How to create passion time

Consider these prompts: 

• What moves and motivates you? 
• What is it that you love so much that when you do it, it doesn’t feel like work, it feels like you’re living the life you’ve dreamed? 
• What are you most passionate about? 
• Why are you here, living this life, during this time, with the people who surround you? 

Maybe you’re at a point in your life where you can easily answer these questions. You know the answers, you’ve felt the passion and you want more. Maybe you earn money for your passion, maybe you don’t, and you find ways to fit it around your work and responsibilities, often wondering how you can get more passion time. 

And maybe you’re at a point in your life where you read these questions and you can’t answer them. Perhaps you feel depressed or despair as you read them and think - I guess that’s just  not for me. 

But it can be. I mean really, why not? 

Several years ago, I was stuck. I finished my Master’s Degree, and continued to work at the same job because I was afraid, and didn’t know what else to do. I recently began my daily yoga/meditation practice, but I was depressed. When I look back at that time, many memories have a dark caste over them. I leaned into my meditation practice. I spent many days crying on my mat. With each tear, I felt myself shedding like a snake’s skin. It was a painful time. I didn’t know where I was headed. I started grad school with an idea of what my life and career would look like when I finished, but after completing it -I was tired and so burned out I didn’t have the energy to take action on my plans. And, I found myself second guessing those plans. 

I drew inward and worked on healing the parts of me that needed attention. When you drive yourself forward, but rarely fill your tank… eventually you run out. And that’s where I was. I used my practice to heal and fill myself up and to listen to what my soul desired. As it turned out, it looked different than my pre-grad school plan, and I began to accept this.

There are times on this life journey, you may be guided to move in a new direction - allow yourself to follow your inner guide and see where she takes you.

Knowing how much this practice impacted my life, I changed jobs which created space in my life to take yoga teacher training. I felt called to teach, so I made space in my life to teach classes and workshops. I craved community so I arranged and attended gatherings with my community -whether we were cooking or eating a meal, meditating together, or meeting for coffee - I needed this time to feel connected, and to nurture my soul. While I made little money from this work, what I gained in experience was priceless.

If I were calendaring during this period, these activities would be green on my calendar. Green is “money” time so while it is the time where you’re earning and making money, it’s also the time where you’re engaged in activities that feed your soul - your passion project, your purpose. It’s time where you’re investing in yourself. Instead of engaging in these activities when you ‘have’ time, create the time by scheduling it in your calendar. You’ll still have time for your other responsibilities, but more importantly, you’ll have focused time on what serves you and your higher self. 

Jim Rohn said,

“If you don’t change what you are doing today, all of your tomorrows will look like yesterday.”

With this in mind, click on your calendar, or open your paper calendar now. Schedule your green time, block the time where you’re earning money or working on your passion project and color it green. Treat this time as non-negotiable. And if you’re stuck on the prompts I shared at the beginning of this piece, copy and paste them into your calendar and use your green time to reflect and journal on them. For best results, consider incorporating a short meditation into this time. One to three minutes of long deep breathing will stimulate your neutral mind so you can answer the prompts truthfully, from your heart, without judgment. 

This practice helps you gain control over your life. Begin your own calendaring practice today, download our free guide here. 

With grace and love,
Jodh