To coin a cliché what floats your boat? What pushes your buttons? What is it that you look forward to doing when you get out of bed each day?

I was fortunate at the weekend to visit several local artists as part of the Shrewsbury Open Studio weekend. It was obvious to see their passion, enthusiasm and drive reflected in the amazing and varied work on display.

I could have asked the same question today at a ladies’ networking event and had 80 different answers but all with one thing in common, they were driven by their passion and love of what they do. The noise levels in the room were testament to that.

So back to my original question, what is it that makes you tick? I took some time out to have a holiday recently and to look at just that. Having had  a decidedly difficult 18 months I was feeling out of touch with me and what made me tick. A week away gave me time to reconnect and look at what I value and cherish in my life.

As many of you know I’m quite a chatty person and many people I spoke to were on holiday to escape their lives. Which started me thinking. Unlike many people I met on holiday I didn’t want to escape my life, I realised that I have an awful lot to be grateful for and don’t want to escape from it at all. I smiled wryly when one man said it’s back to reality tomorrow, as for me the holiday was still my reality.

What helped me to connect to my passion was the wonderful, fragrant, exotic and enchanting scent of Jasmine which hung thickly in the night air. I’m sure many passers by thought that I was either mad or drunk as I stood on tiptoe to inhale as much of the magnificent scent as possible. For me my passion is aroma and essential oils. Applying them through massage is my current choice of profession and it does make me tick !

Jasmine is a particularly appropriate oil to use if you have forgotten what makes you tick. Sometimes we get so bogged down with the minutiae of life that we lose who we really are and what we are doing with our lives. Jasmine has powerful restorative qualities that can help to reconnect mind, body and spirit. It is good to use when we are out of touch with ourselves physically and unable to express our emotions as loving gestures or actions. It’s an oil much used in labour and childbirth not just because of it’s comforting aroma. Jasmine has many therapeutic properties including being anti-spasmodic, anti-depressive and analgesic. I could dedicate a whole newsletter to the amazing properties and uses of Jasmine, in fact I could talk all morning about it ! But this isn’t the time or place to do that.

Sometimes taking time out to discover just what makes you tick is a really valuable exercise and helps to appreciate our lives.  We can’t escape our reality but we can make it the best it possibly can be, we do have the power and control to do that.