Meet Elena. She’s one of those high-energy-yet-down-to-earth people, the kind of person you wish you knew more of. A literal fountain of ideas, she’s smart, quick to grasp concepts, and has more interests than a bank.

And that’s Elena’s problem (or so she’s been told). Her friend told her, “You’re too passionate, E… you jump from one thing to the next more often than anyone else.”

And it’s true — when she finds something that catches her attention, she’s on it like a hungry dog on a fresh bone, and she learns everything she can about her new passion.

So even though she loves learning, that voice often goes off in her head that says, “Maybe they’re right… maybe I should really cool my jets on this. I’m thinking about this way too much.”

But what the heck would she listen to that voice for?

Where some people see restlessness, Elena sees passion. She’s motivated to be her best, and sometimes that means “changing your clothes” more often than most.

When something inflames your curiosity, it’s a sign that you’re on the right track towards self-discovery. While too often a new passion gets brushed off as restlessness, or a lack of commitment to what you were doing before, passion can be a signal that you’re on the road to something deeper.

Passion puts you on the road to wholeness.

When it comes right down to it, you’re seeking wholeness (whether you know it or not). It’s the game of life that we’re all playing. When your passion gets inflamed, it’s a signal to you that you’re coming close to something that you need in order to recognize your innate wholeness. When you’re moving closer to that which makes you whole, your being can smell the potential, and it gets excited.

And that inner geiger counter, that bloodhound-of-your-soul that’s sniffing its way towards wholeness, is what drives passion.

But the naysayers aren’t always wrong; passion can be a diversion, a smokescreen. If you’re needing to stay focused (on a project, on your career, on your spouse….), and something comes along that makes you sit up and take notice, it doesn’t always mean you should chase after it. Sometimes, that radar can lead you astray.

But how can you tell the difference?

The difference is made by the timbre of the passion; the characteristic quality of the passion that’s driving you.

(To understand the differences in timbre, I’m going to have to describe this as best I can… and since my background is in the energetics of systems that exist a bit off the beaten path from the typical “3-D” version of reality, the words alone may not cut it. Try to feel into what I’m saying, or try listening to the podcast; hearing it just may do the trick, if the written word doesn’t.)

If it’s a passion that pulls you “up and out”, removing you from your sense of center, and causing you to forget your heart’s values (something your heart will signal to you at once, if you can hear it over the din of your excitement), then it’s a passion of diversion. The aspects of you that don’t want to stay in one place are latching on the “bright, shiny object” passing by in order to try to recapture that juicy feeling that passion can bring.

But, because your heart goes sour with this kind of passion, it’s not going to fulfill you in the way you’re hoping it will.

On the other hand, if the passion you feel is grounding, expanding, and strikes deep into the heart of who you are, then it’s a passion of deepening. A long lost aspect of you, something that needs to be rekindled, is calling out from the depths of your soul, saying, “Yes… remember me.”

The timbre of a passion of deepening has a quality to it that’s like (as cliche as it sounds) coming home. But better, and different.

It’s like that line in Sleepless in Seattle (love that movie; and thanks to Movie Quotes for helping me remember its source), when Tom Hanks was recalling the love he shared with his wife:

“It’s like coming home, only to no home I’ve ever known.”

There’s a familiarity to a passion of deepening, but also a newness, and a sense of discovery, and that takes it beyond just “trying to recapture the past.” It makes you excited and thinking of the future, sure… but it also makes you feel more “you” than before.

A Spiritual Look at Passion

Volumes have been written about this, but the take-home message, as I see it, is this:

Love is the ultimate connector — because in love, a merging happens. You cease to see distance or differences between you and that which you love. And that is the spiritual journey all of us are on, regardless of chosen path: to be at One.

In a commentary on the writings of the famous Sufi author Ibn ‘Arabi, I found this passage:

Hence he states explicitly and repeatedly that the goal of the Sufi path is not, as some people imagine, “reaching God”, since, in the final analysis, God cannot be reached. What the Sufis are really out to achieve is not oneness with God, but felicity.

There’s much more to it, of course, than just being happy — but happiness is an indication that you’re on the right course.

So, should Elena deny her passion, or follow it?

The answer will only come when she looks inside, trusting her intuition, and feels the timbre of her passion. As Jung said:

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart…. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Want to ramp up your passion? Need help on the intuition piece? The Freedom Teleseminar Offer just may the ticket you need. Click here to see the details.

And as of the day I’m posting this (Oct. 30), you’ve got 8 days to get in on the drawing for a year’s free consulting (with me, of course).

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Image by “The Alieness” on Flickr, via Creative Commons license.

And thanks to all those who commented on the previous post so far: Carson, Slade Roberson, MichelleVan