Melissa Field
  • Home
  • Healing Center
    • Chakra Packages >
      • Complete Chakra Balancing & Healing Package
      • Crown Chakra Healing
      • Heart Chakra Healing
      • The 7 Chakras - Affirmations
      • The 7 Chakras - Tune-Ups
    • Guided Meditations
    • Empowering Visualizations
    • 30 Day Vibration Raising Journey
    • 10 Day Manifesting Magic Course
    • 7 Days of Calm
    • The Mystic's Journal
    • Relief From Anxiety or Depression Package
  • Blog
  • About
    • This Website
    • The Podcast
    • The Meditations
  • View Cart
  • Home
  • Healing Center
    • Chakra Packages >
      • Complete Chakra Balancing & Healing Package
      • Crown Chakra Healing
      • Heart Chakra Healing
      • The 7 Chakras - Affirmations
      • The 7 Chakras - Tune-Ups
    • Guided Meditations
    • Empowering Visualizations
    • 30 Day Vibration Raising Journey
    • 10 Day Manifesting Magic Course
    • 7 Days of Calm
    • The Mystic's Journal
    • Relief From Anxiety or Depression Package
  • Blog
  • About
    • This Website
    • The Podcast
    • The Meditations
  • View Cart

Rekindle Your Passion: Choose a Totem

9/29/2014

 
Picture
​Awhile ago I was struggling to get started on a new novel. A friend suggested I get myself a little totem, something I could refer to that would remind me why I write. I was feeling so stuck and uninspired I couldn't even think of what my totem could be. She asked if there was some book that had perhaps originally moved me so much it made me want to be a writer. I knew instantly what that book was: Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge.

There's a particular passage that, when I read it decades ago, changed the course of my life. Knowing that books truly can open people's minds and change their lives has always been the thing to light a fire in my furnace of creativity and will-power. When I'm just not sure why I do this or who I'm doing it for, I return to this passage. I tore the page out of the book and put it in a frame. It's now sitting on my desk and it's my totem, my personal item that I know in an instant what it means when I look at it. Here is my favorite line from it:

I was so happy that it was pain and I struggled to release myself from it, for I felt that if it lasted a moment longer I should die; and yet it was such rapture that I was ready to die rather than forgo it.
Perhaps you could use your own personal totem. Something that will either get you fired up in the first place, or rekindle a passion that you once had but has dimmed out lately. If you can't think of one, don't force it. One will come to you, and you'll know it when you see it. Ideally, it will be something you can either carry with you or put in a place you'll always see it. It should be personal to you, something that speaks to your heart. It won't make sense to anyone else, and it might not even be something people give a second glance to. But you'll know. You'll feel a little rekindling, like a dying coal being blown on and brought back to life, each time you look at it.
Picture
Susan de Vriend link
9/29/2014 04:35:37 am

It is AWESOME to have something so powerful like that! What a great passage. I hope it keeps those fires ROARING!

Melissa
9/29/2014 10:33:02 am

Thank you Susan, you are truly an inspiration and an insightful friend!

Jon Bowes link
9/30/2014 10:42:16 pm

Thanks for this. I loved that quote you shared, it described the paradox of feeling amazing so well. I also love the general concept of having a totem in general. I have a small blue and white stone with "Wisdom" carved into its fact, and filled with gold paint. I call it my philosopher's stone. I sit with it when I write, read and meditate. I guess that's my totem.

Keep up the great writing!

Julie Valerie @Julie_Valerie link
11/25/2014 10:16:39 am

Hi Melissa!

Gosh, you have no idea how much I needed to read your blog post right about now. I've had a crazy six weeks and need to refocus and redirect all my energies.

I'm going to establish a totem this Thanksgiving weekend. Hhmm... I wonder what inspiration might come my way...

Melissa
11/26/2014 02:09:27 am

I'm so glad this helped you Julie! Writing is certainly a journey, and sometimes we find we've drifted from the reasons that got us started in the first place. I hope just the thing you need to get your focus and passion back shows up in your life :)


Comments are closed.

    Categories

    All
    Depression / Anxiety
    Enlightenment
    Fear
    Growth/Change
    Healing Center
    Inspiration
    Meditation
    Power Of Thought
    Quotes
    Raise Your Vibration
    Reader Favorites
    Self Love
    Social Issues
    Success/Failure


    ​Popular Posts:
    ​

    40 Days of The Golden Thread
    Anti-Anxiety Mini Toolkit
    Success & Failure Are Not the Only Two Options
    People are the Universe & The Universe Loves You
    This is a photo of a potato. It sold for $1,000,000.
    Feel What You Feel (There Are No Wrong Feelings)
    I'm Not Going to Play This Game Anymore
    Be The Change
    Creativity Aligns You With the Energy of the Universe
    Third Eye Chakra Meditation
    Surrender to the Universe and the Universe will surrender to you
    12 Books for Spiritual Explorers
    Clearing the Old & Embracing the New (Meditation)
    Expect Miracles
    How to Ignite Passion, Power & Creativity with your Breath
    Do Not Wrestle the Monkey
    The Double Slit Experiment & The Power of Focus
    Today is the day I believe in my success
    Free Solo: How One Man Did the Impossible
    Please stop saying "I hate the sound of my own voice"
    Fear Is the Jet Fuel That Will Burn Your Life Down
    Stop Seeking and Start Vibrating
    4 Things My Childhood Business Taught Me About Life
    Strength Grows in the Moments You Think You Can't Go On
    HU: The meditation mantra that changed my life
    You can be happy or you can be right
    Manifesting Vs. Creating
    Accessing Parallel Lives & the True Dynamics of Your Brilliant Self
    The Toolbox, Aka You Got This
    The Miracle of the Diaries
    Thousands of Millions of Universes
    You Are Not Required to Put a Stranger’s Comfort Above Your Own
    I trust... I trust... I trust
    How can I make your day better?
    Validation & Hope Vs. Toxic Positivity
    Watch the Waves in the Ocean
    A Seed Grows in Darkness
    Turn Your Fear into Excitement So You Can Pursue Your Dreams
    What if I never again felt I had to validate my existence?
    Sometimes you're tired
    Meditating on The Violet & Blue Flames
    Why We Need to Stop Using the Expression "It Wasn't Meant to Be"
    No One Else Can Do What You Do
    Let's Play a Game
    You


​Home

Guided Meditations

Healing Center

Blog


Breathe. You got this.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Trevor King 66, gaudiramone, iggyshoot, Arya Ziai, OakleyOriginals, k.isikawa_G3, Ron Cogswell, nan_hann, Greenbelt Alliance, lorenkerns, Studio N Photography, YorkshirePhotoWalks, swambo, docoverachiever, daveynin, dyniss, symphony of love, darkday., Rob Briscoe, Niranjan Ramesh, Sunny_mjx, Vilb1, Kai Lehmann, Yogendra174, lukas schlagenhauf, sling@flickr, Studio N Photography, BPPrice, mypubliclands, absentadrinker, Kirt Edblom, doublejwebers, yto, dc_gardens, Ali Burçin Titizel / Gti861, Robert Cheaib - Theologhia.com, "KIUKO", dolbinator1000, Jean-Marc Liotier, Giorgio Galeotti, chakrawandelingen, Dear M, Bryce Womeldurf, ZeePack, tx_mattster, Me in ME, Robert.Pittman, symphony of love, Mycatkins, Neville Wootton Photography, Arya Ziai, plasticrevolver, EVO GT, wuestenigel, john.gillespie, Gonmi, j-dub1980(THANK YOU FOR 100k+ Views), diegodacal, torbakhopper