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Finding Your Life’s Purpose.Spirituality.Why You May Be Sabotaging Yourself From Finding Your True Path In Life?

Spirituality,Purpose

By Gheorghe Sorin AndreiPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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Spirituality means different things to different people. For some, it's primarily about a belief in God and active participation in organized religion. For others, it's about non-religious experiences that help them get in touch with their spiritual selves through quiet reflection, time in nature, private prayer, yoga, or meditation.

Many people identify as spiritual but not religious: With a few exceptions, the percentage of adults who identify as religious in many industrialized countries is declining, while remaining generally high in less developed nations. Even as religious affiliation decreases, though, a sense of spiritual identification could remain steady or even increase.

The Benefits of a Spiritual Life

No direct causal link has been established, but research has consistently found that religious involvement is correlated with better physical and mental health, including better sleep, lower blood pressure, and an overall lower rate of mortality. Higher levels of spirituality have also been linked to increased compassion, strengthened relationships, and improved self-esteem.

There may be a downside for people who avoid religion and spirituality altogether: Some research has indicated that eschewing “magical thinking” and being unable to identify patterns in the surrounding world may be linked to depression or anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure.

What is Spiritual Purpose?

Finding a spiritual purpose is not so much about finding the meaning of life, but rather about becoming your best self as you move through life. You can find your higher purpose in life through many different pathways, including meditation and prayer, personal reflection and practicing spiritual wellness.

Seeking a spiritual purpose is its own reward. Spiritual people exhibit many positive traits, according to a study published in Psychology Today. That includes behaving in a gracious and compassionate manner and striving toward self-actualization. They also take the time to savor life and flourish in areas such as personal relationships, self-esteem and finding meaning in life.

If you find yourself searching for spiritual purpose, you can travel many different pathways. But the first step to find your higher purpose in life is to understand what it is you seek.

The Importance of Spiritual Purpose

Spiritual purpose is not connected to anything material. It doesn’t involve issues such as your career or where you live (although they might be connected). Rather, a spiritual purpose is about establishing a set of values, principles and beliefs that give life meaning to you, and then using them to guide the decisions and actions you take.

By Ryan De Hamer on Unsplash

When we talk about right directions, the biggest issue that people have is not being able to make a decision on what direction they think they should take for fear of making the wrong choice. When we are fearful of making a mistake, then it’s got to be the “right” direction.

I want everyone to write down these words: “What is it?”

Everyone wants to know, “What’s the right thing for me?”

That’s a bad question. Why? Because it puts way too much pressure on you.

I don’t blame you for being afraid to make that kind of choice, because what if it’s the wrong one? It’s like a forever question: what if you get stuck with that choice forever?

Go back to that question “What is it? ” and cross out the word “it.” I want you to replace that with the word “next.”

What is next? What’s the next thing you want to try or do?

What just happened is you gave yourself some breathing room. You let yourself off the hook. You took the massive stress out of the question.

What is next could be a day, a month, a year, three years, or whatever.

You’re not necessarily going to find the perfect direction, but as I say in my Life Directions course “The idea is to try on different coats”.

We have this imagination that says, “Here’s what my perfect dream life looks and feels like. If I was just a writer, and I wrote books all day long, or if I was on stage teaching all day long, I would be a happy camper.”

And here’s where we get stuck. We have this image of the perfect situation for us. We’re not in that perfect situation, and we’re not living that perfect lifestyle or direction, but we say, “This will be it.”

By Constant Loubier on Unsplash

Reflection Upon Important Questions

While a variety of methods can help you find your higher purpose, it is typically a lifelong quest. It may change as you evolve as a person, or when confronted by life events or a crisis. Often, a quest for increased spirituality begins with questions such as:

What does it mean to be a good person?

What is the purpose and meaning of my life?

How can I better connect with others?

Do things happen for a reason?

What’s the best way for me to live?

Searching for the answers to these questions is often where the quest to find your higher purpose in life begins.

Assessing Your Spiritual Wellness

Another important step is determining where you are on your journey toward spiritual purpose. This requires asking yourself honest questions about how you feel under certain situations in life. For example, try to honestly answers questions such:

What gives you comfort during times of sorrow?

Who or what do you turn to when looking for hope?

Do you find that you tolerate the beliefs and viewpoints of others?

What values and beliefs guide your decisions?

Taking a life purpose quiz can help with both assessing your spiritual wellness and reflecting on important questions.

By Aziz Acharki on Unsplash

The Eight Beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Poor in spirit means to be humble, to not let pride or the fear of being humiliated control you. You are easily destroyed by the illusions in this world if you are controlled by the weakness of pride.)

Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. (Mourning refers to growing in awareness of what is good and what is evil and the choices we make accordingly. We “mourn” for what we could have done better, for what we could have done more courageously, for what we should have said when we had the chance. And yet, from acknowledgement of our lesser choice comes the grace or comfort to do better.)

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Meek refers to the decision to not respond with hatred, aggression or anger in this world. This decision requires constant personal reinforcement. It is a spiritual path unto itself.)

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Jesus commanded people to seek social justice in the world, to stand up for those who cannot represent themselves, to right evil in the world.)

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. (The grace of Mercy, in short supply these days, is best recalled in this Mystical Law: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Or, if you prefer: What goes around, comes around.)

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The time has come. We are all called to bear witness to the higher authority of our nature. For what excuse can we give others or ourselves for not living per the dictates of our spiritual path?

The time has come.

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