The Roots of the Tree: Re-discovering Your Passion and Purpose

When we were children, we had a much more intuitive sense of our purpose in life. Before the structure of school and activities were placed upon us, the things that we were naturally drawn to revealed much more about the purpose of our lives then the question of later years, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Even if your childhood was such that all you had were quiet dreams, within those dreams lies the key to re-discovering the purpose of your life.

To begin with, you have to have a clear understanding of what purpose is, and how passion is defined. Purpose is the unique potential of each human being that may or may not develop. It is our capacity to be express a kind of genius in certain area of our lives, it is where not just our talent thrives, but also, is where the perfect union of our mental, emotional, spiritual and physical selves occurs. To live in your purpose is to live with every aspect of your self fully integrated and engaged.

The act of giving your purpose meaning, is called passion.

When we have passion, we are living within our purpose towards a specific goal. The focus of our passion may change and evolve over time, but our core purpose remains the same. To live in your purpose is to experience your life with a kind of focus that makes colors seem brighter, problems easier to solve, and every day holds an excitement of possibilities for you. To be passionate means you are directing your purpose in a meaningful way according to what you believe is good.

How is your purpose defined?

Is it a thing? Is it, for example, to save the world? Or to be the best parent? Or the most brilliant artist?

Those examples are details. Details and direction belong to passion. Your purpose is your reason for being. It is where your primary motivation comes from because it is the source of your creativity. All of us have creativity. Creativity is not limited to artistic expression but is present in all activities in which something is made; business, parenting, medicine, the arts, management, production - all of these begin with a creative endeavor and every aspect of their existence involves or should, a constant creative effort.

A good example of the difference between purpose and passion is this: if your purpose (as found through doing this exercise) is teaching, it is your passion that will give you direction in what to teach. To act on your purpose without passion means you could spend your life teaching, living in your purpose, but without bringing in the element of passion, which gives to your purpose meaning and your life, fulfillment.

This is a slightly different way of thinking about passion and purpose then you are probably used to. Most people are used to defining these words in reverse, with passion being what motivates us, and purpose being the direction. But your purpose is your motivation, it is what you are born with; passion is what you learn.

If you are having difficulty right now in identifying what in your life is creative, there is one thing which we all have that is our primary creative endeavor, and that is our self.

The self is never fully formed although we can reach a point in which it is realized.

The self requires a constant creativity to develop and grow. The realized self means only that we have become aware of our process and can balance our reason with our emotions to form our responses in order to continue creating. To create means to bring into being. The act of creating is the common purpose of all of our lives. Creating unites us in the human experience, it is the defining experience of life. If you are not living a life that is rooted in the process of bringing things into being, then most likely you are experiencing a deep sense of frustration, if not developing a growing flirtation with depression. Unfortunately, most of our societies and cultures have developed in ways that do not support creation. Instead, the majority of our modern cultures are based in maintenance. Maintaining life can keep one very busy, but in the end, leaves you feeling a deep, emotional void and sense of being unfulfilled.

We start our lives "hardwired" to seek to fulfill our purpose, to be creative, and to live a life that is based upon the passionate direction of our purpose.

We lose that ability as we are trained to participate and function in a society based in maintenance. We lose our ability to live in our purpose because we adopt the purpose of the society, which is not based in a life affirming process of bringing things into being, but is a closed cycle of perpetuating the existence of what has been. Society ceases to advance for the betterment of all humanity and becomes an unhealthy and limited repetition of behavior.

Your purpose is your innate expression of your self.

Are you imaginative? An organizer? A leader? A manager? A thinker? These are the kinds of words that describe your core purpose. In our play as children, we naturally sought to create and fulfill the roles of our purpose.

