Finding Life Purpose

It is inevitable that we will come face-to-face with some of life’s toughest questions at some point in our lives where we will be challenged by these questions:

“What is my life purpose?”

"Is my life heading in the right direction?"

“Am I living my life's calling?”

Underlying this question is the belief that discovering our life purpose is the source for our greatest fulfillment and satisfaction. It assumes that each one of us is called to a way of life that is uniquely ours.

Most of us try to make the best of our lives with the career or path of life we have chosen. But the heart’s deepest yearnings are hard to stifle or appease.

Our unrealized yearnings keep coming back to remind us to search for a career or life choice more suited to our natural talents and temperaments.

How free are we to follow our heart’s deepest yearnings?

Do we give up our heart’s desire to create art and literature because there is little money there? Do we ignore our longings to give up high-paying jobs for the freedom to pursue what we feel drawn to? For much of your young adult lives, family and societal expectations control our life's direction – not us.

Research studies have shown that being more affluent enhances happiness only just a little bit. People who found material success soon discover that wealth does not fill the heart's emptiness or spirit's hunger. They still ask the same questions: What's my life purpose? Where's my life heading?

Our search for deeper meaning for our lives stems from an inner desire to search for ‘more.’

What is this search for ‘more’?

The search for ‘more’ is a quest to live a life larger than ourselves; it means contributing our talents, time and resources to doing something that benefit others. It's living an inner-directed life, not a self-centered life.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow theorized that once human beings have achieved a certain level of physical and material comfort, they will yearn for more – a state which he calls "self-actualization."

Psychologist Carl Jung suggested that what’s holding us back from living a full life is our fears. Only by befriending our ‘shadows’, can we embrace our wholeness - and the richness of living a full life.

The answer is to be found in the silence of our hearts. Only in the inner stillness of our hearts can we begin to really hear our deepest yearnings.

Unfortunately, in our fast-paced schedule-driven lives, we no longer set aside time for what appears to be unproductive activities. Like doing nothing and staying still.

A temporary withdrawal from daily life for a silent meditation retreat is a common spiritual practice among western and eastern religions.

Secular alternatives such as taking solo walks in a park or nature reserve, spending "me time" away from family and friends, and writing a journal are a good initiation to inner silence.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, renowned for her groundbreaking work with terminally ill patients, was an advocate for silence. “Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself,” she said, “and know that everything in this life has a purpose.”

Only when we are free from the noises within our hearts and in our daily life, can we begin to listen to our heart’s deepest yearnings.

Just for five minutes today - tune out to noise and tune in to silence.

Not to be reprinted without written permission.

Teresa Cheong is a freelance writer specializing in SEO copywriting, web content writing, article marketing as well as general copywriting for brochures, articles, annual reports, press releases, and other corporate communication needs.

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