life purpose or life theme?

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Registered: 07-11-2005
life purpose or life theme?
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Mon, 10-23-2006 - 1:27pm

How do you go about finding out what your life purpose is? or your life theme? Why is it that some people know what it is from early childhood, and that some people never find out in their life span?

Stormy

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Registered: 01-31-2006
Mon, 10-23-2006 - 2:38pm

Hi, Stormy,
The way I see it, there doesn't have to be a big Mission or Life Theme. Since this world is so impermanent, what we 'do' doesn't really matter. What really matters is our attitude while we are doing it, every day, every moment. Are we open to the lessons we need to learn every day? Are we trying to find the beauty and joy all around us? Very important- how do we view others? Do we love other people, try to keep harmonious relationships with them, forgive easily, live with grace?

As far as choosing what to 'do'....career or spiritually, I believe in choosing that which brings us joy. The more joy we feel inside, the more we have to spread around.

Some people will be destined to be 'famous' in our eyes, and some will be destined to live lives that seem ordinary. However, the 'ordinary' person who has lived life relishing every day, laughing often, and loving themselves and others, to me has lived a very, very great life.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 10-23-2006 - 4:35pm

That's a great question Stormy, and one I've often pondered myself.

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Registered: 03-09-2001
Sat, 10-28-2006 - 1:12pm

You know, those are questions I've ask myself through most of my life. I have always been close to nature and have been a spiritual seeker since I can remember. Always that question, "Why?" or looking down at my hands, wondering what they are meant to accomplish. <:O

At 59, I can't say I have a solid answer or a full picture. What I have come to know is that each lifetime is a cycle for our spirit to grow, with a different focus or challenge in each. We may believe in something, follow a spiritual path, or none at all.

I used to think there was a single purpose, career, focus that I should be working toward my whole life. What I have found is that the single focus was my seeking. All else comes and goes as I need it to. My true identity is as spirit.

My mistake, if there really was one, or a major lesson I'm just beginning to "get," is that I must not allow others to deteremine my path, or deflect me from my inner knowing. Some periods I hunkered down, inside, as if waiting, and just lived day to day, meeting the demands of others, letting my inner work slow and simmer. The waiting is not bad, because I have received much understanding by my work, by being married, being a mother, a daughter, connecting and learning and being supported by animal companions. Like the wheel of the seasons, there is a time for everything. ;)

I have periods of immense higher consciousness balanced with periods of just living my daily life on this physical plane. This lifetime has peaked and waned many times in terms of my spiritual journeying. I have come to accept, as a priestess of the Goddess, to await HER timing, look for the indications, and listen to my intuition, and to trust my own inner voice. THAT has been my hardest lesson so far, and I still struggle with it. To follow my own inner knowing.

Perhaps some lifetimes are all about hunkering down, just living, waiting for our awakening and understanding? Preparing us for upcoming work in another lifetime.

Just my ruminations as Samhain draws near and the veil thins between here and Spirit.

Gypsy



Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(



iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 10-28-2006 - 1:33pm

is that I must not allow others to deteremine my path, or deflect me from my inner knowing.


A tough lesson in my experience, but a very important one.




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Registered: 03-19-2002
Sun, 10-29-2006 - 11:43pm

I firmly believe that each of us is there to live the life they've been granted and follow the path placed in front of them. You can't know in advance what lies ahead of you, but the way you walk on that path and how you approach your life is what makes a difference.

If you are true to yourself, and happy about what's been given to you I must say you fullfilled your part of the contract. If you live a life being jeallous of others complaining about the things you cannot change, and refusing to change what you can, I think you didn't learn the lesson you came here to learn.

I strongly believe in reincarnation too, and I know deep down that the actions I comit in this life will determine what will happen in the next. Each life we live is a tiny fraction of a much much bigger truth and path and this is why some struggle more than others, it's not that God is unfair, it's just that we all have different lessons to learn. This is also why a more spiritual person can embrasse life serenely and another can't, they are simply not at the same level.

I remember a freind now, who is feedign the giant cloud of negativity that gravitate around her, no matter how you try to help her, she will try to prove you that her cause is hopeless and that she is the most unlucky person in the world. At first you pity her and then you just throw the towel because clearly she is not willing to help herself. She always claim I'm lucky to have the life I have not realising that things didn't come in easy to me but that i gave myself the mean to live my own life the biggest way possible while she refuse to look at the lessons she has to learn. I don't blame her, she probably needs a few more lifetimes to start realising that the odds aren't against her.

For my part, I know that I must learn patience, it's tough for me, but that's what my "lesson of the day" is all about. As recently I found myself constantly faced with waiting, and reall tests of patience. 3-4 years ago I would get angry when things would not go as I wanted and as fast as I wanted, nowaday I'm more serene in my approach to the problems but I still tend to loose it and I know I still have much more to learn here. Now I could choose not to do so and remain frustrated each time there is a change in my life or a long wait, but I choose to take those events as an opportunity to grow and be a better person.
It's the same as the "half full half empty glass", the way you look at life determine your point of view and focus. You can choose to see everything as half empty and be frustrated, or you can choose to see it as half full and be happy. Life is sucha precious gift, I think we should try to take it as it come and not ask for more than what we've been given without trying hard to first make the best of what we have...and once we try to mke the best of what we have, we realise there is nothing more that we need :-)

This is how I see life.









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My Adventures

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-02-2006
Thu, 11-02-2006 - 4:34pm

Hi, Stormy,

Great question. I believe that we each have an inner compass that points us toward our best and most fun life. The way to know which way it is pointing is by answering the questions: What do I love to do? What brings me alive? What do I feel more energized after doing than before? Look for joy and enthusiasm, and you've found an inner compass reading.

Our inner compass is calibrated by Spirit (or God, or the Universe, or whatever word works for you). It can point you in the best direction for you, whereas other people's compasses point in the best direction for them. They may give you advice based on their compass reading, and they mean well, very well, but it isn't your compass, so it isn't your direction.

(This applies to what I'm writing here, too: if it doesn't fit for you, chuck it!)

Here's the tricky part: like regular compasses, our inner compass changes depending on how we turn ourselves around. You can feel 100% energized and enthusiastic about a particular work or project one day, but the next day, the energy is gone and your inner compass isn't giving you a clear reading. I believe it's our mission to simply pick up the trail again. Find a compass reading -- something that brings you alive -- and do it.

Some people believe that they're supposed to find one true work or way, but I encourage you to consider that it's many works or ways that all fit perfectly into your one life.

As JRR Tolkein said, "Not all who wander are lost."

Hope this is helpful!

--Karen :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Thu, 11-02-2006 - 5:44pm

Welcome, Karen!


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 11-02-2006 - 9:19pm

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2002
Thu, 11-02-2006 - 9:49pm

I love this compass analogy! I have an anology about faith and religion as a pair of shoes, and the fact you need to find the one that fits you to prgress on the path of life.

So I think that with the right pair of shoes and a good compass, we can all go through life and be happy :-)









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My Adventures

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-09-2005
Sat, 11-04-2006 - 8:04am
What I feel my life purpose is comes from experiences and a, seemingly, running theme. It's something that I have an uncanny ability for/with. It's something that's unique. I didn't just wake up one day and say, "I'm going to ....". I realized one day what had been done with my help. It happened again and again. Therefore forming into my purpose.
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