When I was younger, I had three close friends and all of us have gone on to re-discover our purpose that we lived in as children. In our play, I invented the story lines, one made whatever thing it was we needed for the fantasy, and the third, came up with all the names and histories to make it all believable. In our adult lives - I have become an artist and writer; the second is an industrial designer; and the third has become a high level research librarian. In between, we lost our selves in other jobs that we were told were better than these interests, but our lives eventually demanded a return to our inborn purpose. We have all excelled since realigning our lives with the purpose that we knew as children.

How do you begin to rediscover your purpose?

In this exercise we are going to begin working on rediscovering your purpose. We'll be combining it with the Mandala Key exercise so you may begin to look at your life and see how well you are living in your purpose. Later, we will begin to talk about how to go about changing your life to bring it closer to your purpose and reintroduce passion into daily living.

Like the Mandala Key, the imagery associated with this exercise has been developed to trigger your right brain into participating in this process of re-discovery. Most of the questions that you'll be answering will require you to use the more ordered left brain processes. As you assemble your answers on your tree, the right brain will begin to draw associations that the left is not capable of seeing. Use a pencil. As you progress through the exercise and begin to make connections in your mind, you may wish to clarify some of your earlier answers. If you have problems imagining how to fill out your tree, look at the sample exercise to see how it is done.

Again, like the Mandala Key exercise, the purpose of the roots of the tree is not to pass judgment on your life or to provide answers, but to begin to make you more aware of the details of your life.

The First Step:

Print a blank copy of the exercise.

Then, take a moment and think back over the past year or so, think about a time when you were doing something and lost all track of time. What were you doing? When you have the answer to that, find the branch near the top of the tree marked memory. Along the top of the branch jot down a short note about what you were doing.

For me, when I thought back over the year, while there have been numerous times when I have lost track of time because I have been so involved, the one I really remembered as if I was suddenly there doing it again, was the day when I worked from sun-up to late at night, with no breaks at all, on a car.

In the sample exercise I wrote 'working on car' along the top of the branch.

The next question to ask is "what are the core elements involved?" There are three small branches or shoots that come off that memory branch. One of them is really the tail end of the main part of the branch. Write down the three actions you were doing then. You don't want details specific to the event but the general action involved (in the sample, the specific action was 'fixing the fuel pump', the general action that I wrote down is 'doing something physical, solving puzzles, making my own ideas work', because I was also modifying parts of the fuel delivery system).

If your memory involved going to a concert, what was involved beyond listening to music? Being in a crowd? Being outdoors? You are looking for the core elements or actions of what you were doing.

Step Two:

What was the best job that you ever had? Not in money or prestige, but in total satisfaction. Think about it, it may be when you delivered pizza back in high school, it would be great if it is the job you have now. Whichever it is, find the branch near the top of the tree on the right side that says Job and write down what it was on the top of the branch.

Again, what were the core actions involved that made it so satisfying to you? What were you doing? Write down three of the core actions on the small branches.

Step Three:

Family. This branch is on the left. Before you write anything down, I am going to clarify what I mean by family. The definition of family is left to you, it means different things to different people, what I want you to do is think of when was the time when you really felt connected to a group of people and felt like you were part of a family as you choose to define it. This could be the family you were born into, your extended family, or maybe close friends who have become a kind of substitute family. Write down something that will remind you of who you are thinking about when you think of family on the top of the branch.

Now, what was it about the way you were interacting with this family that made it so? Where you physically close? Did you talk a lot? Did you do things together? Find the three core elements of what made this a family for you and write it on the branches.

Step Four:

You're going to go to the branch directly below your family. This is another Memory branch. Repeat the first step, think back further into your life on this branch and find another instance in which you lost all track of time because you were completely engaged in what you were doing. What was that? Write it down on that branch and then identify the three core elements and fill in the branches.

Step Five:

Across from the second Memory Branch is one labeled Relationship. This is referring to an intimate relationship - boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, husband, wife, fling, or affair. Think back and what relationship was it that came the closest to fulfilling you?

