Positive Energy Guide

Intuition and Guidance are always accurate: If it’s not accurate it is not Guidance or intuition but conjecture, guessing, projection, interpretation, or belief.

Learning to tell the difference between Guidance and personal opinion is a foremost task of an ethical person in the role of guide.

“Guidance” that does not resonate with personal meaning or change our energy and the way we live our lives is merely information, no matter how obscure, spiritual, or esoteric, and regardless of its source.

Sensing changes in the body’s energy systems (chakras, meridians, fields, etc.) can provide direct and immediate feedback for the effectiveness of guidance.

Most of us can access some degree of Guidance some of the time. We may or may not be able to differentiate it from our general welter of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and input from external sources.

Learning to sense the ways it impacts our energy is a skill that magnifies the effects of Guidance. Energy feedback trains us to recognize Guidance with greater confidence. Guidance can direct energy work while energy work enhances Guidance.

Giving or recognizing genuine Guidance requires being deeply in touch with yourself. Since energy reflects our actualities rather than our conceits, paying attention to energy aids self-awareness. Energy mirrors us. Authenticity is a huge advantage in the world of energy.

What is Good Guidance?

Good guidance makes immediate, healthful changes in the body’s energy systems. It is directly applicable to current life themes. If Guidance is used to look into the past, its usefulness comes from the past’s relevance to current goals, needs, and directions.

The most important guidance assists us to align directly with who we really are inside, and to bring forth hidden qualities and inspiration.

Good guidance helps us to clarify and anchor what we learn through life experience and inspires us to move into new territory. A point of view aligned with purpose and free flowing energy eases us and helps us to adjust positively to our circumstances.

A good guide identifies, supports and refines the most constructive direction in which we are just beginning to move. We are ready for and able to apply this guidance.

Good guidance fits like an ideal shoe for your foot shape and size. Words that guide one person may rub another raw, slop around in their life without providing support, or leave them unbalanced as they walk forward. Concepts, directions, inspiration, ideas, or instructions for something as significant as guiding your life should fit well. You don’t want blisters on your dharma (life walk).

A good guide is like a tug boat. Tugs bring huge ocean liners into dock or set them out to sea, safely and reliably. A tug serves the liner, which has its own power but allows the tug to navigate in tight spaces. The tug is not the focus or the point, but the movement of the liner.

A skilled energy healer can can see or feel a client’s energy changing in response to verbal input. Skilled energy healers often become effective guides: If you can see the energy change as you talk, you refine your skill by seeing what is actually working.

In my healing practice I used to do more direct energy work and less discussion. Now I discuss the issues that will allow the client’s energy to shift as I begin to address energy symptoms–and accomplish more in the course of a session. Done accurately, the discussion IS direct energy work.

Energy work and effective guidance accelerate one another. Appropriate shifts and changes in your energy systems advance the speed at which you can respond to guidance and put it into practice.

Energy interventions and Guidance work together when you work on your self too. Working with your energy assists intuition. For example, you may practice Qi Gong, visualize cleansing your fields, or balance your chakras and find that you get strong intuitive hits during or after your practice. Your intuition will also assist you in directing your energy practice.

What have YOU noticed about the way energy practice or therapies impact your intuition and your ability to apply your insights in daily life?

What makes YOU trust your intuition when you do?

Distress is a call for Guidance. Use distress as a signal. Use distress to awaken yourself to your true needs. Use distress as an alert and a call to action.

Then gently find ways to notice and manage your needs before distress must arise.

Distress is a form of guidance to those who are willing to respond to their needs. It may not be anybody’s favorite form of guidance, but we can learn to use it well when it shows up. Distress alerts us that we need to do something kind for ourselves or make more loving choices.

Intestinal distress encourages more enlightened eating. The distress of feeling invaded invites better boundaries. Distress about situations suggests positive action toward change.

Turning distress toward benefit is a highly positive skill. The skill works much better when we allow ourselves to feel and explore our distress long enough to understand what is actually called for. Learning to attend to the origins and sources of discomfort is crucial.

Turning away from distress before discovering the underlying need can lead to numbness, dissociation, compartmentalization, artificiality, or superficiality. It is important to honor distress. I am not saying wallow in it, just take a careful look and use it constructively. That is the most positive way to handle it.

