{V.ision; Y.oga} Are You a Jackhammer or a Hummingbird?
“You are exactly where you are supposed to be”. How often have you heard your yoga teacher utter these words? And how many times, while you are sitting with your eyes closed, you hands in prayer position, have you said to yourself “Where exactly am I? I have no idea where I am, let alone where I am supposed to be”.
I want to begin by giving full credit for the inspiration of this post to one of my favorite writers and inspirational speakers, Elizabeth Gilbert. She did a talk on Oprah’s SuperSoul TV session called “Flight of the Hummingbird – The Curiosity Driven Life” (link to this posted below). You may remember Elizabeth Gilbert from her bestselling book of 2006, “Eat, Pray, Love” – her autobiographical journey from a place of personal crisis to finding true love, peace within herself and authentic happiness. I devoured this book upon publication. At the time, it hit home with me. I identified with her need to move away from everything familiar in order to rediscover herself, to learn her true identity. I felt a sort of kindred spirit in her story, as I had moved through a very difficult, life-changing event several years earlier, right at the time I began my own yoga journey. And then I found myself re-discovering her book as an audiobook many years later, when I was going through yet another personal crisis -- I would put it on ‘play’ when I lay in bed at night in the dark and took in her words, her thoughts, her desperate desire to find meaning in her life as I tried to find my own sense of peace, if only for the moment.
The message of this particular talk is one that I believe would resonate with so many of us – I urge you to listen to her talk, to hear it in all it’s wit and beauty. What inspired me so in this particular talk was the all-too-familiar notion of having to have a single ‘passion’ – that one thing in your life that makes lights flash, all the angels sing in your head -- that thing that drives your life’s purpose. Your true calling. We as humans are naturally ‘seekers’. We strive to find fulfillment and purpose in our lives. What if you don’t yet know what yours is? As Ms. Gilbert says, this can make you feel under-driven, unpurposeful, or like a “Loser”. “I don’t have that one thing!” you might think to yourself. We practice yoga, try out meditation, prayer, go on spiritual retreats or read self-help books -- one after the next. We listen to” Ted Talks” and other sources of inspiration to find that singular passion because we have been told that this is the key to a fulfillment – to enlightenment.
“Curiosity is a gentler, kinder, more humane instinct than Passion. Passion is demanding, greedy… it takes it all out of you… it can sometimes be a dangerous impulse” ~Elizabeth Gilbert
Ms. Gilbert eloquently explains that having this mindset can do us such a disservice – it can even make us feel even worse about ourselves for lacking the magical 'IT' thing to propel our lives towards our final destiny. She suggests, as a better approach, to move through life with a sense of curiosity -- to live a "Curiosity Driven life". Curiosity, different from passion, in that you take on each day with a child-like wonder, open to explore new ideas and notions. We are all born with this, but somewhere along the line we lose the awe when experiencing something new, let alone in the day-to-day mudane. If we would pause from auto-pilot and take the time to really explore an idea, an article, a work of art, a vocation that strikes us as ‘hmm... interesting’ , without having any expectation or without putting any pressure on ourselves to focus on it solely. If and when this new ‘thing’ no longer grabs you or holds your intent interest to explore it further, feel no shame about moving on to the next (hobby, interest, career) which, in the moment, lights you up more. We aren’t all born with that knowing sense of “I want to be a doctor when I grow up”. If you are still trying to figure out “what you want to be when you grow up” at 40, 50, 60 or beyond.. IT’s OK. Curiosity gives and allows; Passion takes and narrowly defines.
Phew, relief…. I’m not a loser… my life, no differently than yours, has taken endless twists and turns, ups and downs. I’ve dabbled at this, begun and then quit that. I’ve taken more trainings, online classes, certification courses than I can count in search of my ONE TRUE PASSION. I have many… some change like the wind… some have many years of continuity behind them.
So, what about that “Jackhammer or Hummingbird” metaphor in my title to this post? (if you haven’t noticed, yoga instructors love metaphors.).
Elizabeth explains that there are two kinds of people in this word – Jackhammers and Hummingbirds. She says ,“Jackhammers don’t look up. They hammer it out, perhaps to the point of obsession. Hummingbirds, on the other hand, move from field to field, from flower to flower. They cross-pollinate the world by taking ideas from here to there and they weave together something beautiful. They are open to the world – they are open to their true nature”
You are exactly where you are supposed to be. Live your Life with E.N.V.Y.!
