Excellence Reporter: Bailey, what is the meaning of life?

Bailey Gaddis: While I can’t answer this for anyone else, because we’re all on our own journey, I’ve been feeling more and more that the meaning of my life stems from creation and connection. When I’m connecting with humans, or nature, or one of the weird and wonderful parts of myself I feel alive – I feel like I’m engaging in my purpose and diving deeper into the human experience.

This space of creation and connection – my “magic place” – pulls me out of fear and settles me into a vibe of love that’s so comforting I not only think, but feel and believe, the popular phrase “anything is possible.” Disappointments, harsh words, “failures”, have less of a sting when I remind myself to realign with that purpose of creation and connection. Dropping into creation and connection looks different for each human, but I suspect we experience very similar sensations when we’re there: expansion, inspiration, freedom, maybe a light and tingly sensation in the chest! It’s lovely.

I also believe that engaging in creation and connection organically leads us to the paths in life that we’re meant to follow – the paths that were placed before us by something greater than ourselves. Throughout my life, I’ve had very specific visions about where my life was “supposed to” go, and while some of those expectations panned out I’ve found that the most joyful moments in my life came from opportunities that arose after I surrendered to the natural flow of my life, and created what my intuition told me to create, and connected with people and parts of myself that I was instinctually drawn to.

For me, creation has often come in the form of writing, building an epic lego city with my son, baking something buttery and delicious, or maybe shifting the spaces in my home so they have a clean and nourishing energy. And sometimes, creation just consists of sitting outside and letting my mind wander into ideas that excite me. Then there’s connection – this usually involves others – a hug, a smile, a few words of love – but sometimes I need silence and a patch of grass under a tree to connect. When I let these two concepts lead me through life I feel tapped into the Universe – an endless supply of love and consistent reminders that all is as it should be.

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~Bailey Gaddis is the author of Feng Shui Mommy: Creating Balance and Harmony for Blissful Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood. She is also a certified HypnoMothering® Practitioner, Certified Hypnotherapist, Certified Birthing Doula, HypnoBirthing® Practitioner, Certified Professional Organizer®, a founding member of the Ojai Valley Birth Collective, IVF coordinator, and parenting contributor for Working Mother, Fit Pregnancy, Pregnancy and Newborn, Disney’s parenting site Babble, Elephant Journal, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Huffington Post, and more.

Bailey also supports families navigating cancer and parenthood, by volunteering her Hypnotherapy services at the cancer resource center, Ojai Cares. In addition, Bailey volunteers for the Parent Care Program at the Nan Tolbert Nurturing Center where she offers in-home support to parents of newborn babies. She lives in Ojai, California, with her husband and son.
www.BaileyGaddis.com

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