Here is a funny little example of using distress as guidance: Once I began coughing as a client entered my office. I could not stop. I left the room for water. The moment I left, the coughing stopped. The moment I went back to my office coughing came back. I figured out that the client had toxic energy in his fields. The moment I cleared the energy I was fine. For some years now I get an odd cough if I’m not noticing energy that needs to be addressed.

Loss, prolonged pain, betrayal, and disillusionment are more complicated than mere distress. This kind of intensity can uproot our belief systems until we don’t even know what we believe any more. [link to related Post on Disillusionment.] During difficult life transitions when core beliefs are in question ill-fitting or overly-directive guidance can cause complications. The more intense our distress the greater the call for comprehensive and effective guidance.

We tend to live as if we expect to be the same person from day to day, able to control who we will become over time. When life shakes down the pillars of temporary consistency we discover that our responses to life change in the face of different pressures, circumstances and energies.

New situations, events, and collisions of emotion bring forward fresh and untried self expression. Guidance allows us to use our responses to circumstances and conditions toward our highest good, in partnership with life.

The energies that evoke earthquakes, tsunamis, and world-rocking change also restructure our personal lives. While things we took to be stabile are shifting and coming apart it is important to consider how we might use disruption itself to bring about positive outcomes.

We can use upheaval to help restructure relationships, health, finances, living situations, communities, and global structures. We transform ourselves in the process of doing so.

Here’s a fun quote from the end of a friend’s email: That is my plan –If chaos does not poke its lovely head into my affairs – I will be here.

As we careen into an uncertain future many feel frustrated, confused, overwhelmed, or unclear about how to harness motivation. Motivation can be difficult when we cannot see a clear path or need to alter our goals. Guidance is interaction that assists us to select a meaningful path or purpose with greater clarity and confidence.

These questions may be useful in learning to take guidance from distress:

• How well do you listen to your distress?
• How much distress is required to get your attention?
• Do you respond better to some types of distress than others?
• What do you need learn to respond with compassion to the kinds of distress you try to ignore?
• What changes are supported by any disruption you may be experiencing?
• Do you develop strategies for change or resist change?
• How does your response to change increase or reduce your distress?

The simplest and most basic guidance comes from what we love or what we resist.

Attraction and resistance offer an indisputable sense of direction–at least for the moment. The results of paying attention to attraction and resistance vary widely according to our personal values and level of spiritual development.

Let’s begin with the most limited expression of this mode of guidance: Until we develop comprehensive personal values, simply pursuing what we want can mire us in indulgence. Resisting what we don’t like might be like digging in our heels, plugging our ears, closing our eyes, and humming. Where is the guidance in this? Basic lessons can be discovered through the results! When we get tired of the results our values and self-awareness become more sophisticated.

The act of seeking guidance promotes personal development. Contemplating guidance involves looking within to find out what we want or need–and then paying attention to the results of the actions we take in response. This process refines self-observation.

The more we develop self-observation and come to value personal development, the more subtleties we discover through what we love and what we resist.

Love unfolds in response as we take guidance from what we love.

Suppose we love an allergens or someone who treats us poorly. If we take guidance from the results of our experiences we gradually become rooted in greater love for ourselves and learn to treat ourselves kindly. We may come to love feeling clear and healthy. We may love an ideal, a way of life, a cause, or an inner state.

Moving toward what we love shows us which way to go. Even if we make a mistake, if we make it wholeheartedly, we learn much more quickly than we will through half-hearted sampling.

What we resist also provides more advanced guidance as we become more aware. We notice that we resist in others shows us what we still need to learn to love in ourselves. Noticing when we feel uncomfortable allows us to set healthy boundaries, to make decisions that work for us, and to make choices that invite happiness.

Anything we judge is an opportunity for self-exploration, discovery, insight, and release. Repulsion, resistance, annoyance, and hatred all speak to things going on inside that can use some healing–if we open ourselves to listen. It takes guts and love to carry light into those dark corners.

Sometimes we resist what we love or love what we resist. Delving into this type of conflict yields self discovery and leads to greater peace.

Following inner guidance with sincerity establishes a way of moving through life with attention to what is happening inside us. We begin to engage life with meaning and intention. As mastery develops, the habit of attending to guidance becomes more and more fluid, intuitive, and almost magical.

