Rediscovering your spark

Remember that girl who had dreams and interests just for the joy of them? She’s still there, waiting to be rediscovered.

I want you to close your eyes for a moment. Flip through the archives of your memory and open the folder of your childhood. Live it, for a moment; live the lightness of life opening in front of yourself, the light-heartedness of not fearing the future and the courage to imagine both possible and impossible things, and mostly, the freedom to dream, to aspire. 

The Indian economist, Arjun Appadurai, asserted that the freedom to aspire is a right that everyone, even the humblest and those in the worst financial conditions, must have access to. It should be an inalienable right, because, when present, it’s the sign of a healthy and resilient community. And yet, we are told otherwise: we are told to renounce our ambition, our dreams, because reality, and adulthood, doesn’t allow fantasy, but demands concrete actions and pragmatism. Talented people, especially women, had to give up their desires to meet the expectations of the social system and to adapt to its pre-existing conditions; to carry out duties, without being fooled by fantasies.

And what about our identity? Our ambitions? Why shouldn’t we dream just for the joy of it? Just to claim freedom?

To dream is a liberation: asking to renounce it means we are refusing to understand the complexities of individuals. Dreams and ambitions transform, adapt to the external conditions and they are shaped according to which phase of life we are in. 

But how can we go back to that beautiful habit that is to dream just for the joy of it? Through activities that allow us to explore and to assert our imagination, and also by connecting again to our principles. We must find our inner compass to rebuild our unique identity, from which ambitions develop. We must realize that such ability is still within us, it has only adapted in new shapes and approaches. Let’s dig into our memories: both material, such as diaries or photo albums, and immaterial, like past remembrance. Remember what made your heart beat faster and linger on that thought. 

Dreaming doesn’t mean that it must be expressed outside, nor that it must be anchored to reality. It’s not necessarily a project. Yet, a dream can also be an ambition, a new or old one; it’s that feeling that helps us overcome tempests. In boredom and tiredness, it gives us the courage to restart, to dare to take a new path, or to rediscover our spark and fall in love again with our jobs or life path. 

• Explore your memories, read your past diaries or note from your childhood and adolescence; 

• Take time for yourself, even just five minutes, or rediscover your spark with your children, whose childhood can help you to reconnect to your inner child; 

• Take note of your dreams and projects in diaries, block notes, or launch a blog where you can share your passions and interests with other people who share the same ambitions, or just keeping in your mind; 

• Take a course or attend groups doing activities linked to your interests; 

•  Just let yourself go with the flow of your thoughts.

Don’t be scared: dare!