MANTRA:

GRACE

The sun never says to the earth, You owe me. Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky.

Hāfiz, Persian poet, 1325–1390

What we give, we get back. Only always.

It’s a universal law. A universal truth and a guiding principle for anyone striving to live a purpose-FULL, productive and potent life.

Devotion, at its very essence, is being in service to something other than self.

Some of us are devoted to Gods or Goddesses. Some devote themselves to a worldly cause while others are devoted to the tiny humans they’ve brought into this world. I’m surrounded by people who devote their life to a career that lights them up and makes them feel connected and fully alive.

And when we’re really living this devotion, we realise that even though the effort is being made in order to give to something or someone ‘else’, there’s no separation between you and that thing you’re giving service to. You and that thing become one.

In giving to other – you’re giving to self.

This theory can’t simply be ‘understood’ intellectually. It must be fully felt. Fully experienced. And the only way to do that is through giving.

So what are you devoted to?

Diversification in devotion is required to have a global community that truly cares – not only for one another, but for every corner of the planet.

It’s as though we each have a unique calling; and those callings are perfectly splattered and scattered among the populations. Everyone has a role to fulfil in the order of the world. And here’s the thing – when you find that thing that you’re devoted to (and I think, by the way, it’s OK to change your mind... multiple times) you light up. People notice because it’s magnetic, inspiring and totally on point.

We know we're living ̒on purpose' when through acts of service, we feel so damn good.

I’ll never forget one afternoon during my university years. I was hanging out with an old school friend, Lucy, also one of my best mates. Always quite ‘spiritual’ and connected to God when we were moving through our teenage years, she’d recently found a modality called NLP, or Neuro Linguistic Programming.

She started using some of the techniques on me. I was in awe. Yes, partly because this was some of that deep work that I was yearning to get into myself but hadn’t quite found, but it was more than that. It was the way she lit up when she talked about it. The promise of this technique’s ability to transform lives and reframe mindsets seemed really promising. And whether or not I believed that didn’t matter, because Lucy’s dedication to the learning process she was going through was red hot. I so clearly remember her saying ‘I’m going to dedicate my life to this’. And I believed her. There wasn’t an inch of doubt. It was said with such conviction. I could tell that this was coming straight from her soul, through the heart and throat and out as an expression of devotion.

And to this day, she does. She’s shifted away from some of the modalities but the theme and tone of what she’s doing is bang on.

Why I remember that moment so clearly, I don’t know. I knew I didn’t want to pursue the exact same things, so perhaps there was part of me that yearned to know what my legacy would be. What was I going to dedicate my life to, and how could I be of service? I knew that was the whole point from quite an early age – which caused frustration because I hadn’t worked out what that service was. It was a deep yearning with no obvious answer straight away. It took time.

I think it’s frustrating for many young people, and often more mature people too, who are searching for that ‘thing’ that lights them up. As far as I can tell there’s no intended time for you to come across this. But what I do know is that if you ‘follow the charm’ often and with enough courage, you’ll find it. Time and time again.

We're in constant co-creation with the universe.

What we give to it – it gives back.

But if we spend our whole time playing the victim, wondering when it’s ‘our time’ or hoarding all of our winnings, skills, talents and money, then that steady and even universal flow of life energy gets stuck. We cease to have things come back to us.

So again, how are you in service? And are you making it a priority?

Not just in what you do for a living but the everyday things. After all, how we do one thing is how we do all.

Is there a legacy you want to leave behind? What is it that you want your grandchildren and children, or other young people who matter to you, to say about you after you’ve left this life? Life’s short. In some way or another we all know this. Just look at how the years rush by.

Grab life and decide. Start with the small things, such as the choices you make when you do your weekly shopping, the people you spend your time with and the media that you choose to buy and ‘buy into’.

It all counts. Start now.

The future depends on what we do in the present.

Mahatma Gandhi, Indian civil rights leader, 1869–1948