The purpose of Guidance is not to magically avoid what we dislike and attract what we desire but to accelerate learning from our experiences, live with a sense of meaning and navigate our depths. The habit of attending to Guidance leads us to reinvent ourselves. In this process we may discover that what we dislike can be used to serve goals that bring far greater satisfaction than getting what we thought we wanted.

Whenever we give what we love or resist authority over ourselves we lose energy and reduce our personal freedom.

Anything we give authority over ourselves can interfere with our ability to receive and respond to guidance.

What do you give over authority to in your life?

How do YOU take guidance from what you love?

Think about some of the things you wanted passionately some years back and did not get. Are you in any way relieved that you didn’t get them?

All guidance exists not just in relation to what we want but to our values. The most effective and pleasing guidance is tailor-made to the values of the individual receiving it.

We seek guidance when we want or need something–or when we value it. Guidance helps us find a way to get what we want, to release wanting it, to revise what we want, or to find something even more important that uproots what we thought we wanted. This includes states we long to experience or sustain, such as strength. clarity, or equanimity. It includes states of release, such as forgiveness, accepting a death, or deciding to change vocations.

Wanting this or wanting that is related to but a little different than having values. Wanting is not necessarily organized. Desire may provides a temporary direction–toward getting IT–but this direction disappears when we have obtained IT or given IT up. Wanting is not rational. We can WANT to be out of distress, for example, and NOT want to do any of the things that reduce distress or avoid the same distress in the future. Reducing distress may require facing a fear, for example, and the avoidable distress may be a hang over.

Values have consistency and congruence over time. They have a certain rationality and support entire collections of behaviors. The desires supported by values are comprehensive, involving lifestyle. If we value being healthy, for example, we begin to organize our lives to sustain health. We return over and over again to principles and practices that promote health.

Values shape life direction. For this reason values are a an important element of effective guidance.

We organize our lives around what we value. What we choose to care about the most and the qualities we chose to express act like a rudder, giving direction to our lives, especially during times of rapid change. Our values determine how we make important decisions.

What we value provides psychological and emotional structure. Lasting values keep us on a somewhat even keel through life’s inconsistencies. They provide guidelines and motivation around which to rally and focus ourselves when faced with challenges.

Sorting out and clarifying personal values is a delicate and powerful aspect of guidance.

In Part 3 we considered “Doing the Right thing” and traditional values. Bringing different value systems elbow to elbow through travel and technology adds a whole new level of complexity to life. There are so many choices! And to make a choice truly viable we need to accumulate life experience to substantiate its validity in our lives.

Values are stands that we take in order to bring forth what we feel is best in ourselves.

A value is not a standard. It is not an expectation for performance. A value is a powerful and intentional preference, a guide, a horizon goal or ideal we continue to approximate. A lasting value is like gravity. It tells us which way is up and helps us land on our feet, or stand up again if we have fallen. When life structures become uprooted core values serve as guidelines.

The movie “Groundhog’s Day” is a parable about values. We may need to take the same actions over and over and over until we are able to respond to life from our core values—and when we do we feel happy, perhaps even when circumstances are unpleasant.

While lasting values make good guidelines, they do occasionally change. When values are undergoing change we may feel a strange, flat sense of uncertainty and even apathy based on not knowing what really matters any more, what will make a difference, how to use our time, and what things mean to us now.

How do we set a course when we cannot see the stars and don’t know which way it is to land, or when landmarks change? Periods like this call for especially skilled and comprehensive guidance.

“When you meet a virtuous man try to equal him. When you met a man without virtue examine your own shortcomings.” ~Confucius

What inner values do you stand by, that you will stand tall to bring forward because they make you who you are?
Do your desires tend to support or conflict with your values?

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?”, she asked. “Where do you want to go?” was his response. “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.” — Lewis Carroll

Let’s take a quick peek into the way people in the U.S. tended to make life-direction decisions in the past: Up until recently we had a strong, cultural precedent called “Doing The Right Thing.” This societal construct was generally based on Duty and Tradition. These traditions have been the basis of many important decisions. As such, they have been a source of guidance.

Some exceptional individuals developed their own interior sense of values and lived by their personal ethics as a code. Those not bold enough or simply not inclined to work out a personal code did “as family, church or tribe have always done”. There were advantages.

