Keys to Unlocking the Mystery of Your Life Purpose
Part 3: Spiritual Aspects of the Search
Before we continue, I would like to reiterate my words of caution from the first segment of our journey. You may find that working through all of the clues in one setting is too overwhelming. I recommend working through one clue per week, following the guidelines here, and then holding that clue in your awareness as you go through your daily life, and recording any new findings throughout the week. If a clue seems to have no relevance for you, hold it in your awareness and move on to another clue.
Before we begin, take a few moments to settle into your heart and allow yourself to breathe deeply and fully. Slow down and quiet the mental chatter. Let’s go on a journey together with the intention of peeling back the layers of the mystery of your life purpose, by following some common clues.
We each have a gift that is ours to bring to this world, and in many cases our gift is that attribute or quality that we have experienced as most consistently lacking in our lives. |
Clue: What has been most lacking is undiscovered, yet present with you
This clue often surprises people. It states that the experience you have found most lacking throughout your life may be something you have to discover within yourself.
Let’s start by looking at your life. First center yourself in your heart. Then look back at your life from childhood through adulthood without judgment. At each stage of development ask yourself what quality or experience was most lacking? What quality or experience were you seeking and not finding consistently? Take your time in this process and you may discover a pattern. If nothing emerges, continue to hold these questions in your awareness.
Here’s a new perspective on your experience – what you have perceived to be most lacking throughout your life experiences may actually be your gift to this world. It may be peace, joy, clarity, trust, unconditional love, or another attribute you have repeatedly felt was lacking in your life. And you have almost certainly looked for that experience outside yourself, and not found it consistently. Some of us, after years of trying to find what we seek outside ourselves, finally start to look inside, perhaps because we’ve run out of places to look.
For me, after many years of searching for inner peace through religious activities, therapy, and personal growth workshops, I had but passing experiences of peace. But I could never make the experience last, never make it my daily experience. The odd thing is that although what I yearned for was inner peace, I often looked outside of myself for some sort of spiritual or meaningful experience to create that sense of peace for me.
One day I decided with intention to experience peace. I was having surgery. And I decided I was not going to be anxious, sleepless, or worried. I didn’t know how to do it, but I decided to experience peace. And that started me on an incredible journey that has changed every aspect of my life. I discovered that I could find peace within myself and that I could bring peace to my life and to others as part of my purpose.
We each have a gift that is ours to bring to this world, and in many cases our gift is that attribute or quality that we have experienced as most consistently lacking in our lives. Perhaps our environment was tailored to be lacking in that experience? If it had offered us sufficient opportunities for that experience, we would never think to look for it in ourselves. In fact, most of us only begin an internal search when we exhaust our external quest. But it is only when we are ready to look within that we can find what has eluded us.
Rev. Marie Patrice Masse says it is essential that “each may come to know that what they feel lacking is the gift they are here to bring forth, and each in bringing forth his or her gift brings greater wholeness to the world.” We find wholeness and fulfill our purpose through finding our gift within ourselves and sharing it with others. In this way, we not only help ourselves heal and grow, but bring greater healing to the world.
Let’s see how this applies to your life. Take a few moments to center yourself in your heart. Then take a slow, gentle journey back in time, from your youngest memories to the present day, stopping frequently along the way, as you watch your life unfold before you. And ask yourself at each stop, what was I looking for in my experience at this time? What did I yearn to experience more deeply at this point in my life? What experience was both satisfying, yet fleeting? And look for patterns. Write down anything you note under the heading My
Gift. And remain open to receiving more clarity in the upcoming days.
While many may share the same gift (e.g., peace), each person has an expression of that gift that is in alignment with their spiritual essence. Through full expression of their gift, each person fulfills their purpose. To live our purpose is to fully express our gift and share it with the world. |
Clue: What has been forgotten, when remembered, provides a direction for your path
In her book, Dancing the Dream, Jamie Sams writes that we have forgotten “…the authentic identity of our Spiritual Essences…. When we forget our spiritual identities, we also forget why we are here in physical bodies. When we forget why we are here on the earth, we also forget our original purpose for becoming human. Before we were born into this world, we all promised ourselves that we would remember our divine identities and would accomplish certain tasks or missions while we experienced human life…. Every time we encounter another aspect of our Spiritual Essence... we remember why we are here and our original purpose within the divine plan.”
