Finding Purpose
“You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it fearlessly.” –Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
When do you feel most alive?
One of the most important indicators of our life purpose is the feeling of aliveness. When we live out our true nature, we demonstrate a sense of direction, of exercising our consciousness, and of moving toward or from our highest self. In nature, plants turn their leaves to the sun, Canadian geese fly north and south together, and the Monarch butterflies push themselves to death for their famous migration. The tides follow the waxing and waning of the moon, and the creatures of the sea follow both of these cycles in predictable fashion.
For man, following a clear purpose is not so obvious or so easy. Our evolved brains and ego-selves have kept us safe and progressing over millennia, but perhaps it has obstructed our ability to access our natural cycles. We may suppress our deep desires to create art, live by the ocean, or move to a farm for more worldly pursuits. Maintaining a steady job, climbing a career ladder, or doing something ‘sensible’ with our lives may prevent us from living a life of purpose. Examining the times when we do feel most alive can give us insight to activities that are more on purpose. You’re in a state of purpose on the days when time seems to fly by, when you forget to eat because you’re lost in your activity, and you keep working into the night. The question to creating an entire life of purpose, rather than isolated pockets of purpose, is to grow these experiences where we are in the flow.
What do you do naturally without thinking? Like salmon swimming upstream to lay their eggs, what do you find yourself doing naturally?
Start The Day with Healthy Habits
After recommending a glass of water first thing in the morning, a student comment that her blood sugar levels evened out and started to improve. She had been concerned because the numbers seemed to increase over time and she didn’t know how to reverse that. A glass of clean water in the morning also gives our large intestine the fluid it needs to evacuate waste. In the morning, we can also set a positive tone by opening our heart before we open our eyes. Start with a list of gratitude, envision a positive attitude throughout our days, and feel our heart open like a blooming flower facing the sunshine. In addition to a glass of water, eating healthy, big breakfast will give us the energy we need to fuel our morning and set a tone for the day. I know that when I skip breakfast, I find myself foggy, hungry, and more irritable all day long—or at least until lunch, whereby I need to eat twice as much to catch up. Beyond water and nutrition, we can focus on the information in our mental diet first thing in the morning. Avoid the news, email, and social media feeds first thing in the morning. Instead, read something inspirational, listen to music that makes you happy, talk to loved ones, and stretch a little. Finally, bring your awareness into your physical body. Feel the softness of the bed linens, feel the floor under your feet, pay attention to the texture of the water in the shower. Getting our awareness into our body, instead of our head, feeds a part of us that experiences peace. Fueling the head with energy through thought robs our vital organs of that energy.