Advantages of Duty and Tradition and acting in accord with Family, Church or Tribe:

• Easier and feels safer to stay with group consensus
• A sense of identity as an accepted group member
• Clear formulas for personal behavior
• A way to know right from wrong without having to work it out inside
• A powerful experience of belonging and connection
• The security of understanding of one’s place in the world

Our faster-paced world offers much more exposure to differing sets of values. Through contrast we have seen how tradition can limit exploration and creativity, and how duty may be overdone and run you into the ground. Many view most beliefs as preferences and choices instead of standing in for Reality itself as it usually did in the past.

The internet, television, and travel shrink our world. As we step away from tradition each individual is forced to assume greater responsibility for whom s/he becomes and what s/he believes. This is a mixed blessing.

If modern life holds the advantages of greater personal freedom and it has become easier to acknowledge and embrace all walks and ways, it also strips us of the identity, certainty and security we enjoyed in more-insular groups based on traditional beliefs.

As life requires greater amounts of personal responsibility for our values and direction we require more personalized Guidance.

The movie “Pleasantville” speaks to the bittersweet longing for a safe and clearly defined world–and the internal conflict we have about embracing freedom from the same rules and constraints that make such a world possible. If you haven’t seen the movie, I recommend it.

So here we stand on the brink of accelerating global change. Many have rejected formulaic beliefs and their implied restrictions. Many have adopted new beliefs that are equally formulaic and have other restrictions. These restrictions are lesser known because they have not been tried out for generations. Now what?

It is no surprise that Guidance has become more important than ever.

What do YOU do when you feel uncertain about the validity of your beliefs?
How do YOU make decisions when you’re not sure what you want?

Great Christmas Gift idea! Simple but potent tools effectively clear out unpleasant energy & promote higher awareness.

Let’s break down a few more preconceptions to get to deeper insight.

At first consideration, if ordinary guidance is like business advice, coaching, suggestions for revamping your kitchen, or assistance with a health program, esoteric guidance might pertain to your spiritual life. This distinction proves to be of little use when examined closely.

What about health or business information that arrives intuitively, or “spiritual” advice that is merely a regurgitation of platitudes and the road-weary beliefs of an advisor who has no direct intuitive link to you or to spirit? Now where is the distinction?

Guidance is not about the information but about how you come by it and how it functions in your life. Guidance–with a capital G–implies connecting through intuition. The difference between ordinary and esoteric guidance has to do with the extent to which we are connected with the whole of life when the guidance comes through. And, when we ARE connected it does come THROUGH, because it just pops in, and we are not personally identified as the source.

Guidance is about connection all around. It is necessary to remain deeply connected with ourselves to maintain clarity and discernment while interfacing with energies beyond the scope of personality and accumulated learning.

One of my most advanced spiritual teachers, in my early twenties, bid me: “Always test your intuition against the stark realities of everyday fact.” Taking this advice to heart and making it a solid habit is a Must for anyone serious about developing skillful Guidance. Looking back I see that much of my success in my business and spiritual Practice springs from tending this seed over time.

Developing clear and accurate intuition requires alert, repeated, ongoing verification and extensive practice. In addition to asking questions to find out if hunches are correct, we verify intuition by bringing any information we receive back into everyday life, to see how it works in actual practice.

The line between knowledge or information and intuition is inevitably blurred. This is one way intuition develops:

When we practice an activity with full effort over a long period of time–a business, sport, hobby, relationship, or spiritual practice–the activity can assist with developing intuition. Skills we master over time focus attention.

Committed practice gradually reveals our inconsistencies, moods, states, imbalances, and attitudes, which are reflected in our practice. Self-observation skills are necessary for real mastery of a complex skill because we influence our performance.

When we begin to learn a skill, we first operate from knowledge and effort–trying to get things right. This is primarily a left-brain (thinking, organizing) type activity. As skill develops we broaden our base of knowledge. We may struggle to synthesize between several different approaches.

Next we begin to recognize patterns. We start to recognize exactly what is going on in the moment as we pay close attention to our craft. Now we begin to move less from memorized techniques and more from actual feedback with our environment.

As we become more confident the clunky mental processes of effort melt into the background. Mastery, fluidity and expression emerge from the compost of experience, and learning becomes more intuitive. We are now using parts of the brain that naturally include intuition and connection with the Greater Whole.

Some personalities compartmentalize this type of intuitive experience and operate as if their intuition does exist. Others import the fruits of focused attention and mastery into daily life.

What does Guidance mean to YOU?
How do YOU interface between your intuition and your cognitive mind?
How comfortable are you with your intuition?