This branch is handled slightly differently from the others and you will not be writing the name of the person or the relationship on the top of the branch. Leave it blank. You are leaving it blank because the importance of the relationship lies not in who you were with, but why that relationship was so fulfilling.

Why was it? What were you doing in that relationship that made it so good? Find the three core elements and write them down on the branches.

Step Six:

Across from the Relationship Branch is one labeled Home. When did you feel like you had a home? This is not a question about living space, but when did you emotionally feel like you had a home? Feeling a sense of home does not necessarily also mean there was a relationship or a family present with you. Sometimes, our greatest sense of home has come when we have been living alone. Write down where that home was physically on the top of your branch. Then write down what the three core elements of what was happening in that place that made it represent home to you.

Step Seven:

The Dream Branch. Sit and think for a minute about a dream you have had while sleeping that you have always remembered because it has such a positive feel to you. Write down a brief description (one word is fine) of what the dream was.

In the sample, I wrote down 'Horse' and to me, that reminds me of an entire and complicated dream I had. What was it you felt in your dream? Write down the three core things about how that dream made you feel - this could be emotionally, physically, or mentally.

The Roots of the Tree

Now, sit and think about when you were a child. Remember how you played. You are looking for the memory that when you think about it, you can see it, feel it, and taste it because the memory is so vibrant to you. When you have that memory, think about all the other times in your childhood when you choose to play in that manner. It does not have to be an instance of "play", it could be an instance of you doing something as a child like building a model, or going to a dance class, that completely engaged you. This is your memory of play.

For me, it was the memory of playing in the woods and I had made up an entire scenario that we were acting out. When I thought some more about it, I realized that all my memories of playing in childhood that were rich and detailed centered around the same core elements - they were outdoors, they involved make-believe, I had to teach the scenario to my friends, I wrote them down, and also, all of them had elements of learning or exploring.

Think about this root memory and then write down the five core elements that were part of how you played.

The Trunk of the Tree

Look at the roots and read the branches. What do they tell you about what you like to do, and what kind of things begin to engage you on all levels? You should begin to see a pattern. In the trunk of the tree write a sentence or two about the type of person that you are; the kind of environment you like; and what are the elements of the best relationships, intimate and family, that you have had based on what you wrote down on your tree.

All of these things taken together define your purpose. Your purpose lies in the actions that you do. What we do that engages us, not just alone but with others, is an expression of our capability and potential. Giving direction to your purpose is where passion comes in and we will look at that in the next exercise. Your purpose will draw you to actions that in some way satisfy your need to be engaged. Without the direction of passion, however, the satisfaction you find will only be temporary, and often, that can take the form of unhealthy or harmful involvements.

The Top of the Tree

You are ready to complete the top of the tree.

Think about everything you have remembered and written down on your tree. Think about the sentences you just wrote about the kind of person you are, the environment you need, and the relationships you thrive in.

Of all the different core elements involved in each of these, pick five that seem as if they are the most recurring or common, and write them on the five branches at the top of the tree.

Now take out the Mandala Key exercise you did, and compare the core actions/elements you have at the top of your tree with the actions that define the elements in your life.

How do they compare?

Is what you found that you need in your life to be connected and engaged, present in your current life? If so, to what extent?

Don't judge.

Just become aware of the reality of your present as compared to what you need to be connected to your purpose. You may want to write some kind of journal entry about what you notice when you compare the two exercises. When you are done, put the exercises away and out of mind. Let your right brain begin to process what it has seen and we'll come back to them in the next exercise.

print the roots of the tree worksheet

From the book, Eat not the Heart by Cassandra Tribe, the roots of the tree exercise is designed to help you re-discover your passion and potential through identifying the core elements of your actions and creativity that fulfill your self in family, relationships and jobs.

