Mission: Possible
You are Unique in all the world.
It's true.
No one has that freckle where you have it. No one has those thoughts that you have when you wake up. And no one has the unique set of talents, skills, and experiences exactly as you have.
You've heard me talk about this recently: that women on average have about 80,000 thoughts per day and men have about 60,000 thoughts (it's true, there are more spaces between their thoughts...they're not just ignoring you, ladies!) and guess what? 85% of those thoughts are the same thoughts we had yesterday, and it's been found that 90% of those thoughts are negative!
This is a serious problem.
I was talking to a friend who's a psychologist recently and she said, "I have all these clients that come in for all different diagnoses: depression, generalized anxiety, PTSD, ADHD....and even though we have all these diagnoses, we're all suffering from the same thing: Negative Thought Patterns."
Imagine if, as young people, we were taught about positive affirmations within an educational curriculum? Imagine if we were taught to express our own unique thoughts when they come up instead of, "Please sit down in that chair, stop moving, and listen..."? Imagine if we were taught to create daily habits that reinforced our strengths (instead of forcing kids to bring up their "weak grades" just for the purpose of standardized testing) and were taught us how to focus on those strengths that make us happy, that we're good at, that were God-Given?
There's a scripture that I love that's helped me to get out of my own mind: “Let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.” Romans 12:6 (MSG)
Having such a practice would teach us that it's okay to set up boundaries with other people. It would teach us that it's okay to focus on what we want instead of what other people plan for us. It would teach us that we are unique in all the world...and that by doing what we love every day and using those gifts to help and serve others, we wouldn't waste so much time learning and doing what society deems as the right path, but we'd develop more intuition - at a young age - about what is the right path for our unique self. The majority of us find ourselves at 30 or 40 or 50 going, "how did I get here? I was supposed to be an artist!" And if we're really curious and intent on changing, we go to seminars and read books and attend workshops to finally teach us that we're worthy of using our gifts.
Know this: If you don't give your life message to the world, it doesn't get heard. What's your life message? It's the message that you can hear in your heart when you get quiet enough. It's the little voice that keeps telling you during those rare moments of silence and clarity, "Hey - when are you going to start writing that book?" It's the moment of brain space that you get just before you fall asleep at night (you know, that 3-second space, after you're done worrying about your kids, worrying if the house is clean and if you've prepped everything for tomorrow yet) when your heart expands and you feel these words, "I'm not old enough - my mom got her Masters when she was 50 - I can still go back to school!".
And it's in those rare moments where we should also start believing that we can take an extra 5 minutes per day to fit in even more spaces of silence. Eventually you will realize that they are so important that you'll start to carve out 10 minutes in the morning before you do anything else. You'll get so many insights and feel so fulfilled from letting yourself sit in silence and just smile and breathe (and even right down insights when you get them) that 30 minutes of silence and clarity will be non-negotiable.
When an artist is commissioned, he or she has been asked to specifically design or create a piece of art for someone. What if we were commissioned to do our life's work?
We were. We have also been commissioned - by Spirit - to fulfill our mission and our message in the world. You were equipped with a unique genius. You were made to be you. Be that gift and share it with the world. Your Mission is Possible.
Om namah