Great Christmas Gift idea! Simple but potent tools effectively clear out unpleasant energy & promote higher awareness.

In this in-depth Post Series we explore guidance from prow to stern.

Nautical terms are appropriate; guidance can function like a seagoing vessel, carrying us over and across the waters of this mysterious journey we call Life.

Note:
The Life Guidance Series starts right where the Life Purpose Series left off. It can be read on its own, but will be most useful with background in these two important skills:

1) objective self-observation
2) the ability to tell your personal values apart from cultural conditioning

The Inner Work Series provides a basis for self-exploration and observation.
The Life Purpose Series helps clarify personal values, motivation, and intention to gain a basis for full participation on your own terms.

The word guidance may used for an entire range of experiences spanning advice, coaching, tutoring, mentoring, intuitive insight, and spiritual direction. I use a small “g” when referring to guidance in general, and capitalize“ Guidance” with respect to receiving inspired, intuitive, or transpersonal intelligence.

Any advice may be inspired in addition to being practical. The value of guidance is reflected in positive changes within your daily life. These changes give inspiration, meaning, and intuition practical expression.

Connecting with inspired Guidance occurs partly by relaxing the distinction between practical and intuitive. We can learn to embrace day-to-day activities with the same kinds of energy and attention that characterize Guidance.

The more we learn to bring ourselves fully into daily life the more amazing life turns out to be. Toward this end this Series brings ordinary and esoteric applications of guidance together by addressing applications and issues that apply in daily life as well as healing and spiritual practice.

The topic of Guidance also embraces intuition, since intuition is the avenue through which we access Guidance from moment to moment.

There is no distinct line to cross between simple intelligence and intuitive guidance. As we act naturally and remain open we can be plugged into a stream of intuitive guidance without having any idea we are doing so. For example, if you are open, you might “channel” how to do something totally mundane, without even knowing it. The content could be about who to hire, how to make a gadget, which scents to combine to make perfume, a food you need for health, or a place you are drawn to where you will encounter someone important.

So what makes Guidance different from information?

The way the information arrives distinguishes Guidance from information–and the way we feel about it. The energy experience of receiving Guidance feels different from the sensation of simply thinking. We feel more connected, inspired, complete, present, engaged, intrigued, or moved by a sense of meaning. Of course, we may not recognize it at the time. Guidance about things we have no reason to know stands out. Guidance about things we may know already is less obvious.

In a sense one might say that real Guidance comes from ‘somewhere’ other than ourselves, while guidance with a small g comes from our stash of learning and invention. This is a dicey assumption.

In actuality we do not know–even scientifically–exactly where we leave off and others begin. Those of us who meditate or practice intuition begin to sense that the borders of our minds are just as fuzzy as the line between what we know on our own and what we receive from indistinct sources. We all overlap.

The ultimate purpose of Guidance is to align with Life Purpose.
Toward this end, Guidance assists us to:

• recognize who we are in our authenticity
• accelerate learning from our experiences
• live with meaning
• navigate our depths
• express our values in the way we live
• develop compassion for ourselves and others
• enhance our ability to experience appreciation and wonder
• become more effective in realizing our goals

What makes Guidance different from information for YOU?
How do YOU tell the difference?

Great Christmas Gift idea! Simple but potent tools effectively clear out unpleasant energy & promote higher awareness.

We each impact the world at every moment. Life Purpose is about being intentional about this impact.

I recently returned from a spiritual camp in which we used breath, intention, movement, music, and concentration to bring about a very real experience of being safe, loved, and connected with the entire group and with life itself. This had nothing to do with doctrine or belief–just direct experience.

If you have had direct energy experiences of unity with others you will fully understand what I am saying. I am not talking abstraction, theory or concept. I am talking about FEELING a sense of Unity–personally and palpably. When this happens in a group we can discuss the experience with the people who were there and discover that they felt exactly the same thing that we did. If you have not experienced this, remain open and motivated.

Even when we are in distress we are one with the world. We just don’t have our attention focused in a way that allows us to notice.

Personal issues block our access to feeling Unity. We feel isolated, alone, needy, or estranged when we are out of touch with our essential unity with others. Our influence becomes less positive when we are entangled in our issues. Learning to love yourself is service to others.

If you have not done so please read the post on Inner Work as Universal Service.

