The following guest blog post is from CGCC professional member, Dr. Michelle Navarro, M.A., Psy.D. of the Long Grove Center...
Finding Your Passion In A Pandemic
I often remind myself that obstacles in life are gifts of opportunity
for learning and developing and enhancing one’s skill. No other time in
my life has this been more crucial. As a psychologist during a pandemic,
the “collective trauma” we all have experienced
and continue to experience is nothing I have ever been trained for or
seen in my over 27 years of practice. Yet, the creativity, kindness, and
resilience I have seen in people has sparked a renewed sense of why I
do what I do.
This passion or love that I have for my work is something I am often
asked how to find. Parents fear their child does not know what they want
to do at 20 years of age or their young child does not have a hobby or
interest in any one thing. But passion is not
always static; for most of us it is changing over time. Passion is
sparked off of life experience, some good, some traumatic, and exposure
and boredom. Boredom? Yes, boredom. Something many of us have been
missing until recently. True downtime with no structured
activity allows the brain to try to fill the time with imagination,
original ideas and building new pathways to solve our current dilemma of
lack of connectivity and loss of control.
Be kind to yourself, allow for openness and flexibility, and always be
willing to try and fail. Sometimes a passion is just the process of
being curious about life.
Remember that feeling safe to try and fail is an indispensable gift for
children and adults and is the pathway to self-confidence and
leadership. Allow struggle, risk, failure, and self-adjustment and you
will also welcome accomplishment and growth.
"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain."
-Unknown
