“If you are who you are meant to be, you will set the world on fire!”
~St. Catherine of Siena
Take a moment to light a fire with me. All it takes is a single spark.
While fire has its many dangers, its uses far outweigh its risks. A good fire warms us, lights the way and makes the darkness bearable. To get one started you need three basic ingredients; fuel, oxygen and heat. To keep it going, I would add that a good fire needs control, community and purpose.
By examining these ingredients in the context of our own lives, I believe that we too can shine as bright as the brightest fire. We can warm the hearts of others and make the darkness a little more bearable.
I hope this article provides you with the extra spark needed to do this. I hope that it may help to reignite your passions and fan the flames of your desires. I hope that by the end you will have rediscovered your lust for life.
Fuel: “I am building a fire and everyday I train, I add more fuel.” ~Mia Hamm
At the most basic level, we need good food and sleep to perform. Unfortunately many of us don’t even get that so it is an important starting point. Our mental fuel is just as important. Presently, we spend almost every waking moment consuming information and material at a relentless pace. These all require some form of brainpower to take in. However, this power is a limited resource.
Ask yourself how you can refuel and re-energize this part of yourself. Compile a list of tasks that require little or no brainpower to give yourself a break; household chores, exercise, tea with friends, etc. The next time you need to concentrate or focus you will have a greater store to pull from.
Oxygen: “The quality of our breath expresses our inner feelings.” ~TKV Desikachar
On aeroplanes we are often recommended to attach our own oxygen mask first, but how often in life do we forget this sentiment when we run around serving the needs and expectations of others?
Today take a moment to simply breathe. A slow, deep inhale of breath reflects a calmer state of mind and vice versa. You only realize this when your breath is taken away underwater, after exercise or during a panic attack. Today, try to remember to breathe slowly whenever you can. Use your breath as an anchor to steady yourself and reconnect.
This works even better if you can find a quiet room, set a timer, close your eyes and focus only on this sensation of breath for a few minutes. Time appears to slow down and the mind stops racing. When you really need this practise, it will be there for you.
Heat: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche
Heat is the energy required to start a fire and keep it going. We can imitate this essential energy when we are passionate about that we do. A lust for life implies many things; wishing for, longing for, dreaming of, hungering for, thirsting for, aching for something that is worthwhile. We can bring a greater energy to life when we enthusiastically work or move towards a goal. The Germans call this leidenschaft and football captain Philip Lahm said it was the driving force behind their 2014 World Cup success.
The opposite of lust is dread or avoidance. When we passionately dread or avoid something (hate it with a passion), we waste vital energy. If you can, try to fix your focus on a future moment that is both motivating and meaningful. Eventually you will move away from that which is trying to drag you down. Focus only on the next step forward and remind yourself regularly what you are passionately fighting for.
Control: “A blazing fire makes flame and brightness out of everything that is thrown into it.” ~Marcus Aurelius
Life is an intense and finely tuned balancing act. Events constantly swing from pure joy to pure despair. The truth is that we have little or no control over how things go. Realizing and accepting this can make life a little easier. When we don’t we try to do everything and eventually experience burnout. Through this knowledge we begin to see that there are only a small amount of things that we can control or influence. Controlling the ‘controllables’ is where we find strength. Letting go of that which we cannot control is where we find wisdom. Good moments are made to be enjoyed, bad moments are made to be endured. Everything balances itself out all in good time. A blazing fire is not fussy, it burns all that comes before it both good and bad. The brighter we burn the easier it is to deal with the ups and downs of life.
Community: “The definition of community – of tribe – would be the group of people that you would both help feed and help defend.“ ~Sebastian Junger
Why light a fire in the first place? The answer is that the best fires are used to bring communities together. Food, drink, stories, light and warmth are even better when shared at the fireside. Special occasions, candlelit vigils and religious ceremonies feature candlelight as part of their ritual. The Olympic flame burns brightly across the world as it is passed from one hand to the next.
While it is possible to survive on your own, the work required is undoubtedly much greater. In nature, a lone wolf must search for hundreds of miles to find food, while a pack find success much more likely working together. Think of this the next time you have a worry, task or challenge at hand. Sharing it is likely to make it that little bit easier and take a load off your mind.
Purpose: “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” ~Henry David Thoreau
Where do you want your journey to take you? Purpose goes hand in hand with passion. Remind yourself of what you want today. But be careful in how you interpret and answer this question. Realize that you may have some of these things already. There are things that you have right now that if they were taken away from you it would cause great inconvenience or pain. The starting point of your purpose is to live life to the fullest with what you already have and who you already have around you. If what you want is always outside of yourself then you will never know peace.
Purpose, just like fire, means so much more when it is shared with others for the greater good.
“Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
~George Bernard Shaw
If you liked what read, pass on this torch to someone important to you today. To use a great Irish expression, keep her lit!
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