Working out issues that keep us from loving ourselves IS contribution to the world:

• It strengthens our energy connections with others by making us more available and clear.
• It allows us to effectively support others with issues we have already healed.
• Our impact on everyone we come in contact with is more positive, and their added ease spreads to their contacts as well.
• It makes your energy better as we begin to broadcast happiness and love instead of distress.

What if loving yourself is the one thing you can do that makes the most difference in the world?

Accepting and being larger than our issues is a spiritual act of healing. I have seen advanced spiritual teachers fall from their state of realization and harm their followers due to unresolved inner wounds, and motivated people who were once broken blossom into loving Life Purpose.

In addition to dealing with issues that block our ability to love, we can change the world just by breathing with awareness. Any way that you get good energy flowing you impact everyone who comes in contact with you, and everyone who comes in contact with them. What you do with your energy, at home alone, matters.

Working intentionally with energy strengthens our influence, and we can learn to direct this influence. I have seen masters of energy who can clearly and powerfully impact the state and experience of a roomful of people through the qualities, frequencies, intentions, and awareness they place on their breath. Their prayers pack a wallop. They did not develop these skills by wanting to change people. They developed themselves.

The most important way we make a difference is through Presence, full attention, and our love. BEing in the moment has intrinsic value. When we bring ourselves fully into the current moment in a spirit of contribution the question of Purpose dissolves into direct, internal, moment-to-moment guidance.

Sense of Purpose is a form of internal guidance. Being in touch with your inner sense of purpose from moment to moment–let alone Life Purpose–rests on the same skills necessary to receive all other types of inner guidance.

The next blog series will be about Guidance.

What does it mean to YOU to make a difference in the world?

What have you done that has helped to develop your Sense of Guidance?

This post speaks to additional challenges with Purpose.

The problem with “needing to know” is that intense focus on the mind and on outcome block the processes of feeling and intuition—the channels through which the information you long for might otherwise come.

So many people want to “know” what their Purpose IS. Beyond presupposing that Purpose is like a job, and that it doesn’t change, this prevailing attitude implies that we are equipped to live out Purpose without needing to be in touch from moment to moment.

Life paths are like labyrinths. They twist and wind, and we often cannot tell whether we are getting closer or farther away from our goal of returning to the center. The answer of one moment may not suffice in the next. Each challenge along the way calls for the discernment to commit more deeply, or to establish a new direction.

Being whole-hearted whenever we possibly can is one of the best investments we can make. Even if we make mistakes with more vigor, we then learn quickly and do not repeat them.

I have been deeply touched and honored to be present as clients discover Life Purpose. At times Purpose pops up quickly and clearly, like a revelation or an insight. When this occurs we are communing together in a state of grace, perceiving together.

If someone else tells you what your supposed Purpose is and you cannot feel it for yourself this can cause intense and painful confusion. That person has no way to assume responsibility for their effects on your life if they mislead you.

A healer once told me I had a strong and abiding connection with and should be following a certain Master, she with whom she was connected. After checking in and finding I felt no internal connection with this man I felt kind of slimed. Fortunately I was intuitive enough to sort this out easily for myself.

Occasionally I meet someone who cannot seem to keep alight the fire of inspiration or make anything matter enough to fully engage themselves. We’ve probably all had days when nothing trumps anything else. We stir around wishing we wanted something enough to feel connected with a goal or take purposeful action. This feels worse than being really hungry and not being able to find anything you feel like eating, and can go on and on for weeks, months and perhaps years.

Remember the time between high school and college when grownups always asked, “Are you working or are you in school?” Without purpose or plan you may feel useless and flat yet intensely frustrated, tied up with too many choices you don’t relate to, looking ahead at the daunting task of making a critically important choice, without information or inspiration. Where to start eating that elephant?

Lack or loss of goals and dreams can be devastating. I have wished I could do their work for them, but even when I have found and lit a spark, they themselves need to keep the fire going.

If you still have trouble developing a relationship to Purpose, here are some serious suggestions:

• Rule out physical causes such as clinical depression, low thyroid, adrenal hypofunction, low testosterone, neurotransmitter imbalances, blood sugar and chronic occult (hidden) viral issues.
• Then address feelings, beliefs, and the intersection of the two, as discussed in Post #2. Do this with a proficient therapist or healer.
• Answer the questions that have come up through this series.
• Read the Inner Work series. [link]
• Get help to clear out energy that does not belong with you, that you may be carrying from a parent or other source.
• Find ways to increase your physical and spiritual energy.
• If it works for you ask the Universe or pray for Life Purpose, remember to stay in humility, openness, and surrender.