From the book: Stress and the Care of the Self Mandala Key Exercise The Roots of the Tree (finding your purpose and passion) The Fruit of the Tree (Changing your life) The Layers of Marriage The Marriage Survey Newsletters January 09 February 09	How to Live Without Losing Your Life	Other Writings The Balance between Love and Money Understanding the Universal Unconscious The Crisis of Privacy Faith and Voting Is Death a Choice or Fate? Happy People Raising the Minimum Wage
	The Roots of the Tree: Re-discovering Your Purpose and Passion When we were children, we had a much more intuitive sense of our purpose in life. Before the structure of school and activities were placed upon us, the things that we were naturally drawn to revealed much more about the purpose of our lives then the question of later years, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Even if your childhood was such that all you had were quiet dreams, within those dreams lies the key to re-discovering the purpose of your life. To begin with, you have to have a clear understanding of what purpose is, and how passion is defined. Purpose is the unique potential of each human being that may or may not develop. It is our capacity to be express a kind of genius in certain area of our lives, it is where not just our talent thrives, but also, is where the perfect union of our mental, emotional, spiritual and physical selves occurs. To live in your purpose is to live with every aspect of your self fully integrated and engaged. The act of giving your purpose meaning, is called passion. When we have passion, we are living within our purpose towards a specific goal. The focus of our passion may change and evolve over time, but our core purpose remains the same. To live in your purpose is to experience your life with a kind of focus that makes colors seem brighter, problems easier to solve, and every day holds an excitement of possibilities for you. To be passionate means you are directing your purpose in a meaningful way according to what you believe is good. How is your purpose defined? Is it a thing? Is it, for example, to save the world? Or to be the best parent? Or the most brilliant artist? Those examples are details. Details and direction belong to passion. Your purpose is your reason for being. It is where your primary motivation comes from because it is the source of your creativity. All of us have creativity. Creativity is not limited to artistic expression but is present in all activities in which something is made; business, parenting, medicine, the arts, management, production - all of these begin with a creative endeavor and every aspect of their existence involves or should, a constant creative effort. A good example of the difference between purpose and passion is this: if your purpose (as found through doing this exercise) is teaching, it is your passion that will give you direction in what to teach. To act on your purpose without passion means you could spend your life teaching, living in your purpose, but without bringing in the element of passion, which gives to your purpose meaning and your life, fulfillment. This is a slightly different way of thinking about passion and purpose then you are probably used to. Most people are used to defining these words in reverse, with passion being what motivates us, and purpose being the direction. But your purpose is your motivation, it is what you are born with; passion is what you learn. If you are having difficulty right now in identifying what in your life is creative, there is one thing which we all have that is our primary creative endeavor, and that is our self. The self is never fully formed although we can reach a point in which it is realized. The self requires a constant creativity to develop and grow. The realized self means only that we have become aware of our process and can balance our reason with our emotions to form our responses in order to continue creating. To create means to bring into being. The act of creating is the common purpose of all of our lives. Creating unites us in the human experience, it is the defining experience of life. If you are not living a life that is rooted in the process of bringing things into being, then most likely you are experiencing a deep sense of frustration, if not developing a growing flirtation with depression. Unfortunately, most of our societies and cultures have developed in ways that do not support creation. Instead, the majority of our modern cultures are based in maintenance. Maintaining life can keep one very busy, but in the end, leaves you feeling a deep, emotional void and sense of being unfulfilled. We start our lives "hardwired" to seek to fulfill our purpose, to be creative, and to live a life that is based upon the passionate direction of our purpose. We lose that ability as we are trained to participate and function in a society based in maintenance. We lose our ability to live in our purpose because we adopt the purpose of the society, which is not based in a life affirming process of bringing things into being, but is a closed cycle of perpetuating the existence of what has been. Society ceases to advance for the betterment of all humanity and becomes an unhealthy and limited repetition of behavior. Your purpose is your innate expression of your self. Are you imaginative? An organizer? A leader? A manager? A thinker? These are the kinds of words that describe your core purpose. In our play as children, we naturally sought to create