LIVING WITH JOY - Chapter 19
XIX. Recognizing Life Purpose- What are you here to do?
Many of you are in a state of transition. States of transition always create much energy. Whether you are feeling high or low, you certainly feel alive, full of spirit and energy, whenever your life is changing. That strong part of you, the part that is able to detach and observe, that is looking at the light, that wants your life to be better, more joyful and more peaceful comes out at these times.
What are you here to do? Recognizing life purpose enables you to manifest your destiny. Do not get me wrong; you are free beings. You did not set out a course before you were born that you had to follow. You laid some groundwork, provided yourself with certain parents, and chose to be born in a certain part of the world. You set up circumstances for your life so you would be aimed like a projectile in a certain direction. Once you are here, your life is absolutely spontaneous and decided upon from moment to moment. There is no predetermined limit to how high you can go. There are no limits!
You live in a limitless world;
you can expand beyond
anything you know .
To look at your life purpose, look beyond the mass thoughtforms that exist. Many of you have grown up with a great deal of pressure to do, to accomplish, to be, to make a name for yourselves, to feel worthy in one way or another. When you look at life purpose, ask your soul and your self, "Am I doing this for me, for my highest good, or am I doing it to please others, to live up to their image of me? Am I accomplishing this purpose so that I may receive a pat on the back, or recognition? Or am I doing it because it is something I want to do, that fits who I am, that brings me joy?"
There are so many programs and beliefs I see in your culture about being a good and valuable person—by making a lot of money, or being well known, or being quite pious. All of these things can be good if they are done from the soul's desire. But they can be off your path if they are done only to fulfil an image that comes from the ego or personality. Look at yourself right now and ask, if society had no images it held up and admired as being good or right, what would you do with your life? There has been an emphasis on outer productivity in your culture rather than on inner peace, joy, love, and compassion. There is a sense of time that pervades everything—accomplish this or that by the age of such and such, or be a failure. There is a sense of pressure, that everything must be done fast. I will say you have been given all the time you need if you come from life purpose in your actions.
You can relax and know that as you go through each day, you have the time to accomplish your purpose. If you do not feel you are accomplishing your purpose, that you do not have enough time, then I will say that what you are doing is probably not your purpose. When you are creating your life purpose you will have enough time, for you will create the time. You will find it so joyful that everything else falls away, and your determination, focus and your concentration is there. If there is anything you are forcing yourself to do out of duty or obligation, out of feeling that people will ad mire you or respect you when you do it, then you are probably not honouring the light of your soul.
Each one of you has a different purpose, and you cannot judge others by what you see them doing. Each one of you has set out to learn certain things in this lifetime, to grow in every way possible. Many of the blocks to manifesting life purpose come from the cultural mass thoughtforms, a lack of training, and other people, particularly those close to you. In a close personal relationship, people tend to take on the goals and the thoughtforms of the other. As you look at your life purpose, look at who you are close to in your life, and ask, have you been manifesting what they wanted for you? Or are you clear about what you want for yourself? Often those who love you the most can be the ones who most hold you back. Not through their negativity, but through their love, through their wanting you to be there for them, to live up to their pictures and roles.
As you look at your life purpose, ask, what would you do if you were alone? If you did not have anyone in your life who would gain from what you did, or lose from it either, would it change your choices? What would you do for yourself? What would bring you peace and joy? What if society did not exist or had absolutely different values—would you still love what you are doing? A hundred years ago, the values in this land were different. People were admired for many things that are no longer valued. Society's beliefs are a changing fluid thing, and if you base your life purpose on what you see around you, then it will be a fluid and changing thing that will not necessarily reflect your soul.
Imagine that you are a rock in a stream and the stream is moving all around you. Now, many of you let the stream carry you this way or that. Do you stay centered and balanced while the current flows by, or do you let every current throw you around?
