The difference between dreams and callings: My journey to Blássi Goa
While speaking with a cousin of mine back in Cyprus during the fourty day ritualistic mourning period for the recent passing of my Mum, she started to encourage me to hurry back to my spiritual home, India, to continue to build my dream, our retreat center, Blássi Goa.
It was a defining moment for me, and in the midst of all the grief and chaos; and the giant task of holding everything together, I received a potent flash of clarity.
It came in bombshell style, intrusive and startling.
I sat quiet and still for a while, and then started telling her that what I am creating now is not and never was my dream.
Wait, what? Why would you sacrifice so much and give all that you have if it wasn’t your dream?
Huge food for thought.
‘As with everything I have ever pursued or created…’, I began to say, “it is my calling”.
It was then I knew more clearly than ever before, the difference between a dream and a calling.
Launching my coaching practice after a big life and career transition, writing my book, the healing work I began to do with clients, moving into teaching students online, designing and creating programmes, speaking on stages and moving to India, all a calling.
Not even one of them was a dream!
The thing is, the callings are the things that won’t leave you alone until you take them seriously.
They are the things that despite their challenging nature to often get them going, they also light you up while you are doing them, make you feel like you; make you feel like you are home and that all is right in the world.
A calling need not fall into the grandiose, the life altering or the public arena. There are no prerequisites, guidelines or rules for your soul’s journey. It will be as unique and individual as you yourself are.
That is not to say that I am opposed to the concept of having dreams, not at all. Throughout my UpGrade career, I have been a forerunner in giving permission to people to allow themselves to dream. Saying to so many people after years of settling and deprivation, it is ok to want what they want – I will continue to do so.
We are not dropping dreams, so let’s get that clear.
This is merely one of the newer perspectives that are being revealed to me as I traverse through my own evolutionary journey. A calling has a slightly different energy to it and even though it manifests quite often through an invisible pull, synchronicity, or intuitive guidance, much the same as a dream might, it is rooted in your highest most sacred soul self.
That is how I feel with our retreat center Blássi Goa, and all the work my soul has ever chosen for me!
How can you detect this for yourself though? How can you recognise the subtle differences between the two within yourself?
Practice authentic connection
It all begins with coming back to the self. This can be triggered by a spontaneous awakening and or occur over time with conscious intentions and practices to cultivate the relationship you have with yourself and the universe. Developing a new lexicon for the internal guidance you receive is the next step. Begin to notice, analyse and above all be willing to see, feel and speak your truth.
Trust the pull
There is no use for the higher information that you’ll be given if you second guess and doubt it. Not an easy one, trust me, I know – but very much something that can be developed over time with the right support and framework. I often say to my coaching clients, ‘borrow my faith and connection while we sharpen, strengthen and develop yours together’.
Drop the judgment
One of the most hindering aspects of this process can be the judgment of self or others. Whether it is towards the choices or actions you are being called to or the things from the past you must drop, if there is pure higher guidance as the navigator, then there is no space for judgment. Acknowledge that the mind will often try to overtake and lead the way; then give it the space it requires to act out. Nothing that is revealed into the light can continue its insidious attempts to contain and control.
When we are given the gift of guidance towards, and union with our divine path, so that our soul can continue to journey the timeline and experiences intended for it, it is, in my experience, an invitation we must not decline.
To co-create in this way, is the true reason and meaning of our life.
It is much like the spiritual and adult version of going all out and playing in the mud. Allowing yourself to become immersed in the muck and dirt. This is the true human experience our souls came here to have. The clean, tidy and known, coupled with the dirty, messy and radically unknown.
So now over to you….
What is your soul choosing for you? Have you stopped to check in lately?
Does it scare you and excite you at the same time?
Remember, one step at a time dear one. That is all that life asks of you.
As the great man himself said…
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – Lao Tzu
If you feel called to, reach out to me and together we can explore what the next steps of your journey could look like with me as your intuitive guide and conscious co-creator – virtually from across the seas, or in person here in Goa. One quick chat equals one single step.
A deep bow to you and your journey, Maria K