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Passionately Living Your Purpose Out Loud!

The Power of Purpose, Positivity and Community to Create Your Best Life

By Rev. Marcia MacLean

We are three quarters of the way through our year of "Living Out Loud" at Centers for Spiritual Living, and this week's topic, "Passionately Living Your Purpose Out Loud!", couldn't be more fitting for CSL Greenville. 

Announcing and laying the groundwork for our original launch from the fall of 2018 to 2019, was a passionate and purposeful move of "siezing the day", leading to countless connections in Cafe Convos, classes, spirituality-in-recovery groups, interfaith events, workshops, weekly celebrations and more. 

If you have read our news, you have heard that we opened fully just eleven weeks before COVID-19 showed up. Like everyone else, we found new ways to carry on. That adaptation became a culture of passion and purpose in itself worldwide. Now, as with so many others, our come-back is fueled by the same passion and purpose that's been with us from the start. 

There is something in each of us that not only inspires us the first time we set out in a new direction, but is also there to inspire us each time we encounter an obstacle or a set-back. We can learn to recognize and use that inspiration to support us in bouncing back, moving forward, and living out loud with passion and purpose.

Is there something that you would love to be, do or have that didn't work out the first time you tried it? What if there is a thread of passion and purpose at the center of it that's still there? What if you learned things in your first or second attempts that will help you succeed more the next time? 

One of my favorite Buddhist sayings is "Fall down seven times, get up eight". Once you have taken the time for some self-care and regeneration, ask yourself what other perspectives you could have about how things went. See if there are some gifts of wisdom, some nuggets of insight, and some new skills you developed as a result of your experiences. Then, when you are ready, imagine how you might get up and begin again.

What could you do to “seize the day” today? Listen to Janna Stanfield's song, "If I Were Brave", and ask yourself "What would I do if I knew that I could not fail?". Singing along with music that lifts us up is one of many evidenced-based practices in positive psychology. There are so many simple things we can do to bounce back from "falling down". Realizing that our ups and downs are part of our broader evolution offers a comforting context, too.

Another Buddhist quote says, “Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” Consider joining us in our Greenville Spiritual Living Circle, a Cafe Conversation, or our Beyond Limits class. Start discovering your passion and purpose and share the ups and downs of getting there with others who are doing it, too. Before you know it,  you'll be passionately living your purpose out loud!