What is your Life’s Purpose: Flickr

What is your life’s purpose?

Think about it.

I bet nothing sprang to mind.

Such a question has enormous importance.

I doubt your mission is to make a few million dollars (although that may be an achievable and commendable goal). I believe that life’s mission is to love oneself—to learn to love what we have, create what we love and love what we create. Of course that may sound slightly glib and simplistic, and I don’t mean to make light of other meaningful experiences and learnings. And of course, making millions of dollars may be a fun and noteworthy task!

I believe that if one’s mission is solely aimed at egotistical acquisition of wealth and titles, without an element of serving humanity, then one will have failed in one’s mission.

I’ve asked many questions and thought very hard about how to navigate my way through a minefield of cynicism, confusion, and the overall consciousness of this planet which is driven by the need to “make end’s meet” and to compete with each other for limited resources. I have challenged myself to find the answers, and more importantly live them.

For life is my message.

Surely, less talk and more action is what it’s all about!

Flowers inspire and offer a perspective. Photo: David G Arenson

The questions I’ve asked myself are:

When all is said and done, how much do I truly love myself?

For if I loved myself—would I ever bring others down (even in my thoughts), would I ever be part of bringing suffering to the world?

The reason this question is so important, perhaps the most important question one can ask oneself, is without knowing the answer; one will live unconsciously from moment to moment, just going through the motions without being awake to the deeper significance of one’s choices, and what energy one is broadcasting to the world, what one is inviting into one’s life, and what one is making others aware of.

This is my life, it is my signature creation. It is my duty to live true to myself, with integrity; and authentically communicate my message to the world.

My life is about expanding my awareness, expanding my vision of myself and my life—until it is the greatest possible vision of who I am, and who I wish to be in my incarnated human form. Without loving myself, how can I hope to achieve much? As nothing will ever truly satisfy me. And then I will live a life of perpetually seeking, searching, yearning…

Without giving love to myself first, how will I be able to give to others, to love others? Feeding and nourishing myself will automatically feed and nourish others if I set this as an intention. Teach a man to love himself, and he will forever be able to love others. This creates unimaginable possibilities as it allows creation from a sound foundation.

Questions I ask myself:

Do I love myself enough to forgive myself?

Do I love myself enough to forgive others?

Do I love myself enough to nourish my body with life-affirming nutrient-rich food, the way nature intended, or do I feed myself processed ‘nonfoods’, sugar-foods, etc?

Do I love myself enough to exercise my body, stretch it, build my physical resilience and strength, and continually improve my body’s conditioning?

Do I love myself enough to feed my soul with whatever my heart intends?

Do I love myself enough to live in the moment, to forget the past, not worry about the future, but to be truly present to the opportunity within every moment?

Do I love myself enough to commit to my decisions, to take action that serves my spirit and with all my heart? For if I want to go somewhere, I’ll only get halfway with half my heart in it.

Do I love myself enough to consistently expand my mind, by learning new things, and continually growing my expertise about life? With more knowledge about life, I’ll have greater awareness and ability to deal with any event.

Do I love myself enough to have fun, allow my soul to be joyful, do the things I love doing, to release stress, relax my mind-body-soul, take the time to rejuvenate and re-energize?

Do I love myself enough to rest sufficiently—to sleep enough?

Now, more than ever, I need to ask myself who I want to be in an age of possibility.

So this is my journey. I take the road less travelled and challenge myself to achieve more, to do more with my life that I thought was possible, to live a life of purpose. I challenge you to do the same.

We need to examine our foundations, the very fabric of our being, and our position in the world. As the world presents a mirror to the internal landscape, examining what is happening within, will always guide and clarify external events.

Look within for answers. If you build a stable, healthy, well-balanced self-love, self-respect and self-appreciation, your foundation is in place to build the same things in your external world. Loving yourself is the foundation for living a fully self-actualized life.

With love was the world created, and with love it continues to run. Expanding that energy within yourself, expands the energy of life, and expands the DNA of success.

Go with an open heart, go with a full heart, go soundly into the world with love.

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” 

~ Confucius

To transform mind, body and spirit requires cultivating self-love.

Here are Six Keys to Living Your Life’s Purpose:

First key: Activate awareness of self and self-talk.

What do you say to yourself perpetually?
Do you listen to your thoughts, filter them, question them?

Second key: Clean and purify the body vessel.

Your body is your temple. It serves you. It represents you.

As your temple, if you do not treat it as such, you’re unlikely to develop or enhance self-love. Destroying your body does the opposite of engendering self-love; it is self-defeating. Your body not only serves you, it is also your manifesto. Treat it as sacred.

Third key: Spiritual Refinement

When you connect to the essence of spirit, something changes within. It doesn’t matter what your spiritual or religious belief is, even if you believe in nothing, or you’re an atheist. What matters is that your practice some refinement of the soul.

If you don’t already have a daily devotion like prayer or meditation, explore the available options or create your own daily practice. It is never too late to start. For some, it is time spent playing or listening to music, that uplifts their soul. For others, it is a combination of things. I have never heard anyone tell me it involves TV watching, traffic or work!

Make the time to develop your relationship to yourself via doing something that uplifts you.

Fourth key: Personal Communion

Every day, you require “me” time in order to be centred.

This time is not selfish, it is essential for personal wellbeing. In this time, you can develop your thinking and refine your sensibilities. It may be in the form of a quiet walk in nature, a bath, or time alone in meditation. This is your greatest investment in you!

Fifth key: Develop a Personal Vision and Purpose

What are you doing here? Just waiting for the weekend to start, or for the next TV show to begin? Or is there something deeper, greater, bigger, bolder? Is there some goal that is beyond yourself, something that defines who you want to be, your statement to the world?

Develop a personal mission statement that works according to your values.

This is the next step in personal evolution and happiness stating who you are to the world.

Sixth key: Your life is your practice.

Ultimately, your lifetime is a sum of actions, experiences and how you spent your time. How would you wish to be remembered?

Your life is your practice—so how would you wish to spend it?

Only you can answer this question.

 

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Editor: Bryonie Wise