Opinion
Passion plays an important role in balanced lifestyles
February 5, 2009
Do you have a passion? Is this passion a hobby of yours? Do you frequently get lost in pursuing this passion?
I hope so because for many of us passion is the ingredient that has been missing from our lives.
Some people feel that they are too busy to pursue a passion. Being too busy for a passion should be a big warning sign that you ought to look at what you are doing with your life. Passions play a special part in grounding us.
They make us feel safe and centered when we would otherwise might feel pulled in a million directions.
So what is your passion? Chances are if you don’t have one now, you did have one when you were a child. In fact, we are so ambitious when we are children that we may have had many passions that we pursued.
Try to remember some of the more long-standing hobbies you had and ask yourself why you moved away from them. If you are completely lost, ask a parent, grandparent, or older sibling what it was that we seemed to get a charge from when we were a kid.
Of course some of our passions may seem rather childish to us now, but ask yourself what past spirited participation in those endeavors like; play dough, baseball, the easy bake oven, piano, lincoln logs, chia-pet, or water colors, says about you. What was budding there?
Just so you know, I am a convert to this idea. You see, when I met my wife I didn’t think about my non-work passions. I had many things that I used to love to do when I was a kid, but I thought hobbies were long behind me.
I also didn’t think having passionate pursuits outside of my work was an efficient way to use my time; TV or Internet was better. However, when I was challenged by my wife to get a hobby in my life I found that I could easily reconnect to my past joys.
I always loved exploring the great outdoors and I also loved fiddling with the camera. I combined the two. I now do nature photography.
This passion/hobby comes so natural to me that I can take it up at anytime I want and be immediately immersed in it.
An instant break from reality. Good luck pursuing your passion and I hope that it can give you a needed break from the stresses and strains of your daily grind.
Mark Huttemier is a student mental health counselor at UW-River Falls.