Dharma

My niece Elssa was born in the wee hours of Halloween morning. She has brought a lot of love and joy with her. It's amazing how much you can love someone without even meeting them yet. She certainly has the love of her aunt and will for all of time.

Elssa's name means God's promise or God is my oath. Since she's been born I've thought about her promise or her dharma. Dharma is our divine mission; it's the reason we are on Earth. I thought about what may be the dharma of my boys Louie and Zack. Any time I talk to someone about their life purpose, I ask them to think back to when they were 8 years old and tell me what they loved to do. I ask them to think back to the time when life wasn't in the way of their happiness.

Ever since I can remember I've always wanted to be a counselor. I thought I would be great at it since I loved listening to people and helping them figure out a solution to their issue. The problem became that I didn't know how to set the boundaries between what was someone else's problem and mine. I got to the point that I was so overwhelmed with sadness that I decided to turn away from my dharma and go in the exact opposite direction which is when I went to engineering school and graduated with honors as an Electrical Engineer. Not once during the entire time I was in school was I passionate about what I was doing. Eventually I found my way back into doing what I love doing and that is listening to people and offering them guidance to a better life.

My heart's desire would be to not get in the way of my children's dharma. If my son wants to be a football player then I'd like to cheer him on no matter how much I'm afraid of him getting injured. My husband and I always think that our youngest is going to do something wild with his life. He's the no fear and get out of my way type. I am going to make an effort to allow him to fulfill his passion as well.

Back to Elssa which is where all this thought process began. What is her dharma I wonder? I feel that our passion begins showing up when we're really young. The toys we play with and the books we gravitate towards. I have a cousin who would take apart anything that was put in his hands and he eventually became an engineer which suits him perfectly.

If you have kids, look for what they like to play with and what stories they love to listen to. I hope that this post has intrigued you enough to wonder about your own dharma. One thing is guaranteed, if you're not fulfilling your life purpose then you will constantly feel nagged and maybe even unhappy to some extent. So start asking yourself those questions of "who am I?", "what do I love to do?", "what makes me happy?", "if I could do or be anything I want to what would I choose?" ... etc. It is your obligation to yourself to be happy and guaranteed you are happiest when fulfilling your dharma!

I wish for Elssa, my boys, my other nieces and nephews a life of ultimate joy. I wish for them the wisdom to recognize what their dharma is and to fulfill it to its utmost. We all came into the world to shine and shine we do when doing what we love.

I'd love to hear from you. Email me to mary@marysalfi.com, find me on Facebook or leave a comment below.

With passion,
Mary