An Intuitive Approach to Life Purpose

Life Purpose. It  sounds important. Powerful. Deep. Significant.  Maybe even a little bit too significant. Sure, we all want to feel that we are living our purpose and know that we are doing exactly what we should be doing with our lives. But what does that even mean? Where do we start?

If you’re like I was, you might immediately start thinking about what you are going to do. What kind of work? What kinds of activities? "On what areas of my life should I focus?" we ask. "What should I study in school?"  We start looking around for inspiration and role models. We build an idea of who we want to be and try to mould ourselves into that image. I have learned, however, that the obvious questions are not always the right ones and it's often better to focus on how we do things rather than what we do.

When I graduated from university, I became obsessed with the idea of life purpose. I knew that I wanted to do meaningful work and make some kind of contribution to the world. I knew that writing was important to me. So I started studying other writers. I wanted to model my own career on what they did. That certainly seemed to make the most sense. When you have a goal, you break down that goal and then go through the steps. Right?

Maybe, but the problem for me was that I was resisting a really important part of myself. I’d been raised to value rationality and reject spirituality and intuition and I was trying to approach my career this way. I was trying to learn to write the way this culture was teaching me to write. I focused on rigorous practices and trying to get everything I did to “make sense.” Unfortunately, this was just not who I am. There I was, trying my best to write “realistic” dramas but every time I relaxed I would start spontaneously writing prayers and magical interludes in my notebooks.

I didn’t know what to make of this because it didn’t align with who I thought I was. I didn’t yet know how to discover who I was and live my purpose by actually listening to myself in a deep way. I was trying to think, plan, and force my way to a sense of alignment and purpose, instead of simply noticing and allowing.

After years of this, I found myself stressed and unhappy and I finally decided to simply start listening to what I felt inside. It was a revelation. I discovered that it was much easier than I thought to know what felt right for me and what didn’t. The information was literally right there, in the centre of my body. I could check-in and find guidance for the moment I was in and I could also describe where I need to go by noticing and describing what I felt there.

As I started to do readings for other people, I discovered that I could also read a lot about what matters to them and how they most naturally want to move through the world by reading the same area in their energy bodies.

I’ve learned that a purpose is not something out in the world that you will stumble upon if you are lucky enough. Purpose is force at the centre of a person that moves them in the way that feels right. It’s right there. I believe we just need to notice and allow.

To help people do this, one of the services I offer is a Find Your Purpose Readings where I describe what I sense from the centre of a person. I also teach people how to put this method into practice themselves.

I believe that life purpose is a real thing, but it's less cut and dried than we often think. Finding your purpose is a process and practice and the best way to get there is by feel. We may not know what's good for us, but we can usually feel when something is good for us or not.