An essential aspect of what we have forgotten on our life path is our timeless spiritual essence. The more we recall our spiritual essence, the more we remember our purpose for being in this incarnation. For this clue, there is no simple exercise that will help you to remember. Jamie Sams writes that to remember, we must spend time daily in the Stillness. Only when our minds have been stilled enough can we begin to perceive our true essence. Carlos Castaneda also writes about the necessity of bringing intention to whatever we do. So to solve this clue hold the intention of discovering your purpose and spend time daily in silence, being receptive to what unfolds itself. A guide – someone who has been down the path and discovered their purpose – and a teacher – someone who understands how to translate what they have learned into lessons that can help others – can be invaluable at this point in your journey.
In her book, Entering the Circle, Olga Kharitidi writes about different types of spiritual essences, which she calls Spirit Twins. Through my journey, I have discovered that my spiritual essence is a teacher-healer. And this has directed the way in which I bring out my gift of peace to the world. There are a myriad of ways to manifest peace, but most of them would not be in alignment with my spiritual essence. Neither joining the peace corps nor organizing peace rallies would be expressions of my spiritual essence. But helping people learn to live their lives in peace and fulfill their life purpose is very much in alignment with my teacher-healer essence.
While many may share the same gift (e.g., peace), each person has an expression of that gift that is in alignment with their spiritual essence. Through full expression of their gift, each person fulfills their purpose. To live our purpose is to fully express our gift and share it with the world, so that the world may receive health, happiness, truth, beauty, and light. And the world with which we share our gift may be our own corner of the global world. Very few are here to manifest their gift in a manner that has global impact. But if each of us would fulfill our purpose in our own little corner of the world, the whole world would be transformed.
If you are like the vast majority of us, your activity is interfering with your journey of discovery. |
Clue: What may go unnoticed in the city becomes obvious in the desert
Most of our minds and lives have become like cities – filled with activity. We have become experts at turning simple tasks, such as play and meditation, into complex activities. Spontaneity is all but lost for many of us, and is often limited to recreational activities.
In the city with so much stimulation vying for your attention, you may not notice a newly opened flower. But on the desert floor, you could hardly fail to notice the blossoming of a flower. In our culture, we are so accustomed to the pace of the city, even if we don’t live there. And in the midst of our busyness, how easy it is, just as we may do with the flower, to miss the signs of our life purpose as they try to reveal themselves to us.
So if your life is closer to frenetic than flowing, along with spending time in silence, you can obtain increased clarity about your purpose by creating space in your life that is not cluttered with activity. Living your purpose is creative action, not activity.
In his book, Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within, Osho states: “Action comes out of a silent mind…. Activity comes out of a restless mind…. Action is moment by moment, spontaneous; activity is loaded with the past. It is not a response to the present moment, rather it is pouring your restlessness, which you have been carrying from the past into the present…. ninety percent of your energy is wasted in activity.”
If you are like the vast majority of us, your activity is interfering with your journey of discovery. And your attachment to activity is not likely to change overnight. To start solving this clue, begin to increase your awareness of how activity and action manifest themselves in your life. As you do so, you may become more willing to create unfilled space in your life. And in the vastness of that small empty space, you may be amazed to see the flower of your life purpose start to bud.
If you do not consistently practice conserving and raising your energy, your spiritual essence, gifts, and purpose may lie just outside your awareness. |
Clue: When your ingredients do not combine into a consistent whole, add energy and stir
When baking, one must combine ingredients in appropriate proportions to create dough with the desired consistency. If after working through all the clues in this guidebook and allowing them to unfold in your life, a consistent purpose does not emerge in your awareness, this may be because your energy is not yet high enough to perceive your spiritual essence, gifts, and purpose.