and fulfill the roles of our purpose. When I was younger, I had three close friends and all of us have gone on to re-discover our purpose that we lived in as children. In our play, I invented the story lines, one made whatever thing it was we needed for the fantasy, and the third, came up with all the names and histories to make it all believable. In our adult lives - I have become an artist and writer; the second is an industrial designer; and the third has become a high level research librarian. In between, we lost our selves in other jobs that we were told were better than these interests, but our lives eventually demanded a return to our inborn purpose. We have all excelled since realigning our lives with the purpose that we knew as children. How do you begin to rediscover your purpose? In this exercise we are going to begin working on rediscovering your purpose. We'll be combining it with the Mandala Key exercise so you may begin to look at your life and see how well you are living in your purpose. Later, we will begin to talk about how to go about changing your life to bring it closer to your purpose and reintroduce passion into daily living. Like the Mandala Key, the imagery associated with this exercise has been developed to trigger your right brain into participating in this process of re-discovery. Most of the questions that you'll be answering will require you to use the more ordered left brain processes. As you assemble your answers on your tree, the right brain will begin to draw associations that the left is not capable of seeing. Use a pencil. As you progress through the exercise and begin to make connections in your mind, you may wish to clarify some of your earlier answers. If you have problems imagining how to fill out your tree, look at the sample exercise to see how it is done. Again, like the Mandala Key exercise, the purpose of the roots of the tree is not to pass judgment on your life or to provide answers, but to begin to make you more aware of the details of your life. The First Step: Print a blank copy of the exercise. Then, take a moment and think back over the past year or so, think about a time when you were doing something and lost all track of time. What were you doing? When you have the answer to that, find the branch near the top of the tree marked memory. Along the top of the branch jot down a short note about what you were doing. For me, when I thought back over the year, while there have been numerous times when I have lost track of time because I have been so involved, the one I really remembered as if I was suddenly there doing it again, was the day when I worked from sun-up to late at night, with no breaks at all, on a car. In the sample exercise I wrote 'working on car' along the top of the branch. The next question to ask is "what are the core elements involved?" There are three small branches or shoots that come off that memory branch. One of them is really the tail end of the main part of the branch. Write down the three actions you were doing then. You don't want details specific to the event but the general action involved (in the sample, the specific action was 'fixing the fuel pump', the general action that I wrote down is 'doing something physical, solving puzzles, making my own ideas work', because I was also modifying parts of the fuel delivery system). If your memory involved going to a concert, what was involved beyond listening to music? Being in a crowd? Being outdoors? You are looking for the core elements or actions of what you were doing. Step Two: What was the best job that you ever had? Not in money or prestige, but in total satisfaction. Think about it, it may be when you delivered pizza back in high school, it would be great if it is the job you have now. Whichever it is, find the branch near the top of the tree on the right side that says Job and write down what it was on the top of the branch. Again, what were the core actions involved that made it so satisfying to you? What were you doing? Write down three of the core actions on the small branches. Step Three: Family. This branch is on the left. Before you write anything down, I am going to clarify what I mean by family. The definition of family is left to you, it means different things to different people, what I want you to do is think of when was the time when you really felt connected to a group of people and felt like you were part of a family as you choose to define it. This could be the family you were born into, your extended family, or maybe close friends who have become a kind of substitute family. Write down something that will remind you of who you are thinking about when you think of family on the top of the branch. Now, what was it about the way you were interacting with this family that made it so? Where you physically close? Did you talk a lot? Did you do things together? Find the three core elements of what made this a family for you and write it on the branches. Step Four: You're going to go to the branch directly below your family. This is another Memory branch. Repeat the first step, think back further into your life on this branch and find another instance in which you lost all track of time because you were completely engaged in what you were doing. What was that? Write it down on that branch and then identify the three core elements and fill in the branches. Step Five: Across from the second Memory Branch is one labeled Relationship. This is referring to an intimate relationship - boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, husband, wife, fling, or affair. Think back and what relationship was it that came the closest to fulfilling you? This branch is handled slightly differently from the others and you will not be writing the name of the person or the relationship on the top of the branch. Leave it blank. You are leaving it blank because the importance of the relationship lies not in who you were with, but why that relationship was so fulfilling. Why was it? What were you doing in that relationship that made it so good? Find the three core elements and write them down on the branches. Step Six: Across from the Relationship Branch is one labeled Home. When did you feel like you had a home? This is not a question about living space, but when did you emotionally feel like you had a home? Feeling a sense of home does not necessarily also mean there was a relationship or a family present with you. Sometimes, our greatest sense of home has come when we have been living alone. Write down where that home was physically on the top of your branch. Then write down what the three core elements of what was happening in that place that made it represent home to you. Step Seven: The Dream Branch. Sit and think for a minute about a dream you have had while sleeping that you have always remembered because it has such a positive feel to you. Write down a brief description (one word is fine) of what the dream was. In the sample, I wrote down 'Horse' and to me, that reminds me of an entire and complicated dream I had. What was it you felt in your dream? Write down the three core things about how that dream made you feel - this could be emotionally, physically, or mentally. The Roots of the Tree Now, sit and think about when you were a child. Remember how you played. You are looking for the memory that when you think about it, you can see it, feel it, and taste it because the memory is so vibrant to you. When you have that memory, think about all the other times in your childhood when you choose to play in that manner. It does not have to be an instance of "play", it could be an instance of you doing something as a child like building a model, or going to a dance class, that completely engaged you. This is your memory of play. For me, it was the memory of playing in the woods and I had made up an entire scenario that we were acting out. When I thought some more about it, I realized that all my memories of playing in childhood that were rich and detailed centered around the same core elements - they were outdoors, they involved make-believe, I had to teach the scenario to my friends, I wrote them down, and also, all of them had elements of learning or exploring. Think about this root memory and then write down the five core elements that were part of how you played. The Trunk of the Tree Look at the roots and read the branches. What do they tell you about what you like to do, and what kind of things begin to engage you on all levels? You should begin to see a pattern. In the trunk of the tree write a sentence or two about the type of person that you are; the kind of environment you like; and what are the elements of the best relationships, intimate and family, that you have had based on what you wrote down on your tree. All of these things taken together define your purpose. Your purpose lies in the actions that you do. What we do that engages us, not just alone but with others, is an expression of our capability and potential. Giving direction to your purpose is where passion comes in and we will look at that in the next exercise. Your purpose will draw you to actions that in some way satisfy your need to be engaged. Without the direction of passion, however, the satisfaction you find will only be temporary, and often, that can take the form of unhealthy or harmful involvements. The Top of the Tree You are ready to complete the top of the tree. Think about everything you have remembered and written down on your tree. Think about the sentences you just wrote about the kind of person you are, the environment you need, and the relationships you thrive in. Of all the different core elements involved in each of these, pick five that seem as if they are the most recurring or common, and write them on the five branches at the top of the tree. Now take out the Mandala Key exercise you did, and compare the core actions/elements you have at the top of your tree with the actions that define the elements in your life. How do they compare? Is what you found that you need in your life to be connected and engaged, present in your current life? If so, to what extent? Don't judge. Just become aware of the reality of your present as compared to what you need to be connected to your purpose. You may want to write some kind of journal entry about what you notice when you compare the two exercises. When you are done, put the exercises away and out of mind. Let your right brain begin to process what it has seen and we'll come back to them in the next exercise. print the roots of the tree worksheet From the book, Eat not the Heart by Cassandra Tribe, the roots of the tree exercise is designed to help you re-discover your passion and potential through identifying the core elements of your actions and creativity that fulfill your self in family, relationships and jobs.	Join the Newsletter: announcements, teleclass schedules and monthly essays on living. Enter your name and email address below: Name: Email: Subscribe Unsubscribe