt my best, I always responded by saying, “When I’m writing.” This is true whether I’m crafting poems, blogs, essays, or books.

Sometimes life passions are established early in life and might be in response to childhood experiences. Perhaps the experience was a joyful one; or maybe it was related to trauma or pain as a result of loss, abandonment, being orphaned, or being severely hurt physically or emotionally.

Not everybody responds to challenging situations in the same way, and it is not so much the experiences you had that matter, but how you reacted to them, and the effect they had on your life.

Writing to Cope

My life provides a good example. My maternal grandmother lived with us and was my caretaker. When I was 10, she took her life in her bedroom, which was next to mine. To help me cope with my grief, my mother bought me a journal and told me to write down my feelings.

I’d sit writing for hours on end. The experience taught me that writing heals, and that our early childhood rituals and hobbies can be a clue to our capacity for joy later in life.

Now, more than five decades later, my journal continues to be a place where I go to share my innermost sentiments and feelings. Journaling about losing my grandmother transitioned into journaling about my turbulent teen years, raising a difficult daughter, and two cancer diagnoses.

When people remark that they’re unhappy and feeling somewhat lost, I typically ask them, “What brought you joy or bliss as a child?” They’re often surprised to be asked this question, and it’s interesting to watch smiles spread across their faces.

They stop and reflect, and then I ask whether they’ve ever thought of revisiting their childhood passions as I believe that our childhoods hold the keys to our life passions and who we become as adults.

Finding Encouragement for Your Passions

As a child, I was inspired to read and write. Children’s passions are reinforced by the adults around them. In school and at home, I received accolades for my writing. This encouraged me to write even more. Thus, the creative spark was nurtured early on.

Now, as a parent to three adult children and five grandchildren, I’m constantly noticing what brings them joy, and I wonder how it will translate into their lives as a whole. Sometimes it’s a good idea to look back to our childhoods and think about those times when we received praise and encouragement, and then determine if that’s where our bliss may lie.

Wondering About Life Purpose

When we’re at a crossroads in our lives, we might stop to ask ourselves about our overall purpose and destiny and how to discover what that is. These are sacred and awakening questions that encourage transformation and compel us to examine what matters most to us.

Some people know from an early age what they want to do when they grow up, while others might flounder as they try to find their callings. There are different terms to explain the idea of a calling in life. The Romans called it genius, the Greeks called it the daimon, and the Christians called it the guardian angel.

Psychologist James Hillman used even more words to describe one’s sense of calling, such as fate, character, image, soul, and destiny, depending upon the context.

For me, joy emerges when I’m writing. As I put pen to paper, there are higher forces that speak to me, and sometimes I enter a trance – I transcend universes where the deepest of creative forces are at play.

Teaching Others

When I studied psychology in graduate school, I learned that those who are deeply passionate about something have an urgent need to make a change in the world or to serve humanity. They’re possessed by their passion. Mine was teaching others through writing.

Many of the students in my writing workshops are at a crossroads in their lives. I remind them to journal regularly to identify their passions. One of the first prompts I give participants is to write about important memories from their childhoods. Most often they write about life-changing events.

The second prompt is to write about what brought them joy as a child. Sometimes, but not always, this sense of joy is connected to what might bring them happiness as an adult. Perhaps a lived experience from childhood served as a springboard for a life passion, profession, or theme.

Certainly, this was the case for me. My students inspired me to write my book, Writing for Bliss, which is a good holiday gift for yourself or someone you love.

Here are some ways to discover your passion – what really makes your heart sing:

1.            Think about what your natural talents are, or what you love to do.

2.            Surround yourself with like-minded individuals whose ideas and passions resonate with you.

3.            Be mindful about what annoys you and what makes you happy.

4.            Think about an activity where you lose track of time. Chances are it’s connected with a passion.

5.            Maintain a clear and open emotional state by engaging in self-care through meditation, exercise, spending time in nature, and setting intentions.

6.            Think about your favorite movies and books and the common threads that run through each. They might be connected to your life passion.

Doing what we were meant to do with our lives can lead to a sense of bliss, which may be about releasing habits, situations, and relationships that no longer serve us and replacing them with those that do. Finding our calling is about bringing into our lives all those things that bring out our potential and help us live life to the fullest.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Have you found your life passion? How did you find it? Is it something you enjoyed and gave you bliss in your childhood? What or who has helped you develop your passion?