What does it mean to have a purpose in life? I guess the better question is, what does it mean to you? And do you have yours?
Personally, I feel that to have a purpose in your life is simply to have come to the realization that by following your joy and living in joy IS living purposefully; because if you think about it, whenever anyone does anything they enjoy doing, they are ALL IN. They are doing, being, and living…with PURPOSE.
And this is the key! Purpose in and of itself is not something we ever need to find or discover, but rather simply acknowledge is ever-present and unfolding through our own creative expressions. Unfortunately, this is not something we are taught in school and many of let go of our instinct to follow our joy at a very young age. We simply stop creating from that place of authenticity and rather let the outer world begin to mold us instead. And while that not entirely a bad thing, we as humans need a serious wake-up call in how we are living and dying because in this day and age the terms are becoming synonymous.
Now, I’m not talking about Mom letting you stick your finger in a light socket and hurt yourself just because you think it might be “fun” at the moment. What I mean is, if you are coloring and really into it, you are living purposefully as a creative child…in joy. And whenever possible, it is a parent’s responsibility to let children be joyous. So, I’m offering an example of a situation when it might be okay to let a child keep coloring into his “bath time” if you can see how happy and engaged he may be…the bath can wait a bit longer, can it not?
When we snap children abruptly out of their joy, we teach them immediately to become people-pleasers. They learn that their joy is not very important and may even end up adults who feel bad about feeling good (sound familiar to anyone?). Now, there is, of course, good measure in teaching social skills to encourage sharing, kindness, and compassion, however, it is vital to never sever a child’s connection to their knowledge of how important it is to follow their joy. This is perhaps the greatest lesson we can learn from them.
If you ask someone if they’re happy, do you notice how many people will actually pause before they answer? Sadly, most people have NO idea what makes them happy, they just know that “happiness” is something they are supposed to want. As if it is some dreamy ideal that will always just be out of arm’s reach and if they just work hard enough and put their own joy aside long enough…it will be “earned”.
NO.
It doesn’t work that way. We do not “earn” happiness or joy! But we sure do spend a ton of time keeping it from ourselves and convincing ourselves how undeserving we are of it; all the while telling ourselves it’s exactly what we are “working towards”. It’s the perfect paradox to keep us in victim/savior mode and the cogs of dissonance turning. Why oh why do we do this to ourselves?
Happiness is a not a concept or tangible object. It is a choice, a state of mind; of being. It is not something we put on someone we love to do for us, fueled by expectations and wrapped in conditions that must be adhered to. Happiness is ours. It always has been and always will be. It is only when we give it up to another, do we surrender to the false belief that we no longer have the power or the choice to be happy, but now must earn it from outside sources.
Looking at the state of our society today, you can see how this has played out with so many people taking depression and anxiety medication, bullying, eating disorders, etc. It’s like no one knows who they are, only who they were told to be, and are so emotionally off-balance because they feel they are failing at life for not fitting a mold that was never meant for them to begin with.
It is usually when we have run out of resources, excuses, or both that we finally surrender to the fact that the only way out of our suffering is through it. The second we choose to ALLOW joy into our space, our consciousness, our life, it WILL come. And once it does, the fears your face will always dissipate by simply doing so, thus igniting the flood of creative expression which flows and reconnects you to your purpose.
Some of us can spend an entire lifetime trying to find out what we are even doing here. And sadly, some of us may never find out because we get caught up in the search. But it doesn’t have to be that way…for any of us. Because to find your purpose really is as simple as following your joy. When you are doing what you love, you are literally creating a portal that creates a space that acts as a beacon for others to do the same.
Like the saying goes, if you want love…be love…and to have love remember you are love. And to see change…we must first be the change we wish to see…XOXO
Tamara Rant is a Co-Editor/Writer for CLN as well as a Licensed Reiki Master, heart-centered Graphic Designer and a progressive voice in social media activism & awareness. She is an avid lover of all things Quantum Physics and Spirituality. Connect with Tamara by visiting Prana Paws/Healing Hearts Reiki or go to RantDesignMedia.com
Tamara posts new original articles to CLN every Saturday.
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This article was originally created and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Tamara Rant and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons statement.
