One of my students loves to make art.
She has always loved to make art. But her mother is a psychologist and had a dream of getting a Phd in psychology. So my student ( who is also interested in personal growth and healing) felt guilty because she DIDN’T want to get an advanced degree in psychology. So she kept trying to do things that were more in line with her mother’s desires and kept wondering why she wasn’t excited or fulfilled by her choices.
When she got up the courage to talk to her mom about it, her mother said “Sweetie… the Phd is MY dream. I never wanted or expected that for you. I’ve always KNOWN you were an artist.”
Which freed my student up tremendously to finally commit to pursuing her path of making art and claiming herself as an artist.
Artist was her calling. Not being an academic. Not engaging in clinical work. Not going to school forever.
She DID also want to be a healer. That’s one of the reasons that she was getting hung up on the psychology piece. So combining art with healing brought her back in alignment with her true self in a big way.
There is something that you were born to do. And you can choose to say yes or no to that calling. What you can’t do is choose to have a different calling.
If you continually fight yourself about that calling you will end up feeling frustrated and disconnected from yourself. Empty and kind of lost. So the only way to reconnect is to tell the truth about why you are here.
You already DO know what your calling is. It’s not a big mystery. It’s those things that you love. That come to you effortlessly. That you couldn’t stop doing even if you tried. It’s what you would do even if you never got paid. It’s what you do even if you’re not getting paid now. That you do because you want to and because it makes you happy.
It’s those parts of you that you take for granted. It’s what you’ve been doing your whole life since you were a child. The thing that everyone else who knows you can see in you so clearly. Once you get that part right, everything else begins to make a heck of a lot more sense and things naturally fall into place.
So do what you’re here to do. What you were made to do. Heed the call. Stop arguing with your true nature. You’ll be much happier. And the Universe can breathe a huge sigh of relief as you once and for all align yourself with the YOU that you were always meant to be.
Holy Mama!!!! You’ve just written about the last 3 years of my life. Prior to these last years I did a whole lot of inner work to uncover my calling. You’re right…it has always been there. I enrolled in art school and got the A’s and hated every moment. The last 3 years I have struggled with not being ‘good enough’ or talented enough…blah-blah-blah! Recently I’ve surrendered…your words speak like the beating of a drum/my heart….calling me home as an artist, mystic and maker of magic! Love to you!
Chris I always wonder about those things that you couldn’t stop doing if you tried… I learned to stop doing those things early and spent many years not doing them, thinking they did not belong to me… you see I could stop doing them – it ate me alive not doing them but I could stop. Sadly I think this is part of the puzzle for many of us finding our way to our calling , that we have learned to stop and don’t know what it is that is causing this ache in our souls.
Hi Chris!! we met last April at your workshop in Oakland and i haven’t been the same since … i seem to be over the rough patch of ‘trying’ to re-create what you called my ‘mystical experiences’. you might remember walking upstairs & asking hows it going? “i am the tree” i answered, knowing that you would understand! Thanks again for being you! as a matter of fact i just painted another tree yesterday, and am enjoying painting whatever comes out of me more and more these last few months, Pure Bliss! so from the picture of those magnificent trees heading this blog and omgosh, the whole thing from start to finish, my feet are tingling again as i write this, i’ve read it about 10 times now and still can’t read it without filling up with tears. when you say “What you can’t do is choose to have a different calling” my whole body goes into some kind of hot/cold, catch my breath, shaky, teary, heart vibrations roller coaster style reaction …. in words that means .. NO! I’d never change it even if I could, Its me, Its who I am! Its MY calling & thanks to YOU for giving me permission to paint, i’m never letting it get away:)) When you said to me ‘your language is color’ it was the truest thing anyone has ever said about me. so yes, in aligning with my true self everything is starting to make sense, all the things that i love are pieces of my soul’s puzzle & putting all of these pieces together with painting (dare i say) IS my calling, MY Point of Greatest Aliveness!
Big Hug & Congratulations on your New Online Painting with Fire !! I KNOW that painting along with you during these 6 weeks will help me to put all of my soul’s puzzle pieces together so i can get on with living my True Calling! Everyday i thank the Universe for YOU! Forever Grateful, gisele