What is passion? It means to have a very strong feeling or emotion about a person or a thing. It is the one thing all of us desire to experience. Everyone wants to find their passion and express it in a meaningful way.
I found my passion quite early on in my life but could not find the means of expression that would bring about monetary gains. Like many people I equated success with the accumulation of money while doing something you truly loved. I have since discovered that love or passion and money don’t always go hand in hand. In fact sometimes it is the drive for money that kills the passion of the soul.
If a person should make money while doing the things that passionately fulfills them they will seldom say they did it for the money. It is done for the love of doing and the rest follows.
Sometimes we fear passion because it does not conform to the standards of society. It puts us outside the misconstrued constructs of what society deems “normal”. I believe this is at the basis of all mental and physical maladies.
How do you know you have found your passion? It’s the expression of something that transcends all time and space. When you are expressing it or feeling it time and space disappear and you slip into that place known as the zone or as the Zen master’s put it – the moment.
Science has studied this state of being and has found that the chemistry of the body and more specifically the brain changes when in a total state of passionate expression. It is a high that most people would return to over and over again. But you cannot get there without a little effort. It takes awareness and focus to bring about starts of creativity and passion.
Just as the physical fitness revolution of the last several decades has proven that the human body needs stimulation, challenge and exercise to stay healthy, there is now a wealth of brain research proving that the brain like the body also needs stimulation and challenge to work optimally. By exercising the brain we can actually strengthen it.
One of the ways to exercise the brain is through meditation. To reach a state of meditation one must reach a brain wave state that allows for a deep relaxation without sleeping. The brain works on four brain waves; beta with alertness, arousal and concentration; alpha with relaxation; theta with creativity, memory, integrative experiences and healing; and delta with sleeping, profound rest and releasing growth hormone. Meditation takes us to the theta state.
A series of studies involving skill Zen monks found that when they went into deep meditative states they did go into an alpha state but the most skilled meditators went into a theta state. Studies conducted on other individuals showed that when subjects were taught to reach a theta state they had life altering experiences. They fell in love, discovered new talents, decide to change jobs and to strikeout in new and more interesting directions. The test showed that these individuals became more psychologically and physically healthier. Could it be that theta is the gateway to discovering passion and discovering your passion makes for a healthier and happier person?
Studies also showed that lovers who could reach the same relaxed brainwave state of mind were more likely to experience a deeper and more fulfilling sexual experience. Sex books are constantly telling us to pay attention to our partner. Perhaps by sharing brain wave states we can really get in touch.
Followers of tantric yoga believe that the universe was creates when the Hindu gods, Shiva and Shakti united sexually and spiritually. In a tantric text Shiva says to Shakti;
You, O Shakti, you are my true self; There is no difference between you and me.
Relaxation and meditation have long been used as simple and effective tools for reaching altered states of being. Simply relaxing for fifteen minutes a day every day can reduce stress, anxiety and produce long lasting changes in your levels of pleasure producing neurochemicals. If you have a daily session for two weeks, you may undergo a “threshold effect” in which you go through dramatic and long lasting personality changes.
Music and color/light therapy have been used as tools to help us reach a state of relaxation. The mind needs something to focus on and when we give it soft sounds and mesmerizing colors and designs it releases itself from it’s every day grip and slips into a deep and relaxing state.
I created my meditation DVD, which combines 15 minutes of soothing music. It takes fifteen minutes daily to create the effect. Sit quietly listen and observe. Go to my website where you can download Meditation for the Body, Mind and Soul, http://www.doctorlynn.com use it as a nice backdrop of music for holiday gatherings.
Doctor Lynn
http://www.doctorlynn.com/
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