I was working with a client to help him let go of his clutter. We were talking about the activities he does. He mentioned that he meditates. I asked him if he liked it, and he paused.
When a client pauses after a question, it's a red flag. I you had a hundred-dollar bill and I said, "Do you like this $100 bill?" you probably wouldn't have to wait to respond.
So I said, "Tell me about the types of meditation you do."
He said he'd been doing a breathing meditation in which you focus on the breath as a way to transcend. I asked him if he enjoyed doing it. He said, "Not really. But everyone that I know does it." That was his reason for still doing it.
I said, "We're social creatures who follow the leads of others, and that's how we learn. But that's often why we hang onto clutter -- because of what other people think or do -- and it doesn't serve us. If you like doing something, even if no one in the world likes what you do, it's great that you like it and keep doing it."
He asked me, "So if some authority figure came to me and said, 'Stop doing what you're doing and do this other thing instead,' what would I say?"
I said, "You would tell them, 'NO!'"
It's that important to follow what you love to do regardless of whether anyone else is doing it.
Look at it this way. Your life's at stake. If you spend your days doing what others prescribe for you and ignoring what you actually love, then you're not alive. You're a shell. And you can exist as a shell, but it's a hard, sad life.
Then my client described a loving-kindness meditation that he likes. I asked him how it made him feel, and he said he really enjoyed it. I said, "Well, you like it, and it makes you feel good. So that's the meditation to do until you don't like it any more."
It felt to me that his shell was being filled with life again.
Is there any activity that you are doing in your life that you are not enjoying? It's worth taking a look.