Today’s post is a part two to a post yesterday about finding and living your dharma. If you haven’t read that, pop over here and give it a read. I want to share with you a story about a client of mine who I helped a few months ago work out her dharma to illustrate how it can show up in your life in a really unique way.
Let me tell you the story of one of my clients, Dina {who is allowing me to share this with you all}. Dina has worked for the last 10 years for an insurance company and she wasn’t real happy with her daily life. She was always coming home feeling really exhausted from working long, stressful hours and wanted to find something better for herself. That’s when we started to work together.
Originally she came to me looking for guidance on how to get her spiritual life back on track to support her stressful daily life. We talked about meditation and doing some alternative therapies and things like that, but I knew right away this was going to be a band aid on a much bigger problem. We weren’t dealing with the root of the problem and just addressing the symptoms. So we dug a bit deeper.
When we started working together to figure out what her hidden talents were and what her dharma was. At one point she said to me that she wanted to find her “life purpose” because insurance certainly wasn’t it.
I worked with Dina through this process of finding her dharma. I started with telling her never to use the phrase “life purpose” again because she noticeably shifted her energy when she or I used the phrase. Her face changed, her voice got tight, and she would look notably stressed out. So we shifted things right off by working on her dharma and making it more of a spiritual quest rather than a career change.
HUGE DIFFERENCE!
When I asked Dina what she would do all day every day if she could she said “I’d shop. But really I think I’d shop for shoes.”
I’ll admit that at first I was a little stumped about how her shoe shopping was going to be her dharma but as I let her explain the love she had of shoe shopping she opened up to a story about helping a friend find shoes for her wedding. When Dina told this story her shoulders dropped, her eyes brightened, and her face glowed from the smile stretching ear to ear.
OK, this chick CLEARLY is passionate about shoes! But how is that helping anyone?
So here’s the wedding shoes story.
Dina had an incident a year earlier where she helped a very stressed bride to be who was a long time friend find a pair of shoes for a unique wedding dress she’d be wearing. Ladies, you get how important that wedding outfit and every little detail is. If one thing isn’t right the whole thing is wrong! The bride was going to be wearing a unique dress that would expose her in the front from the knees down. So the shoes had to be special.
After stressing out and spending three months of hopeless and fruitless shopping, she turned to Dina for help. She knew Dina was really into shoes and figured she might be able to give some ideas and a unique perspective. Dina went to see her friend in the dress, took pictures, and went home to do a little online searching. After getting some ideas she took her friend out on a Saturday morning and after two hours of shopping, the mission was a success!
Dina was overjoyed with the feeling of having been able to end this dilemma for her friend and she got to do something she loved and is clear good at. Shop for shoes!
So, how did this turn out to be Dina’s path to her dharma?
You might think shoes are no big deal, but this was a way for Dina to help a woman find that last thing, that final touch to make her feel beautiful. That’s big! For Dina this was a way to help out another woman feel comfortable, beautiful, and empowered.
Dina’s dharam turned out to be bringing beauty into women’s lives. It also turned out to involve helping stressed out women planning for weddings and other big events feel less stressed because someone with talent and an eye for beauty and an ear for their needs was helping them.
Yes, Dina is still working her insurance job, but she’s started a small, local styling biz! She has a few friends in her area that have beauty salons and day spas and she knows a few people who know people in the wedding and photography industry who are getting her clients and contacts. Dina’s helping people out on weekends find and shop for shoes, accessories, and even gowns! Dina is feeling at peace, she’s making a little extra money, building her portfolio, and planning to turn this into a full time styling biz in the future!
When I asked Dina if she’d still be doing this even if it wasn’t something she’d turn into a business she said “absolutely!” She feels like she found her purpose, her calling. Even if it’s unconventional it’s her unique gift, her dharma. It’s that thing she’s able to give to people who need it in the world to help and serve them and she loves doing it.
Let this be an example of how no matter what it is that you find is your joy, your special gift, your dharma, you can find a way to live it out. If your dharma is something you can turn into your day job, awesome! If not that doesn’t mean you can’t live it! Simply seek ways, every day, to take that energy and put it out into the world.