In this case, your next step is to discover the areas of your life where you are leaking energy and to stop those leaks. A parallel step is to learn to consciously conserve your energy. Both steps will help raise your energy level to the point where you can perceive what you do not see clearly today. I will write more on these important aspects of the journey in an upcoming article entitled, If my Purpose is Not Meant to be Hidden, Why Don’t I See It?
In his book, The Power of Silence, Carlos Castaneda writes that by learning to conserve energy, we can raise our energy to the level where we posses “…the ability to use energy fields that are not employed in perceiving the everyday-life world that we know”. If you do not consistently practice conserving and raising your energy, your spiritual essence, gifts, and purpose may lie just outside your awareness. A spiritually-oriented guide can be invaluable to help you add energy and stir your ingredients (i.e. your answers to the clues) into a creation that is your unique expression of your spiritual essence, gift, and life purpose.
If you miss the journey, you cannot magically arrive at the destination. However, the good news is that remembering and manifesting what you came to this earth to fulfill is one of the most incredible journeys you can take in your lifetime. |
Clue: What is yours to discover, may be aided by another, but is yours to unveil
In our culture of fast food and quick fixes, it is common to seek out someone who can give us immediate answers to our life questions. People often ask me to tell them their life purpose. But as I have attempted to describe, discovering your purpose is a journey. And the lessons learned along the way are instrumental in readying you to complete your life’s mission.
A guide can help you avoid detours and roadblocks, but you must still walk every step of the path on your own. A teacher can point you in the direction of remembering what you have forgotten and discovering what has thus far remained a mystery, but your life purpose is yours alone to unveil. A coach cannot do the work of remembering for you, nor can they fulfill your purpose on your behalf. Psychics may tell you what you have forgotten, but if you have not remembered for yourself, you would not have the awareness and understanding necessary to fulfill your purpose. If you miss the journey, you cannot magically arrive at the destination. However, the good news is that remembering and manifesting what you came to this earth to fulfill is one of the most incredible journeys you can take in your lifetime.
Where do you go from here?
We have now collected and recorded many hints to solving the mystery of your life purpose. We have traveled from home to first or second base. But to achieve the home run of discovering your life’s purpose is not necessarily straightforward from here.
We can consider this process of discovery as the piecing together of a giant jigsaw puzzle. Each clue puts together pieces in a specific area of the puzzle. In addition to solving the above clues, which may require more unfolding in your life, each of us may have some personal clues that we must solve before we can discern the complete picture of the mystery of our life purpose.
Thus I will not diminish your personal journey by offering you a simple formula that takes what you have discovered up to this point and produces a statement of your purpose. Yet many life-purpose workshops that guarantee you will discover your purpose quickly do that.
Rather than reducing this amazing journey of discovery to a formula, I suggest that you begin to formulate a statement of purpose for your life using the clues you have solved thus far. Your purpose will be an expression, both of your gift and your spiritual essence. Although your purpose will fulfill you when you manifest it, your purpose may not meet the patterns of fulfillment you have expressed in your life to this point. Instead you may discover new ways of being that fulfill at deeper levels. Your purpose will also use some of your natural abilities.
As you consider formulating a purpose statement, continue to be aware of synchronicities as they occur in your life. Remember what you perceive to be an obstacle or a mistake may actually be a pointer to your path. Also begin a regular practice of raising and conserving your energy. In addition, become increasingly aware of unneeded activity in your life, and decrease it in favor of present moment action. And as you journey, continue to carve out time to be in stillness and allow the remembering of who you are and of your gift, spiritual essence and life purpose to unfold itself to you.
Enjoy the journey, and I suggest that you strongly consider enlisting the help of a guide. Although this is your personal journey, many pitfalls can be avoided by taking along someone who has already discovered and is living their own purpose, and understands how to help others in their own discovery process. An exciting journey still waits to be unfolded for each one of us. Peace and blessings for your journey.
