You Are Here for a Purpose

 

Photo Credit: Spiritual Memes || The Purpose of Life

You Are Here for a Purpose

We are told that everyone takes birth for a purpose and we need to find the purpose of our life. The thing is some are born in poor families, some in well-to-do, some in rich and all these people get different starts in life. Some people are born with disabilities and some are born healthy, so it becomes kind of complicated to figure out one’s true purpose when one is born with challenges at the outset where life itself becomes a challenge!

This quest for life’s purpose is as old as time – in India, the search for life’s purpose has always been spiritual, the search has been within. The east has always looked inwards and the west has always looked for it outside, in material and worldly well-being.

Many people spend their lives reacting to situations instead of being proactive and figuring out the needs and values that drive them. Lots of people who face this question and truly want to find the purpose have no idea how to go about it. In life, like in nature, if you are not growing, you are stagnating. Everything in nature that flows, like rivers, streams are alive, ponds and lakes with stagnant water, deteriorate over time – same is the case with human beings, no growth means stagnation, frustration and stress!

Research shows that knowing your purpose in life helps you live longer. Participants who did not have a strong sense of meaning in their lives were more than twice as likely to die prematurely as those who had figured out their purpose in life. Having a sense of purpose also reduced the incidence of cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke. These results were universal, even when controlled for income, race, gender and education level. Researchers concluded that finding your purpose helps you live longer. It’s also essential for happiness and fulfillment.

The best way to find purpose is to search inwards. Meditation and mindfulness practice helps in turning inwards. Everything you need is within yourself. The only thing holding you back is your own sense of limitation. Meditation helps in breaking free of this limitation, getting control over the mind and thus of your life and once you do that the clarity of mind helps you in finding your life’s purpose.

I look at life’s purpose as the purpose in life to live in society and the other, truer purpose of knowing one’s self. Once we know ourselves, we start living in the moment and our material and worldly life goes on auto pilot. Living in the moment helps us remain calm and focused, giving our full energy to whatever we are doing in the moment. Full focused energy always gives the best positive result in the material world. Keeping our consciousness within, helps us live in bliss, love and joy – which I believe is the true purpose of our life – to live in the moment!