Remember: Purpose is a sense. Hence: Sense of Purpose.

Use sense about your purposes.

When you heal yourself you can attract and sustain what is best for you. If you do not, you are likely to undermine what you want.

Remember: We need to be in partnership with life, not control it.

Like any other type of sense, Sense of Purpose is a skill to nurture and develop.

Sense of Purpose and ultimately Sense of Guidance are developed by making a daily habit out of paying attention to what we really feel and need and what life is currently inviting, making choices that support our best interests.

What do YOU do to get in touch with your feelings, senses, or intuition?

What is your worst fear about being in touch with your intuition?

Continuing our tour through common misconceptions . . .

What you do for meaning should provide money and security:

Some people’s purposes in life have nothing to do with their profession or pocketbook. Others are intimately related. If you hold Purpose hostage to what you are trying to GET from life you may miss what you need to BECOME or CONTRIBUTE to be happy.

While some are busy trying to get rich or engaging their fears of the future they are neglecting their actual Life Purpose.

When your inner values and spirit inform your external life you are more likely to be happy than you will be if you allow external goals to become your entire life.

Getting what you want leads to happiness:

Haven’t you ever gotten exactly what you thought you wanted only to discover that the worm in the apple weighed almost as much as the apple itself? Learn from this. Square peg, round hole. Square peg, round hole. . .

Your desires got you into involved in the schoolyard of life. Now use your intuition to enhance your choices.

Success Story: I can never forget the rich man I met once in a workshop. He had his “ideal job, dream home with swimming pool and tennis court, trophy wife, and 1.5 kids”. He woke up one morning and realized all this wasn’t who he was. He hardly knew his wife and kids beyond the roles they played with one another, and he wasn’t happy. His wife was wedded to the things and images he was now considering giving up to discover his true Self.

One of the keys to a meaningful life is learning to listen to deep desires of your heart, which create positive momentum in life, while relaxing superficial desires that drain or distract.

Life Purpose requires a time line and a plan:

Life Purpose lives in the realm of heart and soul. Some people enact their Life Purpose without ever knowing–intellectually–what it is. We may actualize goals that express meaning and purpose without intentionally creating a structure.

Goals and dreams that motivate and inspire us may or may not belong on our to-do lists. Whether or not we accomplish them is less important than having a positive reason to get out of bed in the morning.

If you ever watched “The Matrix” you may recall that in giving up the notion that he was “The One,” the main character experienced things that led to him realizing he ACTUALLY WAS “The One.” Sometimes the purpose of plans, events, and lesser purposes is to position us for greater Purposes than the ones we are consciously planning. Life does not conform to static forms but morphs and shifts, especially when we transform.

Being good at something means you are supposed to do it:

Advice abounds to the effect that if you’re good at something or have the equipment you should aim to make a living at it. Got long fingers? Play the piano or guitar. Sometimes it’s true–but it is certainly not a cosmic rule.

I would have made a great lawyer—and been miserable. It’s not all about money and talent. When I started there was no name for what I do, but I ended up here. I am not sure this would have occurred if I had determinedly imagined I was “supposed to” do something else.

Avoid jumping at something just because you can do it well. And as for this “supposing” thing. Take responsibility for being the one doing the supposing!

Sometimes skills and talent represent traits and qualities that are already fully developed. You might find more purpose in developing new skills, and stretching into undiscovered talents in pursuit of wholeness and expression.

Your Purpose means living up to your full potential:

The point of pursuing your potential is motivation, self-discovery, expression of values, living with full engagement, meaningful contribution, and overcoming imaginary limitations. The point is not to exploit every possible asset.

One of the five biggest regrets at the end of life is:

“I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

Let’s be realistic. Given human potential, there isn’t remotely enough time in a life to live out your full potential. You possess so many potential skills, talents, and capacities that full potential is not possible. Don’t exhaust yourself trying to become something. Be who you ARE and find out what gives you a sense of purpose, meaning, and pleasure. Pick that.

You are worth just as much even if you live an ordinary life–if such a thing exists.

What do YOU do to make a difference?

How does doing it make you feel or impact your life?