Imagine you have an antenna in your mind, and you can adjust it right now so that it is aimed upward, to the higher ideals that fit you. What do you value in yourself? How do you want to feel? Stop for one moment and ask, what feelings do I want? How do I want my universe to look right now? On an emotional level, bring those feelings to yourself as if right now at this moment you had your perfect universe. Keep this antenna adjusted upward to higher levels of the universe and you will be stable like the rock, while all the currents flow by you.
If is only an illusion
that you do not have
what you want.
If you believe in what you see, then you are believing in the creations of the past. Everything you have right now in your life, you created from the past. Everything you have from here on out can be created at this moment, and it can be created differently. You do not need to know specifically what you will do tomorrow or the next day. You can start by believing that you do have a purpose, a concrete purpose, and you can begin by asking it to unfold for you. If you begin believing in and acting as if you know what to do with your life, you will. Get up tomorrow and pretend that you are the captain of your ship, and that for one day you will guide this ship the way you want to. You will take the time you need, be with the people you want to be with, say "no" when you want to say "no," and "yes" when you want to say "yes." You will check in from hour to hour to see if you are feeling joy or peace or whatever you have determined that you want to feel.
Some have said their life purpose is serving and as sisting others. This can be a very good and true life purpose if the self is centered, and if you are paying attention to making your own life work. By taking care of you, putting yourself in an environment that increases your sense of peace and serenity, beauty and harmony, you are much more in a position to assist others than if you put the focus on making them happy and not on yourself. If every person came from a space of harmony and beauty, of the higher self, you would have an entirely different society. Right now look around at all of your options and your choices. Decide you will, from today onward, create the world that you want. Go within and find that point of strength, that part of you that has always been able to create the things you wanted and feel it growing stronger. The greatest gift you give another is having your own life work.
Life change and transition are often preceded by confusion, by a sense of loss or pain, or by a sense that things are falling apart. That is because there is little training in your society about letting go and detaching from forms that are no longer appropriate. There is a mass thoughtform of scarcity, which makes it even harder to let go, thinking there will be nothing better to replace what you're losing. If you focus on what you want, if you acknowledge that what you have is a creation of the past that can be easily changed, your future can look any way you choose.
Fill your thoughts
with what you want to
create, and you will have it.
There is often a time lag between the new thought and the having of it that confuses and stops many people from continuing to think of the new. Thoughts are real and go outward to create what they think of, and thoughts exist in time. So past thoughts may still affect you for a while, even as you change your thinking. Within two to three months, however, the new thoughts will have gained momentum and will have created new outer forms to match.
Honor yourself as a unique individual. When you are with other people, don't compare your path to theirs. Often you compare what they are doing with their life to what you are doing with yours, and feel better than or less than others. Instead, go inward and look at what your highest path is, and compare your life to that. You read stories in the newspapers about what happened to other people and you may think, "This may happen to me." You do not have their thoughts, you are not them. Whatever happens to others happens because of who they are. If you hear other people's stories, do not bring them into your space and internalize them, but ask yourself, "How can I be true to who I am?" "What is my truth?" Every single person has a different path, is a unique expression of life force.
Life purpose is whatever path
you decide on,
for all is free will.
You set up certain conditions so you would want certain things. You can have what you want, if you are willing to hold up the vision and believe in yourself consistently. The more consistently you believe in yourself, the better the results. It would be easy if there were no setbacks (as you interpret them), or trials along the way. Honor every single setback, every single challenge or difficulty, for it strengthens your purpose. It gives you opportunities to be even more committed to your vision, even clearer on your intent. If life were too easy or simple, most of you would be complaining of boredom. Honor your challenges, for those spaces that you label as dark are actually there to bring you more light, to strengthen you, to firm your resolve, and to bring out the best in you.
RECOGNIZING LIFE PURPOSE-WHAT ARE YOU HERE TO DO?
PLAYSHEET
Close your eyes and allow a picture, symbol or image to come to mind that represents your purpose here on earth.
Bring your symbol into your heart. Ask the higher forces of the universe to breathe more light and life into it. Draw your symbol here.
Imagine your symbol changing color, texture and size, and let it speak to you with its wisdom and show you how it can be released to help serve mankind.
