Kathleen Gardenswartz
What defines your essence? It is the most vital and intrinsic part of you, the heart and soul. It is that feeling we leave behind when we leave a room, a feeling that stays with someone long after we are gone. It is our most important ingredient, inherent and unchanging, our most basic nature. Our essence takes on a spiritual context as our spark, the spirit of our soul.
Defining your essence and embracing it requires a step back, perhaps a leap of faith. With work and mindfulness, your essence can be consciously thought out and developed throughout your lifetime. The essential you is the spark and spirit of your soul. It is a unique spark that can be shared, enhanced and masked, depending on your surroundings at any given moment. It requires confidence and trust in yourself and others to allow your essence to flourish.
We embody our essence distinctly.
Attuning our individuality to the greater world is a spiritual process. It combines our belief in self, a higher power and our community to facilitate and acknowledge our essence and bring to focus our greatest possibility. Articulating our individuality in clear and sharp terms is not always easy but it is very important. Our essence is a guiding force in creating a balanced and healthy life. Whether it is clearly visible or intangible and a bit fuzzy, we must define our essence and give it intent.
Define your essence.
Our essence expresses itself clearly and naturally when we are young. In those tender years, individual essence is the very thing that expresses itself most clearly and magically in each person. For children who are encouraged to be themselves and allowed to see their unique qualities fully expressed will have very little trouble pinpointing their essence. Those who were molded and defined to fit the needs of others as children may find their true essence hidden under layers that must be excavated to reveal their uniqueness.
Start with mindfulness.
Mindfulness is a form of meditation, it means that we are in a state of intentional awareness moment by moment, giving our body and mind feedback without judgment. This state allows us to become more centered and aware of how we are feeling at any given moment. By becoming more connected to our feelings we can begin to discover and trust what is intrinsic and vital to us. It also helps us recognize what our essence tangibly expresses from the more intangible, fuzzy qualities that are yet to be revealed.
Explore the body-mind connection.
The body-mind connection is the interrelationship between the body, mind and spirit and true health requires that we find balance within that realm. Our basic health is deeply connected to body, mind and spirit, and our essence naturally flows as a crucial element in determining how we seek and achieve balance and wellness.
Establishing a trusting community.
Defining your essence and what makes you unique in the world is a journey of self-discovery. Our friends and family define our deepest connections in this world. What do the people you care about and trust define as your most resolute qualities, your strongest ingredients? What a trusted community sees in you can be important in defining your truest nature. Being open and sharing with others is a very important gauge as we learn how others perceive and define our spirit.
Define your personal values.
Your personal core values define what is fundamentally important to you and the holiday is the perfect time to begin to explore what it means to you. Think about what motivates your passion and excitement in life and create a list of words that represent the ideas that guide your life in work and leisure.
This holiday take time to laugh, a true representation of the inner soul, and delight in what makes you a unique individual. Let the whimsical side of you come out and enjoy the result, it is never wrong, it is just who you are.
Once you have opened yourself to the essence of you, feel confident and allow it to shine within you. Express yourself with assuredness, knowing that you now lead by a force that is driven from within rather than an external source. Begin to open yourself up and navigate with our essence intact, ensuring that you will never be lost. Give freely, while nurturing and protecting what is truly you. As this holiday season begins to unfold, take a moment to identify those things that are essentially you and allow the season to be what you desire.
