By Andrea Seydel Live Life Happy Podcast/Bookclub/Show Notes
WHY? What Your Life Is Telling You About Who You Are and Why You're Here
Do you wonder what your true path in life is? We each have a purpose and a mission. However, uncovering this purpose can be challenging, and often daunting. If you are like most, you have probably asked yourself, “Why am I here?” But where do you turn for answers? Religion? Psychology? Spirituality?
Written by psychologist and bestselling author Matthew McKay, charismatic Silicon Valley spiritual leader Seán ÓLaoire, and bestselling author Ralph Metzner, Why? will help you see what your past and present experiences are telling you about the spiritual theme in your life; one that is visible when you know how to read the signs.
By showing you how to uncover your unique path, this book will help you discover your life’s true meaning. This book will help you dismantle tired, old traditions that tell us that we should avoid pain and seek pleasure or pursue power, and shows us that even pain can play an important part in how we choose to live.
So get ready to reveal your personal path in life, and begin living life to its fullest. Let's discover Why are we living this life? and make the best of it. What did you come here to learn and do?
What We know
The pursuit of happiness
The relentless pursuit of happiness is part of our cultural coaching. The other message is that we must avoid pain. Chasing happiness doesn't work No matter what we do pain will continue to show up. Experiences will end. Happy when things happen.
Happiness comes by making choices that are aligned with the ideals that matter the most to us: our life purpose. This type of happiness is build on truth of how we want to be- not what we want to happen. Happiness is a birthright: a natural state of the soul. Staying happy is about abandoning, the pleasure pain agenda and seeking the chance to do what aligns with our deepest values.
Why are we here?
Negative emotions (sad lonely passionless empty) show up for a reason. These are a special kind of pain. Often when we forget why we are here we lack direction and a sense of purpose.
Learning why you are here involves awakening. Consciousness survives outside our bodies. This is to assume we have multiple lives, learning from lives outside our simply this one we are in. Near Death experiences prove this to be true. Simply stated, we are here to see, to know, to gather what ever wisdom each life offers and to make use of that wisdom as our souls mature and grow through each incarnation.
Choices
Like a sculpture, our lives are evolving and being sculpted by our choices. We want to keep making choices even in the face of pain so our consciousness can grow. Exercise: Grave stone: Here lies...Your name. S/he was.... and then finish the thought in a couple of sentences. This helps you discover what could be said about your life if you died right now. Notice the difference between where you are and the ideal expression of your life. Clearly our choices are important.
What Love is: Our shared Mission
Our core life purpose is to love in the face of pain enduring. We also have a specific life purpose based on Karma, what has or hasn't been done in previous lives that must be balanced in this one. The needs of souls who are reincarnating around us. What we need to do and learn right now to evolve as souls.
To love while we feel pain, and then to learn the lesson of this life what we came here to become and what we seek to do.
Love is a shared mission: See the other. Be kind to the other. Protect the other. Find the worth in the other. These are the anatomy of love. This is what we have come to learn.
Culture influences us
Avoid pain, pursue pleasure conditioning.
Examine your 5 main tenets- or rules to live by- that you have created over the years. How has this contributed to you journey? Have they liberated you or crippled you? Notice how cultural "coaching" has moved you towards your mission or away.
Purpose: What Your Life Is Telling You
Life Purpose Mediation
Wise Mind Mediation: In, Out, Thougth. quiet mind brings the Wise Mind.
Wise Mind
Ask questions. Your wise mind will provide a sudden clear thought or images. Ask your wise mind: Today what are the choices that mater? How can I act only life purpose today?
Give yourself time to let emerge whatever the wise mind gives you. If images come up, ask what it symbolizes.If you have a sudden knowing, let it crystallize and become more clear. What do you need to be doing in your life now, what direction you should be heading and what opportunities you should pay attention to. What would I be doing now if I were living my life purpose?
What your Gifts and Attributes Tell you about Your Life Purpose
Check you equipment: What is in your backpack? Physical, emotional, and intellectual attributes as well as desires/interests, values, and talents.
What is your unique variation of these attributes?
What your Recurring Challenges Tell You about Your Life Purpose
Your particular mission is made up of things you'll learn and things you will do. We learn vittues through challenges.
Notice how similar challenges keep showing up. What lesson isn't getting learned? What theme runs through your challenges? List major challenges in your life. Look for common themes. Step back as these themes are part of your Purpose.
YOUR Purpose
Your Mission: Five Ways to find and Align with Your Life Purpose:
1. Your Heroes: Make a list of 5 of your heroes. Highlight traits you most admire. Rate how they manifest those traits 0-10. Then rate yourself on same scale same attribute. Bridge the gap between your score and your heroes score.
2. Best way to predict the future is to create it. You're River of life: Consider years, major players, major events, and major lessons. Ask yourself: Am I happy with how my river is flowing? What changes do I want to make in my relationships, work, home, and so on to redirect the course and the speed of the journey?
3. Your own personal Life philosophy: What are five principles or concepts that are important to you. List five principles that you have learned either from others or yourself. Use this info to help create your own life philosophy or rules to live by.. " Don't judge someone until you have walked a mile in their high heals" "Don't sweat the small stuff."
4. Surveying the self: False identity and true identity get honest. Will the real me please stand up? What was my primary identity during seven year chunks of your life. What is your primary identity now? What do you want your next identity to be? Reality check: Walk the talk.
5. The Six paths: Archetypal pathways: that can help us express our uniqueness and realize our mission. 1. Teacher/communicator. 2. The healer/peacemaker 3. The warrior/guardian 4. Explorer/scientist 5. The builder/organizer. 6. The artist/designer. WHICH PATH ARE YOU ON? Walk with intention and purpose.
Main Take Aways
We are here to see, to know, to gather whatever wisdom our life offers, and to make use of that wisdom as our soul matures. A seamless blending of deep spirituality, good psychology and practical living, Why? offers the tools that you need to gain knowledge and awareness of yourself at the deepest level.
What did you come here to learn and do?